So you've all probably read "The Other Wes Moore" for Enduring Questions, and we've recently finished "Zami". I immediately noticed some interesting similarities between the two after my reading and today's discussion.
First, the representation and importance of motherhood. For Lorde, her mother is this constant and dominating presence that controls basically every aspect of Lorde's life. Later on in her life, she would come to resent her mother and bear some emotional scars from her childhood. For the two Wes Moore's, their mothers were extremely important as well. However, this was influenced by their fathers: one had died when Moore was very young, the other was absent for nearly his entire life. Therefore both of their mothers worked exceptionally hard and had to rely on family support to help them survive. For Zami, we could say that Lorde's mother shaped her to live her life in a manner that was as dissimilar to her mother as could be. For the two Wes Moore's, their lives were shaped more by their mothers ineffectiveness and their rough environments.
Second, both Lorde and one of the Moore's came from West Indian backgrounds. As we know, Lorde was Grenadan and Moore's mother was Jamaican and Cuban. Moore's mother remarked that upon coming to America that "she studied the other kids at school like an anthropologist, trying desperately to fit in...The melodic, swooping movements of her Jamaican patois was quickly replaced by the more stable cadences of American English." This sort of adaptation for survival upon coming to America was one that we see as the Lorde family learn what it means to be "white", "black" and "colored".
I very much enjoyed Wes Moore, and as it examines in detail certain socio-economic issues and racial ones as well, I hope to analyze the book in depth as it relates to our course readings.
I think that this comparison goes to show just how important all relationships are to those who feel alienated. I think that you make good on comparing two specific instances where the family figures have a direct influence in how we act, and how we grow up. I read Wes Moore when I was a freshmen, and I remember being intrigued by how those contributing elements came to be in the first place. I can't claim to have a great answer, but I think much of it has to do with self-esteem. Just as Wes Moore has positive impacts shape him, he became confident to pursue his passions.
ReplyDeleteI think that we can apply this "theory" across the board from Zami, Cisneros, and (free_ Wheatley. Their individual cirumstances revolve around prejudice and confusion by society. However, some sort of confidence in their abilities as poets contributed to a higher self-esteem to live by their own terms, and to question what is being done to level women to have a voice. They, probably deep inside if not externally, hate society in its discriminatory ways, but do things their way instead of merely accepting their "fate". Indeed, women poets in general, as far we can see with what we've read, seem to have a necessity for survival.
I enjoyed this reading because we see in Zami and The Other Wes Moore that these individuals come to learn about racism through their experiences (what my paper was over). For Zami, the scene where Lorde's mother repeatedly smacks her for crying about losing an election is important because she was repressing racism. She told a young girl to not worry about the election because it is none of their business. Lorde's mother was saying that whites can tale control of politics and that blacks need to not worry about it-just put their heads down and focus on getting out of the slumps. This let Lorde go on living many years before understanding racism from her experiences. As for the other Wes Moore's, their environments and other people in their lives were the ones to repress racism. From my recollection, racism was not a big part of the book, however, it was the two Wes Moore's environments that shaped who they became to be. One fell into the drug game and the typical stereotype, while the other found success outside of the environment that tried to segregate him.
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