Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Here are some questions for discussion. Never caught: the Washingtons’ relentless pursuit of their runaway slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar, who is the Charles and Mary Beard Professor of History at Rutgers University. She also serves as Director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia. Her first book, A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City was published by Yale University Press in 2008. She is also the author of Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave Ona Judge.

Topics & Questions for Discussion
1. Ona Judge was born during the era of the American Revolution and spent her childhood at Mount Vernon. Was Ona’s life typical of other enslaved children?

2. What do we know about Ona Judge’s lineage? What does it tell us about race, slavery, and sex in the eighteenth century?
Her father was an indentured servant.

Slaves and indentured servants lived side by side.

3. How do George and Martha Washington become slaveholders? In what ways are they similar as slaveholders and how do they differ?
GW not as much.

Some companies, the children work every position in the company before becoming owners

4. In 1789, George Washington is elected president and moves to New York. Who accompanies him and how does New York differ from Virginia?

5. How does Ona’s life change once she is taken to New York and Philadelphia? What kinds of responsibilities are placed upon her shoulders and how are they different from Ona’s work in Virginia?
before underground railroad

No idea of what if going on outside the plantation

No way to know what is going on

6. What do we know about slavery and freedom in Philadelphia? How does it differ from New York? What kind of effect does the free black community have on Ona’s life?

7. How do George and Martha Washington manage their slaves while living in Philadelphia?

8. What prompts Ona to escape from slavery? How does she do it?

9. George and Martha Washington attempt to recapture their runaway slave. What was surprising about their efforts?

10. What does Ona’s story tell us about the lives of fugitive slaves? How does her life change in New Hampshire? What are some of the new challenges that Ona faced?

11. When you compare the lives of Ona Judge and Philadelphia Costin, what is most striking? What do their lives tell us about slavery and freedom in America?

She escaped but ended up destitute

Even though she had freedom, she still had discrimination and poverty

The fact that she was illiterate made a huge difference in what she could do

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

Austin Channing Brown’s first encounter with a racialized America came at age 7, when she discovered her parents named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. Growing up in majority-white schools, organizations, and churches, Austin writes, “I had to learn what it means to love blackness,” a journey that led to a lifetime spent navigating America’s racial divide as a writer, speaker and expert who helps organizations practice genuine inclusion.

In a time when nearly all institutions (schools, churches, universities, businesses) claim to value “diversity” in their mission statements, I’m Still Here is a powerful account of how and why our actions so often fall short of our words. Austin writes in breathtaking detail about her journey to self-worth and the pitfalls that kill our attempts at racial justice, in stories that bear witness to the complexity of America’s social fabric--from Black Cleveland neighborhoods to private schools in the middle-class suburbs, from prison walls to the boardrooms at majority-white organizations.

For readers who have engaged with America’s legacy on race through the writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Michael Eric Dyson, I’m Still Here is an illuminating look at how white, middle-class, Evangelicalism has participated in an era of rising racial hostility, inviting the reader to confront apathy, recognize God’s ongoing work in the world, and discover how

People talking to her when she calls out racism:

·       Perhaps you misunderstood

·       Perhaps he didn’t mean it like that

·       Be more patient and see his heart

·       Divisive, negative, toxic

·       Try again to help them see systemic

·       Too sensitive

·       Too angry

·       Should watch tone

·       Too inflexible to people who are trying

·       Easily identified as being present or absent

She tries to help people look at the system of oppression:

·       Words about system instead of individuals

·       White boardrooms and white leadership teams

·       Organizations Perpetuating white culture and not diversifying

Points

·       Cultural way of being are not because of goodness

·       Never open items in the store without receipt in hand.

·       Companies want racial diversity, but not diversity of thought and culture

Prayers from them are different than the prayers I need

·       Don’t ask that I be understood, but that I would have more grace

·       Make me more like them

Confessions

·       Going up to PoC and confessing

·       Telling me about books to read and movies to see

Racial Reconciliation – What should you do?

