I believe that Moving Toward the Hoop is about a young girl describing her life and the obstacles she faces day to day. The young girl states “they are double teaming me at the intersection” (Ensler 39). I believe she is talking about the obstacles young women face in life. For every girl the obstacle may be different. We each have faced different thing in our lives. The obstacle may be her family, people from her school, or any one that is getting in the way of her happiness. When she writes “What manly arms / What nappy-headedness / What muscled ugly lesbian / What never get a man / What post racial / biracial / nonracial / multiracial / I almost trip and stumble” (Ensler 41) she is describing how others make her self conscious. She is judged by her physical appearances; she is judged by the color of her skin, by the texture of her hair, and by her bone structure. All of these attributes were given to her without choice; however, she is still judged by these things. The opinions of others have an effect on her, and that is why I believe she states “I almost trip and stumble over ball” (Ensler 41). I believe many young girl have felt like this before. Because this young girl was athletic, she was labeled a lesbian, and was told she would never get a man. Later on, the girl writes “what eastern Congo / What prisoners / What brothers / who could have been / dribbling / Who am I / girl / to take their place? / Pass now / Weave / Think / What future / What opportunities” (Ensler 42), and I believe she is referring to the way women feel when they take on roles that men feel they are only entitled to. Men get threatened by women sometimes. I believe that men feel that women are not entitled to do certain jobs or accomplish certain things in life, but this young girl is determined to prove them wrong. She wants a strong future, and she is not letting anyone’s opinion, male or female, get in her way. She is focused and she knows that she “must win / must get control” (Ensler 42) to be successful in her life. I believe the whole section Moving Toward the Hoop is about determination, not only determination on the court, but a young girl’s determination in life.
I was struck by two messages while reading Moving Toward the Hoop. The first relates specifically to the girl's life, where she is struggling with her identity as a biracial individual. Her mother is Dominican and her father black, so she feels a deep-rooted pressure from both sides to assimilate herself with one, to choose which group she will represent and belong to (40). She feels she is being double-teamed by both groups at the "intersection," which I interpreted as her. She is the meeting point/junction of the two different races and feels an enormous burden to decide "in which court [she] stands," or whether she is "either one or both or something else" (39). She questions what past, history, and stories she is going to claim, and as a result, who she will be forced to piss off (40). In essence, if she identifies herself as or chooses to be one thing, she's also choosing not to be another. Furthermore, choosing to be one thing, an athlete with strong legs and arms who trains, also means that to everyone outside of that specific group she is negative things, like a muscled, manly armed lesbian. This just goes to show how unnecessary and terrible labeling is in general.
The second idea I felt Ensler was trying to get at was why can't you just be you? Why do we have to choose a side and take on its specific qualities as if it's our responsibility? Why can't we just stand for ourselves rather than assembling to represent someone or something else? The piece ends with talk of breaking free, overcoming and scoring. To score would be to reach a place where she is comfortable in her identity and no longer concerned with what the different racial groups or with what anyone says and thinks, because it is impossible to make everyone happy. In attempting to do so, you are completely neglecting yourself and your feelings, which is the whole point of finding your personal identity in the first place. It ends with a message of having the endurance and strength to take control of your life by breaking free of society's need to label.
In Moving Toward the Hoop the girl depicted is struggling with many issues regarding her identity. First, she states, "even though they expect up to play ball/but not me/ not girl/ even if I'm tall." In these lines she is questioning why she cannot be feminine and be a basketball star. This reminds me of how people often say that the women in the WMBA are not pretty, because they are tall and strong. However, in my opinion, there is nothing more beautiful than strength and doing something that you love.
I love the ending of this poem. "Must win/Must get control/Fake/Duck/Lay up/Overcome/Break open/Free of guards/In possession/Dunk/Score." After Ensler explains how hard it is being multiracial for the girl in the poem and how she is confused as to who she actually is, these final lines show girls that their ethnicity as well as how feminine that they are, is irrelevant. We are all women. Girls are strong, and must overcome. We all have difficulties in our past and things we must accept, but overcoming these difficulties lends to our beauty.
