THE PEOPLING OF NEW YORK: MHC @ Lehman

First of all I would like to say that I really enjoyed reading these excerpts from books. It’s been really difficult for me to think of something to spark but here it goes:

One of the most interesting things I saw from the “Bread Givers” excerpt was the fact that the father did not work. The father spent all day and night reading the Torah while he said that women were only lucky to get into heaven and only if they were good at serving men which is the exact thing that they would do in heaven. While the father, man of the house, studied all day his daughters and wife went around begging and looking for work. And even though the family was struggling to eat and hadn’t paid their rent in two months the thought of looking for work never crossed his mind. He was treated like a king when he got home and never thought that he should try to take care of his family. What do all of you think about the way the father lived his life and the way he never looked for work even though the family could barely live?
The other part to this that was interesting was the way that their daughter Mashah would spend money on “lavish” things for herself despite the fact that her family was always struggling. Yes she gave most of her money to her parents but she could have always given more. I have been thinking about the way she acted and I still can’t decide whether or not I dislike or like her. For one thing she was taking care of herself when she knew that no one else would and she would be positive because of that fact. On the other hand things may have been easier had she helped her family more. What do all of you think about Mashah’s behavior?
The last part of this would be the way the father slapped the landlord in the face until she bled and ran away. I would have to say that this was one of the few things I liked about the father. It showed that he would stand up for himself and for his Torah, but I feel like he should have stood up for and done more for his family. The landlord definitely deserved her small beating. The youngest daughter, I feel, was the best with the way she went out and sold the herring and made a 25 cents profit. I loved the way she was so eager to help her family even though it would mean more work for her.

I really also enjoyed reading the “Primitive BX” excerpt. I loved imagining exactly how the people of this time looked in these days when the borough was not almost completely Black and Hispanic. I also loved the contrast to the bread givers excerpt. Here the immigrants were not struggling to live and were actually living comfortably enough to go to the movies and go to school while only having their parents working, which was a refreshing surprise. Even though they lived in tenements you could tell their lives were much easier and actually had their own bathroom. The Leibowitzses were really interesting in their way of separating themselves from the rest of the neighborhood because they thought of them as bad influences. This family was fighting assimilation as much as possible and eventually moved to a more pious neighborhood where they would have much more in common with their neighbors.

And finally I enjoyed the excerpt from the Garcia Girls. Reading the story made me miss Puerto Rico so much and just made me want to go over there to live, which I will eventually do. I could completely understand her feelings of never feeling at home in the United States. Does anyone else feel this way? Does anyone else feel more at home in the country of their ancestors or their own home? And does anyone else agree that when in passionate instances you revert back to your native language no matter how often you have stayed away from practicing it? I know that whenever I’m angry or happy or surprised I speak and think in Spanish. And whenever I’ve been in Puerto Rico for a while I start to forget English words. I also know that I call the love of my life el amor de mi vida mi carino and other things but almost exclusively in Spanish do I explain my love. How does everyone else feel?

