“Suffragette”: a different kind of war

I went with a good friend to see the film Suffragette. I think that every student should watch this film in school to see the dedication and sacrifices that so many women made in order to be considered equal, or even as humans. Between 1916-1921, women in Canada gathered to protest and give voice to their cause. Today I am so grateful for their courage and determination. Yet I am reminded that not all women had the right to vote in this country until 1960. That was only 55 years ago!!

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MONqsKlGgLk

The film Suffragette provided several view points on how the movement in the UK did so much damage to so many people. Families torn apart because their mothers were in prison. Men made to feel like an outcast if they didn’t punish their suffragette wives. Men of power who felt powerless to side with the women. And finally those women who fought to the bitter end, just so that they could provide a better future for their daughters, sisters, and friends. These brave women knew that their peaceful protests were getting them nowhere, so they began acts of civil disobedience and destruction.

Source: http://www.saugeentimes.com/15%20y/Walker%20House%20heritage%20dinner%20march%203,%202013/Template.htm

Some of the film was extremely difficult to watch: Seeing innocent women beaten to the ground at peaceful protests, seeing women force-fed milk through tubes up their noses while in jail, seeing the isolation and punishment they received from family and society. Yet they persevered and continued with their cause, even to death for some. The film reenacts Emily Davison’s tragic death at the 1913 Derby when she ran in front of the King’s horse on the track. Her actions brought international attention to the movement.

Here in Canada we also have several women to thank for their bravery and their commitment to making Canada a better place. Of course all Canadians know about the Famous Five. I know I am grateful for the sacrifices all of those women made so that I can be a woman in Canada and have an education, a profession, and the ability to live on my own.

Source: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Canadian_Suffragettes

Currently I am in the middle of reading a collection of short stories written by Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Doctor’s Sweetheart and Other Stories. I think that L.M. Montgomery is one of the champions of Canadian women. She writes about women forced into marriage at a young age. She writes about the social ostracism women faced as ‘old maids’ of 27. She writes about unhappy marriages that were doomed from the beginning. Montgomery saw that the way society treated its women was wrong and I think she sought to make some noise through her writing. I am so grateful that I live in a different time and that I am not controlled by family; instead, I am supported and encouraged in my independence.

Source: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/853995.The_Doctor_s_Sweetheart

The women in our recent history were fighting a different kind of war: societal norms. They were fighting an enemy that couldn’t be seen. Yet they never gave up and they demonstrated that women are people and a valuable part of society. As said in the film, “I would rather be a rebel than a slave.”

Source: http://thefashionarchives.org/?people_and_places=dale-spender

“We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers.” (Emmeline Pankhurst)

“Women who set a low value on themselves make life hard for all women.” (Nellie McClung)

“People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas you have to use big words to express them, haven’t you?” (L.M. Montgomery)

“He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.” (Psalm 146: 7-8)

Source: http://powellriverdailynews.com/2015/08/09/canadian-women-voting-since-1960/

“Rhymes for Young Ghouls”: activism into the classroom

My teaching goal this year has been to include more FNMI (First Nations, Metis, Inuit) literature into my classroom. This has been a fun and exciting adventure because I have been reading a lot of new literature!

In high school and university I don’t think I ever read any works or saw any films created by Canadian Indigenous authors. I even took a Canadian Literature course and a Post-Colonial Literature course. As I have been exploring different texts and speaking with other teachers, we have realized that there is a whole body of work out there that we have inadvertently or purposefully ignored!

Source: http://canadacouncil.ca/council/prizes/find-a-prize/prizes/burt-award-for-first-nations-metisandinuitliterature

So now I am part of a group of teachers brought together to discuss how to get more teachers using FNMI texts in their classes, specifically at the high school level. The conversations we have had and the resources we have shared has helped me a lot. Yet the best part about being a part of this group of teachers is talking about the discourse behind teaching FNMI literature. As teachers we admitted that there were barriers to us teaching FNMI literature: we haven’t read or studied the literature before, we are unsure about the context and the history, and we are worried about how to honour and respect the text and the author. In his book Magic Weapons, Sam McKegney writes from a non-Native perspective on the effects of residential schools in the narratives of three different writers. In his second chapter, “Reading Residential School: Native Literary Theory and the Survival Narrative,” he addresses those exact same hesitations we had as teachers. In the closing lines of his chapter he quotes Daniel Heath Justice–a Cherokee author, activist, and academic–who writes that “thoughtful participation in the decolonization of Indigenous peoples is the necessarily enter into an ethical relationship that requires respect, attentiveness, intellectual rigor, and no small amount of moral courage.” For the teachers in this group, this is exactly how we want to approach teaching FNMI texts in our classrooms!

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/schedule-for-tuesday-sept-2-1.2925685/the-back-of-the-turtle-thomas-king-s-first-literary-fiction-in-15-years-1.2925694

In my quest to learn more about FNMI literature, I have stumbled across some great authors! Richard Wagamese (the novel Indian Horse), Leonard Sumner (the song “They Say” from Rez Poetry), Louise Bernice Halfe/ Sky Dancer (the poetry book Crooked Good), Thomas King (short stories from One Good Story, That One), Lee Maracle (poetry from Bent Box), and Jeannette Armstrong (short stories). The more I read, the more I want to know! One books leads to another book and now I have a list of books waiting to read!

