The seed represents the beginning, survival, resistance, and a culture of farming. In Ruth Ozeki’s novel, All Over Creation, Ozeki redefines the meaning of seeds. Seeds are present in nearly every pivotal moment in the book and are used to show the characters’ willpower, hard work, skill, and concern for seeds. The seeds are a symbol of the characters’ strength, persistence, loss and will to survive. Though seeds evolve into plants-something new, they are compared to a cast of characters whose beliefs and personalities remain mostly static.

The key points in the essay are listed below.

Selena Martinez

Rina Patel

Paper #8

10/24/2014

Connection between Humans and Plants through Memory and coding

• (I think the connection is going to be simply between the mother and the seeds, it could be stated later maybe next weeks paper how the connection between the mother and the seeds allows a healthy connection to the present day allowing her to fully function with others.)

    People change when they are under different environment, and they vary even when they are growing under similar environment. In Ruth Ozeki’s novel All Over Creation, she describes how two little girls Yumi and Cass become so different growing up in the similar environment, and ultimately going onto the completely opposite track.

The book, all over creation, told an interesting story between human and seed. Yumi, the protagonist, ran away from home at 14 and came back 25 years later. When she came back with three children, Yumi met her sick parents, Lloyd and Momoko, best friend, Cass, the hippie activists, and even her middle school teacher who slept with her and then abandoned her, Elliot. Written with different perspectives, the book narrated a vivid story about a genetic engineering protest happened in Yumi’s house. The book dug deeply into the relationship between identify and environment, the balance between culture and nature.

Poison

Rose Kooper-Johnson

Paper #7

Oct. 23. 2014

(sorry if it's a bit difficult to read the photo!) Ok so the general direction I was thinking of taking this in is talking about, obviously, the relation of identity vs environment. In a sort of "you are what you eat" kind of deal, I think that the book says that you only get what you put into things. For instance, Yumi took her life into her own hands by running away, and the Seeds of Resistance are trying to actively destroy GMOs. That's pretty generic on its own, so a step further might take to taking control of the environment as a means of instigating. Thinking along these lines, I started contrasting that "taking control" with a more passive "working with what you have".

This my (very) rough draft on exploring Frank's changing identity.

Grace Chung

Paper #6

October 24, 2014

Farming Identity

General Idea:

Fri. 10/24:

(ALL CLASSES) 7:30 p.m.: Monsoon Bissell and Benaifer Bhadha, "Two Women Talking.” Goodhart Music Room.

Sat. 10/25:

(ALL CLASSES) 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat, 10/25, in Dalton 1 and 2 (basement of building): Workshop with Monsoon and Benaifer on the "narrativ" method

Sun. 10/26:

(ICPR) Post on Serendip by 5 PM: (You may want to post your comment Friday Oct. 24 since you'll be busy over the weekend with "Two Women Talking.")