answer for online task 2

Do we have a canon for Malaysian literary works? Let's say we do, who do you think are in it? Consider the fact that their works are well-known and most importantly included as part of the school syllabus- (both in BM and English)

A.Samad Said, Muhammad Haji Salleh, Shirley Geok-Lin Lim,
 Latiff Mohidin

981 : Kamaluddin Muhamad (Keris Mas)

a.) Jungle of Hope

1983 : Datuk Dr. Usman Awang

a.) Mother’s grave (poem)

b.) Father Utih (poem)

c.) Little Girl (poem)

1986 : Datuk A. Samad Said

a.) The Dead Crow (poem)

1991 : Prof. Dr. Muhammad Haji Salleh

a.) words for father (poem)

b.) on a dry bund (poem)

c.) three beserah fishermen (poem)

d.) seeds (poem)

e.) the traveller (poem)

f. ) si tenggang’s homecoming

The poems by Erica Jong raises some feminist issues. What are they?

            Love root, Love Comes First, On the First Night, Fruits & Vegetables

Do you think they are suitable to teach at the secondary school level? Explain.

In my personal point of view, some might not be suitable to teach at the secondary school level as  most of her poems are related to feminist issues, female students might be very interest, however, not all will show interest in her by the male students or female students.   For girls’ school, it should have so many problems I think.  Male students may feel awkward and embarrassing as mostly the poems are related to the male and some may feel uncomfortable. Some may protest and bring up the issues of discrimation. Poems should be vary, variety and various. It should not focus on the same poet. While learning poems, students need to learn from different poests and their ways or feelings towards certain topics.  

Therefore, it is better to select the poems that are mutually include male and female, regarding certain topics that closely relate to them or their lives and experiences, I think, they will start to like the poems as it is easy to understand and  it imply their personal ways of life.  Teenager s has their own personal view regarding the topic learned. They may agree or disagree to the poets.

Is Hillary Tham's poem more suitable?

Is Hillary Tham's poem more suitable?

In my personal opinion, Hillary Tham’s poem are more suitable for teaching at secondary school as her poems are vary, variety and most importantly easy to understand. Her poems indeed easy and direct to the convey message. Therefore, students are able to understand better if compared to Erica Jongs’ poem.  Her poems are mostly multiracial cultures which are interesting. Through her poems, we are able to learn different culture of multiracial in Malaysia and so for the other countries. For example “Becoming a woman” is a very good poems that related to personal experiences from child to adulthood. Men actually can learn that how is the feeling of becoming a woman, their ways of thinking, their emotions of sadness and happiness throughout from child to adulthood. This is a way for providing messages to men that men need to understand woman.

Some of her poems are related to Chinese culture which is worth to learn by other races from other countries. Indeed, her poems are more suitable for our education system , secondary school levels, colleges as well as universities. This is what she said :"Poetry does so much for kids," Mrs. Goldberg told The Washington Post in 1996. "Especially the teenage year is when they need to make sense of authoritarian figures. Poetry gives them control, that sense of power. It's an outlet for frustration as well as self-expression."
The short tale from the Native American group is about a girl who is unsatisfied with her life. How is this a universal experience? Can it teach our students anything?

Therefore, I believed that her poems that pass the message to the teenagers indeed are more suitable for our education system and syllabus.

The short tale from the Native American group is about a girl who is unsatisfied with her life. How is this a universal experience? Can it teach our students anything?

Nowadays, many people are not satisfied with themselves about their lives. Not only the girl that is not satisfied with her life but also boys and teenagers and of course old man and old women also has the tendency of dissatisfactory with their lives.  Personal dissatisfaction arises when he or she could not meet the requirement or what he or she wants in his or her life.

Through this simple short tale, proud is the main factor due to the faults
 
in making the decision. Through this short tale, students learned to be self-satisfaction.  Be satisfied what you have and don’t grumble. Let students know about there are lots of people who are suffering from sickness, family problems, financial problems as well as natural disaster.  Students need to look and watch from television, world news as well local news, visiting old folks home and so on to let them understand about the truth of the life. It also teaches students to make decisions. There are a lot of choices but making decisions is not easy and simple things. Once you have made your decision, there will be no regret for it and ones need to pay for his or her own decision making. There is no way to grumble, too blamed on somebody and so on. This story also teaches us to be humble and rational. The girl just look at the man’s’ appearance and leave her house with the man and be his wife without knowing his background. This shows that she is irrational.

