Putting Texts in Conversation
Compare “Invierno” to “Persimmons.” Choose specific ideas, themes, or patterns, and consider how they are treated in the two texts. How do the two texts relate to each other? Put the two texts in conversation. How does one author’s idea complicate, add to, or intersect with the ideas of the other author? In your response, include at least one quote from each piece. Post your response in the Comments section. Then respond to a classmate's post.
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"Invierno" by Junot Diaz and "Persimmons" by Li-Young Lee both have the same theme of something being lost. At one point of the story, Yunior had no choice or say wheter he was to go bald since he father forced him to. When Yunior says, " We threw snowballs at the sliding cars and once I removed my cap justto feel the snoflakes scatter across my cold, har scalp." This is to show that Yunior has lost his hair which was something he had from when he was in Santo Domingo. When Yunior, his brothr, and mother were looking at the sea it showed a sense a freedom and what they lost in their pas lives but had to move on. The sea looked as if it was their only way back to Santo Domingo o go back to the life they had. Li-Young Lee also uses the same theme as Diaz by using many references to permissions to show what he has lost. Lee is remembering about his life in sixth grade where the teacher would say "Chinese apple" but he knew it was called persimmons and was not prepared properly which he didn't partake of any. He says, I rummage, looking for something I lost." As he moved to America he began to forget his own language and culture that he visits his father just to get a feel of what it is like to be Chinese again. His father says, "Some things never leave a person: scent of the hair of one you love, the texture of permissions, in your palm, the ripe weight." This statement proves that Lee never forgotten about persimmons and always remembered how it felt, smelled and tasted. These two stories are related because it shows how Diaz and Lee lost something that was once in their homeland.
ReplyDelete“Invierno” by Junot Diaz and “Persimmons” by Li-Young Lee have some similarities. Both the poem and story are about people from different cultures and ethnicities coming to America. In “Invierno” we are told a story about a boy who comes to the Unites States with his brother, mother, and father. The author mentions the difficulty that Yunior and his mother have while trying to adapt to their new home. Both of them have hopes of going back to Santo Domingo. “Persimmons” is a poem about someone trying to connect once again with their culture. The voice of the poem is reminiscing about things that happened to him in the past. He starts talking about things that happened to him in sixth grade and about his parents. The voice makes many comparisons to the persimmons throughout the poem. Both the poem and story tell us the difficulty that people have to face once they come to a new country and what happens after they are in that country for a while. For example, in the poem the voice is trying to teach someone else Chinese but does not know all of the words. He says “I teach her Chinese. Crickets: chiu chiu. Dew: I’ve forgotten. Naked: I’ve forgotten. Ni, Wo: you and me.” This shows that the voice has been in America for a while now, and wants to connect to his culture. In “Invierno” we are showed what happens to many people when they first arrive to a new country. The reader can see how difficult it is for the mother and son to adjust to the new place they will be calling home. They have to adjust to the culture, temperature, etc. “I know more than you, I said. Papi had never once mentioned going back to the Island. I waited to get him in a good mood, after he had watched Abbott and Costello, and asked him if he thought we would be going back soon.” This is an example of Yunior being homesick. Yunior wants to go back to his country but the father says no. Both the poem and story show us how people can be nostalgic when they move in to a new place, country, etc.
ReplyDelete“Invierno” by Junot Diaz is about the narrator, Yunior and his family leaving their home country and now living in The United States. “Persimmons” by Li-Young Lee is about how Chinese culture is important to the speaker’s life and how it doesn’t show so much living in The United States. They both deal with changes that bring an uncomfortable feeling. They both desire to have what they use to have but it is being lost. In “Invierno”, Yunior and his mother wish to go back to the Island and live their old life again. Yunior says, “If this is the United States, mail me home.” He doesn’t like the fact that he’s living inside all isolated and cold. He would rather be back home where he can go out and interact with his people. In “Persimmons”, Lee is describing his memories and how he found his culture to be important to him. He says “I rummage, looking for something I lost” what he is looking for is the culture that is being lost in his life. But towards the end he came to realize that “Some things never leave a person” and it is seen through his father as well that he never got discouraged to paint after becoming blind. Not only does Lee follow that but Yunior can be considered to follow that quote as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the quote "some things never leave a person" apply to both "Invierno" and "Persimmons". Both of their cultures were deeply rooted in them, they might forgotten about it but it will always stay inside them. However I think at the end, when Yunior removed his cap, it represented he's ready to move on and at the same time keeping his culture in heart.
Delete“Invierno” by Junot Diaz and “Persimmons” by Li-Young Lee are related because they both talk about culture and how those cultures can change. In the short story “Invierno” we meet a family who recently moved from the Dominican Republic to the United States. Throughout the story we see how the family struggled to adapt to their new home and how their attitudes changed towards one another. “Rafa’s temper got worse… we fought and fought and fought and after my mother pried us apart, instead of making up like the old days, we sat scowling on opposite sides of our room and planned each other’s demise”. Because they were cooped up inside all the time, little things set them over the edge. The vast change in temperatures inadvertently caused their “culture” to change. They were used to playing outside all the time but they couldn’t do that in their new home. In the poem “Persimmons” the narrator eludes to his change of culture when he was trying to teach Donna some Chinese words. “I teach her Chinese. Crickets: chiu chiu. Dew: I’ve forgotten. Naked: I’ve forgotten. Ni, wo: you and me”. He forgets how to say those words in Chinese when he was getting Donna to “part her legs”. His attraction to Donna symbolizes his dis-attachment to his own culture.
