yinzxs-wonderland

[yinzxs-wonderland]

A World in Spirals

Turtles All the Way Down is John Green’s most recent release. It was published on October 10, 2017. The story is about a sixteen-year-old girl named Aza who is always, in her own words, in a thought spiral. She has an OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder which she calls the demon inside her. She never intended to investigate the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there is a huge reward. Together with her best friend, who is the exact opposite of her, they started to investigate through Pickett’s son and are eager to solve the case like they are some Sherlock Holmes. Aza is always trying. Trying to be a good daughter, friend, student, and maybe a detective, while also living within the walls of her thought spirals. This paper claims that the author wants to convey to the readers the reality of the people who have mental illnesses.

There is a wide range of mental illnesses or mental health disorders. Common examples of mental illnesses are depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, and addictive behaviors (Mayo Clinic). Many people have mental health concerns, and if these concerns would not be addressed, they turn into mental illnesses. Like other illnesses, mental illnesses also have signs and symptoms. Having a mental condition hinders a person to function. Another type of mental health disorder is Obsessive-compulsive disorder. According to the International OCD Foundation, it is a disorder that “occurs when a person gets caught in a cycle of obsessions and compulsions.” This cycle of obsessions and compulsions gets extreme, and if not treated, it could get in the way of the person’s life who has this. Even though there are many reports regarding the rise of people who experience mental health disorders, it is still stigmatized even today.

Turtles All the Way Down is a psychological and mystery novel. The story takes place in Indianapolis, Indiana's capital city located roughly in the center of the state. It is also where John Green lives. The characters Aza and Daisy are students of White River High School. Though the school is fictional, the White River actually exists. Aza tells in the story that the river is “50 percent urine. And that's the good half.” In the story, Aza lives along the river on the side that is flooded. On the other hand, the other character, Davis, goes to a private school and lives on the other side of the river where the stone- gabled walls push the rising water to the side where Aza’s house is located. The atmosphere of the story is anxious, frustrated, remorseful, and serious.

Aza Holmes is the main character of the novel. She has a constant fear of bacteria, specifically C.diff which sends her in her thought spiral, and spends most of her time thinking if she is real. Aza has Obsessive-compulsive disorder which is a type of mental health disorder that is a cycle of obsessions and compulsions. Aza calls her OCD the demon inside her and she wanted to escape from it. Aza is a dynamic character as she changes at the end of the story. Daisy, another character from the novel, is Aza’s best friend. She is bubbly, outgoing, and a big fan of Star Wars. When she heard about the reward for those who can help them find the billionaire, Russell Pickett, she asked Aza to team up with her. She asked Aza to visit Davis, son of Russell Pickett because Aza and Davis met before and hoping that Davis knows something. When Davis gave them money to keep quiet, Daisy spent so much money, and Aza told her of her irresponsible choices, but she told Aza how horrible of a friend she is. They reconciled at the end of the story. Daisy is a round character as she showed many different traits in the story. The last main character is Davis Pickett Jr. He is the son of the missing billionaire in the story. Unlike Aza and Daisy, Davis is rich, lives in a mansion, and goes to a private school. Davis, like Aza, lost one of his parents. Davis is a dynamic character because he was blinded by the privileges and wealth, but at the end of the story, he realized that that being a good brother to his younger brother is more important than money.

The story has a linear plot. It starts on a normal day in Aza and Daisy’s school, White River High School. Aza, Daisy, and her other friend, Mychal, were talking about the billionaire, Russell Pickett, who disappeared after being accused of bribery and fraud. The story starts to complicate when they heard on the radio that Pickett Engineering rewards $100,000 to anyone who could give any information about Mr. Pickett. Daisy tells Aza to team up with her to investigate. She also tells Aza that they should visit Davis as they met at the “sad camp” and that maybe he knows something about his father’s disappearance. When they asked Davis about his father, Davis thought that he should not trust others because they might be after his money. He gives Aza and Daisy $100,000 each. Daisy was ecstatic because she can now go to college. Aza and Davis continued to get to know each other and decided to unofficially date. The climax of the story was when Aza came across a Wikipedia article saying that gut bacteria communicate with the brain and so she drank hand sanitizer thinking that the bacteria inside her would die. The doctor said that she lacerated her liver so she needed to stay at the hospital. The conflict starts to resolve when Aza went back to school, and she and Daisy talked. Daisy told her a story about a woman who insisted that the world rests on the back of a turtle, which rests on the back of another turtle: turtles all the way down. Aza thinks it perfectly describes her mental state. The next day Daisy invites Aza to go to an art show in the sewer. As they walked, they realized they were in “the jogger’s mouth” which was what they discovered in Russell Pickett’s phone when they were still investigating it. The stench made them walk back. Aza tells Davis that they might have found his dad’s body. After that, Aza never heard about Davis again. Months later, the police discovered Mr. Pickett’s body. Aza immediately texted Davis saying they did not do it. Davis told her that they were the ones who told the police. Davis then visited Aza and gave her a spiral painting and told her they will move to Colorado. Aza addresses the readers that she wrote this story when a psychiatrist told her to write how she got where she is now and that through writing, she learned that she is just a singular being and there is no other identity inside her.