But I am also trying to find films as well. I have had Smoke Signals recommended to me, so that is on the list. The film that I did watch this week was Rhymes for Young Ghouls. What a powerful film! Resiliency, community, adaptation, survival, and hope are some of the positive themes that emerge from this dark film. The film follows the life of Aila, a teenage girl who lives on a Mi’g Maq reservation in 1976 and the story of how the residential school in their area has forever changed the life of everyone who lives in her community. The description of the film says, “Her only options are to run or fight . . . and Mi’g Maq don’t run.”

Source: http://apihtawikosisan.com/2014/06/why-every-canadian-should-be-haunted-by-rhymes-for-young-ghouls/

This film is written, directed, and acted by First Nations people. It is not a retelling of a Native story by Hollywood. In a blog about the film by Chelsea Vowel, she states that this film “utterly rips apart the notion that by beginning to gather an account of the Residential School system we are in any way done the last bit of truth telling we need to undergo in this country.” This film, for me, was eye opening. To see the experiences of life from the perspective of a teenage girl who is struggling to find herself and to help those around her within the complexities that exist in just one reservation in the 1970s was heartbreaking. It was also powerful and transformational. Watching this film was hard and it was painful and it was harsh. The conditions, the trials, the racism, the pain, the suffering, the disconnection was painful to witness, yet I am grateful that movies like this exist. It is important for Canadians to be aware of our past and present and to understand what our fellow Canadians are experiencing.

The dark humour of this film allowed me to look at this time in Canada’s recent past and the experiences of so many people and see the strength in their story telling. There are beautiful moments in the film where family, art, connections to elders, sacrifice, and resilience shine through and give hope to the audience. In his book Magic Weapons, McKegney says that reading Indigenous Literature should bring about more than just understanding and healing; he says that Indigenous Literature needs to bring about activism within community. As a non-Native watching this film, I realize the importance of teaching FNMI texts and of bringing the voices of so many talented writers into my classroom so that the teenagers I teach can become part of a societal, and hopefully national, shift in thinking, leading to activism on behalf of and with our Indigenous brothers and sisters.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu4g4QO5YqI

The film is “taking control of our own voice . . starting to help heal the past trauma that Indigenous people have gone through within North America” (Kawennahere Devery Jacob, CBC Interview).

“Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another” (John 13:34).

“The Homesman”: feminist western

I don’t go out to movies on my own very often, but it seems like there are a few movies I want to see that I know my friends wouldn’t pay money to see. So, I walk down to the theatre and get my ticket and popcorn for one. I’ve seen some good films, and also some duds. What kind of movies? Year of the Dog where a woman tries to change the lives of those around her by bringing the plight of animals to the attention of all who will listen. The Mountie which used the poetry of Robert Service and the beauty of the Yukon to tell the story of a Mountie to rides into town and cleans it up. Also, Meek’s Cutoff where a group in a wagon train decides to follow Meek as a guide and ends with the group hungry, thirsty, and lost in the middle of nowhere with no hope. But one of the best has been The Homesman.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/2014/08/07/must-watch-tommy-lee-jones-stars-directs-in-uk-trailer-for-the-homesman/

Tommy Lee Jones co-writes (adaptation from Glendon Swarthout’s novel), directs, produces, and stars in this film that shows the journey of three women–wives and mothers–who are mentally broken and sent back across the prairie East to their families. The West was not a friendly place for women. Isolation. Hard work. Abusive husbands. Lack of opportunities. Little to no support. These women needed to be strong, psychically, mentally, and emotionally. Yet, what happened to those women who were not able to thrive in the frontier conditions? Tommy Lee Jones shows, in sometimes painful and disturbing ways, the lives of some of these frontier women. Of the three women who are locked up and sent back East, one of them is only 19 and had already had three babies die. And even for the women who did survive in the West, there were little opportunities. The woman who agrees and volunteers to drive these three women across the prairies is 31 years old, single, owns her own land, farms her land, and yet no man will marry her because they want to go back East for a wife. The inequality of power in the West is highlighted in Tommy Lee Jone’s haunting film.

Source: http://nameofthesong.blogspot.ca/2014/09/the-homesman-us-trailer-song-music.html

In an interview about the movie, Hilary Swank (who plays the role of the woman who volunteers to bring the women East) says, “This movie is a feminist movie because it really deals with the objectification and trivialization of women. It takes place in the middle of the 1800s and it’s dealing with issues we still deal with today.” Inequality of power and objectification are major issues in today’s society and the film highlights the destructive nature of that power hierarchy through the lives of three women who go crazy and are sent away to be dealt with. The most striking character is that played by Hilary Swank. Mary Bee Cuddy is constantly being told in the film that she is ‘bossy.’ Her plans to expand her farm and better the quality of her life (like buying a piano) are tolerated by the frontier community of Loup, yet she is not accepted. In at least one scene, she is rejected as a wife because she is bossy and that the man wants to go East to find a proper wife. Mary Bee is intelligent, strong, and lonely. Yet in the West, there is no place for a woman on her own or a strongly independent woman. The men of the West seek to hold onto their power and in some cases use and destroy the women around them in order to assert their power. In her book Captive Bodies: Postcolonial Subjectivity in Cinema, Gwendolyn Audrey Foster writes, “for the moment, the central factor behind the current lack of feminist westerns is best described by B. Ruby Rich: ‘the basic dilemma facing anyone intent on fashioning a mainstream version of the female western is obvious: how to find a way to give women as much power as men’ (22)” (pg 99). In the case of The Homesman, Mary Bee Cuddy has equal opportunities and power on paper, yet in the society in which she lives, she will never been taken seriously.

