French Movies

       This semester, I watched several different French movies. Through film class and French club, I watched movies such as "Pierrot Le Fou," "Une Femme est Une Femme," and "Mon Meilleur Ami." French cinema is intriguing to me, as it reflects French culture and French standards of comedy or drama, or in the case of "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," the standards of a sad film. In film class we watched and analyzed French films, which incorporated some background information on French directors and French ideas of how to make movies.
       I found "Mon Meilleur Ami" (a film we watched at a French club event) to be a funny film, centered around Daniel Auteuil's quest to find a best friend. A lot of the jokes probably went over my head, being relevant to French culture, but I got a good laugh at most of Auteuil's predicaments. One thing I think is interesting is the differences between what the English subtitles say, and what the actors in the movie are actually saying. I am just strong enough in French that I can recognize some subtle inaccuracies in translation. I often wonder why they change they translation for the subtitle to something that is slightly different from what is actually being said. 

French Speak-a-thon

The French club at TCU put on an event with students from Francophone countries. There were students from the Congo, France, and other french-speaking countries at the event, which was geared toward students in French classes to speak and interact with French students. The "speak-a-thon" event was a lot of fun and we had a pretty good turn-out of students. I found it interesting hearing the differences in accent and vocabulary used by the students from Africa and from France. Even the difference between a student from northern France and my professor, who is from South France, is quite noticeable. It's something I didn't ever really think about, how accents differ in French just as American accents differ between region. The speak-a-thon event gave me a unique experience in communicating with people who speak different types of french from what I hear in class every other day, and gave insight into the intricacies of the language.

Service Learning

I was able to participate in a service learning project for French earlier this semester. I went to Seminary Hills Elementary School with a couple students from my class to teach less fortunate kids a lesson on French language and Senegalese culture. (Senegal is one of the francophone countries in Africa) The children that I taught are fourth graders and are primarily Hispanic, many of whom don't speak great English. This was definitely a unique experience for me, as I had to communicate with the kids in English and in French, neither of which is their primary language in some cases. We taught a lesson on numbers, colors, and family terms. The students responded very well to the lesson, and although it was a challenge at times to engage them in what we were teaching, they did a great job participating in the activities. They got especially excited for the Bingo activity involving numbers. We gave the kids gummy bears when they got a Bingo, and they had to name the colors of all the bears they got. I was surprised at how well our lesson plan worked. It was the second time I was able to do the service learning project at Seminary Hills Elementary, as I taught a lesson there last semester as well. I consider myself pretty strong in French, but once I was told to teach a lesson, I realized how difficult that actually is when one isn't fluent. Even though I was teaching basic, introductory French skills, the lesson took a lot of planning and was a unique experience teaching the kids.

Conversation on Senegalese Culture

In French class, we have been reading a book called Une Si Longue Lettre, by and author named Mariama Bâ. The book is a feminist story set in post-colonial Senegal, and is written as a letter from a woman, Ramatoulaye, to her best friend, Aïssatou. The book deals with the issue of polygamy, which is socially acceptable in Senegalese culture. There is a young man in my class named Cheick whose first language is French and is a native to Mali, a neighboring country to Senegal. Beyond the lesson plans from class, I was able to have a few conversations with him about his take on polygamy and other cultural issues addressed in the novel. It was interesting to hear his opinions about the author's take on these issues, and I was intrigued by his disagreeing with the social norm of polygamy. Speaking with Cheick gave me a different perspective on the reading, as I was able to hear the values and ideas of the author spoken from a person who comes from the same scenario, in real life. The novel speaks against polygamy from the point of view of a woman who is victim to her husband taking a second wife. Cheick agreed with what the book was saying, that polygamy is not part of his family values and is something he would never consider doing. It was a unique experience hearing a real-life take on the arguments made in this book published in 1979. Cheick was able to attest to the reality of the author's claims, and make his own statements in agreement with what the author is saying. When reading a book about Senegal and its culture, everything seems so foreign, but talking to a kid whose home is close to the situation made me feel closer to the book and give greater insight into the novel.

