Monday, December 08, 2008

 

Evolution of a Revolutionary Questions to think about

The numbers in bold are the essay questions

Each essay needs to be minimally 4-5 pages long with a bibliography and a works cited. (I have included this in the 4-5 pages count.) There should be no more than one citation, in text or paraphrase, per page. If you use a block quote, then for a short essay (3-4 pages), just one block quote for the entire essay. If the essay is 5-6 pages long then I could see two, especially if you were citing poetry or lyrics from a song.


1. What does it mean to evolve? How does Afeni evolve from a skinny girl who doesn't value herself or her people to a woman who singlehandedly wins her acquittal in one of America's most highly publicized trials?

2. Talk about her early life and how who she became is connected to her family particularly her father and mother.

3. What is destiny or fate and do you think Afeni had a choice in the direction her life took? Why or why not?

4. Talk about the twin emotions love and hate and how they fueled Afeni Shakur's relationship with her father (and mother), and later the impact her emotional fragility and to some extent immaturity had on her son.

5. Evolution of a Revolutionary is the story of a friendship. Talk about how the exploration of her life enabled Jasmine Guy to understand her own life more clearly and fully.

6. Guy says in the preface that one of the reasons why she wanted to interview Afeni was her desire to celebrate powerful and strong black women, and an idea she had for a film where she'd create a composite of a woman with the characteristics of Shakur and Angela Davis. Who is Afeni Shakur and how did her experiences shape her into the powerful woman, vocal advocate, passionate being, she eventually became?

7. Talk about her regrets and what she is proud of. Talk about her relationships with her children, what worked and what she regrets. Talk about her relationships with men and the love of her life: Lumumba, and how this man helped her discover who she was and why her family suffered what it did. She tells Guy that Lumumba respected and protected her (73, 76, 80, 83). She also speaks of how her interaction with him gave her another view of manhood (85).

8.Define the roles of women and men in the NY Chapter of the Black Panther Party and how at 19-24 Afeni came into her own.

9. Do you think Tupac was predestined to be the kind of man he became? How are children a product of their environment and how much is determined by correct or incorrect choice?

10. Think about his conception in a prison, his estranged relationship with his biological father (189) and a mother who though brutally honest, left him equally emotionally estranged when the revolution ended and she was without an anchor or support system for herself or her family.

Did Afeni damn him?

What about the mother, who was equally scarred, did Afeni have a chance at happiness? Look at the early examples she had of a martial relationship: her parents. Chart her downward spiral and climb back up again.

12. Talk about Afeni's name and the importance of this name to her identity. Would you say at the point she became Afeni, is the point of her rebirth?

13. Who is Afeni the Black Panther? Who is Afeni the black mother? Were the two ever in conflict? Who is the Afeni at the historic NY vs. the Panther 21 trial?

14. What aspects of Afeni's life, as told to Jasmine Guy surprised you? Why?

15. Talk about Afeni's addiction, she says to drugs and people (122). Talk about her recovery and how sobriety affected her attitude about black people and their responsibility. Do you think she is too hard, as Guy says to her?

16. Talk about the voices of the women in the book and what the inclusion of Sekyiwa's voice adds to the narrative (145).

17. Guy seems to name each chapter thoughtfully. Talk about each chapter's title and inscription or opening quote, and how its content moves the narrative forward. How does the quote tell your something of what's to follow?

18. Share with your audience elements of the text which you noted. Tell us why. Was it for the imagery, the writing, the meaning, did you have a question or was it something else?

19. What does Afeni see as her redemption or work now that her son is gone (184, 185, 186)? Do you think she will ever find peace? Why or why not?

Comments:
Dalena Tran
English 201A
MW 1-2:50

Free Write

Do you think Tupac was predestined to be the kind of man he became? How are children a product of their environment and how much is determined by correct or incorrect choice?

In a way, I do believe that Tupac was destined to be the kind of man he became. He was born with a mother that struggled through so much. It is because of Afeni's success that Tupac is the way he is. He learned through his mother's stories and experiences and was inspired to make the same changes that she made in so many lives. His choice whether to grow correct or incorrectly affected the changes a lot. Because he chose a correct way, which was to use his music as a voice, he became an inspiration and a hero to many. I believe that everything happens for a reason. Afeni struggled because she had to learn from those mistakes. Because she learned from her mistake, she was blessed with Tupac. Tupac was influenced by her and was inspired to be like Afeni and influence lives. The fact that Tupac chose to use music to speak to the people, was what provided him and his family with what they've always wanted; a better life. Afeni fought through all her struggles and because of that, she was rewarded with her son, which then rewarded her to an extent with a house and everything she has always wanted. Tupac's purpose was to not only become like his mother and influence lives, but to provide her with what she deserved.
 