Source: http://blogs.whatsontv.co.uk/movietalk/page/3/

In an interview, Tommy Lee Jones says his intentions weren’t to make a feminist western, but he does say this: “I’m a humanist, but my grandmother, mother, wife and daughter are all female, and I like those people. I’m a feminist but that is not all I am.” Humanist. Tommy Lee Jones writes a script about power inequality as it relates to women, the mentally ill, and those who do not follow the strict codes set out by society. Clearly this is a film that grapples with issues which Hollywood is eager to take on; the cast includes big names like Tommy Lee Jones, Hilary Swank, James Spader, John Lithgow, Jesse Plemons, William Fichtner, and Meryl Streep. True, the women do not triumph in the film and in the end, the men are the ones with the power and the control over life, yet The Homesman strays from the celebration of male heroism and focuses on the dangers of unchecked discrimination within a society.

Another western that seeks to show that intelligent, independent women did exist in the Wild West is the CBC’s new show Strange Empire. In an attempt to force women into prostitution, a man has his gang kill several men looking to settle near the Alberta-Montana border and blames the murders on the Natives in the area. The show includes a Metis woman who is strong and a capable leader and a female medical doctor from Toronto on a honeymoon gone wrong. As they try to survive and get used to life without their husbands and fathers around, the make-shift town run by these women shows that the power balance can be upended. The show highlights the dangers of a society in which men discriminate and oppress women, Natives, and anyone who is not seeking power and wealth.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/mediacentre/strange-empire.html#.VKSHuCvF-9Y

I truly enjoyed The Homesman because it showed a woman, Mary Bee Cuddy, who was not a tomboy or presented in a masculine way and followed her life as she struggled to survive and thrive in a society and a time in history which was controlled and dominated men. It was not an easy film to watch and seeing it alone left me feeling a little blue, yet I am glad I decided to venture out on my own. Times have changed, yet films like The Homesman remind us that as a society, we have a ways to go before we reach equality.

“Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.” (Arthur C. Clarke)
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/haleyelise/4040072237/?rb=1

“Outlander”: we need a hero

Now that I have some free time before heading back to work, I have all kinds of free time to read.  I have a list of books I would like to read, and even a few books checked out from the library that I should be reading (like the book for my next Book Club meeting).  Yet, I found myself picking up a book I had read before.  Yes, I reread (again) The Outlander this week by Diana Gabaldon.  And right now, I even started reading the second book, Dragonfly in Amber,again.

Source: https://cannonballread4.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/prolixity-juliens-cbr4-reviews-14-19-dragonfly-in-amber-voyager-drums-of-autumn-the-fiery-cross-a-breath-of-snow-and-ashes-an-echo-in-the-bone-by-diana-gabaldon/

Perhaps after almost of a week of being around my favourite people (my family), I wasn’t quite ready to start something new. I still needed some time with the familiar. Apparently this feeling didn’t extend only to books. Tonight, I found myself watching, again, the film Outlander. I love watching movies and reading books with overly perfect heroes, hence why I enjoy the book series and the film so much. That idea of an outlander, of being from away, and then pitching to save the day is something that I admire and like hearing about. There is something about the goodness of humanity in those who are willing to sacrifice and fight alongside strangers. Yet, I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Source: http://www.aclipart.com/quotes/quotes-a-hero-is/

The idea of a hero walking in to save the day is classic! Just think of every Western ever written. Or, Harry Potter. There are countless stories of men and women showing up to save the day for others. One of the best stories I have ever read was during my English Lit undergrad: Beowulf. Beowulf is the ultimate hero! He comes into the area, kills Grendel and Grendel’s mother, saves the day, becomes king, defends his people, and dies slaying a dragon. It doesn’t get better! So as I was watching Outlander with James Caviezel I couldn’t help but make the connection to Beowulf. And, searching Outlander online revealed that the writers were indeed basing their story on that of Beowulf.

Source: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/outlander/images/6713791/title/outlander-movie-wallpaper-wallpaper

I of course read the Seamus Heaney version of Beowulf (as if there was a better translation!) and after 10 years, I can still vividly remember parts of the story and I also remember the joy I got from reading the story. I tried to convince everyone around me that they needed to read this epic poem. Roommates, friends, family members, and especially by brother who loves war stories. I don’t think I was successful, but that joy and excitement was reawakened watching Outlander again tonight.