The major conflict of the story is man versus himself because, throughout the story, Ava continues to wonder if she is real and fights her OCD. Identity, Selfhood, and Mental Illness, Chaos vs. Order and Control, Language and Meaning, and Privilege, Power, and Wealth are the existing themes in the story. The novel is told in the first-person point of view which also contributes to the style of the author. Through Aza’s perspective, the author can convey and demonstrate how paralyzing and dangerous this type of disorder can be. The symbols in the story are the bacteria or C.diff., the Iron Man figure, the Sky, Stars, and Astronomy, and Circles and Spirals. The bacteria or C.diff. symbolizes Aza’s knowledge about bacteria because of her illness. Aza identifies the bacteria as someone who is trying to control her. The Iron Man figure represents how others look at Davis because of his wealth and his wealth makes him strong. However, the plastic material of the figure represents powerlessness. Davis feels powerless because of his inability to get a hold of the wealth of his father. Furthermore, the Iron Man figure's paint has worn off, making it faceless and featureless. This symbolizes how others see Davis, not as a person, but just as a money figure. The sky, stars, and astronomy symbolize each character differently. Aza sees the sky as fractured because most of his dad’s photographs of the sky are through tree branches and so she sees the branches as obstacles to see the sky clearly. While Davis views the sky from a treeless estate and through his telescope and so for him the sky is vast, endless, and full of opportunities. Lastly, circles and spirals symbolize Aza’s thoughts, which she calls her thought spiral. It also symbolizes how Aza perceives the world around her.

The significance of the story is that people who have mental health disorders go through different hardships. The story conveys how hard and dangerous these disorders to the people who have them. John Green mirrors the main character, Aza, because he also struggled with severe anxiety and obsessive- compulsive disorder for as long as he can remember. Once in a while, it consumes him, but he keeps it in check with medication and therapy. Green said in an interview, “I couldn’t escape the spiral of my thoughts, and I felt like they were coming from the outside.” When he was starting to recover, he also started writing Turtles All the Way Down. Green said in another interview that he does not want to be embarrassed about it, instead, he wants to talk about it. Hence, the novel was published to tell his readers and everyone who would come across the book that it is not easy to have a mental illness.

This just proves that the author wanted to convey to the readers the reality of the people who have mental illnesses. The author gave his personal experiences to the main character as her qualities in the story. Through the main character’s perspective, the author conveyed and demonstrated how having a mental health disorder is paralyzing and dangerous. Also, the author was able to share what he is going through, through publishing the book. Analyzing the novel using the formalistic approach helped in getting to know the story and through the biological approach, the paper discovered that the message of the story is that having a mental illness is not easy, but it can be fought.

Works Cited Websites

“3 Key Differences Between YA Fiction and Adult Fiction.” Writers Edit, writersedit.com/fiction- writing/3-key-differences-between-ya-fiction-and-adult-fiction/.

“About John Green.” John Green, www.johngreenbooks.com/bio. Alter, Alexandra. “John Green Tells a Story of Emotional Pain and Crippling Anxiety. His Own.”

The New York Times, The New York Times, 10 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/books/john- green-anxiety-obsessive-compulsive disorder.html#:~:text=Green%2C%20the%20author%20of%20the,a%20while%2C%20it%20consumes%20him. Cart, Michael.

“The Value of Young Adult Literature.” Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), 15 Nov. 2011, www.ala.org/yalsa/guidelines/whitepapers/yalit. Doll, Jen. “What Does 'Young Adult' Mean?”

The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 30 Oct. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2012/04/what-does-young-adult-mean/329105/.

