Her Stolen Humanity

In Toni Morrison's novel Beloved the reader is constantly reminded of the horrific nature of slavery on the basic human level. Though we all understand this on the broad scale this is truly unique book because it manages gets into the head of characters who have lived through it.

During the first section of the book we see the reaction of Baby Suggs, who having her freedom bought for her by her son, and how she reacts to this new freedom. One of the most startling moments during that chapter is when Baby Suggs feels her own heartbeat and for the first time relates it to herself is an excellent example of this.

Also when her master Mr. Garner calls her by the name Jenny and she does not relate it to herself, and seems to associate no name with herself is such a foreign concept to most readers who's name is directly linked with their sense of self.

Another aspect of life that is so drastically altered by slavery, and easily overlooked, is the family dynamic. Without the stability that freedom offers becoming attached to ones children or your partner can be extremely dangerous because it could have been taken away at any time.

This lack of stability created a need for distancing between children and parents that is very obvious with Sethe's interactions with her mother and how Baby Suggs treated her own children. When Sethe sees Schoolteacher's hat, and her resulting actions, are an example of how without that freedom and the threat of losing it once again, forces her to react in such an unimaginable way. Sethe's actions are even compared to being animalistic when Paul D comments to her that she has two legs not four, and therefore she should have acted in a more human way instead of acting on animal instinct, taking away her humanity once again.

Overall, this novel does an excellent job of showing how inhumane all 'levels'of slavery are due to the lack of freedom and stability that the slaves have.

-AFTRGTRBFAFTR-*

-A First-Time Reader's Guide to Reading Beloved From a First-Time Reader*

*WARNING: This first-time reader has not fully finished this book yet and will, upon ending it, inform you if        this advice is actually useful.*

To read Toni Morrison's novel, Beloved, you have to know that you are setting out on a journey, and not necessarily one that is going to always be light and pleasant or make sense right away. That is not to say that this book isn't great and isn't worth reading it just takes some level of commitment. 

Hints:

1.) Just accept everything the way it is.

-If you spend too much time trying to figure out what the author could maybe sort of mean when you're reading you're going to miss the fact that Morrison is giving you huge hints for later in the book and general base information you need to have.

-It's more fun that way.

2.) Reread the first chapter.

- This chapter didn't make any sense to me when I first started, (probably because I was lacking in such a guide but alas!), so it really helped to reread this chapter with  the different mindset the chapter gives you.

- You pick up more of the very important hints that Morrison is leaving because you can associate them with character you know, not just a new random name. 

3.) If it seems odd or important when you're reading it, it probably is important.

-This goes back to the fact that Morrison loves leaving hints, so trust your gut and just go for what you think is odd or important and keep track of that.

4.) After the first few chapters, make sure you have a good idea of the different styles and thought processes of the different characters.

- This will help you know when new characters are being added or when there is a change in time.

5.) Make a friend read this book too.

- Just do it, bribe them, beg them, sign them up for English classes without their knowledge, whatever it takes because it will make it more enjoyable. 

- Having a friend reading this book at the same time as you will give you someone to bounce ideas off of and to share reactions in general with.

- Friends don't let friends read solo.

6.) Please try to enjoy this book! (Be open-minded)

-If you go into it saying "Gahhhhh another trippy book just give me some hyper realism please!" You most likely aren't going to enjoy it. But if you go, "Oh well hmm this book is rather odd, but for some reason I can't put it down, not yet." you're in better shape.

- Characters are people too, they're flawed. Remember that.

Lack in Leadership

Paul Beatty's book, The White Boy Shuffle, and the PBS documentary "Style Wars" both talked about the gap in leadership among the African American community during the 1980's and 1990's. This is in contrast after the strong periods of leadership during the Civil Rights Movement and when the Black Panthers were extremely active. The documentary and the novel are very interesting when compared together because they show two, in one case possible, responses for this gap in leadership.

