No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies

  When reading No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies, I was drawn to how the different stories and poems are included that amplify those words, creating a timeless piece that calls for action. One story that I found these ideas to be prevalent in is “My Mother’s Bamboo Bracelets: A Handful of Lessons on Saving the World”. By including this story, two works of the past are amplified. The first is the story of the women and how they were able to come together to save the island. When the island needed saving “the women would weave a giant net from their long black hair” (Aguon, 15). This was the beginning of the plan that eventually helped the community to bring the fish ashore. Aguon says that this story has been passed down for generations - it is a story of generations past. However, by including it in the book, the generational story that may have only reached a few people now will reach thousands more. Therefore, it is amplified and a timelessness is created because it will impact current and future readers. The story is no longer bound to its verbal retelling - it can now reach audiences far and wide. Additionally, Auguon notes that this was a speech they gave at a law school commencement. This, again, is an example of a story that was conveyed orally but now is written down. Therefore, their speech is given the element of amplification because it will reach a wider audience, and timelessness because it will affect people far into the future.

It is interesting to consider how time operates in short stories like this one. In a book trying to enact change, it is important to offer advice to push readers to enact the desired change. Therefore, the author must write with the understanding that they need to affect future readers enough that will cause them to act. The lessons presented in “My Mother’s Bamboo Bracelets” does this through the inclusion of Aguon’s own takeaways from the story about the fish. Aguon lays out lessons to be learned such as, “it is strength, not power, that must be the object of our affection” (Aguon, 17). Meaning we must learn to persevere and work together to accomplish things instead of trying to be the most powerful. By including these lessons, Aguon is telling readers what is important and what they should try to include in their own life. In a book such as this, where Aguon wants to spark action, giving readers takeaways is a helpful inclusion because it directly impacts all future readers with very little room for interpretation about the messages in the book. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hamilton

  Will Pikus             Lin Manuel Miranda’s play “Hamilton” took Broadway by storm when it was released. Personally, I remember my parents looking into getting tickets for the show. We all realized it wasn’t worth it since tickets were over eight-hundred dollars per person. The play itself also struck me as kind of strange. I questioned why everyone was getting so excited over the ethnically swapped show. One character within the show was especially strange. King George is right where he was supposed to be the entire time. The tyrannical King is laughing maniacally after each of his songs about how “You’ll Be Back”. While this is likely an accurate depiction of King George, one big question comes to mind. Why is he still white?             As a student brought up last class, why was Hamilton’s story choses by Miranda? It’s one of the oldest whitest stories in th...
Read more

Woodson, Literature, and Social Justice

  Katie Roessel 21st Century Lit. and Time Oct. 25th 2022 Woodson, Literature, and Social Justice Jacqueline Woodson’s “brown girl dreaming” is a memoir written entirely in poems, describing her life as a black Jehovah’s Witness growing up in the south during the 1960s and 1970s. In the beginning of the novel, in the poem “the beginning,” she writes of the beginning of her literacy journey. It was then when she asked her sister “Will the words end.” Her sister replies “Nope,” promising Woodson “infinity.” Woodson, through the description of her own life, portrays the idea that the whole world can be found through written words.           This idea of the infinite world of literature brings to my mind the written works of social justice figures throughout modern history. I think about the words of Martin Luther King Jr. in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. I think about the written speeches of Malcolm X. I think about Nelson Mandela’s various essays. I...
Read more

A Tale for the Time Being – "to live"

In the final third of Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being, old Jiko gives Nao and her father a seemingly simple – yet to them, a difficult – task: “to live” (362). While her final request to her descendants affects them deeply because of their suicidal ideations, it is also Jiko’s final comment on Zen Bhuddism. In the practice of Zen, one must be rather than think about being in order to truly be alive, so, Jiko’s request of Nao and Haruki #2 tells them to stop worrying, stop planning, stop thinking – just to live. Neither Nao or Haruki #2 actively lived in the moment before Jiko’s death, instead, they planned for the moment they would cease being. After her death, reporters, priests, and those who admired Jiko assumed that the meaning of her final writing, just the singular character for the phrase “to live,” was complex, deep, and mysterious. However, Nao and Haruki #2 are the only ones who understood the true intention of her final word. She simply tells them to be alive. By doing s...
Read more