Tag Archives: Homework

Visiting BHS

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After visiting BHS, over the semester it has been a informal experience. Learning about how Brooklyn used to be and what it is now is amazing. I see all the neighborhoods and how much has stayed the same and also how much has changed. I got to see that Coney Island was still a place where people could enjoy themselves. Viewing the ads for the run away slaves,I had to pay close attention to the details that the slave-owners would write specific things about their slaves but the value for wanting them back was very low. It told me that there was a chance for that if the slave was returned that they would be killed or tortured.

Reading the letter for the slave asking his owner to buy his freedom was very different. One, because slaves weren’t educated and two most couldn’t buy their freedom because they didn’t have much money and three their owners wouldn’t allow it because they still wanted to keep them. Overall, after all my three visits to BHS i have gained alot of information that i would have never knew about without attending the class sessions held their. Presenting to the class was a good experience, it made me feel more comfortable to present in front of classmate because i knew what i would say. Group 6; was the group i was in and i believed that we worked great together and accomplished our goal.

Why does Sethe go to the Clearing? To connect with Baby Suggs

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Sethe feels that she needs to go to the clearing where Baby Suggs is going to preach. Baby Suggs does not give a preach but tells black individuals to be themselves to love, dance, smile and to love their bodies. Sethes decides to go there to show appreciation to Halle but also she feels as she has to find common interests with Baby Suggs spirits. It then comes to her mind that Baby suggs passed away in anguish, sorrow and poisoned by the whites without any hope for the future. When Amy had departed and Sethe was by herself, she walked until she discovered a black man with two young boys. The black man was Stamp paid who gave her material goods such as eel and and a coat so she can carry her young one. He had left her at a station by herself, where a woman named Ella had come to pick her up from the station. Ella bought Sethe to Baby Suggs. Baby Suggs gave Sethe a bath. Slowly Sethe began her life as a free woman. Sethe had finally seen her third child since she sent her with the railroad. Sethe was very happy that she was free now as a slave she felt as if it was still a dream. When Sethe was at the clearing with Denver and Beloved, Sethe tries to feel Baby Suggs existence. Sethe has all these imaginary thoughts and feelings about Baby Suggs. Sethe also decides she wants Paul D back in her life.

 

Brooklyn Historical Society

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This picture called “View of North side of 65th st showed me how Brooklyn might have looked like in the story of, “only the dead know Brooklyn” give me a visual perception of the setting of the story where he might of gone to. the picture shows buildings and cars parked infront of the buildings. Perhaps those buildings are still there to this very day if we go visit that place may look virtually unchanged maybe different cars and more modern things but essentially the same thing.

This is the first time i have ever visited or even heard of the Brooklyn historical society. it was an interesting experience, i did not know what to expect. it sounded like a secret organization like the freemasons but it had interesting things and amazing architecture and interior design. it was like going back in time to the 1800’s or early 1900’s. also this is the first time i learn about more places in brooklyn ive never really explored brookyn like that ive never been other places other than coney island and until now downtown brooklyn when i first started in city tech

The BHS Experience.

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Our recent visit to the Brooklyn Historical society was very beneficial to my understanding of my hometown and also of our reading of “Only The Dead Know Brooklyn.” I had no knowledge of the Brooklyn Historical society prior to this class and once I heard about this trip I was looking forward to it. I can now say that I enjoyed the trip, not just because we got to leave the classroom but I found everything about the BHS so interesting and inspiring. I loved the architecture, and the mood of the building. It isn’t like a mundane public library. The resources are rare and precious and the BHS is very cautious about how their resources are shared with the public.

Being there was also constructive because we were able to have a hands-on experience with the materials. The group I worked with had a display of two maps of Brooklyn. One map was a railroad map and the other was a transit map. We also had folders that contained photographs of scenes in Brooklyn in much earlier times. I particularly studied a photo that showed the beach at Coney Island from the summer of 1958. I, along with one of the BHS hosts had noticed that many of these beach-goers were fully dressed in the summer time. I thought that this could be attributed to the different culture at the time and maybe people were more reserved in the way they dressed, even at the sunny beach.

Our study of the maps went along very well with our reading of “Only The Dead Know Brooklyn.” In the story “the big guy” claimed to use a map to find his way around Brooklyn. He found he’s way to Bensonhurst, Flatbush, and Red Hook. I found this interesting because these neighborhoods are not exactly very close to each other, and I mentally made a comparison to the time this story took place (it was published in 1935) and today and how maps are hardly used. Every now and then I’ll see a subway passenger squinting at a map, but technology has advanced and nowadays many people use GPS or search for directions online. One can make the argument that technology has made us lazy in this regard because reading a map successfully requires extra effort.

One thing I must point out, however, is that I could not locate Red Hook on the transit map I studied. I just could not find it, but I was indeed able to find “Bensenhoist.” Brooklyn is a very big and deep borough, and I agree that one may never able to to know Brooklyn through and through.

“The Cottagette” as a feminist text.

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“The Cottagette” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, can be looked at as a feminist text because of the year it was written and the tone of the story. By the early 1900’s women were fighting for their equality of rights. In either a relationship or marriage women had to be housewives and do all the household duties while their other halves worked. They stayed home all day either taking care of the children, doing  laundry, cooking, cleaning the typical role of the women was rarely questioned until women started to speak out saying they are able to do more than what society wanted them to do.

The reason why I can consider this a feminist text because Gilman says “Lois likes to do housework, but it spoils her hands for practicing… I always work best in the morning; but of course housework has to be done in the morning to; it is astonishing how much work there is in the littlest kitchen”(page 5, paragraph 5).  Here it clearly says that Lois likes what she has to do on a daily basis and you see this first hand on a woman’s perspective that enjoys what she does.  Also another reason why this can be viewed as a feminist text is when Gilman writes “The Cottagette” I loved unreservedly. It was so little and new and clean, smelling only of its fresh planed boards—they hadn’t even stained”(page 1, paragraph 9). It shows that she appreciates the little things in life.

The Cottagette is a symbol throughout the story which I believe represents all housewives, who have a little place in the house to call their own which is the kitchen. Where they are in control of what takes places in there and it’s what most men don’t interfere with, which is to keep the house in order. Gilman molds Lois, as the inspiration to most women who take pride in what they do.