A. On the "Edge" --
society's lower edge: class/race, edge of oppression/violence; edge of
social/psychic normality ; * end of chapter 1
I. The positions of
the underclass:
Connie's racial and class background:
- Chicano: from a village near Namiquipas, Los Calcinados to
El Paso in Texas, to Chicago, and then to NY; 45
- on social welfare; no money for presents 48;
- the social-pigeonholing institution:
-- Connie's three husbands: Martin murdered by the
police in the streets; Claud killed in the jail Claud pp. 26-27
; Eddie a womanizer and wife-abuser
-- Connie's bosses: Prof. Everett Silvester p. 50; Mrs. Polcari
35;
-- Connie being pigeonholed: "human-to-cockroach look"
26; experts condemning Connie 60; at Ward L6: 91;
Connie vs. Mrs. Polcari -- p. 34
- her memories of Claud pp. 108; p. 242;
- her only experience of pride 242; her being on social welfare
253-54
- her memories of Marin pp. 214; 242-43; of eating dog food with
Angie p.
Dolly a white pimp, pretending to be Italian or Spanish 210;
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II. Gender and familial relations in the
past and present "families"
- "His" violence: Connie's husbands: Martin; Eddie 43-44;
Geraldo pp. 12; G and the other men 14-15;
- Professor Silvester p. 50 --> the anger of the weak
- Luis: many wives 48; Luis wants to be like Anglo 363;
- Claud 26-27; 109; 112-13;
- submission to childbirth: Connie's mother: p. 45; Teresa 47-48<->
Connie p. 46;
- mother-daughter:
- Connie nevered been "mothered enough"; p. 47
- Angelina: p. 61 -
- Dolly:
- a vicious circle for women in the lower classes p. 280
- women's roles in biological reproduction --Connie--her mother dies
the year she gets her first abortion;
- hysterectomy -- her mother and Connie ("they had taken out
her womb at Metropolitan when she had come in bleeding after that
abortion and the beating from Eddie. Unnecessarily they had done
a complete hysterectomy because the residents wanted practice"
(38).
- experiment: Inez (cannot tell the difference between a doctor
and a scientist) 274;
Like my sister Inez, she lives in New Mexico. . . she has seven kids.
After the sixth, she went to the clinic for the pill... See, she thought
she went to a doctor. But he had his scientist cap on and he was experimenting.
She thought it was good she got the pill free. But they gave her a
sugar pill instead. So, she got heavy again with the seventh child.
It was born with something wrong ... Now they have all that worry
and money troubles. They're supposed to give him pills and send him
to a special school, but it costs. All because Inez thought she had
a doctor, but she got a scientist. ( 268-269)
- What should or can the social workers do? (e.g. Salaam Bombay)
III. Connie's personality:
- rebellious; run away 14; does not want to be like her mother with
so many children;
- lonely, accompanied by her TV.
- suffered from Claud's death;
- her will to survive: 24;
- Connie's sense of the city and space:
- the city: "bellied out to her"; people meeting and coupling 49;
IV. Social system of surveillance:
A. Education p. 107 - 108 // regulation like a mental institution
B. police and social workers: pigeon-holing--restricting(p.
17) , condemning and imprisoning
- caseworker: Mrs. Polcari p. 40; social worker Ms Fergusson: 25-26
("human-to-cockcroach look")
B. The medical field and the mental hospital: (psychotropic medications,
electric shock therapy, and brain surgery)
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