Jewish Identity - Rich Boy

Anna’s post about Jewish Identities really made me think of how I view the Jewish community. I live in a town close to Anna’s that also has a high Jewish population. I went to all the Bat and Bar Mitzvahs and enjoyed every moment of it. It is very hard for me to imagine a community that didn’t have both Christian traditions and Jewish traditions as many of my friends are actively practicing Jews.

My last post was about insecurity connected to identity throughout Rich Boy. Now looking back on where I grew up, I think that my childhood gave me a wide variety of religious experiences. Like Anna, I am working on comprehending the idea of Antisemitism. When I was abroad this past fall, I was able to go to Amsterdam and visit the Anne Frank house. This was a very moving experience for me, especially because I read her diary in middle school. Quotes from the diary were all throughout the house and visitors are even allowed to go into her room. Here are some pictures from the house (not mine though as no photography was allowed). 

Again, I can not reiterate enough times how important I think that this class was on helping Colby students become more aware of themselves in relation to the world around them. Without knowing one's own biases interpretation can be swayed incorrectly.  I hope that everyone in the class remembers how important class is to understanding individuals in the real world as well as characters from the novels they read.

Insecurity in Rich Boy

One of the themes most applicable to college students in Rich Boy by Sharon Pomerantz is that of insecurity. Disillusioned with the neighborhood in which he grew up, Robert works hard to get to Tufts University. There he yearns to fit in with his wealthy peers, but has to work many odd jobs to pay for food. Reflecting on Robert’s place in the social hierarchy, the narrator states “These boys were the strivers at the public magnet high school, bused out of their communities because they were smart, arriving home each night, trying to blend in with their neighbors and families whom they secretly wanted only to abandon. He knew them because he was one of them. It was painful to see these things and realize how other people would see him.” Robert’s roommate shows the complete disparity among those who can afford to pay their full way at school and those that are working for their stay. Tracey parades his wealth when he decides that throwing away his tailored shirts and buying new ones is much easier task than washing them. This display of conspicuous consumption isolates Robert even more, but at the same time he grasps onto this idea of extreme wealth and makes it his ultimate goal. After graduation, Robert continues his social climb by attending law school and then working at a prestigious firm. He does all he can to become a member of the elite New York high society. Even though Robert can seem obsesses with this wealthy culture, ultimately he still holds onto the memories from his youth. He compares the suits he is now buying to those that his father wore. No matter how much he embodies wealth he has internalized poverty which separates him from the majority of this class. 

This concept of fitting in can be applied to real life scenarios here at Colby. Simple things like having one student ask another if they ski or where they summer can trigger insecurity for a student who has not been able to participate in these wealthy pastimes. I think that this class has been extremely eye opening to class difference, not only in literature but also in our daily interactions. If Colby could introduce some sort of education on class into the freshmen curriculum I think that the campus could become more understanding of different economic backgrounds.

Pressure to fit in - Do professors need to conform?

Like Melanie, I was shocked that there were so little negative reviews of Schooled. The protagonist is a selfish hypocrite who uses her role as a private school teacher in Manhattan turned tutor to do good. Now isn’t that a bit disconcerting? Why would she invest her time at a wealthy private school if she truly wanted to help the children? Even though someone in class did bring up a valid point that these students actually do need a lot of help as their parents are usually disengaged with their lives and they are just pushed through the system. If this is true, I would have hope for our protagonist Anna to delve into these topics instead of only commenting on the spoiled tendencies of the children and the grotesque behaviors of their parents. 

I think that Melanie raises very important issues – why does Anna feel that she has to conform to the ways of her students? Melanie sites the strong fashion sense of many of our Colby professors. Some rock styles that are not the norm by any means of the Colby students, yet do they feel pressure to fit in? I think this would be a very interesting topic to go into with the Colby faculty.

Here’s a possible outline of this project:

-       Interview Colby professors about their lives outside of Colby versus their lives inside the bubble

o    Do they feel pressure to conform to Colby standards of dress and etiquette

o    Do they change their demeanor when on campus? Especially when they are engaging with what appears to be affluent students?

-       Create some sort of range for the dress of professors

o    Maybe a photo essay with willing professors – outdoorsy, stylish, quirky

o    Brief bio underneath their picture maybe even put some of the labels they’re wearing in the description

-       Find out if there is a different pressure to conform in different departments – academic, deans, campus life….

I think that the professors on campus are sometimes left out of our discussion on class and race. As students, we are pressured to confront these issues. We are constantly asked to contemplate how we identify on social issues, but I am also interested how professors identify.

Class Mascot

The author of Schooled, Anisha Lakhani, lives on the Upper East Side with her beloved shitzu Harold Moscowitz. I was a bit appalled to see the class mascot page featuring her dog on the Schooled website and wanted too look further into the lives of these purebred animals. How else can they be exploited to demonstrate wealth? Here are some of the examples I found just in NYC:

Grooming:

http://www.ritzycanine.com/

Their mission statement- RITZY CANINE CARRIAGE HOUSE was conceived with the purpose of providing a loving, safe and luxurious haven for our beloved dogs and cats. Our staff will go to any lengths to make our guests' stay a true delight.

Here owners can even pay $60 for their pet to have an hour massage!