In the movie, a Moorwen (a dragon-like creature) is brought to earth unknowingly with Kainan as Kainan’s ship lands in Norway in 709 A.D. Just like Grendel in Beowulf, the Moorwen destroys villages in Outlander. I love the description of Grendel and his motivation:
“In off the moors, down through the mist bands / God-cursed Grendel came greedily loping. / The bane of the race of men roamed forth, / hunting for a prey in the high hall. . . . his glee was demonic, / picturing the mayhem: before morning / he would rip life from limb and devour them, / feed on their flesh; but his fate that night / was due to change, his days of ravening had come to an end” (pg 49).

The film makes a nod to the epic poem when Kainan realizes that if they are to defeat the Moorwen, they need better weapons: “When they joined the struggle / there was something they could not have known at the time, / that no blade on earth, nor blacksmith’s art / could ever damage their demon opponent” (pg 53).

One of my favourite parts of the film is when Kainan tries to convince some of the village’s warriors to climb down into the well with him, as it seems that the Moorwen is attacking from the well. Again, I can’t help but relate this episode to what Beowulf goes through. The scene of Beowulf fighting underwater is my favourite fight scene in all of the poem: “Without more ado, he dived into the heaving / depths of the lake. It was the best part of a day / before he could see the solid bottom” (104). It is true that the well does lead to the nest of the Moorwen and Kainan and his new friends are able to defeat the Moorwens and save the day, much like Beowulf’s success under water.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/9423516/Beowulf-and-Iliad-more-plausible-than-Shakespeare.html

We don’t know the exact ending of the story of Kainan, but if the story is anything like Beowulf, we can guess. In Beowulf, “the wide kingdom / reverted to Beowulf. He ruled it well / for fifty winters, grew old and wise / as warden of the land / until one began / to dominate the dark, a dragon on the prowl” (151). In Outlander, we see Kainan become king and his wife, the daughter of the past king that Kainan saves from the Moorwens, believes that Kainan is a god who has chosen to stay with the people. A sacrifice for the good of others from a brave heart. So, I can assume that if we were to follow Kainan to his death, he would die similar to Beowulf: “Beowulf dealt [the dragon] a deadly wound . . . for the king, / this would be the last of his many labours / and triumphs in the world” (183). By dying in killing a dragon to save the people around him, again, Beowulf is a hero by habit!

Source: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/on-screen/Content?oid=999986

One of the things I love most about Beowulf is that within the story, they tell the story. Within the actual events happening, the villagers retell the glorious victories of old, and of Beowulf. Beowulf becomes a legend in his own time and they tell his story for all to hear. So, why do I love rereading and re-watching these stories of heroes? It must have something to do with the satisfaction of seeing good triumph. Of seeing hard work rewarded. Of seeing immediate results of work completed. Of choosing to do something for others, even if it is dangerous. I think right now, we need heroes. We need reminders, both in print and in film, that humans are capable of saving the day. And that sometimes, it’s ok to let others in to fight our battles for us.

“A hero is somebody who understands the responsibility that comes with freedom.” (Bob Dylan)
“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13)

Source: http://www.bandagedear.com/category/pink/6

“The Impossible Knife of Memory”: finding a voice

When high school students want to talk about literature outside of the classroom, that is an exciting moment! This year, along with two other teachers, I am helping to run the school’s Book Club. I find it interesting that the group chose a book with such a strong-voiced protagonist because all I can think of is books like Twilight and the books by Ellen Hopkins. These teenagers must be looking for a voice that they are not able or not confident enough to embody on their own. In The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson, the narrator is 18 year-old Hayley Kincain who lives with her father, an recent veteran of the US Army, and the novel tells the story of surviving high school while living with a father who has PTSD.

Source: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18079527-the-impossible-knife-of-memory

I did enjoy the novel, but I have enjoyed the conversations with the Book Club even more. Some of the members of the Book Club have such sad stories, that they can relate to the miserable life of Hayley Kincain. In the novel, Hayley has blocked a lot of her early childhood memories because they were so volatile and hurtful. For the girls reading this book in the high school, they can relate to the absent father, to the stress of war, to the pain of having a rough childhood full of fighting, and also the heartbreak of wanting friends yet not being able to let others in to their lives. I am continually reminded in my job as a teacher that teenagers are amazing humans beings.

Source: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18079527-the-impossible-knife-of-memory

Yes, I enjoyed the novel and the discussions with the Book Club members, but as I read I kept thinking of the film Hurt Locker. I remember seeing this film; it stayed with me for days. I could not imagine the stress and the trauma that these men and women experienced. I think that is why I enjoyed reading The Impossible Knife of Memory. As much as Hayley tries to suppress her childhood and the bad memories and as much as her father tries to suppress his memories of fighting in war, those memories still surface and do act like a knife, cutting deep into the goodness of life. For me, and I’m sure for many, one of the most haunting scenes in Hurt Locker is when the soldier is back home and is trying to do something as simple as buy cereal. The clip of the scene really is powerful.

Source: https://arcticspecter.wordpress.com/tag/godzilla/

For teens, seeing an example of two people who deal with their horrible memories and the fall-out of those memories allows them to see what could happen in their own lives: the experience of reading the book answers some of their ‘what-if’ questions. Our final discussion on the book is after Christmas Break, and I can’t wait to hear what they thought of the entire novel and it’s significance to their own lives.

