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
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
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.
Final Reflection
Reading the novels, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Song of Solomon through the feminist lense was a really interesting experience. It was really interesting to see that feminism has been around for so long and to see how it has changed throughout time. It was also really interesting to see how the “stereotypical” women has changed throughout the years. Something that I learned with this project, is that women have always been pressured to fit in what society defines as a “perfect” women.
The feminist lenses was pretty similar in both books. The way that it was similar is that in both novels the women in the books had a specific roles to follow and they would try to fit in the standard women category. The specific role that they had to follow was the role of being a role model women, and being a stereotypical women.
One thing that I got from the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, that I probably would have not gotten if I did not read the novel though the feminist lens was why the novel didn't have many female characters, and when they did have one why she was always a background character. If I hadn't been reading his book through the feminist lens I would not have gotten this because I would not have understood why all the women that were in the novel fell in the “stereotypical” women and why their was no main female character. Some of the things that I feel like I missed from the novels as a result of focusing on my lens would have to be how different people were treated based on their race. I feel like race was a big issue in both novels, but I was not able to get a lot of information on race because I was focusing on how feminism was being used in the books.
Some of the benefits of using a critical lens is that you get to focus on a specific viewpoint of the book. Being able to focus on a lens helps you understand better the book because you can go more in depth on why things happen through your lens. You can also research your lens and find out the history of it and see how it has been changing over time. Some of the downsides of using a critical lens are that you do have to focus only on one lens, so its harder to be able to read the novel through a different point of view.
Critical Lens Expert, Song of Solomon
In the article, “Why don’t he like my hair?”, the author Bertram D. Ashe talks about how women in the novel, Song of Solomon, care a lot about their physical appearances--especially, Black women care a lot about their physical appearance because they want to be able to fit in the “White standard of beauty” (Ashe 179).
Not all Black women want to change their physical appearances to fit the image of the ‘perfect’ woman. In the novel, Song of Solomon, Hagar is black female who tries to change her physical appearance so she can be “more desirable” to her husband (Ashe 179). Hagar tries to change her hair, so that it can be “silky copper colored hair” (Ashe 179). Hagar wants her hair to be different so that she can fit under the category of the “white standard of beauty” (Ashe 179). Pilate Dead is another character in the novel. She is very different than Hagar. Pilate Dead does not care if she represents the “White standard of beauty” (Ashe 179). Hagar always has her hair “closely cropped” she does this because this represents nature or natural beauty (Ashe 179) . Having her hair closely cropped represents nature because her physical appearance is a natural appearance since she is not doing anything to her hair to look different.
While reading Song of Solomon, the standard of female beauty was also strongly imposed through their attire. Women could not dress or act the way that they wanted; they have to dress and act in a certain way. When Macon asks Pilate, “Why can’t you dress like a woman?” (Morrison 45) it's interpreting how Pilate is not dressed as how a woman should be dressed. “Don’t you have stockings? What are you trying to make me look like in this town?” (Morrison 45) Macon is more worried about what other people might say when they see the way Pilate is dressed rather than how Pilate is. Stockings represented something that is very feminist while a sailors hat is more masculine. This is why Macon yells at Pilate for wearing a sailors hat.
Reading the novel Song of Solomon and the article “Why don’t he like my hair?” I learned that Black women hair grows very differently from White women hair. So, Black women do stuff to their hair so that they can change the way it looks to look more like White women hair. They do this because they want to be able to fit in the White standard of beauty.
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Song of Solomon Critical Lens Experts: Racial/ Cultural Lens
Harry Reed’ s Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon and Black Cultural Nationalism insist in how the past can be used to fuel the future. He explains that in the black culture the past of slavery to fuel them to success and to really push themselves to be better in their own ways. I agree with this statement that things from one's past should be used to help them get motivated to do better in the future. Some examples that show this through Song of Solomon that the character of Circe saying that she had used the past of slavery to blacks as a way to be pushed to survive as a black woman. I Think I really support this in that the past can help you to get far in the future because I know that there have been a few times in my life that I have thought of the last of my family like in education they didn't finish high school and when I was in high school I had been really motivated to finish high school because I know that my parents didn't do that so I want to finish and I am. Lessons that we can learn from Harry Reed is that by using the past of either of your racial history or your family history it can be used in many ways to help you be successful in the future like for Circe it was to have the survival power to be able to survive as a black women in a society that looked down in them or for me in having to look at the struggle or challenges that my parents or past relatives had gone through to be able to push myself to be better in what they had did and to set an example to others around me to be successful in life.
