Bechdel seems to use writing as a means of therapy and survival. In fact, many authors do, including the ones studied in this class. Ensler is actually able to physically help women survive through her creative genius. Her work and words empower women to stand up for themselves, and when oppressors are met with this resistance, a general decline in the oppression tends to follow; and it did; this was the story of Eve Ensler and how her work changed the female gender forever. This demonstrates a perfect example of something that may have originally been created simply for female expression, but ended up manifesting into something else entirely. Bechdel utilizes a similar strategy as she chronicles her life in her journal as Allison. I suspect the real Allison Bechdel uses the book itself in her own personal struggle with the ‘hand’ she was dealt.

            Allison begins a journal for pretty standard reasons. Eventually, it becomes more of a coping mechanism; a way for her to vent. She makes first mention of her period: “I encoded the word menstruation.” She wasn’t able to talk about it with her mother, so here she was; talk therapy via a journal. I think that Bechdel felt like she needed to write this book as part of her own coping mechanism. She needs to take her own personal experience and make sense of it all; and with that, she hoped to gain some form of closure in growing up in the home of a pedophile.

Chapter  6

            I enjoyed reading chapter 6. I found it rich with literary technique; most notably, the juxtaposition of family events, Allison’s ‘coming-of-age’, the “Importance of Being Earnest,” and the Nixon scandal. She says it herself, that she was glad to be “taking notes...otherwise, I’d find the synchronicity implausible.” Lose of innocence is major theme, taking form in Allison’s own body, as she notices the very first signs of her womanhood. She pays little mind to it, hoping it’ll go away. She brushes it under the carpet, a little bit ashamed and embarrassed. Also during this period, on a side note, her journal entries begin taking a turn for the better, sentence fragments and incomplete thoughts gradually evolve into complete thoughts and structured sentences with better vocabulary, largely because she begins to take a liking to her mother’s play as she runs lines with her. But anyway, puberty begins encroaching on Allison’s innocence. At the same time, in his own way, Allison’s father’s innocence also becomes compromised after he is arrested for ‘furnishing a malt beverage to a minor.’ On a larger scale, good old-fashioned American values like honesty and integrity we also in jeopardy, and under a microscope, the whole world watching, as Nixon crashed and eventually burned (by stepping down) in public disgrace.

            Important allusions appear from the play as well, most importantly through Oscar Wilde himself. She shocked me personally by revealing Wilde’s own affinity for young boys (that explains a lot with regard to Dorian Grey, actually). Not simply that alone, but in the play lay plenty “covert references to homosexuality.” Perfect play, seemingly, for the situation. Irony?  In my last blog, I spoke about how Allison’s father lives vicariously through characters in his literature books. That’s superb, because Wilde offers great advice to someone with a condition like Allison’s father. Wilde offers: “the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.” Get the kids inside.

            As Bechdel continues through womanhood, the groundwork is slowly laid for the book’s ending. She matures a lot, and at this point in time she experiences the “mystical pleasure” in wearing her father’s old clothes. Although she doesn’t realize she is a lesbian yet, the hints and feelings are there. Along with her own, her father’s are also being realized for the first time. Homosexuality plays a big role in how the two finally end up connecting with each other toward the end of the book. It was here in chapter 6, where Allison also took a liking to books and stories, and where her journal writing ability developed, both of which, combined with elements of homosexuality, help facilitate connected moments between father-daughter, ones which provide Bechdel with some comfort in her relationship with her father.

What I’d most like to do is analyze the story and its characters through a single quote from the beginning of the 3^rd chapter: “I’d been upstaged, demoted from protagonist in my own drama to comic relief in my parents’ tragedy.”

This quote reveals a great deal. The daughter begins, in attempt to liberate herself, with her own shocking revelation, but is interrupted, overshadowed, and upstaged with more important and an even more startling testimonial. I see Bruce’s story here; everything else is just a conscious or an unconscious reaction to the effect Bruce has had on the other characters in this book.

