Power and Resistance Close Reading/Viewing

                As I have been reading recently, I have been working on looking closely at the text and recognizing choices that the author made in order to leave a certain impact on the readers or viewers. I am currently watching a television show called The Fosters on ABC Family, and I decided to try some of this close reading (viewing) work while watching the show. The Fosters is about Lena and Stef, life partners who have five kids, four whom are adopted and one who is from another marriage. The show shows the different lives of each of the kids and allows you to feel like you are in their world, making decisions alongside them. As I tried this close watching work with this show, I focused on recognizing power and resistance between characters.

            The main characters in The Fosters are all teenagers and this brings up greater, more mature issues. One example of this is when use of drugs and alcohol came up between the characters. It seemed as though the writer wanted readers to see how these young adults make choices and to see how bad decisions end up hurting many more than just themselves. The episode also showed how the adults needed to figure out a mature way to solve the issue once they looked at the reality of the fact that they are dealing with teenagers and issues like these will be coming up. Not just in the episode, but in life, everyone has expectations that they are expected to live up to. It could either be to have some great achievement or to act a certain way and to always do the right thing. Sometimes reaching that expectation is something that you look forward to and sometimes it is a huge challenge. Being surrounded by the right people will help you to do the right thing and reach these goals that either you have set or others have set for you. This is one example of a time where power and resistance were shown in The Fosters.

            Another example of power and resistance in this episode was when Callie, one of the newly adopted kids is at a party with her boyfriend Wyatt. Wyatt is hosting this party at his house that has just been bought by the bank because his mother missed her payments. Wyatt is allowing everybody to destroy his home by smashing the walls and spraying the walls with paint. Wyatt suddenly begins to freak out when he realizes what is happening and starts to cry on the floor. Callie helps him and explains to him that it is only a house. This showed how such simple things had such a greater meaning to him and his home was so powerful with all the memories and stories hidden inside of it. He let his anger over losing his home take over his mind and he thought that destroying it would make things better and would solve all of his issues. It was as if he was in a dissociated state and wasn’t fully aware of the damage he was doing on tangible items and on his mind. In reality, there can be times where you get overpowered with the less important things in life you don’t know what to do. You end up making bad choices that affect yourself and others around you. This is another time where power and resistance was shown in The Fosters.

            As I watched the television show The Fosters, I viewed it closely for times where characters were either overwhelmed with power or had to deal with power in another way. I found that characters either took the route of making bad decisions that they thought would make things better but simply made things much worse and created many more problems. In real life, making bad decisions doesn’t help solve problems. It is better to find relaxing activities or find someone that you can talk to. This shows how people, memories, and places can hold power over you even if a long time has passed. To resist and deal with this strength that it has over you, there are better ways to deal with it than to make bad decisions. Overall, the show The Fosters has many points in which characters struggled with power and how to deal with it. 

The Stolen Party Synthesis Page

            The Stolen Party is a story about Rosaura, a young girl that is invited to a friend, named Luciana’s, birthday party. Rosaura’s mother happens to be the maid of this friend’s family and Rosaura is put into many uncomfortable positions. This happens all throughout the party although she is oblivious to what is really going on. At the end of the party, Luciana’s mother, Senora Ines, is giving out thank you gifts to Luciana’s party guests while Rosaura is given money because she was invited to work. The story was read two times, each time focusing in on a different lens, one time looking for meaningful vocabulary or descriptions, and the second time looking for moments where power and resistance were shown. Reading with these different lenses allows the reader to focus in on specific aspects of the book and understand the story on a deeper level.

            While reading The Stolen Party using the word choice lens, it was clear that the author deliberately put specific words in for readers who could focus and recognize that it had a deeper meaning. One line that really stood out was part of the last line of the book, “shatter an infinitely delicate balance”. This line really provoked a lot of thought and many possible meanings. At this point in the story social classes and their separations are very visible and this line just enforces that. Some other words that relate to this idea are “cold, clear, and horribly ashamed”. These words really show that social classes are broken up very strictly and there are certain boundaries that are not dared to be crossed. They are very clear and people know not to try to get in between. On the other hand, Rosaura has been very oblivious and naïve throughout the story and gets a smack of reality when she realizes that she was brought to the party to help work. This lens really gave a lot of room for thinking and for everyone to interpret sections of the piece their own way.