Friday, May 1, 2015
Final Project Reflection
When I first heard the project was going to be a blog, I remember being confused on how it was going to work, or if it would work at all. We were reading two books, but we were looking at each one separately and doing most of the blog entries only talking about one of the books. While doing blog entries was much more interesting than I was expecting, I still don’t think it was executed as well as it could have. I believe it would have been better to have more comparisons between the books, otherwise I wish I could have gone more in depth with one novel, and have blog entries on things like analysis of a character or comparisons to media representation if there was a movie version of the book or something like that.
However, one thing that I really did enjoy was looking at the novels though a lens. I originally started with psychoanalytical and historical, but in the end it turned into mostly psychoanalytical. I wish I had been better about using both lenses together, but I struggled and ended up dropping the second one. I thought it was really good to use a lens because it was harder to get too overwhelmed by all the information. It’s easy to have so much information you are trying to take in, that you don’t end up taking in any and can’t comprehend everything. On the other hand, it makes your analysis a bit narrow-minded. I would talk to people who had a different lens about a certain passage, and we would have vastly different opinions on it, just because we didn’t analyze it from the other’s lens. It also was the reason some obvious happenings would be missed because I was focusing so much on my lens, that I didn’t notice anything else.
Final Project Reflection
Final Project and Lens Reflection
This was a very tedious, dull, and frustrating project. About 3 quarters of the way through the only thing I felt was to get this done. The only evident presence in both of the novels was Song of Solomon, where it was made clear that the degradation of blacks put them in the lower class of american society, that because of their ethnicity, they weren’t able to advance up the social ladder for higher pay and get the lifestyle they so desperately craved. The Adventures of Huck Finn didn’t contain as much Marxism as I thought, it seemed that Twain was pushing it to the side. I only managed to interpret it through the interactions with Huck and Jim, with society seeing Jim as dead weight, and only someone to work the fields. Song of Solomon, however; had more than enough Marxism presence. As Milkman copes with his situation and deals with the many heartbreaks he committed and understands there’s more to life than his dull life than just the money, he undergoes transformations that make him more of his influence and morals are now instilled in his financial attitude. But aside from hard analyzation of these blogs and the agitation it caused me, I think these novels were half and half situations, both of them being boring as heck but still kept me reading. Normally this happens with all books the school assigns me to read. Unless it’s something I consider interesting, which only happens when I am at least a chapter or two into the story. These stories were likewise. The benefits of using a lens in real life could come when you are seeking a job. This might be a skill that many others do not share or use. But there is no further practical use as to what I have so far listed. My beliefs have certainly not changed at all, but I found it a very useful tool to use during this project. This project was helpful in discovering where any critical lens are present, but I leave this personal advice: don’t use a project like this again next year.
Song of Solomon Reflection and Response
While Song of Solomon as a whole was fantastic, what really caught my attention and has stuck with me was the ambiguous ending. At the end of most novels about finding one’s self, it ends with the character setting off into their world a changed person, or having died trying. Basically, a very clear path for the future, or none at all. However, Toni Morrison decided not to follow that common route. Instead, after Milkman found himself, one of the most important people in his life died and he was faced with a dilemma that forced readers to question what happened. Even more than that, readers were forced to question what finding himself really did to Milkman.
Before Milkman found himself, he was an extremely materialistic, emotionally stunted person, who put a lot of effort and focus on what he wanted, which kind of reminds me of the Freud's ego. However, after he found himself, while he started to understand his emotions, Milkman also seemed to become much more impulsive, which reminds me more of Freud’s id. Stereotypically, it is more desirable to for the ego to be in control of one’s conscience, and the id is associated with childish behavior and immaturity. None of this really came to mind until I read the last few lines of the novel.
