2 february 2022 online/asynchronous post one

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2 february 2022 online/asynchronous post one

2/1/2022

Post your reading journal here: "Girl" & "7th Grade"

This was the reading we would have discussed in class on Monday 31 January 2022. Use this space to post your reading journal for this class. If you've already written your journal, no need to edit, simple cut and paste by clicking on the "comments" button at the top below the title of this post.

If you haven't already written it, use this space to post a 300 word version of your reading journal. Remember that the "generic" question to try to answer for any reading journal is, as follows (this appears on the Reading Journal assignment page for our class as well): what is this author trying to do, and what do you learn about the overall genre from reading this ?

8 Comments

Gabby Curtin

2/1/2022 12:38:02 pm

Gabby Curtin
January 30, 2022
“Girl” and “Seventh Grade”

“Seventh Grade” is a story, told in third person, about a boy named Victor. It is the first day of the seventh grade and Victor is set on making a girl named Teresa his girlfriend. He has had a crush on her forever, and everyone knows. His friend Michael started off by teaching him to scowl, the way he sees men do it in the magazines his older brothers have. He thought this would be the perfect way to get Teresa to talk to Victor, Victor thought he looked funny. Victor went to home room and found that Teresa was in there with him. This excited him and brought a glimmer of hope that she would be in his other classes. As it seems, she was not in those classes with him, just his French class, which he planned ahead of time. During lunch he went in search of her. He tried his best to search for her in secret. Subtly, he looked around trying to find her. He finally did under a tree. He watched her and thought about bringing her to a movie. They ended up going to class at the same time, but they were very close to the bell, so he had to sit in the front. When asked if anyone knew French, he said yes. He did not really know it. He mumbled random sounds and hoped that it worked. The teacher knew he was lying. Victor was extremely embarrassed, but at the end of class Teresa talked to him. She talked about how impressed she was and asked him to help her with her French. He excitedly said yes.

“Girl” was a very interesting, but very enjoyable, read. This short story was a list of things I only assume her mother put on her. The list was made up of stereotypical women’s things, like washing clothes properly, how to hem a dress, how to iron men’s clothes and how to set the table for tea. Then it was filled with things like not singing too loud in church, how to play marbles without your dress riding up, not having an abortion. Then her list included not being a slut and standing out. This story was a mix of things both informative and derogatory about being a woman that I only assume her mother has harped on her, her entire life.

In both stories we were given to read I believe that the authors are trying to relate to the reader. In “Seventh Grade” I believe the author is trying to have us relate to Victor with how we felt around our first crush. The embarrassing comments, the minute-long gazes, the nervousness we felt. I feel that we can all relate and not help but smile to this story, as we have all felt it. I feel like “Girl” was supposed to relate to people on the opposite emotion. The feeling of pressure set onto young adults on how to behave. The taunting words that we might have heard from our parents about our character and the shame we would bring if we did not live up to their list of expectations. I am lucky to say that I have never felt that feeling growing up or now.

Monique Santos

2/1/2022 12:59:48 pm

From the reading, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, the author was clearly listing out if not all then many of the typical stereotypes and sexist comments girls are usually faced with, whether it is through subtle behavior or crude and more apparent gestures and sayings. The author went into detail on when and how to wash clothes, when and how to eat your food so you won’t disgust others, how to sew, how to not look like a slut, how to grow and take care of things, how to properly clean, how to smile and behave, especially around men. Overall, the theme of this story is how to behave like a girl and set a good reputation as a lady all while growing up in this society. When reading I noticed that it does not matter when it was set place because comments and expectations like these are still apparent to this day. Although I could not fully relate as times are slowly but surely changing, but I could relate to some, such as making sure to set a good impression as a woman.
In the second reading, the theme I conjured up is young love and the things we would do to achieve it. The author creates an easily likable protagonist named Victor, that creates the mission to get the girl. Similar to any other typical middle schooler, all Victor can really think about is this girl, Teresa. I believe the author is trying to make his readers remember the good ole days of middle school when we would try to peruse our crushes and the awkwardness that came along with that time of age. When reading I was reminded of my middle school experience and the classes that I had to take such as the typical math, English, gym, and a language. Similar to Victor, I also was not a fan of math and could relate to his character in that sense.

