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The ending of ¨Heavy¨

In this section of the book, Kiese is showing now grown up and showing signs of all of the things hes learned as a child. He is showing signs of being mature, aware, and sensitive towards his family specifically. After discovering that his grandmother is not well, he takes it upon himself to try and be the hero of his family and make enough money support his loved ones. Another huge part of this section is that he begins his work as a professor. This is also when he begins to realize the significance of listening to his mother and applying all of the knowledge shes given him as it relates to being a Black man that represents class. I find it ironic how he grew up to be professor just like his mother.

One part of this section that stood out to me was the moment when Kiese was speaking of the Racism that Muslim people were facing around the time of 9/11. As a volunteer at Ground Zero, Kiese traveled into the city to pass out water bottles and snacks to firefighters. He also got to witness Muslims become scared to exist in America as a result of the attack. He says ¨For the first time in my life, I experienced not having the most fear-provoking body in a contained American Space (183).¨ This quote stood out to me because it shows how almost every race in this country has had a time when America made them feel uncomfortable and they don´t belong here. This is ironic because America is supposed to be a ¨melting pot¨, and I´m not sure if it does a good job at melting.

Class 21

Good morning! Today we’ll build on the work from Monday to think about, read about, talk about and start composing effective introductions and (if time) conclusions.

To do this, we’ll build on our prior work (your blog posts and discussions of course but also your work with the Essay 3 Prep Activity) by looking at a section from one of my favorite (and also free) writing textbooks, Amy Guptil’s Writing in College. It’s linked to on our Goals & Plans Doc. The section we’ll look at is “Chapter 7: Intros and Outros“.

As a reminder, your peer edit session of Essay 3 is on Monday, November 22. Please place your full draft in your assigned Google Doc by the start of class on that day. Graded revisions will be due November 29.

Ordinary Girls Final

Sad Girl | Sad Girls Amino

The last chapters of Ordinary girls show how Diaz tried to overcome her struggles. Diaz went through a depression because of her own mother. Instead of living in violence she just wanted a real family and home. The outcome is she joined the military and even came out about her sexuality when she was there. When Jaquira was in the military she enjoyed it. (“I had loved boot camp,” she writes. “In the Navy, I’d finally felt like I mattered”),(Diaz, 220). Even though Jaquira felt like she belonged in the military she abandoned it and went back to where everything started. She came back to Miami, she even lived with her parents again. She came back to the violent, abusive, toxic home from the beginning. After reading this memoir I understand the importance of family and how it can have an effect on an individual’s life. It ruins the perspective on love and family.

Ordinary Girls: Final thoughts and comments

Finishing Ordinary Girls was a bit bittersweet. 

I guess even if I told myself I didn’t have any expectations, I was still waiting for a fairytale ending. I thought the book was great, something I would have not picked out from the shelf on my own, but I did enjoy it. 

At times, it was hard to read. Not in the way that I couldn’t understand it, but there was so much information to process, a lot was going on in a short amount of time and a lot of touchy subjects.

I have never read a memoir before, so I don’t know if it is typical or just Diaz’s writing style, but I feel like I was reading a diary, but not in the correct order. The subtitles helped to put in context her stories, but the jumping around was confusing at times. The book felt personal, as if she was talking directly to me, which I liked.

As mentioned before, I enjoyed the book. 10/10 would recommend, and I understand why it got so many raving reviews. 

Final Thoughts On Heavy

After reading the last few pages of “Heavy” I find it interesting to see the gambling problem Kiese Laymon is dealing with. He writes about how he would go to the casino and gamble sometimes gambling away his entire paycheck. He writes about how sometimes he would go in with hundreds of dollars and leave with thousands and sometimes he would go in with thousands of dollars and leave with nothing. One of the more interesting things that happens towards the end of the book is Laymon reconnecting with his mother and talking to her about things that happened while he was growing. They talk about things like how Laymon lied to his mother about what he was going through and they promise to tell each other the truth from then on. I really found this part of the start of the end of the book really nice because to me it seems like his mother is trying to get a new start with him. Skipping forward a bit to the last couple of paragraphs I just want to point out these things Laymon writes. “There will always be scars on, and in, my body from where you harmed me. You will always have scars on, and in, your body from where we harmed you. You and I have nothing and everything to be ashamed of, but I am no longer ashamed of this heavy black body you helped create. I know that our beautiful bruised black bodies are where we bend.” (Laymon 196). I feel this is a good way to end off because I interpret this as Laymon not ignoring everything he has experienced but instead saying that although there will always be “scars” on and in his body he is no longer ashamed of who he is. Overall this was a great book and as confusing as it was at some points is was genuinely amazing to have a peek into Kiese Laymon’s life through his writing.

