Wednesday, April 7, 2010

2 comments

For this blog, I want to respond to two things, the first is Sonia’s blog post on Kiki and second, I want to respond to the movie, The Wonder Boys. In her blog post, Sonia mentions that Kiki is the “blackest” character while Levi tries too hard to be “urban”. Both Kiki and Levi lives in Wellington and interacts with “white” and “intellectual” people. Well, let me start-off by saying that I agree with the comment that Levi tries to be “urban”. But I think there is a purpose in his action. I think his purpose is trying to find his identity in Wellington. I think being biracial and living in a place like Wellington, Levis is confused of his identity and confused about how he should act. He is confused whether he should act “white” or he should act more “black”. Since he lives in this “white” town and is more “black” than most people. He tries to act “black” as that is what the town expects him to act. Thus, this brings me to my point of how should a “black” person act? What defines “black” or “blackest” character? Is being less polish black or urban characteristics or is that simply what the society thinks as characteristics of people from the “black” race? To me, I do not think Kiki is the “blackest” character. In fact, I do not see her as a character with race. I see Kiki as a strong woman who tries to maintain a family that is falling apart for many reasons. I see Kiki as a strong woman who tries hard to overcome the crisis of her husband cheating on her with someone she knows. She uses the word “brother” or might portrays to be acting “black” is because we, as a society, have a stenotype of how a black person should act and Kiki is simply conforming to the readers’ preconceive notion. I said this because in some ways I think her actions of trying to be “black” intentional rather than natural. I also think Zadie Smith put that in the novel to convey the shallow, and underlying racist nature of human being. This is then related to Jorden’s post. I completely agree with her. However, I don't think it is Smith that is trying to judge or use one size fits all system. I think she is criticizing the readers that are doing that. My second objective is to comment on the movie. I want to say that I think they should include Emily in the video rather than just show her in the picture. Putting Emily in the movie will allow many female viewers to be more sympathetic of her in a way. Emily, similar to Kiki, has to go through a hardship of facing her husband cheating on her with his colleague. I think showing her would give the emotion and recognition she deserves. If that makes sense at all.

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