“Without wiping away the tears, taking a deep breath, or even bending his knees- [Milkman] leaped. As fleet and bright as a lodestar he wheeled toward Guitar and it did not matter which one of them would give up his ghost in killing arms of his brother. For now he knew what Shalimar knew: If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.”
The impulsivity that Milkman showed was new and one that definitely identified with the id. This made me question Morrison’s thoughts on what society should value in a person and what she believes a person should be. It seemed that she wanted to emphasize the idea that having too many emotions and acting on irrationally on them is better than acting emotionless in most aspects of life. It’s interesting because society tells us now, and during her time, that keeping your mouth shut and going with the flow of what happens is the best thing to do, and emotionally rash decisions are going to get people hurt. I believe that Morrison used the ambiguous ending to tell her readers that finding yourself may mean letting go of control and the willingness to get hurt or even die, so long as it means being your true identity.
Final Project and Lens Reflection: RACIAL/CULTURAL LENS
As I was reading Huckleberry Finn and Song of Solomon things that I had learned between the two is the racial/ cultural issues that were in place during two different time periods but both had the issues of discrimination of the black community. They had both shown me different perspective in the way that black in america for Huckleberry Finn written a couple of years after slavery had ended and then the lives of blacks nearly a century after slavery ended. The difference between the two are the amount of racism like in Huckleberry Finn there was more racism than in Song of Solomon which it seemed that there was discrimination between the classes within the black community. In Huckleberry Finn it seemed that blacks would get more inequality of treatment from the american with the use of the n word that had been used many times by the character in the book as a negative term to put down the black community. The difference between Huckleberry Finn and Song of Solomon is that in Song of Solomon it seemed as if there was less,of what I had read,of a split between black and white just what I had seen was from the hospital of not admitting black but had changed when Smith's daughter was going into labor. There was split that had seemed to be within the black community that he has seen in the first two chapters when the Dead family was going around town and seemed to discriminate blacks with the amount of money they had a the things that they could afford. For example the Dead family seemed to be in a higher class of blacks in town rather than Guitar who was in the lowest class and had struggles with poverty through his life.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Critical Lens Close Reading, Song of Solomon
When she closed the door behind her afternoon guests, and let the quiet smile die from her lips, she began the preparation of food her husband found impossible to eat. She did not try to make her meals nauseating; she simply didn’t know how not to. She would notice that the sunshine cake was too haggled to put before him and decide on a rennet dessert. But the grinding of the veal and beef for a meat loaf took so long she not only forgot the pork, settling for bacon drippings poured over the meat, she had no time to make a dessert at all. Hurriedly, then, she began to set the table. As she unfolded the white linen and let it billow over the fine mahogany table, she would look once more at the large water mark. She never set the table or passed through the dining room without looking at it. Like a lighthouse keeper drawn to his window to gaze once again at the sea, or a prisoner automatically searching out the sun as he steps into the yard for his hour of exercise, Ruth looked for the water mark several times during the day. Sheknew it was there, would always be there, but she needed to confirm its presence. Like the keeper of the lighthouse and the prisoner, she regarded it as a mooring, a checkpoint, some stable visual object that assured her that the world was still there; that this was life and not a dream. That she was alive somewhere, inside, which she acknowledged to be true only because a thing she knew intimately was out there, outside herself.
In this passage Ruth talks about how she is a stereotypical woman in the 1960’s. Ruth talks about how she is a housewife and in order for her to feel like she is still alive she has to constantly look at a “water mark” on the table several times a day. She has to look at this water mark as a “checkpoint” to make sure her “world was still there” and that she is living real life and not just a dream.
Under the Feminist lens, it is analyzed how women serve as stereotypical figures such as housewives. Ruth, in this scene, is a prisoner in her own home. The water mark not only represents Ruth being a prisoner, but it also reminds her of the happy moments she used to have before she got married, while it also symbolizes the fear she has of her husband.
