Literature Across Cultures: Meyer- Week 6

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Meyer- Week 6

I am currently due with my second child next month. With my first child, she was born at the end of the school year so I was able to enjoy the entire summer with her so I never really thought about postpartum and the struggles that come with it. I was also lucky to have my mom able to watch it. With my second child, I am only allowed to take off six weeks. I have to use my sick days that cover the six weeks. If I want to take anymore time off they consider that " child bonding time" and I have to take deduct days and not get paid for it. Therefore, I am forced to drop my 6 week old baby off at a daycare and return to work. I feel like I will spend most of those six weeks worrying about my child because she will still be so long and about my own healing. When reading ": Learning form India's PostPartum Traditions," I can see that India puts a lot of importance on child birth and the healing process. They are concerned with the mother and want her to heal and be pampered and get lots of rest. They are receiving massages every day to help them feel rejuvinated. They are put on a special diet to help them and the baby. They are taught proper ways to care for their baby. They also learn how to deal with postpartum depression. I feel like these are a majority of things that get neglected in the United States. I feel like women are pressured to return to work quickly due to finances and never get the proper time to actually take care of themselves.

While reading " A Temporary Matter" by Jhumpa Lahiri, I do feel like if they were in India when their loss happened, they could have been able to survive the devastation and make it out together. I feel like this loss happening in the United States drew them further apart until they lost each other. The part that stuck out to me was when it was stated that her placenta had weakened and she’d had a cesarean, though not quickly enough. The doctor explained that these things happen. He smiled in the kindest way it was possible to smile at people known only professionally. Shoba would be back on her feet in a few weeks ( Lahiri,1998). When the doctor said that, I feel like they felt that they were supposed to be fine with losing their child because these kind of things happened. She was back to her feet in a couple weeks. If they were India, I feel like she would have still been given the proper grief counselor to help them cope with this and still been taken care of as she was in an even more vulnerable state leaving the hospital without her child.

Shoba's main goal was avoiding the situation and keeping herself distracted. Shukumar did not know how to help her cope with the situation and learned that avoiding it was easier. I do not blame Shoba for getting an apartment on her own. I feel like this is something they will never be able to recover from and the sad truth is that it is because they were away from India in a foreign country that did not put a lot of emphasis on their situation. I hope one day, immigrants can feel that they belong and can feel safe in a country that is not there own. This should make teachers more aware of how their own immigrant students can feel lost in our classrooms.

Resources:

Lahiri, J. (1998). A temporary matter. The New Yorker. https://moodle.morningside.edu/mod/resource/view.php?id=1149987

Learning from India’s postpartum traditions. Nutrition Care of Rochester. (n.d.). https://www.nutritioncareofrochester.com/article.cfm?ArticleNumber-30

Religions - Hinduism: Baby rites. BBC. (2009). https://www.bbc.co.uk/religions/hinduism/ritesrituals/bab.shtml

2 comments:

Brenna LJuly 10, 2024 at 1:44 PM
Rachel,
You make some very great points. It seems that in our American culture women are not cared for as they are in almost any other country. We are also one of the worst countries regarding maternity leave; especially in regards to not being paid. Almost every other country promotes paid maternity leave, and even paternity leave, so as to benefit both the child and both parents. It was quite neat to read about the traditions and even the science behind some of them like the specific diet to benefit both mom and baby.
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Kaetlyn.MinklerJuly 14, 2024 at 9:21 PM
Rachel, Wow! You helped me to see that reading with a different perspective. You are so right about how in America, everyone expects new mothers to just get right back to work, and more attention is focused on the growth of the baby, whereas in India, proper care is given to both the mother and baby, and they are given ample time to heal and recover. Shoba didn't entirely get this because she lives in America, and she didn't get anything to help her cope. I've never been a mother so don't know how that would feel, but I do know that when I am in a bad place mentally or struggling with something, I also tend to throw myself into my work or schooling because it helps to take my mind off it. I have a feeling Shoba was doing the same thing. There are healthier ways to deal with grief and stress, and these should have been provided to her.
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Post Week 6: Article Summaries and Commentary

In this week's reading, you met a narrator who draws the reading into a short story with a decidedly hushed, slower tone. The couple introduced to us has experienced an unimaginable loss. How might that loss be affected by their cultural dislocation? Draw on the supplemental readings as you consider the question.

Your post is due Thursday at 8 pm. As was the case last week, there is not a set number of responses, but you are expected to demonstrate through responding that you have read and engaged with all class posts.

Week 5: Toward a Social Justice Ethic: What is an American, Anyway?

How do the issues examined in the article affect you as a teacher and as a person living in today’s world? What is the importance of having a voice? Of being heard? Are there differences in your response based on the role(s) you inhabit? Teacher, parent, individual community member, brother, sister, child, global citizen, and more—we inhabit many subject positions. Are there ways to bring those needs/expectations/responsibilities together?

Posts are due by 8 pm Thursday.

There is no set number of required colleague responses this week, but you are expected to read all posts and to respond as class discussion.

Post Week 4: Pre- and Post-Conceptual Perspectives

Some thoughts to help you brainstorm your post: Nineteenth-century travel writing caused those who read about other cultures to formulate their ideas about those cultures directly from the writing, so much so that if a person chose to travel to a country he or she had read about prior to travel, the traveller was often disappointed in the actual country and culture. In our current technological existence, our ideas of what places and people are like can certainly be informed by how they are depicted in text and on the multitude of screens we use to interface with the world. What informs your perspective? How might the ways in which we experience people, ideas, issues, cultures, and so on, be impacted by how we learn of them? Are the benefits and drawbacks to the use of the technology available to us? What might some of those be, and why?

Your post is due Thursday at 8 pm.

Responses should be posted by Sunday at 10 pm.

Post Week 2: The Way to Rainy Mountain

The critical text which accompanies your primary reading for the week explores ways in which we as teachers might use other cultures' literatures in our classrooms to move students from superficial, stereotyped perspectives to a fuller understanding of not only individuals from other cultures, but themselves, too. In your blog post, share with your colleagues how you might incorporate ideas from the article in your own teaching.

Your post is due Thursday at 8 pm.

Your responses are due Sunday at 10 pm.

Post Week 1: Questions on Reading

You've been asked to post a question on the readings as your blog post. Here are some ideas to help you get started: You may have noted the publication dates of the readings and wondered why you're reading articles written in 2005. The reason is that the issues raised and discussion in each of the articles are applicable 16 years later. Do you agree? Disagree? Both? Explain why and pose a question to help your reader understand what you find to be the same or different. Or, if one of the two of the readings stands out to you, explain why that’s the case, but also post a question based on what stands out. Or, if something is confusing or problematic for you, what do you find confusing or problematic? With what do you agree or disagree? Be sure your question is open ended so that your colleagues can use it as a basis for discussion.

As you frame your question, be sure to summarize the article, then provide context for your question. Cite the text appropriately.

Questions to be posted by Thursday.

Responses (to at least two colleagues) to be posted Sunday.