Anonymous

Jaylin Pinguil           

Does Anon from the play Anon(ymous) suffer from dissociative amnesia resulting from his experience with war?

    War is an element that greatly affects individuals both physically and mentally. People who are often caught in the middle of war often face trauma as loved ones are lost in the crossfire, or families are separated as they try to escape looking for a safer home. In Anonymous we see how Anon is greatly affected by war especially after being separated from his mother. He copes by constantly referring to himself as someone else or as no one stating “ I changed my name, I became Anonymous, my name is Anonymous.” Part of his coping mechanisms refers to him becoming forgetful or repressing past memories. As they often stem from torment and experiences of the war. How he hears bombs dropping, smells the sweet and spicy odor of death or seeing bombs planted like flowers in the ground. Often leading him to block out information often as a result of these stressful or traumatic events.

Cited sources-

American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2013.

Effect of War Upon the Minds of Children
Bert I. Beverly
Am J Public Health Nations Health. 1943 Jul; 33(7): 793–798.

  1. Does my research question make sense?
  2. Is my question to lengthy? Show I cut it down?
  3. As I continue writing should I dedicate a paragraph where I only talk about and explain what dissociative amnesia is? Should it include Anon’s mother?
  4. As this is the first paragraph is my research question and examples straightforward?
  5. Is the idea interesting?

Research Rough Draft

Q: How does a reserved person deal with traumatic memories or symptoms of PTSD?

Traumatic issues can happen to anyone, it is common, and you always need help going through it. Going through traumatic issues in life is always a difficult thing to go through on your own, and since some people do not always have the faith in them to talk to others about it, they can make it worse by bottling it up. Recovering from PTSD can have its steps, the most stressful one can be having flashbacks, “a sudden, vivid memory that makes you feel like you are experiencing your trauma all over again. It’s a physical feeling of being there, not just a normal memory where you are recalling what has happened.” (Deloe, Jami 2015). In the play, the main character anon experiences the same flashbacks, and describes his memories as if he were there as well; “where I come from there was a war that lasted so long. Where I come from bombs rained down from the sky night after night.” (Iizuka, Naomi pg.4) War can be a traumatic moment and have a big impact in anyone’s life, due to the stress, fear, and the loudness of it. Through his descriptions, we can see where anon comes from and see from his perspective. Psychologists even agree that “a sustained stressful experience that might involve multiple trauma types (e.g., experiences at war) are also vulnerable to memory distortion. In fact, traumatic memory distortion appears to follow a particular pattern: people tend to remember experiencing even more trauma than they actually did.” (Lents, Nathan H. 2016). Perhaps that is also why he has trouble accepting his real name to other strangers, his trust issues get to him and he is still haunted by his past.

 

Works Cited

Deloe, Jami. 2015. “How To Cope With Body Memories in PTSD Recovery.” Healthy Place.

https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/traumaptsdblog/2015/10/ptsd-recovery-dealing-with-body-memories/

Iizuka, Naomi. 2007. Anonymous. An Adaptation of The Odyssey.

Lents, Nathan H. 2016. “Trauma, PTSD, and Memory Distortion.” Psychology Today.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beastly-behavior/201605/trauma-ptsd-and-memory-distortion

 

Questions:

Are my sources for my research topic good? Or should I get more sources?

Does my research topic fit the assignment?

Is my rough draft well cited and organized so far?

Does society forces immigrant into becoming anonymous ?

 

Anon(Ymous), the play that left its audience with more questions than answers, the play that left me with unquenchable desire to know more; was written by Naomi Iizuka and was published in 2007. The author took us on a journey, where the protagonist of the story was introduce. A young refugee that goes by multiple names and each different name had their own unique stories to share and also their own nightmare to face. “Where I come from mines are planted in the roads like deadly flowers, and the air smells like death, rank and sticky sweet”1[2] (Iizuka, Anon, 2). Anon was a refugee who fled his home country due to an endless war, where being civilize held no apparent meaning. For safety purposes, Anon and his mother had decided to migrate somewhere safer but during their travel, they were separated in a storm. The play enfolds various controversial themes such as border crossings, wars, dehumanization, immigration, sexual harassment, and the endeavor to identify one’s identity in the midst of all the unstable chaotic shifts and forced dream sequences.

