Essay Two Topic Tryouts

·      Safe Topic:

o   For a safe topic I would compare the grandmother from “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” to Eugene in “Purple Hibiscus.” In a Good Man is hard to find the grandmother is the center of family’s downfall, similar to how Eugene seems to be the creator of the problems in his family. I would relate these characters by showing examples of how they are both close-minded and selfish. The grandmother tries to selfishly bring the family close by taking them on a road trip to a place of her choice. In comparison, I would take specific moments from “Purple Hibiscus” when the Eugene tries to selfishly bring his family together, when in reality they are never able to enjoy their time because the children are terrified of him.

·      Likely Topic:

o    Compare and contrast Amaka and Kambili. Amaka, the child of Aunty Ifeoma is encouraged to question authority unlike Kambili. Kambili is restricted by authority and will be punished if she chooses to question it. She lives under the fear of her father and is unable to create an identity of her own because she lives on such a rigid schedule every single day. Amaka and Kambili lead such different lives due to their upbringings. Amaka is under the impression that Kambili is a snob because she does not participate in chores around the house hold. Simliar to how her classmates treat her when she immediately runs straight to her fathers car after class. In this essay I would also talk about how these characters evolve throughout the novel. Kambili starts off and stays a very quite character for much of the novel because of her fear and respect of her father. But when Aunty Ifeoma starts to expose her to more things she understands the way Amaka acts much more and begins to relate to her. When she is able to spend more time with Papa-Nnukwu she starts to understand that they aren’t different. Although, she is still punished from this, we see Kambili growing more of her own identity. After Papa catches her looking at the painting of Papa he beats her very badly, but this time it doesn’t stop her. When she is well enough she goes to Nsukka instead of home.

·      Risky Topic:

o   As a risky option, I might try and compare both of children in “Purple Hibiscus” to the child in “The Trespasser.” All of these characters play scared and innocent roles in the stories they are in. In the trespasser the daughter is very scared when she sees what has happened to her cabin, but her emotions are still very innocent. The daughter isn’t able to realize how dark of a situation it is.  Similarly the children are very afraid of their father, but it comes from an innocent stand point. Because he is still their father, they must obey and respect him(for the most part). What the children don’t understand is how detrimental this treatment could be in the future. I specifically want to focus on innocence with this topic. I can look at how and when innocence is lost and if it ever is lost in these children during the stories. Both Kambili and Jaja take steps away from their innocence and claim their individuality as they are exposed to new things throughout the novel.  I will take specific moments of the childrens interactions with their father in “Purple Hibiscus.” 

"Then I will die, Papa." 
Papa looked around the room quickly, as if searching for some proof that something had fallen from the high ceiling, something he had never thought would fall. He picked up the missal and flung it across the room, toward Jaja. It missed Jaja completely, but it hit the glass etagere, which Mama polished often. It cracked the top shelf, swept the beige, finger-size ceramic figurines of ballet dancers in various contorted postures to the hard floor and then landed after them. Or rather it landed on their many pieces. It lay there, a huge leather-bound missal that contained the readings for all three cycles of the church year. 
Jaja did not move. Papa swayed from side to side. I stood at the door, watching them. The ceiling fan spun round and round, and the light bulbs attached to it clinked against one another. Then Mama came in , her rubber slippers making slap slap sounds on the marble floor. She had changed from her sequined Sunday wrapper and the blouse with puffy sleeves. Now she had a plain tie-dye wrapper tied loosely around her waist and that white T-shirt she wore every other day. It was a souvenir from a spiritual retreat she and Papa had attended; the words GOD IS LOVE crawled over her sagging breasts. She started to pick them up with her bare hands. 
The silence was broken only by the whir of the ceiling fan as it sliced through the still air. Although our spacious dining room gave way to an even wider living room, I felt suffocated. The off-white walls with the framed photos of Grandfather were narrowing, bearing down on me. Even the glass dining table was moving toward me. 
pg. 8 

This page explains a lot about what we are going to see in the novel and just a few words. I believe this page fully introduces the family as a whole and indirectly explains a good amount of the family dynamics. We get to see how serious papa is with his rules and he is not okay when is family breaks them. Not only with rules in general, but with Mass in particular, this scene portrays how important he feels it is for his family to be in attendance. Here, we can see that the children are clearly very nervous around their own father and they have a reason to be.
Adichie makes it very easy to visualize what she is writing. Here we can see the face papa has on as he "pick(s) up with missal" and flings it towards Jaja. Adichie makes it even possible to visualize everyones facial expressions and reactions in the room at that moment. She writes with much detail, here spending much time explaining the way mama is dressed at the moment and on an everyday basis. Although she writes with much detail, her language is very straight forward making her story clear and concise.

