Escape The Box
We have spent the past week and a half discussing questions surrounding identity. As part of those discussions, we you have read several stories, listened to music, performed poetry, written in journals, and created identity collages to express your own unique cultural identifiers. We have also discussed various examples of "the box," which is a metaphor for any obstacles or barriers that might isolate, frustrate, enclose, or sometimes protect someone from a larger world.Think back over everything we have read so far for this unit ("Theme for English B," "High Yellow White Trash," "Black, White, and Jewish," "Those Who Don't," "Sylvia's Story" from National Public Radio, "Alone and All Together," and "Two Kinds"). your task now is to write and post a comment in this forum in which you describe a connection between TWO of these works, focusing on the role of "the box." Think about how different characters face similar or different challenges. Think about similarities or differences in the kinds of disguises characters wear. Do you think these characters will escape from their boxes?
When you have made a connection between two works, write a post describing that connection. Make sure to mention specific characters/narrators, and to be clear about how the "boxes" they experience are similar. Your post does not have to be long; three or four sentences is plenty. You should feel free to respond to your classmates' posts, as well as to ask your classmates questions.
*** Remember to use your first name and "Doyle period ___" when you sign your post. Also, if you choose to respond to what another classmate wrote, please do so in a respectful manner.
posted by Peggy Doyle at
2:06 PM
36 Comments:
“High Yellow White Trash” and “Sylvia’s story”
Both of these seem to have similar boxes because they both represented cultural blocks. In “High Yellow” the biracial daughter is kind of been swayed towards not exploring her black heritage although in the end she gets to explore it. The difference that I find between the two is that in “Sylvia’s story” her mother is trying to keep her away from her dreams and try’s to persuade her to be a stay at home not educated woman where as in “High Yellow” her mother is creating a block with a races culture.
Daniel Doyle period 8 & 9
I think in Sylvia's story and crickets, there are more differences than similarities. In Sylvia's story, her mother is really trying to push her into a box. In crickets, the father wants to put a box around the son, but its that he wants his son to like him, and he wants to bond with his son, so that they can be friends. In Sylvia's case, the mother has done just what the father in crickets doesn't want to do, to try to force Sylvia a tradition box. However, by forcing Sylvia into a box, in some ways, Sylvia is starting to rebel. I think that the father in Crickets might end up close to his son, but Sylvia's mother probably won't.
Kevin Doyle 8/9
I chose “Theme for English B” and “High Yellow White Trash” for my two stories. One connection I found in the two of them for “boxes” was that both the narrators had race boxes. For “Theme for English B”, the narrator is colored, so he mostly sees things from a black person’s point of view, therefore, he is stuck in a “black box.” In “High Yellow White Trash”, the narrator also sees things in a biracial point of view. One of the differences in the characters boxes is that the narrator in “High Yellow White Trash” can see from two points of view
(black and white) if not one. Sofie, Doyle, Period 8-9
I am going to compare "Sylvia"s Story" and "Crickets". Sylvia and Bill have similar challenges. Both characters have parents who want their children to identify with their parents culture. Sylvia's mom wants her to be a "stay at home" mom. She wants her to play a more traditional mexican role. Sylvia would rather have a career. She probably wants to be more like a modern american women. Bill's dad wants him to appreciate his vietnamese roots. Bill is not very interested. Bill is "proud" to be born in America. He wrinkles his nose when his dad speaks vietnamese, and he doesn't care about cricket fighting either. I believe both will succeed in achieving their goals of being "american" and doing whatever they choose for themselves.
Luca Doyle period 8-9.
" I am going to compare Sylvia's story and Crickets"....
