Song of Solomon Entry 8 - Reflection

Brendan Cosgrove
              In both novels my lens remained relatively similar, dealing with issues of race through time in America.  In both the matter of the treatment of black people in the south is crucial, however the Song of Solomon concerns race more directly

Song of Solomon Entry 7 - Responding and Reflection

         While reading Song of Solomon one thing stuck with me the most, that being Milkman's sense of confusion with his culture and race.  Milkman grew up in a middle class environment and because of that he feels a certain disconnect between himself and other people of his ethnicity.  I feel same way more or less about my race not because of a socio enconomic difference but just as much of a cultural barrier.  I grew with people not of my race and aside from having a Chinese mother there was never much Chinese cultural influence in my childhood. That's what I got out of Song of Solomon.

Song of Solomon Entry 6 - Experts

       Toni Morrison's An Excursion in the Black World raises the idea of the two responses to oppression that black people take.  The first kind is that of the militant.  The idea that the only way to combat oppression and violence is through violence and resistance.  This response is embodied by the character Guitar, who in response to the oppression he has faced creates a black nationalist group known as the Seven Days.  This group pledges to kill a white person for every black man killed. On the other hand, the protagonist, Milkman comes from a more black middle class background and does not share the same views as his friend Guitar.  Morrison draws a connection between these characters and Malcom X and MLK in their differing approaches to their predicament.

Song of Solomon Entry 5 - Close Reading

"'What'd he do it for?' asked Freddie.  "He Knew he was in Mississipi.  What he think he was at Tom Sawyer land?" Song of Solomon Pg. 81

In this quote one of the characters is discussing the murder of Emmett Till after it was announced at the barber shop.  Till was killed or "stomped" to death in Mississippi upon supposedly whistling at a white woman.  The analysis here comes in when Freddie enters the conversation.  While some of the men in the barbershop (all black) respond with anger and outrage as seems appropriate there is another viewpoint present as well.  Freddie seems to instead see the fault as laying with Emmett for not knowing better than to do what he did while in a southern state.  This view is important as it indicates a certain attitude of the time.  The acceptance that a person can be killed not for breaking any rule or law, but for simply stepping out of their place.

Huck Finn Entry #4 - Responding and Reflecting

 Brendan Cosgrove

              Reading Huckleberry Finn through the historical and biographical lens, there was one thing that caught my interest.  Mark Twain intended for his book to be read in quite a different way than how we as highschoolers in 2015 read it.  In his time Twain was practically a liberal visionary in his inclusion and depiction of a black character.  However, today we see none of that and only the racist undertones still present in his writing.  Though hailed as a progressive in his time and for many years after, Twain's view have again been relegated to the racist past.  It makes me wonder whether one day we will look back on the views of today with the same repulsion, and if that were the case, in what way the public view will have. shifted.

Huck Finn Entry 3 - Experts

Huck Finn Entry 3 - Experts

Brendan Cosgrove

The article From Sunup to Sundown gives a more historically grounded look at slavery in Pre-civil war Missouri.  According to the article slaves spent the majority of their lives working and were required to get up at daybreak and work till dusk.  On top of back breaking work, slaves were often subjected to extremely harsh treatment.  While there were laws against the cruel and inhuman treatment of slaves, they were largely ignored as slaveholders felt a need to instill fear in slaves.  Another aspect of the mistreatment of slaves was the psychological devaluation they suffered.  White slaveowners did all they could to champion the idea of black people’s inferiority, contending that “the lowliest white person...was better than the most cultured and intelligent black.”  This attempt had a double purpose.  First, to consign blacks to their place as slaves, convincing them that they were inherently meant to serve.  Second, to dodge the moral and ethical implications of enslaving another person by promoting the image that slaves were “happy inferiors.”  In response to the arguments of abolitionists, slaveowners claimed that work is the natural element of a black man some even claiming that blacks were grateful to be enslaved.  It is this fabricated image of slavery which is most often present in Huckleberry Finn.  Mark Twain refuses to explore the harsh realities of slavery instead choosing to represent Tom as a bumbling oaf often caught napping under trees.

Responding and Reflecting Song of Solomon

Through reading the novel Song of Solomon, I have learned that feminism can be interpreted in many different ways, not just one. Feminism can be when women become stereotypical women and act how society defines a women should act. But, it can also be when a woman who stands up for herself and acts the way she wants to act and is not perfect.  I have also learned from the feminist lens that women should stand up for what they believe and they will be happier, but if they don not stand up for themselves and just do what society makes them do then they will have a unhappy life.

Feminism has appeared in the novel in two different ways. One way that we see feminism in this novel is through the character of Pilate. Pilate is a character who is not the stereotypical women. Pilate dresses that way that she wants to dress, not the way the she is supposed to, or the way that other people want her to dress. She also does want she wants, she lives alone and even though it is illegal she has her own job. Ruth is another character in the novel. Ruth is known as the stereotypical women.  Ruth is a housewife which means, that she is always home, she does not have a job and she has to listen to everything that her husband says. Ruth is also very unhappy with her life because she feels empty and she tries to escape into a fantasy world by having a good relationship with her son and her father.

I think that this novel shows an important message because not only does this novel show woman standing up for themselves, but it also shows that all women are beautiful regardless of their race or skin color. It shows that females should not change their appearance to look similar to someone or to fit the “standard of beauty”. I think feminism is something very important and women should be treated equally as men even in novels. They should have the same amount of characters and not only have women as background characters.