·       Oriented to structural change

·       Never apolitical

·       Have to choose sides

·       Always choose justice

·       Diversity and inclusion are not reconciliation and justice (it’s often about “numbers”)

·       Without PoC in key positions, influencing decisions, it’s mostly white

·       Cake with sprinkles is still vanilla

·       PoC are constantly fixing the problems (pushing allies, responding to events, etc.)

·       It’s not about teaching white people about racism

·       It is not your responsibility to transform an entire community

Historical Injustice

·       At no point did all white people come together to correct racial injustice

·       At no point did all white people decide chattel slavery should end, we should listen to the freedom fighters, enact black people’s right to vote

·       And yet there has been change, over time and over history, and it’s only taken the transformed (I don’t need to talk to all white people, just those who join the struggle)

She is tired of hearing, “f we could just learn to love one another”

·       “Whiteness sees love as a prize it is owed rather than a moral obligation it must demonstrate”

·       Demand for grace, niceness, and patience, so people are comfortable as the change

·       I need a love that can no longer be concerned with tone, because it is concerned with life

·       It is fierce in its resilience and sacrifice

·       There was no real hope within their individual lifespan, and they struggled and resisted. They still showed up.

From the White Privilege Symposium some of us attended this weekend

·       Thanos (from the Avenger movie) and asked, “If you had the Infinity Stones, what would you do with them to create a more just world?” She asked us to please imagine more than Thanos did.

·       Use the world “Global majority” instead of PoC, though some want to claim African/Black American to no distance self from racial experience

Raisin in the Sun

·       A realist sees a circle

·       An idealist sees a line, you can barely see the change, but you can see the line to the future

From a course Claudia is taking:

Racial Literacy

·       Racial Literacy TED Talk by Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo (12 min)

·       Knowing experiences and combine it with historical literacy or what happened in this country

·       Ability to understand what race is, why it is, and how is it used to reproduce inequality and oppression

·       Understand why things are the way they are

Racial Realism

·       Acknowledge that racism is here and always has been

·       There is a history related to today’s experiences

·       The curriculum was created to put POC down and uplift white people

Racial Reconstruction

·       Deconstructing (breaking down) inherent thoughts and beliefs about race, in order to rebuilt and create a new present day

·       There is no such thing as a race neutral curriculum, etc. (it is actually pro white)

Racial Reconciliation

·       Ideally healing and deliberately putting reconciliation first

·       Relinquishing comfort as a white person so other can feel comfortable

·       Giving up things we might enjoy/think valuable because of the damage it does to other

Privilege is the best word we can come up with that is the opposite of discrimination

Privilege does not mean “wealth”

If we hold things constant, how can we see the difference between a white family and a family of color?

·       Narrative is a tool (down of their luck vs. lazy and living off government)

·       White people are treated more favorable by police

·       White people are more likely to get a job interview based on resume

·       Where do they live?

·       How are they treated in school?

·       What is the emotional repercussions?

·       Medical differences

·       Narrative about how family got there is different (affirmative action)

“When we talk about racial equity, we are in science fiction because we are creating a world that does not yet exist.” ~Debby Irving

What discriminatory policies were made from those above the line to those underneath?

·       Voter suppression

·       mass incarceration

·       hiring practices

·       Tuskegee experiments

·       War on drugs

·       Terrorism

·       Segregation

·       Homeland security

·       War on poverty

·       Reservations

Are you one up or one down? You want to have people at the table who have multiple one down identities. I don’t know them. I don’t feel them. I can’t even imagine them.

·       It’s automatic, if it’s above the line.

·       We’re all a constellation of above and below the line.

·       An incredible tool for intersectionality.

·       Above the line is 98% of the Fortune 500.

·       Power looks upright and able (and white and male).

White supremacy is the system that says one group to the best to run (the top of the line/level playing field). White Rage is about white supremacy being recalibrated.