I would first off like to thank Professor Lobel and Macaulay for allowing us to have this food tour. It was a great experience and created a very interesting juxtaposition between the present sites we saw today and the past world described in Bread Givers. After seeing the vacant buildings and other gentrified places it’s almost impossible to imagine the crowded bustling cramped past life that existed in those very streets. But still with historic places like Russ and Daughters and the proud isolated aging synagogue one can very clearly paint a picture of the past. It is ironic however to consider the great pains people suffered to get out of these houses and now the immense popularity the “east village” has. After today’s tour I am very excited for the Arthur avenue tour and know it will be interesting to compare the present there with the past described in Lafontaine Near Tremont. But to think of the packed life and truly cramped existence a family spent in utter poverty is almost unfathomable to conceive. All that competition for labor, all the hardships a family had to face. I dare say it was exciting and terrifying to read but it brings up my first ponder or this “sparker’s” question. As described in the Bread Givers, the competition was unreal. Yezierska describes an unruly crowd that had to be controlled by officers and after waiting hours only two girls were hired. It is hard to compare this to anything but it did make me wonder; does competition breed a superior employee, student, salesperson, etc, or rather does necessity create a superior person or for lack of a better word a true hero? According to the Bread Givers necessity creates this person. We clearly see our 10-year-old protagonist known by her German nickname “Blut und Eisen” (blood and iron) rise and succeed out of necessity without real competition from other girls as described previously through the details of the unruly crowd. This is a question that can be applied to all facets of life and therefore is quite interesting to me. I do not think there is a definite answer but I believe that competition is a mere formality and not necessarily a determinant factor, but rather that necessity will always breed a hero. That is if there is a need there will conversely be an equal will. In other words the person working is only as great as their need. Agree or disagree, expand or contract.
Many of you may agree that Gastropolis proves time and time again to be an enjoyable read. I thoroughly enjoyed this chapter and can identify fully with Manalansan’s description of the “Orient (or) Empire Express.” As Joe Salvo recommended and so do I a ride a along the 7 train is an interesting sightseeing experience. One can clearly see through the elevated stops of Woodside, Jackson Heights, and Flushing the unique neighborhoods, restaurants, and stores that exist. Seated on the 7 train you can clearly see where neighborhoods, borders, and ethnic settlements for that matter begin and intermittingly intersect. It is a true example of fusion in completely unique places. Manalansan states that he did not write in a particular order and did not try to string together any particular story but indeed the story of each neighborhood and its inhabitants was a link enough. He brings up a very curious point that I would like to ask all of you. Does food locate or “dislocate” people? I would say it does both and perhaps in equal proportions. As illustrated in this chapter the interviewed people maintained certain passions and pride concerning their ethnically diverse neighborhoods and eating establishments. Sunita of Indian decent for example had a love of dim sum and a pride of her Flushing neighborhood. I am an Italian American and share both of these things with Sunita. Yet two of the chapter’s subjects Pete, the second generation Filipino American, and John, a second generation Korean American, both had childhoods deplete of cross-cultural eating experiences. In fact Pete’s childhood consisted of generic American fast food deplete of any cultural meals other than his grandmother’s authentic cooking that he had for a short period. John’s childhood was filled every day only with Korean food that his grandmother also prepared. Either way both particular people led lives that until adulthood were deplete of experiencing another culture’s cuisine. In other words these two individuals were dislocated by food. My question is this does food bring other cultures together or isolate them more so? I would wager as I previously stated that it does an equal amount of both. Certainly an ethnic store creates a certain amount of comfort and therefore people of that ethnicity settle near that store or eating establishment to be closer to “home.” Does this pattern of settling isolate particular cultures in small ethnic clusters, or does it open doors of experience to other cultures? Do you think that some people by settling like this never assimilate and continue to shop and eat only in their own culture’s facilities? In Flushing one can see the gamma of ethnicities enjoying cuisine that is certainly not a part of their ancestral lineage. One can walk into an Italian, Greek, Korean, Chinese, Salvadorian, or Japanese shop or restaurant where the only language spoken is that countries appropriate language. If an explorer of foreign tastes ventures into one of these places, which is not uncommon and is usually welcomed, purchases are often made through a transaction of points, counting on fingers, and smiles. But indeed the question remains does this clustering intimidate other cultures or individuals and thus keep ethnicities isolated or do these clusters intermingle freely? Clearly cultures meet and blend, for fusion in culinary establishments is fairly common in New York, yet isolation exists for nothing is an absolute “melting pot.” So which if either is more prevalent?

Wow, Chris, you wrote sooo much!
Sadly, I was unable to attend the tour this Saturday- so hopefully it went well and I guess I’ll be hearing about it in class on Tuesday. In relation to Chris’s first question on whether competition breeds a superior employee/person, etc. or if it is necessity, I believe that it is a combination of both- but leaning more towards the competition side. Even though in Bread Givers it says that necessity creates the person – as it proves that even without competition one can still excel, I find that it is competition that really drives people to succeed. When people mark down how successful they are, and it is common knowledge of ones success (or unsuccess), I feel as though others feel the need to champ them. It is human nature to wish to be the best at something, or the most respected, and if there is no competition someone can even feel the need to still be on top, which is a strange form of competition- does everyone know what I am trying to say? It’s hard to type out…
I think that food brings people together– even if it is variations of a particular dish, the culture that revolves around food is an interesting one. Even the formality of sitting around a table, the certain mannerisms that are looked towards (or not) revolve a lot around food. I think that in many different cultures the family meal is one of the most important things- it is highlighted so much as a way of bringing people together, of strengthening families in more ways than just getting ones nutrients.
I can certainly see how “clustering” can make one feel uncomfortable. For instance, my very white friend recently traveled to India. I was asking her about how it felt to be the odd one out for the first time in her life- truly- and she admitted it was difficult to get used to- it’s funny, in almost every one of her photos someone is giving her the death stare! This is not to say that people aren’t welcoming (even though sometimes people aren’t) but it is just an adjustment that both parties need to get used to. The way that everything fuses is something that often happens with time, and as people become accustomed.

