Fire in the Community

'"Grab a bucket and come on!" Gus screamed.
Within minutes, the house was totally engulfed in flames. Paul drew water from the well as the others dashed it onto the burning structure. His arms ached from the constant lowering and pulling of the chain, but as long as they were trying, he knew he couldn't quit. There were at least twenty men present, and all of them moved as if the house were their own. They knew their efforts were useless; anyone could see that. The blaze was simply too hot to battle. Those at the end of the line were tossing more water on the ground than on the fire, but they had to try' (Black 283).

This passage is at the start of chapter 31 on page 283. It is the passage in which Eva Mae burns down the house of the kids who attacked and raped Paul that night in the woods. The men in this passage are trying to save the burning building and those in it, vigorously pouring as much water as they can onto the house, in a losing battle against the flames engulfing it. The sentence, "There were at least twenty men present, and all of them moved as if the house were their own," provides a look at the community of Swamp Creek. The people in the house weren't exactly well-liked by the community, but they were a part of it nonetheless, and the fact that their house is on fire is enough to bring the rest of the community out to help. Each man putting out the fire put all their strength into smothering the flames with water, even though they knew, ultimately, it was no use. These men "moved as if the house were their own," demonstrating a camaraderie between the community members that runs deep. This passage demonstrates a community willing to provide strong aid to anyone within that unit, a display of strength and loyalty essential in keeping together and protecting a large group of people.

Whilst on the one hand this passage demonstrates an incredibly proactive and helpful community, on the other it provides us with insight to the harmful individuals who choose to attack, and hurt other members of the community. The people inside the house were the group who attacked Paul in the woods and raped and beat him almost to death. These community individuals were not the same kind as those who came out to try and help them in their desperate time of need. Instead of providing aid to other members of the community in an effort to keep it intact, they do the opposite and strive to deteriorate the strength of the community by instigating fear.

Eva Mae was also part of this community, and it was she who set fire to the house in the first place, causing this outbreak of community kindness as well as illustrating yet another side of the community complex, that of personal revenge for another's crimes.

We see when looking at all the characters involved in this passage, that our concept of community changes with every new lens of perspective we put on while assessing each characters' situation.

New Proposal and Annotated Bibliography

After finding my five sources, reading over them and annotating them for the bibliography, I have determined that my thesis will be something along the lines of studying the traits of masculinity and femininity through Dana’s dysphoric feelings as he was growing up. I have found a few different sources studying children and their ideas of gender, and how they came to determine their own gender through watching their parents, but also through feeling either masculine or feminine urges. The scenes I want to close read are the scenes in which Dana describes his feeling of being a girl even when he was a boy growing up, as well as his confusion over how best to act like a woman and ‘pass’ in public, instead of immediately being pinpointed as a man trying to look like a woman. Given these scenes, I would question how one innately knows one way or the other which gender they feel they are, and how we tell which gender strangers are. I will look at texts that present both evidence that gender is inherently felt, and also texts which present evidence that gender is socially constructed. Dana’s case would be evidence that gender is a felt knowledge, and that no matter how hard he tried to become a boy as his biology determines, he will never be able to ‘perform’ it correctly. 

My research does lean more towards the sociological side of things, but the studies I have found lean toward more true life accounts of real people’s experience which I can use to validate the experiences presented in the fictionalized story of Trans-Sister Radio. 

Annotated Bib:

Black, Daniel. Perfect Peace. New York: St. Martin's, 2010. Print.

This text is about the life of a young southern girl who has grown up with six older brothers her whole life, and when she is only 8 years old, her mother tells her that she was actually born as a boy, and now must become one of them. Her mother had always wanted a girl and so when the seventh child came out as a boy she refused to accept reality, and raised her as a girl anyway. The story centers around the young child and her difficult transition from girl to boyhood, and the problems she has letting go of her female self, and embracing her new male self. The book makes a commentary on the side of nurture, implying that gender is learned through social cues. I will use this text in my essay to show another antithesis source, further asking the question as to whether gender is a learned or inherent trait. There are several passages after Perfect finds out she is indeed a boy instead of the girl she always thought she was, about her longing for and missing the old the Perfect which would be particularly beneficial for my paper.

Colapinto, John. As Nature Made Him: the Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. Print.

This book chronicles the true life story of Bruce/Brenda/David Reimer who suffered a circumcision mistake at 7 months old that caused his penis to be so badly burned it shriveled and broke off. At the age of 22 months, baby Bruce was surgically castrated, and become the Reimer's only daughter, Brenda. It was expected that at the age of 12, Brenda would start hormone treatment to induce the production of breasts and a shapely female figure. At this age she would also undergo surgery to complete her vaginal structure. The book provides a detailed breakdown of the events as they unfolded, as well as backgrounds on all the doctors and psychiatrists involved. I will use this text in my paper to help prove the point that Chris Bohjalian's novel, Trans-Sister Radio tries to get across, that gender is inherently felt inside, no matter the physical anatomy on the outside. David Reimer in this case felt alienated in his girl clothing and in himself as Brenda, and only felt comfortable when allowed to express his masculine side.

