The Untold Story

An untold story is a story that not many people know.  Throughout the book, Eugene narrates the play but his family story is told most the time. His story is untold, he is a young boy who is curious and discovering who he is. He asks his older brother Stanley many questions about growing up and responsibilities. He loves and admires his brother. In the story, Eugene always seems to get blamed for everything. He seems to be underappreciated and slowly realizes that life is pretty hard. He has always loved baseball, and wanted to become a baseball player. Eugene: "I guess there comes a time in everybody's life when you say, this very moment is the end of my childhood. When Stanley closed the door, I knew that moment had come to me. I was scared. I was lonely...I even hated Stanley a little because he left me there to grow up all by myself (pg. 108)”.  Eugene’s story is untold because he struggled alot trying to find his place in his family, and within himself. I feel like every family has problems, but you really don’t hear about how difficult it is to fit when you are coming of age, whether it is a girl or a boy. When kids are trying to figure themselves out, their friends and family should be there to support them and answer any questions they have. When we support them, they will feel more secure and loved. Eugene is lucky to have a brother who understands and went through it before him.

Changing Elements

In the play, Blanche’s husband Dave died and that is why they were living with her sister Kate. But what if Dave was still alive?  Kate: “when Dave died, I cried for his loss. I was so angry. Angry at God for taking such a young man (pg. 97)”. I think that if Dave was alive it would greatly impact all of the characters. First off, his wife Blanche would not have to dependent on her sister and her family to help her take care of her two daughters. Blanche’s daughter Nora would not have to ask her uncle for life advice on whether she should join the dance group. “At least your father is still alive and around the house to make decisions. You don’t know when you are well off (pg. 41).” If Dave was alive she might have been able to go with the dance group and ended up on Broadway, just like she wanted. Also, they would all not be stuck in their financial problem and avoided all the big fights they had been through. Another thing that would change everything is that if this story happened in this era. Blanche’s mom would have an easier time being more independent. She could get on her own two feet. Kate’s husband would get better medical care. And Blanche’s daughter Laurie would get better treatment for the “flutter” in her heart. The two families would be more at peace all together. But I'm glad they the play was written that way because they truly understood the value of family.  

Theme

Hi Guys! The play that I picked out to read is called: “Brighton Beach Memoirs”, written by Neil Simon. This is quite an interesting play about Eugene Jerome and his family. This play is very relatable and brings up such touching conversations.There are many themes in this book. The overall theme is Family. It talks about the many struggles they all go through financially and internally within the characters. In the play they are an extended family. Since Eugene’s aunt Blanche is a widow, her two daughters live with Eugene’s family as well.  As you can imagine there were many fights that went down, most of them were all bottled up and then something triggered it and fights broke out. Blanche: “ Nobody cares for this family more than you do. But at least you can be sympathetic to somebody else in trouble. Kate: “Who should I care about? Who’s out there watching over me….How many beatings from momma did I get for things that you did? I was the workhorse and you were the pretty one (pg.101)”. The fight was an eye-opener and revealed what Kate and Blanche really felt about each other deep down. It helped them fix their problems and mend their relationship. I believe communication is so important in a relationship. Whether it is between a husband and a wife, sister to a sister or even a friend to another friend. By communicating effectively we can avoid having to bottle up our feelings. If we all bottled up our emotions then things would get real nasty and people might end up getting really hurt. What do you guys think?

Kaffir Boy

 

"Kaffir Boy" by Mark Mathabane is an eye-opening short story that tackles the issue of stereotyping and getting past racism. The boy went with his granny and when they went into Mrs. Smith's house, her son said a couple things that hurt his self-esteem. The story really moved me and brought many things to light. It is crazy how different whites treat blacks. Segregation was more common back then and in the story in Lines 25 it says, " at our school we didn't even have a school bus. Oh, how I envied the white schoolchildren, how I longed to attend schools like theirs". I feel disgusted to even think that America was once divided and viewed and treated black people, or other minorities as if they were nothing. There is no difference between a white person, a black person, or any person . We all bleed, love, and experience heart break, etc. We are all human, the more we differentiate the more divided as a nation we become. After all, "We the People" should stand up for each other and get past stereotypes and move towards a more peaceful future. In line 123-124 it says, "...I simply don't understand why those damn uncivilized Boers from Pretoria teach children such things. What future does this country have if this goes on?" They needed more people that thought like Mrs. Smith.

The picture above really got me thinking. When we are born we are not born racist. Children themselves are not racist, but its their parents and other people that tell and influence them that blacks, or other minorities are different from them in a negative way. That's what makes hatred in their hearts. See the innocent children reaching for each other's hands. Let's all look past color, religion, race, gender, lets look deeper into our souls. We are one...

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The Stolen Party

"The Stolen Party" by Liliana Heker is a short story that is very powerful and moving. In the beginning, Rosaura pleads with her mother to let her go to the 'rich people's party' because her friend Luciana invited her. She went and Senora Ines asked her to help her with a few things. And when it was time to go, she got paid. That broke her heart. I thought that was very cruel because in her mind she was supposed to get a gift like everyone else but instead she felt cheated. 

I found the significance of the monkey and the magician very interesting. The monkey was mentioned alot of times. In lines 35 to 40, "He's in the kitchen...carefully she entered the kitchen and there she saw it; deep in thought, inside its cage." I believe that Rosaura is like the monkey in the story, she feels trapped in a cage of her own, between society's norms. And the Magician is more like Senora Ines, In lines 84, it says "and the monkey was his assistant. He called the monkey partner...don't run away, partner, time to work now." She was tricking Rosaura by asking her to help out and working in the party. Especially in the end when Senora Ines handed over the money she says "thank you for all your help my pet". (L 136). 

So Rosaura in a way was Senora Ines "pet". You could see how hurt Rosaura was when she realized her mom was right. Society will always see her and her mother as maids or lower class. And that really sad. It reminds me of whats happening right now with the ban of Muslims. Not all Muslims are terrorists but  soo many people are listening into the stereotype. Just because a couple people make some bad choices, it is wrong to blame a whole religion on terrorist attacks. Just like Rosaura feels caged in, the Muslims also feel trapped on what to do and unsafe. What are your thought on this? 

Girl

The story "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid is quite an interesting story. It is about a mother telling her daughter all the rules of a good housewife.  The gender roles of women during that time were to be a stay at home mom, being nice to all the guests and doing most of the work around the house. In lines 14 it says "this is how you iron your father's khaki pants so they don't have a crease."They have to take care of everyone.  In Line 18 it says, "this is how you sweep a whole house". The house is a representation of who they are. A clean house equals a happy family. So throughout the story you see it is mostly orders that the daughter has to follow. But in a couple parts you could see how the daughter almost rebels, In Line 10 the daughter says "but I don't sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday School." It's like, she doesn't want to confirm to what society wants.

Women are seen very differently around the world. They have different roles. In "Southern Vietnam culture, property are not passed down to boys but to girls. Men take the women's last name and move into the home with them (Grenier, 2016)."While in India, boys are given more importance. And if a family has 1 boy and 3 girls then the son will get all his parents inheritance. The daughters won't get anything but dowry to get married. Men are the head of the family and are often the ones working. While Italian women are the head of the household in their family. "Did you know that in Japan around Valentines Day, it is the women who buy their men chocolate not the other way around (Grenier, 2016)."

Reference:
https://spark.adobe.com/page/z862E/