Instructor: Mat Wenzel, MFA, M.Ed.
E-Mail: mwenzel@fsu.edu
Office: WMS 331
Office Hours: TUES 12:30 to 4:30 OR by appointment Effective Feedback
Post a brief summary/response on the discussion texts below.
The Shadow of Young Girls in Flower from Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Homegoing, AD by Kima Jones from The Fire This Time edited by Jesmyn Ward
Making a Fist by Naomi Shihab Nye https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/making-fist
Upload a brief summary/response of your discussion text here. Freaks and the American Ideal of Manhood by James Baldwin...
I decided to read "The Shadow of Young Girls in Flower" . This piece was enjoyable to read. I enjoyed the fact that she illustrated the events that took place between she and her dad, something like a comic. In the beginning of this piece, the girl expresses her hate for gardening but she also includes how much her dad enjoyed gardening. I also like the idea that throughout this article she continiously emphasizes how she and her dad was completely different yet, ignoring the fact that they were much more similar. For instance, within the article she mentions that she viewed her dad as a sissy because he always made sure she kept her barrettes in. She also includes…
I read "The Shadow of Young Girls in Flower." At the start of the chapter, I had not realized that the narrator was a woman. It wasn’t until she appeared a little older that everything started to make sense. It made sense to me that a little boy might not like gardening and would resent his father for loving it. However, it made the story completely different the fact that she is a girl who does not meet society standard gender roles, just like her father. This is where I understood that the author was using nature as way to tell her story about how she came to discover herself and discover who her father really was. I really enjoyed…
I read "Homegoing" by Kima Jones, I enjoyed this reading because it was descriptive and also the details in the writings. One quote that stood out to be was "Our uncle asleep at the wheel and we that closer to death with each mile." reading this I could visualize or imagine that the drive to her uncles funeral is her way of saying that death is the same as the car ride; long and dreadful. I also notice the writing was written in African American vernacular, which made me read this essay out loud.
I read “Making A Fist”
I thought the poem was very well written, using certain wording such as “palm trees swirl in a sickening pattern”. In addition, I believe the true message within the poem though was that making a fist, shows fight and resilience and if you cannot do that anymore means that you are dead. Especially regarding women, having to have a lot more perseverance and fight in reguards to their rights (not that others did not), it seemed like the person that wrote this was trying to emphasize that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Overall, i loved this poem and having it be from a 7 year old girls perspective only made it more interesting.
I read Homegoing, AD by Kima Jones. Homegoing is a story about the fearlessness and innocence of being a kid in your own home, the feeling that the world is yours. This hometown feeling was achieved through the diction of the narrator as well as the circumstance in which the characters find themselves in. The fearlessness and feeling of almost "owning" your home is exemplified in the ending with the gator. The Down South is theirs to claim and they know their way around, even though they haven’t been home in a while.