“John Green Books.” John Green, www.johngreenbooks.com/books. Lindquist, David. “John Green's 'Turtles' at Home in Indianapolis.” The Indianapolis Star, IndyStar, 13 Oct. 2017, www.indystar.com/story/entertainment/arts/2017/10/11/john-green-made-turtles-an-indianapolis-story/754951001/.

LitCharts. “Turtles All the Way Down Study Guide.” LitCharts, www.litcharts.com/lit/turtles-all-the- way-down.

Martin, Julia. “Turtles All The Way Down: A Story about Mental Illness with the Backdrop of a Mystery.” University News, 7 Nov. 2017, info.umkc.edu/unews/turtles-all-the-way-down-a-story-

January 2021

[yinzxs-wonderland]

Natasha was 4 and America was segregated.

Poems are literary works that are expressed musically. It conveys various emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, love, and more which are emotions people feel every day. Poets let us feel these different emotions through imagery and different literary devices. Through these literary devices, what a poem is trying to convey is easier to understand. Some poems are needed to be analyzed deeply for us to understand and some do not because you understand it as you read. Contemporary poems are much more relatable than those of the classic and modern. Yes, classical and modern poems are great and get magical, but for readers of today, especially non-English native speakers, archaic words are difficult to understand. With contemporary poems, 21st-century readers and learners will easily understand the language that is used and relate to the events or experiences present in the poem.

As time changes, authors of the contemporary have also changed their style in writing, subjects of their works, et cetera. Free verse, a poetic form, is one of the most used forms of today’s poets, and their poems talk about relatable experiences that the readers look at, understand more, and also easily promote poetry. With the Internet and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, authors and readers can promote literary works through posting a review. Everyone is on their phones, scrolling to different social media accounts they have, joining what is on-trend, posting about their daily accomplishments. Literature advocates must take advantage of this to raise awareness to the youth to not forget about the literary works of the past and the present.

In the United States of America, an act of Congress established a title called the “Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry” or US Poet Laureate. The Librarian of Congress, together with the current laureate appoints the next Poet Laureate. The appointed poet laureate stresses to raise national awareness in appreciation of reading and writing poetry. One of the US Poet Laureate, Natasha Trethewey, was the Mississippi state poet laureate and the 19th US Poet Laureate. She took the position on June 7, 2012. Natasha Trethewey was born in Mississippi on April 26, 1966. Author of four poetry collections and a book of creative non-fiction. Her honors include the Pulitzer Prize and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Trethewey received a BA from the University of Georgia, an MA from Hollins College, and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts.

Trethewey’s first collection of poems, Domestic Work, is a collection of poems reflecting the lives of African-Americans working class after the passing of Civil Rights Act. Domestic Work was selected by Rita Dove as the winner of the inaugural Cave Canem Poetry Prize for the best first book by an African American poet. In her introduction for Domestic Work, Rita Dove said, "Trethewey eschews the Polaroid instant, choosing to render the unsuspecting yearnings and tremulous hopes that accompany our most private thoughts—reclaiming for us that interior life where the true self flourishes and to which we return, in solitary reverie, for strength."

One of the poems from the Domestic Work is "History Lesson". The poem starts with the persona describing a photograph when she was four years old wearing a flower-printed bikini. It was taken at the beach by her grandmother in 1970. The poem then shifts its nostalgic feel to a historical event that happened in the Southern United States which was the legalization of the Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow Laws were laws legalizing racial segregation in the South. It started during the post-Civil War era until 1968 and existed for about a hundred years. The laws were meant to marginalized African-Americans. They were prohibited from entering public parks, beaches, and restaurants, and theaters were segregated. It also denied the African-Americans the right to education, the right to vote, land a job, or any opportunities. Those that defy the Jim Crow laws are arrested, violated, or killed.

Racial segregation laws were put to an end but racism is still prevalent even in the 21st century. It is still a huge issue in the United States where African-Americans are oppressed and discriminated against by privileged white Americans.

History Lesson Natasha Trethewey

I am four in this photograph, standing on a wide strip of Mississippi beach, my hands on the flowered hips of a bright bikini. My toes dig in, curl around wet sand. The sun cuts the rippling Gulf in flashes with each tidal rush. Minnows dart at my feet glinting like switchblades. I am alone except for my grandmother, other side of the camera, telling me how to pose. It is 1970, two years after they opened the rest of this beach to us, forty years since the photograph where she stood on a narrow plot of sand marked colored, smiling, her hands on the flowered hips of a cotton meal-sack dress.

