Oppression & Our Narratives

English has never been one of my favorite subjects to study in school. It was quick and easy, every teacher having just about he same standards and my bare minimum effort got me good scores. Once I came to SFSU my teachers quickly informed me that everything I had learned and become accustomed to was wrong. That our teachers did not properly prepare us for college and that it was simply the way the world turned. This blog post is simply an accumulation of thoughts I have developed throughout the semester either in this 214 course or in another class I had the opportunity to take. Bear with me in the scattered ideas I am about to convey to you. I promise they have a point, though my narrative may seem unfocused.

Our standard essay with a clear thesis at the end of the introduction and about three other body paragraphs to convey our thesis. this was our standard taught. It was what we were told would be accepted and was the common standard. Thank you for not preparing us for what higher education had in store for us.

From "The Mixed Up Chameleon," Eric Carle couldn't have said it any better.

This sassy introduction leads me to my next reflection. That once entering college, we are corrected by our teachers, and continue to be corrected. Not every class has a uniform standard, every teacher is different. We have to turn ourselves into chameleons to adjust ourselves to the discourse our professor prefers, or risk failing. This is either a good thing or a bad thing. Each semester we get new teachers that introduce us to new styles of learning and writing. Some of these have been great, aiding us with other classes and evolving how we think and approach a new task. Some on the other hand have made us want to smack them against their whiteboards and projector screens hoping they never enter the life of another unlucky student. Welcome to the real world. MTV did not prepare us for this.

Specifically thinking upon this course we have been told that we have to adjust our whole sphere in order to understand the hidden narratives within all forms of writing. A hidden narrative within a piece determines they entire attitude or emotion the writer wants to you feel once done reading. It forms the overall opinion and shapes your way of thinking as an issue. It can determine if a man is committing a crime, or trying to survive another day. Such as the "looting" versus "finding." Another example of this was easily created by the New York Times soon after Michael Brown was killed; Portraying him as a troubled youth with a violent history and a temper issue, rather than the teenager he was, about to attend college, with a future ahead of him. This is extremely disappointing being that the New York Times is such a well respected newspaper that it would alter the views of many readers almost instantly, because of course we are all sheep in one way or another. These narratives say it all. There is a want to change others' views on anything to fit your own or to just create a new way of thought. I had never considered the possibility of an invisible narrative before this course. I had known that everyone writes any piece to their opinion and taste. There is no such thing as an unbiased piece of writing. Anyone who says they can remain unbiased is full of it.

Being introduced to the formal term for the invisible narrative showed me how I myself have created my own. In a way it is my own personal form of propaganda. Staying consistent with the same ideals and values I hold dear, regardless of the subject. I now find myself making an effort to identify the narrative of the majority of things I read now and taking the extra time to critically analyze the narrative. Why could this narrative be "wrong," how it could be "right,"or why was it formed? Everyone carries such a narrative within themselves every day. This semester we discussed the invisible narratives along with oppression. How a narrative oppresses any one subject. As I see it, any form of writing oppressing someone or something due to their narrative. Isn't that what we were doing in our third paper? Forming an opinion and either condoning or proving false any differing position.

Creating our narratives in this class I believe taught us to have thicker skins. We made ourselves more vulnerable, allowing our peers to judge or work instead of leaving it to the discretion of the professor. Our narratives became victims. Like I had previously stated, everyones opinions are their own and are most likely not going to be the same as the person sitting next to them. So when creating our papers we most likely adjusted our papers in a way that would be more appealing to the class as a whole in order to get a better grade. I knew my opinion regarding paper three would probably not be the most popular, so I adjusted my discourse in order for the masses to hopefully be more understanding and make way for a passing number. I write this section of the blog explaining this in order to gain further understanding from my peers who will be reading this. Once again a hope for a better score. The fear of failure will forever shape our narrative. This is something that not until this 214 course was taken, I would not have completely realized. This course has lifted my so called "veil of ignorance." (Thanks John Rawls).