Reading Response 24

Summary
In her article "Tilli Tlapalli: The Path of the Red and Black Ink," Gloria Anzaldua argues for the importance of  identity in writing.  She puts herself and her past into her own writing, making it much more personal and, in her opinion, better.  She also describes the difference between Western and tribal cultures in terms of art.  Tribal cultures treat their art as living things, but Westerners treat their art as just dead objects.

Synthesis
This article relates to bell hook's article.  Both of them deal with identity, and how putting it in your writing can help you as well as improve your writing.  These articles are not entirely similar, hooks argues more that writing autobiographically will improve your writing and allow you to come to terms with your past while Anzaldua describes how realizing your past will improve your writing

Review
I like this article more than most that we have read because it was short and simple.  It was easy to understand on the surface, although I don't know if I got all of her more complex ideas.  It was difficult for me to summarize and synthesize this piece because it was more about her and less about writing in general.

AE
1.  Western art is more individual than tribal art because tribal art has a similar meaning to all members of the community.  Small tribal communities are closely knit and the members are more likely to have similar belief systems than people of Western communities.  Literacy and art are becoming more individual because they are ways for people to express themselves and as time goes on people are becoming more free to express themselves.

2.  If this piece was written using a traditional method it would have been easier to understand but that would have come with a loss to how personal this article seems.  When I read this article I feel like I understand the author more than if I was reading an article written traditionally.