            The second time The Stolen Party was read, it was visible that certain characters had more power than others. It was also clear that sometimes characters would try to resists this power and other times where they would need to accept the situation. Toward the end of the story Senora Ines referred to Rosaura as “my little pet”. This shows that Senora Ines clearly knows and feels like she has power over Rosaura and her mother. Senora Ines says this while she is paying Rosaura for helping out at the party. Rosaura was unaware and disappointed when she realized that this was why she was invited to the party. Rosaura didn’t believe that she would be treated like the maid’s daughter because of their association with each other. Rosaura is put into a position where she needs to grow up within a matter of seconds because she has been blind to the fact that she was put in this position to work, not to be a guest at a party. She has been oblivious of these social classes and the fact that even though she is friends with Luciana, she will be treated differently because she is the maid’s daughter. After reading the piece with this lens, readers are able to understand characters relationships much more deeply and are left feeling sympathetic for certain characters.

            After reading The Stolen Party twice, readers are able to read the story meaningfully and with a greater understanding of the characters and their emotions. The story shows how people are expected to act or be a certain way because of their association with other people or because of race or gender. The piece elaborates by showing how characters react to this and how they feel because of it. The story also shows how people in different social classes will make others feel like they are below them, simply because they don’t know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of the situation. In real life, people can be put into situations that are very similar to this where they are left feeling powerless because someone obviously has a greater power over them. Some examples of this are a teacher and a student, boss and an employee, or a parent versus their child. Teachers clearly have much more power than students because they are in charge of the student’s grades and simply because it is their job to instruct students. This relationship is very implicit and expected so students don’t feel neglected when they cannot make many decisions that involve their schooling and grading. On the other hand, the lower half of this relationship, the student, can always try their hardest and have a better attitude. This might result in a better relationship with the upper half of this relationship, the teacher. In conclusion, after reading The Stolen Party with two different lenses, I can tell that it is a story about envy, the truth, and acceptance of social classes. 

Best Books from 2013!

      2013 has been a huge year for me. It has been filled with transitions, big events, and times where I have really needed to think about what is important to my life. I have found that through all of these changes, reading has been a huge outlet for me to relieve stress and relax. I have found myself reading much more than  I have ever before and I have also found myself being exposed to types of literature that I had never read before. Overall, my favorite book of 2013 has been Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult.
      Plain Truth is an incredible story about Katie, an Amish teen that is suspected for the murder of a dead baby found in her family's barn. This book is so suspenseful and filled with exciting moments. When a book is 450 pages, it can be quite hard to hold my attention for the whole time. This book did a great job of always having sudden findings in the case that would snap my attention back to the story. Picoult did a great job of knowing exactly when to have these moments appear just when the story had been getting a bit boring. This book also used elements of the criminal justice system throughout the story and exposed me to other ways of life. Plain Truth is my favorite book that's read in 2013 because of its ability to capture my interest and make me feel like I was in the world of the story
      2013 has allowed me to explore many different genres and I found that I enjoyed books that I never thought I would like before. Recently I read Red edited by Amy Goldwasser. Red is a collection of personal letters written by teenagers about countless topics. This book was really meaningful because I knew that these incredible stories didn't just come from an authors mind, but from actual experiences that these girls went through and survived. Another one of my favorite books from this last year was Sold by Patricia McCormick. It is about a young girl who is sold into prostitution by her family. It's was so interesting because the main character, Lakshmi, lives in a society where this is considered normal. I loved how this book was told in verse which made it unique and more graceful than other books, although that may sound weird. These were two more books that I really enjoyed reading in 2013.
     Overall I had a jam packed reading life in 2013. I found myself turning to reading whenever I needed to calm down or just be alone. I read more meaningful books and forced myself to think deeply about the books that I read before shoving them away, which was one of my reading resolutions last year.  In the new year, I hope to continue reading meaningful, more mature books. I also hope to expose myself to many more genres and authors. 2013 was very successful for me and I hope that I can use the reading experience that I gained to help me in the coming year!