 Bechdel carefully inserts words like their ‘tragedy’ and  ‘family tragicomedy’ when describing her story, purposefully alluding to Greek mythology. Her father is the tragic hero, living with his very own tragic flaw. Daedalus becomes Bruce’s Greek counterpart. Easily, the most important comparison drawn would be his consummate skill as an artificer. It wasn’t a mere hobby. “Historical restoration wasn’t his job, it was his passion. And I mean passion in every sense of the word.” Underneath this quote is a picture of Bruce carrying a carefully crafted wooden post with UNCANNY resemblance to the picture of Jesus carrying his cross. Next to this picture, instead of words like ‘holy, pious, humble, gentle, I am dying for your sins,” Bruce’s descriptive words read ‘libidinal, manic, martyred.” His passion would ultimately lead to his demise. The author even describes with careful words her father’s remarkable ‘legerdemain,’ hinting that his ‘cunning artfulness’ was used to add an element of ‘cunning artfulness’ to his deception and trickery he had partaken in.  His family paid the price; they were neglected, playing secondary roles in his life, mere pawns. But he was a slave to his passion. “Daedalus, too, was indifferent to the human cost of his projects.”

           More important allusions come from literature reference. Literature apparently played a big role in this family, both parents being English teachers. The first book we see is Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. It’s my understanding that Tolstoy wrestles with some deep, existential themes, as he did in War and Peace, which I think may have been weighing on Bruce’s mind i.e. social change (the life he led opposed to his secret life), adultery (sex with boys), family life (did it make him happy?), and farming (artifice in Bruce’s case; Levin and fulfillment and happiness through work). Did he believe that reality was more like the work of a fiction writer? Clearly, the answer is possibly a maybe, if we examine his attachment to Camus. He highlights one line in the book he was reading prior to suicide: “He discovered the cruel paradox by which we always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love – first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.” Camus argues the definition of absurd: ‘the universe is irrational and human life meaningless.”

          If he tangled with this notion before his death, that life is empty, meaningless, it’s no wonder he committed suicide. I believe he identifies with the characters of his books. The author even makes mention of his indulging in the works of Proust (also a homosexual) the year before he died. Being a funeral home director also may have added to the already volatile mix. “Maybe he felt that he’d become too inured to death,” Bechdel describes of her father, in his seemingly attempt to feel a reaction to death vicariously through her. So exposed to death and morbidity, living a life that was more or less meaningless altogether, and being a perfectionist with an inability to achieve fulfillment or gratification, Bruce made the decisions he did.

4) Why does Trujillo kill the sisters even though they’re no longer directly involved in the revolution? Were the women victims, martyrs, heroes, or something else? What about the men? Why doesn’t he kill them? What does he do instead?

Despite their current inactive roles in the movement, and the fact that they had been living withdrawn lives in relative isolation, it almost seems puzzling that Trujillo decides to murder the Mirabel sisters. I believe there were several reasons that contributing to Trujillo’s decision for killing. The most important of these factors is the damage that already had been done. The Mirabel sisters embodied the revolution. They represented inspiration. The girls had made tremendous sacrifices: time, energy, family, freedom, money, property; they were model revolutionaries, noble faces of the cause, loved by all their people. Dede comments on their popularity, “At the pharmacy, in church, at the mercado, Dede was approached by well-wishers. Take care of our girls, they would whisper. Sometimes they would slip her notes. Tell the butterflies to avoid the road to Puerto Plata. It’s not safe.”

Things were bad off for Trujillo toward the end of the book:  OAS peace committees conducting investigations into prisons, sanctions imposed, South American countries (Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela) breaking relations, sights of an American warship. At this point, Trujillo is becoming pretty desperate, willing to do anything to turn the tide. Several blatant remarks by Trujillo himself reveal just how responsible he believes the Mirabel girls are for everything. First he says, indirectly, through his brother, “Minerva Mirabel was the brain behind the whole movement." Clearly he is pretty adamant in these beliefs, and it is no secret. This thought then follows: “So Trujillo was no longer saying Minerva Mirabel was a problem, but that all the Mirabel sisters were.” Taking this into account, Trujillo must surmise that if he eliminates that Mirabel sisters, it will eradicate other revolutionary ideas and actions. Possibly, and even maybe easier, Trujillo kills them, quite simply, because he believes that he can. It must have been hard for a man, whose rule was defined by depravity and despotism, whose power knew few limits or bounds, to imagine that some petty women could undermine his power, and that he couldn’t do anything about it. There is no way that his ego can allow this type of behavior to continue.

