Gordimer

Nadine Gordimer widely opened the door with her take on the segregated yet, integrated mindset under the institution of Apartheid. "Good climates. Friendly Inhabitants" brings a critical eye to the hypocrisy of apartheid. The reason for the being of apartheid is to separate the 'uncivilized' or colored folk from the more civilized people aka whites. Gordimer points out that apartheid crates a mindset not only enslaving the coloreds but the whites as well. The narrator of "Good Climates, Friendly Inhabitants" is a lonely struggling white woman who is conned by a mystery man. Jack, an African worker, is an intelligent, kind hearted person who distantly looks after the narrator. Even though jack is kind to the narrator, she still refers to him and other African in derogatory terms. While still being a good person at heart, her inhabitants have taught her that she should still be racist. Gordimer points out this contradiction to show that apartheid has warped the minds of not only the inferior but the superior people as well. In relation to Gordimer's observation, America has a warped mindset from the times of slavery and racial discrimination. 
August 2009, I left for my first year of college at Ball State University, in Muncie, Indiana. Ball State is located in a very rural part of Indiana and most of the students there are from farms. In being white many of the students had never interact with a black person before including my roommate. Though she seemed polite and nice I began to sense of uneasy from her when we interacted. I walking around campus I began to notice people moving away from me, or other ethnic students that crowded around the bus stop. In deciding to ask someone about these strange happening I found out that the students were hesitant to interact with me because they had never done so with a black person before.  They were fearful to interact with me because of my color. Not because of my personality or not even because of the way I dressed or walked. The institution of racisms is still in abundance in the United States is in abundance. Even though slavery has been over for at least a century and the Civil Rights movement is a prominent mark in history experienced by mine and many others grandparents. Yet, the mindset of racism has carried on through many generations.
In the story “Amnesty” Gordimer brings attention to the woman on the home front keeping a house hold together while men go and fight against apartheid. She uses a lowly farm girl whose boyfriend is using his intelligence and the justice system to fight the oppression of apartheid. Women are the backbone to the movement. Though men receive all the publicity, it is the women of give the men something to fight for. This is a very common message for members of our society. Not only do women go out and have successful careers, have they also held down the household by cooking cleaning and caring for the children. As a single mother and a child of a single mother I can identify with the difficulty of the narrator of ‘Amnesty”. She struggles with the loneliness and condescending attitude of her boyfriend being off fighting with the Africa Nation Congress. I too must balance my happiness with the weight of the world and attitudes toward my position as a young single mother. Women are looked at as a nuance and hindering to the movement. Women are not giving their fare credit for their contributions to the movement and to life.   Women are the backbone to not only the movement, but to any society. Women keep life in the things the men are fighting for. Single mothers not only breathe life into society by holding down the house hold, but by fighting as well.  

Achebe's Irony = The World Today

Achebe and his tactful talent for irony was last weeks theme. Achebe uses irony to express his feelings about colonialism and show its effect on the conlinized. In "Girls at war" Achebe tells the story of an african Gladys and Nwankwo an egotistical  high goverment official. The irony of the story is in the death of Gladys, the oppressed and the survival of Nwankwo, the oppressor. This story illistrates an ever prevelent truth in countries around the world; the evil survives while the good quickly dies out. This is true of human nature espcially in todays world where evil is praised. On every primetime TV show there is always one extreme antogonist. this antogonist is quickly glorified for they are the person everyone loves to hate. On the current season of Celebrity Apprentic Nee Nee, from the "Real house Wives of Atalanta", is the oppresive bully trying to bring people down as she climbs her way to the top. Her disaterous behavoir keeps the audience on their toes and pulls in top ratings. This ever repating cycle causes an oppresive cycle because the bad behavior is rewared. The Mother Coutries reap the benifits and praise of their oppessive behavoir, thus crating the never ending cycle of colonism.
Achebe also comments on the colonial mindset of colonialism. The Madman illistrats the effect of how outside critisism can warp and reverse the mindset of  a a completely acceptable person. the sane Nwibe is taunted by a madman, causing those who  saw Nwibe to bleive he had gone mad. this public perception of himself caused Nwibe to go insane. Acheberelated this story to his belief that colonicalism is a mindset. If you tell soemone that he is crazy so many time, he will eventually become crazy. If the mother countries continaully tell and treat the african natives that they are inferrior and uncivil, the colonized countries will begin to believe it.
In America a "I must be skinny to be beautiful" train of thought is prevelant in the media, leading people to eating disorders such as aneraxia and balemia. Typically young girls starve or purge themselves of food so that they can be as beauiful and thin as Gisel Bunchen. They inflate their bodies with silicon and other plastics in order to get the perfect set of boobs, legs, butt and stomachs. They try to turn themselves into Malibu Barbie to what benefit to themselves? All because of a culture that promote a mindset of outside artificial beauty, instead of finding the beauty within. This is a colonized mindset that repeats the cycle every generation destroying lives and creating tension. Somethings gotta give!!!!    

stanglehold of english lit. response

"Stranglehold of English Lit." by Felix Mnthali, argued about the controversy of teaching English literature to the African culture. the author confront this "Jane Austen" superiority system in outrage in disgust. i feel this piece of literature is important not only for his application but for African Americans and other minorities as well. In my childhood, and even still today, black history is only addressed during one month out of the year. Schools, even predominately black schools, mostly teach out the histories of the majority seldom working in the attributions of the minorities. How can one learn of their culture, when their culture is seldom recognized? "your elegance of deceit,
Jane Austen,
Lulled the sons and daughters
of dispossessed
into calf-love
with irony and satire
around imaginary people."
Mnthhali expresses how the natives are blind to their own cultural literature, instead believing that Jane Austen ( the English) is the intelligent literature of study. This is similar to the battle or recognition of African American history in the United States. I feel that our question of heritage and culture  academically go unanswered. Just as those questions that English literature imposed do not benefit African society. The enriching knowledge of the culture is being lost as bias, denial or whatever the excuse maybe, refuse to recognize and educated the histories and literature of the Africans and African Americans. This gave me a clearer vision of the fraud taking place before me. This texts opens your eyes  and enwrapps with a fiery messages. It gave me feeling of anger , disgust,  and even brought me to a point of fear. Fear for my culture, fear for my education, fear of a  trend that doesn't promote the equality that my ancestors gave their lives for.