I am four in this photograph, standing on a wide strip of Mississippi beach, my hands on the flowered hips

The first stanza of the poem tells us that the persona is describing a photograph of herself at the beach when she was four. This stanza is familiar to every little girl with a picture at the beach wearing a flower-printed bikini. It brings back memories of family trips to the beach, playing with cousins, eating good food, and memories as kids with no worries. The author uses symbolism and imagery on the third line, my hands on the flowered hips. The flower-printed bikini symbolizes every little girl on a beach trip with their family and the author uses this so readers can have detailed information about the photo. The second line also makes use of imagery, on a wide strip of Mississippi beach.

of a bright bikini. My toes dig in, curl around wet sand. The sun cuts the rippling Gulf in flashes with each

The persona continues to describe that day they were on the beach. The author also used imagery in the first and second lines, of a bright bikini and My toes dig in, curl around wet sand. This line makes the readers imagine as if they were at the beach, near the shore, their feet on wet sand where the water comes back and forth. There is also a use of personification, The sun cuts the rippling Gulf in flashes with each. The line means the sun was setting as if it's cutting the ocean and that what’s beyond or behind the sun is difficult to see.

tidal rush. Minnows dart at my feet glinting like switchblades. I am alone except for my grandmother, other side

Simile and imagery are used in the third stanza, Minnows dart at my feet glinting like switchblades. The persona described small fishes called minnows swimming fast and nearing her feet and their bodies glint like the color of switchblades, silver. The persona has also stated here that she was alone in the photo except that her grandmother was there on the other side, behind the camera, and was the one who took the photo. This stanza also connects with the first stanza as little girls are asked, sometimes forced, to pose in front of the camera, hands on their hips flaunting their flower-printed bikinis.

of the camera, telling me how to pose. It is 1970, two years after they opened the rest of this beach to us,

The fourth stanza is the shift or the turning point of the poem. The first half symbolizes happiness, carefreeness, innocence, and memories. The poet switches the tone of the poem far from what the first three stanzas. The stanzas before this stanza share an innocent picture and shift to a revelation of what it's like to be black during that time. The photograph of the persona holds a much deeper history of the persona’s family and the beach, which symbolizes progress and freedom. The stanza tells that the persona’s grandmother took the photo in 1970. With this, readers can infer that the persona is the author herself, Natasha Trethewey. Natasha Trethewey was born in the Deep South, a region in the Southern United States. Born to an African American mother and a white father. She was born when interracial marriage was against the law in Mississippi. Her parents divorced when she was six and her mother remarried but divorced her second husband as it was abusive in 1984 and a year later, murdered her mother. Trethewey said that her mother’s death prompts her to attempt writing poems.

The poem mentioned that it was two years since 1970 when the rest of the beach was opened for them. To fully understand this stanza, readers need to take into consideration, Trethewey’s biography, her hometown, and the year she mentioned in the poem. In 1968, the Jim Crow Laws were abolished. The Jim Crow laws legalized racial segregation. It was like state-enforced racism. According to Zinkel, the Jim Crow laws extend to the United States and legalized segregation and discrimination towards black Americans. It was enforced for a century and in 1964, the United States passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which aims to solve the toxic culture created by racial segregation. Despite guaranteed equal protection and rights to all Americans, including those of color, the Civil Rights Act did not eliminate the hatred and grudges of certain groups of white Americans toward black Americans and vice versa. Though not as extreme as during the Jim Crow, racism and prejudice still exist in the United States today and even in other parts of the world. The Jim Crow laws were no different from the Apartheid of South Africa.

The last word of the last line refers to the black Americans and that the other parts of the Mississippi beach were opened to them after the Jim Crow laws were abolished. Black Americans were not allowed to enter the beach as it was also demanded by the laws. The laws mandated segregated waiting rooms, buses, and trains. Blacks were prohibited from public parks and beaches. Also, water fountains, restrooms, building entrances, elevators, cemeteries, and even cashier windows. The law also forbade blacks to live in white neighborhoods. Segregation was also enforced in textbooks, phone booths, hospitals, jails, and residential homes. Almost everything was segregated and there are even signs that warn people that there are black neighborhoods nearby That is how extreme and petty the Jim Crow laws were.

