Wednesday, January 4, 2017
50 Shades of London
Mariatu arrives in london and labels it as gray. "'I don't like this country' I said. 'It's alway gray. In Sierra Leone everything is colorful: the clothes people wear, the trees, and the flowers.'" (pg. 144) She labels Sierra Leone as colourful. When I think of colourful, I associate it with the word "bright". When something is bright it can be considered cheerful or happy, this gives me the idea that Mariatu may have been making a connection between Sierra Leone and happiness. When something is grey my mind connects it to the words "dull" or "boring". Bright and dull have a lot of contrast, which leads me to believe that Mariatu may have been trying to represent the vast difference between London and Sierra Leone through something that everyone has a concept of, colour. Being in London was not enjoyable for Mariatu, from trying to learn to use her prosthetic hand device to just walking on the streets, she was unhappy. When she arrived in Canada Mariatu was reminded of her beloved colourful Sierra Leone. "'I'm going to like Canada better than England,' I thought. 'Already I can see colour.'" (pg. 167) The similar "colour vibe" that Canada had to Sierra Leone may have made it easier for Mariatu to picture her new life there. This is easily relatable, if I was to be forced to make to the United States it wouldn't be difficult to picture in my mind because Americans way of life is very similar to ours (clothing, houses, food, accents). Whereas if I was to move to China I wouldn't even know how to begin since the Chinese have a vastly different way of life than us (clothing, houses, food, accents). The colour difference that Mariatu sees between London and Canada/Sierra Leone is the colour difference that I see between China and Canada/the United States.
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Comparing yourself moving to the U.S. and Mariatu moving to Canada makes sense, but not entirely. For Mariatu, it is easy to why Canada feels more "homey" than England, but in your comparison, you may have forgotten that the U.S. is still quite different from Canada. Depending on where you choose to move, the U.S. does not have as many forests or fields as Saskatchewan. Also, most state capitals probably have more people than all of our province, meaning that the U.S. has a higher population density. Another point is that some states have different accents and foods than we have here. Sorry for crushing your comparison, but I had to do what I had to do.
ReplyDeleteI like the way your title goes with what you talk about in the post. I also liked when you used the phrase colour vibe because vibe is a fun word to say, all in all the post was very good and you are smart. :)
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