Truth be told, to be able to fully comprehend the meaning behind the play Anon(Ymous) and this research paper, I must first break down the author past life.  Naomi Iizuka was “born on April 22 ,1965”1[3] in Tokyo but grew up in Japan, Indonesia, The Netherlands and Washington D.C. With Iizuka’s mother being an American Latina and her father being Japanese, her life was very complicated as a teenager, she never completely fit anywhere due to her multicultural background. Nonetheless, Iizuka never let society held her from chasing her dreams and although her works often follow a non-linear storyline, majority of her plays are influenced by her multicultural background.

 

 

 

Work Cited Page

 

Iizuka, Naomi. Anon(Ymous): a Drama. Playscripts, 2007.

https://outragerous.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/anonymous.pdf

 

Naomi, Iizuka. Background- Age. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Iizuka   

Questions: 

1-  Do I have enough information within my rough draft to convince my reader?

2-  Am I on the right path with my research paper and Am I answering the question?

3-  Do you believe Anon(ymous) represent different characters within the play?

Research Draft

Research: how war causes memory loss to adolescent?

 

War can cause many problems to survivors such as psychological problems after witnessing the destruction of war. According to the article, “Researchers have found that war has a remarkable and miraculous effect” it has stated that, “more than half the population had fled their homes, and some 70,000 people had died.” When comparing this to the play “Anonymous” by Naomi Iizuka, the main character Anon has experienced the same situation. For example, in the play, the author states that, “where I come from there was a war that lasted so long. Where I come from bombs rained down from the sky night after night. The air smells like death” (Naomi Iizuka, p. 4).   Anon witnessed these entire incidents and made him affected and his mom and him tried to escape from their country. This shows that all these things impact an adolescent’s mind by keeping them in memory and hard to forget those entire things they went through in their life.  This entire incident affected him and led to memory loss. One of the psychological problems after witnessing the destruction of war is memory loss.  Word like who are you?, I don’t remember you, are some of the words mentioned by the memory loss people. Even Anon has mentioned some of these words like, “I don’t remember”, “I don’t know how to begin. I don’t know where to begin” (Naomi Iizuka, p.4). Another incident that really affected his mind is separation from his mother. For example, in the play, “the last time I was in the ocean, I almost drowned. I was with my mom. We were in an old fishing boat. We were trying to escape and there was a storm” (Naomi Iizuka p. 13). This is an example of fear of death, where they escape from the war to reach a safer place. According to the article from WebMD, “Memory Loss”, the author states that, “Being depressed can make it difficult to pay attention and focus, which can affect memory.” When relating depression to memory loss, the main character Anon also went through depression where he was looking for his mom. For example, in the play, all he remembered was his mom. “I’m really homesick. What if you want to go home, but there’s no more home to go home to? What if the one person you love more than anything, what if they don’t remember you? What if they don’t even know who you are?” (Naomi Iizuka p.14). This proves that, he’s scared that his mother would have forgotten him or he would never find his mother. All these questions were running through his mind and people like Calista were trying to discourage his aim on finding his mom.

 

Work cited

Guo, Jeff. “Researchers Have Found That War Has a Remarkable and Miraculous Effect.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 28 June 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/28/researchers-have-found-that-war-has-a-remarkable-and-miraculous-effect/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.67b98b06ce38.

Iizuka, Naomi. Anon(Ymous): a Drama. Playscripts, 2010.

“Memory Loss.” WebMD, WebMD, www.webmd.com/brain/memory-loss#1.

Questions:

  1. Is my essay well organized?
  2. Do I have to be more specific and clear in analyzing the play?
  3. Is there anything that I need to focus on or include?

 

 

Assignment # 2 Guidelines

ENG 102: Writing Through Literature

T 8:00-9:00am, Th 8:00-10:15am, E265

Professor Jay Polish

Assignment # 2 — Research Essay Analyzing Anon(ymous)

https://tinyurl.com/anonpaper

We do research every day: when we hear a snippet of a new song by our favorite artist, we look it up; when we watch a TV show and recognize an actress but can’t tell from where, we google their character to figure out where we know them from; when we need to go somewhere we haven’t gone before, we google maps our way there (yeah, I used it as a verb).

Research — in its many forms — allows us to answer questions (and find new questions!) that itch, questions that ache, questions that we can’t quite get our minds around. As we read Anon(ymous), the play surely inspired a lot of questions in us. Some of these questions are going to be ripe for research: together, we will generate our own research questions that will guide our investigations. You will use your research to help you write a deep analysis of Anon(ymous) and the exigent issues it evokes. You will need to cite (in MLA format, which we will discuss in class) at least three sources (aside from Anon(ymous)), one of which must be a scholarly article published in an academic journal. Your essay must be at least 750 words long (5 pages double spaced).

