Welcome to De Anza!
Agenda
• America is in the Heart
– Questions? Especially for your summary.
– How do you feel about the book?
• Reading Journal 2
– I will send short feedback immediately after class.
• Prep for Summary
• Introduce The Book of Salt
America is in the Heart
• Questions? How do you feel about the book? What
are you thinking of the book at the moment?
– Confusing because he jumps around a lot between settings
in Part III and Part IV
– The book is depressing as a whole
– All of them are sick but none of them are dying; physically
– There is no way to compare my life to how his was
– Do the conditions described in America is in the Heart still
exist?
– Confusing; sometimes a chapter will tell of how someone will
die that someone is dead but he appears in the next chapter
Summary Assignment
• We need to do some work to describe the
concluding standpoint of the narrator.
–
–
–
–
–
What are appropriate responses to discrimination?
What are inappropriate responses to discrimination?
What are appropriate relations between workers?
What are appropriate relations across genders?
What are appropriate relations between workers and
management?
Summary Assignment
• What are appropriate responses to
discrimination?
– To voice concerns; not able to soften people’s hearts
in another way
– To unify
• Filipinos; uniting with other ethnic groups; uniting with people
who are not necessarily workers and are not necessarily
people of color
– Continually voice concerns; don’t stop; not giving up
– Aiming for concrete victories (legislation; winning
higher wages or benefits); creating a different society
• What are inappropriate responses to
discrimination?
– In some cases, violent responses
Summary Assignment
• What are appropriate relations between
workers?
– Workers should stick together
• What are appropriate relations across genders?
– Differences in relationships across race, class, and
nationality complicate this in the novel
– Respect, caring, equality
– Respect for character and morals, not because they
are a man or a woman
– In boarding school, genders kept separate
• What are appropriate relations between workers
and management?
– Better treatment (decent wages, benefits, working
conditions)
Summary Assignment
• What are appropriate relations across genders?
– There are glimpses of good relationships among
Filipino men, between Filipino men and men of other
races, and between working men of different races.
There are few glimpses of what good relations across
genders would be like. We might not have material in
the novel to answer this question.
– It might be more appropriate to begin with another
question: What were the conditions under which
people interacted with each other across genders?
– What happened in particular scenes? Who was
involved?
The Book of Salt
• Set during the same time as America is in
the Heart.
• Written at a very different time
– The Book of Salt published in 2004
– America is in the Heart published in 1943.
The Book of Salt
• America is in the Heart is partially
autobiographical, partially drawn from stories that
Bulosan heard about other Filipinos.
• The Book of Salt is a fictional retelling of the
experiences of someone who was born long
before the author was born. Much of the
material for the novel had to come from
research.
• The Book of Salt jumps around in time; it does
not tell the story linearly.
The Book of Salt
• The protagonist of The Book of Salt is a
Vietnamese man who travels to France in
order to work during the French colonial
period in Vietnam.
• The protagonist finds work in the house of
two famous women, Gertrude Stein and
Alice B. Toklas. There is mention of a
Vietnamese cook in Alice B. Toklas’
autobiographical writings.
The Book of Salt
• Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas are in a
same-sex relationship.
• The protagonist of The Book of Salt
becomes involved in a same-sex
relationship with a light-skinned African
American man.
Homework
• If you have not yet done Reading Journal 2 then do it
ASAP.
• Begin reading The Book of Salt. (1-49)
• The summary assignment is due on Tuesday.