Post 9: La Llorona

Growing up, I heard many stories. Being half Mexican and half Puerto Rican, I heard many stories of each culture. However, the story that stood out the most was the story of "La Llorona". The story of a woman who killed her children thanks to the fact her husband left her all alone was often told. For other families, this is what was told in order to scare their children from going out alone at night. However, for our family it was just a way of bringing everyone together.

Since the family would always be busy, telling scary or thought provoking stories was what kept us entertained. We would come together and just talk about these stories, and just have a good time. Thanks to stories such as " La Llorona" really brought out family together and had us just wanting to hear more and more. Those stories weren't just to teach lessons, they were ways to bring the family together as one and experience a healthy and fun way to come together.

People may think that telling scary stories is not a way to spend family time because it's just meant to scare and not bring family together, but I completely disagree. Of course these stories bring people together. These stories have been passed down for a reason. People listen and they then share what they have heard or learned. It then becomes a tradition and a regular thing after it's done so many times. Families can have their stronger bonds thanks to stories, because they can have their own family tradition story, and for us, it's "La Llorona".

Post 8: The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston & “The Female Individual and the Empire” by Feng Lan

I thought that the view of women is interesting in the tales. I remember loving Mulan as a child and always loving the fact that she wasn’t about being saved by Prince Charming. If anything, she saved “Prince Charming”. I feel that more woman figures such as Mulan should be shown to younger girls to show that they don’t need a man to be powerful or make a change. Everyone is capable of doing something big for big amounts of people, but it’s up to every individual to seize the opportunity and work with it. If you just sit there you won’t get anywhere by just staying there and doing nothing meaningful. Whether you are a boy or girl, man or woman, or even cat or dog, your gender or identify doesn’t define what you can do.

The girl in “The Woman Warrior” wanted to fight for the boys starting at 14, and she did everything she could to one day be able to fight for what she thought was right. The best thing was that people didn’t just knock her down because of her gender, just that she was too young. However, I also think knocking down younger children shouldn’t always be done, because sometimes youth has important ideas as well. However, if we know it’s something that could potentially be dangerous, definitely try to hold them back. But if it is something that is just about opinion, it is important to hear those opinions because they are living in this planet too, and they are growing up in this new generation, so they may know things that happen that you may not know.

Post 7: Trickster Tales Ed. by Matt Dembicki

I really enjoyed these short stories. They were short and simple to follow, and the messages were clear. It was interesting how both stories somewhat contrasted. With the Raven’s story, he got away with being a trickster and did not get any punishment for what he did. Instead, he got away free and easily manipulated people to get this way. I feel that happens a lot in our world today, in that bad people get away with things when instead there should be consequences for their actions. I feel as though people should not just see what good they are getting for themselves, but instead what harm they are doing to the people around them. If people realized what affects their actions have on others, they may think twice before doing whatever it is they do.

The story with the wolf and the mink had more of what I expected with the first story. The mink got his way by tricking two fish into being caught. Once he did, he cooked the fish. When the wolf came along, we thought the mink would share, which did not happen. Instead, the wolf got the mink to sleep, stole the fish and the mink was tricked. This showed that you should not be greedy, or karma will stab you back. The thing is, the mink did not even realize he had his fish stolen so for all we know the mink will repeat his doings again. In addition, what did the wolf learn? To steal from someone if they do not share? If that is the case, then no one learned anything. We as readers learn something, but if these are actual being in the story, they themselves did not learn anything, which can lead them to commit the same actions as preciously done. 

Post 6: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang & “Graphic Memoirs Come of Age” by William Bradley

I really enjoyed the graphic novel picked. I felt that it was trying to give a message of not letting power get to your head. No matter how much power you think you may have, there will always be someone with a bit more power.  I think it also gives a message of do not forget who you are and your roots, because what made you can easily destroy you as well.  I think it is important to remember what made you and who helped you be who you are. You never want to forget who your loved ones are because then you will be alone. Yes, power can be nice for a given amount of time, but once you take advantage of power, that same power can bite you back. I think if the monkey had realized this, he would not have fought and would have just went home peacefully and maybe start a party in the tree.

The other article was also interesting. I did not see how both articles related with each other except for the fact that they are both about graphic novels. However, I agree with Bradley in that calling these stories graphic novels rather downgrades them. Some are more like essays or non-fiction stories that has happened to their respective authors. They should be treated as more real works in the sense that it should not be “Oh, look! It has speech bubbles and pictures. Yay!” Instead, it should be taken as a more interesting version of telling one’s life through dialogue and pictures. If not, graphic novels may not be taken as a serious literature form, although many graphic novels can tell interesting stories. Just by Bradley mentioning a quick part of the novel Fun Home, it already got me interesting to find out more of this story, and how it affected the author’s life. 

Post 5:Sandman Vol. 1 by Neil Gaiman & "The Sand/wo/man: The Unstable Worlds of Gender in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman Series" by Ally Brisbin and Paul Booth

            I found the reading to have many interesting points. The way it talk about gender norms really intrigued me. I agreed with the passage "The Sand/wo/man: The Unstable Worlds of Gender in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman Series" by Ally Brisbin and Paul Boothand how everything was viewed through readings. The way roles where portrayed through Barbie really showed a change. The fact that Barbie was feminine in look yet was a strong and speaks her mind showed that she wasn’t the typical woman. At the time, women where to be proper and feminine, but Barbie was feminine yet not all quiet and proper. Barbie even led people to fight a battle. A women fighting is something that used to be looked down upon on, but instead, Barbie does it.

