#11 The Circuit

I did some research on the book and found out that this was one of many short stories from a book based on the author Francisco Jimènez’s life. Here I could also read that the whole book is about this family’s fight to survive in California after have leaving Mexico illegally. The short story we had to read gives me a good impression of the book. Like, already on the first page of the short story (p. 55), Panchito tells us about the clever strawberry picker who’s from Mexico, just like him and his family. And even I already know there are many illegal people from Mexico in America, the way they searching for jobs certify that they are not legally in California. Legal persons don’t find jobs by ringing doorbells and live in peoples garage like that. And I can’t read anything about a contract either.

But the family takes good care of each other. I think the most sadly part was  that Panchito obviously is having a hard time with his education even he is working so hard to make it. And his big brother, Roberto, don’t even go to school at all. It seems like since he is the oldest one, he have to help his father during the cotton season. It must be hard watching his little brother go to school every day when he has to work with his father.  But he doesn’t complain, he does it for the family.

I was heartbroken when I realized that they was moving again when Panchito finally started to catch up they other and his nice teacher introduce him for an instrument he  falls in love with. It must be exhausting to never know what the next day brings about. Without contract, they can be fired anytime.  And without a home, you have to move every time you change job. I think shows me about how difficult it actually is to live a life like this. Many people think they are just lazy and lucky to be in California. They don’t see the disadvantages. It’s a tough life.

The two last years of high school I went to a small school for hearing impaired students outside my hometown. There I met a girl named Dona who was completely unlike me, we came from two different worlds if you can say it that way. Against the odds, we became best friends and she told me about her past as a immigrant from Serbia. She learned me so much and I got a new respect for people who have to go through something like that and I saw things in a different sight. She really changed me in many ways, and I wanted to mention her because this reminded me of her and what she’s been through. 

#10 The Hands of My Father

by Christopher Jon Heuer.

I’ll have to admit that this one was kind of difficult one, I’m not sure if I got all the words right.

This poem about a father and his son, it seems to me that the mother doesn’t exist.  At least she is not mentioned. The father is a hearing person, but has his own opinion of what he wants to hear. I get the impression that he wants to connect with the nature. He doesn’t like talking to other people; he rather wants to hear the animals moaning.

Instead of using his hands to sign to his son he uses them to work with his farm. I’m assuming they are living on a farm because he has a tractor and works with a pitchfork. It’s seems to me that the father is frustrated because he can’t fix his son’s “problem”. Maybe he gets scared of the situation and reacts with anger and keeps a distance between them.

I sense this is vulnerable for the son, who’s the narrator in this poem. He’s is talking about his deafness like it’s something negative and I would guess that is a reaction to his dads acting. It’s like he wants to say he’s sorry for being born deaf. 

Anyway, I believe his father truly loves him but just don’t know how to deal with the situation. The detail in verse four, second and third line is supporting this: “He watched me as if God had set the locusts on him”. And if they live on a farm, they might be far away from civilization and far away from places to learn signing. Maybe his way of showing love was to work really hard with the farm, so when his time has come he would leave a beautiful farm in perfect condition where he could live happy. I get this impression from the last verse where the son feel his fathers apologize through the nature. Like, “I see his fingers in the corn, reaching over the hills and fences to his son”.

#9 Rules of the Game

by Amy Tan.

In this short story, Waverly learns important lessons by her mother. One thing she learns is the art of invisible strength (p. 37);  “Wise guy, he not goes against the wind”. Waverly soon use those lessons to get what she wants. One example is on p. 46 where she tells her mother she doesn’t want to play in the local tournament where she probably will loose anyway because she know her mother will react with pushing her to the competition. “Is shame you fall down nobody push you” she says. I will say that means that is an even bigger shame to give up without trying rather than try and fail.

When Waverly plays chess, she uses her mother’s rules to win. Those rules help her to stay calm and focus. And besides those rules, she has read many books about chess and had a competent teacher when she was playing in the park. It seems to me that she loves the rules, or maybe she just loves the secrets behind the rules?  This reminds me of my dad’s favorite quote which always have tried to learn me: “knowledge is power”. Waverly uses the secrets to defeat her competitors.

Anyway, Waverly is soon becoming Chinatown Chess Champion and she is starting to feel the benefits. One of them is that she no longer has to take the dishes and she makes up excuses so she got the bedroom she shared with her brothers alone. She knows that her parents do everything if it means she will keep winning. She has becoming the Chinese family’s pride and hope in America.

Two years after she started to play chess for fun, she is a national chess champion and there’s a picture of here in the Life magazine. Her mother took Waverly out for shopping every Saturday. They didn’t buy too much and it’s obviously that the weekly routine is just a way for the mother to proudly show her daughter off.  One day, a very uncomfortable Waverly asks her mother if she could stop telling people who she is. Even her mother wants the attention Waverly doesn’t like it. Her mother reacts with anger; I think maybe she felt a little offended. The discussion ends with Waverly runs away.

