"The Rum Diary" Reflection

As part of the audience of The Rum Diary film, I not only enjoyed the movie for its humoristic feature but also received an insight of my country’s history since it is set on Puerto Rico in the 1970s. From an American, point of view we can appreciate some cultural aspects of the island, and problems it was facing at that time period.  This movie relates to some of Jamaica’s Kincaid defining characteristics presented in her many works, like “A Small Place”. These are: location, perspective, in-group, out-group, and othering, which are also reflected in The Rum Diary, based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson. 

         The protagonist Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) is a magnificent author that applies for a job at a newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Even though at first he is given the horoscope section, later he is given a very important position, in which he is asked to write about subjects that would interest tourists visiting the island. Instead, Paul writes about Puerto Rico’s most decayed aspects, like poverty, criminality, and independence strikes. This certainly locates the audience as a natural of the island, inviting them to “live” and be aware of features other than Puerto Rico’s beautiful paradise. The character of Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart) presents the theme of othering given that he constantly marks the difference between him (American) and islanders from the Caribbean. Sanderson reflect the feeling of colonists’ oppression toward the colonized, and only sees the island as a gold mine, in which he will construct many hotels without realizing the destruction of paradise itself. His superiority does not only show with Puerto Ricans, but even with Kemp who is also American, and whom Sander tries to bribe so he writes good details of his property schemes.

         Chenault (Amber Heard), who is Sander’s mistress, plays the role the beautiful woman who is tired of her husband’s ego and wealth. It can be interpreted that she represents the theme of in-group, since she seems to enjoy from the Caribbean culture and has no problem in integrating to its people as we can see in the feasts. In return, ironically, she feels out of the group when she is with Sander’s friends. Every time she has the chance, she slips away to enjoy the island. In overall, I really enjoyed this movie; I found it very informative and I appreciate the recreation of scenes that were given, and of recognized places, in the 1970s on the island that have certainly changed over time. By presenting the culture and historical facts, takes me back to my Puerto Rican roots and reinforces identity.

Reflection to "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid

       As a reader, I thought the poem “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is for the most time true; we get an insight of all the expectations society has for women, which we can see are more than those for men. In this whole work Jamaica describes various aspects women have to be careful about and also manage, not only in the household but also to be respectable women. Women apart from all the chores she’s expected to do, also have to acquire an honorable image. The food to cook, the way to dress and walk what to sing or say, personal appearance, and even her sexuality are all features women must take care about. By the title Girl we can infer that the mother is telling her daughter all these things in advanced, in the time just before becoming a woman, so that when she does, she becomes a good one. There’s no doubt this poem presents some feminism in relation to the author’s perspective, though I agree with what is written and inferred throughout the text.

         I can relate to the poem because, me being a girl, I am expected to do many, with some exceptions, of what Jamaica writes in her poem. In addition as to present times, we are expected to study and become professionals. Being brought down from generations, and as part of Puerto Rico’s values, a woman must act respectably in order to be treated as one; this is a very important trait that defines women. Otherwise, as the poem says, they would be the sluts by not controlling their nature. For me, this would be a delicate statement to say, since it can vary given the variety of conditions us humans live at and our incomprehensible ideals. The reader can also appreciate the strict tone Jamaica uses, which I believe, represents very well the significance of moral values to the people in these countries. Finally, Jamaica presents the theme of love, also in a feminist way, and recalls the distinctions between men and women. 

Here's a link to the poem, I invite you to read it, if you haven't:

http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/fiction/Girl/Girl.pdf

Writing about Jim Cooper's "Down on the Island"

        The recognized writer, Jim Cooper, narrates his experience as an English professor in the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez. In his book “Down on the Island” he gives an insight of Puerto Rico’s distinct features through the way of life he acquires coming to teach to the island. His first thought of was to escape from “real life”, but then finds himself actually integrated to its people’s way of life.

         On chapter seven of the book titled Teaching English, Cooper says he was not capable of teaching literature or even a language, although he had a degree on literature. At first it was hard for him, since he was the only continental English professor, and was given much responsibility. Students were not able to learn English properly, even though they really desired to learn and communicate with it. Cooper realized that not only Puerto Rico’s schools had a bad educational system, but also the Colegio (as the Mayaguez University is known). Therefore, he bought new books and, with the help of other professors, created a new syllabus. Politics also had a negative influence over students’ capability of learning English since high school. This, along with other teaching methods, like “oral method” and “pattern practice method”, did not improve the learning of English.

