Schizophrenia comes to mind when I'm thinking on Beccah's mother. I spoke to my boss, a doctor about it and he disagreed. He said she just seems crazy but I don't know. She hears voices and speaks to them. That to me makes her a schizophrenic. But, to argue against myself and for the "supernatural" she did speak to Reno about her mother and knew things there was no earthly way of knowing. I find her character very complex. I do like the mother. I'm not sure it was the way the author intended it, but when she came home and found her mother dancing and kicking her leg up pouring with sweat it made me laugh. It probably wasn't supposed to be funny because it seemed to be a traumatic moment for Beccah but to me, I it was hilarious! But I don't want to like her because she scares me with her spirit-talking fits. When she got in Reno's face talking like her mother all I could picture was a demonized figure of an old woman yelling and tormenting her still living daughter. It really creeped me out! But then I still feel bad for her. I really think she had some sort of chemical imbalance and was doing the best she could to care for her daughter while living with her "gift."
It would be very difficult to live with the trauma of being a comfort woman. I can't tell from the excerpt that we read whether or not her mother was a comfort woman, but the title of the book that it is from makes me think she was. As everyone will see in Jessica and my presentation tomorrow, comfort women were traumatized. They were mislead to think one thing and forced to do... bad things. Here is a video clip that I think will help understand the trauma that these women experienced.
Some of her story is difficult to hear so here is my disclaimer!!! Some of the content of this story may be found uncomfortable, inappropriate, or undesirable. Watch at your own discretion!
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Hey "Beccah",
ReplyDeleteJust kidding! Anyway, I find it interesting that your name is almost the same as the character in the story for this week.
I agree with you that there are humors in those scenes which Beccah sees her mother dancing like crazy. In fact, to any person who does not know the context would think it funny. Therefore I don't think you should feel bad. When judging Beccah's mother, I think there are two ways of thinking. First, people will think that this is funny because the woman is acting crazy. The other way is probably purely disgust because such behaviors can freak people out.
Anyway, I find it rather normal although it is not something that you would see every day. Since my hometown is in Vietnam, I encountered these kinds of things a lot. People in Vietnam either make fun of it or some just really believe in these kinds of stuffs. I can't decide to whether believe or not but I think it would be unfair to choose either way. You are right when you say that Beccah's mother craziness could come from her traumatize memories. Although the part of the story which we read never talked about her being a comfort woman, I can imagine that anyone would have gone crazy like the mother if they had experience that kind of stuffs.
I appreciate the video, it is very insightful. I have not studied much about this part of the history so your video is definitely informative. Good job !
I do agree with you that something was wrong with the mother when you say “imbalance”. Personally, I thought she had some sort of psychological illness or perhaps a traumatic experience that affected her and scarred her for life. I was unable to tell if Akiko was the comfort woman or not either. I mean, for all we know the comfort woman could have ended up being Beccah. I guess the only way we would ever really know for sure is if we read the entire book as opposed to just an excerpt that we read.
ReplyDeleteI think if we read the entire book, it would definitely answer some, if not all of our questions that confused us about Akiko and Beccah’s story. I would definitely like to know more about Akiko’s past and how she ended up acting the way she does. At some times, she seemed normal but other times, such as when she talks about killing her husband, it makes me question her mental state. Was the reason she acted that way when talking about her husband because she hated him so much for something he did to her that traumatized her? Perhaps he abused her or cheated on her?
Could he have maybe not been responsible enough to provide for his family which may have led Akiko to despise him? Perhaps she had an experience that scarred her for life during her childhood that he had nothing to do with but maybe he unintentionally reminded her of that incident, causing her to show so much animosity towards him that she would wish for his death. I would like to know more about her past with her husband and her childhood to try and find out if the author ever explains why Akiko acts the way that she does.
By the way, I also felt bad for the woman in the video. It must have been very difficult for her and other comfort women to go through what they had to go through. I'm sure they did not want to go through what they had to endure. It definitely shows in the video how traumatic the incident was for the woman and I wish nobody would have to to go through what she and other comfort women have gone through.
Becka:
ReplyDeleteI love the video. I think it is great that you were able to find and then share with us an actual survivor account. With things such as comfort women and the Japanese internment camps, I think so much of this is silenced that the truth is never really known and we can only speculate; however you found someone who lived it and survived it. At some point, each of these people will die and eventually there will be no one to give a first hand account of their experiences and I think it is important to get this side; their side of the story not bulls**t reports from governments that are trying to hide the injustices that groups of people suffered at the governments doing. I can't imagine being forced into any form of sex slavery for any reason and having to live daily with not just the sexual assaults but the physical, mental, and emotional assaults that would be inflicted daily...based on the schedule you showed the class, make that hourly. It is tragic that things such as this went on but what is equally upsetting is that it is still going on. Maybe not to service military personel but there are women, children, and in some cases men, who are forced into sex slavery daily all throughout the world. Sex slavery and the trafficking of individuals is not something that can be spoken of in past tense terms.
I think that the mother was driven to insanity. Before your presentation I thought that maybe she was gifted and could communicate with the spirit world, I've heard of people doing that although I've never witnessed it, but I think she was crazy. She had to find some way to escape the torture and maybe when she was a comfort woman she would pray to the spirits to save her...even after she was no longer a comfort woman, she needed to be saved from her memories and the trauma that haunted her like a ghost.
I really feel upset about the video. For Chinese, it's really a painful history that a lot of people wouldn't like to think of. It hurts a a lot, not only to the ones who experienced it, but also to the ones who feel regretful for the victims. From the history I have learnt in China, many women are raped cruelly, while a lot of them are still little girls. Many of them died, and among the one who live their life lose the ability to give birth to children.
ReplyDeleteActually, I am not sure "Comfort women" refers to Japanese women who came to China to support the Japanese soldiers, or all the Asian women who are raped during the war, because I think it's two different things. For the Japanese women, at first, a lot of them work as comfort women with their own decision, because the economic problem or they want to show their loyalty to the country. But for the other Asian women, they are really raped. They don't have the right to decide whether they want or not. Of course, they will get nothing by this not like the Japanese women who can at least get some money and do the physical tests.
Nevertheless, I feel pity for both the Japanese comfort women and other Asian comfort women. Their lives are ruined that they cannot get over this terrible memory in the future. It's normal for them to get crazy after experiencing all of this.