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

Poetry that paints

"She," by Christopher Gilbert and dedicated to his sister, truly paints a picture of the respect he has for her and her character. The poet talks in such enduring and respectful ways that you can easily see the love that he has for her.

I enjoy poems that are on the longer side and have a narrative style, opposed to the shorter to the point type like "I, too, sing America" by Langston Hughes. Those type of poems don't seem to carry as much emotion to me and therefore can be less effective in communicating the overall message. If Gilbert had made "She" shorter I think it would have taken away from the feeling of love.

For me, reading "She" was like watching this woman in her one moment of peace during her day. Short and quiet, with the "sssh" sound in multiple parts, including "she sits" and  "strikes her skin, shows" helps show the nurturing nature of this woman and his wish not to desturb her, and by his description he is listing reasons why she should be left alone, and given this moment. 

This is not a poem necessarily about race, age, relationship to the person who he is writing about, or even gender or economic condition. It is a poem about love and respect and with that it shows so much.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/239040

So much irony

In chapter 13 of Invisible Man I was struck by the scene where the crowd is beating up the Irish man, called a "Paddie," and what woman with a West Indian accent's reaction was.

Actually that's putting it lightly, I was shocked. Reading it, her words, "Strike him, our fine black men, Protect your black women! Repay the arrogant creature to the third and fourth generation." This line, her speech encouraging violence, hit me so hard because it sounded like the type of argument used by Southern white men as to why they had to use violence against black men. They wanted to rape and harm their women and they needed to protect them, and the only way to do that? Murder them, beat them senseless, and put such strict social guidelines so that the "risk" was minimized.

This is one of the times when I think Ellison is trying to shock us. Trying to use irony and almost wink at us saying "Hey, look at what she's saying. Get it?"


Not only is this an argument used in the South at the time but one we see in Native Son during the manhunt. This and the narrator running along the rooftop is one of the times we most see Ellison nodding toward Wright's work.



The entire chapter has things that are meant to make the narrator angry, the whitening ointment, the eviction of the elderly couple, and the white man hitting the woman. All of this makes him feel a sense of shame and anger yet he stands up and pleads that they are law abiding citizens and so should be allowed to let these people back in to pray. Unfortunately his words don't stop the violence but only seem to insight it.

Dishonest Narrators

Reading books where the narrator goes insane but you aren't realizing it can be incredibly frustrating in my opinion. But with Invisible Man from the beginning we get the result without the cause, which posses the question of how the hell did he get to the point where he is sitting in a tiny room surrounded by blinding light?

For some reason this bothers me less, it feels more honest. I don't know if would like this book as much if it had not featured the prologue. But still, I'm really worried.

I don't know if most people get worried while reading books, but I tend to a lot. I like figuring out puzzles, so when I've figured it out, or at least think I have, I kind of panic. This is something I did with Native Son as well, though that was due to kind of already knowing the plot and just wanting it to stop.

The narrator in this book however, and the book in general, as much as I want to pretend that it will all be ok and the little baby steps he's taking today will turn out into a seemingly logical result of this man sitting in a basement full of light, I kind of doubt it.

 I've tried to read this book as if he is sitting there typing all of it out on some old typewriter or scribbling on whatever paper he can get his hands on. This concept presents a problem for believing what the narrator says. If he truly is sitting there writing all of this out, connecting the different strings and levels of this story, then why on Earth would I trust what he is saying? He would already have gone mad at this point.

 With the vague nature of the first part of the book it is possible that he is distorting many of the facts. Or that time, and the shock treatment, has so damaged his brain that he actually doesn't remember things the way they were but only in this fashion. Having to question so much in this book makes the narrator's nonquestioning manner almost painful to watch.

Also, even though I don't agree with the way he is choosing to use his invisibility, that doesn't discredit his idea. The invisibility is a mask of sorts, possibly one that reflects what the viewer wants to see. The lessons that he has picked up by this point are obvious in the person he has become. He has so taken on an outward sense of invisibility so that he could find himself.

But where does that leave the reader? Maybe you'll go just as insane trying to figure that out. 

Slightly out of order blog posts

So do to writing in notebooks and not actually putting things online I will be writing the next few blog posts backwards. However, I will start my first official blog post with ideas considered in African-American Literature today.

The poem We Wear the Mask by Paul Dunbar discusses the importance of hiding our true feelings from the world and creating what we want them to see despite suffering. In the novel Invisible Man there are two characters that I would distinctly like to talk about in relation to masks, the necessity of them, and our reaction to these characters.

The most obvious character during this point of the book in relation to masks is Dr. Bledso due to his actions in chapters four and six where we see him manipulate situations by controlling his emotions expertly. Dr. Bledso does this to further himself in the world and you can't really argue that it hasn't worked. Dr. Bledso sees his mask as a very important part of his identity, possibly all of his identity, and is dumbfounded when the narrator is shocked by his actions and the narrators willingness to please without the thought of how it could help him.

An interesting character to contrast Dr. Bledso with is Mr. Norton because at least how the narrator sees him it appears that he is not hiding his true emotions. Mr. Norton is not afraid to talk with the narrator about why he donates money to the college, share about his daughter, or show emotion to the story that Trueblood tells him. The reason for this seeming honesty I believe stems from the fact that the narrator is socially below him and that he has established himself and can afford to be seen as weaker. Mr. Norton already has a social positions, solidified by the fact that he is white, and has no more status to gain.

Further evidence that Mr. Norton isn't hiding behind a mask is that he does not question or mistrust the narrator when he takes him to real slums of the area around the college. If he were wearing a mask he might be more skeptical of others because he knows that his own outward actions are not completely honest.

Between these two characters the reason that one can afford to not be deceptive is because of initial social status, especially race. Now that both of the characters are in stable places in their careers there is still a difference because Dr. Bledso must, at least appear, reliant on other people to keep his life's work going.

Due to the poem and these two characters I feel that the lack of a mask is something that people who are securely in a social status and not looking to go up any higher can afford not to have. In relation to this a humorous quote comes to mind about the difference between eccentric people and crazy people, how much money they make.