While reading analyze the narrators thoughts and actions. What can you identify about their personal biases? Also what do you see beyond their bias? What do you think the narrator is not seeing and how could he or she understand specific sutiations and other individuals better?
Also recall a specific time when you realized your prejudices and biases had an impact on the way you handled a situation or interacted with another person or group of people.
Mark’s thought about some of the people in the juvenile hall such as the guards are mostly describing them. He explains how the guard looks behind the desk when he walks in with Sister Janet to meet up with the kids he will be teaching and he describes his as an athletic kind of guy that looks like he would destroy him in a second if he messed with him in any kind of way. He also talks about the kids and how upset they look. There have been plenty of times I have judged someone by just looking at them and afraid to talk to them. My friend Matt was pretty intimidating before I really talked to him because he is in my friend Mike’s band and I think he is pretty intimidating. When you see him sing in this band he is pretty terrifying because he moves around a lot and is sometime pretty violent. For a while I had talked to him and got to know him and he is less intimidating because before I thought something would have gone wrong if I was not friends with him. Maybe Mark will do the same think in the book and talk to the big athletic guard and find out he’s really not that scary and intimidating.
ReplyDeleteYou can tell that the author and what they learned about the revoluation in Iran is biased because of the simple text and plot of the story. The bias could be in how they protrayed the rulers any anyone associated with them as bad individuals, which although could be justified by their actions, is really all a matter of opinon.
ReplyDeleteBeyond their bias I see that the author does have a great knowledge on historical context surrounding the revolution in Iran and soceity around that time. I believe the narrator is not seeing from the government's point of view in this particular plot simply because her bad experiences with them as a child. However I dont believe that this necessairly a downfall in telling this story.
One time based off my own bias I assumed a person's company wanst structured based off they way they came dressed to a meeting. to my surprise, besides myself, they were the most organized individuals in the meeting. Just goes to show you can't let your bias hinder you from making good judgement.
Marjane in Persepolis doesn't take no for an answer.Which really isn't a "bias" but how she bucks authority figures is kind of bias. I feel that because of this she can come off somewhat rude. Like when she says "Don't you know that when they keep saying someone is on a trip it really means he is dead"(48).I thought that was a pretty harsh thing to say and later finding out that it wasn't true made it even worse. Times that I can recall being "prejudice" is when someone is sick I feel like I can't do anything with them because I don't want to get sick from them. I don't know if that's such a horrible prejudice but sometimes it's not always the nicest thing to do.
ReplyDeleteWell, the narrator in the book true notebooks tends to want to understand the criminals a little more and wants to know their storys.I believe the narrator is not seeing the criminals thoughts and reactions to them been in jail and having to suffer from what they could have avoided.I believe in my own opinion that the narrator was in fear of been attack that he forgot that the inmates may feel threaten and like they going to get attack because of what they have done to someone else.I see a narrator that wants to understand them and know what is like to be in the situation they in but i see an eager man ready to learn from someone else mistake that doesn't makes them.
ReplyDeleteI think that the first outlook of the narrator was to just come there and get the job done. That he was just looking at the inmates as just being inmates not as people, as humans. He started to realize more about the inmates and the history by listening to them as they told their stories. I feel that the narrator is doing a great job as in connecting individual with the inmates. I always have a different outlook on situation it never meant how I person means it. I handle situations so wrong. I’m not saying that its right that’s just how I handle things.
ReplyDeleteI just fill that in the text The Notebooks Mark seem to come from where judging and analyzing something to the bone is very important. It also seems that he has a main focus on views instead of having an open mind. Throughout the text that’s really the only thing that I really see in him. I believe that everybody in some form realized their prejudices and biases had an impact on the way they handled a situation or interacted. Honestly I fill that’s a part of life I guess. That’s funny to in a way because I really can’t recall when for me, but I know it happen.
ReplyDeleteWell Marjane is very complex because of how much she doesn’t understand. She doesn’t like the government but doesn’t really have a true understanding why, she takes her Biases from the people she is surrounded with. Her parents play a huge role in her bias about the government because her parents are political activists. She bases her feelings off of what the people that surround her tell her or what she over hear. If she took the time to read up on it she would discover that she doesn’t really know the situation, she only knows bits and pieces. Like the time she was going to beat that boy up with nails because his father killed a lot of people, she was going to seriously hurt him when he didn’t do anything his father did, he is not responsible for his father’s actions.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of my novel the author did not want to visit the juvenile hall at all due to what when on there and why the inmates that are there got there because they are dangerous. Most people would not want to be in the atmosphere, I wouldn’t disagree. But, I think that my author was not seeing what was really behind that hard shell of the inmates. He could not seem to look past the fact that they are dangerous and he could possibly be hurt. He did not think about the reasons behind why these boys reacted to situations the way they did or that some of them never had love or support. I think that if he would have picked that up in the first place and decided to go on his own he may have done another exercise with his “students” that made them closer, faster or went in open minded. Instead he was forced in a way because there were no reference books he could get his hands on; visiting the juvenile hall was his last resort. Due to this I think my author is a bit shallow and perhaps sheltered because he prejudged the situation without trying to get to know the real person behind their crime. Mark comes to find out, their stories are remarkable. Personally, I cannot remember a time at this moment that I was prejudice towards someone or a specific culture. Unfortunately, I’m sure I may have, lot of us are. But for the most part I am the kind of person trying to tell other people that those types of assumptions are wrong.
ReplyDeleteWhen Mark was offered the chance to come to the Juvenile Hall he was hesitant and fearful of his life. His impression was stereotypical. They were in jail so they were JUST criminals. They had no feelings or deep past. He was oblivious to a lot of hidden feelings until he went to Duan’s class and heard the first reading. When talking to sister, she explained that all the boy’s wanted was someone to listen and to feel that they are more than hard core criminals. He understood the situation the first day in K/L. In my community many family’s are all about their son/daughter being on a varsity team, going to a big ten university, and being popular. To me, none of that matters. I wanted a different experience then most of the teenagers in my town. The way some people judged others in my town had an impact on where I wanted to go to school,somewhere diverse.
ReplyDeleteIn Persepolis Marji is bias towards the king. The king is unjust and because of him their whole politics is messed up. Soldiers of their kind are killing them. Marji's parents protest at the demonstrations day and night. Marji wants to protest with them but it is too dangerous because she can possibly get killed.
ReplyDeleteBeyond Marji's bias ideas she always seems to turn to God when she can't depend on nothing else. Marji wants to change things so when her and Laly decide to go to the demonstration they got in trouble.
Marjane is a young girl with growing opinions and view points. Being so young her opinions, viewpoints, bias, and prejudices, are still being shaped. Therefore she is very vulnerable to other prejudices, hasty decisions, and rash actions of persuasive peers and elders. As a young girl she doesn't quite understand the everything that is happening in her country. The more she comes up with solutions to problems the more she realizes what she doesn't know. As a young girl she doesn't understand that some were forced to do certain things and others aren't all what they seem to be. I personally do my best to put my bias aside when interacting with others, but I'm only human and sometimes one can't entirely avoid not judging, sizing up, or analyzing another person. I recall one specific moment when I was riding in a car with a new group of people. I couldn't help but realize how they were similar to one another in terms of personal taste, but also how they still suffered from unfortunate situation like being low on gas, or being tight on cash, or just wanting to get along with others.
ReplyDelete