Source: https://maclic.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/new-zealand-book-month/

“I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.” (Isaiah 65:17)

“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope.” (Kofi Annan)

Source: http://www.coolnsmart.com/memory_quotes/

B-Listers: stealing the spot light

I am reading To Kill a Mockingbird with my grade 10 classes right now and I’ve overheard and read some pretty great conversations these teens have had about the characters who show up in Maycomb. They are curious about Dolphus Raymond. Who is Mr. Avery? Why is Miss Maudie so nice? What gives Miss Stephanie Crawford the authority to hit her students? I love these conversations. Yes, Jem, Scout, Tom Robinson, Atticus, Mrs. Dubose, and Calpurnia are essential to the story, but what about those characters who intrigue us and make us wonder. What is their story?

Source: http://pixgood.com/dolphus-raymond-to-kill-a-mockingbird.html

I am on the waiting list at the library for Longbourn by Jo Baker, the book about the servants in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. There is something to be said about reading a story and for some reason, getting stuck and fixated on one of the minor characters.

Over the years, I have wondered about the stories behind some of these minor characters and wished that they had appeared more or had a say. Here are a list of some interesting B-list characters.

1.) Uncle Jack, To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee).
Uncle Jack gets schooled on how to parent by Scout. Uncle Jack is such an interesting character. He is obviously a favourite of Scout and Jem, yet what is his story? Why is he still single? Is he seeing anyone? Clearly he wants a family of his own. I like that he was the sibling smart enough to move away from the negative vortex that is Maycomb. Uncle Jack moves to the big city and makes it as a doctor. Unlike Atticus, he knew he needed to move away from the hate and the stubborn traditions of Maycomb. I love when he comes to visit and I wish that he had stayed longer. I’m sure that Scout and Jem and even Atticus felt the exact same way!

Source: https://www.etsy.com/market/best_uncle

2.) Colonel Fitzwilliam, Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen).
In the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice, I always swoon when Fitzwilliam is in the house. What a great guy! Intelligent, witty, sarcastic, attentive, caring, honest, and handsome. Who ends up with Fitzwilliam? He deserves an amazing woman for having to put up with Lady de Bourgh’s antics.

Source: http://www.gonemovies.com/WWW/Drama/Drama/PrideFitzWilliam.asp

3.) Professor McGonagall, Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling).
It’s been a few years since I read this series, but I remember Professor McGonagall being my favourite character. Well, her and Sirus Black. Professor McGonagall was fair yet strict. You knew her boundaries, and you also knew you could count on her if you were in a tough situation. She was compassionate and believed in justice. Yet I can’t help but wonder, what is her story? Where did she grow up? How did she become a professor? What lead her to stay at Hogwarts? So many questions. I’ll have to go back and reread the series again because the movies do not do her justice!

Source: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Minerva_McGonagall’s_wand

4.) Bard, The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien).
While reading The Hobbit with my gr 7 class, they were enraged that a seeming no-name was the one to kill Smaug. After Bilbo’s amazing adventure and transformation, they felt cheated that Bard was the one to save the day. Who is this Bard character and where did he come from? What was Tolkein’s inspiration and how did Bard fit into the world of The Lord of the Rings?

Source: http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Bard_the_Bowman

5.) Sandy, The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton).
Oh Sandy. She broke the heart-breaker’s heart. Soda and Sandy. While Ponyboy is dealing with some heavy things, Soda is having relationship issues with Sandy. He writes her letters. He wants to marry her. Yes, she is pregnant with someone else’s baby, but Soda’s love is true. Ahhh. But what is Sandy’s story? Who are her parents? How does she interact with the boys? What happened to her and her baby?

Source: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/the-outsiders/picks/results/937491/think-sodapop-sandy-would-cute-didnt-pregnant-left-florida

6.) Donalbain, Macbeth (William Shakespeare).
Off to Ireland will I. But, what happens in Ireland? At the beginning of Macbeth the Irish are attacking Scotland, so how does Donalbain fair on the Emerald Isle? Is he hanging out with Fleance? Does he come back once his brother is King? What role does he take on? Why is he even included??

Source: https://antaeuscompany.wordpress.com/tag/armin-shimerman/

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.” (1 Peter 5:6)
“Respect your characters, even the ­minor ones. In art, as in life, everyone is the hero of their own particular story; it is worth thinking about what your minor characters’ stories are, even though they may intersect only slightly with your protagonist’s.” (Sarah Waters)

Source: http://cutlipdesigns.blogspot.ca/2010/07/cutlip-wins-pampered-puppy-photo.html

“Small Island”: determined to hope

I love to dance. Throw in a celebration like my dearest’s cousin’s wedding and I am on the dance floor! My cousin married into a Jamaican-British family and the dance at their wedding was so much fun. One person starts a move and people learn and dance as they go. Then, someone else would jump in and give a new move. Perhaps it is not something done a lot in Jamaica (I have no way of knowing), but the Jamaicans I was around that night sure knew how to move!

As I was reading Small Island by Andrea Levy I couldn’t help but think of my cousin’s new in-laws and if their family were treated the same way as the Jamaicans in London during and after WWII.