Ordinary Girls last Chapters

In the last chapters of Ordinary Girls, I learned a lot about Jaquira and how her surroundings were definitely a bad influence on her. She was a whole different person when she went to the military. When she joined the military she was working hard and felt like a superstar but that didn’t last long. She came back to her old living style and was living with her father for a few months and then she got back with Cheito, her grandmother from her mom’s side . She didn’t know what to feel since she received no love from her grandmother. In those chapters I learned Jaquira really loved her mother’s even if she abused her, she still cared for her mother. When her grandmother passed away she only thought of her mother. After a few months she broke up with Cheito, Cheito was living with another woman and she was back at her fathers apartment. It’s really messed up, what she went through is a lot. And I would say all this happened because of her mother, if she had her mother’s support she would’ve been a better person. And I hope nothing like this ever happens to anyone, even to my enemies.

The meaning of Fairest

With Fairest coming to an end in chapter 17 (no title), the audience is met with an even more curious Meredith Talusan, who is seen reading for The Vagina Monologues in October of 2001. After having read aloud to a group of undergrad women, one of the producers had bluntly asked her what reason she had for participating in this show, which Talusan had answered honestly. This experience led her to be more open with strangers, although, not everyone appreciated her honesty. For example, when discussing with other transgender women in an online chat room called, “TGForum”, she noticed that most women there believed that if they passed as a woman (physically), then they should be shut about being trans, which Talusan did not concur with. “A lot of the girls there took that as judgment of their choices, which left me isolated even among trans people. But I couldn’t help feeling that withholding my history not only implied I was ashamed of it but also sacrificed too much of myself and my life,” (Talusan, 2020). Though her stance wasn’t taken in with open arms by others in that part of the trans community, the way Talusan expressed herself in that brief moment was integral to the meaning of transgender. This read was definitely worth while, and while I don’t feel the same way they do, I respect them for what they are.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/18/plume-is-building-a-healthcare-service-specifically-for-the-transgender-community/

section 4: All so ordinary

section 4 of the book “ordinary girls” covers some of the last chapters in Diaz’s story. a big topic discussed through the end is what happens after the end. The end of movie always has that happy ever after while the more realistic ones just have that end, but what happens in the thereafter? Diaz explores this. While the ending of the initial chapters don’t really have a happy ending Diaz explores what happens further onto her story by explaining in brief where she end up going for the next crucial period in her life, which is right back to where everything in the beginning books took place, Miami. We know the distressing fates of the people around her and get few glimpses of who they were, we know how low Diaz feels as a divorce, college and military dropout, and even exclaims that she is living with her parents again. A bunch of stuff happens towards the end but the point that really drives me was that even if there’s an ending to a story no matter good or bad a question that needs to be answered is what happens after? Diaz definitely answers this in terms of her own story which follows the colorful tone of the book that its carried since the beginning.

Class 20

Welcome to an Essay 3 “work day.” We’re going to build on the activities and discussions from the previous few weeks in book groups to start preparing to draft the longest essay of your semester in ENG 111. The prompt options are on the Essay 3 assignment sheet, elsewhere on this site.

To get us ready for that peer edit draft (which is due in a week), we’ll move through a number of “stations” today. You’ll start small and get bigger, and sometimes you’ll see the same names. Other times you won’t. The joys of Zoom.

We’ll see how many of these stations we get through today. If we do well, Wednesday can be devoted more fully to drafting and to wrap-up discussion of the books. If it’s taking longer than I’d planned, or the activity bears a repeat, we can have part of Wednesday’s class devoted to it.

As a reminder, your blog posts are not due this week until Wednesday. Please try to get replies to those up by peer edit day, Monday 11/22.

See you in a moment!

Fairest 4

Leaving all her problems behind, Meredith starts a new chapter in her life after moving to Boston and gaining the confidence to leave her mother with words that put limits to their relationship. Moreover, the 4th part of the story talks about Meredith’s life at Harvard. It discusses her relationships sexually and socially in the new setting she lived in now. Meredith took this section of the book to share her experience and adventures she lived in the new school like being lonely and building new relationships, another new experience that Meredith lived was sexual contact with multiple individuals, falling in and out of love.

In reading this part I wonder can new experience and adventures make us forget our past and problems?