Mama Lola

. Individual, communal, and religious dimensions are inseparable from personal narrative. These three elements are tightly intertwined in the personal narratives: Priya’s Mirror and Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. Priya’s Mirror and Mama Lola are products of the community-centered, open religions and cultures that they live in. Therefore, it shouldn’t be a surprise when you see the intricate mixture of the individual, communal, and religious facets in the lives of the people. In both memoirs, ‘the self’ is determined not only by the perception of the main character in the narrative but also by what the community and the religion of the person says about ‘the self’. Even though these elements are tightly interwoven, you can still see …show more content…
The external and internal value of women is largely placed in their ability to be good wives and mothers. Women should only be in the domain of the house: cleaning, cooking and taking care of any children. Women are expected to say yes to the first man who offers them marriage so that they will no longer be financial burdens on their family. If a woman stands up for herself as an individual and turns down a man, she will often be violently punished, like the women in Priya’s Mirror that are victims of acid burning. Since these women are so badly maimed, they are not allowed to participate in normal society. These women are tucked away, isolated from the community and thus they lose their sense of self. The empowering message of this comic book is that survivors of acid burns can band together and find a safe community. Priya’s Mirror gives acid burn survivors a new kind of communal and individual identity by relying on the power of shared …show more content…
Ever since he was a child, he felt like he was living a double life; one life being in his Jewish religion and family and the other life as an intellectual, wanting to learn the new and innovative discoveries of the social sciences. For most of his life, Heilman had to fake his Jewish faith while being a scholar in sociology. It wasn’t until Heilman started doing his sociological fieldwork on Judaism that the static religion that he grew up in became tangible and relevant to his life.
Samuel Heilman writes near the end of the introduction to his book, The Gate Behind the Wall, “…the holy books that my social science had made me set aside would at last lay claim on me and I’d be touched in ways I could not at the start have imagined.” (28). Heilman had been practicing his religion without truly believing it for thirty to forty years before he finally came to a place of earnest faith. By using his background in sociology, Heilman was able to come to a new and faithful practice of

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Mama Lola

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