Julia Sullivan

2/1/2022 07:03:05 pm

Julia Sullivan
1/31/22
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “7th Grade” by Gary Soto

Reading Journal
In “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, Kincaid shows the role of a mother telling her daughter all the rules and expectations of being a woman. The author is trying to show these three themes, mother/daughter relationships, domesticity, and sexual reputation. The truth is that mother/daughter relationships are complicated, and can you tell that the mother in this writing loves her daughter but she also has high expectations. This piece of writing tells a lot about domesticity and how so many duties are expected of women and that they must be done a certain way. Kincaid gave many examples of how when different tasks must be done perfectly, like how when planting okra it has to be far away from their home because okra trees bring red ants. The theme of sexual reputation is what stuck out to me the most in this piece. There was one line that was repeated several times in the piece, “this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like a slut I know you are so bent on becoming…”(Kincaid). This line speaks volumes to the societal pressure during that time to remain pure and being a respectable woman. What I learned about the overall genre of this piece which is prose poetry is that it can be very powerful under the right circumstances. I haven’t read much other prose poetry before but I liked the style of it and it worked really well for this writing.
In “7th Grade” by Gary Soto, Victor Rodriguez wants to impress Teresa, a girl he has liked for a long time. He learns that he is in English and French class with her and pretends to know French in order to impress her. The author was trying to show the awkwardness of middle school and the very normal thing of having a crush and trying to impress them. The genre of this short story was realistic fiction. I learned that in this genre the story that you tell does not have to be amazing or groundbreaking to be a good story. Realistic fiction should be realistic, and I hadn’t thought about that aspect of this genre before.

Emily Bachman

2/2/2022 07:46:11 am

In these two articles, I think that the authors were trying to give a deeper detail about what was going on in the story. There was a lot of description instead of directly stating what was happening. I typically like this style of writing more because it is more interesting and helps me visualize in my head what is going on in the story. I find it very boring for stories to be direct with what is happening. I believe that what the author is trying to do is pull in the reader's attention by writing this way. Like in the article, “Girl”, I found myself being curious to who it was talking about in the first few sentences, only to find out that it was talking about the reader. It keeps mentioning “you” in the writing and I think that is trying to get us to envision that it is the reader in the story. I learned that in the genre of young adult, there are going to be times that stories are told without names of any characters and that stories can be told in so many different ways. The story “7th grade” was told more as a book story and the story “Girl” was told almost as if it was a poem. For me, “Girl” was a little more challenging to read because it was not mentioning any names that it was talking about. I had to read “Girl” a few times to understand what it was saying because there were no periods to stop a sentence, it just kept going until it reached the end. I think that the two authors of these stories did a very good job with how they are telling the stories. Most young adult stories that i read are usually in the third person or first person and the way that girl was written was very well structured which made it very fun to read.

Alexa Delling

2/2/2022 09:31:31 am

When reading “Girl” by Jamaica Kinkaid in a sense where the lines were predictable. Almost every sentence started with “This is how…” followed by a harsh tone of voice I would say. This almost sounded like the author was repeating things that were told to her as a young girl and I sense this was a mother figure. It appears the mother figure wants her to live a certain way and act a certain way in the pleasure of others. Kinkaid quotes “…this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming.” The word slut is mentioned again later in the reading and makes me question, why is this figure being so harsh? It seems as though the ultimate goal, for whomever this figure is speaking to, is to complete chores and tasks for two things: to satisfy a man and to be a “good” girl. I say this because it seems like this figure is invested in their ways and or how they think life should be lived. Kinkaid seems as though she is reflecting on possibly her childhood and how an adult figure ultimately raised her; the person speaking to her seems cold and in need of an overall better life for themself.
While reading “7th Grade” by Gary Soto I honestly could not stop smiling. I loved how Victor and Michael congregate at the beginning of the story and discuss how Michael has learned a scowl expression over the summer that models make in the magazine his older brother showed him. This piece felt extremely nostalgic and brought me back to those embarrassing middle school years. Nothing was ever really that embarrassing everything just felt ten times worse and the feeling of embarrassment came often. When Victor attempts to speak French to impress Teresa, I laughed at the line, “He stared at the board and wished he had taken Spanish, not French. Better yet, he wished he could start his life over. He had never been so embarrassed. He bit his thumb until he tore off a sliver of skin.” This must have been the WORST thing to ever happen to Victor and that is exactly how that age feels. I feel as though Soto wants the reader to go back in time to those days and connect with Victor as a child. I think this story is supposed to make the reader smile and chuckle at the funny and immature behavior of a middle schooler. The story as well focuses on what middle schoolers find important and as an adult perspective, the reader cannot help but laugh since we have all been through this funny stage of life.