Leli, Ubaldo, and Jack Drescher. Transgender Subjectivities: a Clinician's Guide. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Medical, 2004. Print.

This book is a collection of studies done on transgendered men and women, their families, and how they were diagnosed. It uses autobiography, and a number of other contributing psychiatrists to determine how to identify a person with gender dysphoria, and what the next step to their recovery from it will be. I plan to use three different chapters from this book in my essay to back up my claim that gender is inherently determined by a 'feeling' or understanding of one's self, regardless of anatomical results. I plan to use the first chapter, 'Sexual TNT: A Transman Tells the Truth About Testosterone', by Griffin Hansbury, MA, MSW; the fourth chapter, 'Witnessing and Mirroring: A Fourteen Stage Model of Transsexual Identity Formation' by Aaron H. Devor, PhD; and finally the seventh chapter, 'The Diagnosis and Treatment of Transgendered Patients' by David Seil, MD. In using these three chapters I will be able to assert the feelings of one transgendered patient, how a transsexual identity is formed, and finally how that identity is diagnosed by the doctors capable of performing the surgery to fix the problem. These findings will help to prove my thesis that gender is a natural, not learned issue.

Martin, Carol Lynn, and Diane Ruble. "Children's Search for Gender Cues. Cognitive Perspectives on Gender Development." Current Directions in Psychological Science 13.2 (2004): 67-70. JSTOR. Web. 19 Nov. 2010.

This article explains that the idea of gender is learned process starting in early childhood, and is learned from the male and female adults around them as they are growing up. This journal will be used to describe the antithesis of my debate, as the nature vs nurture debate is probably the biggest debate in human history, I cannot write this paper without acknowledging the other side of the argument. My thesis will be based on true stories of people experiencing gender dysphoria initiated by a fictional work of literature, while my antithesis will be informed using psychological studies performed on children, and a contrasting work of literature.

Stoller, Robert J. Sex and Gender. New York: J. Aronson, 1974. Print.

This text is split into three different sections: Patients with biological abnormalities, Patients without biological abnormalities, and Aspects of treatment. The first section details patients with abnormalities of genitalia, and studies their classifications of gender due to these abnormalities. The second section deals with patients who have no physical abnormalities, but suffer from gender dysphoria, in which they feel that their bodies betray the gender they feel they are inside. The final section details the different type of treatment for those with 'biological abnormalities of sex'. and the treatments of transvestism and transsexualism. I will use this text in my essay to help prove my thesis that gender is psychological, not biological issue. The patients presented in the sections of what is to be masculine, and what it is to be feminine have significant attachment to their given genders, despite abnormalities they have suffered suggesting their gender should made otherwise.

Thirty? Again - Speaker

Thirty? Again By Elizabeth Lewis (page 133)

Oh to be thirty
To be thirty
To be young and fit
With a head of dark hair
My skin soft and smooth
With no wrinkles there
To be light on my feet
To remember with ease
The things I've forgotten
No pain in my knees
To feel I'm attractive
To even one man
To work for a living
To go back again?

Oh, come off it, people
Do you think I am crazy
To go back sixty years
To live them again
The work and the diet,
The grind and the pain?

Thank God I am ninety
Not thirty again.

I really liked this poem because I love how the speaker isn't reminiscing and wishing she were thirty again, she is reminiscing and realizing that she is much better off on the side of life she is on, rather than going back sixty years and doing it all over again.

The speaker is the poet in this poem, and she describes what it is to be ninety by talking about what it is to be thirty. Instead of complaining about having grey hair and wrinkles, pain in her knees and feeling unattractive, she wistfully remembers what is was to not have wrinkles, pain, and to be attractive "To even one man" (12).  This element of having the speaker be the poet herself really works to get across her point that it is better to be happier with yourself as you are, rather than wishing and hoping you could go back in time and be the person you were a long time ago (because that just isn't going to happen, is it?). Describing herself in this poem instead of talking about a different person gives the poem authenticity and credibility. The reader also feels a relationship to the poet - we get a sense of who the poet is as a person, a person who is seemingly very satisfied and settled with herself. She conveys a very likable character, someone I feel I could sit and have tea with and a great conversation.

This ability to build a relationship with a reader in a short, 22 line poem ensures that her poem will be remembered, and she has managed to leave her print on the world long after she has left it. She divulges intimate details of her life - her wish to feel attractive, for instance, is so slyly inserted in the poem it would be easy to gloss over. But it is there, in that small detail, where Lewis reveals a personal insecurity and desire to be wanted by another person. I feel sorry that she feels unattractive and unwanted just because she is old, but I can see that out of everything it is to be thirty, this is the only thing that she perhaps wishes she could get back.

I remember a movie quote that said something about age, and feeling worn out and in pain is because you used your body, and you earned the age you feel. Age is a thing which has to be experienced for yourself, it isn't something one can describe to another. And even though Lewis sees the benefits of being thirty over ninety, she realizes that to go back would be to do over her life for sixty years, and she's rather satisfied with how it went the first time around.

Blog Holiday

Hey guys!

I'm taking my blog holiday this week, so ill see you here next week!

Hope you all have a great weekend!