Living in the Past

Ever since the first assigned reading, I always remembered this one explicitly said statement,
"It was becoming a habit—this concentration on things behind him. Almost as thought there were no future to be had"(pg 35).

This was the chapter where he urinated on Corinthians. Once the memory ended with that statement, it surprised me of how 1. really relatable it is that Milkman focuses on the past rather than present or future but 2. how honestly shocking that this habit really does follow him everywhere throughout the story and how it all started with this one interaction between him and his sister.

In the next chapter, I remember him thinking about his mother's breastfeeding and walking against the flow of traffic. I kind of saw that as him being so immersed in that part of his past, that he's moving in the wrong direction compared to others because he's so focused on his past. Since no one was walking on the other side of the street, it was like that empty side consists of those who focus on the past and the side he's walking against had those who are in the present and look forward to the future. None of those walking were like Milkman, looking back on their past and being confused, which would've made him be the only one to walk that path of going a different direction.

At the end of Part I, that urinating scene is mentioned again. Lena talked about how the world revolves only around Milkman and how everyone surrounding Milkman had to give up something in compensation for his gains or benefits.
Part I ended with something he couldn't escape from, leading into the next part where Milkman starts to search for his past instead. Instead of being with people who make him look onto the past, he searches for it.

I find it so interesting that the author pulled that statement and demonstrated it by showing how the habit of looking onto his past was not all on him. From the quote alone, I would've thought that Milkman was just being a self-conscious teenager without much of a dream. But, after seeing all these moments where he's held back by these negative events in his past it's him that's not able to escape from the details of the past people keep bombarding him with.

Misconception

America—the land of the free and the American dream. Every country has its own distinct culture. Because of that, there's always misconceptions and assumptions about how certain people act in a country. Before, immigrants had this ideal and glorified image of America only to come to discrimination and presumptions that led to certain people being accepted but others not as easily.

Even today, so many people think things like Americans are lazy, obese, or obsessed with guns when America is mentioned. At first, I got really annoyed that people are just surrounded by these stereotypes and stick to them as if they're completely true. But, it's really not their fault for thinking that way since  the people believing those rumors haven't seen America for themselves. We all view things differently because of our different cultures and ways of thinking.

We always have these assumptions when another country is brought up. I realized I do it a lot more than I thought, mostly because I do it so subconsciously. I remember my brother and I thinking that people in China were really rich just from looking at their clothes and their accessories. But, after seeing how real the knock-off items look at a night market, it shattered that perception I had on people walking in the streets and, instead, replaced it with this belief that people buy the fake ones.

Though assumptions can be changed, I feel like we're all so selfishly stubborn. Like, we tend to believe certain things and refuse to change our beliefs when we're verbally told it's wrong. It's only when we see things firsthand that make us finally change our perception. 

What I'm getting at is that there is no actual definition or description of what America is or should be. It always varies from the circumstances we're in that causes us to glorify, appreciate, or despise America. From what we're taught and how we're raised, those factors affect us in so many ways to what we see in something.

Polka Dots

Probably the most far-fetched and bizarre thing, I constantly saw these polka dots while reading Maus.

His suit and curtain

From being on clothes to walls, they stuck out so much to me and it just bothered me so much.

I started wondering about them and how protruding they were and concluded to this:

Like the line motif, it's pretty similar. Lines represent this state of being confined and trapped when it's shown throughout the book. They kind of have this order and strictness that makes it so straight and unable to bypass. Like in driving, we'll fail our driving tests if we pass a solid line.

But, these circles are filled in, spread out, and (clearly) round. To me, it kind of represents carefreeness. With lines, the more compressed and more confined they are, the harder it is to escape. That's honestly how I saw these circles as being much more spaced out and able to move around freely with your own willpower and control. 

Like I said, far-fetched. 

But, I also saw this one page where Vladek wears polka dot pajamas. 

I felt like this was another side of Vladek. He was seen with stripes mostly that signified his imprisonment from the war, but in the present he's a prisoner of his house and from being with his son. He now has much more freedom than before, but it's not always 100%. 

According to learnreligions.com, "...standing within a circle shields people from supernatural dangers or outside influences. Circles can also represent containing, keeping what is inside from been released."

As Vladek talks about his past, stripes are often shown. But, when he's not I feel like polka dots are shown more. It's a symbol of security for Vladek that when he's being himself, he doesn't want to or need to remember his imprisonment. He can just live in the present without reminiscing or being traumatized from his past of being trapped in a prison, working against his will. He has these polka dot clothes that protect him from the horrors of the Holocaust and allows him to keep moving forward. 

Living Proof

This panel(VII pg 91) gives the basic idea of the Holocaust in just 3 pictures. You can see these Jews at the top piling on top of each other "waiting only to die," the insect that brings disease to the camps, and the Jews lining up for food, only to get almost nothing in the end.

At first, I only saw this as a bug in the middle page and quickly flipped to the next. But, if I just took a step back and looked at the page as a whole, I would've stared at it in awe instead. It looks kinda like the outline of a camera, doesn't it?

Obviously, this camera stores all of the Jews' memories. And even more obvious, not everyone actually has a photographic memory, but it's the Holocaust. The memories are so vivid and haunting that there's nothing about it that you can forget.