I think that High Yellow White Trash and Crickets are very similar. A person in each story is in a box about ethnicity. The main character in High Yellow White Trash is in two boxes, she is in a white box and a black box. The dad from Crickets is also is in two boxes, he is in the Vietnamese box and the American box. For the dad from Crickets I do not believe he will ever overcome these boxes. He will probably start to revert to the American side more because he is living in America and trying to fit in with Americans, but the Vietnamese box will still be part of him because he grew up there. I think the same thing about the girl from High Yellow White Trash. She will probably go more towards the black box because she felt that she fit in more with the African-Americans. But she will not be able to get rid of the white box either, it’s her heritage. So these story’s are practically identical in my view.
miranda, doyle period 3and 4
“High Yellow White Trash” and “Sylvia’s story” boxes are similar in a way because in “High Yellow White Trash” she has the task of trying to be accepted on both sides because she is biracial but at the same time maintain a good relationship with both sides, but Sylvia on the other end is trying so hard for her mom to accept the fact that she wont be like her cousins but on the other side her mom does not want her to fulfill her dreams, which in contrast with “HYWT” her mother does not want Lisa to have any relationship with her father.
Maryam
Ms. Doyle
Per. 3-4
In "High Yellow White Trash" and "Sylvia's story" the main charactors are in cultural boxes. Both boxes are very different but neither of them feel comfortable in their boxes. For example in "High Yellow White Trash" she is in a racial box because she is half African American and half white. She feels like she has to be someone different to be accepted. On the other hand in Sylvia's story she is in a box because of her nationality. Her parents are both from Mexico. And, unlike in "High yellow white trash" Sylvia is not trying to fit in she is trying to escape form her box. But they are both simaliar in the way that they both don't feel accepted in their boxes.
Geri Doyle periods 8 and 9
Well in my opinion, in the "Sylvia's story" her mother doesn't actually TRY to stop her literally, but she does try to stop her with words most likely because of the culture she was raised in. I "High Yellow White Trash" the daughter (who is biracial) is having a difficult time with her identity because part of her is a white girl, but on the inside she said she feels black. I think that in this story the mother does love her daughter, because she isn't that racist, but at the same time, she doesn't like her daughter referring to herself as "black" because it makes her feel invisible. But in "Sylvia's Story" the mother wants to be invisible. I think that she is creating a mental box where as in "High Yellow White Trash" the mother is creating a more physical box.
Kaitlin Doyle period 3 and 4
I think that High Yellow White Trash and Crickets are very similar. A person in each story is in a box about ethnicity. The main character in High Yellow White Trash is in two boxes, she is in a white box and a black box. The dad from Crickets is also is in two boxes, he is in the Vietnamese box and the American box. For the dad from Crickets I do not believe he will ever overcome these boxes. He will probably start to revert to the American side more because he is living in America and trying to fit in with Americans, but the Vietnamese box will still be part of him because he grew up there. I think the same thing about the girl from High Yellow White Trash. She will probably go more towards the black box because she felt that she fit in more with the African-Americans. But she will not be able to get rid of the white box either, it’s her heritage. So these story’s are practically identical in my view.
miranda, Doyle period 3-4
I think there is a connection between “Sylvia’s story” and “High yellow white trash.” Because both of the main characters were trapped inside boxes. Sylvia was trapped in her mother’s Mexican box. Which was get no education and get a husband. Lisa’s box was her mother’s box. It was a white box where every thing is white. The differences are that they both have different boxes, white, Mexican. Also both of the girls in the end escaped their boxes. Philip 3-4.
I think that "Sylvia's story" and "High Yellow White Trash" has a similar box. All Sylvia wants is to be her own person, to just get through to a larger place where she can have a career. In "High Yellow White Trash" she identifies someone who she is, not the girl that her mother wants. In both stories the mother is making the daughter stay in the mother's comfort zone, not the daughter's comfort zone.
Maxie Doyle 8&9
here is my answer.
Nuha, Ms. Doyle, per 8-9
In Sylvia’s story and Crickets, both kids are trying to be American instead of what they truly are. Sylvia’s mother and Bill’s father are trying to push there children into boxes that are the same in some ways but completely different. Bill is stuck in a box that he is not being forced into, but he is being put into a room with this box and his father is technically saying “Do you want to go in or not” and he chooses not to. Sylvia on the other hand is being told by her mother “This is tradition, you either go in and make this family proud, or you stay out and disgrace the entire family.” So Sylvia is being put into a corner, while Bill has a choice with not that much pressure being put on him.
