I Hotel: Freedom & Identity

      In the first section of readings, I found a quote by Malcolm X that I found connected with nearly every text we've explored thus far. On page 312, Malcolm X says, "You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom..." which I believe is true for nearly every one of these identity-themed pieces we have examined. What Malcolm X means here is that the want and need to be free, both in a society and within oneself, is an ever-connected, innate piece to one's identity. If we cannot be free we can not find peace with others or ourselves and therefore cannot be the truest versions of ourselves.
     While this idea is rather pretty and poetic, it is applicable and generalizable to a vast array of genres and narrative-types. In particular, I felt that this quote connected, most effectively, with the texts, Breath, Eyes, Memory; Lakota Woman, and the works discussing the Japanese internment camp experience (i.e. Citizen 13660 and When the Emperor Was Divine) because each of these stories deals with a young woman fighting for freedom from the side of oppression. For Danticat's novel, the protagonist, Sophie, is fighting against society and her mother to find herself; as she is passed off among guardians and countries, I think it makes it hard for Sophie to ever define her identity because she isn't allowed to have one. In much the same way, Mary Crow Dog's memoir offers another look into a young woman fighting to be culturally free in society and with her family. Lakota Woman, as we all know, highlights the struggle of keeping a culture in tact and the oppression surrounding one's choice to walk a different path is often stifled, forcing Mary Crow Dog and her peers to be unwillingly held captive by the government. Finally, Citizen 13660 and When the Emperor Was Divine probably have the most literal translation in terms of wanting to be free and the journey to one's own freedom. Clearly the main characters of these works were held against their will, and it wasn't until they were able (if ever) to separate who they were from their contrived internment camp identity, that they were truly able to thrive in a society where they were not wanted. In the novel, this experience was not as powerful because even after having been freed, the mother continued to feel imprisoned by her ethnicity and never was able to fully reach a peaceful state of acceptance. Not ever story deals directly with freedom, but, in broader terms, deals with an issue standing in the way of their freedom and how overcoming that will allow the character to reach a true identity narrative between cultures.