Favorite Fishbowl- Hills Like White Elephants

       The fishbowl discussing the short story “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway was quite intriguing and powerful. The concept of false happiness and silencing was portrayed by the American man and Jig. Jig wishes to settle down, give birth to their child, and not live the nomadic lifestyle they live. The American man however wishes to travel and explore the world without the burden of a baby in their life, which leads him to insist Jig to have an abortion. Jig has a sense of false happiness due to completely giving in to what he wants, the abortion. The American man silences Jig when the couple argues that they could have the world. Jig’s simple statement of “I feel fine” portrays that her freedom is lost, she has been neglected by her beloved, and is living a life full of unrealistic happiness. False happiness is common throughout day to day relationships, however one has the power to change their destiny by obtaining freedom. From reading the short story “Hills Like White Elephants”, having the world is defined by having true happiness. One cannot have the world if there is deep sadness within a relationship, as for Jig, she never obtained her world.

Favorite Fishbowl- WWOC

       The fishbowl discussing oppression in “A White Woman of Color” by Julia Alvarez caught my attention as well. Oppression can be seen in family, education, government, and religion. It is common in the post modern world to see oppression depicted throughout these major social institutions. The fishbowl discussed themes such as the Dominican divide, cultural aesthetics, marginalization, and institutional racism. An example of institutional racism in relations to the short story “A White Woman of Color” would be when Alvarez and her sister when at the playground and kids from their school would throw rocks at them stating “go back to where you came from”. Alvarez obtained her freedom through hard work to gain the American education, as well as being proud of her ethnicity.Reading “A White Woman of Color”gave me the understanding that in the post modern world, individuals earn their freedom by hard work, sacrifice, and dedication regardless one’s religion or race. 

Favorite Fishbowl- A Street Car

       The fishbowl “A Street Car” caught my attention due to the concepts that were discussed such as fantasy v. reality, the inability to accept truth and isolating darkness. The fishbowl presented many aspects that one could relate to real life situations. Discussing the inability to accept truth helped my understandingabout womenall over the world facing illusions in their own relationship depicted throughout male dominance. For example, Stella could not face the truth that her husband Stanley raped her sister Blanche. The concept of rejecting the truth leads to fantasy, which the main character Stella also portrays. Fantasy is an illusion that it created by the external social world. When discussing the concept of isolating darkness, examples of Blanche were mentioned. For example, light portrayed the theme of isolating darkness because Blanche would hide out of the light from society due to fear and guilt. Blanche states to Mitch that ever since her husband died, all other relationships became “dim lights”. Blanche was broken as a whole, self destructive, and vulnerable. Discussing the themes of isolating darkness and fantasy v. reality helped me gain knowledge that by rejecting the truthyou hurt yourself more than ever, and false happiness creates a self destructive human being.