Christine, Doyle, period 8-9
In "High Yellow White Trash" the main character is in the “Black Box”, and the “White Box”. In “Sylvia’s Story” Sylvia was in the “Mexican Box” and the “American Box”.
In "High Yellow White Trash" the main character’s family raising her was in the “White Box”. In “Sylvia’s Story” Sylvia’s family was in the “Mexican Box”. In both stories the main characters wanted to be in the box their families were not in. in both cases the main character’s mother was keeping the main character “in the box” with words and emotions, nothing more.
Jake Doyle 8-9
"High Yellow White Trash and Theme for English B" These two stories are very similar. For both of these stories they were stuck in a box. This was because they were both colored. In "High Yellow White Trash" the girl's family on her mom's side dispised her because of her skin color, this also happens in "Theme for English B" because this man's instructor doesn't want to be a part of him.
Willber Doyle period 3-4
I chose to compare "High Yellow White Trash" and Sylvia's Story. Both of the main characters are forced into a box by their mothers and are being forced into a certain way of living. Lisa partially submits to being shut in a box, because she knows she will be able to escape the box at her father's house. Sylvia, however, resists the box her mother tries to put her in- the box of no education and an early marraige.
-Nuha Doyle 8*9
I think Sylvia's story and High Yellow White Trash and Crickets all are similar, because Sylvia is pushed into a cultural box, to and Bill is in a cultural vietnam box when he wants to be american and the girl from High Yellow White Trash is eperated into 2 boxes
-Fen, Doyle 3-4
"HIgh Yellow White Trash" and "Crickets" Are both related to family issues. such as the father from Crickets, wants to be american for his son but doesn't want to let go of Vietnam. The Girl telling the story of H.Y.W.T, is caught between her Mom and Dad. she is half of both parents and her parents want her to choose a side. Ted is causing his own war. his son is too but he doesn't realize it. ted has to choose the past or his son and his future. in the end the stories went different ways. Ted chose and the Biracial daughter still hadn't chosen a side.
Tatum Doyle period 3 & 4
The two stories that I have chosen are “Crickets and Sylvia’s Story”. These two stories are similar because they both deal with heritage boxes. Although in many ways the stories are different they both deal with the same boxes. In “Crickets” Ted’s son Bill tries to avoid being Vietnamese. In Sylvia’s Story Sylvia is trying to avoid following her family’s very traditional Mexican ways. They both have the same goal in mind, being American and living American lives. Although they are similar in that aspect, the ways that they are battling the boxes are very different. In Bill’s case, he is trying to stay out of his parent’s Vietnamese box. He in many senses is already out of the box, he doesn’t speak Vietnamese, goes to an American school and whenever his father says goodbye in Vietnamese he takes it like a joke. In Sylvia’s case she is trying to escape her box but her family is keeping her in this box. It seems that Bill is able to stay outside of the box and according to the follow-up radio show Sylvia escapes the box as well.
Ben, Doyle, Period 3-4
I have picked the English B by Langston Hughes and High Yellow White Trash by Lisa Page to compare. In the English B Langston describes two worlds the white world, which is the college community, and his black community, which is were his home in the Y is. He makes a leap between worlds every day like the narrator in Lisa pages’ story. This leap is very important because they switch between houses the black house and the white house. In the white house there is edikit and reading books but in the black house there is religion and whistling bebop. Or in Theme for English B in the white world/house is in the college were he is at work and focusing, but in the black world/house he listens to bebop and relaxes while doing of some work. They both have two costumes the white one and the black one. Which one they put on is their choice.