In this novel the water mark symbolizes many things. It symbolizes happiness, fear and being a prisoner. The water mark symbolizes happiness because before Ruth got married and she still lived with her dad, they had a vase in the middle of the table, where the water mark is. The vase was always filled with flowers because Ruth’s dad liked to have the house decorated and he thought the house looked nicer with flowers. The water mark also symbolizes the fear that Ruth has of her husband. This symbolizes fear because when Ruth had just gotten married with her husband, and the vase was always filled with flowers her husband threw the vase because he did not like the flowers. This caused Ruth to be scared of her husband and it also created the water mark. Lastly, the water mark symbolizes being imprisoned. This is because Ruth always tries to clean the water mark, she tries to take it off but she fails everytime. The water mark is stuck in the table, just how she is stuck in her house and can get out. Ruth is so depressed and unhappy with her life that she is constantly reminding herself that she is still alive. Looking at the water mark also helps her, because she is looking at a physical object so it reminds her that she is still there.
Through the feminist lence we can see how women in the 1960’s who were stereotypical women, suffered a lot. Most women would suffer a lot because they would have no say in what they wanted. They would just have to stay quiet and do what was “right” for their family.
Marxist Lens: Responding and Reflecting
Song of Solomon
Marxist Lens
This honestly wasn’t a very engaging story as I thought it to be, despite that I did finish the story. I’ve read this sort of plot so many times that it fell on me as a bore. This reminded me of Tuesdays with Morrie, if you’ve ever read it. The character has a late blooming personality and not very social with others, breaking all relationships he had. Along comes Morrie Schwartz, one of his old teachers from high school and takes the protagonist on a spiritual journey to find himself before he passes becauses he is diagnosed with cancer and only has a month to live. Milkman’s situation isn’t as dire and desperate, but he has to break through many social barriers; including the women’s evaluation of him and the still evident presence of discrimination before he finally regains what he thoughtlessly wasted.
Morrison did find a interesting idea in coming up with an apathetic African American who knows nothing but getting gain; inheriting it from his father as indicated in the book. Usually I’ve seen old/rich white men take that spotlight, but this was very taken aback that a rich black man; a most unusual choice for placing apathy upon would display such animosity towards his life and other’s lives. I didn’t understand why Morrison would choose such a character until I looked her up and discovered that she was a black women. I figured that she had the right to pour her soul and relate into this created character since her people have a history being heavily oppressed for many centuries. But when I read about Milkman being indifferent instead of being a humble man that I thought he would, I was disappointed because that’s also what the many black people I met were known for. But tying into the Marxist Lens, it was a flip-the-script idea because it made me imagine what america would’ve been if blacks and people like Milkman were among the higher class and the other majorities in the lower. Moving up the social ladder does change a person because of the many assets that come with it, but it is all decided with their will and personality in the end and how they choose to stay stable.
SONG OF SOLOMON RESPONDING AND REFLECTING: RACIAL /CULTURAL LENS
The abolishing of slavery in the United States had been put into place in the late 1800's but there were still some cases of discrimination with people of color like in Song of Solomon when there was a hospital at the beginning of the book we got to hear about mercy hospital or “No Mercy Hospital” which is known by the residents for not admitting blacks but had changed when Robert Smith, an insurance agent, had jumped of the building at the same time his daughter was pregnant and going into labor and became the hospital's first black patient. The name of the hospital known to the locals by “No Mercy hospital” can give an explanation to maybe why there has never been a black patient admitted until Robert Smith's daughter because before they would refuse the service to people of color showing them no mercy. Resulting in the discrimination of colored people in Michigan.
Then while the Dead family is on a trip around town Lena which is Ruth Fosters daughter, Robert Smith's daughter, responses to the comment made by Macon saying that he would want to create a property that colored people can afford and live in saying later there will be people of color sooner or later that will be able to afford the houses. Lena then responds to that saying hopefully there will be enough people of color and that hopefully that there will be enough nice one that live in them. As I was reading is seemed that they were different types of classes between the blacks there was those that were more privileged like the Dead family which had nice cars that made everyone seem jealous of what they had then there were those that were in poverty and weren't as privileged as the Dead family. It seems that in the different races there was different classes and people were put into different classes depending on the money you had. I think Lena considers people in the higher class to be nice because they may not have to struggles to find food or anything they need to survive and they can just get it with money.
Song of Solomon Experts
In The Quest For and Discovery of Identity in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon by Valerie Smith, she speaks of Milkman’s journey through the novel. It starts with him searching for money and in the end, he has a new sense of identity that opens his eyes to his true self. However, how he came to finally discover his true self is not clear, and she makes several different arguments for it.