Source: http://lucy-stuffedshelves.blogspot.ca/2013/05/defending-bernard-bligh.html

Throughout the novel, Levy writes from the perspective of four individuals and how they become part of each other’s lives all because of WWII. Queenie and her husband Bernard live in London. When Bernard goes off to fight for England in WWII, Queenie starts to take in renters to make ends meet, and also to feel less alone. Hortense and her husband Gilbert move to England from Jamaica after the war, where Gilbert went to fight alongside the British and the Canadians.

Source: http://secrethistoriesproject.tumblr.com/post/35474814818/7-colony-troops-wwi-and-wii

As I’m sure you can predict, London is not so welcome to anyone but the British after the war. For Gilbert and his new wife, life is very hard. People ignore them. People stare at them. Children run up to touch them. People mock them and yell at them. People humiliate them. People treat that worse than animals. All of this for a man, and his wife, who fought alongside the same men who now turn him away from work. Yet Levy includes a few moments of hope: an elderly woman picks up Gilbert’s dropped glove, has a conversation with him and then offers him a candy; Queenie welcomes both Gilbert and Hortense into her house and begins a genuine friendship with them.

I have to admit, I watched the BBC adaptation before reading the book. The story was so interesting and new that I couldn’t help but find the book.

In both the BBC adaptation and in the novel, there are a few things that have stuck in my mind.

1.) Optimism. Even after being denied so much, the characters in the novel, specifically Gilbert the young Jamaican RAF veteran, still maintain hope for a better life. They take the insults and the punches and they continue to make a life in England.

2.) Acceptance. Throughout the entire story, Queenie, the London wife left alone during the war, accepts the Jamaicans that land on her door step. She will speak with these West Indies men in the street. She will go to the shops with her Jamaican border. She even has an affair with a Jamaican man.

3.) Telling a forgotten story. I’m from Canada and we love to tell stories about how great we are, and we are pretty great. Yet, Canada has a lot of things that should make all Canadians enrages. Things like internment camps, legalized racism when it comes to real estate, using race as a wage determiner, barring certain races and religions from immigrating, and pretty much every Treaty and deal with the First Nations since the 1800s into the present day. That is why I appreciate Levy’s story. It doesn’t gloss over the racism and resistance during WWII and just after in England toward different cultures, specifically those from Jamaica.

4.) Realizations. Hortense dreams of moving to England. She spends her whole life studying England and everything about it: how to cook, geography, production, exports, shops, history, and language. Her dreams are shattered once she realizes that the country she has dreamed of is dirty, ill-spoken, and rude. Yet she decides to stay and make the best of her new life. Just as the immigrants who came before her, Hortense realized that expectations aren’t always reality.

“Why you wan’ the whole world when ya have a likkle piece a hope here? Stay. Stay and fight, man. Fight till you look ‘pon what you wan’ see.” (Andrea Levy)

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” (Romans 12:12)

Source: http://tariqmcom.com/best-hope-quotes-dont-look-back-in-regret-but-move-on-with-hope/

Detachment: seeing the line

It’s that strange time of year in “Teacher Land” where numbers of students are weighed against a shrinking budget. This weird time of year is a time of uncertainty for many teachers who do not have a permanent position, and also for those who do have a permanent position but were the last ones into the school, because the numbers don’t add up, meaning that teachers will not be returning in the Fall. Besides just being a time of uncertainty and awkward conversations, it is also a time of reflection on the profession of teaching.

Source: moviebuzzers.com/interviews/adrien-brody-talks-predators-roundtable-interview-detachment

It seems fitting that during this bizarre time at work and reflecting on my own practice and experiences teaching that I stumbled upon Tony Kaye’s film Detachment with Adrien Brody. I know that teaching is a job. It is a career and a profession that requires constant reflection and development. Yet, although at times I hate to admit this, it is so much more. One of the lines that stood out in the film was spoken by the main character Mr. Barthes, played by Adien Brody, who is substitute teaching in a school plagued with apathy: “We have such a responsibility to guide our young so that they don’t end up falling apart, falling by the wayside, becoming insignificant.”

There a lot of films about teaching (Dangerous Minds, Mona Lisa Smile, Bad Teacher, To Sir with Love, Freedom Writers, Sister Act II), yet I believe that Detachment gets teaching. Yes, it is important that students learn skills and content that will allow them to meet the Curriculum outcomes, yet it is so important as a teacher to see students. Yes, in all the films I mentioned they show the importance of building relationships with students and the difference that a caring teacher can have in the lives of students, yet what I liked about Detachment was that it showed more of the picture. Students don’t become invisible on their own.

Source: omfgthelife.tumblr.com/post/22836439654/adrien-brody-as-henry-barthes-talks-about

In an awkwardly haunting and familiar scene, the teachers are all present one evening for “Parent Night.” The teachers reminisce about how years previous the halls were packed on “Parent Night,” which is a stark contrast to the handful, if that, of parents who show up in the film. As one teacher notes, “I was in my room for 2 hours and saw one parent. Where are they? Where is everybody? It’s uncanny, no air raid sirens, no bombs. It doesn’t happen that way. It starts with a whisper, and then nothing.”

