Reflection 8: The Maternal Insinstincts by Migel Street

This story is about a woman named Laura that had 8 children with 7 different men. She used to go pregnant and then leave the baby’s dad. The first six children were from six different dads. The last two were from a man named Nathaniel. Laura one day binged him to Miguel Street were she lived and he stayed there living with her for the entire nine months of his first baby. He started socializing with the boys in that street and used to say to them that Laura hasn’t leaved him because he leaved her in her place beating her. But the truth was that Laura was the one that beat Nathaniel. They found it out when one day Nathaniel tried to hide his beaten eye and he could dent. When his first baby borne all the guys from the street thought he was going to leave Miguel Street since Laura had never been that much of a time with a baby’s dad. One day Laura asked Nathaniel to go with her and he said no and after a little beating she said to leave her for good. When her big daughter Lorna grew up she send her to study typing and came back with a baby. Laura started crying but what shocked of this was that no one ever saw or heard Laura cry. One day Lorna decided to go to Carenage, were she drowned and died. Laura received the news and she said that was better off that way.

This story for me was really sad and shocking. How a woman had that many kids and didn’t stayed with not only one of the babies dad. To add to that she was the one that committed the domestic abuse to her kids and to the baby’s fathers. Domestic abuse is when someone force or use its brutal force to obtain something for someone without the person wanting to do that. Laura in the story used to do this to her kinds and to the baby’s dads. But what mostly shocked me wasn’t that she was the one that committed domestic abuse, what shocked me was that when her daughter died she said that it was better that way. Yes, I understand that maybe she didn’t wanted her daughter to end up as she did and teached, and maybe she wanted a way to prevent that but for me saying that was better off that her daughter died wasn’t the way to react and to feel when receiving that news. This is why I didn’t really liked the story besides I think that its title didn’t had to do with what we call truly “Maternal Instincts”.

Reflection 7 on: "George and the Pink Hose" by Migel Street

This story is about a man named George that lived in a pink house and his son Elias friends and how they felt with George around. The story is told by one of Elias friends and he tell us in the story that he was afraid of George, of how he acted and what he did every time he saw him pass by the front of his house. He used to say bad things about the kids and used to scare them. Elias friend also told us in the story that George wasn’t physically a scary man but how he acted scared him. Also that George didn’t do any type of work around the house he used to leave everything to his wife including the yards work and he only sat on the porch of the yard to watch the people pass by. When his wife died he cried and started drinking a lot, his son Elias disappeared without his friends knowing, and all of the house shores were done by his daughter Dolly. He tried to get a new wife to make the shores around the house but he finally couldn’t and then because he felt in a way sorry for Dolly made her marry a man named Razor and Dolly after that disappeared. George after Dolly getting married, got really alone and died soon and some of the people that new him buried him.

This story is really interesting because it is named “George and the Pink house” and I thought it was going to be a happy story but instead it was kind of sad and cruel. It talked about this man that was cruel to almost everybody and his house wasn’t a pretty pink house it was instead all damaged and scary. It also talked about how cruelly he treated his wife as a domestic house cleaner and how when his wife died started treating his daughter the same. George was a bad man and treated everyone in a bad way. This story can be related to domestic violence or abuse because of George and how he treated his family, friend and the people of his neighborhood. In the story it wasn’t clearly presented the domestic abuse and it didn’t show George hurting physically someone. But domestic abuse isn’t only hurting physically a person it can be also abusing verbally a person or forcing them to do things that they don’t want constantly, like making someone clean everything without any type of help or payment. George can be accused of domestic abuse verbally and also because he forced his wife to do the shores. In the story he used to offend the narrator calling him names like “horse face”. So this story indirectly talked to us about our reality that is that in life some people can experience problems like domestic abuse and we don’t even know. For me this story was cruel and bad because of this man named George that was a bad person and also because it wasn’t what I expected.