In The White Boy Shuffle Gunnar Haufman is more or less forced into a position of leadership and public support. When he was playing basketball many people in his schools know who he is from that and have put him on a pedestal. With his poetry he is also extremely well known, more well known then the reader would realize until he goes to Boston, but he still seems to want to shy away from all of the fame. When finally does come to a position of influence he, through apathy, causes mass suicide of African Americans.

As we see Gunnar growing up there are certain aspects of his life that play off of and contrast with the ways of dancing, music, and art that are portrayed in "Style Wars." In that documentary you see young people in New York City wanting to get their names out into the rest of the city with either their graffiti art, their break dancing, or their music. The graffiti artists at this time referred to themselves as "writers," something Gunnar started identifying himself as once he started playing basketball.

Though Gunnar does follow some of the stereotypical ways that we think of an impoverished inner-city youth could rise out of that situation his distaste for basketball and his gang association conflict with that idea. Another area where Gunnar conflicts is with the ideas set forth in "Style Wars" because where these "writers" are going out and trying to get their name places Gunnar is trying to get his poetry noticed, not necessarily himself. Also, the movie showed dancing as a very important part of inner-city life but Gunnar is completely inept at dancing.Finally and most importantly the fact that Gunnar is writing poetry in the inner-city but does not become a rapper could be surprising to some. Though many do consider rap as a form of poetry that is not the way that Gunnar chooses to express his art.

The fact that Gunnar does differ so much from the stereotypes and what is laid out in "Style Wars" has a large impact on the differences that came between what actually came to fill the leadership role in the African American community in the 1980's and 1990's versus what Gunnar became, and lead, in The White Boy Shuffle.

"song at midnight" by Lucille Clifton

When I recently read "song at midnight" by Lucille Clifton and attempted to look it up online certain things about this poem stuck out and how it was presented bothered me. Though, stylistically, this poem is somewhat different, being completely in lowercase and none of the lines being longer than eight syllables, it is not too outlandish in terms of poetry, but the way that two sections are separate and yet work together to form the whole picture of the poem caught my attention. 

When I began to do research multiple things bothered me including the fact that poem, online at least, is normally broken up into two very distinct sections that are not shown together. Though this poem certainly is easily seen in two distinct sections I saw no reason for this poem to broken up in this fashion and when I looked closer at analyses of this poem I saw that people were analyzing only one part. This seems like an injustice to the poem considering how well the two sections combine and how who is being addressed and the speaker is changes throughout. 

The reasoning for this separation seems to be based on the audience and how in the first section Clifton uses the term brother multiple times, talking to a specifically male audience whereas later in the poem she speaks to you, giving no indication as to who she wants to be reading the poem. This could also relate to the fact that the first section of the poem talks about a maternal figure receiving recognition and love of her body and the second a celebration of the speakers ability to overcome the challenges in her own life. 

Not taking this poem as a whole limits the audience and the message of the poem greatly. Stylistically and message wise this poem is unique, yet fits well into the body of work that Clifton spent much of her life working on. In case you wanted to read the poem in it's entirety it is below, (I hope that's not too illegal),

song at midnight by Lucille Clifton

brothers,
this big woman
carries much sweetness
in the folds of her flesh.
her hair
is white with wonderful.
she is
rounder than the moon
and far more faithful.
brothers,
who will hold her,
who will find her beautifulif you do not?  

won't you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into a kind of life? i had
no model
born in babylon
both non white and woman
what did i see to be except myself?

i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight,
my other hand; come
clebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.

Homosexuality in "The White Boy Shuffle"

In the beginning of Paul Beatty's novel, The White Boy Shuffle, the main character grows up in a extremely male dominated and hetronormative, in many ways, inner city society. In this context the narrator Gunnar Kaufman, must observe how that clashes with some of the obvious contradictions.