My interpretation of Eve Ensler’s piece, “Moving Toward the Hoop,” is that it is about a young woman who is lost at a life crossroad, and is searching her soul in order to establish an identity that allows her to remain true to herself. Being the child of a Dominican mother and a black father, the young woman struggles with her biracial identity as she asks herself, “What identity have I been ducking or too defiantly embracing?” (41) Ensler has a way of making her audience feel another person’s emotions through the words on each page, and I feel this holds true in “Moving Toward the Hoop.” The young woman’s life journey is described in terms of a basketball game as she begins on the road to self-discovery, “down the court, down this alley in my brain.” (38) Along the way, she is confronted with both external and internal pressures which make that “score,” that moment when we finally accept and embrace ourselves, that much more difficult to achieve.
In the “GIRL FACT” which precedes “Moving Toward the Hoop,” it states that research shows that girls that are involved with sports have a “less stereotypically feminine gender role identity.” (37) I found this statement particularly interesting in relation to the young woman’s journey in Ensler’s piece because one issue that the girl grapples with is the negative labels that are attached to her athleticism. “I am an athlete, a girl with strong legs and arms…what manly arms, what muscled ugly lesbian…” (41) Her physical strength and involvement in a sport takes away from her femininity which resultantly makes her “ugly” and “a lesbian.” Society gives the impression that women are supposed to be slight and demure so strong and powerful women are often depicted as unattractive.
I believe that with “Moving Toward the Hoop,” Ensler is attempting to reach out to all young women who are in search of themselves. The basketball court can be seen as a metaphor for life. In a sense, every girl has stood in their own personal court with the “ball hot in [their] hands,” seeing all the people and things that stand as obstacles in the way of reaching “our hoop.” (38) The hoop can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people –happiness, health, prosperity – but I think what Ensler is trying to say is what that “hoop” or “scoring” means to each person doesn’t necessarily matter. It is who we are when we finally reach that “hoop” and what we learned about ourselves and overcame to get there that really counts when that clock hits zero and the game is over.
After reading the passage titled Moving Toward The Hoop I interpret these pages as a single girl representing multiple girls. Life of a young girl is like traveling down a basketball court, people “double-teaming” you and “ganging up on my consciousness” (39). What Ensler is trying to “get at” here is not a girl playing a game of basketball and being very nervous but about her life and how at any moment any young girl can be pushed off her court or path into danger and how girls feel the need to always be on the lookout for trouble. Ensler also wants the reader to feel as if they are not the only one confused about who they really are or what group they belong to because they are not alone. For example she writes, “Which part doesn’t belong? Which group will it piss off? Which group do I represent?” (40). These are common questions that all girls think about and she brings them “out” to help young girls feel as if they are understood. Ensler is also trying to “get at” the fact that there is so much expected of girls today that it can be overwhelming. For example, “What ropes around my neck What scholarship What affirmative action plan What resentful boys in my hood What champions What being best” (40). Sometimes these expectations are just overwhelming and instead of a girl being able to just play a simple game of basketball, she must play the challenging game of life. Ensler does however point out the troubles of a young girl but gives her hope! Ensler states, “Must win Must get control Fake Dunk Lay up Overcome Break open Free of guards In possession Dunk Score” (42-43). These simple but powerful words at the end of the passage state clearly that through all the confusion of the world and of our own thoughts, we can succeed and “score” a wonderful and beautifully happy life.
I believe that Eve Ensler's poem "Moving Toward the Hoop" is an interpretation of two worlds: a world of contentration, focus, and motivation and the other of understanding, emotion and personal development. The poem begins with the literal location of the young woman. She is playing basketball and hears the whistle. I understood the woman's voice in this poem. I used to play volleyball and every whistle, clock, and play was important; however, I often found myself straying from the game. My inner monologue pulsed with emotional distress. "Each basket defies what is expected/ because nothing is/ even though they expect us to play ball/ but not me/ not girl/ even if I'm tall" (39). Girls, especially in sports, feel pressure from parents, coaches, and other peers. I would compare myself to the male volleyball team and lack confidence in my self; however, playing sports also empowered me, because I proved to myself and others that I was just as capable of reaching my goals: both literally and figuratively.
