Sunday, May 22, 2011

My Exploration through The Rabbi's Cat

In the book, The Rabbi's Cat,  Joann Sfar presents a variety of characters in which most of them struggle  internally and externally to accept themselves. In regards to this I had to re-explore the cats struggle and purpose in the story.
                When first introduced to the rabbi's cat we are painted an imagine of a very cynical cat who seems to be very intelligent yet kind of cruel. We are shown his intelligence by the manner in which he questions religion and even tricks the rabbi's rabbi into believing he is god.  Yet this is also evidence of the manner in which he's cynical followed by his general disregard of religious barriers. At the start, the cat is annoyed by the bird and the noise it makes all day, in order to remedy this situation, he eats the bird. The cat also wants to be bar-mitzvahed  just to be with the rabbis daughter.  Yet this is considered a big event for Jews and is when they are considered responsible for their actions and seen as a man. So the cat wanting to do this just to be with the rabbi's daughter seems disingenuous. 
                At the start of the story the cats primary purpose seems just to get back with the rabbi's daughter.  However the relationship between the cat and the daughter seem different, once he's able to speak, the daughter exploits his ability for information. Furthermore when she is with her husband, she does not want the cat in the room with them presumably because of privacy and the cats previous ability of speech. His speech complicated their relationship and the cat can no longer be seen as just a cute and furry companion. That's not to say that the daughter did not care about the cat but either his speech or her marriage they were not together as closely, thus bringing the cats role and or purpose into question in my mind.
                After realizing the relationship between the cat and the daughter becoming slightly less significant, I thought back to chapter one and at the time what I thought was a foreshadow. When the cat is arguing with the Rabbi's Rabbi he says " I have my mistress and I will never be alone because I will die before she does." ( 18) This was after he explains that the rabbi's rabbi is going to die old and alone. Furthermore after making him look foolish he says to his master " You have no master, but you don't want to admit that, do you, because you don't want to end up old and alone and without anyone to turn to when you don't understand anything." (19)  So with this information, I think throughout the rest of the story that perhaps the cats biggest fear is being alone.
                Chapter three brings up some interesting points, We find the Rabbi being very contradictory in terms of his religion. In previous chapters we saw him considering accepting his cousins offer to kill a man who may take his job. However now the rabbi refuses to enter his son-in-laws parent's house because of their lack of faith and the fact that they have light switches in their house. After walking outside in the pouring rain, he refuses  to enter a church because the doors are closed and he'd have to ring the doorbell so they walk away. Oddly enough the Rabi does a find an open church to rest in but the cat points out it's against their tradition to go before their creator with theirs head uncovered. Yet out of respect for the Christians the Rabbi takes off his hat even though nobody else is there and eats lots of delicious food that he's not suppose to eat.
                Yet during all this the dog kind of questions  the Rabbi's actions and the cat is following the Rabbi thinking how what they have been is doing is kind of stupid and contradictory. Surprisingly out loud when arguing with the dog he defends the rabbi's actions. Leading me to recall yet another quote by the cat from chapter one where he stated " You're going to do all you can to make the old man look good. And the more foolishness he talks, the more you'll call him "my master, my master" , as if to convince yourself."  (19) Leading me to my original point, I believe the cat is afraid to be alone and that's why when it came to following the Rabbi in the rain or his daughter in the warm nice house, he choose the rabbi.
                I also believed the cat was used as a device to connect with the other characters and not only to show their story but to give an alternative viewpoint to what was going on in the story. Overall I felt the ending of the story was kind of bland. Basically the cat gets some milk and gets to see his master come to terms with himself and become more self accepting in terms of how relaxed he is with his religion. Final thoughts, I found the graphics amazing how the actual text of the book was pretty limited. The text never had to specifically mention that the characters were upset but I had implied that without even realizing it through the pictures. My experience with graphic novels are very limited and thoroughly enjoyed this.

-Jason Hahn-

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Nervous Conditions Chapter 1-7

Nervous Conditions
Chapter (1-7)

         I found Tambudzia's hard work really moving. Even after helping work her families land all day she was able to manage her own crops to help herself go to school. However the manner in which she achieved this money may have been seen as luck and the misfortune of her brother may have also been "luck", yet she was never relying on these factors and was doing everything in her power.
However unlike Tambudza, I had never planned to go school but it was my misfortune in my previous career that allowed me the opportunity to gain an education that I would have otherwise missed out on. As many of us have come to realize we take our education for granted. We don't realize how good we have it and we have many people who drop out of secondary education and college for much lesser reasons. 

          However it's hardly fair for me to criticize anybody as far as that aspect goes. I had a very low GPA in school as well because I believed it was a joke and did not take it seriously. I thought I had my whole life mapped out and realized after my military career that did not go as I had expected that education was vital. Furthermore I feel I must note that I knew for a long time that I had wanted to join the military and did not join because "I did not know what I wanted to do with my life" as one of my class mates so eloquently stated about  people joining the Army. 

           Yet it's horrible when I think about it this way. I did not take education seriously until I had to, when my other options had closed and education was a necessity to be successful. Tambudzai and members of her family had to go above and beyond to gain this opportunity, doing work much more labor intensive every day  than most of us do in a month. This goes above their own personal ambitions as well it becomes a necessity for them to ensure the survival and better being of their people and country.  
  
            I think it's great how Tsitsi Dangarembga shows almost the mindset behind Nyasha and Tambudzai. Nyasha being born in Europe carries almost our cultures mind set. We are shown she has attitude with the way she always argues back with her Babamakuru who was born in Africa and ignoring the hierarchy. We are also told she even thinks about failing a test just to see how her father would react kind of brings it back to the majority of us and how we don't take it serious. Tambudzai on the other hand in the past had to work very hard to go to lower levels of school and for the most part carried traditional Shona values (although she questions them) and works really hard at school not that Nyasha doesn't but I have kind of gathered that Tambudzai takes it seriously, much more frequently than Nyasha.


          Finally, I am struggling on the message to take from this, at first it seems that if you desire anything enough it can be achieved or obtained. However that may only be part of the message, because sometimes desire may not be simply enough. Coupled with their desire to escape poverty is the felt need to work hard and get an education, because it is seen as the only means through which to obtain what they really desire: to escape poverty.