Thanks Chris and Cynthia for your sparks. You both brought up very interesting questions. And like Chris, I want to thank Macaulay and Professor Lobel for our interesting and exciting food tour today. It’s amazing how you can walk through a neighborhood and actually see stores and buildings that make up so much of the history of a place.
I agree with you, Chris, that both competition and necessity create a superior person, or true hero. There can never be a definite answer, it varies from person to person. If I had to generalize, however, I would say that necessity plays a larger role in creating a hero. When I think competition, although it might be genuine, it is more for selfish reasons, to prove to yourself or someone else that you are better at something, whereas necessity is something shared among people that rises out of the will to survive.
I believe that food can bring cultures together, but can’t isolate them from one another. For example, Sunita was introduced to foods of different cultures than her own and as a result feels a stronger connection to those cultures. John and Pete, on the other hand, weren’t “dislocated” from other cultures because of food. They were dislocated from other cultures because they weren’t given a chance to explore them.
In “Bread Givers,” the way that the father lived his life was very peculiar. Usually when I think of older generations, I remember learning that it was the man’s job to put the food on the table and the woman’s job to take care of housework and the children. In this case its the woman and children that are taking care of the man (who believes he’s the superior one, with no job or anything)! The way this family worked really upset me, because if I believe that if he thought he was ready to have a wife and kids he should have been ready to work to support them- or at least try. And Cynthia, I’ve got to say, I, too, loved the way the little 10 year old girl, ‘Blut-und-Eisen’, at her age was as smart as she was. It seemed like she cared a lot more about her family than Mashah.

First of all, I want to agree with Chris—the tour was a really fun experience; I got to taste things I’ve never tasted before and I found out that there was such a thing as a full sour and a half sour pickle. I also got to learn about Economy Candy, which is amazing—I will definitely go back for more candy!

I really enjoyed this week’s readings, especially in comparison to the previous ones. I’d have to say my favorite reading was the first one: “The Bread Givers.” In this passage, you get to meet people with all different personality types in a single household. The father who doesn’t seem to see their family situation as a problem, the mother who is the one with all the worries in her head, Mashah who doesn’t care for anything but her beauty, and Sara who wants to earn money as a business woman. I’d have to agree with Cynthia that I found it very peculiar that the man of the house was just sitting about at home, doing absolutely nothing to provide for the family. As Anna mentioned, I assumed that during the older times, it was the priority of the men to go out and hold a job to provide for the family, but in this case, the man was sitting at home and using religion as an excuse to not do anything.

I also found Mashah to be an interesting character—despite their barely surviving, she manages to look good for herself and the world. Even though, I have to agree that in such a tight situation, spending money on things that are unnecessary is a stupid move, it also better shows her character. She is one of those people who will find what little she has to make herself happy even if she is not rich.

I enjoyed reading the “Garcia Girls” as well, because it really got me craving guavas, also! Back in Bangladesh, my cousins had a guava tree and I remember watching them pick them out for us because we “Americans” wouldn’t be able to. I assumed that this way of judging Americans only happened in Bangladesh, but I guess it happens all around the globe. However, in response to Cynthia’s question, I feel more at home in the United States rather than in Bangladesh, only because I have lived here my whole life so my lifestyle is very different from theirs. In the same way, I rant more in English when I get mad, because my angry Bengali words just sound silly. =(

Thank you for the tour of the Lower East Side yesterday; it was truly enlightening and is especially meaningful since it sheds more light on the neighborhood in which I live.

As for whether competition or necessity is more compelling a force, I feel the two motives can be used interchangeably. Competition is a form of Darwinian survival: being the best means that one can survive, which equates competition with necessity. Often, those who have suffered early in life, such as immigrants, turn out to be the most competitive, since they know what it is like to feel deprived, and have determined never to feel that way again. (This brings to mind Lily Bart in “The House of Mirth.”)