Like this basketball player, girls often are defined by their background, lineage, genetics, yet no one asks them who they truely are. "What goes between/ What stories/ What past/ What ropes around my neck/ What scholarship" (40). The question of what is always asked, but never the who. Who does she want to be? How will she influence others positively? Why does she feel this way? These questions should be asked, but they are not. Similarly, we as girls are taught not to ask questions. We therefore submit to other people's games instead of creating the rules in our own stadium. "What identity have I been ducking/ or too definatly embracing" (41). These two lines summarize emotions that many girls do not even realize. Girls do not realize that they are hiding behind makeup and lies. If they took time to question themselves, the game would be played differently. Ensler wants girls to realize that if they free themselves of doubts, but in life and in the games they play, that they will be successful.
The beginning of Moving Toward the Hoop is about a woman playing basketball. The fact that this is traditionally a male sport shows that women have the opportunity to do the same thing men do. When Ensler writes “It’s not the other girls/ who are in my way/ … There are far more deadly obstacles/that keep me from the hoop” (38) I believe she is talking about all of the oppression women face in achieving their dreams. This girl not only faces the disadvantages that women are faced with, but she also faces racial discrimination. She writes “I am also the child/of a Dominican mother/and a black father/so I am black/well brown” (40). She goes on to say “I almost trip and stumble over ball” (41). The fact that she almost trips, but is able to catch her balance and continue on her journey shows that she is a strong woman. It seems as though she is playing the game for everything she represents, a woman from a culture that has been historically oppressed when she says “What women bound and raped/What legs/What race/have I been running” (41). The last part of Moving Toward the Hoop had a big impact on me. She writes “Must win/ Must get control/…Dunk/Score” (42). Ensler is trying to express the struggle many women deal with in achieving their goals in life. Sometimes women are not fighting to win for themselves, but they feel as though they carry their whole family, culture, sexual orientation, and gender. In succeeding, this girl scored for herself as well as all of the oppressed groups that she represents.
Moving Toward the Hoop is about a girl describing her life through basketball. She is using basketball as the tone of the poem and is relating life experiences back to it. This poem is also showing how women and girls can be more then just a wife or a daughter or an athlete. Women are complex beings that take time and dedication to understand. I think that basketball is used to relate back to her life and the life of girls around the world because it is a sport that many people in the world know and can relate to. So by using such a relatable topic to depict her world her words come across that much stronger then they would if they were just a poem about her life. Within this poem this girl is trying to figure out who she is, how she got to be this way and what path to take in her life. Which is a very important and difficult decision to make. “Even though they expect us to play ball/ But not me/ not girl Even if I'm tall /Which part of me do I ally myself with?/ Which part do I ignore? At what moment? /Which part doesn’t belong?/ Which group will it piss off?/Which group do I represent?/I am an athlete/A girl with strong legs/ And arms/I train/ I am also the child/of a Dominican mother/ and a Black father /so I am Black /well Brown/ Brown and Black/Canela” (46-47). She is trying to show that she is an accumulation of many different people, places and experiences so the decision she makes must reflect every aspect of herself which of course is humanly impossible so she is faced with the decision of dropping one but which one seems to be the issue. This girl is struggling about what she will choose but I think Ensler is trying to get out of this is that it is the girls choice. She needs to make the best choice for herself. She needs to be in control and procession of her own life. She had the power to make the deciding factor on what her life was to become. I think Ensler is trying to empower the young women of today to make their own choice no matter who they are, where they come from or what the results of their choice will be; they have to do what is best for them.