While Smith talks about all the different things Milkman did to come to his true identity, she still claims, “Milkman’s discovery of his identity lies not so much in his connection with the earth or in his ability to understand his own past; these accomplishments only attend his greater achievement - learning to complete, to understand, and to sing his family song. Milkman comes to know fully who he is when he can supply the lyrics to the song Pilate has only partially known,” (Smith 40). In the both the beginning and the end of the novel, a song is sung. In the first instance, Pilate is singing it right before Milkman is born. In the second, Milkman returns the favor as Pilate loses a fatal amount of blood, right before dying. Though Milkman has heard Pilate sing the song many times over his lifetime, the fact that “he [could] supply the lyrics to the song Pilate has only partially known,” can guide the belief that Milkman had a truer understanding of his past than his aunt, and thus, will have a stronger sense of self and identity.
Monday, April 27, 2015
Song of Solomon close reading: Racial/Cultural lens
“Who’s going to live in them? There’s no colored people who can afford to have two houses,” Lena said. “Reverend Coles can, and Dr. Singleton,” Corinthians corrected her. “And that lawyer—what’s his name?” Ruth looked around at Corinthians, who ignored her. “And Mary, I suppose.” Lena laughed. Corinthians stared coldly at her sister. “Daddy wouldn't sell property to a barmaid. Daddy, would you let us live next to a barmaid?” “She owns that place, Corinthians,” Ruth said. “I don’t care what she owns. I care about what she is. Daddy?” Corinthians leaned toward her father for confirmation. “You’re going too fast, Macon.” Ruth pressed the toe of her shoe against the floorboard. “If you say one more thing to me about the way I drive, you’re going to walk back home. I mean it.” Magdalene called Lena sat forward and put her hand on her mother’s shoulder. Ruth was quiet. The little boy kicked his feet against the underside of the dashboard. “Stop that!” Macon told him. “I have to go to the bathroom,” said his son. Corinthians held her head. “Oh, Lord.” “But you went before we left,” said Ruth. “I have to go!”He was beginning to whine. “Are you sure?” his mother asked him. He looked at her. “I guess we better stop,” Ruth said to nobody in particular. Her eyes grazed the countryside they were entering. Macon didn't alter his speed. “Are we going to have a summer place, or are you just selling property?” “I’m not selling anything. I’m thinking of buying and then renting,” Macon answered her. “But are we—” “I have to go,” said the little boy. “—going to live there too?” “Maybe.” “By ourselves? Who else?” Corinthians was very interested. “I can’t tell you that. But in a few years—five or ten—a whole lot of coloreds will have enough to afford it. A whole lot. Take my word for it.” Magdalene called Lena took a deep breath. “Up ahead you could pull over, Daddy. He might mess up the seat.” Macon glanced at her in the mirror and slowed down. “Who’s going to take him?” Ruth fiddled with the door handle. “Not you,” Macon said to her. Ruth looked at her husband. She parted her lips but didn't say anything. “Not me,” said Corinthians. “I have on high heels.” “Come on,” Lena sighed. They left the car, little boy and big sister, and disappeared into the trees that reared up off the shoulder of the road. “You really think there’ll be enough colored people—I mean nice colored people—in this city to live there? (Morrison 65-68)
In the beginning of chapter two the Dead family is out and they are visiting homes that they own and are sharing their plans for the use of the land and who it should be sold to. As the family start to talk about the future plans of the land Lena says “There’s no colored people who can afford to have two houses,” this might be because of money problems as they continue they bring up possible names that can afford two house and they all seem to have one thing in common education. To the father in the Dead family he thinks the only people that can afford to buy the land are people that have the education which leads to most of the time having a good job that brings money to the table to be able to buy houses and other necessities. Then Corinthians ask her father whether he would sell the property to a barmaid saying that she owns other places and the father responses with “I don’t care what she owns. I care about what she is.” This isn't a racial profiling like saying that colored people couldn't afford to have two house but it is still a type of discrimination of what kind of job that they have can affect whether the barmaid had really wanted to get the property her job would affect if she were to get it or not which may be seen to the father that if he were to sell it to her would she be able to pay for it on time.