“It starts with a whisper.” How true. I’ve been reading Fahrenheit 451 with my Gr 12 English class and trying to instill in them the importance of books, of ideas, of imagination, and of free thought. Just as Mr. Barthes in the film, I feel like I am teaching a lesson that shouldn’t need to be taught.

Source: http://dukeofdefinition.com/451.htm

Too often the role of parent, counselor, mentor, and healer falls onto teachers, and unfairly so. In the film, the lives of the teachers show the consequences of living to teach instead of teaching to live. I believe that it is easy to fall into the trap of becoming “Super Teacher” out to save every student. Yet, I don’t think it’s always about the best bulletin board decorations, the most marked assignments, or the extremely detailed report card comments. Teaching is about encouraging imagination and fostering understanding. It is about assessing skills and being kind to students. To see a student can become a genuine reaction that gets lost in the content of the course. As Chase Mielke says in his blog “What Students Really Need to Hear,” “The main event is learning how to deal with the harshness of life when it gets difficult.”

Detachment. Detachment can be healthy or it can be unknowingly devastating. I believe that the good teachers, the teachers who get it, are the ones who can detach at the right times and in the right places. They are the teachers who see their students, but make it a priority to also see themselves.

When asked in an interview with Eric Larnick how has working on the film affected Brody’s view of the American education system, here is how Adrien Brody responded:

I think this is about enforcing that education has to stem from the home, before the school system. You can’t expect the teacher to just take on the responsibility of the parent, you have to be the parent. You have to be accountable; I know it’s a tall order with financial problems and personal problems, and overcoming the pain from the neglect we had as children. But you got to work against perpetuating that, and that’s how the film spoke to me.

Source: http://news.moviefone.ca/2012/03/16/adrien-brody-interview-detachment-pianist-snl/

As I sit here writing this blog instead of marking or making my lunch for the school day tomorrow, I am left with a feeling of hope. There are parents and teachers who see the teenagers around them. There are people in this world who are curious, who are questioning, who are imagining, and who are rebelling. We just need to take a moment to see them.

There should be more encouragement and support for young developing minds and it shouldn’t just be thrust on a public school teacher. (Adrien Brody)
Point your kids in the right direction—when they’re old they won’t be lost. (Proverbs 22:6)

Source: http://rebloggy.com/post/photography-drawing-art-light-mine-quote-true-draw-creative-dark-good-colorful-t/46093076123

International Women’s Day: equality on the screen

Last weekend I saturated myself with 1980s futuristic dystopian films hoping to find a film I could show in my English class to pair with the play “Frankenstein” by Alden Nowlan. I watched (for the first time) 1987’s Robocop, directed by Paul Verhoeven; 1984’s Terminator, directed by James Cameron; and 1982’s Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott. For me the clear winner was Robocop (although I didn’t show it to my class because of the unnecessary amount of F-Bombs and a crack-snorting scene)! Why was it the winner? Because according to the writers, actors, directors and movie goers of 1987, it is completely plausible that in an action film females can actually be equals with male co-actors.

(Robocop and his partner Lewis)
Source: dvdactive.com/reviews/dvd/robocop.html

As a new fan of Robocop I was upset to learn that the new Robocop (2014) has changed Lewis from a woman to a man. Why? BUT WHY?

(Anne vs. Jack)
Source: http://screenrant.com/robocop-2014-movie-remake-vs-original/

After a week of simmering and wondering, especially thinking about International Women’s Day and what that means to me, I couldn’t help but ask BUY WHY? Is the only role for women in action films to be either the Femme Fatale or the Damsel in Distress? BUT WHY can’t we have intelligent, tough, and relatable women in action films? To be fair, Blade Runner and Terminator didn’t do any better (so not all movies from the 1980s are perfect [what??]). I suppose that is why I loved Robocop and the positive role model in Anne Lewis. But will we really have to wait until 2043 until we can start to see women portrayed on the screen as equals to their male action film co-stars?

In her blog “Action Movies and Gender Roles,” Julie Clawson asks this same question. As she notes about most action movies, female characters “add some emotional content to the plot, stretch the story a bit, but mostly serve as eye-candy.” Again, I come back to Robocop because Anne Lewis was none of these things. She was a police office, a partner, an equal, and she was not there to add emotional content to the story. She was there to be Anne Lewis: kick-butt cop who didn’t need to put on her makeup or skin-tight leather suit before putting on her bullet-proof vest.

I think that phrase YOU CAN’T BE WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE is true. This plain fact is why I have been thinking of Robocop all week. In Anne Lewis and the world of Robocop we have an image of a world where genders are equal. We need more women on screen and in books who take on the role of hero, regardless of the outfit, the makeup, the hair style, the body shape, and the sexual orientation. Really, that is the goal of Feminism: equality for all.

So I will continue to spread the good word about Robocop and Anne Lewis, although not as a film study in the classroom.

Source: http://365give.ca/day-160-100th-anniversary-of-international-womens-day/

“I believe that it is as much a right and duty for women to do something with their lives as for men and we are not going to be satisfied with such frivolous parts as you give us.” (Louisa May Alcott)

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

Source: http://www.pattersonhs.com/pattersonpress/2013/01/opinion-women-still-face-discrimination-stereotypes/gender-equality-illustration/

“Three Day Road”: angel in the house

I really enjoyed reading Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden. The writing and the weaving and layering of time delighted me as a reader. I love Boyden’s style.

