Meatless Days - Sara Suleri

"So I should have kept in mind that, alas, we know the flavor of each part of anatomy: that much imagination belongs to everyone's palate" (375).

Meatless Days by Sara Suleri

From The Norton's Book of Woman's Lives by Phyllis Ross 

Sarah Suleri 

    Sara Suleri is bright young lady who has a passion for the unique taste of all foods. She finds knowledge about food highly important, especially when it comes to cultures she does not know about. I find Sara more on the sensitive side, due to her lack of ability to enjoy animal products, mainly due to the concept of it coming from something alive. She discusses her hatred for Kapura, which is made of testicles, and her hatred for kidneys, milk and eggs. She would sneak away to eat from Quayuum's, the cooks, garden, but in return got punished and forced to eat kidney. 

The way Sara speaks about food is very descriptive. She explains one food item as an entire experience itself. The quote above proves how her belief that food is up for interpretation. She allows her imagination to guide her along the journey of tasting new foods and having different feelings and memories associated with them. Since Sara does have such a strong imagination, I find it interesting how much she does tend to day dream about flavors. 

 

Midwife - Onnie Lee Logan

"I have had some of my white girls want me to let em have their baby lyin on their side and I don't like it" (492).

Midwife by Onnie Lee Logan

From The Norton's Book of Woman's Lives by Phyllis Ross 

Onnie Lee Logan 

    In this passage, Onnie Lee Logan proves herself to be brilliant, even though she didn't have the proper education. Coming from a generation of midwives, Logan possesses the innate qualities of assisting child labor and birth and knows exactly how to adjust to each situation. She goes into great depth on her strategies and protocols to different circumstances, proving her deep knowledge. Even though she has much knowledge on child birth, she still struggles with proper grammar and talks in a sort of southern slang way that it creates a more difficult dialect to understand. 

   The quote above shows an example of differences between white and black women when giving birth, as there are different trends and styles of childbirth. She discusses many different approaches to labor, a white woman like a nurse in the room while the black woman doesn't care much, which I am curious to know why. Logan puts the newborns in all white, which I translated to preserve their innocence coming into this crazy world. She displays many gentle and caring qualities that make being a midwife so fitting for her. 

The woman warrior - Maxine Hong Kingston

"Chinese do not have to address children directly" (458-459). 

The woman warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

Maxine Hong Kingston

From The Norton's Book of Woman's Lives by Phyllis Ross 

    In this passage, Kingston endures such neglectful trauma from her family, which in turn causes her to be hard on herself. She was constantly surrounded by the unaprroval of her family members, making fun of things she can not change about herself, her appearance, and her voice. Chinese customs are a lot more strict than those in America. The Chinese were very secretive and liked to keep everything very structured, as Kingston's parents had engrained the words "don't tell" (455) in her brain. She had not wanted the life her mother wanted for her, which causes a division between the two. She wants to be free in America and attend university here and be able to freely express herself, just a few of the things she was not allowed to do in China. 

West with the Night - Beryl Markham

"It is no good telling yourself that one day you will wish you had never made that change; it is no good anticipating regret. Every tomorrow ought not to resemble every yesterday" (527). 

West with the Night by Beryl Markham 

From The Norton's Book of Woman's Lives by Phyllis Ross 

Beryl Markham

    In this passage, Markham flies airplanes for a living, as an independent and strong-willed woman. Similar to Dinesen, Markham displays a true appreciation for nature, as she also goes into depth on explaining how she perceives nature. Flight is a recurring theme in the text which I believe symbolizes exceeding the limits of expectations with strength and resilience. She keeps talking about there being barely any runway but still managed to save them. The thick dense forest I believe symbolizes perseverance through all hardships but still willingness to push through and make a difference. The quote above displays her sense of intelligence. She was a woman who grew up in Africa and then became a piolet to pursue her own career in making very good money in poaching elephants. If it was;t for her natural determination and perseverance, the story would not be as impactful. 

From Out of Africa - Isak Dinesen

Isak Dinesen 

"One of them was Lulu, for she came up near to the house, and walked about sedately, pricking her ears when a car arrived, or when we opened a window; and the dogs would know her. She became darker in colour with age" (228).

From The Norton's Book of Woman's Lives by Phyllis Ross 

From Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

    Karen Blixen, also known as Isak Dinesen is very passionate about nature, which I feel has to do with her working outside all the time, as women had to be outside in the fields working. As she was going through a divorce, the thing that gave her lots of joy was nature. The way she speaks about nature and animals portrays the euphoric feeling it gives her. From the way she compares sights, smells sounds, and feelings to make the readers feel what she is also feeling. Her descriptiveness allows the reader to see her personality and the way she was so in tune with nature and her appreciation for its natural beauty. 

Her relationship with the fawns and Lulu seemed very symbolic to me. They always arrived around sunset or sunrise and hid when the weather was rough, which I feel signified changes in time and environment. The fawns would show themselves during a time of change to "comfort" Isak. I feel as though since she was now alone, she sought companionship, and went to what she appreciated most: nature. 

Totto-chan - Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

"Sometimes she was a swan, sometimes teh wind, sometimes a grotesque person, sometimes a tree. All alone n the deserted playground she danced and danced" (472).

Totto-chan by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

From The Norton's Book of Woman's Lives by Phyllis Ross 

    I loved this passage over others because of the freedom Tott-chan

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

advocated for freedom of choice, and it shows throughout Tetsuko's writing. During the play Totto-chan put on for his class in the section Amature Play, there was lots of room for personal expression, even though it was put to an end after a few careless acts. Totto-chan does not just educates his students on eurythmics, he shows them his passion for it and we see this again in the section Chalk when he allows the children to draw all over the floor with chalk. He allows his students to write "as they liked" (473) which I find very admirable, also due to the fact that during this time period, there wasn't much freedom. 

In the section Tea Party, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on new experiences. They are calling the farewell party a tea party to not make anyone upset, Tetsuko also emphasized many irrelevant things that the kids saw for the first time, to add to the "excitement" of it all to distract them from what is really going on. The passage ends very nicely with the children speaking with Ryo-chan and expressing their admiration for him. Overall, I found this a very uplifting read. 

From Landscape for a Good Woman - Carolyn Kay Steedman

From Landscape for a Good Woman by Carolyn Kay Steedman 

From The Norton's Book of Woman's Lives By Phyllis Ross 

 Carolyn Kay Steedman 

    In Carolyn Key Steedman's passage From  Landscape For A Good Woman, Steedman discusses the physical and mental damages the war had left behind. The city was destroyed and so were the lives of the people who lived through the war, some of whom were close to Caroyln; her mother, and her father. As she grew up and became more independent and mature, she learned more about why she grew up the way she did and realized she was actually lucky. Though she had much to be thankful for, resentment towards her father was prominent due to blaming him for the visceral state of their family and the "dissatisfaction" (718) of her mother. 

The trauma from the war her parents went through stuck with them and continued to affect them for many years after.  Carolyn, being born right after WWII, was born into an era of the fantasy of life before the war, and Carolyn's mother lived in her own materialistic fantasy world. Carolyn saw this affect her mother as her"fair-tale [had] failed" (724) and felt bad for her, as she believed her mother deserved much more.