This stanza also enlightens us why the poem is entitled History Lesson. It acts as a reminder that something so cruel happened in the history of the United States where people around the world dreamed of going and living their American dream. It also serves as a lesson that it should never happen again and people must open their minds that everyone has differences and are still humans

forty years since the photograph where she stood on a narrow plot of sand marked colored, smiling,

In this stanza, Trethewey completes the structure of the poem which is past and present. This stanza denotes the change of time. The persona is now describing the photograph of her grandmother on the same beach where her photo was taken. The difference between the persona’s photo and her grandmother is that she only stood on a narrow plot, while in her photo, she was standing on a wide Mississippi beach. The photo of her grandmother has a sign saying colored while hers was just the wide beach with no signs. Her grandmother was also smiling but was her smile genuine? Maybe yes or maybe no as she was on a smaller part of the beach.

her hands on the flowered hips of a cotton meal-sack dress.

The last stanza of the poem, a couplet, still compares the persona and her grandmother. They both were photographed on the same beach, hands on the flowered hips, wearing flower-printed clothing but her grandmother was wearing a cotton meal-sack dress while the persona was wearing a bikini. This implies the change of time because, during her grandmother’s time, bikinis wear not normalize, and even so they were black so they were prohibited from many things. On the other hand, during the persona’s time, even when she was only four years old, it was fine to wear a bikini. The persona’s child-self wears a bikini, which acts as a symbol of progress, no more dreadful sign saying colored and only just the beach behind her while the grandmother’s meal-sack dress symbolizes poverty, women's oppression, and racism. Trethewey focused on the detailed changes of time such as how the clothing changed and women can now wear bikinis rather than sack dresses. She also raised awareness using the desegregated as a beginning of a much bigger change. History Lesson is about the persona’s life when she was four. The first half of the poem talks about the persona and the second half were her grandmother’s. It is entitled

History Lesson as it teaches us a lesson from history and everyone needs to enjoy the time before it passes out on us. The poem presents history poetically by comparing one photograph from the past to a photograph of a much earlier time. It also proved that somehow time moves progressively which is indicated by the desegregated beach. The poem only used two figures of speech, simile, and personification, but it uses strong imagery specifically sight and touch. It also uses symbolism such as the desegregated beach and bikini symbolizing progress and freedom, meal-sack rice which symbolizes poverty, oppression, and racism, flowers printed on the two different clothing which symbolizes femininity, and the two photographs symbolizing time.

Its tone of the first half of the poem is happy as the persona reminisces memories of a trip to the beach and the tone shifts in the second half of the poem, it was sad as the grandmother experienced most of her time as someone who is oppressed. The significance of this poem is that it introduces us to what happened to African Americans from the time of extreme oppression and racism. The poem also gives importance to studying and knowing our history and never forget about it. Like the beach, history keeps going back and forth like the waves coming and retreating over and over again. The background of the author also helped in understanding the poem as the persona of the poem represents the author and what her family experienced.

Knowing the background of the author helped in analyzing the historic event that happened behind the words of the poem which was a century of state-enforced racism. Therefore, Natasha Trethewey’s History Lesson from her collection Domestic Work conveys freedom after a long period of oppression and discrimination and the persona of the poem is the poet.

Works Cited Online Sources

O, Carolyn. “a narrow plot of sand: Natasha Trethewey’s “History Lesson” from Domestic Work.” Rosemary and Reading Glasses, 2015 March 24, https://rosemaryandreadingglasses.com/2015/03/24/a-narrow-plot-of-sand-natasha- tretheweys-history-lesson-from-domestic-work/

Orkin, Martin, and A. Joubin. "Race: New critical idiom series." (2019). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342179402_Ten_Quotes_from_Researchers_Exploring_Issues_Around_Race_by_the_Scholarly_Kitchen_Race_often_brings_to_mind_people_who_are_not_white_while_whiteness_remains_unmarked_and_serves_as_a_benchmark_category

Parks, Rosa, and Gregory J. Reed. “Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue with Today's Youth.” Lee & Low Books, 1996. Retrieved from: https://libquotes.com/rosa-parks/quote/lbb7s5g

Trethewey, Natasha. “History Lesson.” 2000. Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47538/history-lesson-56d2280d442a7. Accessed 30 October 2020. Zinkel, Benjamin. "Apartheid and Jim Crow: Drawing Lessons from South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation." J. Disp. Resol. (2019): 229. https://poets.org/poet/natasha-trethewey

https://www.loc.gov/item/no00088459/natasha-trethewey/

October, 2020