I think that Eve Ensler is trying to say that life is like the sport of basketball. You have your opponents or obstacles in life to pass by and move around them to get to the main goal, which is the hoop. You have people on your side throughout life and that are on your team who will be with you through thick and thin and then you have your opponents that will kill to see you fall and fail at what you intend to do. When you take a shot in the game of life you either hit it or miss it. But you always end up trying again to get that goal and to make that shot that you strive to make in life. I also think that she is intending on the other team being your conscience. “Ganging up on my conscience”(Ensler 39). You are supposed to follow your conscience and it goes wherever you go, so if your team is your conscience then the opponents on the other team are trying to corrupt your conscience into doing something that maybe you don’t intend on doing. Further in the poem I feel that Ensler is trying to form an identity. This girl doesn’t know what she wants out of life or what her purpose is in life. Who is she? What kind of woman is she? Does she fit in or does she not? Just because she’s sporty does that make her different? Because she’s tall and muscular does that make her queer? She is asking herself questions on who she is and who she wants to be because society is telling her and choosing who she is by her outward appearance. She is going through life not knowing what is going to happen or what she is going to run into. Like the basketball game allusion she needs to be the woman she wants to be not what anyone else wants her to be. If she is herself then she will outrun her opponents and dribble right to the basket to score because she is representing herself as a woman not anyone else. I think Eve Ensler is trying to get girls/women to represent their selves as who they want to be and not what anyone else thinks. Life is a game of choices and battles like a basketball game. You have to dodge the hardships and take a shot if you don’t make it try it again. Follow your conscience because it is by your side even when temptation is trying to alter its decision.
In "Moving toward the hoop" I definitely agree with the thought that the girl is having a difficult time identifying herself with her race in particular. But I also think that she is having a hard time identifying herself as a female as well.
"Each basket defies what is expected because nothing is Even though they expect us to play ball But not me not girl Even if I'm tall" (46).
This girl is powerful, and as she mentions earlier in the poem she knows that she has the moves to get past the opstacles on the court but that the real obstacles are the ones off the court.
On page 46 the poem continues with, "Which part of me do I ally myself with? Which part do I ignore? At what moment? Which part doesn’t belong? Which group will it piss off?"
It is dangerous to be a girl, she mentions that with each basket scored she is defieing what is expected of her. People do not expect her to be good, but she will do all she can to be the very best she can be.
In the end she makes the basket whcih leads me to believe that the girl will identify with herself as an individual who does not stick to the restrictions of race or gender.
I interpret "Moving Toward the Hoop" as a play on basketball terminology to describe the past and future of this world. It definitely focuses on this young girl. Who is she? What does she have to offer? How does the past action of her people affect who she will become? These are the questions that popped into my mind as I was reading. She is a beautiful woman, trying to focus on the now of basketball while nearly falling over the ball. She has a strong voice. She knows where she comes from and wants to become an individual entity. She wants to speak to all the parts of herself without offense. When she says that, "It's not the other girls who are in my way," I think she must be getting in her own way. Her thoughts, feelings, independence, dependence, past, present, and future are all in the way of her now. Her concentration on the game fades away to this dilemma of who she is. I love the passage, "Which part of me do I ally myself with?/ Which part do ignore?/ At what moment?" These few sentences are what are so relatable about this poem, and this girl. She is so much like each of us. I never know what parts of me I can show at which times with which people. I am almost always hiding a part of myself that I think won't be accepted by a certain person or group. Or maybe I think it will make them uncomfortable. I'm not sure. But I know that those three questions are ones that I ask myself all the time. Who I am is an ever-changing concept and I think this poem shows that. This girl doesn't have to be just one of the things she listed. She also doesn't have to accept the past for what it is. Questioning is what makes her such a strong force. The poem speaks to the fact that eventually she won't have to question who she needs to be but she will just learn to accept who she is. And it is clear that when that moment comes, she will change the world. She sees the wrongdoing and will learn to make a difference.
