CtBC02+-+Connector+and+Lit+Crit

__Connector and Literary Critic__
As the **//Connector//**, it is your job to find connections between the novel your group is reading and the outside world. This means connection the reading to: · Your own life · Events in the local, national or global community · Similar events in history · Other novels, literature, movies, music, or stories Think about a minimum of **2** connections and try to provide a variety of responses. Explain the connections and how it is connected to the novel. Provide lots of details and supporting evidence in your answer. Each connection should be a minimum of 200 words minimum.

 == The // Literary Critic //// ’s // role is to find especially powerful portions of the text for reading aloud and discussion. You need to be able to provide reasons for your choice from the following list. Be sure to explain why you thought your choice fulfilled one of the qualities listed. Choose 5 selections to share and keep track of them by listing the page number, and writing all or part of the passage our along with a written explanation. Reasons for your choice range from: ==

Page 89, 2nd paragraph The child coughs badly…~…there is a lovely valley where you were born. This reminds me of how sometimes when you’re seriously sick in another country, you get scared whether you’re going to die or not, and you just want to go back to a place that’s familiar to you. Once, in summer of 2006, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack because whenever I lay down my heart started pounding really hard and I got really scared and called my mom, and even though it was like 1 in the morning we took a cab and went to the hospital, and I was so scared that there was something wrong with my heart and that I might die. In my mind everything was a mess and it was being so over dramatic and I was thinking that I wanted to go back to Japan once more before I died… Hur hur. Page 83 – 87 Especially page 86, starting from “Have you a house for me yet?” This just reminds me of the population boom in China, and how people keep pouring into Shenzhen. Although I’m not sure if the exact situation was like this, but it’s true that there aren’t enough places to live for all the population, so a lot of people are crammed into tiny houses. Even now, people keep coming into Shenzhen and you can see even in the better-developed parts of Shenzhen how there are people roaming around in the alleyways. True, many of these do have a place to live, but it’s usually very, very cramped and small and they live alongside many other people. Lit Crit Page 67 – 69, John Kumalo’s speech + argument with Msimangu I like this part because it’s written with a lot of power. You can practically feel the energy radiating off of John Kumalo from his speech, and his opinions are so clear that they leave no room for doubt that that is what he believes. Page 72 “Tomorrow, said Msimangu… ~ … we must hurry or we shall be late for our food.” I think this part is interesting… it’s almost as though the Msimangu doesn’t want what he’s doing to be considered as a huge favor. I think it’s a nice touch and shows a bit more of Msimangu’s personality. Page 75 “So they walked many miles … ~ …that is something to marvel at.” I like this part. It shows how some people do breach the racial barrier between whites and blacks, and I like how this part is written with such kindness. It doesn’t feel like something absolutely exceptional to do, nor is it asking for anything in return. It’s just showing that sometimes people just do favors for another person just because they’re in need of help. Page 82 “No, no… ~ …That is what beats me, Msimangu said.” I like this part because the writing style here isn’t as abstract as the rest – rather, it’s quite clear cut, powerful, and strong. I like how the author kind of varies his style from place to place depending on the situation. Page 83-87 I think this part was especially well written. It really caught my attention. Even though it was a bit confusing, the ideas that were there were really clear. The writing style there took a bit of a turn for the abstract, I think, and I like how some parts were repeating itself, but with a little bit of a variation. This really shows how the same thing is going on everywhere.

November 26, 2008

Page 118, last paragraph “For some hours he sat there in the sun… some lifting of the fear.” This is a pretty random connection, but this paragraph just reminds me of Hawaii. For me, Hawaii is almost like a second home. Of course, I’ve never been there for long periods of time – longest stay was two weeks – but we almost always live in the same hotel room so everything about Hawaii is always really familiar. And when this paragraph described how sitting in the sun and looking at the plains below calms you down, it reminded me of how sometimes, I just go out onto the veranda and gaze at the beach and ocean below. The room is on the 23rd floor and has a panorama view of the ocean with no obstruction, so I really love just standing out on the veranda for ages and ages to watch the ocean. It is probably one of the most relaxing experiences ever. There’s a thrill of standing so high with the ocean below and with the sea breeze blowing right at you, but then there’s this deep calm feeling of being away from any kind of stress. Page 119, 2nd paragraph “…Yet what had they failed?... gain that they were seeking ?” This reminds me of how my parents do the same thing, because I apparently don’t manage my time (haha, it’s 2:13 a.m. as I’m writing this) well enough, or take care of myself properly enough. I think everyone understands this part so I’m going to move on without elaboration – the next thing that this sentence reminds me of – the part where it says “that was Johannesburg”, it really reminds me of how people say “This is China” in the same way. Anything can happen in China; anything can happen in Johannesburg. It also kind of reminds me how my dad is often mad at the people here because of how they spit on the ground all the time and their driving manners (well, their manners in general) kind of suck. He says they were educated badly and they’re educating their children badly, and a lot of people who come here from the countryside learn the ways of the people here and become the same. Lit Crit Page 119, 2nd paragraph “…Yet what had they failed?... gain that they were seeking ?” I like this part because the guilty feeling of “where did I go wrong?” is really apparent here. I think the emotion and the feeling of responsibility here is really realistic. Page 120, last paragraph “Yes – it was true, then… hardly reached to the height of a man.” I like how the author talks about “borne upward into the air” and “wings of miracle had dropped away” because it really allows you to visualize it more clearly than you would be able to if he had just describe his emotions. Also, the author seems to really like using repetition to create powerful images because now “the maize barely reaches the height of a man” has been repeated at least five or six times. I think he uses this to keep reminding people of how it’s like in Ndotsheni. Page 121, first paragraph after page break “It was a wonderful place … open the eyes of black men that were blind.” I like this part because, again, it’s very descriptive, but in an abstract way. I like how he describes so many colorful images and combines them with how it’s the blind people who are creating them.” Page 128, last paragraph ~ Page 129, “…it is the other who seems bowed and broken.” Right here I think it’s interesting how the author started out the paragraph the exact same way as he did with their last meeting, but in the end after his brother finds out that his own son might also have been involved, we see a reversal of roles. Last time his brother was concerned but not so worried, but this time it’s Kumalo who’s comforting him. Page 130 ~ Page 133: scene where Kumalo is talking to his son. I think this scene was written very well. It’s mostly dialogue but I like how the author described how the characters talked, which added a lot of tension to the scene.