The role of the father in Chapter 1 of the historical novel “The Bread Givers,” was troubling. In fact, most of the roles were, since they pegged each character as either vain or hardworking. But the role of the father was especially troublesome, with his contentment with unemployment and degradation of women. From my impressions of what we previously studied, Jewish male immigrants to the Lower East Side did not sit at home piously studying the Torah. Instead, they were working at factories, peddling, tailoring, and opening businesses, and especially, saving money to finance the voyages of the rest of their families to America. The fact that the landlady chastises the father suggests that his behavior was not the norm.

The excerpts from “Bronx Primitive” and “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” were a nice contrast, since they both detail typical scenes in their lives, especially their interactions with their relatives, yet both excerpts are profoundly different. It is also interesting to note how global differences can be depicted just by the act of picking fruit; namely, women cannot drive unaccompanied in the Dominican Republic, nor get dirty by climbing and poking around in the soil. The “Gastropolis” chapter also used juxtaposition as a tool to compare the three individuals and their exploring of their childhood experiences, each vastly different, yet nostalgic, each in his or her own way.

To start off, i really enjoyed the walking tour of the lower east side. The places we visited reminded us of the cultuire of the neighborhood a hundred years back, and its fascinating how some, but few, still exist. I thought the Bread Givers reading was very interesting, and can show us what the main priorities were of easter euroean jewish settlers in the early 1900’s. Yezierska along with the rest of the women in the family are out looking for jobs for food and to pay the rent that they are already backed up on, while the father sits at home and reads the Torah. How important was religion and the practice of it in a foreign land for the easter european jews? Answering Chris’ question, i do believe that competition could eventually breed a “hero”. For these immigrant families who needed money to survive, the cmopetition for jobs is at a rise. It reminds me of how much competition there is today for jobs after so many people have lost their jobs as a result of the economic depression. Anyway, im pretty sure that the competition would in fact be better at whatever they are doing than tohers. Competition triggers motivation, and high motivation applied to anything results in “good work”.

I think that food can contribute to both bringing cultures together and isolating them. There is always competition in diverse neighborhoods for business, so that can isolate, but at the same time people are always seeking to try new things. I once went to a Thai food place which served their food in sandwiches. The bread replaced any rice and noodles that would have been in the dish. I think that is a perfect example of how food fusion can bring different cultures closer together. At the same time, there are certain things that i would not dare try, because it is just TOO bizarre. I think that the foods we eat also depend on assimilation. There are many people that only eat fast food, but are of a different culture. Ter reason being because they have assimilated, but there are others who don’t.

I really enjoyed reading this week’s readings because they are short and simple, having I be able to pull out different cultural elements from them. The religious and cultural elements in “The Bread Giver” and “How the Garcia girls lost their accent” is an ironic hybrid of immigration, in terms of how the father of Mashah holds tightly onto religion as a way out of poverty and the Garcia girls who couldn’t grasp onto their culture/ tradition as they visited their family in D.R.

As I finished reading “the Bread Giver”, I was really mad about the passive attitude projected from the Jewish father; he overly relied on religion as the way out of his poor situation and ignored the family who could barely pay for the rent and food. He seemed useless in the family because all he did was reading the books and Torah. On the other hand, the Garcia girls who returned to Dominican Republic seemed out of place even though they tried to be a true Dominican as they are American who had gone through “wrong turns and wrong husbands”. It was funny to read that little Jose was crying because the guard didn’t believe him that Dominicans would drive at night to look for guavas.

I liked the narrative quality of these readings (much like the short ones we did in class about the girls on Orchard street,) since they provide a much more subjective view on the positions of the immigrants telling the stories. The fact that it is an immigrant telling his/her own story, and relating names and experiences makes the reading more entertaining and ultimately helps the details stick better in my head. Simply put, the circumstances that prevailed in NYC, late 19th century are portrayed more vividly through these first-hand accounts.
In response to Cynthia’s comment regarding The Bread Givers, I also thought it was VERY weird for the father not to work. The father also seemed almost delusional to a point when he suggested his intention to convert Americans into Muslims, and that they would be rich after that point. In the end though, I don’t feel that I can judge the characters in these stories for their beliefs and personalities. I guess this was reflective of the sort of glamorous image outsiders have of the U.S. that isn’t really true.

I too want to thank Professor Lobel for the tour of the Lower East Side. I’m not familiar with that area at all but it was so bizarre to look at those locations and think back to the movie and old pictures we saw. In all honesty, I probably wouldn’t have gone into any of those stores had it not been for the tour. But I”m glad I did because it was definitely a valuable learning experience.