Melissa Mah
English 210A
1-2:50

What aspects of Afeni's life, as told to Jasmine Guy surprised you? Why?

There were two things that really surprised me in the book. The first fact that surprised me was her family. I didn't know she had a sister, but that wasn't waht surprised me. What did was her abusive father, and he weak mother. Her mother let her father control her, totally opposite of her. She is portrayed as a strong feminist women, the type of wome that does not let a man control her, but instead controls her man. It was surprising to think that her mother was so weak.

The second thing that surprised me is contriditory towards my other point. In one of the chapters of Jasmine Guy's book talked about her friend "peaches" and how she died because the doctors didn't really do a good job with healing her when she was sick, but made her kinda worse. She was pregnant and she died pregnant, her child was born alive though. But the doctors let the baby died, and Afeni became emotional. Which was very shocing because she seemed very strong. At the beginning of the book she was portrayed as a strong women. It was nice to see that she had a soft side too. Everyone has a soft spot, and i think her soft spot has to do with family and loved ones.
 
Renee Dumaguit
Eng 201B
MW 1-2:50pm

What is destiny or fate and do you think Afeni had a choice in the direction her life took? Why or why not?

The question I chose to write about is the one about what I think destiny/fate is and if I think that Afeni had a choice of the direction of her life and Why. Well, in my opinion, destiny is similar to fate because it leads your life to the direction you think you should go. Sometimes, people say that "God chooses this path for me." I think that the only choice Afeni had to make was the route she chose to follow. I think that she was given a route in her life to see if she was able to succeed or not. The path her life went was all in God's fate.
 
Francisco Marcial
English 201A
MW 1-2:50pm

Talk about her regrets and what she is proud of. Talk about her relationships with her children, what worked and what she regrets. Talk about her relationships with men and the love of her life: Lumumba, and how this man helped her discover who she was and why her family suffered what it did. She tells Guy that Lumumba respected and protected her (73, 76, 80, 83). She also speaks of how her interaction with him gave her another view of manhood (85).

In the book “Evolution of a Revolution” by Jasmine Guy, Afeni was saying how her relationship between her two children; Tupac and her daughter was. She was saying that she had a better relationship with her son Tupac than with her daughter. Afeni was always trying to help Tupac when he needed help and when he had questions about something. When Tupac was curiouse about something about sex or drugs he would go ask Afeni and she would answer his questions and she would also give him a lot of advice. Afeni didn’t had a good relationship with her daughter as she did with Tupac. When her daughter needed her help she wouldn’t help her the same way she helped Tupac. She wouldn’t give her advice when she needed it. Afeni regrets not having a lot of time with her kids because she was out on meetings and doing other stuff with the Black Panthers or doing drugs. She was saying that if she could change something from the past that she would change that so she could have had more time with her children. Lumumba was a really important man in the life of Afeni because he was the first man that she saw that he respected women and that didn’t hit them. He was also the one that introduce her to the Black Panthers and she joined them because of him. Afeni was also one of the most respected women in the Black Panthers because of him.
 
Lisa Ryan
English 201A
MW 1-2:50

What is destiny or fate and do you think Afeni had a choice in the direction her life took? Why or why not?

Destiny is defined as a predetermined course of events.

Fate is the power or force that determines events. Final results.

As a child Afeni grew up in a home with her mother, father and sister her home life was filled with abuse, neglect and lack of nurturing from her father. Although she had a pretty normal relationship with her mother she saw her as weak and naïve. She loved her mother but she didn’t want to be like her.

I understand why she had such bad relatiionships with men. She didn't have any examples of healthy male female relationships as a child. The examples of strong men in her life were far and few. Her grandfather and her father were both cruel, bullheaded and very uncaring she learned early that she couldn’t depend on no one but herself.

Some of the choices that Afeni made in her life weren’t simply bad decisions I believe much of it was her destiny and ultimately her fate. Her drug use was a choice but I believe the consequences were predetermined and not something that she would have chosen for herself. The destruction and ultimate aftermath of her drug use is something that she could not control and ultimately she became stronger because of it. I believe that her experiences have lead her to become the strong woman that she is today. Everything about Afeni to me was powerful and still is.
 
Isaiah Muhammad
12/10/08
Pro. Sabir
English 201-B

What does it mean to evolve? How does Afeni evolve from a skinny girl who doesn't value herself or her people to a woman who singlehandedly wins her acquittal in one of America's most highly publicized trials?

