"He had a baby blue Volkswagon Beetle in a town of Fords and Chevys." (Ozeki 23)

"The people around her-dull, soft-bodied, and white- seemed to squint when they caught sight of her, she was that bright." (Ozeki 59)

"She was a tropical child with no understanding of the bitterness of cold." (Ozeki 81)

"'Seasonable Cultural Practices'- how he liked the sound of that! I remember him practicing the phrase, standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom....Fuller Farms seemed living proof to all that with the cooperation of God and Science, and the diligent application of seasonable cultural practices, man could work in harmony with nature to create a relationship of perfect symbiotic mutualism."

"'Can't you stop using it?'

She looked pityingly at me. 'You really don't know shit about potatoes, do you? We got three thousand acres, it's not that easy.'

'But if it's poisoning you'..." (77)

Praxis Sites for "Unsettling Literacy," two linked courses offered @ Bryn Mawr College, Spring 2017

Each student will select one praxis site, and make a commitment to weekly work there.

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Draft Syllabi ENGL 244: Unsettling Literacy (TTh 2:25-3:45)

"Cassie had started out as a pea. Up through the third grade she was content in this role, but by the time she got to fourth, she had gained so much weight they made her a potato. She said it was fine, said really she didn't mind - that's just the kind of girl she was - but inside she minded a lot" (7).

"Cass pulled away and went back to her pa king. Resignation. Too many years spent as a potato" (9).

"The door burst open with an icy blast and Geek straggled in. His green tights sagged at the knees, and his burlap diaper was heavy with wet and melting snow. His glassss were completely fogged. 'Dudes,' he said, teeth chattering. 'I juh... just gotta say, sometimes I hate being the frig... friggin' potato!'" (95).

The following quotes are things that have caught my attention throughout the reading. It intrigued me that Teh passages that I am about to post below, each mention factors of the environment and making them who they are or shaping a factor in their life.

"The shame was yours, and I knew if I stayed, I'd be posined by it. I'd grow up all screwy and bent with the weight of your shame?" (37)

"yummy narrowed her eyes. "In Hawaii it makes a big difference," shes said to Cass. "We differentiate between ethnocultural styles of breaking noses" (127)

"It's them other people. The ones you been allowing to stay on your daddy's property here. That gang of hippies." (155)

"The potato habit was a hard one to break, and the trasformation happened slowly. One of the things Lloyd loved about potatoes is that they stayed alive......'Look, Yumi! They're alive. Living and breathing.' Then he explained how cloning worked and how every potate was capable of creating endless offspring out of trunks of its living flesh, and I felt so proud, like I was a little chunk of his......Usually they can stay that way for almost a year before they start to wither and die. Of course, that is the problem with living things--they have a life span that cannot be exceeded."(p.112-113)

Quote 1: “That’s what it felt like when I was growing up, like I was a random fruit in a field of genetically identical potatoes.” (p4)

Quote 2:" The fact was, some things had to die so that others could live, and the idea was to try to maximize your chances of staying on the living side for as long as you could."( p270)

Quote3:" "I've never been able to make them feel safe," I said. "Maybe that's what happens when you run away from home. You get older, but you never grow up." I held out the cigarette to prove my point. "See? I come back to this house, and it's like I'm a teenager again. Smoking. Sneaking out to sleep with Elliot. It's like time just folded and my whole life between then and now never happened" (p240).

"Sometimes he treats me like I'm the one who needs looking after. When he was little, he used to crawl up onto my lap and play patty-cake with my cheeks, holding my face between his small palms. "Calm down, Mommy," he'd say, looking deep into my eyes. "I love you" (158).

This passage interested me because it relates to Yumi and Lloyd's relationship. Like Yumi, Phoenix calls his mother by her first name. And he rarely shows her any respect. Yumi treated her father very similarly, right before she ran away. I think that Phoenix truly loves Yumi, as Yumi loves Lloyd, but Phoenix can't look up to Yumi as a role model.