Unit 2 Blog on "Being a Man" By Paul Theroux

What is the authors message in this story?



The author is trying to explain to the reader how society see men. He thinks the way people see men is "emotionally damaging and socially harmful." By calling men stupid he means they are looked upon as slow, stupid, dull. However Society does not see men in this way, men have always had the most power. As the years have passed, women have tryed to fight for better jobs and gain that power, but yet sometimes men still hold the most power.



How does Theroux define manhood?



Theroux defines manhood in a very negative way. His concept of men is to "be stupid, be unfeeling, obedient, soldierly, and stop thinking." Therefore he sees American manhood as pathetic, sorry, disgraceful, and pitiful, but this not necessarily true.

How does he relate real life experiences with his story?

He talks about how sports seem to be a "recipe for creating bad marriages, social misfits, moral degengerates, sadist, latent rapist" however he does not explain how how sports cause those outcomes. He also relates his life experience as being a writer and not feeling accepted as 'manly' by society.

How does sports affect the way people see men?

He feels that men only have interest in sports and such things. He says " I regard high school sports as a drug far worse than marijuana," I think he is trying to say that men should show interest on other things beside sports.

What can be done to change societies expectations for men?

He does not say what could be done he only provides negativity in his story.

I disagree with the author in this reading, not all of society see 'manhood' the way he sees it. I feel that what he says is from his personal perspective. Not all Americans are raised with the same values and not all of society sees men the way he is claiming. Theroux provides a lot of society views of manliness and his personal perspective but he does not say what should be done to fix the problem, or what could be done to change the way he thinks society sees men.

"Coming Home Again"

Chang Rae Lee's story makes people realize of how life can be. It's about how the author's life was growing up, how his family didn't show much love towards each other. And about how his mother was so eager for him to be successful, that she sent him to boarding school. Even though it may have seemed like a good opportunity by making something out of the situation, by leading him into a sucessful path, he was going to be away from home and his family. His mother later regrets sending her son off to boarding school because she ends up finding out she's going to die soon from stomach cancer. Her illness is very ironic because growing up Lee's Mother enjoyed cooking the traditional Korean food for her family. As she cooked for her family Lee would observe and watch her carefully to learn how to make the delicious meals his mother would make throughout his childhood. The Korean food is what the symbol in this story is, everything in this story revolves around the food she would make and how much work and effort she would put in to make these meals. The purpose of this story is to make people realize that we should cherish our family more, be more direct with others. The author picked the title "Coming Home Again" simply because, he's finally back home, and he knows that he's back home for good and realizes that, thats where he belongs.

I can relate a lot to Lee and his story. Even though I come from a totally different background, of race, culture, food, even language, by me being hispanic. I do understand how it feels to have a family that doesn't show love, and share feelings. My family is a lot like this, it's not like we don't love each other, we just never say how we feel. I honestly don't remember when was the time I told my father I loved him. It's very sad and this story has made me realize that it shouldn't be like that. It's taught me how we should cherish our family more. Because you never know whats going to happen, and nobody wants to live with regret.

About Me

My name is Leslie Rodriguez, I am from Houston, Texas born and raised! I love it here, but I do like experiencing new places and things. My dream is to travel the world, there are just so many places in this world that are so beautiful. I recently just graduated from Jersey Village high school, so this is my first year in college. So far I am enjoying the college experience, I want to eventually transfer to Sam Houston State University, Or Texas State University. I want to study to become an Orthodontist, because I really enjoy helping others and ever since I was little I dreamed about becoming some kind of doctor. For fun I like to dance, work out, and do yoga. I've been dancing ballet for about six years and I started doing yoga about 2 years ago. In high school I was in dance, I think thats the only thing I miss from high school. I also love photography! I think its an amazing form of art, I've also taken photography classes and i've learned so much about its' history. I also enjoy just being with my family and friends, they mean the everything to me.