Aaron periods 3-4 Ms.Doyle
“High Yellow White Trash” and “Theme For English B”
In both theme for English B and High Yellow White Trash the main characters are put in boxes to be white, but in different ways. Lisa is saying to herself that black and white people are completely different, and that she needs a costume if she wants to be a white person. On the other hand, in theme for English B the main character is saying to himself that sure he’d rather be black than white, but that blacks and whites are a lot alike. That they both like to eat, sleep, drink, and fall in love, that they are both human. So he doesn’t need a costume. Also, in Theme for English B the main character is forcing a box upon himself, he doesn’t have to go to a white school, but Lisa has no choice. She was born biracial so she has to be around white people. Although the characters are very different they are still alike because in the end they both be what they want to be, no matter what’s in their closet.
Jax
8-9 Doyle
“Theme for English B” and “High Yellow White Trash” because they’re both sort of about racial boxes. However, in HYWT, Lisa Page is sort of straddling between two boxes while in Theme for English B the character is two feet into the African-American box, even if he’s getting a fine education and going to college. Actually I’m not quite sure if I should say “straddling between two boxes” for HYWT because she’s sort of in a box of her own stuck between two cultures. Although she seems to be leaning more to the African-American side.
Henry Doyle 3/4
I think that "HIgh, Yellow, White Trash" is similar to "Crickets" because in both stories the main character is in two boxes, and cannot prefer which they want to be in. In "High, Yellow, White Trash" she is split between African- American and white. She prefers the African- American because she can be herself, and fits in. With the white people she has do behave and act properly, and her manners must be perfect. In "Crickets" Bill is stuck in two boxes: Vietnamese and American. He is trying to be as American as possible, but his dad wants to keep the Vietnamese culture in the family. He does this by trying to get Bill to like cricket fighting. Bill on the other hand is not interested. He wants to be American, but to make his dad happy he must also do Vietnamese things. Also, before Bill goes to school, the dad says good-bye in Vietnamese. This makes Bill kind of upset. He answers in english "Good-Bye." At the end of the story his dad gives up and says bye in English.In both of these stories a person is split into two boxes, and prefers one, but cannot fully go to it. In conclusion, both people in the stories our stuck in two lives, and would prefer to be in just one.
In both “High Yellow White Trash” and Sylvia’s story the main characters are stuck in a more cultural box. Both of their mothers are trying to push them into a box. In “High Yellow White Trash”, the girl has two disguises: the “black girl” disguise and the “white girl” her father loved her no matter what, but her mother pushed her to the white world. She had her do ballet classes and use proper English and was critical about anything that was even partially “black”. While in Sylvia’s story, Sylvia wanted to go to college and get a career but her mom wanted her to be a traditional Spanish woman and stay at home and get married early. Her mother thought that she thought that Sylvia thought that she was better because she was smart and wanted to college and didn’t wanted to be traditional. In both or these stories the character is trying to be untraditional and not be pushed down by what other people thought.
Lily, doyle 4 and 4
In my post, I will compare “Sylvia's Story” and “High Yellow White Trash.” In both cases, the main characters are in a box between two places; in “Sylvia's Story,” Sylvia is in a box between her Mexican ethnicity and her American nationality. In “HYWT”, the main character is in a box between her white mother and black father. In Sylvia's case, she wants to be American. In Lisa's case, she wants to be black. In both stories, the main character's mother is upset with their choice. In both cases, the main character escapes the box, but still has part of the other side with them, In Lisa's case, it's her “white girl disguise.” In Sylvia's case, it's her family. In my opinion, Sylvia's choice is harder, because she is going against her whole family, unlike in “HWYT”, where Lisa is just going against her mother.
Adam, Doyle, Period 8/9.
"Sylvia's story" and "High Yellow White Trash" Both have similar boxes in the fact that the kid wants to have there parents be happy but at the same time they want to be themselfs. The box that sylvia is in is a box set by her mother and Janice is in a box set by her mother. Sylvia's mom is trying to prevent her from going to college. Janice has almost the same box set by her mother in the fact that she wants to keep her away from something, (in this case being african-american) Both trying to shut them out from something.