Pet Friendly Hotel:

http://www.themusehotel.com/mse_pet.html

Their mission statement: The rejuvenating pampering you receive at The Muse Hotel New York just wouldn't be the same without your furry friend, so bring your pet along.

Doggie Boutique:

http://www.doggiecoutureny.com/

Their mission statement: Welcome to Doggie Couture NY luxury pet boutique. We specialize in designer dog apparel for the pampered puppy. We offer dazzling designs from a stroll down Madison Avenue to the more practical romp in the park. If you have your own personal style, let us know what it is and we can custom create it just for you.

Carolyn Chute

“Ms. Chute, who grew up in Cape Elizabeth, Me., dropped out of school at 16 and supported herself and a young daughter by working as a charwoman, driving a school bus and plucking chickens.”

In my fiction writing class last year my professor always stressed the mantra “write what you know.” I think that Carolyn Chute took this saying to heart when she wrote The Beans of Egypt, Maine and that is why the characters come to life with interesting accents, gruff language, and immoral behavior.

This NY Times article “A Writer in a Living Novel” gives some context to Chute’s story (the article is written in November of 2008 right before her book The School on Heart’s Content Road is to be published). Chute’s role as founder and, as she says, “secretary of offense, or offensiveness” of the 2^nd Maine Militia is extremely fitting. Basically, this group meets behind Chute’s home to shoot at cans and discuss what is wrong in the world – it is a nonpartisan economic populist group. The group is very diverse, but each member shares the experience of the government trying to take something away form him.

Look at this interview I found with Chute. I love seeing her in her home. The description of the youtube video is very telling – “ She just doesn’t trust the system – nor want any part of it.”  Her novel definitely makes it clear that her characters have been failed by the system in a way that maybe she has too?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/books/04chut.html?pagewanted=2

Guilt - The Beans of Egypt, Maine

After reading The Beans of Egypt, Maine, I am embarrassed to say that I found the book very difficult to finish. I felt isolated from the characters and ultimately, had trouble feeling sympathy for them. Chute’s novel tells the tale of two poverty-stricken families in rural Maine who fight for survival, but the families’ lack of drive and motivation isolate them from the American dream and thus from the middle class reader.

Roberta Rosen’s article “I Hate this Book” resonated with me and other members of the class as well.  In her article, Rosen contemplates why The Beans of Egypt, Maine elicited such a strong, negative reaction from her undergraduate and graduate students. Her thesis reads, “Why was it possible for many of my students to accept cultural disparity when it seemed to be a matter of race, ethnicity or religion, but not when it was a matter of class? Was their previous open-mindedness just political correctness, or are class antagonisms more difficult to identify and accept in an American society which theoretically views itself as "classless?"2 The more I explore these questions, the more I am convinced that American middle-class assumptions and values should become a more prominent topic for critical analysis within multicultural literature.”

The fault in the middle class reading of a poverty portrait like the one Chute writes is that members of middle class America feel that they have earned their place there through hard work and dedication, so they cannot feel sympathy for characters who do not yearn for the same lifestyle. In this novel, the characters are cruel, dirty, aggressive, and lazy. Why do students feel no pity for poor white protagonists? I believe that Rosen highlights one of the most important issues in the education system today – awareness. It is not possible to read novels that deal with social issues of race and class if the reader is not aware of the preconceived notions he or she brings to the text.

It is also very interesting the Chute represents the middle class in her text as more clean and proper than the Beans. Instead of screaming and cursing the middle class represents the bourgeois life as Rosen states, “All of the middle-class characters who inhabit Egypt, Maine are certainly cleaner, as well as more ambitious, socially acceptable and progressive than their impoverished counterparts. However, there is something sinister about the arrival of the J. K. Smiths, a wealthy, enfranchised city family who take up residence across the road from the Beans. Most significantly, these newly established yuppies arrive on Thanksgiving with their "Mayflower" moving van full of furniture and the equipment of bourgeois life.”

Ali’s Critique of Kiswana

In Ali’s blog post titled “An Exception Not the Rule,” she grabbles with a problem that I found very disconcerting in Kiswana Browne’s chapter. Why would Kiswana think that choisng poverty would be a way to better the lives of African American women?

I actually think that Kiswana’s move into Brewster Place is more a rebellion to her family’s rich lifestyle. She does not feel like she can ever live up to their expectations. This is especially apparent in the passage when her mother comes to visit her apartment. At one point Kiswana snaps and yells, “No, Mama, You’re not poor. And what you have and I have are two totally different things. I don’t have a husband in real estate with a five-figure income and a home in Linden Hills – you do. What I have is a weekly unemployment check and an overdrawn checking account at United Federal. So this studio on Brewster is all I can afford” (83). Kiswana is definitely trying to distinguish herself as an individual away from her childhood self.

Ali brings attention to the controversial reason that Kiswana has pushed away her family. She writes, “Kiswana wants a better world for the African community, with rights and equality, but as her mother reminds her, how do you make the world better when you can't make it better for yourself? Priorities are skewed in Brewster Place, Kiswana needs to open her eyes and realize that Brewster Place isn't somewhere you hang out, it is a place you get stuck in and never escape.” I find it very hard to grapple with the fact that Kiswana places herself in this situation as a means of understanding her people’s problems, but does not create a plan to create change for them. With the resources she has been blessed with I would have hoped that she could have channeled her lofty ideas into more productive modes of change.