Get A Seeing Eye Dog

One can tell just by looking at the title, "Get A Seeing Eye Dog," that the story is about a blind person. Hemingway writes the piece centered around the concept of being blind, both on a literal level (with the main character's blindness) as well as in a metaphorical sense. "Get a Seeing Eye Dog" is not much different from other Hemingway stories, in the sense that the events of the story are primarily communicated through dialogue. In this particular story, Hemingway delves into detail only in passages describing visual imagery.... describing what can't actually be seen. For instance, the first page consists mainly of concise dialogue, but has a descriptive passage about the safari leaving. He speaks about remembering events, clearly describing the events, cherishing the memories. We see this again with a series of short dialogue followed by "you know... I remember it so well that it is palpable," followed by a  passage describing what can no longer be seen. The blindness in the story may convey us taking life's events for granted. Perhaps the saying "you don't know what you have until it's gone" applies to this story. The visual images are only fully detailed when they can't be seen and appreciated. Hemingway portrays life as a series of events taken for granted when they can be truly appreciated, and uses the blind man in "Get a Seeing Eye Dog" as a representation of wanting to appreciate the everyday beauties of life, but being incapable of doing so. He remembers moments in time that he commits himself to remembering. The story may be Hemingway's way of saying that the world is blind to the everyday, simple things in life, and doesn't fully realize them or appreciate them until they no longer exist.

A Way You'll Never Be

I did some research on the color yellow and its meanings, and found that it has conflicting symbolism. In some instances yellow is used to represent hope and happiness, but yellow can also stand for cowardice or deceit. I think that both meanings of the color yellow are employed in "A Way You'll Never Be." It has been established that the cowardice is portrayed because of the demoralizing situation he is in, at the mercy of a man shooting him in the head. He sees the yellow house, representing his feeling of cowardice, insignificance, and defeat. I believe that the other meaning of yellow is apparent here as well. The yellow house could represent hope and happiness, and the river stands in between him and this happiness or hope. The presence of the house represents his feeling of cowardice, and the fact that the house is far away, seemingly out of reach because of the river, represents the feeling of hopelessness. The river may be a representation of the war or his wound, which is the obstacle that stands between Nick and his sense of happiness and hope. He will never reach the yellow house to learn more about it in this hallucination because the river stands in his way, just as he will never reach happiness in reality because of the events of the war. The war stripped him of his hope for sanity because of the head wound he suffered. The hallucination is a result of this head wound, so in a way, I think his hallucinations represent his reality in a euphemistic way. His negative feelings of hopelessness and cowardice due to the war and a head wound are represented by a yellow house on the other side of the river.

Feminism

I just heard in class, only moments ago, that "feminism" means "equality." I feel that this is an obsolete word if that is the case. This definition of the term insinuates a negative assumption about our world today. Is today's society considered feminist? If not, then describing equality as "feminist" is assuming that the standard of society is to assume an inferiority of women. I imagine the term was created in a time when women were not viewed as equal, which would make the term "feminism" relevant in the sense that equality is an improvement for women. However, in today's world, where we do see equality for women and at times we see circumstances such as reverse gender discrimination in the corporate world, describing "equality" as "feminist" is inaccurate. When you ask if I am a feminist, I would say no, however, if you asked if I believe in equality for women I would say yes. Using equality as the definition of the term, society as a whole today could be considered "feminist" because the gender equality gap of the past has for the most part dissolved, and at times is overcompensated for.

The End of Something

"The End of Something" by Ernest Hemingway is a story of moving on and forgetting old ways in life. In the story, Nick simply moves on from his "love" with Marjorie. Hemingway presents moving on from love as an ordinary occurrence, one that simply happens in life and must be dealt with. Hemingway possibly uses Nick as the ideal way to deal with loss of love, as he merely tells Marjorie he is not having fun, and describes this occurrence by saying "no, there wasn't any scene." This could be a reflection of how Hemingway wishes he could shrug off his personal conflicts in life and accept that sometimes one must simply move on.

These events occur in a place, Horton's Bay, that used to be a lumber town. But one year the logs stopped appearing. This signifies that the town of Horton's Bay is moving on through the times, just as society's cycle would have it. The city's "moving on" is juxtaposed with Nick's moving on in his relationship to show that "moving on" is necessary and impossible to avoid in the simple workings of life.

