Reading from diverse positions

What is the world’s ethos – the guiding beliefs or ideas that characterize the world?

Reading the story Whites by Julia Otsuka, we immediately dive into a world of uncertainty and wondering through undiscovered lands without being able to see into the future. This world seems unstable, uncomfortable and there fore comes with a lot of hope and believe and the dreams of a brighter life down the line.

There are two points of views to this question or this world’s particular ethos – the world of the Japanese and the world of the Americans.

I would like to continue my thoughts from above and learn more about the uncertain life of the group of people, who travelled to a new country. A guiding voice in their heads makes them hopeful and turns them into hard workers. They obey the rules of their new surroundings and ‘employees’ and believe that with all the hard work they do, they will be able to help and support their families back home, even though they are completely in the dark, neither understanding the native culture nor speaking their language. They live with a strong sense of community and commitment toward their loved ones, doing things they would never thought they would have to do in order to live a better life.

The world they are physically in is the same as the natives of this country, but mentally the two groups of people live in a completely different atmosphere. The Americans have the complete force and their ethos is all about their own rules and the belief that they could reign over another human being.

This story reminds me of the political issues we are facing in Europe with the immigrants from Syria, trying to find a place outside of their country and work towards a better life, away from the terror. Their world and their hearts are also filled with hope for a better future.

Reading from a critical position

The short story Girl by Jamaica Kincaid raises a lot of questions towards our society and the on going debate about women’s rights and how women are raised. Due to Kincaid’s upbringing in a poor country and a complicated relationship with her mother we get to experience how it must have been for her to grow up as a young female under certain circumstances.

I read the female role in Kincaid’s short story as very simple and straight forward. I believe we read the comments and constructions that her mother used to tell her when Kincaid was just a young woman. The orders are mainly about how to clean, how to sew, how to cook and so forth. I can firmly hear the repetitive monologue of a mother talking to her daughter when reading these comments.

I conclude that in this household, a woman was supposed to know her place and had rarely any freedom of speech.

I personally can’t identify with this kind of upbringing. My mother was the first of her family to go to college to study Languages and History in Austria and my father the first one of his to study business. They were brought up in good families but not necessarily wealthy. They both worked hard and earned a lot of knowledge through their independence. My sister and I were taught how to help out in a household but even more how to be on our own feet and get the education we need in order to take care of our selves without needing a man to support us. There were never any differences between us sisters and our older brother. I know this is a great privilege and that this would not be possible for many young adults in a lot of families around the world. Let’s hope to see changes in the future, where anyone, no matter what race, gender or social status, can go and earn their knowledge and study in order to live an educated, intdependant life.

The grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson likes to call his movie The grand Budapest Hotel a homage to the Austrian writer Stephan Zweig. Both writers share grand similarities, with themes like humor, aesthetics and a sense of tranquility and peace. With a great portion of comedy in 1930s Europe, Anderson adapts to Zweig’s style and creates a world of it’s own in the movie.

Zweig’s books are mostly described very colorfully and he does not shy away from unsympathetic characters or unpleasant subjects.

When I compare Anderson’s movie to Zweig’s writing, it is just as colorful and magical. The filmmaker uses a specific type of color palette, lot’s of pastels, pinks and purples, almost seems like a dream like setting for a very personal genre – 1965 Vienna, Austria.

Zweig was in love with Vienna and it’s romantic and poetic European culture. He lived in the 8^th district in Josefstadt in a small apartment and lived and breathed the Viennese life style at the time.

I used to attend Art History classes at the University of Vienna, which is located only a couple minutes away from Zweig’s old apartment, not too long ago and felt the same way about the city. I believe the music, the painters, sculptors, and architects make a huge impact in a person’s life and will turn you towards poetic, humorist but also critical thinking which Anderson definitely was inspired and impacted by reading Zweig’s pieces.

True Grit – Western genre

In True Grit we get to experience an entirely new and avant-garde approach to the classic Western story.

A typical Western story includes Cowboys, bandits and Native Americans fighting against one another. They take place in the highlands and deserts surrounded by mountains. Settings like ranches, small towns with saloons and bar fights are classic and a must.

True Grit is not necessarily a typical Western. The bad guys in this particular story are not always with evil intentions, which makes the complications more diverse. The protagonist is a young girl with a strong voice and takes control of many situations in the story. Mattie takes charge of her life, in order to get justice for her fathers murder and she has no fear to stand up against her opponents.

But who has the most grit and power in this story? I believe it is Mattie’s gun - it brings her the revenge she was fighting for.

Thinking about the gun makes me question our society today. Do we live in a modern Western or why do we own guns in our own homes like cowboys back in the day?

            To me coming to America and learning about gun rights made me question our society. Where I am from, Vorarlberg in Austria, nobody carries or owns guns, unless they are used for hunting purposes. I have never come across a real gun before until I moved to America. Apparently having a gun laying around on nightstands or being carried around in a little clutch purse is everyday life for many people living in this county. It scares me and I believe, if we got rid of these rights, less shootings would occur and the world would be a safer place.

Pride and Prejudice

Does Jane Austen’s work have relevance to relationships today?

When I think about this question, I believe there are different answers for the different countries in this world. A woman in Western Europe or America is approaching a relationship/partnership differently than a woman let’s say in Eastern Europe or in a third world county. In the circles that I grew up in, a woman and a man are of equal standard, and they both treat one another with respect. Due to our education today, women are able to earn their own money and don’t have to depend on a man. In Austen’s novel the women had barely any knowledge other than playing an instrument, reading or how to do the housework, so at a very young age families were looking to find their daughters a suitable home for the future. Today the time of marriage gets pushed back, women have jobs and a career, there fore children often get born later in time of a relationship.

In countries like Eastern Europe for example, I believe that women are more likely to look for a husband with money, usually older in age and ready for family. The women’s educations might not be as important in such countries and so they can’t be independent and they want to get married at a young age – similar to the women in Pride and Prejudice.

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is set in England in the early 19th century and the one thing that I can see as a major similarity to today, that people –now and then – strive for success, safety and comfort.