She has made a mistake and decision making, therefore, she needs to pay for it and solve the problems on her own with the help of the God. She strive hard and succeed in the end from escaping the man.  This story also let us knows that physical appearance is not important, what important is the inner beauty. She realized in the end and managed to marry the man whom she loves to.

From your findings about his background, tell me about the dilemma he conveys through the poem CROSS.

He likes to write poetry however, his father discourage him as he treats writing poetry is irrational or can’t stand alone to survive in the society. He drops out from the engineering and writing poetry.

"The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain". It spoke of Black writers and poets, "who would surrender racial pride in the name of a false integration," where a talented Black writer would prefer to be considered a poet, not a Black poet, which to Hughes meant he subconsciously wanted to write like a white poet. Hughes argued, "no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself."  That’s’ why he expressed his dilemma through the poem  CROSS. He wants to be equality of the social status. He is African-American. He wants the equality of the social status. He wants to write like white poet, but after all he is Negro.  He finally make up his mind and be black poet. No matter black or white writer, as long as he or she is talented, they are called writer, poet. Writing poetry should not be considered about racial discriminations.

I find "Dinner Guest: Me" laden with irony and sarcasm. Briefly state if you feel the same.

"Dinner Guest: Me" by Langston Hughes is full of irony and sarcasm because of the following lines:-

Stanza 1, Line 1 & 2

I know I am

The Negro Problem

Stanza 1, Line 9, 10 & 11

Of darkness U.S.A.--

Wondering how things got this way

In current democratic night,

Stanza 1, Line 14

"I'm so ashamed of being white."

I personally think that this poem is about Langston Hughes being invited to a fancy restaurant by a white person and the two of them were discussing race. You can tell by the way he says 'Asked the usual questions' and how the white person is embarrassed to be white. A black person in a fancy restaurant was a big deal back in those days. Not only do they have to wait for service in the restaurant but their discussion is about the answer to race relations and in the end of the poem he says; the answer to the problem is to wait.

This can be seen through “Dinner Guest: Me” here means that white man is inviting him to a restaurant that may be black can’t step in.  Next, many white men will look differently to him in the restaurant, and therefore, the services through white man and black are different. White man serves quickly and let the black wait.

The experience in the poem Harlem is one that is true for many people. Do you agree?

Yes, I totally agree with the statement. It is about the unequal treatment among the blacks and the whites. The blacks are marginalized and they are treated like second class citizens. In 1951–the year of the poem's publication–frustration characterized the mood of American blacks. The Civil War in the previous century had liberated them from slavery and federal laws had granted them the right to vote, the right to own property and so on. However, continuing prejudice against blacks, as well as laws passed since the Civil War, relegated them to second-class citizenship. Consequently, blacks had to attend poorly equipped segregated schools and settle for menial jobs as porters, ditch-diggers, servants, shoeshine boys and so on. In many states, blacks could not use the same public facilities as whites including restrooms, restaurants, theaters and parks. Access to other facilities such as buses, required them to take a back seat, literally, to whites. By the mid-Twentieth Century, their frustration with inferior status became a powder keg and the fuse was burning. Hughes well understood what the future held, as he indicates in the last line of the poem.

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution–approved in the post-Civil War era–granted black Americans basic rights as American citizens, as did the Civil Rights Act of 1875. However, court and legislative decisions later emasculated the legal protection of blacks. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1896 (Plessy v. Ferguson) that it was legal to provide "separate but equal" accommodations for passengers of Louisiana's railroads. This ruling set a precedent that led to segregated schools, restaurants, parks, libraries and so on. Meanwhile, hate groups inflicted inhuman treatment on innocent blacks including brutal beatings. Lynchings of innocent blacks were not uncommon. Many so-called "enlightened" or "liberal-minded" Americans looked the other way, including law-enforcement officers, clergymen, politicians and ordinary Americans. By the mid-20th Century, black frustration with white oppression formed itself into a potent blasting powder.


Langston Hughes fights for the voice of his people. What is the movement called?

“New Negro movement”