Plantations were diverse. We really need to think about it differently. We want to include people (in our thing). The more power we have, the less we have to follow the rules. Debby uses the right side to decenter whiteness

Quotes from book here: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/57400480-i-m-still-here-black-dignity-in-a-world-made-for-whiteness

“Togetherness across racial lines doesn’t have to mean the uplifting of whiteness and harming of Blackness. And even though the Church I love has been the oppressor as often as it has been the champion of the oppressed, I can’t let go of my belief in Church—in a universal body of belonging, in a community that reaches toward love in a world so often filled with hate.”

“When you believe niceness disproves the presence of racism, it’s easy to start believing bigotry is rare, and that the label racist should be applied only to mean-spirited, intentional acts of discrimination. The problem with this framework—besides being a gross misunderstanding of how racism operates in systems and structures enabled by nice people—is that it obligates me to be nice in return, rather than truthful. I am expected to come closer to the racists. Be nicer to them. Coddle them.”

“White supremacy is a tradition that must be named and a religion that must be renounced. When this work has not been done, those who live in whiteness become oppressive, whether intentional or not.”

“The monster has always been well dressed and well loved.”

“But I am not impressed with America’s progress. I am not impressed that slavery was abolished or that Jim Crow ended. I feel no need to pat America on its back for these “achievements.” This is how it always should have been. Many call it progress, but I do not consider it praiseworthy that only within the last generation did America reach the baseline for human decency. As comedian Chris Rock says, I suppose these things were progress for white people, but damn. I hope there is progress I can sincerely applaud on the horizon. Because the extrajudicial killing of Black people is still too familiar. Because the racist rhetoric that Black people are lazier, more criminal, more undeserving than white people is still too familiar. Because the locking up of a disproportionate number of Black bodies is still too familiar. Because the beating of Black people in the streets is still too familiar. History is collapsing on itself once again.”

“Then, as we pulled into a parking lot to break for lunch, another white student stood to speak. But instead of a different variation on “Please don’t make me responsible for this,” she took a deep breath and gave in to the emotion of it all. “I don’t know what to do with what I’ve learned,” she said. “I can’t fix your pain, and I can’t take it away, but I can see it. And I can work for the rest of my life to make sure your children don’t have to experience the pain of racism.” And then she said nine words that I’ve never forgotten: “Doing nothing is no longer an option for me.”

“Our only change at dismantling racial injustice is being more curious about its origins than we are worried about our comfort. It's not a comfortable conversation for any of us. It is risky and messy. It is haunting work to recall the sins of our past. But is this not the work we have been called to anyway? Is this not the work of the Holy Spirit to illuminate truth and inspire transformation? It's haunting. But it's also holy.”

“This is the shadow of hope. Knowing that we may never see the realization of our dreams, and yet still showing up.”

“White people desperately want to believe that only the lonely, isolated “whites only” club members are racist. This is why the word racist offends “nice white people” so deeply. It challenges their self-identification as good people. Sadly, most white people are more worried about being called racist than about whether or not their actions are in fact racist or harmful.”

“We like to pretend that all those white faces who carried protest signs and batons, who turned on their sprinklers and their fire hoses, who wrote against the demonstrations and preached against the changes, just disappeared. We like to pretend that they were won over, transformed, the moment King proclaimed, “I have a dream.” We don’t want to acknowledge that just as Black people who experienced Jim Crow are still alive, so are the white people who vehemently protected it—who drew red lines around Black neighborhoods and divested them of support given to average white citizens. We ignore that white people still avoid Black neighborhoods, still don’t want their kids going to predominantly Black schools, still don’t want to destroy segregation.”

“Anger is not inherently destructive. My anger can be a force for good. My anger can be creative and imaginative, seeing a better world that doesn’t yet exist. It can fuel a righteous movement toward justice and freedom.”

“White people who expect me to be white have not yet realized that their cultural way of being is not in fact the result of goodness, rightness, or God’s blessing. Pushing back, resisting the lie, is hella work.”

