Bianca Duarte's Blog

      In comparison to The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano , Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko definitely differs in many fundamental ways. As soon as I began reading, I noticed many major differences in style, voice, and my overall focus on the text. Equiano’s text is told from the first person point of view as he is speaking about his life and experiences, but Pachinko is told in a third person omniscient point of view. Another difference is how The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is an autobiography and Pachinko is historical fiction. I found reading Min Jin Lee’s to flow more and it was more interesting to me because within each chapter, so much had changed and as this text covers more generations, there isn’t necessarily any part I have read that is boring or repetitive. On the contrary, Equiano’s text was a bit slower at times for me as a reader, but that did not take away the importance and overall meaning behind the text. To ...

       The topic I was assigned for Colin’s visit is Korean Workers In Japan. The image I chose was an image of colonial workers recruiting workers in Korea to take to Japan. Due to the shortage of labor in the Japanese economy in the 1920’s, Koreans who wanted employment and educational opportunities migrated to Japan. At this time, most of the workers were mainly men, but there were women as well. These workers engaged in work involving physical labor because they were poorly educated and usually illiterate. The two jobs that were very populated by Koreans were mining and factories. According to the Stanford Program on International and Cross- Cultural Education,” Between 1939 and 1945, the Japanese government brought 700,000-800,000 Koreans to work in Japan.” A large amount of these Korean workers in Japan faced many difficulties such as racial discrimination and economic exploitation, and the Japanese nationals wanted the Koreans to fully assimilate to Japanese s...

       To begin with my reflection  on “The Experience” of slave ships, I appreciated how a general overview was included in the beginning of the page, because it allowed me to refresh my memory and make connections to the book. The branding and overall dehumanization of these slaves is unforgivable, however, it is good for this information to be taught. The heat, horrid conditions, and overall way of living these slaves were forced to live in is very disturbing, and I appreciated the inclusion of Equiano’s words regarding his experiences quoted from the text in order to add to the page as a whole. Moving onto the suicides in the slave ships, I found the quote, ” Through their life-ending actions they conveyed a duality of surrender and sacrifices boldly waged to reclaim power over their personal lives” to be very meaningful. Learning that the suicides of these slaves were only seen as a loss of profit for all involved instead of caring that they killed themselv...

       Our discussion from class was very eye opening for me because the different ideas presented in class developed my understanding of Equiano’s argument/feelings of slavery. Equiano has a very passive tone in his work and it seems like he doesn't want to anger anyone with his opinions in slavery. He does make comments regarding the issue and makes comments regarding treating slaves better, but he does not choose one side or the other. As one of my classmates stated, he may have chosen this stance because the list of subscribers contained people that were powerful and they had slaves. Equiano definitely had opinions on slavery and how slaves were treated, but he also did not want to ruffle any feathers which is why he could not pick a side and anger a certain group. He mentioned that if you treat your slaves better, they will work better, but he also does not mention completely abolishing slavery. As I was reading, I was a bit confused because of the slight contra...

       The first research excursion I viewed was Bella’s research excursion focused on the Aboriginal Experiences and Struggles Today. I appreciate how Bella started off her first paragraph with a short introduction of The Secret River in order to lead to her research excursion topic. Bella’s explanation of assimilation was very clear. It was interesting to learn that when “White Australia'' first emerged, it sought for a, “ ethnically homogeneous nation.” It is insane to continue learning about this subject and how much they wanted the Aboriginals to be completely gone. They did not have any concern for their lives which is very disturbing. I appreciated Bella’s inclusion of the word “ half castes” because learning that they were seen as superior to “full bloods” was something I did not know. Overall, Bella’s research excursion developed my understanding of the Aboriginal experiences and struggles today, and I appreciated all of the topics she covered. The next rese...

  I enjoyed all parts of the lecture, but the missing middle section was my favorite section. I enjoyed learning about the Aboriginal camps, although some parts of the lecture were devastating, it is good to learn and educate ourselves. At first, entering the topic of Aboriginal camps made me believe they were being taken care of and being educated(basic schooling), but learning that they were trying to integrate the Aboriginals into “white society” was a bit saddening. It made me realize how much culture was lost and I feel bad for those who were changed. It was very interesting to learn how the men were taught more manly jobs and the women were taught how to do more domestic jobs such as sewing or cooking. I compare this to life nowadays because now women are doing amazing things in male dominated fields, so recognizing that difference is great. Understanding that the Aboriginals were taught how to dress, pray, work, and speak as Americans was heartbreaking as well. One quote tha...

            To start off, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the Grenville group’s project. From the content to the visual aspects, all aspects of the project were very easy to view and the color scheme was simplistic, but it wasn’t too little at the same time. Overall, the final site was very easy to navigate, and each of the sections were interesting to read. Learning about the prison conditions in 18th century London was very interesting to me and one thing that was compelling to learn was the difference of being wealthy and poor in the prison system. It completely relates to life today because those with money in the prison system are able to make bail, but those without are stuck without any assistance. The quote included by Ben Johnson was very sad to read, but true and it embodies the feelings and experiences of a prisoner. I also enjoyed learning about Grand Larceny and I enjoyed learning how the jurors would purposely under assess the va...