When Lena and her brother go out the car Lena ask her brother “You really think there’ll be enough colored people—I mean nice colored people—in this city to live there?” After Macon say that he wants to invest on land that will be able to be affordable for people of colored Lena say that hopefully there will be enough colored people that are nice to get a house or own property. This can be an example of how people discriminate against people of color in thinking that all in this case are mean because of maybe an event that made people of color all seem mean not giving other the chance to show themselves and put away the stereotypes that exist.
Critical Lens Expert: Marxist lens #2
Song of Solomon
Marxist Lens
A Marxist perspective review by Doreatha Drummond Mbalia; a professor from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee specializing in the Africology studies there, interprets Song of Solomon as another common starting point for any African American wishing to change the structure of today’s social class. This is obviously true to fact, as there has been a definite history of racial tension when the black people are brought up. As we all know, blacks have been a commonly used example when describing situations of race or class because of the ongoing mistreatment in both the north and especially the south. But while race does play a role in the story, class is the main focus because both tie into each other and also because Mbalia compliments Morrison and the story by this quote: “She is more aware of the role capitalism plays in the African’s exploitation and oppression”.
Considering Milkman Dead’s lifestyle, his job, and the ways he makes money for himself Mbalia quotes “ As his nickname suggests, he milks women, pilfering their love and giving them nothing in return”. Generally this means that he views females as nothing more than tools. This is of course a mindset for any corrupt tycoon who seeks to make money in the poverty of others. Mbalia quotes further that: “He loves her solely as a receptacle in which to empty his lust”. Besides possessing dark interests that have lead many to their downfall, it is my thought that he seeks out the females as quick money as well. It is understandable, since it is said he has lived a sheltered life and has little understanding of the moral ethics of business. This is what makes Milkman’s transition from an apathetic man to a more wiser one quite a challenge. For a man who has been studying the finances that have economically upgraded him to a high middle class worker and elevated his status as to a respected person in a financial sense to one that now has a moral code is difficult because they simply don’t mix. The financial area is a cold business, and you have to be the firmest there is, but Milkman is the first one who pulls it off at the end, henceforth proving that a position of power can corrupt one’s moral sense if held too long, but with proper help and tutelage you can be able to stay sable and perform tasks with reason and sense.
Song of Solomon Close Reading
““You don’t like nothing sweet?”
“Fruit, but nothing with sugar. Candy, cake, stuff like that. I don't even like to smell it. Makes me want to throw up.”
Milkman searched for a physical cause. He wasn't sure he trusted anybody who didn’t like sweets. “You must have sugar diabetes.”
“You don’t get sugar diabetes from not eating sugar. You get it from eating too much sugar.”
“Then what is it, then?”
“Then what is it, then?”
“I don’t know. It makes me think of dead people. And white people. And I start to puke.”
“Dead people?”
“Yeah. And white people.”
“I don’t get it.”
Guitar said nothing, so Milkman continued, “How long you been like that?”
“Since I was little. Since my father got sliced up in a sawmill and his boss came by and gave us kids some candy. Divinity. A big sack of divinity. His wife made it special for us. It’s sweet, divinity is. Sweeter than syrup. Real sweet. Sweeter than…”” (Morrison, 61)
Although this passage seems like a simple conversation about sweets between two children, this is possibly one of the most telling passages that marks the differences between Milkman and his best friend, Guitar. Here, Milkman is questioning Guitar on why eating sweets makes him feel sick. The way the conversation goes and the specific things each one says shows a hard to see psychological depth to each character.
This conversation starts between the two characters with Guitar telling Milkman that he does not eat any sweets because it make him sick, such as “candy, cake, stuff like that.” The idea of disliking sweets confuses Milkman so much that “he wasn’t sure he trusted anybody who didn’t like sugar.” While this doesn’t seem like much more than a passive thought that only came from shock, it actually speaks to the development of his psyche. That he is unsure if he “trusted anybody” based on one small choice, leads the belief that Milkman is being lead by his id, especially because the thought was so rash. The fact that the mistrust is based on the dislike of “sweets” reveals that Milkman is still very childlike in nature. Most rational people would not base their trust of someone on a simple like or dislike, especially not a matter of literal taste. However, children are often known for their love of sweets, and even more, their quick, not completely thought through judgements, such as Milkman’s. While Milman is about twelve at the time of this conversation, and the maturity in judgement is not completely necessary at that age, it still shows how Milkman does not seem to be rushed into growing up, which leads to the next part of the passage.
