Thoughts about Final Project

For my final project I think I am going to focus on physical disabilities or learning disabilities. My reasoning for researching these types of literature is because I feel it is important for people to be aware of the difficulties of these disabled people. Also, my major is in special education - learning disabilities so I obviously have a passion for helping people with disabilities. There is nothing more satisfying then helping a child learn and making them feel loved for who they are and not always focusing on their physical or intellectual difference. After reading the requirements for the final project I was thinking it would be interesting to search different authors to read about their different views and perspectives on disabilities.

Confessions of a Closet Catholic

The text “Confessions of a Closet Catholic” refers to a young girl striving to find herself and struggling to figure out what exactly she believes in religiously. In order for Jussy to find what exactly she believes in she researches and experiments with different religious than Judaism. She reads about Hinduism and Buddhism as well has practices Catholicism. Her eagerness to be Catholic goes as far as her pouring out her sins to “Father Ted,” her stuffed teddy bear. Jussy does this while wearing her mother’s white napkin on her head to resemble a nun, and taking grape juice and matzo for communion.

My question toward the text was “Do you think the author used “chocolate” as a metaphor to represent Jussy’s search for her religious or self-identify viewpoint throughout the text?” Throughout the novel Sarah Darer Littman made reference to chocolate. I wondered while I was reading if this had any significance toward her religious beliefs or search for self-identity. A passage that I concentrated on was on the first page, page 3, when Jussy is saying she would rather give up being Jewish then chocolate like Mac is doing. Do you think her inability to give up chocolate refers to her borderline feelings about her faith or denote her being uneducated on Judaism and doesn’t really know what she believes? Another example is on page 122-123, when Jussy is explaining how she hasn’t eaten chocolate since Bubbe died and is willing to give it up for the rest of her life. Does this symbolize her growth as a person? Was Bubbe the person that helped her find her self-identity because she listened to her and loved her? Has Bubbe’s death made Jussy realize her true spiritual beliefs? And lastly, look on page 184 when she thinks about resorting back to eating brownies. Does her urge to want brownies symbolize that people always question their beliefs and there isn’t always one clear cut answer? Or does it stand for her not fully have found her self-identity completely and that she is accepting that?