To answer the question Chris posed, “Does food locate or “dislocate” people?” I think that food neither locates nor dislocates people but it defines people and/or an area. You know what type of area you’re sometimes just because of the restaurants and the grocery stores.

In the Bread Givers, as everyone mentioned above, I thought that the father seemed to be living in his own little world and making up some of the rules, because his ideas were certainly not what’s written in the Torah. To just sit there and not do anything when your family doesn’t have enough food to eat is a matter beyond pride and because of that I think that he was delusional.

And to respond to Cynthia’s question, do you feel that you’re not completely home in the US? I would have to say that yeah, sometimes I do feel that way. Usually I feel like this is my home and I wouldn’t leave it for any place on Earth, but every once in a while something happens and I step back and think “These aren’t my people”. It hits hard and suddenly, and when I go back to Pakistan after about a week of adjusting, I don’t want to come back home because I realize how much I’m missing.

Since Professor Lobel said that we always write more than enough, I’m aiming to keep my post short, sweet, and simple. With my luck, this post will end up being too short, but whatever. I first want to agree with Chris in his comment on Sunday’s walking tour. I did enjoy myself, and it was nice getting visual cues to go with everything we have been reading in class regarding tenements, ethnic neighborhoods, and food cultures. So thank you, Professor Lobel.

Cynthia asked our opinion of the father and of Mashah in the ‘Bread Givers’ excerpt. I think that both of them deserve a slap in the face, maybe two. For the father to take so much and do so little, taking the best room in the apartment and eating the best food available, while sitting around all day reading the Torah while his wife and daughters struggle to survive, there is no way he can call himself a man. A real man makes it his first responsibility to provide for his family, and if he cannot provide at times, he should put his family before himself. Instead, the father does the exact opposite, refusing to look for work, and only worrying about himself. Cynthia said that she liked how the father slapped the landlord and that the landlord deserved this. I could not disagree more with that. The landlord was not wrong in demanding rent. She had already given them an extra month to come up with the money, and she needs to provide for herself as well. The landlord was right in yelling at the father when she told him to go out and find work to pay the rent, because that is exactly what he should do. On to Mashah. I’m not sure who between the father and Mashah is worse. The absolute ignorance of Mashah to go about her business the way she does is appalling. While her mother and sisters are begging for work and struggling around her, she is able to block it all out and live in a world where only she matters. If I were the mother, I would quickly throw Mashah, her pink hat, and all her fancy belongings out into the street.

One of Chris’ questions asked if competition breeds a superior employee, student, or salesperson, or does necessity create a superior person? I would say that competition absolutely does create a better employee or student. I think if an employee is in a position at a job and they know that their position is much sought after and there are 100 people in line ready to take their job, it will always keep them on their toes. If someone was in a low demand job, they could afford to slack off and not give 100%, and likely would. So I think job competition would have the opposite affect, and would always motivate a worker to perform to their maximum.

“Bread Givers” was a very enjoyable narrative. It’s interesting to read how being able to bathe at any time of the day and have separate knives and forks, or to have a marble bathtub, were considered “millionaire things” that “rich people” had. These details make the narrative that much more real and informative—you really get to see the significant contrast between today and then. And I just wanted to mention how I adore Marsha. Her love for clothing and the way she makes such an effort to keep her things in good condition is admirable. I don’t think buying a lot of things is necessarily wasting money. However, when the family is in a depressing state, it’s not fair for everyone else when one member of the family is buying things that are not necessary. And I agree with everyone else, it was heartening to find that the entire family pretty much depended on Bessie. Where’s the man in the family (not that women can’t bring in the bread, but a man should be there to help out)? It’s not fair for the all that load to be on one lady’s shoulder.

I certainly believe food brings people together. So many different ethnicities of people enjoy Chinese food, and that (and the “Made in China” products they have) might be the only connection to the Chinese for many people. And in the smaller picture, sometimes families get together for “mom’s famous roast” or “uncle’s steaks,” where they otherwise wouldn’t have had a reason to meet up.

As to the question of whether necessity or competition makes the superior person, I think it’s both. Necessity is a great force, but it can only bring the person so far. Afterwards, it’s competition that gives the person the drive to do more. At the same time, without necessity, competition would not matter. If something isn’t a necessity for you, why begin to compete for it? (I may be confusing myself here.) For the most part, everyone has a certain necessity, and it’s the competitive factor that distinguishes individuals. But the question can be interpreted in various way and have various reasoning for all sides of the argument.