Evolve means the process of change in a particular direction. Afeni has evolved in a way that some can call inspirational and remarkable. Being born in a family of sharecroppers she grew up in poverty with her sister. Her mother had remarried several times where in one case one of the fathers tried to beat her and she threw a pan of hot grease on him. Fast. In that instant she realizes that moment she was in a sense inspired in the attitude of what she called “never again”. Being her father’s child she adopted his rebellion against the ideas on how to behave for him; they may have not been good at the time seeing as how he stayed out drinking and gambling, but it’s what she inherited and what I would say is a family tradition. In the beginning of her life there have always been bad times and worse times when being around a sort of testosterone based family. So, even through all the obstacles she’s been through, she’s still managed to find herself on the path.
 
What aspects of Afeni's life, as told to Jasmine Guy surprised you? Why?

The part of the book most surprised me was when Afeni discussed her childhood and the hardships that came along with her being a child. Also Afeni held the grudge of her father being an abusive man towards her mother and ruining the family with his masculinity. Afeni felt the rage stays within her because she witnessed how weak she viewed her mother for not knocking her father out when he would abuse her mother. Witnessing her mother’s secretive abuse Afeni claims she learned how to be a fighter and her son, Tupac was also a fighter. Afeni viewed fighting as a passed down emotion due to her father’s out raged behavior.


In chapter five, Afeni talked about her experiences marring a man that was already married to a woman with whom he had children with. The man Lumumba, Afeni married was also apart of the Black Panther Party. Afeni viewed herself as being “A Stupid Bitch” and owed Lumumba’s first wife the deepest apology. This fact was most surprising to me because Afeni felt so low of herself to marry a man that was already married, this was polygamy and she knew it wasn’t right for her to be in that type of situation.

--Sameela ENG.201A
 
Milos Bucalo
English 201
MW 1-2:50


Evolution of the revolutionary Jasmine Guy was a very interesting and beautiful story. When I first started reading the book, I thought would to be about Tupac and Afeni, but as I walked in, I noticed that it is mainly directed to Afeni. Guy does not explain how and why Tupac was dead. In some parts of book, Guy talked about the similarities between Tupac and Afeni, but it does not give many details about Tupac. On the other hand, Guy details Panther Afeni as its struggle with addiction, its achievements and its determination to beat the odds. I think Guy was the purpose to tell the story Afeni and today her as a model for others, suffering or drug addiction. She wants to know if Afeni survived and here her addiction can do too. Guy explains that although the drugs killed the spirit of Afeni, it is through rough times and overcome the struggle. More I liked all the books though Afeni trouble distinguishing between what Afeni was said and what was said Guy, because Guy had more use quotes in her book.
 
Lou Saechao
eng.201A
8-850am

3. What is destiny or fate and do you think Afeni had a choice in the direction her life took? Why or why not?

destiny is something that is being force to come and fate is an outcome that come anytime. even though, afeni have her own choice to choose cause everyone can choose there own destiny because you can find your own way. like the old saying from ancient asian people, dont let anyone choose for uyou but yourself choose for yourself. so the step she take should be the right step to her destiny or fate because her work bring her to a magnificient play now. but i am not the judge of her.
 
Treana Penn
English 201A
MW 1-2:50


1. What does it mean to evolve? How does Afeni evolve from a skinny girl who doesn't value herself or her people to a woman who singlehandedly wins her acquittal in one of America's most highly publicized trials?


In my mind evolving means to slowly progress into something or somebody new then what you started off in the beginning . Afeni fought her way through her evolution of life. She "Literally" fought her way by dealing with her anger. Just like her being apart of the Black Panther, that was something she lived for. When people talk about really living life, whether that life was good or bad. Afeni is an example, of a person living life, she has lived through teasing, school intergration, living an abusive home, being homeless, the parties, the drugs, jim crow laws, black panther party, having kids and the list goes on. Mny times the evolution contains something to turn into a new species. Which relates back to Afeni, she becomes a new species when she changers her name from Alice a broken down person and to Afeni today a strong woman. I feel that all along Afeni did realize her talents she wqas blessed with, but did not accept those talents.
 
Vonreesha Jackson
English 201A
MW 1-2:50

Free Write

What is destiny or fate and do you think Afeni had a choice in the direction her life took? Why or Why not?

Destiny is a predetermined course of events.

Fate is the cause or will that is held to determine events.

I think Afeni had a choice in which direction her life took. Afeni was strong mined from a little girl on up until now. Even though her life took some bad turns she was still able to be strong and over come life’s let downs. Afeni had experience abuse as a child and an adult and still rose above that abuse. Afeni to what she endured as a child and turned it into her fate to determine the things she did in life. She was apart of the Panther party because she wanted to be heard and make a difference. In my opinion Afeni’s destiny was everything that happens with the Panther Party and with her drug addiction, to get her were she is today.
 
