- Explore the way different economic classes are represented in the text.
There are many different economic classes displayed throughout this book. Sandra’s family and the people who live in their camp are represented as the lowest of the low. Sandra’s uncle who is military would be of a little bit higher on the class scale. When Sandra’s family moves to the United States, we see more examples of different classes. The people that live around Sandra’s family, and the students at school all come from different classes. The highest class that we see in the book is when Sandra meets Obama and his wife Michelle. Having different classes displayed throughout the book identifies the differences and challenges that each group goes through. We are able to see how Sandra’s family class is compared to everyone else’s’.
2. Determine the ideological stance of the text.
Sandra tells her story of loss and survival and how to find hope through tragedy. Her ideological stance is to be an advocate for refugee girls and to show people how to be compassionate towards one another. When she arrived in New York with her family, everybody thought that they were terrorists or were there to steal their jobs. When in reality, they were escaping from a gruesome situation that nobody in New York would ever have to face. We are all connected and we need to start being more compassionate to each other. You never know somebody’s story until you get to know them. Sandra continues to tell her story everywhere she goes and she continues helping people living in refugee camps in the Congo.
3. Link the text to the social class of it’s author
Sandra started out in the lowest social class possible. Her social class slowly went up when her family moved to New York and she started telling her story. A pivotal moment for her and her social class was when she met the president. She gained more recognition than she could ever want. She sky rocketed to ‘fame’. Her social class is now very high because of everything she has accomplished. This goes to prove that you can change your status and class. Your life path is completely up to you.
4. Condsider how the text itself is a commodity that reproduces certain beliefs and behaviours.
This book reproduces a belief of the life that people in the Congo and refugees live. Sandra merely described her experience in the refugee camp. Her experience could be completely different from other camps. Sandra and her family were extremely lucky to survive and make it out of there. Sandra also makes people believe that if they have hope and don’t give up, they can survive and accomplish anything.
5. What is the effect of the work as a means of control?
Sandra did not write this biography just to gain fame. She wrote it so that she could free herself of her past and her life experiences. Telling her story would allow her demons to release her and help her to move on. Sandra needed to write the story for her sister. She allowed her story to be told to bring awareness to the happenings in the Congo and refugee camps. There are thousands of people who did not get lucky enough to make it out. Sandra’s life was spared for an unknown reason. I believe it was spared so that she could be a voice of hope and freedom for everybody who needed it. Because of this story, Sandra is able to be a guiding light and to be a helping hand to thousands of people all over the world.
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Did Sandra’s access to fame actually change her social class? It brought her story to the larger world and gave her an opportunity to work through her trauma, but I don’t think it changed her economic class. she still struggled to deal with her PTSD and her family still worked low end jobs and lived in a poor neighbourhood. The text is linked to the social class of the author because she is being an advocate for people from the same class – those without power for reasons of race, nationality, political status. The big question – why do these power structures exist and how are they perpetuated? Who is advantaged by disadvantaging other groups? Explore some of these questions as well.
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