“And even though the Church I love has been the oppressor as often as it has been the champion of the oppressed, I can’t let go of my belief in Church—in a universal body of belonging, in a community that reaches toward love in a world so often filled with hate. I continue to be drawn toward the collective participation of seeking good, even when that means critiquing the institution I love for its commitment to whiteness.”

“White institutions are constantly communicating how much Blackness they want. It begins with numbers. How many scholarships are being offered? How many seats are being “saved” for “neighborhood kids”? How many Black bodies must be present for us to have “good” diversity numbers? How many people of color are needed for the website, the commercials, the pamphlets? But numbers are only the beginning. Whiteness constantly polices the expressions of Blackness allowed within its walls, attempting to accrue no more than what’s necessary to affirm itself. It wants us to sing the celebratory “We Shall Overcome” during MLK Day but doesn’t want to hear the indicting lyrics of “Strange Fruit.” It wants to see a Black person seated at the table but doesn’t want to hear a dissenting viewpoint. It wants to pat itself on the back for helping poor Black folks through missions or urban projects but has no interest in learning from Black people’s wisdom, talent, and spiritual depth. Whiteness wants enough Blackness to affirm the goodness of whiteness, the progressiveness of whiteness, the openheartedness of whiteness. Whiteness likes a trickle of Blackness, but only that which can be controlled.”

“My white teachers had an unspoken commitment to the belief that we are all the same, a default setting that masked for them how often white culture bled into the curriculum. For example, when teachers wanted to drive home the point that we should do something daily, they often likened it to how you wash your hair every morning. It never occurred to them that none of the Black girls in the class did this. Knowing it was true for white people, and having gotten used to white teachers’ assumption of universality, we would all nod our heads and move on. Who had time to teach the teacher?”

“Dr. Simms wanted us to be emotionally connected to our learning, to sit in the pain, the horror, the absurdity of America’s racist history, and to humanize those who dared stand against the system. Dr. Simms made us believe that we could follow that legacy of resistance, but one piece of his advice stood out to me more than all the others. “Ain’t no friends here.”

“But numbers are only the beginning. Whiteness constantly polices the expressions of Blackness allowed within its walls, attempting to accrue no more than what’s necessary to affirm itself. It wants us to sing the celebratory “We Shall Overcome” during MLK Day but doesn’t want to hear the indicting lyrics of “Strange Fruit.” It wants to see a Black person seated at the table but doesn’t want to hear a dissenting viewpoint. It wants to pat itself on the back for helping poor Black folks through missions or urban projects but has no interest in learning from Black people’s wisdom, talent, and spiritual depth. Whiteness wants enough Blackness to affirm the goodness of whiteness, the progressiveness of whiteness, the openheartedness of whiteness. Whiteness likes a trickle of Blackness, but only that which can be controlled.”

“In my experience, white people who believe they are safe often prove dangerous when that identity is challenged."

Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot

Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder, Terese Marie Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma.

The triumphant result is Heart Berries, a memorial for Mailhot’s mother, a social worker and activist who had a thing for prisoners; a story of reconciliation with her father—an abusive drunk and a brilliant artist—who was murdered under mysterious circumstances; and an elegy on how difficult it is to love someone while dragging the long shadows of shame.

Mailhot trusts the reader to understand that memory isn’t exact, but melded to imagination, pain, and what we can bring ourselves to accept.

Her unique and at times unsettling voice graphically illustrates her mental state. As she writes, she discovers her own true voice, seizes control of her story, and, in so doing, reestablishes her connection to her family, to her people, and to her place in the world.

Here’s the video: Trevor Noah interviews Terese Marie Mailhot

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/549p2i/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-terese-marie-mailhot---sharing-an-indigenous-voice-in--heart-berries----extended-interview

Here are some questions by LitLovers and some of our thoughts (forgive my memory, it is what it is and what I can recall)

1. Talk about the horror that was Terese Marie Mailhot’s early years—a childhood marked with addiction, poverty, and abuse.
• We talked about mental illness being biological, or having a predisposition, or being the result of environmental trauma

2. In what way is Mailhot’s story reflective of the way American Indians have suffered at the hands of white people?
• We are just beginning to understand the historic trauma

• Recommendation to see Dawnland in one of its local screenings

3. In the essay “Indian Sick,” what are the multiple diagnoses Mailhot receives in the hospital?
• We talked about this, too.