English 201B
Tipton
Chapter one caught my attention from the title “it’s important to know the stuff you came from”. I couldn’t agree more, understanding your past only gives you light to your future. You never know when the last time you will see your loved one when jasmine talks about how Afeni hugs her every time they leave one another I get chills, I love hugs that tell you I love you and I can’t wait to meet next time. “I enjoy Afeni’s hug. It carries weight and time and the sense that it may be the last one.” As I read further in the book I began to see that Afeni was mostly oppressed, angry sad, hurt, and lost most of her life, it seems as if she didn’t find peace until her son Tupac was dead and gone. I ask myself and Afeni as I read this book why do Afeni beat herself so bad, it’s not her fault she was lost. Her father was a womanizer and her mother lost her soul when Afeni’s dad would beat her. Afeni didn’t have a strong foundation, that’s the reason she did some of the things she did. When she joined the Black Panthers she had guidance and protection, when they were destroyed she became lost again in the world. Although, I am not a mother I know it’s hard being one looking at my peers and my own mother they do the best they can with what they have, I give Afeni credit for being the type of mother she was. Yes she could have went a different path, but with out knowing self and a strong foundation you have challenges, through theses challenges you become stronger and wiser as Afeni has done. This book was well put together I enjoyed reading it, The Baltimore Sun said it best, “It is just like you are eavesdropping on two close girlfriends”
 
Sara Yusufi
English 201A
MW 1-2:50

Do you think Tupac was predestined to be the kind of man he became? How are children a product of their environment and how much is determined by correct or incorrect choice?

I think Tupac was meant to become the man he did. He had gone through a thug ghetto and not so rich childhood. He had seen so much throughout his childhood. His environment did make an effect on his life; he learned and tried to follow society. yet as he grew up he realized what was really going on and how it was not what he usesd to think.
He learned from his mistakes and from the mistakes of his mom. His mom went throught a series of things in life that impacted them.
 
Andrew Nguyen
English 201
8-8:50AM

- What does it mean to evolve? How does Afeni evolve from a skinny girl who doesn't value herself or her people to a woman who singlehandedly wins her acquittal in one of America's most highly publicized trials?

Afeni Shakur describes her childhood as inadequate. She tries to compensate those "inadequacies" by fighting (literally) back those who looked down on her. She was described as physically inadequate. She did not have the looks that boys at her age would awe for. As a result, she fought against those boys instead. Her attitude not only affected her in her childhood, but as she grew up, she joined the Black Panther Party. She fought in her life not only physically, but vocally as well. That is where Tupac got his personality from.
 
Dion Cade
Eng 201b

Evolution of a Revolutionary

Talk about her early life and how who she became is connected to her family particularly her father and mother.

When Afeni was young, she experienced a lot of racism. Especially at the time the kkk was starting up. But she also experienced resistance. Especially when the Lumbee, which is a group of Indians from North Carolina, drove the kkk out of their side of town. Her family was also very poor. The reason why they would not have much money is because her dad would always spend it on unnecessary things. He was always on the streets because that is how he was and that is what he knew best. People liked him on the streets but he was not liked by Afeni. "I hated him around us. I hated him because he hurt my mom when he was home."(pg17) Usually he would wait until her and her sister Glo left for school to start beating her, but Afeni already knew what was happening, but her mother would try to hide it. Afeni's grandpa treated her dad the same way that she is getting treated now. She did not let her husband hit her in front of the children. But Afeni did get pride and arrogance from her dad.

When she was in school, she got made fun of because she wore plain grease on her legs and it would be really sticky so it would gather up a lot of dirt on her legs and the other kids would laugh at her and called her names like "tar baby." She got picked on a lot in her school days. The other students just did not like her because they did not like the way that she looked and they called her all kind of names. And she said that the boys would make her feel really ugly. So finally what she did was fight back, literally. After a while that was what she always did and that is what she was good at. She beat up boys and girls. She definitely got the aggressive trait from her father. And of course her father liked Afeni better than Glo because she was more like him. But Afeni did not care about his favoritism towards her because she did not like him.

Afeni was sad for her mother because she was really nice and she tried so hard to keep away the horrible truth about her marriage life. "I was scared for my very sad mother. When I used to come home from school, first and second grade, I would look under the bed to make sure he didn’t kill my mother and stuffed her body under there. I can see myself right now doing it. That was a real possibility to me, very real."(pg35) For her to be doing something like that every time she got home is very shocking. She really thinks that her dad would really take it that far and that is really scary for her and her mom to be living with him. So her early life has taught her to fight back, especially for her sister and for her mom, and also for herself.
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?