I believe that Moving Toward the Hoop is about a young girl describing her life and the obstacles she faces day to day. The young girl states “they are double teaming me at the intersection” (Ensler 39). I believe she is talking about the obstacles young women face in life. For every girl the obstacle may be different. We each have faced different thing in our lives. The obstacle may be her family, people from her school, or any one that is getting in the way of her happiness. When she writes “What manly arms / What nappy-headedness / What muscled ugly lesbian / What never get a man / What post racial / biracial / nonracial / multiracial / I almost trip and stumble” (Ensler 41) she is describing how others make her self conscious. She is judged by her physical appearances; she is judged by the color of her skin, by the texture of her hair, and by her bone structure. All of these attributes were given to her without choice; however, she is still judged by these things. The opinions of others have an effect on her, and that is why I believe she states “I almost trip and stumble over ball” (Ensler 41). I believe many young girl have felt like this before. Because this young girl was athletic, she was labeled a lesbian, and was told she would never get a man. Later on, the girl writes “what eastern Congo / What prisoners / What brothers / who could have been / dribbling / Who am I / girl / to take their place? / Pass now / Weave / Think / What future / What opportunities” (Ensler 42), and I believe she is referring to the way women feel when they take on roles that men feel they are only entitled to. Men get threatened by women sometimes. I believe that men feel that women are not entitled to do certain jobs or accomplish certain things in life, but this young girl is determined to prove them wrong. She wants a strong future, and she is not letting anyone’s opinion, male or female, get in her way. She is focused and she knows that she “must win / must get control” (Ensler 42) to be successful in her life. I believe the whole section Moving Toward the Hoop is about determination, not only determination on the court, but a young girl’s determination in life.
ReplyDeleteI was struck by two messages while reading Moving Toward the Hoop. The first relates specifically to the girl's life, where she is struggling with her identity as a biracial individual. Her mother is Dominican and her father black, so she feels a deep-rooted pressure from both sides to assimilate herself with one, to choose which group she will represent and belong to (40). She feels she is being double-teamed by both groups at the "intersection," which I interpreted as her. She is the meeting point/junction of the two different races and feels an enormous burden to decide "in which court [she] stands," or whether she is "either one or both or something else" (39). She questions what past, history, and stories she is going to claim, and as a result, who she will be forced to piss off (40). In essence, if she identifies herself as or chooses to be one thing, she's also choosing not to be another. Furthermore, choosing to be one thing, an athlete with strong legs and arms who trains, also means that to everyone outside of that specific group she is negative things, like a muscled, manly armed lesbian. This just goes to show how unnecessary and terrible labeling is in general.
ReplyDeleteThe second idea I felt Ensler was trying to get at was why can't you just be you? Why do we have to choose a side and take on its specific qualities as if it's our responsibility? Why can't we just stand for ourselves rather than assembling to represent someone or something else? The piece ends with talk of breaking free, overcoming and scoring. To score would be to reach a place where she is comfortable in her identity and no longer concerned with what the different racial groups or with what anyone says and thinks, because it is impossible to make everyone happy. In attempting to do so, you are completely neglecting yourself and your feelings, which is the whole point of finding your personal identity in the first place. It ends with a message of having the endurance and strength to take control of your life by breaking free of society's need to label.
In Moving Toward the Hoop the girl depicted is struggling with many issues regarding her identity. First, she states, "even though they expect up to play ball/but not me/ not girl/ even if I'm tall." In these lines she is questioning why she cannot be feminine and be a basketball star. This reminds me of how people often say that the women in the WMBA are not pretty, because they are tall and strong. However, in my opinion, there is nothing more beautiful than strength and doing something that you love.
ReplyDeleteI love the ending of this poem. "Must win/Must get control/Fake/Duck/Lay up/Overcome/Break open/Free of guards/In possession/Dunk/Score." After Ensler explains how hard it is being multiracial for the girl in the poem and how she is confused as to who she actually is, these final lines show girls that their ethnicity as well as how feminine that they are, is irrelevant. We are all women. Girls are strong, and must overcome. We all have difficulties in our past and things we must accept, but overcoming these difficulties lends to our beauty.