4. What is the significance of the title Heart Berries?

5. At one point, Mailhot quips, “Indian girls can be forgotten so well they forget themselves.” She also writes that “no one wants to know why Indian women leave or where they go.” Why does it seem that native women are treated worse than white women? Is that what Mailhot is saying?
• We talked more about ceremony and ritual, comparing the difference in cultures, including the importance in Native American communities.

6. Does the process of writing her memoir generate for Mailhot a burgeoning sense of redemption? Does her story follow the typical arc from suffering to happiness … or not.
• We noticed that she had more perspective as she got better. Her partner went from being a big jerk to someone she is still with, as she understood herself and her role in the damage to the relationship.

7. In her afterward Q&A with Joan Naviyuk Kane, Mailhot insists that she doesn’t “feel liberated from the governing presence of tragedy.… [W]e are not liberated from injustice; we’re anchored to it.” What does she mean? Can anything reverse or correct the injustices done to indigenous people?
• We actually talked quite a bit through the evening on this topic. Some injustices are so great that they is no way they can ever be rectified and any story would feel false, if it didn’t include the injustice as part of the experience in this country.

Here are some quotes

• “I learned to make a honey reduction of the ugly sentences. Still my voice cracks.”
• “When you told me, I want too much I considered how much you take.”
• “I feel like my body is being drawn through a syringe.”
• “I felt breathless, like every question was a step up a stairway.”
• “Nothing is too ugly for this world I think it’s just that people pretend not to see.”
• “I woke up as the bones of my ancestors locked in government storage.”
• I won’t go on because I don’t want to ruin this book for you, but the writing is so good it’s hard not to temporarily be distracted from the content or narrative by its brilliance.
• In her first paragraph, Mailhot writes, “The words were too wrong and ugly to speak. I tried to tell someone my story, but he thought it was a hustle.” Space is needed for pain; people need to be believed and to be able to tell their stories.

You Can’t Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

http://angiethomas.com/books
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.  –– ADVERTISEMENT ––  Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS – with just one or two of the comments we had in general and for this question.

1. As Starr and Khalil listen to Tupac, Khalil explains what Tupac said “Thug Life” meant. Discuss the meaning of the term “Thug Life” as an acronym and why the author might have chosen part of this as the title of the book. In what ways do you see this in society today? (Chapter 1, p. 17)

- (LIFE) “Little infant fucks everybody” means the hate you give little infants fucks everybody as they grow.

2. Chapter 2 begins with Starr flashing back to two talks her parents had with her when she was young. One was about sex (“the usual birds and bees”). The second was about what precautions to take when encountering a police officer (Chapter 2, p. 20). Have you had a similar conversation about what to do when stopped by the police? Reflect upon or imagine this conversation.

- Some of us said we were taught to go to police when we have an emergency.

- Others were taught to show hand, be nice, talk slowly, etc. so as not to be seen as a target

- Others were taught not to talk to anyone

3. Thomas frequently uses motifs of silence and voice throughout the book. Find instances in the book where silence or voice and speech are noted, and talk about the author’s possible intentions for emphasizing these motifs.

- Pauses are ways for Starr to talk to herself or the audience (break the third wall)

4. At the police station after Starr details the events leading up to the shooting, the detective shifts her focus to Khalil’s past. Why do you think the detective did this? Discuss Starr’s reaction to this “bait” (Chapter 6, pp. 102–103).

- “Are you putting Kahlil and Star on trial?” is her comeback because she knows it is shifting focus from the murderous cop

5. Once news of Khalil’s shooting spreads across the neighborhood, unrest arises: “Sirens wail outside. The news shows three patrol cars that have been her poor, urban neighborhood. This gripping debut novel by Angie Thomas echoes conversations about police brutality dominant in the news and moves readers beyond Twitter hashtags. Readers will feel energized to promote and advance social justice against police brutality and racism set ablaze at the police precinct . . . A gas station near the freeway gets looted . . . My neighborhood is a war zone” (Chapter 9, pp. 136–139). Respond to this development and describe some parallels to current events.

