Yesterday I demonstrated my writing process in a composition based on a theme from Ruined. I emailed the completed draft to students.
Today we reviewed the section on Writing about Poetry from WAL. Homework is to read the section, complete the Ruined essay, for the peer grading session tomorrow morning, and decide what scetion on Writing about Poetry (82). You might want to present your lesson next week on.
We also went over the 3-part thesis looking at the topic of love in Ruined. The freewrite is to develop a 3-paragraph essay looking at love from the perspective of a character(s) in the play.
My thesis is: Love saves one from ruin. Use the student essay and the poem to develop an argument. Post here. Comment on a student essay (1) as well.
6 comments:
Karesha Lillard
Professor Sabir / English 1B
May 1, 2012
In the play “Ruined” by Lynn Nottage, there was a character by the name of Sophie and she was very loving. Although she was hurt plenty of times and her body had been damaged, she had forgave the soldiers for what they did to her. Somehow she was able to continue on with life and not live in the past. She was able to forgive but she never forgot. In fact, whenever she moved or even had sexual intercourse, she felt and remembered everything that happened to her. Because she was so forgiving and loving she was able to strongly help Salima through her issues.
Out of all of the young women that lived with Mama Nadi, Sophie was the the most loving and caring. She was the romantic in the house, the one that believed in fairytales, and all of the happy things in life. After everything she experienced in life, you would expect her to be the most bitter, ugly, cold-hearted woman ever and she was the complete opposite. I asked myself, “is she crazy?” “Is she still in shock from what happened to her?” “What’s wrong with this woman?” I was confused as to why she was able to produce a nice spirit after all the tragedy.
Forgiving someone takes a lot of maturity. Most of all, it takes love. I say this because if you love yourself, you will forgive them not for them, but for you. If you want to move on with life and finally be able to live again, you cannot continue to live in the past and make yourself suffer. It comes a point in time when you have to accept what happen and eventually move on from it. Moving on from it does not necessarily mean forgetting what happened, its being able to move forward with life. Do yourself the favor and love yourself the way you suppose to and forgive those whom have hurt you.
Marie Heide
English 1B
Professor Sabir
01 May 2012
Lynn Nottage writes a heart felt play about the ravages that war brings to a country and the ravages that overflow onto its people. War can shine the worst of a person or the best of a person. As human beings, we all react to different situations in a different ways. The female characters in Ruined use love as a way to escape the violence and injustices of war.
Sophie is Christians sister-in-law who has been ruined by soldiers and is taken to Mama Nadi's to be kept safe from repeat rapes. Sophie has been badly damaged by the use of a bayonet and left for dead. Most females in war torn Congo were subjected to sexual abuse, exploitation that more than not, resulted in death. Sophie enjoys reading romance novels, and since she one of few that can read, she reads for the other girls at Mama's that is willing to listen. Sophie likes reading romance novels, in spite of what happened to her, because this is true love to her. What she is reading from the book displays true romance that she wants to experience. The romance novels take her away from reality and into a world that is of her own. What happened to Sophie was due to the outbreak of war, chaos and political instability, not love or a lover's revenge. Sophie knows this and believes that one day she too will have a romance novel love of her own.
Salima is another character who was held captive as a sex slave for five months. Salima has totally different outlook on love at this point in her life. She is married to a man named Fortune and had a baby girl who was tragically killed by the boot of a soldier. Salima situation is much like Sophie's but much different at the same time. Salima was forcefully taken from her home and made as a sex slave. Her husband at the time was away from the home and out buying a pot for her, a pot she had been wanting for some time now, so that she could cook Fortune's meals. She blames Fortune for not being there to protect her from her abduction. However, when the soldiers were through with her, the sent Salima home but she was not received with open arms. Love definitely betrayed Salima in the sense that it was not there to help her and protect her at a time when she needed it the most. Love destroyed Salima and everything she believed in. She has been stripped of everything she believed in and was left to spend the rest of her life as an outcast to wander the streets like a stray dog. When Fortune shows up at Mamas looking for her, she had long given up on him and knows that he comes searching for her not for love, but to take care of him. He wants her to take care of him when he did not take care of her. Love left Salmima's life the day her husband left to buy her the cooking pot.
Sherrlyne Apostol
Professor Sabir
English 1B
1 May 2012
The setting for ruined took place at a time when war and violence was at its height. The inhumanity and violence that was present in the Congo made up a harsh surrounding. Love coexisting with a hostile environment is uncommon. Although the characters in ruined are surrounded by the hostilities of war, somehow Sophie is still able to fantasize and stay optimistic because she still believes in love.
Sophie, one of the main characters that was described as “ruined” in the play has lived through vast amount of horrendous experiences. Despite everything Sophie encounters through her life she is still able to stay optimistic. She reads books that have endings that contain “happy ever after”. She believes that love can still exist in the same world that is surrounded with rape, violence and brutality. Regardless of mama Nadi reminding her that love cannot be present in those who are “ruined” Sophie keeps an optimistic mind set.