          The Mirabel sisters meet the requirements for being victims, martyrs, and heroes. The enormous sacrifices make them victims: time and energy, money, property lost, the imprisonment and the lost time; Minerva, Mate, and Patria even lost their lives; Dede lost her sisters and continues to live with pain and burden (these reasons also make them martyrs). The girls are also heroes for many obvious reasons, most important being how they are embraced, honored, and viewed by their own people. The men should also be seen as heroes of the revolution for their own respective roles. Based on what the book reveals, characters like Manolo, and even the other husbands, with Jaimito the sole exception (however, he did manage to contribute in his own way too), played vital roles in the movement. For these reasons alone, they cannot be forgotten and shouldn’t be overshadowed by the sisters. The book has always portrayed the men as ‘guilty by association.’ By this mere fact, the men don’t even pose a threat to Trujillo, and simply don’t carry enough weight to where it is necessary for Trujillo to rub them out; so Trujillo just keeps the men in jail; perhaps to add extra incentive for the girls to behave. After jail, Manolo is the only one that continues with his radical revolutionary behavior. He is dead within 3 years. The rest of the men scattered, going their separate ways.

Comprehensive Minerva Timeline

1938- Inmaculada Concepcion and Sinita’s stories about Jefe. Develops anti-Trujillo ideals.

1941- Lina’s relationship with Trujillo.

1944- Performance of Minerva/Sinita and bow-n-arrow pointing at Trujillo.

1948- Meets Tio and they become ‘comrades in struggle.’ Lio’s name starts to appear regularly in papers and eventually has to leave. He invites Minerva to take asylum with him.

1949- Discovery Day Dance. Dances with Trujillo. Speaks to him about a law degree. She winds up slapping him after he acts inappropriately. Leaves letters. Her father is taken into custody shortly thereafter. Minverva and Mama hunt Papa down and Minerva gets picked up for questioning. She is confronted with letters and lying. Eventually they rendezvous with Papa inside of Trujillo’s office where they appeal for his release. Here again she brings up law school to Trujillo.

1953-Studying law in capitol.

1954- Meets Manolo in capitol. Takes liking to Fidel and his revolution in Cuba.

1955- Marries Monolo.

1957- Graduates from law school. Gets law degree but not license to practice. Manolo begins heavy involvement in revolutionary doings. Manolo and Minerva recruit Mate into national underground.

1959- Involvement in revolution gets heavier for everyone, now including Nelson.

1960-January to March- Husbands get taken. Sisters get taken shortly after. Manage to get a note to Patria revealing whereabouts and requesting supplies.

1960-March to August- Minerva exposed to much interrogation and solitary confinement. Is the glue that holds her people together. Helps keep morale with songs; assigns chores and responsibilities in attempt to keep sanity. Turns down freedom for pledged allegiance to Trujillo. Tries to persuade Mate to embellish treatment of her in OAS interview.

1960-August to November- House arrest. Revolution, by now, out of her hands. Distanced from it at Mamas house with sisters. Newly found appreciation for family life. Resides in life, spending most of her time petitioning for and visiting her husband. Their husbands are relocated to another prison, one that is further and more out of the way. On November 25, 1960 Minerva, Patria, and Mate were killed.

2) By the end of the novel, how have the characters of Minerva, Mate, and Patria
changed? Have they changed the revolution or has the revolution changed them?
Is there a happy ending to this story at all?

The three women most certainly display character changes throughout the course of the book. In the final chapter of Minerva, who is also the strongest-willed, most fervent revolutionary of the group, begins to see her spirit weaken, her fire beginning to burn out. She chronicles this strange feeling of hers: “By then, I couldn’t think of anything I wanted more than to stay home with my sisters at Mamas, raising our children.” And who could blame her? After all, she had been subject to seven months in prison, much of that time in solitary confinement. She saw the majority of her own family imprisoned; some even tortured. She questioned that maybe she was “ready for a new life, and this is how it starts.”

Mate also changes in her own way. In the beginning, she is often characterized as being ‘innocent’ and ‘naïve,’ and influenced deeply by her older sister Minerva. When she is thrown into jail, she suffers tremendously, and is forced to grow up fast. Many times in her journal, it appears as if she is on the verge of going insane. She endures, though, and comes into her own. When the sisters learn that OAS will interview Mate, Minerva tries to persuade Mate to embellish certain things in attempt to attract international attention. For the first time the reader can recall, Mate doesn’t simply concede and go along with Minerva. She says, “So I say to her the only thing I can say. I promise you this, I’ll be true to what I think is right. Minerva has never heard such talk from me. Fair enough, she says, fair enough.” Also, for the first time throughout her incarceration, Mate displays the first signs of inner-strength. This happens after she is tortured and proceeds to pick up her clothes. “Then Bloody Juan gathered up my clothes, but I wouldn’t let him help me. I dressed myself and walked out to the wagon on my own two feet.” She almost becomes hardened. This is how the revolution changed Mate.