When she finally is back home she is expecting scolds and yelling. But instead her parents tell her that they trust Waverly, still it is a weird atmosphere in the room. Waverly runs to her room and imagining her mother in a chess game. She are the black slits and they are taking Waverly’s white slits one by one. The two black, angry slits are her mother’s eyes. It’s clear that Waverly looses.

I think maybe Waverly’s behavior is a call for help, that she doesn’t want special treatment. She wants to be a normal kid with friends and play chess because it’s fun. She tries to be unreasonable and difficult (ex making her brothers moving to the living room and run away without coming back before late) but her mother doesn’t let the bad behavior affect her dream of having a known daughter she can tell people about. A Chinese girl who becomes a big star in America! Especially since they don’t have too much money either. So, she ignores it. And Waverly has to realize that she can’t defeat her own mother.

One last ting; one the first and the last page, Waverly’s mother says, “the strongest wind cannot be seen”. Maybe Waverly’s mother is the strongest wind.  

#8 A Gift of Laughter

The story is about the relationship between a father and his son. The father, named Allan, gets a reminder when his son reacts to a specific episode with slamming the door in anger (p. 30).  This make Allen think about when he self slammed the door when he was a young boy and he realized that he slammed the door because he was hurt. He remember how his mother and grandmother set up this “act” so he would feel better, and maybe even more important: that they listened and treated him with respect.

And then he has to admit that his son had a point. He has long days at work and are stressed about money, based on his own thoughts on page 32 where he says that ha need a shave when he comes home in the end of the day and based on the argue his son was interrupting on page 29, which was about money.

I think that everyone needs a reminder sometime. It’s human being to lose the track, especially if you think you are doing the best for your family or friends. Like Allan stresses about work and money so his family can have everything they need, then it’s easy to forget that they might rather want a husband and dad who’s there for them.

Actually, this reminds me about the relationship between my father and me. My father was a “perfect” child, he had a few friends and was happy with that. Didn’t drink or smoke and got good grades at school. And then me who started to drink and partying when I was fourteen years old. Didn’t do it great at school but okay and was hanging out with friends in the spare time.  My dad could never really accepted the fact that I care a lot more about the social part rather than he did when he was young. This has been an endless argue between us, and sometimes it still is. That’s why I’m closer to my mum, we grow up the same place and she was a party girl when she was young too. So then I could be more honest to her because I knew she had been through the same and would take that with her consideration and not just judge me.

So, the point is, since my father never really listened to me or could understand why friends and partying was such a big part of me, I stopped letting him take a part of my life. I closed him out. And that’s probably what Allan’s son would do too if Allan didn’t realize he was behaving badly. 

#7 Dancer

I think this short story is about finding your home spiritually, not physical. Dancer is about a girl who’s been pushed around different foster homes and is by the agency people defined as a sociopathic. She just have her little plastic bag with personal stuff and it make sense that she never haven’t had a home for while.

I’ve learned that the dreams are the subconsciousness way of speaking and sometimes you should take that seriously. She said once that she was dreaming about being chased by a man with a knife and nobody could hear her screaming for help (p. 22). I would say that means she feels that she totally alone and has nobody who loves and protects her (like parents should do). About screaming without anyone hearing, it it’s a sign for feeling alone. How is the girl supposed to know that she was finally in good hand in a nice family when was already been moved several times and when she was only a kid?

On page 22 her foster parent tells how she “seemed like she was all full up with anger and scaredness”. We have no idea of what she has been through before she came to their home and obviously she doesn’t want to talk about it. But the fact that she tried to kill their cat (p. 23) tells us it’s something going on in her head we either can control or understand.

We are told on page 23 that she is most believable an Assiniboine girl, but they are not sure (what makes me wonder even more about her background). Anyway, she falls in love with the powwow dance. In the beginning she is just dancing for herself and her behavior in daily life slowly changes to the better. She is not suddenly laughing all the time or anything, but she seems to be calmer and has a new confidence.

It’s pretty clear to me that she has found something in her life she can trust and love. She is suddenly more positive and motivated. No longer tries to kill their animals and she is hanging out with the other kids when they are coming home from school. Even the nightmares have stopped.

So, the point is; this is not an adventure where she became the queen of school or anything. But something maybe even more important; she finds an inner peace. She finds a place she can feel happy or “run away” too.

I believe that’s why Molly and Clarissa with many years between them are the same age when they were dancing. It’s not about how many years you have existed on this earth, it’s about reaching this place both of them have reached. To meet the “old Eagle woman”.