Summary   

We began today by talking more about The Garden of Forking Paths. We discussed the following parallels: 

The Novel vs. Real Life-There is a war going on in both. 

Yu Tsun vs. Ts'ui Pên-Yu Tsun sends a message though the newspaper, and Ts'ui pen sends a message through the novel. 

Yu Tsun vs. Richard Madden-Both men are trying to overcome prejudice against their minorities in their cultures. 

Paper vs. Confession-Both of these were incomplete works.

We also discuss how Borges starts the story in a history book. However, page 22 does not discuss a British attack that was delayed at all. In addition, Borges includes a footnote from a fake editor to validate the story. Maybe Borges is trying to suggest that people forget things in history and that history requires us to leave things out. This also means that all history is fiction. Another unique characteristic of the story is that Ts'ui Pên's book and Borges's book have the same title.

After discussing The Garden of Forking Paths, we discussed Mahasweta Devi's Breast-Giver. We began by saying that Devi's style of writing is encyclopedic because it contains many historical and religious references, and Devi won't pull punches as she writes meaning that she has a very straightforward style. The main topic we discussed was the role reversal between Jashoda and Kangali. In the story, Jashoda is a professional mother. She supports the family by having babies and breast-feeding other children, while Kangali stays home to cook and take care of the house. This is very unusual especially in Indian culture. At the end of the class, we also discuss how being a professional mother caused Jashoda to have cancer, which ultimately leads to her death, and how the doctor was shocked that she had so many children. 

word count: 298

Passages

"I am a cowardly man. I say it now, now that I have carried to its end a plan whose perilous nature no one can deny. I know its execution was terrible. I didn't do it for Germany, no. I care nothing for a barbarous country which imposed upon me the abjection of being a spy . . . I did it because I sensed that the Chief somehow feared people of my race--for the innumerable ancestors who merge within me. I wanted to prove to him that a yellow man could save his armies." The Garden of Forking Paths, page 1020

This passage displays Yu Tsun's reason fore killing Albert. Yu Tsun wants to kill Albert for his race to prove that Asian's are equals, and to overcome the current prejudice against his minority. At the end of the story Yu Tsun does not want to kill Albert, and Yu Tsun says to him that he is his friend, but he feels like he has to do it for his race.

"Jashoda is fully an Indian woman, whose unreasonable, unreasoning, and unintelligent devotion to her husband and love for her children, whose unnatural renunciation and forgiveness have been kept alive in the popular consciousness by all Indian women from Sati-Savitri-Sita through Nirupa Roy and Chand Osmani... Frankly, Jashoda never once wants to blame her husband for the present misfortune. Her mother-love wells up for Kmlgali as mueh as for the children. She wants to become the earth and feed" her crippled husband and helpless children with a fulsome harvest." Breast-Giver, page 1073

This passage displays Jashoda as hero because she is completely devoted to her husband and children. Jashoda is compared to other great women of Indian society to strengthen the idea of her as a hero. It also shows her as a professional mother since she wants to feed children. Jashoda does not view her responsibilities as a job or as bothersome. She takes the job she does because she loves her children and husband so much that she would do anything for them. She is not angry or upset about having to take a job and earn the money for her family after her husband's accident, she does it out of love and devotion to her family. 

"Jashoda doesn't remember at all when there was no child in her womb, when she didn't feel faint in the morning, when Kangali's body didn't drill her body like a geologist in a darkness only lit by an oil-lamp." Breast-Giver, page 1069

This passage is from the very beginning of the story. Devi's style of writing never attempts to hide and gruesome or ugly parts of Jashoda's life. I think the reader needs to be exposed to Devi's language and writing style in order to fully understand her characters and when they go through. The reader can clearly see that Jashoda has a hard life filled with exhaustion, pain, and in many aspects lacking reciprocated love. Devi's gruesome descriptions are also clearly seen at the end of the story when she describes Jashoda's wounds from cancer. 

Terms

Patina- a film produced by oxidation on the surface of old bronze and often esteemed as being of ornamental value.

History- Someone's best guess of what happened that is not the perfect truth, fiction. 

Frame Story-A narrative structure that holds a story together.