Voices
One of the most interesting parts of my research was watching the TED Talk, “How do the poor see life? Uneducated, not stupid” by Rahin Makhijani. For a “you” living on one side of education, certain systemic privileges, and economic security, he asks “you” to envision another “you” who is living on the other side, who sees and approaches life very differently. It takes time commitment, difficult realizations, and compassion to reach an understanding of the other side, but it is ultimately worth it. “When you put together the money that the slum dweller pays for the authorities to look away… [for every] monsoon to avert a threatened demolition… for the illegal electricity point per bulk connection… for a bucket of water… the slum is the most expensive place to live. And the poor are paying it today, but we still call them illegitimate, because it is we, from this side of the world, who define what legitimate is.” His words act as a bridge between the two worlds that raises awareness of how the socioeconomically better-off have defined themselves as the normal, humane side, an idea that is contested and turned on its head in my chosen novel, The White Tiger.
I also loved the article titled “India Schools Stay Closed, and Hopes Fade for a Lost Generation,” published in The New York Times. We’ve discussed how poverty and trauma are passed down generationally, like in Beloved and As I Lay Dying, but this article brought the real, practical mechanisms hampered by corruption and lack of accountability, to life. When education is a privilege, as it is for tens of millions in India’s lower classes, and not a right, social mobility is unimaginably difficult. When there are conflicts of interests in the bureaucracies of education, when school administrators pocket funding for themselves, when there is no sufficient food, and especially when a pandemic makes in-person learning impossible, economic inequality worsens.
I hope people will learn the fundamentals of how caste is created and upheld by societies. The complex storytelling, violence, and segregation that goes into making another group of people the “other” can teach us a lot about social division. Books like The White Tiger personalize and humanize one “other” in society, the socioeconomically disadvantaged, and I hope people will think about how books in general can do this for all different kinds of “other”s.
Some of the most important learning I did at my time here at NNHS occurred in Mrs. Parato’s online AP Language class. She put together three slide presentations for us bursting with poems, essays, short stories, speeches, and videos from American history and modern times. I read/watched every source in those presentations, and it gave me an insatiable curiosity about the stories and experiences of others, which I discovered through books. The best way I have heard it put so far (and this is also included in the last slide of my voices project) is in the documentary Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am.
“This is the gift of a novel. No other art form allows us to enter and thereby dignify the inner life of another human being so thoroughly; allows us to experience the inner life of another human being – the secret inner life. What it is that person feels. Not their opinions. Not their social conditions. But what does it feel like to be that person?”
I’ve always viewed high school as a stepping stone, a period of painful growth and instability, to the really great thing, the “time of my life,” college. To future NNHS seniors, I would say that there is so much more ahead of you, whatever you choose to pursue after high school. The world is your oyster; this is just one page of your story, and you get to write the rest. There are so many experiences to be gained and fun to be had during your last year of high school, but if things are ever looking a little bleak or second semester suddenly isn’t feeling like the haven it was promised to be, there is something more beyond, and you will make it through. As I wrote in my last blog last semester, I would argue that AP Literature is as much about life as it is about language; the novels that we study in this class span a wide range of voices from different times and places, and it’s such a privilege to have the resources provided by Mrs. Hitzeman and Mrs. Trowbridge, and the thoughts of your classmates, with you as you journey through this year. Ponder the deeper meaning of a novel, and you may find that it changes the way you see your world.
Emma, I thought that you examined your topic beautifully and found such a great variety of sources to broaden your understanding! As someone who has grown up with a very traditional distant family, I completely understand just how deep-rooted these social classes are in Indian society, as unfortunate as it is. It becomes an inescapable label for someone, and no matter how bright or talented they are it is almost impossible to escape. I think that your post stresses a very important point – we need to bridge the gap. While it is vital to allocate more resources to the lower classes, it is evident through your research just how much of a difference is created by social perception. I feel that these caste systems are passed down through Indian culture because people choose to hold them as identifying factors. It’s enforced by the people themselves. I agree that I hope this issue improves in the future as people hopefully attempt to understand others’ situations a little bit better.
I am so glad that you’ve had amazing learning experiences at Naperville North! You have always inspired me with your passion for the knowledge that you gain, and I am so excited to see what you accomplish in the future. 🙂
Hi Emma! Your video essay was outstanding, to put it simply. I have to compliment you on how professional everything looked and sounded, it was seemingly flawless. Now, onto the topic of your essay, this was really interesting to learn about. We talk about social status a lot in school and different economic classes in America, but we never really look at how some similar concepts of social class may be more extreme in other parts of the world, like with the caste system in India. It was so sad to hear about the “untouchables”, and how some of these individuals actually turned to suicide because it was too painful to live life in this unimaginable way. I really liked how you brought up the concept of people being uneducated and not dumb, I think this is really important to think about because there is a valid difference between the two. An intelligent person, in my opinion, has the ability to retain and understand knowledge to a higher level when they are given it. If people aren’t given the opportunity to gain knowledge, there is no possible way to know their intelligence.
On to your high school reflection, I totally agree that high school is portrayed as a task that must be completed to live your best life in college. I think we need to stray away from this because not everyone goes to college, but it is a good reminder that later on, we will have more freedom to choose our own path, and ultimately our happiness.
Thank you for sharing!
Emma, I thought you did a fantastic job on your project as it provided valuable insight on the social classes within the Indian community. I really like how you included a broad variety of sources because they covered your point from all angles, while still providing different facts and perspectives according to the type of source. I totally agree with your point on eliminating this gap because gaps like this can be detrimental to a community. A community should be unified and working together, not split up and working against each other. In almost every community, history always seems to linger in the background and this is definitely the case here with the historic caste system. I think if there is awareness brought to this problem, people will start to change because often, individuals don’t even know they’re doing it. Thanks for sharing!!
Hi Emma! The voice you brought forth in this video was fascinating, especially when put in relation with other forms of social division in our world beyond the caste system. As an outsider, it’s easy to see the extreme nature of class discrimination within India as a distant issue, but similar themes of treating people poorly as “others” are certainly present within American culture as well. I love your inclusion of a call-to-action in your project, as there are certainly things that can be done to break the inequities perpetuated by the caste system.
Finally, I genuinely found the statements about high school you provided at the end of this blog to be beautiful. These four years comprise the slightest fraction of our lives, but whenever possible, it can be nice to soak it in for all it is. Similarly to your experience, this class has brought me countless insights into the lives of various “voices” I had not otherwise heard in literature, and I can genuinely attest to the fact that this has changed the way I view the world.