Due Dates:

Tuesday, May 1st — Rough draft for Assignment 2 posted to the blog before class. Try to have as many of your thoughts/analysis expressed in your draft as possible. Include with your draft at least 5 specific questions that you would like your peer reviewer to answer, and cite at least 2 sources (aside from Anon(ymous)). Include your works cited list.

Thursday, May 3rd —  Post your peer review commentary and answers as a comment to two of your classmates’ Rough Draft posts before class.

Tuesday, May 8th — Post your most recent, edited and revised project to the blog before class. In addition, please include your 600 word reflective artist’s statement regarding what you learned, what you didn’t learn, how you can use what you learned in the future, the kind of research you did and how you think this helped you analyze the play, and how you think you could have pushed your analysis even further. What rhetorical choices did you make in your research paper and how did these choices advance your analysis? How did the process of peer review push your analysis forward? If it didn’t, why not? How can you and your partners conduct your peer reviews differently next time? What fresh rhetorical insights might you bring from this assignment into future assignments?

Anon(ymous)

  1. I’d like to know more about Nemasani’s motivations and goals. If she assumes Anon is dead, is she trying to go back home? Finishing the shroud is not an option. I’d like to know more about her.
  2. I would also like to know if there’s a reason for all the connections between the characters. Some are necessary for the plot to move along, but some others (e.g. Strygal being Mr. Zyglo’s son) seem unnecesary to me.
  3. Has the author ever directed this play? I’m curious about the choices she would have made about putting this play together.

While reading this play, I squinted a couple times and I also tilted my head slightly to the left. I “hmmmed” and said “what?” a couple times too.

HW 4/19

3 questions: the events change up and down and the characters are always changing will the conclusion have all the answers? is anon confused? what is the story or main message the author is trying to portray and what the audience to understand? the main body gestures i had was shaking my head when there would be change of events. when anon is meeting his mother i was feeling intrigued and i guess you’d say one of my body gesture was mainly out of curiousity. i was on the edge of my seat waiting to figure out what would happen and the next lines he’d say. the only sounds i found myself mainly doing is probably saying huh? and that was because of confusion. the story kept changing and i was trying to figure out whether or not i liked these characters. i do admit that i sympathize anon so as he was trying to find home which i assume is the whole reason for this story i was just sucking in my teeth everytime he’d say his story or talk with his mother.

Anon(ymous) play

Steeve Moliere

1-) With so many random things happening, how will this play end?

2-) Is Anon dreaming or is he stuck, drowning in the sea and confusing the past, the  present and the future?

3-)  What’s the message behind this play, what is the author trying to express to her audience?

I shake my head because of how confusing and well written this play was and I also brought my hands to my face cause it was getting so complicated with so much details.  I kept sucking my teeth because I was trying so hard to understand the story as a whole and I also snap my finger when Anon met Pascal because I saw that there was a connection between them but later he disappeared.

Anon(ymous)

1. With so many random beginnings and advancing characters how does the writer still find a way to connect it all together?

2. How does the writer make Anon pop out of nowhere as the story continues?

3. If Anon could have met his mother quickly without distraction would the story still be interesting?

When reading the play a body gesture and sound that inspired me was a head shake and saying “the heck.” It was the part where Nemasani was talking with Helen Laius about her lost son and hoping he is alive and she responds with ” maybe. Probably not. But maybe.” My reaction was just shock that someone would say that to a mother. My second body gesture and sound was a light laugh and bringing my hand up while nodding my head. My reaction was based off the quick romance that came out of nowhere.

Anon(ymous)

Three questions about the play

  • where does Naja comes from and how does she know that Anon is with Calista?
  • why Anon is telling everyone a different name?
  • where did Pascal came from and what he was doing in the water?

Two body gestures

When  Nemasani began to remove the stitches of the shroud to avoid marrying Mr. Mackus i began to smile.

Another body gestures that inspired me was, when Helen Laius was listening to Nemasani’s story and when she gave her advise on how to overcome her sorrow. Even though Helen was senator’s wife, she was helping Nemasani and told her meditation and yoga are very helpful, i was nodding my head for this part.

Two sounds

I like the way how the play has an transition words for each scene . For example in page 15, ” the ocean transforms into the sewing factory” this shows that the scene is moving from ocean to a sewing factory scene.

Another sound that inspired me was, in page 5 i like the way how he combines the sound of war to the sewing factory.