Rethinking Undertow



Ah, it's 13, and it's called a Bar Mitzvah.
You learn something new everyday.



After we discussed Undertow in class, I realized that I had been so focused on finding out how it ended that I didn't come to a full understanding about the different neighborhoods they were passing through.  I didn't realize they were Polish either, I thought they were Jewish because Perry said him and Sir could go but Mick couldn't, like he wasn't at that age that Jewish men have to be to become a man.  What is it like 15?  I'm not sure but that's how I interpreted it.  But this story does really touch on ethnic relationships.  They first drive through Chinatown, and the boys want to stop but I think the dad thinks they are too different of a people so they shouldn't stop.  When they pass through the black ghetto, Sir gets weary and tells them to roll up the windows.  I didn't think about this, but my mom did that too.  My mom has family in Omaha, and she would say stuff like that whenever we would visit, because my grandmother lives in what is now a black ghetto.  She invoked that fear in my so much that I would do that when I would take my niece and nephews to Omaha.  I know it is a mostly false stereotype that people living in those conditions are packin' heat, but I would have rather been safe than sorry.  One time my nephew, about 10 at the time, stuck his plastic Nerf gun by the window of the car while we were parked and I freaked out. I said are you TRYING to get us shot.  My sister would also always tell me that you do NOT want get stopped by a red light in that area of Omaha.  But really looking back on how I was raised, I feel bad because stereotypes like that are cruel.



In "Thinner" the gypsy touches the
protagonist's face and curses him.



They went through Jewtown, which is a part I have never heard of anywhere.  Like, how does that happen?  I see at as a religion, not an ethnicity, but I guess it can be both.  That's what I was most confused about but things were more clear to me after class.  The gypsies...(click if you want, I love this song) Sir said they were dirty.  Which is what people think.  Dirty, almost witchy type people that try to rob you.  Have you ever seen "Thinner"?  It's a movie that was made based on the novel by Stephan King.  Really creepy, but it teaches about gypsy culture so we should totally watch it in class, hint hint. I didn't give it much thought while reading, but in the car they are judgemental about the people they pass.  At the lake, everyone gets along.  There is no color.  I think that is because everyone is having fun.  They have come together based on a common interest and nothing else matters at that moment but having fun.  It is too bad the world cant just "have fun" all the time.

Until next time,

Keri Jo