“Cross” by Langston Hughes

The persona in the poem “Cross” by Langston Hughes brings some issues of identification and racial prejudice.

The persona is frustrated of his identity. He is a child of a rich white man and a poor black woman. He is a “halfbreed” person that suffered abuse from both blacks and whites since he didn't fully belong to either race.

The poem is the representative of the mindset and segregation of races during Langston Hughes times, it implies that the persona battled with identity and blaming his parents. The persona could not heritage what his rich father have but to suffer the life of black society. The death of the persona’s  parents tell the difference of the privilege and poverty of the multiracial society. Langston Hughes is trying to convey the state of racial ambiguity that mixed race people feel.

Times are changing and world is becoming more and more integrated now. Multiracial society is very common in Malaysia. There are new generations with mixed races, religions and cultural background. Thus this poem is suitable in Malaysian’s literature classroom. Some mixed race people nowadays are proud of their identity as they have more heritage and benefits from different races. They have chances to learn another culture or religion. They can learn a new language easily.

The most challenging issue in multiracial society is the adaptation and integration of different races. Thus, “respect” is a great lesson to be learnt. Our students should be taught the value of respect to different races.

As a teacher, I always come to children from interracial families. Take my class for example, I have a student with a Chinese father and a Murut mother. The other has a Melanau father and a Chinese mother. I found that their language proficiency is better than the others. They can speak Bahasa Malaysia well. This is because they have more practice on this language at home. I always tell them that they are lucky as they can learn more different languages and cultures.  Sometimes, they help in my teaching too. I seek translation of words in their language, and use them in some of my induction sets. The other students think it is funny to learn new things.

My conclusion, not matter what races are we, we should appreciate what we have and live our time in great meaning.

The Hare and The Tortoise

We are no longer familiar for this fable. When I was a child, I was told not to learn the arrogant rabbit which makes fool of the tortoise. I was also taught not to look down upon those who are weaker or unlucky than us. Anyway, as I grow older, I have different thoughts and inspirations about this fable.

The tortoise neither represents weak nor unlucky. He is a creature with great wisdom. He is a valiant tortoise, who manages to win a race despite his physical limitations. Although being teased by the hare, he accepted the challenge and performed his best in the race. He brings a message that “no matter what the odds and what seem to be impossible tasks, if we keep going we will get to the target”. It shows that constant small steps of improvement every day brings great changes.

The hare presents a negative example: he makes the foolish mistake of assuming he can win the race without even trying. As a result of his overconfidence, he loses the race. The big failure of the hare is to take advantage of his natural abilities. He thinks he will definitely wins the race easily, thus he is not alert of what is going on. This fable proves that many people who have good natural abilities but could not succeed in the end, because they are ruined by idleness and arrogant.

The slow movement of tortoise reminds me a girl in my class. This girl does her works slower than the other students. Sometimes most of the students finished their writing but this girl just take out her exercise book from her bag. I am sometimes lost patient for her slowness in action. But there is something good about her. Her writing is nice and neat, and she will definitely submit her work the next day. I think this girl captures the philosophy of tortoise, steady wins the race. In the meanwhile, I should always encourage her to do her work within the hours as a way to train her well.

“The hare and the tortoise” captures the philosophies of success. Instead of getting full of ourselves and stopping like the hare, we should keep trying our best until the end like the tortoise.

Are you a hare or a tortoise?
(The drawing below is from a student in my school.)



Pyramus and Thisbe

 The tragic myth of Pyramus and Thisbe concerns love, faith and sacrifice. Parents of Pyramus and Thisbe opposed the relationship between Pyramus and Thisbe for reasons not explained in the story. But the love between Pyramus and Thisbe is so strong that they disobey the will of their parents and run away. Anyway, the power of fate thwarts the plans of the young lovers when the lioness finds Thisbe’s lost veil and chews at it with jaws stained with the blood of another animal. Since they are forbidden by their parents to be together in mortal lives, thus it seems the fate that Pyramus and Thisbe have to sacrifice themselves for each other to meet in the other realm of live.

Issue that can be discussed with students about this myth is the conflict between parents and children. If parents are not agreed to children in any context, they should talk or discuss with them. Children too have to seek advice from their parents if they face problems. Only good communication in the family can avoid misunderstanding and bad luck.

The Son Of The Turtle-Spirit

ONCE I received the module from my learning centre, I went through the content and found out that there are many different genres of literature works. I start to like this module as I love to read stories. ‘The Son of the Turtle Spirit’ was the first text that I read. This is an old Chinese folktale with the beliefs of spirits in human and animal. In Chinese’s belief, when people die, they turn into spirit and turn into animal. So animal can talk, walk, and change to human form. Anyway, only superior power can turn them into human form. Also, some Chinese believe that the people who stay on top of the cloud (somewhere like heaven) when come down, they will change into animal.

I have read articles and listened from my grandparents that some spirits are said to commit adultery with human men or women. This normally takes place during the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, the Ghost Month.  This is the time when the gates of hell are opened in which spirits and ghosts, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out of the hell. The background knowledge of spirit reinforces my understanding of this story.

Anyway, despite the cultural and religion believes, there are some values to be learned. The first is work for your own success. The son of the turtle spirit is determined to dive into the river. He believes he can do the job and wants to be rewarded gold and silver. He needs the reward to make him and his mother to live better. From this we also learnt that the boy is brave to accept challenges. He is not fear of the words from the crowd who looks down at him. He has the courage to accept the challenge as he is sure of himself. All he needs is the permission and support from his mother. We learnt from this point that the boy is a very obedient child. Whatever he does, he will first acknowledge his mother, his only family member. Besides, he also follows his mother’s instructions when he dives into the bottom of the river.

At the end of the story, the kind-hearted, determine and brave boy becomes an extraordinary person. Because of his own strengths and remarkable behaviour, he became the Emperor. This interesting story can be used as a teaching material to teach students.