My interpretation of Eve Ensler’s piece, “Moving Toward the Hoop,” is that it is about a young woman who is lost at a life crossroad, and is searching her soul in order to establish an identity that allows her to remain true to herself. Being the child of a Dominican mother and a black father, the young woman struggles with her biracial identity as she asks herself, “What identity have I been ducking or too defiantly embracing?” (41) Ensler has a way of making her audience feel another person’s emotions through the words on each page, and I feel this holds true in “Moving Toward the Hoop.” The young woman’s life journey is described in terms of a basketball game as she begins on the road to self-discovery, “down the court, down this alley in my brain.” (38) Along the way, she is confronted with both external and internal pressures which make that “score,” that moment when we finally accept and embrace ourselves, that much more difficult to achieve.
ReplyDeleteIn the “GIRL FACT” which precedes “Moving Toward the Hoop,” it states that research shows that girls that are involved with sports have a “less stereotypically feminine gender role identity.” (37) I found this statement particularly interesting in relation to the young woman’s journey in Ensler’s piece because one issue that the girl grapples with is the negative labels that are attached to her athleticism. “I am an athlete, a girl with strong legs and arms…what manly arms, what muscled ugly lesbian…” (41) Her physical strength and involvement in a sport takes away from her femininity which resultantly makes her “ugly” and “a lesbian.” Society gives the impression that women are supposed to be slight and demure so strong and powerful women are often depicted as unattractive.
I believe that with “Moving Toward the Hoop,” Ensler is attempting to reach out to all young women who are in search of themselves. The basketball court can be seen as a metaphor for life. In a sense, every girl has stood in their own personal court with the “ball hot in [their] hands,” seeing all the people and things that stand as obstacles in the way of reaching “our hoop.” (38) The hoop can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people –happiness, health, prosperity – but I think what Ensler is trying to say is what that “hoop” or “scoring” means to each person doesn’t necessarily matter. It is who we are when we finally reach that “hoop” and what we learned about ourselves and overcame to get there that really counts when that clock hits zero and the game is over.
After reading the passage titled Moving Toward The Hoop I interpret these pages as a single girl representing multiple girls. Life of a young girl is like traveling down a basketball court, people “double-teaming” you and “ganging up on my consciousness” (39). What Ensler is trying to “get at” here is not a girl playing a game of basketball and being very nervous but about her life and how at any moment any young girl can be pushed off her court or path into danger and how girls feel the need to always be on the lookout for trouble. Ensler also wants the reader to feel as if they are not the only one confused about who they really are or what group they belong to because they are not alone. For example she writes, “Which part doesn’t belong? Which group will it piss off? Which group do I represent?” (40). These are common questions that all girls think about and she brings them “out” to help young girls feel as if they are understood.
ReplyDeleteEnsler is also trying to “get at” the fact that there is so much expected of girls today that it can be overwhelming. For example, “What ropes around my neck What scholarship What affirmative action plan What resentful boys in my hood What champions What being best” (40). Sometimes these expectations are just overwhelming and instead of a girl being able to just play a simple game of basketball, she must play the challenging game of life. Ensler does however point out the troubles of a young girl but gives her hope! Ensler states, “Must win Must get control Fake Dunk Lay up Overcome Break open Free of guards In possession Dunk Score” (42-43). These simple but powerful words at the end of the passage state clearly that through all the confusion of the world and of our own thoughts, we can succeed and “score” a wonderful and beautifully happy life.
I believe that Eve Ensler's poem "Moving Toward the Hoop" is an interpretation of two worlds: a world of contentration, focus, and motivation and the other of understanding, emotion and personal development. The poem begins with the literal location of the young woman. She is playing basketball and hears the whistle. I understood the woman's voice in this poem. I used to play volleyball and every whistle, clock, and play was important; however, I often found myself straying from the game. My inner monologue pulsed with emotional distress. "Each basket defies what is expected/ because nothing is/ even though they expect us to play ball/ but not me/ not girl/ even if I'm tall" (39). Girls, especially in sports, feel pressure from parents, coaches, and other peers. I would compare myself to the male volleyball team and lack confidence in my self; however, playing sports also empowered me, because I proved to myself and others that I was just as capable of reaching my goals: both literally and figuratively.