In the play “Ruined” by Lynn Nottage the characters in the play are surrounded with the hostilities of war. Sophie, one of the main characters was described as “ruined” because she was brutally rapped and tortured during the war. Against all odds, Sophie is still able to stay optimistic and have the will to believe that love can still exist in a world where there was so much evil. Her ability to fantasize and stay optimistic illustrates that love does conquer evil.
Giao Bui
Professor Sabir
English 1B
2 May 20126
In Lynn Nottage’s play Ruined, there are several plots that involve love. The setting of a brothel in the middle of the war explains why some of the characters’ perceptions on love are very different. There are those who do not believe in love, are betrayed by love, and those who dream of love like in romance novels. Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 116" describes love in its many complexities. Although one of the weapons of war is rape, Sophie who is ruined by soldiers still believes in true love and forgiveness.
Sophie is literate and reads romance novels to the women who work at the brothel. One of those women is Salima, who has been betrayed by her husband, Fortune. Because of Fortune’s incompetence and absence, she was kept as a slave by soldiers who raped her repeatedly for five months. One of the results of those atrocities is Salima’s unwanted pregnancy. Conflict arises when Fortune searches for Salima. One of the characteristics of love that Shakespeare describes is its endurance and persistence. Line 11-12 says “Love alters not with not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.” There is hope that Fortune’s love has continue to exist but his arrival to the brothel scares Salima as she believes that she will be no longer loved. In response to Salima’s convictions that Fortune hates her, Sophie says: “You can’t know until you speak to him” (Scene 8. 47).
The love described in the novels may just be fairytales that do not exist. This is responsible for Sophie’s optimism, even though she has been ruined. Shakespeare shows that there are many types of love. Love has its blissful moments but also faces obstacles which threaten its endurance. The women of Ruined are similar to Shakespeare’s collection of love analogies. They each see love in a different way but none of their perceptions are wrong. Loves exists in many different forms and holds out against many obstacles.
Vanessa Dilworth
Professor Sabir
English 1B
8 May 2012
Love & Ruined
In the play, Ruined, by Lynn Nottage, she explores how war grew and tore apart different love relationships in the Congo There are three main love affairs that bloom, ripen and sometimes spoil, depending upon the soil they inhabit. There are Mama Nadi and Christian’s, a brothel owner and a salesman. Prostitute of Mama Nadia’s, Sophie, and Mr. Harari, a paying customer. The last couple that we see is Salima and Fortune, the happily married couple that is separated due to long held traditional beliefs.
Mama Nadi and Christian become acquainted due to Mama Nadi’s need of supplies for her brothel. She supply’s rebel soldiers alcohol, women, and amusement. During business transactions Christian begins to falls in love with Mama, although, she seems very ridge and hardened due to a life filled with difficulty. After months of attempting to woo Mama, while risking his life by crossing borders to see her, he gives up only to find that she has been “ruined.” Meaning she endured sexual intercourse to the point of developing fistula. However, contrary to the callings of tradition, understanding Christian takes Mama Nadi in his arms and they begin to dance into their future together.
Sophie meet Mr. Harari as a customer she is forced to serve under Mama Nadi’s rule and falls madly in love with him and all he promises to her. Mr. Harari is a mineral merchant that visits Mama Nadi from time to time to discuss politics and enjoy himself in her secluded paradise. He buys Josephine a beautiful and elegant traditional gown and tells her that he is going to set them up in the city. However, Harari seems to be grounded in the situation at hand and just enjoys Josephine’s company. He looks at other women and even tries to force her to service another client. Although, they exhibit a fondness towards each other the love doesn’t bloom any further. Mr. Harari flees the city prompting their love to wither.
The last couple is Salima and Fortune, the happily married couple that was torn apart because of Salima’s rape which culturally forced Fortune to disown her. At first Salima longs to be with him, even after his rebuke of her, but later she begins to feel spiteful towards him. Fortune has a change of heart about forsaking her and begins to look for her, only to find Mama Nadi hiding her out and Salima’s refusal to see him. Fortune’s love literally dies as she kills herself saying the rebel soldiers that once raped her, “you will not fight your battles on my body anymore.” Ending the scene.
Vanessa Dilworth
Professor Sabir
English 1B
8 May 2012
Ruined Student Response to Sherrlyne Apostol
I agree with your argument that love and war typically is not seen coexisting together, however, in Ruined we see Sophie, the most disadvantaged victim of them all, still managing to maintain hopeful ness and believe in love. I think that in a way Sophie’s cheerfulness was a bloodline for them all and a shimmer of light through their dark time. She made the soldiers happy by singing to them. She helped Mama with counting her money, a much needed service while running a business. She even calmed voracious Josephine down by reading her promising love stories, which allowed them a break from their dreary life. Towards the end of the play we see how her life could potentially play out the same as in her books. As Sophie peeked into the bar she sees Mama Nadi, a ruined brothel owner, finally surrendering to her true love, Christian, in the mist of the war reinforcing in her that love does exist during and after war.
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