ReplyDelete- Mobolaji A.
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ReplyDelete"Invierno", a short story written by Junot Diaz, the narrative illustrated the change of his family when they moved from Santo Domingo to New Jersey. Also he portrayed the hardship that he and his family had to face in a new environment. "Persimmons" by Li-Young Lee, the author used persimmons to symbolize his Chinese Culture. He is a Chinese American who had adapted the American culture, and one day realized that he had forgotten his own culture.
ReplyDeleteBoth "Invierno" and "Persimmons" are related to the topic of culture. Yunior in "Invierno" was trying very hard to adapt to the American culture- the language, the environment, the attitude and the weather. He didn't think United States is his home; his home is all the way back in Santo Domingo. “My brother was usually an animal but in my father's house he had turned into some kind of muchacho bueno." Yunior did not call the new apartment "home" but instead he said "father's house". It is difficult for him to consider himself as an American; however he has to move on. At the end “I removed my cap just to feel the snowflakes scatter across my cold, hard scalp.” When he removed the hat, he is ready to move on in this new page of his life. Throughout the story, the author purposely placed the Spanish words in the dialogue, it showed that his culture remain deeply rooted in him.
In the poetry “Persimmons”, persimmons symbolize the author’s culture, love, hope and the past. “My mother said every persimmon has a sun inside, something golden, glowing, warm as my face.” The sun inside the persimmon represented his family, his loved one and his memory. “I gave him the persimmons, swelled, heavy as sadness, and sweet as love.” I think the action of giving away the persimmons represents a culture change, he adapted to the American culture. “This year, in the muddy lighting of my parents’ cellar, I rummage, looking for something I lost.” After years, he finally realized the thing that he had given up/ the important things that slipped away from his life. His culture shaped him and made who he is today. When he answered “This is persimmons, father”, creating a bond between himself and his culture. Even though the author left his culture behind, he didn’t realized his culture is part of him, which he cannot separated from. The idea is similar to the author of “Invierno” , your culture lives inside you.
If anyone travels to a foreign country the most difficult about that country must be trying to travel around and trying to speak the language. Now imagine going to a foreign country and started living there, that means you won’t see your friends anymore, you won’t be in the same house, and you won’t see the same people. "Invierno" by Junot Diaz and "Persimmons" by Li-Young Lee, both share their experience of the struggle learning the new language and the new people, they also express in some particular way that they missed their home country.
ReplyDeleteIn “Invierno” the children Rafa and Yunior have troubles speaking the new language. It is shown in this example “Just tell me, she said, and when we pronounced the words slowly, forming huge, lazy soap bubbles of sound, she never could duplicate them. Her lips seemed tug apart even the simplest vowels.” This example shows that speaking the language is really difficult, and in addition since spanish and english are both similar. The children will get confused in the writing and reading because the words and sounds are very similar in English and Spanish. Diaz writes many words in spanish such as “Papi”, “Invierno” , ”Mami”, “Pelo”, and “Dios”. This show that he still remember his roots and that he still thinks of the Dominican Republic.
In “Persimmons’ the boy also show that he has difficulties understanding the new language like in the beginning in the poem he says “not knowing the differences between persimmon and precision”. In which it explain that he has the same confusion as the children from “Invierno”. Throughout the poem the author also used chinese words that show that he missed his culture, but what he missed the most the fruit persimmons that was a really famous fruit in china, but in the United States is treated bad by not eating it right and being call “Chinese Apple”
I agree with you that new language is always hard for us to learn, however, it's the only way we can communicate with a new environment. Both author describe the struggle with language issues, and that seems really familiar to us, because we have been in that kind of situation too.I think you point out the most important common struggle between these two stories.
DeleteIn our life, there will be sometime when we feel lost or can’t find the way to move on; how ever, we always need to conquer this situation and find who are ourself. Both “Persimmons” by Li-Young LEE and “Invierno” by Junot Diaz talk about a story to conquer and to improve. In the story “Invierno”, Yunior and his family was under the ruling of his father, he desires to play outside with his friends like he used to when he was in Dominican Republic; however, facing a ruthless father, he has only one choice, which is to stay inside and watch TV. Looking at kids playing with snow from the window, Yunior finally made the decision not to be afraid and just be himself: “Wait up! I yelled. I want to play with you.” without caring about his father’s rule not to leave home and how cold it is outside, Yunior follow his desire to play and to explore like he used to. And in the end, he and his family members did find the image they want to see, the familiar image which they use to live with. In the poem “Persimmons”, author felt he had lost the connection with Chinese culture, and he is afraid if he will not able to remember who he was. In previous stanza, the author describe he had forgotten some of the Chinese words he used to speak, and maybe it is one of the reason why the author felt he is losing his cultural knowledge. However, he realize something from his father’s sentence: “Some things never leave a person”, whatever we are going through, we will always keep the most precious piece which remind us who we are. The author then know he lost a lot, but there is still something in his heart that will follow him forever.
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