ReplyDeleteLike this basketball player, girls often are defined by their background, lineage, genetics, yet no one asks them who they truely are. "What goes between/ What stories/ What past/ What ropes around my neck/ What scholarship" (40). The question of what is always asked, but never the who. Who does she want to be? How will she influence others positively? Why does she feel this way? These questions should be asked, but they are not. Similarly, we as girls are taught not to ask questions. We therefore submit to other people's games instead of creating the rules in our own stadium. "What identity have I been ducking/ or too definatly embracing" (41). These two lines summarize emotions that many girls do not even realize. Girls do not realize that they are hiding behind makeup and lies. If they took time to question themselves, the game would be played differently. Ensler wants girls to realize that if they free themselves of doubts, but in life and in the games they play, that they will be successful.
The beginning of Moving Toward the Hoop is about a woman playing basketball. The fact that this is traditionally a male sport shows that women have the opportunity to do the same thing men do. When Ensler writes “It’s not the other girls/ who are in my way/ … There are far more deadly obstacles/that keep me from the hoop” (38) I believe she is talking about all of the oppression women face in achieving their dreams. This girl not only faces the disadvantages that women are faced with, but she also faces racial discrimination. She writes “I am also the child/of a Dominican mother/and a black father/so I am black/well brown” (40). She goes on to say “I almost trip and stumble over ball” (41). The fact that she almost trips, but is able to catch her balance and continue on her journey shows that she is a strong woman. It seems as though she is playing the game for everything she represents, a woman from a culture that has been historically oppressed when she says “What women bound and raped/What legs/What race/have I been running” (41). The last part of Moving Toward the Hoop had a big impact on me. She writes “Must win/ Must get control/…Dunk/Score” (42). Ensler is trying to express the struggle many women deal with in achieving their goals in life. Sometimes women are not fighting to win for themselves, but they feel as though they carry their whole family, culture, sexual orientation, and gender. In succeeding, this girl scored for herself as well as all of the oppressed groups that she represents.
ReplyDeleteMoving Toward the Hoop is about a girl describing her life through basketball. She is using basketball as the tone of the poem and is relating life experiences back to it. This poem is also showing how women and girls can be more then just a wife or a daughter or an athlete. Women are complex beings that take time and dedication to understand. I think that basketball is used to relate back to her life and the life of girls around the world because it is a sport that many people in the world know and can relate to. So by using such a relatable topic to depict her world her words come across that much stronger then they would if they were just a poem about her life. Within this poem this girl is trying to figure out who she is, how she got to be this way and what path to take in her life. Which is a very important and difficult decision to make. “Even though they expect us to play ball/ But not me/ not girl Even if I'm tall /Which part of me do I ally myself with?/ Which part do I ignore? At what moment? /Which part doesn’t belong?/ Which group will it piss off?/Which group do I represent?/I am an athlete/A girl with strong legs/ And arms/I train/ I am also the child/of a Dominican mother/ and a Black father /so I am Black /well Brown/ Brown and Black/Canela” (46-47). She is trying to show that she is an accumulation of many different people, places and experiences so the decision she makes must reflect every aspect of herself which of course is humanly impossible so she is faced with the decision of dropping one but which one seems to be the issue. This girl is struggling about what she will choose but I think Ensler is trying to get out of this is that it is the girls choice. She needs to make the best choice for herself. She needs to be in control and procession of her own life. She had the power to make the deciding factor on what her life was to become. I think Ensler is trying to empower the young women of today to make their own choice no matter who they are, where they come from or what the results of their choice will be; they have to do what is best for them.