The metaphor of fishing portrays the relationship between Marjorie and Nick. Nick is seen as the fish that won't bite. This shows the push and pull of relationships, and the catch-22 that is the pursuit of a significant other. The instance of a fish "getting away" is commonplace when fishing, just as Hemingway wants to portray a prospective significant other "getting away": something that will happen and that people need to accept as a part of life... as "no scene."

Benjamin Button Response

     The first question that came to mind as I read “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” was how the birthing process could have possibly worked. It is a major detail that was excluded by Fitzgerald. How can one give birth to a 5 foot 8 inch tall human being? Also, how does Benjamin discover that he is aging in reverse? He looks in the mirror one day at the age of 12, and realizes he is aging in reverse... but how did he come to this conclusion? He knows nothing different in the cycle of life. How did Benjamin develop the sense of young and old, when he was technically only 12 years old? Either way, Benjamin Button is indeed a curious case.... one that raises questions about the aging process. Part of me says that Benjamin Button’s reverse aging process would be better than our normal aging process, in that one would be born with intellect, emotion and feeling, and can instantly begin to enjoy life as a mature adult would enjoy it. Putting aside the criticism and scrutiny from the public eye, having these abilities so early in life would be advantageous in many ways. And, as Button ages, he is able to do more and more with his life. At about 40 years of age, Benjamin can join the army and experience military valor, and at age 50, he is about 20 years old and can enroll in university. Benjamin still experiences the same “circle of life” that normal people experience, except that youth and old age are reversed. He begins by experiencing old age, which carries its obvious limits, and ends his life with the incapacities of a baby. I feel that this reverse aging is beneficial for Button in the sense that the final years of his life don’t consist of pain and suffering, but rather naivety and playfulness before memories and senses fade out in the end. 

     The obvious negative aspect of Button’s reverse aging is the lack of a sense of normalcy. From the moment he is born, he is seen as abnormal by his family and those who know him for extended periods of time. His father starts off wanting nothing to do with him, and later we see his son lose interest in him as he grows younger. He falls in love with his wife, but as she ages normally and he grows younger, they lose attraction for each other. Also, the criticism by society around Benjamin is an issue. Benjamin’s father felt the need to “retain something of his own self-respect--not to mention his position in Baltimore society.” Benjamin’s case could have ruined the Button reputation had the Civil War not “drawn the cities attention to other things.” When he tries to enroll in Yale at the normal age of 18 (looking 50) he is turned down and the registrar thinks it is a ridiculous prank. This type of public mockery would be discouraging and only further the sense of alienation due to reverse aging. The fact that life would occur out of order would also be somewhat difficult in Benjamin’s case. Beginning life as an old man who enjoys smoking cigars with his grandfather, yet having to wait 50 years to attend college seems like it would leave one out of sorts. 

     I personally admire Benjamin’s attitude about his condition, as he desires to make the most out of his time at every age. He wants to make his father happy, so he acts like a baby at times to please him, but at the same time enjoys his time with his grandfather. He embraces the opportunity to attend college when his time comes, and serves in the army. Benjamin truly makes the most out of his life despite his fascinating condition. 

     Fitzgerald employs irony to enhance the plot of the story. When Roger buys clothes for his son, he goes to a baby store only to find that there are no clothes fitting for a 70 year old man like Benjamin. If Roger had only gone to a store where they sell clothes for older men, there would have been no issue and he would not have had to divulge his son’s secret to the clerk. We also see a sense of Roger trying to mask Benjamin’s age by dying his hair at the beginning to make Benjamin look younger, or wanting to give him fake whiskers at the end to make him look older. All these are instances of Roger trying to hide Benjamin’s condition, but he only strengthens the sense of difference and makes a bigger deal out of his secret than needs to be made. 

     An underlying message to the story have something to do with just that. Trying to hide things one is ashamed of can possibly just make it worse, and cause whatever that may be to stand out even more. In life, people should embrace what is put in front of them, and not be ashamed of unique qualities or situations.

Does this thing work?

I hope so.