Olivia's Blog

  Wow. This was just sad. Are you kidding me? She gets hit by a car and dies after all of that? C’mon Rodrigo, you could’ve come up with a better than that. Macabea was a poor, naive, invisible girl who literally never complained and didn’t feel the need to. “Sadness was also something for rich people, for people that could afford it, for people who didn’t have anything better to do. Sadness was a luxury.” (52-53) And this pretty much summed up the type of person Macabea was. Macabea also had a deeper meaning. She could represent the greater group of marginalized people. Who are completely overlooked by society. This is really shown by Rodrigo, the fictional narrator, who interrupts the story very often and uses big words, to remind us that he is the one who is telling the story. This is him almost just like debating with himself whether he should continue telling us the story and if it’s worth it. This really hits hard in terms of how in our society, we have to work hard to make o...

  Okayyyyy so there are a lot of emotions and symbolism to unpack here. First, starting off with Quimet. Do not like him. Of course he starts off like a dream, very charismatic but turning into your worst controlling nightmare subtly first and then over taking your life. I sound dramatic but look at this poor Natalia girl who was given a nickname by her husband basically calling her a pigeon, like wow not romantic at all. If anyone called me a pigeon, its out the door with you. Anyways, off topic. But also not. The pigeon nick name also symbolizes male control as well as the erasure of her identity. From the get go of their marriage, Quimet is sure to establish clear gender roles and their constraints, confining Natalia to typical woman duties while he is off playing with pigeons and thinking they’ll be able to make them some money. What a loser this guy is.  I found it sad for the pigeons but a little funny when Natalia would shake the pigeon eggs to kind of mess with his pro...

  After reading Black Shack Alley, it left me with a weird empty feeling. I would say I felt quite strongly about the emotions portrayed in the book because this novel is describing just a small portion of emotions of real like events that are still happening today. Which is why it is such a powerful and emotional novel. I could see how school was a representation of colonialism in a way of still having control over minorities even after so called “post-colonialism”. Because even though, people such as Jose think they are gaining their individualism back, they are still being controlled by the same system that colonized them, just in a more discrete (but also not so discrete) form.  In Black Shack Alley, people are forced into obeying because if not, there is little room for survival. In my eyes, Jose’s grandmother M’man Tine is a symbol of hope and perseverance through hard times and it is just sad to see such innocent people and kids grow up in a place where death and sickne...