Blog post 12

Improved respiration, 

energy and 

vitality

Stress Reduction

Ever since the day I arrived in Ann Arbor in August, I have felt that I have very little down time. The University of Michigan has too much to offer and it is hard to turn down the enormous amounts of  opportunities that are at our finger tips. On top of everything outside of class, the University is also very academically challenging. It really is a challenge to find time to take care of my health, keep up with my studies, and enjoy myself. Although it is challenging, it is such a good learning experience for us all. Recently one thing I began letting go of was working out and eating healthy. These two things are very important to me, but I felt like I no longer had the time to do so. I continued to stay sick and realized I needed to make these things more of a priority for myself. As I mentioned in one of my early blog posts, I enjoy running in the arb and I began to do that again. Also, my friend invited to go to a yoga place with her friday afternoon and it was one of the most amazing ways to let everything go. I hadn't done yoga in a very long time and I forgot how incredible it feels mentally and physically. It is relaxing, energizing and strengthening for both the mind and the body. Although when I went, I still wasn't feeling my best, it enhanced my state of mind and I allowed so many toxins to exit my body. This is something I am going to continue to make a priority in my life while at the

University of Michigan. I believe it will keep me in better health, give me more enthusiasm for my every day life and allow to have a better sense of inner well-being. 

"Yoga helps clean blood of waste material (through lymphatic stimulation), and trains us to loosen muscles and joints that are ignored in our day-to-day lives"

http://livewell360.com/2009/04/7-reasons-why-yoga-should-be-a-vital-part-of-your-fitness-regimen/

http://life.gaiam.com/article/benefits-yoga

Short Story vs. Novel

Ive never really thought about it this way, but now that we have

been reading so many short stories it feels almost as if each chapter is a new short story. Although each chapter is connected to on another, it gives a feeling of a small beginning and end within each one. When reading a single short story, there is no breaking place. The short story requires us to read the entire thing in one sitting, and if you don’t you feel like you must start all over. The short story feels restricting, giving the reader a feeling of only being able to go forward. On the other hand, the novel gives the reader the ability to go backwards and forwards. Also, in a novel I am able to pay much more attention the the individual characters because there is room for more character development. Writers of a novel have much more freedom and space to create more complex characters. Even though it seems that I have mentioned many more positives about a novel, I am still unsure which one I’d rather read. I don’t even know if there is an answer to that. There are pros and cons to both a short story and a novel. 

Blog Post 9: Links between Chimamanda Adichie's stories

·      All four of Chimamanda Adichie’s stories were so captivating. Adichie has such incredible stories to tell and tells each one of them with a creative voice. The story that stood out the most among the ones that we were assigned to read was Ghost. Cell one, The Thing Around your Neck, and Tomorrow is Too Far seem separate from Ghost due to distinctive the old male narration in Ghost. Although, the stories all share Nigerian protagonists. Also, the idea of death is something spoken about throughout all 4 stories that we read. Not only is death a consistent idea through Adichie’s works, but also she seems to have her characters handle death in a similar way. For the most part the characters tend to ignore the

deaths happening in the stories and move on. In Things fall apart it seemed almost as if it was a ritual that they moved on and keep the dead unspoken. In Ghost, two children are lost due to the Civil War and the protagonist of the novel does not seem to be very affected by this loss. What is Adichie’s reasoning for handling death in this way? I think this is a interesting question to look at and something I would like to look into more. Does it have to do with her own family background? It appears that Adichie passionately draws a lot from her childhood in her writing, so this could be why she handles death in a certain way. Possibly it has something to do with the way that death is dealt with in Nigeria.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/stop-pushing-the-culture-of-death-on-us-nigerian-bishops-to-western-countri/