Raymond's Run
Blog Post #4
Discussion Director
The short story that my group read for this post is called Raymond's Run. It is about a poor black girl talented in running (nicknamed Squeaky) and her disabled brother Raymond. Her brother is disabled both physically and mentally due to a condition called Hydrocephalus. His brain is underdeveloped however his head is larger than usual.
Question 1. Why do you think the author, Toni Cade Bambara,* wrote her the story using street language and slang? Do you think she wanted to express something with this?
Vishesh: Vishesh's reply was that she wrote this way to express freedom. (After research I found out that all her stories were written this way, I also discovered that she is a freedom writer.) My opinion on the question is the same as Vishesh's, she wrote it that way to show that she has freedom, she can write differently to everyone else and she is free to do it that way.
Question 2. How do you picture Raymond, not only physically but also as a person? How do you think he is disabled?
Anastasis: Anastasis's though the same as Vishesh and me. We all thought that he would have a slightly larger head than everyone else. As a person we thought he would be relatively normal, except that he would still act much younger than he is.
After some research I discovered that Raymond was diagnosed with Hydrocephalus, which is when the protective fluid CSF builds up in ventricles within your head. This extra amount of CSF causes head enlargement (which can be severe or barely noticeable) and increases pressure
in the head, stopping the brain from fully developing. Hydrocephalus is not extremely rare, it occurs in about 2 in every 1 000 births.
Question 3. Why do you think that Squeaky was scared of Gretchen and her gang^? Do you think that Squeaky had bullying issues?
Vishesh: Vishesh's answer was that yes, she probably did have bullying issues, or she may have just been scared of getting bullied because she had seen the effects it had had on her brother. In his opinion Gretchen was probably good at hurting Raymond's feelings, and seeing her brother upset also made Squeaky feel hurt. So for the benefit of her brother and herself she tried to avoid them. This seemed to make sense, so Anastasis and I agreed.
Question 4. When you found out that the protagonist, Squeaky, was a poor black girl, where you surprised? Do you think her entire neighbourhood was like her?
Martin: I was relatively surprised by the fact that she was poor, however the fact that she was black had no effect on me. I was shocked when she mentioned that she was poor because nothing in the text before that had made me think of her that way. On the other hand, there was no text to support the fact that she was rich. My answer to the second part of the question is that I do not think her entire neighbourhood lived under the same conditions. This is because she mentioned the May Pole Dance, and she acknowledged that it is relatively expensive (to her family). Yet, there were people in her neighbourhood who signed up for it each year, making me think that they were not living the same way as Squeaky.
Question 5. In your opinion, what do you think the theme of the story was? Did it end the way that you expected it to?
Anastasis: Anastasis, Vishesh and I all agreed on the theme(s) of the book. We came up with two major ones. Be yourself and no matter who you are you should be treated like a human. We decided on the first theme because Squeaky shows that she does not care what people think of her, she just wants to be herself. The second theme revolved mainly on Raymond and the end of the book. Yes Raymond was disabled, but people had no right to make fun of him or try to hurt his feelings about it. Squeaky expressed this when she protected her brother and loved him.
*Toni Cade Bambara was an African-American author. She was also a social activist.
^Gretchen and her gang are a group of girls from Squeaky's neighbourhood. They seem to have some sort of conflict going on between them.
Blog Post #4
Discussion Director
The short story that my group read for this post is called Raymond's Run. It is about a poor black girl talented in running (nicknamed Squeaky) and her disabled brother Raymond. Her brother is disabled both physically and mentally due to a condition called Hydrocephalus. His brain is underdeveloped however his head is larger than usual.
Question 1. Why do you think the author, Toni Cade Bambara,* wrote her the story using street language and slang? Do you think she wanted to express something with this?
Vishesh: Vishesh's reply was that she wrote this way to express freedom. (After research I found out that all her stories were written this way, I also discovered that she is a freedom writer.) My opinion on the question is the same as Vishesh's, she wrote it that way to show that she has freedom, she can write differently to everyone else and she is free to do it that way.
Question 2. How do you picture Raymond, not only physically but also as a person? How do you think he is disabled?
Anastasis: Anastasis's though the same as Vishesh and me. We all thought that he would have a slightly larger head than everyone else. As a person we thought he would be relatively normal, except that he would still act much younger than he is.
After some research I discovered that Raymond was diagnosed with Hydrocephalus, which is when the protective fluid CSF builds up in ventricles within your head. This extra amount of CSF causes head enlargement (which can be severe or barely noticeable) and increases pressure
in the head, stopping the brain from fully developing. Hydrocephalus is not extremely rare, it occurs in about 2 in every 1 000 births.
Question 3. Why do you think that Squeaky was scared of Gretchen and her gang^? Do you think that Squeaky had bullying issues?
Vishesh: Vishesh's answer was that yes, she probably did have bullying issues, or she may have just been scared of getting bullied because she had seen the effects it had had on her brother. In his opinion Gretchen was probably good at hurting Raymond's feelings, and seeing her brother upset also made Squeaky feel hurt. So for the benefit of her brother and herself she tried to avoid them. This seemed to make sense, so Anastasis and I agreed.
Question 4. When you found out that the protagonist, Squeaky, was a poor black girl, where you surprised? Do you think her entire neighbourhood was like her?
Martin: I was relatively surprised by the fact that she was poor, however the fact that she was black had no effect on me. I was shocked when she mentioned that she was poor because nothing in the text before that had made me think of her that way. On the other hand, there was no text to support the fact that she was rich. My answer to the second part of the question is that I do not think her entire neighbourhood lived under the same conditions. This is because she mentioned the May Pole Dance, and she acknowledged that it is relatively expensive (to her family). Yet, there were people in her neighbourhood who signed up for it each year, making me think that they were not living the same way as Squeaky.
Question 5. In your opinion, what do you think the theme of the story was? Did it end the way that you expected it to?
Anastasis: Anastasis, Vishesh and I all agreed on the theme(s) of the book. We came up with two major ones. Be yourself and no matter who you are you should be treated like a human. We decided on the first theme because Squeaky shows that she does not care what people think of her, she just wants to be herself. The second theme revolved mainly on Raymond and the end of the book. Yes Raymond was disabled, but people had no right to make fun of him or try to hurt his feelings about it. Squeaky expressed this when she protected her brother and loved him.
*Toni Cade Bambara was an African-American author. She was also a social activist.
^Gretchen and her gang are a group of girls from Squeaky's neighbourhood. They seem to have some sort of conflict going on between them.
No comments:
Post a Comment