ReplyDeleteI think that Eve Ensler is trying to say that life is like the sport of basketball. You have your opponents or obstacles in life to pass by and move around them to get to the main goal, which is the hoop. You have people on your side throughout life and that are on your team who will be with you through thick and thin and then you have your opponents that will kill to see you fall and fail at what you intend to do. When you take a shot in the game of life you either hit it or miss it. But you always end up trying again to get that goal and to make that shot that you strive to make in life. I also think that she is intending on the other team being your conscience. “Ganging up on my conscience”(Ensler 39). You are supposed to follow your conscience and it goes wherever you go, so if your team is your conscience then the opponents on the other team are trying to corrupt your conscience into doing something that maybe you don’t intend on doing. Further in the poem I feel that Ensler is trying to form an identity. This girl doesn’t know what she wants out of life or what her purpose is in life. Who is she? What kind of woman is she? Does she fit in or does she not? Just because she’s sporty does that make her different? Because she’s tall and muscular does that make her queer? She is asking herself questions on who she is and who she wants to be because society is telling her and choosing who she is by her outward appearance. She is going through life not knowing what is going to happen or what she is going to run into. Like the basketball game allusion she needs to be the woman she wants to be not what anyone else wants her to be. If she is herself then she will outrun her opponents and dribble right to the basket to score because she is representing herself as a woman not anyone else. I think Eve Ensler is trying to get girls/women to represent their selves as who they want to be and not what anyone else thinks. Life is a game of choices and battles like a basketball game. You have to dodge the hardships and take a shot if you don’t make it try it again. Follow your conscience because it is by your side even when temptation is trying to alter its decision.
ReplyDeleteIn "Moving toward the hoop" I definitely agree with the thought that the girl is having a difficult time identifying herself with her race in particular. But I also think that she is having a hard time identifying herself as a female as well.
ReplyDelete"Each basket defies what is expected
because nothing is
Even though they expect us to play ball
But not me
not girl
Even if I'm tall" (46).
This girl is powerful, and as she mentions earlier in the poem she knows that she has the moves to get past the opstacles on the court but that the real obstacles are the ones off the court.
On page 46 the poem continues with,
"Which part of me do I ally myself with?
Which part do I ignore?
At what moment?
Which part doesn’t belong?
Which group will it piss off?"
It is dangerous to be a girl, she mentions that with each basket scored she is defieing what is expected of her. People do not expect her to be good, but she will do all she can to be the very best she can be.
In the end she makes the basket whcih leads me to believe that the girl will identify with herself as an individual who does not stick to the restrictions of race or gender.
I interpret "Moving Toward the Hoop" as a play on basketball terminology to describe the past and future of this world. It definitely focuses on this young girl. Who is she? What does she have to offer? How does the past action of her people affect who she will become? These are the questions that popped into my mind as I was reading. She is a beautiful woman, trying to focus on the now of basketball while nearly falling over the ball. She has a strong voice. She knows where she comes from and wants to become an individual entity. She wants to speak to all the parts of herself without offense. When she says that, "It's not the other girls who are in my way," I think she must be getting in her own way. Her thoughts, feelings, independence, dependence, past, present, and future are all in the way of her now. Her concentration on the game fades away to this dilemma of who she is. I love the passage, "Which part of me do I ally myself with?/ Which part do ignore?/ At what moment?" These few sentences are what are so relatable about this poem, and this girl. She is so much like each of us. I never know what parts of me I can show at which times with which people. I am almost always hiding a part of myself that I think won't be accepted by a certain person or group. Or maybe I think it will make them uncomfortable. I'm not sure. But I know that those three questions are ones that I ask myself all the time. Who I am is an ever-changing concept and I think this poem shows that. This girl doesn't have to be just one of the things she listed. She also doesn't have to accept the past for what it is. Questioning is what makes her such a strong force. The poem speaks to the fact that eventually she won't have to question who she needs to be but she will just learn to accept who she is. And it is clear that when that moment comes, she will change the world. She sees the wrongdoing and will learn to make a difference.
ReplyDeleteIt's way past time on this blog. Goodnight.
ReplyDelete