Shambhavi's Shells

      As this week's class discussion dived into the reason behind using polite phrases and indirect speech, I realized how important it was to communicate with others using respectful speech.      As someone who values speaking to others respectfully and politely, I always felt distasteful towards how the bare English language is structured. Unlike many other languages such as French, Italian, Spanish, Korean, or the many Indian languages, the English language lacks the formal conjugation for the second person pronoun "you".          Personally, this missing formal conjugation makes communicating with others, especially those older than you, difficult.      I've been exposed to multiple different languages other than English that use a formal conjugation, and if I happen to make a slight mistake and refer to someone older than me with the informal "you", I might as well give up trying to build a good r...

       While reading The Clan of One-Breasted Women, I encountered a quote that changed my perspective on the common but tragic event of death.     Williams described her experience with watching women from her family die of cancer in a perspective that I could never imagine.  " In the end, I witnessed their last peaceful breaths, becoming a midwife to the rebirth of their souls."     Throughout my life, although I've never been through the same experiences as Williams, I have never thought of death as a "rebirth" of any kind. The way I anticipate most of us would describe death is by saying "we lost someone" which is why Williams perspective shocked me.  The entire line is written from a perspective that was foreign to me. Being a witness of death is described as being a “midwife”, someone who witnesses birth.      This line really captivated me. It makes the pain and suffering that the women in her family...

     Disney, the entertainment company geared towards all ages, particularly younger children, is loved by everyone, but one thing I couldn't help but notice was their changes in how women are portrayed and their new roles in movies.      Those from my generation, the early 2000's, grew up watching Disney princess movies like Cinderella, Snow White, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, and so on. The problem with most of these stories is the overused damsel in distress trope.      Ever since I was little I always wondered why the princess needed to be saved by the prince, or why she would give everything up just to be with him. Movies like The Little Mermaid, where Ariel gives up everything including her voice, or Snow White, where the Prince's kiss saves her, had me confused. These movies are usually viewed by a younger audience whose perceptions can easily be changed. If a young girl grows up watching weak female leads ne...

       I've struggled a lot trying to find my own style, whether it be hair, clothing, accessories, or just the way I carry myself. When given a prompt in class about the different cliques seen around school, and having seen the class respond with jock, nerd, popular, and so on, I wondered if your clique truly defines your style.       To be a part of a clique is to be in " a small group of people, with shared interests or other features in common, who spend time together and do not readily allow others to join them." This definition doesn't state anything about fashion, instead, it's more about the interests that the clique shares. So why do we classify a clique based on appearance? Certainly not every guy who wears shorts and a hoodie in the dead of winter is a "jock", and neither are all the girls with branded clothing the "popular girls".       I've been a part of multiple friend groups and cliques, but those groups neve...

        A mother left her child all by himself in a world that seems to not be meant for him. He is seen as an alien by not only his peers, but even his own adoptive parents. “I can’t figure out how to act around him sometimes,” something no child would want to hear from their adoptive mother. We see the son grow up into becoming an alcoholic and gambling addict, but still trying to save his face, he seems to get better. While reading through the novel, I found myself constantly wondering what I would do if I was stuck in situations similar to Deming(the son) or Polly(the mother). Would I remain sane if my mother disappeared and never came back? Would I be able to save myself from a gambling addiction or alcoholism?      As humans we tend to believe that we would never end up in circumstances that Deming or Polly ended up in, "I'm smart enough, if my grade falls then I would work harder for it" or "If I became addicted to gambling I could pu...

    After listening to the podcast about desegregation issues in the Normandy school district, my views on desegregation changed, and I found myself questioning a lot.      Looking back, I realized that what I thought desegregation was, is actually very different from the truth. Like every other innocent child in second grade, I first learned about segregation and desegregation, especially in schools. Now obviously a second grade teacher can't scar their students by telling them about the obscenities, racial slurs, or violence that came along with desegregation. Call it my ignorance, or maybe just my fear of knowing the horrors that came with the truth, I never exposed myself to how desegregation had affected black students.      I found it hard to sit through the podcast and listen to what students like Mah'Ria or Rihanna had to go through, especially the racial slurs that Rihanna was subjected to by another white student. I knew t...

      With the traumatic events that occurred this week, I find it hard not to mention how important it is that we support each other the best we can, and support is something that can be found in communities, no matter what the community looks like, or who the community's citizens are. With this, we can look at the current and past housing situations that many families face.  After our discussion in class about how segregation still affects multiple areas, especially Metro Detroit, I searched the internet for more information on Metro Detroit and its housing situation. Luckily I found the U.S Census Bureau's Quick Facts on Detroit City compared to the rest of Michigan. U.S Census Bureau QuickFacts This study yields information similar to what we discussed in class, but seeing this information compared to Michigan as a whole shocked me. The amount of Black or African American individuals in Detroit City is about 78.3%, while the amount of Black or African Americ...