Friday, April 17, 2015
Responding and Reflecting
In the text The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, females and males are both presented, but they are presented very differently. The genders in the novel are presented in a specific way. Both males and females have very different roles in society. The females in the novel are usually presented as small characters, meaning that they are characters in the background. Women in the text are usually seen as the role models, because they would teach the younger, and in order for them to learn from them they had to be seen as a “good” person. White males in the novel were seen as more educated men and they also had more power over everything. While black men in the text were suppressed, everyone looked down on them because they were uneducated and most of the black males were slaves at that time.
Males are the gender that holds the power in this novel. Males have complete control over their actions. Even though the white males are seen higher then black males, black males, who are slaves, are still “free” to decide where they want to go as long as their hiding. But, females do not have the power over this decision. In the novel when Sophia decides to have control over her actions and decided to leave with one of the Shepherdson boys, her brothers go looking for her and they end up fighting them which lead to death. This shows how females in the nineteenth century didn't have the power to decided for themselves.
I believe that women are seen as stereotypical women. Women should not be seen less than men. Women should be treated equally even in books. Its frustrating to see that even the “slaves” at that time had more “freedom” than what women did. The slaves were able to have “freedom” to do whatever they wanted as long as they were hiding from the whites, but the women did not have the freedom to decided what they wanted to do or even who they wanted to live with. I feel that women should not have “specific” roles in novels or in real life. Women should have the same right that men have.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Close Reading: Marxist Lens #2
Song of Solomon
Marxist Lens
“When Mrs Brains closed the door, Macon Dead went back to the pages of his account book, running his fingertips over the figures and thinking with the unoccupied part of his mind about the first time he called on Ruth Foster’s father. He had only two keys in his pocket then, and if he had let people like the women who just left have their way, he wouldn’t have had any keys at all. It was because of those keys that he could dare to walk over to that part of Not Doctor Street and approach the most important Negro in the city. To lift the lion paw’s knocker, to entertain the thoughts of marrying the doctors daughter was possible because each key represented a house which he owned at the time” (Morrison 22).
Here in this quote is Morrison expressing Macon’s profound ability to make powerful friends and the ability to make money most people like him wouldn’t be able to, in a general overview of course. But the focus here is how I thought the “keys”, as Macon described them; were resemblant to that of “doors of chance” and such, which I will explain later in the entry. But that comparison is very revealing of Marxism through the wealth that is evident and the how the words are placed to make it seem a very prominent position that he’s in.
Starting at the phrase “He only had two keys in his pocket then” immediately made me think of the keys as the way to open the doors to opportunity. For all of us, things such as financial assets are a much needed necessity in anybody’s life. Macon’s already got it all cut out for him. He’s in suitable position for living a lifestyle that he wants, as realty estate was and still is a big paying job. I suspect that Macon’s looking for bigger luck/wealth by approaching “The most important Nego in the city” as he calls him. Basically, it’s my belief he’s probably looking for continuous upgrades in the social ladder to better his family’s life, even though there is no common clash between the upper and lower classes recognized yet (sidenote). Also, the phrase “To entertain the thoughts of marrying the doctor’s daughter was possible because each key represented a house which owned at the time” meant that should he marry Ruth, then he could gain access into a powerful family’s assets and open doors for him to climb higher up the social ladder. This hunger for wealth and respect is what generally drives all oppressed people to forever look for windows that present fortune for them and their family. This section represents an insight of what Macon, the family patriarch is wanting for his clan.
Critical Lens Close Reading
“Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful. Why, looky here. There was a free n-gger there, from Ohio; a mulatter, most as white as a white man. He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest; and there ain’t a man in that town that’s got as fine clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a silver-headed cane - the awfulest old gray-headed nabob in the State. And what do you think? they said he was a p’fessor in a college, and could talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything. And that ain’t the wust. They said he could vote, when he was at home. Well, that let me out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to?”