         The next chapter, Helping, is about his opinion of students and parents’ reclaim of their grade, in which every situation consisted of the perception students have that the teacher “gave” them a grade instead of understanding that they had to earn it. There’s a curious situation that Cooper explains, in which a boy makes the assignment for his sister, whom is not so good at English, and he asks Cooper why he did not gave her a good grade. I agree with Cooper in that the girl does not deserve a good grade, if she did not do the composition. The boys’ idea of helping is obviously not the correct one, and cannot be given credit for it. Personally, I have not been a situation like this. My sister has always been there for me and my mother too, and they help me in everything they can. Though, not doing a complete assignment for me; for that would not be helping me at all, academically nor growing as a person. Since we studied at a very competitive school, my sister also had her many assignments, so she only helped me as long as she could. Thankfully, I could graduate with high honors, and I could say, with a good preparation to begin my next stage of life, university. 

Journey Journal

         Writing is art, for it conceives the use of various approaches to develop a great work of literature, or even a short narrative. Through writing you can get to know aspects of yourself, especially by doing the first thoughts technique. For our class, we realized this technique which not only created a record of each one of our internal journey, but also helped us in our development of writing by exploring new areas of thought. The goal was to do it routinely five times a week for about ten minutes, and it had some specific rules, I would say. These were discussed by the writer Natalie Goldberg in "Writing Down the Bones": keep your hand moving; don't cross out; don't worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar; lose control; don't think, don't get logical; and go for the jugular. At the same time, it’s a fun activity to set that communication with your inner self and to learn from.

          Now as I look back through my journal from the first day I began writing, I realized at first it was hard for me to follow the rules since I’m used to a more organized writing. Even though I enjoy writing poems, most of the writing I have done in my life have been essays with specific formats. Neither there is so much stream of consciousness in them; fairly, that back and forth did not appear much when I was writing my thoughts. Towards the middles my thoughts began to flow as my hand kept writing and writing. I felt as if it was truly art; I was able to develop many ideas and getting to learn more about my inner self. One of these realizations was that I’m constantly overthinking, and wondering about my future. I guess it’s because it is one of my most significant concerns presently.

I truly enjoyed being able to interact, in another way, with the introspective part of me. I will continue performing this activity as long as I can, since it is also very interesting. The life compasses helped me reflect on aspects of my internal journey, like my spirituality, creativity, emotions, and physical aspects on a daily basis. For then, I could know where I had to reinforce these to be a better person every day. Here, I saw a clear connection between my internal and external journeys and how they affected each other. Finally, in this journal I recorded some of my dreams as Carl Yung does in his book; to know more these writings, I invite you to read my previous entry, Daily Writing, Remembering Dreams.

The front cover of my journal is a collage I made with 
cut outs from magazines to represent my external journey.

The back cover of my journal is a collage I made with 
cut outs from magazines to represent my internal journey.

Daily Writing, Remembering Dreams☼

       As soon as I wake up, most of the times I can remember my dreams, and sometimes they are the reason I wake up in the middle of the night. Some are vivid; some are blurry ones, and some I can’t even recall. But what is curious about them is their meaning, if they have any. Recently, I did the technique of writing about your dreams as soon as you woke up, and try remembering as much as possible. Having done this activity for some days, one can then look back at them and in these; one might discover an aspect of oneself or of one’s personality that is hidden in the unconsciousness. As Carl Young says in his book, “Soon I realized it was right to take dreams in this way as the basis of interpretation.” It’s interesting his reflection of writing his own dreams; he saw it as art and that his unconscious was forming a personality that was not him.

         It worked for me; although I might not be sure of the exact meaning of them, I can make inferences and learn about my unconscious, which is the one “working” while sleeping. I also believe though that’s not always true because in dreams, where I find myself in situations that happened to me in real life, I feel like if I had the knowledge of what to do or if something is wrong. Therefore, I believe there’s a connection between the conscious, which knows the outcome of a situation and the unconscious, which is experiencing or creating the situation at that moment in my dreams. Neither do I want to leave behind the fact that dream interpretation is a complicated topic, for there are innumerable perceptions about dreams.  

         Last night I dreamt that I was on the beach, just walking in the sand as if heading nowhere, and then I found my family. I recall that suddenly I found myself in another place with my high school classmates, and we were at a fancy party wearing long dresses and having quite fun. I have the perception I felt somehow lost or lonely; here’s the part where I say my unconscious intertwines with my conscious and I get the present feeling, but in an unreal situation, which is my dream. I’m not sure what that means, but it definitely says something about me. Lately, in most of my dreams, I have the thought that a tsunami is going to occur, so I’m always wondering about that, too. As for last night I woke up at midnight, but I cannot remember what happened in the dream that caused me to wake up. Most or the time these are vivid or colorful, for I can see the faces of people in them clearly, and even recognize the feelings I experience while I’m in my dreams.