Reflection on the movie: The secret life of Bees

The movie the secret life of bees is about a young girl named Lilly and the people that surround her. In the movie Lilly when she was just a little child killed her mom by accident and her dad was the one raising her until her fourteen years when she decided to run out with a black woman that worked for them named Rosaline. She ran out with Rosaline for two reasons, one because Rosaline had offended a white man and because of that he wanted to kill her, and two Lilly used it as an excuse to go find out about her moms life because her father T-Ray never talked to her about her mom. When Lilly ran out she went to August Bowright house because she knew that her mom had to do something with her. August Bowright and her sisters June and may where black peoples and owners of a honey factory, that was recognized because of the package front symbols a Black Mary. Lilly learned to work in the honey and finally asked August about her mom that August answered with pleasure. Finally T-Ray found Lilly and since Lilly wanted to stay with August and her family T-Ray permitted it because he knew that Lilly was better with those black women.

But these movie wasn’t only about Lilly it also involved a lot of our society problems like racism , religion, domestic abuse, love, mental disabilities, suicide, etc. The racism was presented mostly by Rosaline’s fight with the white man. The religion with August and her Sundays tradition to talk about the Black Madonna or Mary and how they worshiped her in a way. Love because of Lilly and Zack that were different in color because Lilly was white with blue eyes and Zack was a pure black male that felled in love no mater their colors. Domestic abuse was also one of the themes in the story, that I think was one of the most important themes in the movie because it was presented though Lilly and her father T-Ray that abused of her every time he could with or without excuse. He abused of her in almost every type of domestic abuse there is he abused her verbally, physically and emotionally. One of the examples we can use to represent the domestic abuse in the movie was when T-Ray got mad at Lilly for being out late at night and punished her making her kneel for an hour un a gravel. Also when Lilly wanted to learn about her mom, T-Ray lied to her telling her bad things about her mom and that she didn’t loved her and some other times didn’t even answered.

For me this movie is a really good movie. I enjoyed it because for me the story was really interesting, the themes. I enjoyed it also because it made me keep really interested though the whole movie. Even though I wasn’t agreed of how T-Ray treated Lilly or about racism, or about the mixed religion. I also liked how in the movie the things that happened all had to do one with another. I think that this was a great movie not only because I enjoyed it also because of the message it can send to us that is to stop the abuses in our lives.

Reflection 6: "A Worn Path" of Eudora Welty

The story “A worn path” of Eudora Welty is about an old Negro woman named Phoenix Jackson that went out in the early morning of December walking trough a long path. Phoenix walked that path since far out in the country until she arrived to the town. While she walked slowly trough the path trying to arrive to were she was heading she encountered various obstacles, first she tangle with a bush, then she had to jump a fence, third she thought she saw a ghost and it was just a scarecrow and fourth she bumped with a white man that didn’t wanted to let her continue with her destiny because he thought she was too old, but she continued anyway. When she bumped with the white man she saw that from his pockets a nickel had fallen and she stole that nickel from the man even though she knew that, that was not right. When she finally arrived to the town she entered trough a door and a women asked her, her personal information and Phoenix just stood there without saying anything. Finally a nurse that know her came out and asked Phoenix what she had came for and also how was her grandson, but Phoenix had forgotten all of that. The nurse with patience after a while gave Phoenix a medicine for her grandson because she knew he continued sick when Phoenix had finally remembered part of why she had waked so far to the town. The nurse, because it was Christmas offered to Phoenix some pennies and Phoenix said that if she gave her 5 pennies that would be a nickel so the nurse gave her a nickel and phoenix said that was going to buy for her grandson a windmill made of paper and said she was going to walk to her house until she arrived and her grandson sees what she had binged him.

This story touched me. For me it was impressive how this old woman had walked that far and that besides all of the obstacles she had encountered in the way she never quit. I liked also how important was for her, her grandson and bringing him such a simple present in Christmas with that appreciation and happiness. This story can teach us all to appreciate all we have and also all of the simple and little tings in life too. Also it teach us that no mater the obstacles in life we never should give up because at the end we would find a prize. Si what I liked the most about this story was what it can teach us and mostly what it teached me.