Do I feel not-at-home sometimes? Rarely or never. The only time I might feel somewhat away from home is if I just came back from a visit to Bangladesh. But even when I am there, I miss my home and friends here. I guess it depends on how often you visit your native country, or how long you grew up there. For me, this is my home, this is where most of my friends are, and I just love it here.

First of all I would like to say thank you so much for allowing us the opportunity to go out and experience a neighborhood where in the past I only visited once and it was to help my friend buy a pair of $ 120 shoes where she haggled down to $90 =D yay ^^ But that was then and this is now and If it seems a bit short, I would love to write a lot but I am using borrowed internet so I cant really talk for so much.

In the “bread givers” I found it very disturbing the father did not work and the wife and kids needed to do everything. I also found that in some ways I was like Mashah. Mashah said “It ain’t my fault if the shops are closed. If I take my lunch money for something pretty that I got to have, it don’t hurt you none.” I used to do that o.O. I would save my monies to buy something later on even if it meant stomaching the nasty school food chicken or not eating at all. The reason I did it was not for my own greed but for my brother; he always helps me with anything, even if he is ounger then me so I can take a few blows for something he really wants once in a while.
Although I am not concentrated on beauty like her xD

Reading about the primitive Bx life was very interesting. So the Bronx isn’t all just Blacks and Hispanics xD kidding but seriously I was extremely intrugied. I knew that Castle Hill had a European history because of one place called Joe and Joe, but I don’t know much about Sound View. It is great reading about the history of the place before one group moves away, In the case of the Bronx the Europeans leaving the Bronx is called the White Flight.

Finally reading the “Garcia Girls” made me feel grateful that at least I know a bit of Spanish and I keep ties to one of my cultural groups =/ I kind of want to go to El Salvador and Japan to get closer to both of these groups. I feel like I’ve been neglecting both of the groups and I only speak English although I can understand and read Spanish easily.

Personally I don’t think it is as simple as either competition or necessity breeding superiority in an employee, especially considering the two aren’t mutually exclusive, necessarily. However I’d have to say the more effective of the two, when it comes to motivation, would have to be competition. As Chris mentioned, the will is generally equal to the need. So, even if someone truly needs money, they will still only work as hard as is necessary to not get fired. With someone breathing down their neck though, always willing to take their job and do it better, anybody would work harder and show their boss it’s worth keeping them. Still, things as simple as each individual’s personality will also affect their ability to work hard. As long as someone is motivated, that person will work hard regardless of their necessity.

In regards to whether food locates or “dislocates” someone, I suppose I don’t fully understand the question. Dislocates may just sound a bit too extreme to me, but I don’t think that truly describes anybody. Maybe it’s just that we have gotten too used to this city, but people HERE are placed by the fact that they can enjoy so many cultures within such a small space. Elsewhere, Sunita would never have developed a love for dim sum, but her diverse pallet is what identifies her. It’s what makes this city unique. So even while it is not her food, it still locates her.

I really enjoyed reading this week’s readings because they are short and simple, having I be able to pull out different cultural elements from them. The religious and cultural elements in “The Bread Giver” and “How the Garcia girls lost their accent” is an ironic hybrid of immigration, in terms of how the father of Mashah holds tightly onto religion as a way out of poverty and the Garcia girls who couldn’t grasp onto their culture/ tradition as they visited their family in D.R.

As I finished reading “the Bread Giver”, I was really mad about the passive attitude projected from the Jewish father; he overly relied on religion as the way out of his poor situation and ignored the family who could barely pay for the rent and food. He seemed useless in the family because all he did was reading the books and Torah. On the other hand, the Garcia girls who returned to Dominican Republic seemed out of place even though they tried to be a true Dominican as they are American who had gone through “wrong turns and wrong husbands”. It was funny to read that little Jose was crying because the guard didn’t believe him that Dominicans would drive at night to look for guavas.
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Just to put this out… The mac in the IT center seems to have some weird detector. It didn’t allow me to post my comment because I was reusing some similar phrases from people who posted before me.