Taylor, Doyle period 3/4
I think that in Theme for English B is about trying to fit into a certain box. But in Crickets it is about making their own box a ethnic box to fit into. These are two very different situations but in both they are trying to be excepted. They are also both trying not to just blend in to be different in their own way>
i could relate to when american history when they like each other but people think it wrong because the mom of the boy was really high class so when the girl comes over she says no at gets mad in a way. i relate to that because when i was a little kid i was the only one that liked girl when every one else didn't so some people thought i was weird and a little outcasted but not that much. it isn't as bad as in the story but it helped me to relate to it. i can also understand a little bit more about crickets because when i went to japan every one is so fast and smart orderly with lots of technology too it just amazing. when i got on the plane it was japan airlines witch was in general just so much better than american airlines also when your in japan customs take so little tame instead of american customs. in japan u are only on left side of moving walk ways but if your going to walk on it than u go to the right. there are so many more thing i could say but I'm not even going to say all the thing that are better in japan. but then i went back to america and every thing was so slow and not smart not kind it just go on and on. and that is how i relate to crickets.
Willy Doyle period 8 and 9
“High Yellow White Trash” and “Sylvia’s Story”. They are both in “Race” boxes. In “High Yellow White Trash” the girl is in a “White” box and in “Sylvia’s Story” Sylvia is in a “Mexican” box. In both cases the mother is the one trying to keep them in their boxes. The girl wants to be with his father. But her mom doesn’t want that, and in Sylvia’s case she wants to lead a normal, American life. But the problem is her mom wants her to lead a Mexican life. Also in both cases eventually they both break out of the boxes.
James Liu, Doyle 8-9
"High Yellow White Trash and "Theme for English B" have similar boxes because both narrators are stuck in boxes that are about race. In "Theme for English B" the narrator is a black person who is stuck in a black box in a mostly white school at the time (Colombia University). In "High Yellow White Trash" the narrator is in a biracial box and is also stuck in a box about race because, her mother was white and her father was black so she had to choose which race to go mostly with after her parents divorced.
Jeffrey Doyle Period 8&9
Edward Ms. Doyle per. 3-4
In Crickets Ted wants to stay the same and keep tradition just like Sylvia’s Mom wants to keep their Spanish traditions. In both stories the kid (Bill and Sylvia) want to blend into America. In Bill’s case he wants to do what boys do and not be stuck with his dad all the time because, his dad wants him to learn to be like a Vietnamese. Sylvia wants to go to collage and get a good education whereas her grand dad pulled her out of school at a young age because he said that girls only went to school to get boys. Sylvia’s Mom wants her to stay home and learn how to cook and sew not how to do mathematics, science, or art.
Bill in “Crickets” and Sylvia are in similar “boxes”. They both want to be American, but their cultures are holding them back. In Bill’s case, his parents are Vietnamese and his dad really wants him to be more a part of that culture, but Bill just wants to fit in. Sylvia’s story is a little more complicated. Sylvia wants be American and do more than what the traditional Hispanic woman does, but her mom doesn’t, a little bit like Bill’s dad. The only difference is that Sylvia’s mom is actually holding her down.
Max Doyle 8/9
Sylvia's story and Theme for English B are similar because, they are both struggling with race and are in the "Race Box". Sylvia is trying to break away from her parents expectations of her becoming a typical mexican stay-at-home mom to try to become a Special FX developer while the narrator in "Theme for English B" is trying to make his instructor accept that he is black.
Doyle period 8 & 9
Machiah Doyle period 3?
I find a connection in Theme For English B and High Yellow White Trash. Both Lisa page and the man both want to be accepted by the people they are next to the most. In High Yellow White Trash Lisa has a black world and a white world. The man can hear New York, and Harlem. They both are in their own special box, lisa being biracial and the man being the only black man in his college classes.
I think that "crickets" and High Yellow White Trash" are really really similar. In "crickets" Bill's dad is vietnese and does not want to give that up. He is *almost* forcing Bill to be. Like how he wants him to fight crickets, Bill is stuck in a box. He can't get out. Sylvia just wants to live a regular life. But Bill and her are both stuck in cultural boxes, and can't get out because of their parents.
Emma, Doyle period 3-4
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