As a person, Patria hasn’t changed much. She finds herself asking slowly recovering from the imprisonments via her usual venue: religion. Patria becomes consumed with freeing her husband and son. She even compromises certain principles in appealing to Captain Pena. She also appeals to Trujillo, in person, to get back her son. Unlike Minerva and Mate, who refuse their freedom (only if sworn allegiance to Trujillo), Patria, in way, gets in bed with the enemies (but for good reasons). The big change lies in the fact that the revolution, suddenly, is much less important then helping her family.

Minerva Mirabel is the celebrated hero of the Fourteenth of July movement. Her reputation speaks for itself and one would be hard pressed to support an argument saying that Minerva did not change the revolution. Mate and Patria also contributed in their own ways. Before the ‘prison roundups,’ the thrill and excitement of the revolution was a big contributing factor. The Mirabel sisters were swept up into the self-sustaining movement. After being jailed, it was all out of the Mirabel sisters’ hands, and instead of changing the revolution the revolution began to change them. The girls moved back home with their Mama after being released, and no longer held any active roles in the movement. Their sole prerogative now: petitioning for the release of their husbands and basically doing everything they could to free them. Perhaps now they yearned for the more simple things in life, those things they had been missing since the start of this whole thing. They didn’t want to see family in jail any longer; they wanted to be a family again.

          In many ways, a happy ending does not exist in this story. Dede personifies this notion as she reluctantly plays the sister of a national hero. She often questions her fate and wonders why she happened to be the soul survivor. Every year she goes through the motions, telling herself it’s “for the girls.” From her perspective, it isn’t difficult to understand why she desires to put it all behind her. After all, the events that unfolded had killed her three sisters and scattered her family. She is haunted by much of this. At the same time, she soldiers through, and is able to recognize and appreciate its legacy; everything that ‘it had been for.’ She can at least do that much.

The first four chapters revealed a little bit about the Mirabel sisters: Dede, Minerva, Maria, and Patria. The following four chapters, four through eight, each dedicate another chapter to each unique and individual sister. Throughout these four chapters, our profile of each sister gets richer, and a few more characters come into play.

Dede resumes her interview session with the American/Dominican woman. Before she begins recounting, the direction it takes is because of the presence of Minerva’s daughter. The story progresses like such: Minou talks to> Fela conjures Minerva who says > Virgilio Morales is alive. This is where the story picks up.

1948- Fate throws this political dissident Lio toward the Mirabel sisters via their cousin and future husband of Dede, Jaimito. Their (Jaimito and friends) impression of him says it all, “They were split between admiration and wariness of his dangerous presence among them.” Jaimito even squabbles with Lio and accuses him of “exposing us all.”

Lio stands firm by his resolve and reveals a little bit about himself by replying, “If I leave my country, it’s only to continue the struggle. We can’t let Chapita kill us all.” After the topic of conversation goes here, fear takes over and breaks up the party. Afterwards, Dede reveals, “She had never known an enemy of the state before. She had assumed such people would be self-serving and wicked, low-class criminals.” Until now, Minerva is the only one with political ideations. Perhaps Dede’s mind/fate has changed? Eventually, Lio must leave, and before he does, he requests Minerva to join him.

1949- The story picks up with Minerva. Again, it’s about Lio. She says, “When I met Lio, it was as if I woke up.” The two meeting was as perfect as two peas in a pod. The day of the Discovery Day Dance turns everything upside down. Minerva slaps Trujillo after he acts inappropriately while dancing with her. She also lies to him and denies knowing Lio. They manage to leave and go home. Eventually, Papa is picked up and brought in for questioning. He is gone too long. Mama and Minerva set out to the capitol to find him. Here they find Papa and they make formal apologies to Trujillo.

1953-1958- Maria Teresa chapter consists of more diary entries. Earliest ones tell of Papa’s death and funeral. Maria takes on the voice of the younger sister once again, along with her admiration of Minerva. She remarks, “ I don’t like this kind of thinking like Minerva likes, It makes my asthma worse. I want to know things I don’t even know what they are. But I could be happy without answers if I had someone to love.” This statement reveals an honest simplicity in Maria. > Always all about Minerva > meet Manolo >goes to capitol to study law> Maria follows> Minerva get law degree BUT no license to practice> Mariposa #2 goes underground

1959- Patria’s quotes that reveal: (Very critical of her sisters)

“Build your house upon a rock, He said, do my will. I had built my house on solid rock, all right.”