            I also found it interesting how they also spoke about not following norms. For example, with the lesbian that got pregnant, you wouldn’t expect a lesbian to ever be pregnant. Lesbians aren’t the first people you’d associate with having sexual intercourse with men. You’d think it was because of rape or some other factor, but this lesbian just tried it, and ended up getting pregnant. I think these norms can be seen today throughout. Not everyone is following what norms have been placed for each gender. For example, before, men were the ones that worked, and women were the housewives who cooked, cleaned and cared for children. Now you can find the wife working, and the husband staying home to clean, cook and caring for children. Nothing is the same as before, because people try to stand out more than to fit in. I feel it’s better to stand out and not fit into stereotypes/ norms. The more you stand out, it shows the more confident and out there you are, which is better than being a robot. 

Post 4: American Indian Myths and Legends Ed. by Richard Erdoes & Alfonso Ortiz

After reading the stories, I found them very interesting and also kind of weird. The way that these Indians came up with folktales to explain different things seemed very cool to me. Things like how the land came to be, and how some animals came to have certain traits sounded like an interesting concept. It was weird to me how in the story of “When Grizzles Walked Upright”, the girl had relations with a bear and had children. I mean sure for a folktale it’s reasonable, but if this were to be heard outside that realm, it’d sound super weird and sick. I people didn’t know better, and thought twisted; they’d think that this tale is sick and twisted. I liked the story of “The Quillwork Girl and Her Seven Star Brothers”, because I never knew they even had tales on how the Big Dipper came to be. The other two stories didn’t really stand out as much as these two, but still were very interesting. Who knew how we got arrowheads and why the brothers were turned into rattlesnakes. It’s interesting to see a different way of trying to explain different things without using things like God or Allah, or whomever, but instead, animals. It’s always intriguing to see how different cultures come up with reasons for different things to happen. 

Post 3: The Three Wishes by Ricardo E. Alegria/ "Juan Bobo: A Folkloric Information System" by Sarai Lastra

Since I’m half Puerto Rican, I heard words like bobo a lot. I always knew that it meant dumb or dimwitted. I had also heard the name Juan Bobo, but I never knew who he was, and just thought it was some made up thing, or some celebrity. After reading about Juan Bobo, it was interesting to see that all along it was some character from tales told in Puerto Rico. However, I didn’t understand what the points of the tale “Juan Bobo, the Sow and the Chicks”. The only message that I really saw was that if you are stupid, then you should be punished. If you are a dimwit, well be punished. I don’t think that message is such a great message. I would have understood if he did it on purpose, but Juan didn’t know better. He thought he was helping out in a great way although any other person would know it wasn’t the brightest thing to do.

I also found it interesting how religious people are. With the tale of "The in Search of Her Leg", the message was that God is above all. When reading the tale, I thought it was going to give a message that you are your strongest person, but instead it turned out to be that God is above everything, and thus the ant left happy to find this out. Only people who are very religious would make this a message, and this sounds like a story that would we told to a church class to explain that God is above all.

Post 2: Living Folklore by Martha Sims

After reading Living Folklore by Martha Sims, I found it interesting how different people perceive the word folklore. Honestly, when I thought of folklore, I though it just had to do with fake things and they were just things you read about it. After reading this however, I realized it is more than just that. When reading the section on pop culture, I found it interesting when it stated, “So many Elvis impersonators exist that they themselves would be considered a folk group” (p. 4). I never realized that the stories such as how Elvis is alive and how all the impersonators have their own folk group could fall into folklore. The idea of Elvis is not what folklore, the ideas of him being alive is what turns him into folklore. Things like that are things I would have never thought of. After this reading, I feel people should look more into what folklore is, before just knocking it down as a “fake thing” of culture. Sure, not everything in folklore is true, but the point is, folklore is all around us. Sometimes it is good to see what it is that goes on around us, and how we are in a world of folklore. It is important to see how amazing folklore can be. It is something that expresses many things through an art.

Traditions, also mentioned in the article, is another important thing to remember. Tradition gives people senses of identity, and it helps others see who people are, and what they do. Folklore id part of people’s traditions, and it is important to keep in mind that we should respect folklore, because it can be part of many people’s lives. In some cases, people live off saying and hearing folklore. It is also just nice to learn about different traditions, because many things that they may follow may be interesting and worth looking more into. 

Post 1: Aesop, Aristotle, and Animals: The Role of Tables in Human Life

               After reading Aesop, Aristotle, and Animals: The Role of Fables in Human Life, I found it really interesting on how these different tales could be deciphered. The way they tried to correlate animals to humans was very interesting. Even back then, strength and wealth was associated with who had power. We can see that even now it still holds to be true. The story that interested me most was the one with the snake and frogs. The way I saw it, the frogs were trying to do the best they could to help, but the snake only cared to have help that had power. Although we live in a society that people get to vote and give opinions freely, I still feel people with upper power get the upper hand and choose what makes up society. Some voices from minorities still don’t get heard, although they should be heard.

               I find it interesting how Aristotle compares human’s nature to those of animals. Aristotle doesn't deny the fact that we are indeed animals. Through the use of fables, Aristotle feels that they could be used in a political aspect. Now of course it isn’t to say that animals would be used to explain politics, but the messages behind these tales can really be used to make points. The story of the wolf and the lamb for example, can be used to show how people can be so unreasonable and liars. “In this fable, then, power, wickedness and malice triumph over weakness, innocence and honesty”(p. 180). This could be used to emphasize the fact that thing should be done for unfair treatments. Even now, if stories like that were be used to make political points, I believe it’s very reasonable. Fables are meant to teach lessons, although some may not be lessons that you may expect. Some lessons are not great ones, in order to show us what NOT to do.