L12_tomj’s Comments (group member since Sep 30, 2025)

L12_tomj’s comments from the PJCC Multicultural Voices ELA course group.

In "Jing-Mei Woo," how is Jing-Mei’s relationship with her mother initially characterized? Point to dialogue, descriptions, or incidents (such as the piano lessons, the argument about being a prodigy, or the matchmaking) that reveal tension, expectation, or misunderstanding.

In "Feathers from a Thousand Li Away," what is the significance of the feathers and the act of sewing them into the narrator’s clothing? Cite passages that show how the narrator interprets the feathers and the intentions of the woman who gives them.

In "Feathers from a Thousand Li Away," how does the narrator describe the transformation of the old woman who becomes the "adopted" mother figure? Identify specific lines that reveal her physical appearance, actions, and the narrator’s attitude toward her. How do these details contribute to the narrator’s understanding of maternal care?

Every author whether it's in an online internet journalism article, a magazine, history text, or in a novel and poem makes choices in language, development of themes, imagery, character and plot, or even organization of piece of literature in terms of length of chapters. Instead of lengthy chapters of 25 to 30 pages each, Sandra Cisneros decided to tell her story of community, growing up, and the shackles of poverty in a Latino neighborhood through small "vignettes". Why did she make this choice? What impact does short vignettes have on the reader's interest in her storytelling of Esperanza's experience in a Latino neighborhood? How does Cisneros' words create a voice for Esperanza, her family & friends, and even the neighborhood? What are some examples of Sandra Cisneros using literary devices: imagery, off rhymes, and personification (giving inanimate objects human characteristics) do breathe life and paint a picture of her Chicago Latino neighborhood? What's the effect on you the reader and in the development of her story?

As we read The House on Mango Street, Esperanza, the main character in the novel, goes from child to preteen to a full blown young teenaged girl. Write about a scene from one of the vignettes for each of these stages of development: child, preteen, and young teenager, which best illustrates how she is growing as person? How does author Sandra Cisneros describe and paint a picture of Esperanza's fears and aspirations for each of these stages of human development?

Author Sandra Cisneros has many characters in her short novel; family members, neighbors, and the multitude of funny, odd, and scary people that inhabit her Latino neighborhood, but she also introduces to the reader physical objects as examples of characters in her book. Write about three places and things that she breathes life into through her words to create characters in the book? What does she think about these places and objects as it relates to her aspirations?

Well put and a great example Anthony in the Irish population and the potato famine of why they left Ireland in 1848 to look for a better economic opportunities in the United States. What were the five myths of United Immigration. It will be found in Professor John O'Donnell's "Multiculturalism in the United States" video in which there is a link in this Goodreads group.

You can just write five short sentences explaining the 5 myths.

Well thought out analysis to the question on why does this ongoing tragic systemic violence go on without much analysis. I believe is well put that television and internet media is much about painting broad strokes on marginalized groups in the United States rather than have genuine and deep digging journalism on what are the root causes for these problems. You are right on mark that small things like how Brother Man was not acknowledged by Riley resulted in a resentment that ended up in senseless violence between. Even worse, the police's only answer to said violence amongst Riley and BrotherMan was to shoot them dead. The shoot first and ask questions later is part-n-parcel of the experience of any minority community.

The author seems to understand that Americans whether black or white have learned to be immune to systemic violence. She wishes like the character Penny she could just wish it away, and the violence of white police officers on black citizens and black on black crime would disappear. The legacy is that these killings and police brutality are cyclic in nature and there seems to be no end. The author doesn't seem to believe there is an answer to systemic violence on and between blacks in America. The fact that the author, Nafissa Thompson-Spires doesn't even take the time in the novel to explain exactly how Riley and Brother Man exchanged violent blows and how the police shot them both indicates she doesn't need to explain. Her African-American readers and really all groups in America already know what the outcomes will be; what's left is chalk lines and yellow police tape around the victims. No need for her as a young African-American writers to apologize for her anger or not illustrating the crimes between the two characters or the police on Brother Man and Riley. The outcomes are preordained, and that's the disturbing part of this story is that the ending is already known, so why write about it? That's the tragedy in this short story.

No apology. I’m reminded of something from Toni Morrison that I read years ago after I’d read Beloved—a book that transformed my understanding of African-American history and my understanding of the power of fiction to communicate what facts, statistics, and dates alone cannot. Morrison said she wanted to write without explaining things to white readers, that she wanted to write without apology, that she was writing to and for an African-American audience. Thompson-Spires continues that effort in this collection.

But also, of course, “no apology” has more than one interpretation. It speaks to how little has ever gone in the other direction—from white to black—for the hundreds of years of slavery, for mass incarcerations, for the lack of justice for unlawful shootings/killings of black citizens. In the opening story, anger simmers in the subtext of the fancy sketches; it rises through the two chalk outlines, and spills over in the final paragraph:

“But I couldn’t draw the bodies while the heads talked over me, and the mosaic formed in blood, and what is a sketch but a chalk outline done in pencil or words? And what is a black network narrative but the story of one degree of separation, of sketching the same pain over and over, wading through so much flesh trying to draw new conclusions, knowing that wishing would not make them so?”

Heads of the Colored PeopleThere is a clear anger here from the voice of the character about the rampant destruction of black lives from white police, but also there is anger between the two black main characters that also spills into violence. What is the legacy of white on black violence and black on black violence within the African-American society? Why does this violence go unabaited and seemingly unnoticed by blacks and whites within that world?

After watching Historian John O'Donnell's discussion of the United States immigrant exprience, answer these questions on Goodreads. Write one paragraph or 8 sentences for each question, and then respond to two other peers.

1. What is meant by "push and pull" theory of immigration/migration? Provide one example of this theory applying to a specific immigration or migrant group in the United States.

2. What are the five myths of U.S. Immigration? define eachin one paragraph again in five sentences to two other peers.