Week 16
All I Asking for My Body Dialogue
I liked the ending to the story. After all the sacrificing for family Kiyochan takes a step for himself when he volunteers to go to war. He sees it as the only way he will ever have any freedom. For him to then manufacture his own good luck by figuring out the odds with craps and win seems highly unlikely. However true to form he then sends the money home to pay off the family debt.
This debt started before his birth and grew out of family necessity. It consumed his mother, made his father feel like a failure and changed his brother’s life. These children were at the mercy of the plantation way of life. A life they could not change but had to accept. Their only other choice seemed to be no life at all. They were born into poverty and struggled just to “keep face” it was the fate of the entire family. There was no escape no way out. On page 88 of the text Kiyochan says, “It was like a prison term” he is referring to his plantation life. The cycle he and many others were caught up in. He was working for $2 a day, 6 days a week, eight hours a day and had nothing to show for it. I liked that at the end of the story he seemed to be escaping in some ways the irony of it was that escape he had to volunteer to go to war.
Hi BetteJo,
ReplyDeleteGood write! I really liked the ending in that he did not have to cheat on the final rolls. I thought that because he was such a good son all his life he was finally given a break and the dice rolled in his favor when they were thrown up against a background. He was able to free himself and his family.
Hi Bettejo,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your write. I too enjoyed the fact that in the end he was able to escape in an ironic way. I also felt that being on that plantation they were doomed and thought they they were imprisoned at birth. Thanks for the read.
Hi BetteJo,
ReplyDeleteYour final point is insightful! I agree that it's ironic that Kiyoshi must enlist in order to find freedom; he trades in one kind of responsibility for another kind of his choosing, which is the critical difference. He is finally able to choose his fate and the manner in which his body will be used.
It's telling that the only way the family is able to escape the cycle of poverty is to win big gambling. There's an argument here about one's ability (or inability) to move out of the economic class one is born into. Without Kiyoshi's money, the Oyama family would have continued passing the debt onto the next generations.
Thanks for these points to consider.
Lauren
Hi Bettejo,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. You write very good everything flows so well. I was happy that Kiyoshi left for the army because he would have gone no where if he stated home. Even though it is sad to think he has to go off to war to get away. I really enjoyed the end of this story.
Hi Bettejo,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that Kiyoshi needed to enlist to gain his freedom. Kiyoshi was a very dedicated son which is why I was not surprised that he sent the money home. Because he was so loyal enlisting really was the only way for him to get away.
Deborah
Hi Bettejo,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post and think you did a great job. I also found it ironic that he joined the war to get the freedom from his family that he wanted.
I really liked reading your post and you did a great job! I also liked that he was able to escape in the end. Them being on the plantation was what they dreaded since birth and didn't want to be slaves.
ReplyDeleteHi Bettejo,
ReplyDeleteI thought it was very ironic that Kiyo volunteered for war to get off the plantation as well. Though I believe many people go to war to escape their situations at home. Just think how he must have felt, making only $50 a month and facing $6000 in debt when the monthly income only pays for the families survival. Thanks for the post.