- Rodney King verdict

- Riots when police officers do not receive consequences

- Is it mob mentality?

6. How do you think Starr would define family? What about Seven? How do you define it?

- biology vs. supportive relationships vs. community

7. Chris and Starr have a breakthrough in their relationship—Starr admits to him that she was in the car with Khalil and shares the memories of Natasha’s murder (Chapter 17, pp. 298–302). Discuss why Starr’s admission and releasing of this burden to Chris is significant. Explore the practice of “code switching” and discuss how you might code switch in different circumstances in your own life.

- how we identify is different social/cultural groups

- how strong accents are, if you are from another country

- “native” speaker or user of technology vs. learning a language or technology

- boss vs. peers

- public vs. private

8. How does the neighborhood react to the grand jury’s decision and why (Chapter 23)? How does Starr use her voice as a weapon, and why does she feel that it is vital that she does? Refer back to “Thug Life” and discuss how the acronym resonates in this chapter.

- in the face of racism, finding your voice

- she takes the microphone and tells her story

9. Starr pledges to “never be quiet” Chapter 26, p. 444. After reading this book, how can you use your voice to promote and advance social justice? Reflect on how you and your community discuss and address inequality.

Human Acts by Han Kang

In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed.   The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial, and the echoing agony of the massacre. From Dong-ho’s best friend who meets his own fateful end; to an editor struggling against censorship; to a prisoner and a factory worker, each suffering from traumatic memories; and to Dong-ho’s own grief-stricken mother; and through their collective heartbreak and acts of hope is the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice. 

Questions to Consider:

1. What did you think of the use of second person perspective?

- Places you into the story but removes you from the character

- Makes it

2. Did this make the stories feel more or less personal?    

- In the action, but removed from the people

3. Do you see Human Acts as a novel or a collection of short stories?

- The second person made

4, Did you have a favorite (memorable?) chapter/story?    

- Torture scenes were terrible

5. Throughout the different perspectives, we missed the perspective of one of the soldiers fighting in the uprising. Would you have liked to read about this as well and was there another perspective you missed on the story?

- We didn’t feel that anything was missing

- If soldiers are killing innocent people, they don’t deserve a story

Our own questions

6. What do you think the story is about?

- What’s in the minds of people with trauma from war

- That traumatic stuff impacts your ability to relay the traumatic experience

- Koran War in the 1980’s

7. Emotional thoughts?

- Graphic details

- Difficult to read

- Rated a 6 or 7 out of 10 (best)

8. What did we learn? How do we feel about not having learned this?

- Historical context was unknown before reading this (We were alive during this time)

- There was a Korean Civil War and teenagers were rising up

- There is very little value placed on Asian folks

- Things would be very different in this country if the true history of the USA was being taught

- News stories didn’t even carry these stories

Eloquent rage: a black feminist discovers her superpower / Brittney Cooper

I’m still here: black dignity in a world made for whiteness / Austin Channing Brown

Why Rich Kids Are So Good at the Marshmallow Test

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/marshmallow-test/561779/?utm_source=atltw

Ultimately, the new study finds limited support for the idea that being able to delay gratification leads to better outcomes. Instead, it suggests that the capacity to hold out for a second marshmallow is shaped in large part by a child’s social and economic background—and, in turn, that that background, not the ability to delay gratification, is what’s behind kids’ long-term success.

The failed replication of the marshmallow test does more than just debunk the earlier notion; it suggests other possible explanations for why poorer kids would be less motivated to wait for that second marshmallow. For them, daily life holds fewer guarantees: There might be food in the pantry today, but there might not be tomorrow, so there is a risk that comes with waiting. And even if their parents promise to buy more of a certain food, sometimes that promise gets broken out of financial necessity. …poverty can lead people to opt for short-term rather than long-term rewards; the state of not having enough can change the way people think about what’s available now. In other words, a second marshmallow seems irrelevant when a child has reason to believe that the first one might vanish.