“My sisters were so different! They built their homes on sand and called the slip and slide adventure.”

"Minerva lived in a little nothing house - or so Mate had described it to me - in that Godforsaken town of Monte Cristi. It's a wonder her babies didn't both die of infections."

"Mate and Leandro had already had two different addresses in a year of marriage. Renters, they called themselves, the city word for the squatters we pity here in the country."

More Emo Creature

4. Look up some of the women or groups mentioned in Section 3 and explore the context a bit more. How does that enrich your understanding of the text itself?

Peshmerga (those who face death) women are an all female Kurdish army faction looking to oust Saddam Hussein.

Pink Sari gang protect Indian womens’ interests by violent attacks

Liberian women mass action for peace

Nigerian Chevron women took oil terminal demanding fairer share of oil revenue

Cindy Sheehan lost son in Iraqi war and protested at Bush ranch

Malalai Joya unleased three-minute hard-hitting speech accused alleged warlords of crimes and corruption

Aung San Suu Kyi house arrest 15 of 21 years, refused to leave country

Neda Soltani killed voicing opposition to Ahmadinejad

“Refuser” is the first piece of work in Section 3. It is the perfect title for its style. In many ways it’s like a rallying cry for women to stand up for themselves. It also gives tribute to certain real-life women who have made their own ‘statements’ and stood up for their cause in honorable ways. These modern day women have stirred things up and broken the norm in unprecedented ways. They no longer need men; they can stick up for themselves as stated in “Now we are the ones who walk our girlfriends home from school.”

Toward the end, the monologue goes on to mention some of the most influential women ever. Ironically enough, they had also been labeled in a way that seriously downplays their accomplishments. Joplin, regarded as one of the greatest female musicians ever, was also known for her sub-par looks. Joan of Arc, national heroine of France and Catholic saint, if often discredited as being hysterical and having hallucinations. Butterfly Hill can contribute her fame to the ‘tree sit.’ Instead of a staunch environmentalist she was an extremist freak.

The women of these latest generations seem to carry a new voice. They are leaping all the old boundaries and roadblocks of the past. Perhaps this passage tells of their plight:  “We know if you plan too long nothing happens and things get worse and that most everything is found in the action and instinctively we get that the scariest thing isn’t dying, but not trying at all.” No longer do women stand idly by on the sidelines, they are amongst the action; in the thick of things.

Emo Creature

Today I will take a look at You Tell Me How To Be A Girl In 2010. I think it’s relevant to speak a little about the similarities between what I have come across so far in I am an Emo Creature, and Vagina Monologues. From what I’ve read (pages1-37), this book seems to be something of an epilogue to Monologues. Ensler made such a positive impact on society with Monologues that she almost picks up right where she left off and addresses the tumultuous and turbulent adolescent years of today’s society. That same self-confidence/self-appreciation/self-worth that she brought women with Monologues, she hopes to bring to young girls.

In You Tell Me How To Be A Girl In 2010, the voice DEPRESSES the hell out of me! “Each town they bomb, each human they kill is done for “humanitarian” purposes.” I take it that with this quote she is speaking with regard to our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Personally, her political statement gets under my skin. War should be avoided at all costs, yes, but we don’t live in a perfect world, and things aren’t so simple. For Ensler to just make this remark based on pure emotion is way too unfair and opinionated for my taste; it turns me off to this monologue immediately. “People don’t own the water in their own village and they certainly don’t own the diamonds and gold.” Unfortunately, this has been the course of human evolution. We claim valuable resources. It is probably not going to change.

“Why is everyone so much more afraid of sex than SCUD missiles?” STDs, high teen pregnancy, “kids raising kids.” How about the vast and countless amounts of kids brought up in broken homes and its effects because kids are having sex way too young. I would say that’s a valid problem and something to be afraid of.

“How come we have money to kill but no money to feed or heal?” Really…?

“Six million dead in the Congo and they never made the news…and minerals.” What else is she suggesting we do about the atrocities in Africa? She didn’t like how we went into Iraq where very similar injustices were taking place, so exactly what does she propose?

“Give me one thing to believe in that isn’t a brand name.”

 I can honestly say that Eve Ensler, through Monologues, grew on me some. I was eager to break ground on her latest book here. However, I was disappointed with her first monologue.  I see and hear so much negativity in it; my answer to the title’s inquiry is “Damn, you are on your own. Good luck.” Very depressing, way too idealistic. Fails to offer any constructive advice into the dozens of complaints and reproaches.