Source: cbc.ca

I bought the book at a used book store in Edmonton with my independent and feminist sister. I describe her in this way because when I finished reading Three Day Road I was left with some heavy ideas, one being about the “Angel in the House,” hence my excitement that I bought the book with my sister.

As always, there is a connection. I promise!

I finished reading the novel earlier this week and I also happened to watch the film The Hours directed by Stephen Daldry the next day (a film that follows the lives of three women in different time periods). There is a lot you could say and write about Three Day Road (like what exactly is the significance of the fat German cat that sleeps with Elijah in No-Man’s Land after Elijah brutally kills some German Officers and hears his Aunt’s voice), yet, after watching The Hours, I am left with thoughts about the Angel in the House.

Source: fanpop.com

In her essay “Professions for Women,” Virginia Woolf writes about this very idea of the Angel in the House:

She was intensely sympathetic. She was immensely charming. She was utterly unselfish. She excelled in the difficult arts of family life. She sacrificed herself daily. If there was chicken, she took the leg; if there was a draught she sat in it–in short she was so constituted that she never had a mind or a wish of her own, but preferred to sympathize always with the minds and wishes of others. Above all–I need not say it—she was pure. Her purity was supposed to be her chief beauty–her blushes, her great grace. In those days–the last of Queen Victoria–every house had its Angel.
Source: http://s.spachman.tripod.com/Woolf/professions.htm

In both Three Day Road and in The Hours the Angel in the House showed up!

In Three Day Road, Xavier Bird is a Cree man off fighting for the Canadians during WWI with his Cree friend/brother Elijah Whiskeyjack. While in France, the men are on a leave from the front lines and they end up at a pub run by a local farmer. Xavier immediately notices the daughter (Lisette) of the bar keeper and can’t stop thinking about her: “She’s shy like me and is thin with long hair that she wears on the top of her head. Elijah notices her too, and I feel a sharp sting when he sees me notice her and then boldly approaches her” (155). Elijah notices his friend’s interest in the young French woman and arranges (using money) to have her befriend and seduce Xavier. After their seemingly genuine encounter, Xavier cannot stop thinking about Lisette. Lisette becomes Xavier’s angel. He uses his thoughts about her to contrast the horrors of war: “I miss the girl called Lisette, the one with hair blonde like I’ve not seen hair before. I fight the urge to begin walking north the thirty-five miles or so to see her. I’ve actually worked it out over and over in my head. I can walk the distance overnight, spend the day with her, and walk back the next. I would probably not be missed if I were to do it” (241). In the end Xavier finds out that Lisette is not as good and pure as he thought (252), so his image of his angel is shattered.

This idea of women being thought of as angels during times of war was also present in The Hours. One of the story lines in the film shows the lives of Dan, a war veteran, and Laura, a house wife, in 1949. Dan was in the army and used memories of Laura from high school to help him cope with his experiences during the war. At dinner one night after the war, Dan explains to his son how thoughts about the ideal Laura helped him in the war: “The thought of this life, that’s what kept me going. I had an idea of our happiness.” Just as Lisette in Three Day Road, Laura is not an angel. She is an independent, intelligent woman who realizes that if she stays in her ideal life with Dan she will kill herself. In fact, at the end of the film, when she is an older woman and is at the funeral of her adult son, she tells her son’s friend why she left her family: “It would be wonderful to say you regretted it. It would be easy. But what does it mean? What does it mean to regret when you have no choice? It’s what you can bear. There it is. No one’s going to forgive me. It was death. I chose life.”

In both stories, the Angel of the House turned out to be human. Or in the case of Three Day Road a woman willing to sell her body to survive a war and in The Hours a woman willing to give up her family in order to save her own life. In either case, neither women are pure. Just as Virgina Woolf had to “kill” the Angel of the House in order to become a successful writer, so too did these women have to kill the Angel in order to be independent and fully themselves. In her essay, Woolf writes, “Had I not killed her [the Angel] she would have killed me. She would have plucked the heart out of my writing. For, as I found, directly I put pen to paper, you cannot review even a novel without having a mind of your own, without expressing what you think to be the truth about human relations, morality, sex. And all these questions, according to the Angel of the House, cannot be dealt with freely and openly by women; they must charm, they must conciliate, they must–to put it bluntly–tell lies if they are to succeed.” In Three Day Road and in The Hours both Lisette and Laura decide not to become a lie and do what is best for them, even though they do end up challenging society’s ideals in a very real way (especially for the men they leave behind).

Source: cabinetmagazine.org

So now back to my sister. My sister has always been her own person. She does not want to fit in society’s ideals or stereotypes. That being said, I didn’t mention one of the most powerful characters in Three Day Road: Niska, Xavier’s Auntie. I think that while reading this book I was in good company. I had the stories of two independent women–my sister and the character Niska– to challenge and inspire me.

Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. (Galatians 5:1)

Source: quotesnsmiles.com