Matthew Marini

2/2/2022 09:49:16 am

Matt Marini
Lee Torda
ENGL 389
1/28/2022
Girl and 7th Grade
In the short stories “Girl” by Jamaica Kinkaid, and “7th Grade” by Gary Soto, we see two stories that provide insight into the lives of two individuals that are between the ages of twelve and fourteen. The main distinction is that Victor from “7th Grade” is a young male, while the unnamed child in “Girl” is a young female. This difference plays a major role in the different life experiences each character goes through in such a crucial time in their lives.
In Kinkaid’s “Girl”, she provides a harsh look into the life the unnamed young girl is forced to conform to. I believe it is very likely that Kinkaid is talking about herself in this story and narrating the story from her mother’s point of view. The entire text is a long, seemingly never-ending sentence that lists detail after detail regarding what the girl must do everyday in order to not become a “slut”. These tasks include ironing her father’s clothes, setting the table for every meal, and washing up just to name a few. All for the goal of pleasing men. I feel as though Kinkaid made the choice of having the entire passage be one sentence as a narrative device to emphasize the feeling of how overwhelmed the young girl in the story must be. This, in my opinion, was a genius way of imitating how a young teenager often interprets stern lectures from their parents; infinitely long, overwhelming, and annoying.
In “7th Grade”, we see a much more traditionally told story with a lighter message. Soto tells the story in third person with an unknown narrator, and the plot revolves around Victor’s first day of seventh grade. Victor is infatuated by this girl named Teresa and is trying desperately to get her attention. This is the opposite of the premise in “Girl”, where a mother is trying to scold a young girl into being acceptable for a man. Here, Victor, on his own, is trying to be acceptable for his middle school crush. Victor’s friend Michael brings up the idea that women love when men “scowl”. He gets this idea from a GQ magazine. This single interaction is what ties “Girl” and “7th Grade” together. Two adolescents trying to fit in to societies idea of what is acceptable. The female must be clean, tidy, and not a “slut”, while the male must be tough and “scowl”. And the characters conform to these ides, almost as if they had no choice to begin with.

Alana Alexiou

2/2/2022 06:50:43 pm

Alana Alexiou
Professor Lee Torda
ENGL 389
31 January 2021
Reading Journal on “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “Seventh Grade” by Gary Soto
Both short stories, “Girl” and “Seventh Grade”, share experiences about growing up. One is from a girl’s perspective, and one is from a boy’s perspective. Although they are completely different styes of writing, they both tell a story describing an experience of a young boy or a young girl, that many of their readers can relate to.
Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” is very short, yet very powerful. Kincaid achieved this by using repetition and simplicity to get her point across. The repetitiveness does a perfect job at reflecting the sameness in how she and many other girls grew up, having to learn only what they are told to and never anything else that they may desire. The simple sentences, reflect the simple, boring lives that girls are encouraged and expected to live. The theme and story behind the words are anything but boring though, it relays a powerful message that many other girls can relate to.
Gary Soto’s short story “Seventh Grade” shares a story that radiates the feelings that many other young boys experience in middle school. Soto does this with dialog and figurative language. Using idioms, similes and descriptive words/language brought the shyness, embarrassment, worry, ambition and love that many boys go through in middle school to life. Specific experiences and feelings aren’t just stated, they are described in a way that will make the reader understand and relate on whole different level.
Both short stories paint a picture for the reader and in my opinion they both do an effective job at capturing the reader’s attention, making the stories both relatable and entertaining to read.

Tyler Solomon

2/6/2022 09:59:10 pm

While Reading “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, it is another young adult story that revolves around what a woman is expected to do and how different things such as sow a button. This story primarily focuses on the responsibilities that a woman has. The author focused on the typical misogynistic and sexist comments that a woman can unfortunately sometimes go through. This story also focused on why it is important for a woman to dress appropriately because she is usually judged for her looks. It included the different responsibilities such setting the dinner table and ironing the clothing of family members. It showed how much of a challenge it can be.
Then there is “Seventh Grade '' by Gary Soto, which focused on Victor as he navigated his way through the seventh grade. This is a great story and provides a relatable protagonist as he shows that he is quite nervous to experience seventh grade. They displayed the different interactions that he had with his fellow peers. This is an accurate portrayal of a teenager who just entered the seventh grade. It is a great representation that the dialogue is different between each person that the victor encounters. One can tell that he is interested in Teresa. When Victor and Michael were talking they had normal discussions that teenage boys would have at that time such as baseball, movies, and their parents. These are all aspects of normal teenage life that make these characters believable. Then when the story transitioned into the classroom setting, it felt even more believable.
In both of these works the authors are trying to make a world that is relatable to the reader. It is reliant on cultural lifestyles such as womanhood and how teenage boys relate to one another. This is what puts these stories into the young adult catergory.

2 february 2022 online/asynchronous post one

Post your reading journal here: "Girl" & "7th Grade"

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