I was completely shocked by the behavior of the family in “Bread Givers.” They needed to learn how to work together as a family rather than being selfish. In response to Cynthia’s questions, I think the father’s behavior and attitude were appalling. How could he act so holier-than-thou when his family was poor and starving? He took everything from the family without giving anything in return. And the fact that he preached that women couldn’t read the Torah and that their only job was to serve men (on Earth and in Heaven) was disgusting. And Mashah’s behavior wasn’t much better. How could she be so oblivious to the plight of her family? She wasted her money on nice things for herself that she didn’t need, when she could provide food and rent for her family. But I disagree with Cynthia about the father slapping the landlady in the face. As a tenant, you are responsible for paying the rent. As a landlord, you are responsible for collecting the rent. The landlady was just doing her job, plus she had given the father extra time to come up with rent money.

In response to Chris, does food locate or dislocate people? I would definitely say that food brings people together. Within your own culture, food can make you feel at home and bring your family together. Outside your own culture, food can open the doors to other cultures. I love trying other ethnic cuisines!

Does the pattern of settling in clusters isolate particular cultures or does it open doors of experience to other cultures? I think it does both. Staying inside your particular ethnic cluster can definitely isolate you from other people and other cultures, but if you travel outside of your ethnic cluster into other ethnic clusters, you can gain a rich experience of another culture. It would be nice if people settled in an integrated manner, though, rather than segregating themselves.

In answer to Chris’ question about whether or not food brings people together or separates them, I think it can go both ways. Someone from one culture may not be comfortable eating a particular food, or may even have an entirely different way of eating. I know in many Asian cultures, for example, people do not sit on chairs to eat, but rather sit on the floor. Not only culturally, but even personally food may have this effect of separating people. Vegetarians may be faced with the predicament of avoiding meat, which may be impossible in some situations (although nowadays it is pretty easy to find vegetarian dishes anywhere, or at least you can request something vegetarian). But more often than not, I think food does have this great power to bring people together. Not only can food function as a means of preserving tradition, it can even mitigate problems. I grew up with the idea that the dinner-table was a place to get together, and not a place to take out our frustration. So I think in its best function, food not only carries on tradition, but can even be a form of catharsis.

The father not contributing to the family’s income was odd because I usually hear that a man is pampered due to his hard work. At the same time I think this is him refusing to assimilate because he grew up in another culture. I understand that focusing on religious studies was what was expected of men in their country but in their current situation it made him the most selfish, irrational, and stubborn person in the house. His irrationality and stubbornness is seen when he tells his wife that his books are more necessary in America than utensils and beds. I viewed the argument with the landlady as a wakeup call for him to break from tradition since it doesn’t apply to his situation.
I think that Mashah is a self centered person who needs perspective. Her “it’s all about me” attitude is seen in the fact that she sets aside some of her earnings to buy beauty items or clothes and her cluelessness about why they don’t have dinner prepared when she gets home. I found it interesting that she and her father both mentioned America as a place of material wealth and not as a land of opportunities. One would think that they would expect that all the material things are gotten by hard work but the father studies all day and only Mashah works.
I agree food identifies your location or your background. If I mentioned that I get beef patties at Golden Krust people wouldn’t be able to tell me where I lived but they would be able to narrow it down to a few choices. In order for food to “dislocate” or isolate a person does not have to go to that extent of only experiencing one culture’s cuisine. I’ve had Jamaican food in the past but now I mostly eat pasta for dinner. I think you can separate yourself from the main culture with one item. For example, an adult at my church was surprised that willingly ate fish at ten years old. To me, eating fish was normal, but to her fish was a “mature” food.

The bread winner’s excerpt was certainly my favorite this week. =)
This is not the first time I have read the standard family model of women work, men dont do anything, I find it particular, that later, the roles were reversed in that women were not allowed to work, and the man was the sole provider. In angela’s ashes, I saw this same thing going on, most of the men just sat around reading, talking among themselves, while they’re familes went around begging and looking for work(though there are some profound differences, the men in Angela’s ashes were certainly not Jewish)

To Chris question concerning food. It certainly can bring people together or rip them apart, I for one am a very picky eater, and so I don;t usually go out with my friends to eat because well, they like a food I absolutely abhor….Sushi. And the people I live with are sushi fiends, so its very hard trying to go out to a nice social dinner when all I hear is CALIFORNIA ROLL, SHRIMP TEMPURA! “INSERT OTHER WEIRD NAME OF FOOD”!