Since Vladek is narrating, let's just say(for now) say Vladek is the camera—one that just never stops taking photos. He can browse through his memories like a photo album and jump around from picture to picture to talk about certain events, which is pretty common throughout the story.

But, he's just one camera. This panel is formed through a third person POV. Basically, as if someone else took a picture of the events shown in this panel. It gives a general view and reminds the audience that this story is not just about Vladek's experience, it's how the Jews experienced the Holocaust. But, cameras are easily disposable: just break them and throw them away.

Cameras only capture certain moments, not the before or after part of the picture. There's always frames of pictures that cut them off from what happened in person. To the side of a panel, there could've been a Nazi hiding, ready to shoot a Jew, or a Jew being killed in the corner that we'll never know because it's cut off from the picture. Nothing will ever actually show the true Holocaust with secondhand memories, or even firsthand ones that are relayed. There's never enough detail or information that you can get, without being there yourself.

We'll never actually know how many people stood in that line for food and got some(or none), or how many people were piled on top of each other, dead or alive. There were millions of other cameras out there, but sadly we can't retrieve them...they all broke or died of battery from being overused without charging.

Define "Comics"

Comics weren't always these fictional superheroes living in this nonexistent world fighting off evil beings. But, that's how we think of them to be. Nowadays, we think of Marvel Comic and DC Comics basically being the only type of comics that exist. Clearly, these two companies share the same idea: make a superhero that's totally unrealistic and make a plot that lasts for oh so many years.

But comics probably didn't start like that. It just grew to be that. The only difference between a book and a comic is the absence/inclusion of pictures. When reading those long sections of just words, we have this motion picture going on in our minds. Comics lay out the picture for us to help us visualize it the right way. Because of that, people deem comics to be something "childish" or "noneducational" since we're not "thinking."

When you open up a comic, it's immediately colors. Colors and speech bubbles in panels accumulating to a max of 30ish pages. That again, is what makes people think that comic books are nothing more than a child's book. Adults probably think that"great works of art and literature" are worth looking at because it looks like there's effort put into it and that you need to think and interpret the meaning for yourself.

People count "intellectual" as having only words or only pictures, having the other one not being used "exploring a wider area" and leaving it up to interpretation. The whole point of a story is to get the meaning and plot across the reader's mind. Books, comics, movies, and everything else do just that. It's only popularized to believe that comics are less intellectual because of the fictional characters that have taken over the basic concept of comics. Pictures and words make it easier to read, but it's the meaning of the story that matters.

Everyone's Normal

As teenagers, we go to school, go do piles of homework, and go to sleep at __AM. At school, we have all our friends, teachers we can rely on, and tests we have to face. Then, we get home to loads of homework and studying to try and get that good grade. This is our normal. 

Pretty much every day, we deprecate ourselves to feel better and to sometimes make others feel better. I remember countless time moping over my math grade then blurring the truth by laughing it off to people who scored higher than me. Though for the person listening to me, he/she wouldn't get the slightest hint of the amount of hatred I had for myself. 

In Sherman Alexie's story, he says things like "born a goofy reservation mixed drink" to show everyone that this is his life. He comforts himself by understating things that affect him and keeps this nonchalant tone to make it seem like everything is okay the way it is. Of course it's never just "okay." Taking it for granted, I wondered how does "my father was arrested, charged with attempted murder" not spur anxiety being the son? But soon enough, it was this young minority being isolated, confined, and having his life on the line from his condition and his ethnicity that was drawing this hidden truth under all this sarcasm and humor. Growing up on a reservation, being born with a condition with risk of death, and being surrounded by alcohol was Sherman Alexie's normal. 

Being in Troy High and living in 2019, where everything is diverse and we all accept these differences, is what these minorities back then envied and wished for change. Many turned to alcohol while we turn to our friends to rant in order to solve our problems. We can petition for change and have everybody included in it with an actual chance to obtain that change. If we look at before...it took one person to basically ruin an entire culture in which these victims had literally no right, according to the Supreme Court, to live peacefully without any restrictions. 

The power to change is a privilege in life, for the better or for worse. Except that the lives we all live are different, making infinite definitions of "normal."

A True Patriot

The summer of 2019, I traveled to Hong Kong. I admired the culture and got a feel for how my parents used to live. In the midst of all that, protests were on one side while I stayed on the other. I didn't actually see the revolt with my eyes, but I constantly wondered what it would look like.

In the Partly Cloudy Patriot, "The true American patriot is by definition skeptical of the government"(Vowell). Being skeptical shows that you're well aware of what you're able to have. Having these views shows that you're not blindly following under a leader and accepting all rules as is. If you know what's wrong from right, then there could be change for the better.

Like Vowell, these Hong Kong patriots are "skeptical of their government" and are trying to gain their rights. Meanwhile, there are "sunshine patriots" in mainland posting all over social media platforms about how "Hong Kong is China's Hong Kong." In America, the author also mentions that Americans are sparked by catastrophic events. Even with tear gas and pepper spray, no one can be really swayed.

For me, to think that these subways accidentally separated from my family are now battlefields between the citizens and the police is horrifying. The seats I fell asleep on are deathbeds for certain people fighting for their rights.

These protesters all love their country and are risking their lives to protect their rights but are constantly presented with more ignorance. Both Vowell and these protesters have the same hope for nationwide realization and the day to raise their flags with passion again. At the same time, I hope for the day the two countries can see the same light.