Hit and Misses

There were projects that I believe were "hits" this year. During the second semester, we read Purple Hibsicus. The projects that came with this book were flexible and more enjoyable than past ones. I especially liked the side dish project. I had fun learning about Nigerian culture and being able to cook Nigerian food. My side dish was one of my best pieces of writing because it showcased my deeper understanding of Purple Hibiscus. 

Side Dish:

In Purple Hibiscus, meals shared among the family have great significance. At every meal, Papa begins with an extensive twenty-minute prayer. From this, we understand the religious traditions of the family, including Papa’s strict beliefs. Each meal also includes important conversations. Some are dead silent, some tell stories, and others share details on the corrupt government and economy. Each meal has a variety of traditional foods. One example is an accustomed breakfast option: Nigerian fried yams. These yams are commonly eaten for breakfast in Purple Hibiscus. Breakfast, lunch and dinner discussions give readers insight into the Nigerian world, character interactions, and what being a member of Kambili’s family is really like.

            After making the Nigerian yams, I found that it helped me to understand many things. For one, I learned more about Nigerian culture. I found lots of different traditional foods through my research. I also found that the meals shared in Purple Hibiscus helped me to understand a lot about the characters. Papa, as expected led the conversations while Mama assured his comments. Kambili and Jaja followed with saying, “Yes Papa.” This leads me to believe that Kambili and Jaja have developed a fear of Papa after being victims of his abuse. They want to exceed his high standards and make him proud. Sometimes, Papa’s standards are unreachable, this leads the children to unwanted consequences such as abuse or humiliation.

The meals of Purple Hibiscus have great significance in helping understand the difficult novel.

Another "hit" from this year was also from the second semester. Our more leisured read of this year was The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Although this was more of free read, paying attention to symbolism, character traits, and theme were important. Discussion posts from this book allowed you to think about the deeper meaning and relation to other books or the world we live in. I found these posts flexible because there were many writing options. I think my post on parents was my strongest. It is something I tracked while reading and understood the most out of the topics.

Parents:

 Junior, the protagonist of the novel has parents who have made mistakes. They could be considered “ bad” parents. Junior’s ambitious personality shows when he tries to overcome his parents decisions. He believes he does not have to live this way and wants to live a new route of life when he is older. Junior’s parents are indians like himself. From Junior’s prospective, we understand Indians are prone to become alcoholics and have a poor lifestyle. Many indians on the reservation depended on each other. It is a struggle to fill their car if they have one with gas. Junior’s father has made poor decisions that were fueled by his stressful life. He would be missing on Christmas day, leaving his family to celebrate on their own. Junior loves his parents. Even through all the horrible mistakes they have made. Junior is not one to hold a grudge. It is almost like he is immune to his parents behavior.

Although Junior does not approve of his parent's actions, their relationship is unique. Their love for each other is mutual. Junior's father does not express his love for junior very often but one time in particular stood out. After learning Junior's sister, Mary's death, him and his father bonded while dealing with the loss. His father said, "I love you" (Alexie 206). He has not said or expressed that emotion toward Junior before. This shows that the relationship is unique in that the family has their differences but still love and support each other.


Another "hit" from Purple Hibiscus was my appetizer. My appetizer showed how I interpreted the parent figures in the book. I am proud of this piece because I worked hard on annotations to find connections throughout the book. I looked for certain character traits that stood out. I also think this is a good piece it includes facts and opinions making it controversial and something to think about.

In early African marriages, the father and soon to be husband dictate the relationship. The father of the man would find and decide on a suitable wife for his son. In Purple Hibiscus, Papa is the “leader” of the family. In a sense, he has control of what his family does, says and believes. For example, Papa is very religious and expects his children, Kambili and Jaja to be the same. This includes extensive prayers before meals, attending mass, meeting with the Father, and confessing their sins at confession. We understand that Mama follows these rules to. She does not participate in creating the schedule or the principles of their household.

Today, men are not as in charge as they used to be in marriage. In the United States, the husband and wife generally parent together. It is not as common to witness a man conduct the marriage especially since 70% of the population in America identify as Christian. In identifying as Christian the spouses of the relationship have equal control unlike Papa and Mama’s.

Although I had some great pieces of writing, I had "misses" as well. One most my least favorite assignments was the annotated bibliography. I struggled a lot with this assignment because of the time line and complexity. It required a lot of focussed time and patience. This assignment was a "miss" for me because I struggled with finding ways to summarize and paraphrase from sources. The sources were very complicated and hard to understand the real meaning.

Along with the annotated bibliography, my research paper was not my best work. In general, the world history/ english project was difficult for me. The annotated bibliography was definitely the hardest but it was challenging to write the paper as well. I had a good topic but this project was very restricted in options. I was unsure about my sources because I was receiving different feedback. I am also usually good at organizing information before an essay, but this one was especially hard.

My last "miss" is our first paper we wrote, the personal narrative. This paper was confusing at the time for me because it was the first paper of the year. I was getting back into the swing of things especially writing. I forgot many grammatical rules and sentence fluency. I think if I wrote another personal narrative now, it would be much better. I have more experience and am a stronger writer.