During one of his drunken tirades, Huck’s father turns his attention to politics and the state of the government. At the time of the book in 1845, the treatment of blacks was drastically different depending on if you were in a northern or southern state. Pap, being a traditional white southerner is outraged to see a black man in a position of relative power. Twain’s characterization of Huck’s father is especially telling of the massive contrast in how blacks were treated at the time. Specifically, Pap calls the man “white as a white man” when describing his fine clothes and education. By describing the man’s tokens of success as white, Huck’s father makes the important implication that success is an exclusively white trait. Huck’s father also pays specific attention to the black man’s level of education, appalled that he is a “p’fessor in a college” and able to “talk all kinds of languages.” Part of Pap’s reaction clearly stems from his own complete lack of education and consequent need to cling to feelings of superiority. Although Huck’s father is a fictional character created by Mark Twain, the attitudes that he represents strongly correspond to attitudes in the south during the period of history in which the book was set. As black people in the north continually gained more rights, white southerners felt increasingly resentful.
Monday, April 13, 2015
Critical Lens Expert
In the article, The Controversy Over Gender and Sexuality, the author, Nancy A. Walker argues that women are used as stereotypes in the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In addition, she asserts that these stereotypes oppress women in the text. In this article we get to see how women are seen in society and how all the women in the novel fall under the typical female stereotype in the nineteenth-century.
The stereotypes that Walker points out are that women are in the background of the text; they are not central characters. They usually are maids, crying in the background, or they are role models of what women should be in society. Specifically, they are portrayed as “honest, compassionate, and with a sense of duty” (Walker 488). Walker concludes that women are looked at lower than men in the text because of their stereotypical portrayal. In the end, the text shows “society’s efforts to oppress” women (Twain 489). Women are also seen as “nagging moralists” (Walker 488).
The reader can see that Walker’s interpretation are true in Huckleberry Finn because women are seen less than what men are and they are treated unequally. Throughout the novel we see that their are not many female characters, and when we do come across a female character they only have a small part. We are also not able to see a woman's perspective in the novel. Whenever a female character is being described we just get to see the way that a male character is describing her. We do not get to see a females point of view or desires because we are usually seeing this through a males point of view. They are also seen as the “virgin” in the text meaning that they are pure honest women. They also fit the “good” character which means that they are dependent, caring, selfness, and good role models. I do think that what the author Nancy argues is correct because all the female characters in the novel fall under that women typical stereotype, they are all considered “good” women, and they want to go to the “good”.
Racial/Cultural Lens: Lens Expert
Julius Lester’s article, “Morality and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is an analysis of Huckleberry Finn through the views of the Racial and Cultural Lens. Lester ha shared some of his experiences with racial inequalities himself. As this is relevant to Huckleberry Finn which deals with racial problems and being treated unequally to others we can receive a different view on Twain's decisions to compare Huck and Jim being enslaved and the role of that Jim and Huck play in Huckleberry Finn.
Lester criticizes Twain’s comparison in the enslavement of Jim and Huck. Lester explains that Huck being enslaved by his drunken father and being locked up in a room for a long time compared to Jim's enslavement of being owned and the property of another person isn't the same. Lester says that Twain tries to cover the real horror in slavery although being held captive by a drunken father isn't the same as being the property of another human being showing that Twain did not take slavery and black people seriously. In agreement to Lester's that slavery wasn't taken seriously with comparing it to a boy that had the ability to leave that compared to a slave that wasn't able to leave slavery is something that is different but they had the same wishes of reaching their freedom which for Jim was slavery and for Huck being free from his father and starting over.
Lester also describes Twain's portrayal of Jim in the novel. In the novel Twain describes Jim, according to Lester, as being childlike instead of being a grown man with children. Twain plays around with black reality when Jim had escaped and fleeing deeper in the slave country rather than to free states. In contrary when Jim is sold Huck and Tom, in their plan to free Jim, Tom get shot and Jim comes out of hiding knowing he will be recaptured in trying to help Tom. Which is why I disagree with Lester that Jim is childlike because he was able to give his freedom away in trying to help a friend survive.
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