These findings point to the idea that poorer parents try to indulge their kids when they can, while more-affluent parents tend to make their kids wait for bigger rewards. Hair dye and sweet treats might seem frivolous, but purchases like these are often the only indulgences poor families can afford. And for poor children, indulging in a small bit of joy today can make life feel more bearable, especially when there’s no guarantee of more joy tomorrow.

Summary: Human Acts by Han Kang

http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-human-acts/#gsc.tab=0

The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Kang, Han. Human Acts. Hogarth, 2016.

Dong-ho is a middle school boy who wanders into the Provincial Office looking for the corpse of his best friend, Jeong-dae. There, he meets Eun-sook and Seon-ju, two girls who are volunteering to tend to the corpses. They ask Dong-ho to help them out, and the three soon become friends. In the main square, memorial services are carried out to honor the dead civilians.

One night, the army enters into the city, invading the Provincial Office. Even though Jin-su, one of the young men in the civilian militia, warns Dong-ho to go home to his family, he does not leave. He and a few other middle school boys are ordered to surrender to the army with their hands above their head. Dong-ho and the boys follow the instructions, but are shot down and killed.

The narration switches to Jeong-dae’s perspective after he has been killed. His body is piled up with hundreds of others and set on fire. Jeong-dae recalls the strange nature of being a soul stuck to one’s body after death. He is finally freed once the fire totally consumes his body.

The novel travels five years forward through time to 1985. Eun-sook is working as an editor in a publishing company, and she gets slapped seven times in an interrogation room, even though she has committed no crime and has no answers to help the police. She picks up a manuscript of a play from the ledger’s office, only to find that it has been severely censored. Later, she attends the play in person. The actors do not speak the words that were censored, but silently mouth them. Having read the manuscript dozens of times, Eun-sook is able to read their lips and recognize that they play is about Dong-ho’s death.

Five more years forward, the narrator takes the reader to a Gwangju prison in 1990. The prisoner explains the harsh beatings that he frequently received in the interrogation room, along with the minimal food and water that the guards provided for them. He reflects on his friendship with Jin-su, who was also held prisoner. Years after being released, they maintained their friendship, but struggled to deal with the pain of the past and became alcoholics. Eventually Jin-su took his own life. The prisoner frequently asks himself why he survived when Jin-su died.

The next chapter features Seon-ju’s experiences before and after working in the Provincial Office. As a young girl, she was part of a labor union and worked in a factory under inhumane conditions. She and several hundred other girls from the factory went on strike, and protested naked in the streets, under the impression that the police would not dare to harm bare, young girls. But the police brutally beat the girls, and Seon-ju was sent to the hospital. In 2002, she works in a small office as a transcriber for an environmental organization. Yoon, a professor writing a dissertation on victims of the Gwangju Uprising, contacts her and asks to interview her. She declines, unable to bring up the pain of the past once again.

In 2010, the novel shifts to the perspective of Dong-ho’s mother. Thirty years after the death of her son, she is still dealing with grief and loneliness. She remembers some of the most precious moments she shared with her son, and she reflects on his friendship with Jeong-dae.

In the epilogue, the writer, Han Kang, explains her connection to Dong-ho. Before the Gwangju Uprising, Kang and her family moved to Seoul. Her father sold their childhood home to Dong-ho’s father, so he ended up sleeping in the same bedroom in which Kang herself had slept. She remembers hearing about the violence unfolding through her parents’ hushed voices when she was a child. In the present moment, it is 2013 and she returns to Gwangju to visit her brother and do some research for the novel. She meets with one of Dong-ho’s brothers and he tells her, “Please write your book so that no one will ever be able to desecrate my brother’s memory again” (157). In the final scene of the novel, in a silent and somber moment, Kang visits Dong-ho’s snowy grave.