In the beginning of the book Gunnar talks about the different colors and what they mean to him and while ending the section about the color black he says that, "Black is the repressed memory of a sandpaper hand rubbing abrasive circles into the small of my back, my back rising and falling in time with the heavy heaving chest." This section talks about the abuse that he suffered at the hands of his father, and this section in particular talks about his father raping him and shoving him into a closet. The normally absent father figure taking away the son's sense of safety and power and by both closeting himself, by not being openly gay, and by actually putting the son who he is raping in the closet, is extremely powerful.

When the music video is being shot Gunnar and his mother have an exchange about homoeroticism that this video, as well as the social setting that Gunnar is interacting in. Gunnar starts to question why his more socially accepted peers talk in such a fashion. I think his mother's comment about the homeroticism in the music video is just pointing out something that can trickle down into younger members of the society's ideas about the difference in being seen as a dominant male and that dominance having to be over "lesser" men.

And when Gunnar begins to hang out with Nicholas Scoby and Scoby is giving him a hard time about his love of poetry Scoby says, "you must either be a poet or a homosexual," and Gunnar replies "Why can't I be both?" This back and forth fits the style that is set forth in this novel where Gunnar is being humorous and a smartass but he is also making a social commentary. In a world where it is completely acceptable to be a basketball player, a gangster, and a poet, where would being a homosexual fit in?

The Native Daughters

In Wright’s Native Son the two main female characters, Mary Dalton and Bessie Mears, are killed Bigger Thomas. Their lives, deaths, and the way that both are seen are used by Wright to help show the divide in the opportunity how these women are valued by the public. In life, Mary was seen as rebel and judged by society for associating with Jan Erlone and the communists, but after her death she is made to be an angelic character to the public. To Bigger, and the audience, she seems unaware that simply because she is a communist racial boundaries still exist, which is evident by her actions in the car when she and Jan request to see where Bigger lives. For instance Mary seems unaware that her enthusiasm causes such distress to Bigger, even to the point where he felt “His entire mind and body were painfully concentrated into a single sharp point of attention,” furthering the idea that she is selfish in her ignorance. However, Bessie lives a life of suffering, though society sees her actions as expected, where she must work long hours and only finds relief from alcohol, which Bigger sees as the main reason for their relationship. Bessie and Bigger’s mutual use of each other, her for alcohol and him for sex and the relationship, shows the distorted limited opportunity that Bessie had to endure. The use of Bessie does not stop after she is raped and killed but is further violated by the court system by being used to make the case against Bigger stronger to gain justice for Mary’s death and the false assumption that she was raped. While in life Mary is seen as a rebel and Bessie as following the social guidelines, once Bigger murders them the preconceived ideas about innocence and the value put on the sexual violation of these two women is clearly different. Overall Wright uses the differences between these two characters to show inequality, not simply cause another problem for the main character.

Racism always following

The Americana bank episode in chapter 15 of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man shows that as the narrator is moving away from his past and going to join the Brotherhood he will still be followed by racist ideas and stereotypes. The scene takes place after the narrator is hired by the Brotherhood as a speaker for Harlem and has to leave his previous name, his family, and Mary behind. After the narrator breaks the bank, representative of the racist stereotype, he wonders why “would Mary have something that he broke it. Her having the bank and his shame at having broken it shows that even if you don’t agree with the stereotype it is still something that these characters have to acknowledged. Once the narrator leaves Mary’s, he tries to discard the bank but when other people see him they immediately impose their own view of who he is and why he is doing this. The reactions he receives are not consistent but simply what people want to see when they look at him, for example one woman sees him as “a southern Negro” (Ellison 328), and man sees him as a “young New York Negro,” (Ellison 330), both scold him for his actions and classify the term has highly negative. This, in addition to the fact that the narrator doesn’t feel like he is either of these stereotypes, provides sharp contrast to the narrator’s forming sense of identity and that even if he can define himself others will still see him as a stereotype. In the end the narrator is unable to get rid or people’s stereotypical view of him and the bank that represents the stereotypes he so hates and must simply put the broken pieces in his briefcase, the one given to him for following the wishes of southern white men.

Works Cited

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. EBook ed. N.o.: Vintage INternational, n.d .EBook