Extra Credit---Drown by Junot Diaz

Drown

I thought right from the start that this story was going to be interesting, it hooked me right from the start. There is stuff going on throughout the story, such as shoplifting, drug dealing, abandonment, lack of self confidence and homosexuality. I felt an attachment to the main character, Junot? I don't think they ever mention a name. His dad seems to like to abuse him and his mother, she seems mentally broken down and beaten emotionally. I am choosing to focus on homosexuality because I sense that lies at the root of Junot and Beto's issues.

His focus seems to Beto and he reflects on him very often. He visits his house and frequents places that they used to go together. Junot seems lonely and drifting with nothing to occupy but himself and his drug dealing and his mother. We discussed in class how Junot never seemed to consent to Beto but I think that had nothing to do with his feelings toward him. He cared for him deeply, that much is obvious. "Days we spent in the mall or out in the parking lot playing stickball, but nights were what we waited for." p 1666 pa.5

Junot didn't seem to like a lot of people in fact all I can see is two; his mother and Beto. Junot loves them both but awkward at showing affection probably because of his father and mother's relationship. His home life is rough at best but he enjoys his time with Beto. He was a year younger than him and I believe he needs a psychiatrist to work out his feelings. Beto and Junot probably don't see themselves as homosexual but what they experienced was sexual. What might be experimentation I see as very real feelings for Junot but not knowing how to express them made it difficult for the two people closest to him.

I was a little worried about the ending of the book because it seemed as if Junot's mother was giving up and giving in, suicide perhaps? Thinking that her husband drugged her, she just fell asleep and started dreaming. What is to become of Junot's future?  He has potential but I don't see anything coming out of it because of his neighborhood and his relationship with his father. Junot's career, I fear is Crime.

Genre Blog Post: Short fiction:SEXY

Sexy....

I thought this story very intertining and engaging. I thought Miranda was pale and boring. This story showed that wasn't necessary the case. What engaged me was that Miranda was a mat to step on. She needed to step up and tell people to piss off. She didn't bore me in the least, she showed that she had more to her than met that eye. When she had the encounter with the boy, she showed she had more smarts that readers think. I choose the theme Infedlity..

I chose infedidity because Miranda had sex with Dev without even knowing who he was or about; he happened to be married to a woman who was in India. What I thought was Miranda's friend's cousin was Dev's wife. It seemed to tie everything so nicely all together. 

Miranda knew when she met Dev that he was married because he told her. "They're for my wife." He uttered the words slowly, holding Miranda's gaze. " She's going to India for a few weeks". He rolled his eyes. "She's addicted to this stuff". He was referring to the shopping bags in his hands when he was following Miranda in the discount store. 

Miranda slept with Dev several times and became deeply involved with him. Obsessively almost, buying face cream, lingere' and food that he liked. Her life seemed to center around him until she lost the sense of who she was. 

Miranda seemed to end the affair with the boy; she seemed almost taken with him and disgusted at the same time. After her time with him and him telling her she was "sexy" she seemed to be at peace with herself. 

Literary Analysis

My chosen theme is Humanism and it is evident in both Uncle Tom's Cabin and Beloved. First with UTC, in Chapter 13, The Quaker Settlement and Chapter 14, Evangeline and Chapter 15, Of Tom's new mistress and other matters, Chapter 16, Tom's Mistress and her opinions and pretty much throughout the book there is human kindness splattered about. In Chapter 13, "Well, I hate those old slaveholders!" said the boy, who felt as unchristian as became any modern reformer. "I am suprised at you, son" said Simeon; "thy mother never taught thee so. I would do even the same for the slaveholder as for the slave, if the Lord brought him to my door in affliction". For Simeon and the other Quakers, kindness and passiveness is their nature. They are decent humans and show humanism to George, Eliza and Harry. In Chapter 14, Evangeline: St. Clare and Eva were discussing the fate of Tom and Eva was quite persistent in getting Tom. "What for, pussy? Are you going to use him for a rattlebox, or a rocking horse or what?" "I want to make him happy". "An original reason, certainly. Eva is the most unselfish child ever. In Chapter 17, The Freeman's defence George was reunited with his wife and child and Phinneas just got done telling them about what he heard. George was being sent back to Kentucky, probably to be killed, Eliza was being sold to New Orleans and Harry was going to a trader. George was eyeing the pistols and said "I will attack no man," said George. "All I ask of this country is to be let alone and I will go out peaceably; but-he paused, and his brow darkened and his face worked,-"I've had a sister sold in that New Orleans market. I know what they are sold for; and am I going to stand by and see them take my wife and sell her, when God has given me a pair of strong arms to defend her? No; God help me! I'll fight to the last breath, before they shall take my wife and son. Can you blame me?" That to me says a lot, earlier in the book he talked about dying before he would be sold to a cruel master. George would definately put himself first to save his family if he could. In Beloved, in Chapter 19, Sethe realized Beloved was her daughter. "Obviously the hand-holding shadows she had seen on the road were not Paul D., Denver and herself but Beloved, Denver and Sethe. And since it was so-if her daughter could come back home from the timeless place-certainly her sons could, and would, come back from wherever they had gone too." Sethe did a horrible, horrible thing in killing her baby daughter but she endured a horrible, horrible thing too and couldn't escape from any of it. She clearly did not want her children to endure from what she experienced with slavery. It was the only way she knew how to keep them safe. My next quote is from Chapter 26 when the African American women were coming to help Sethe and Denver rid the house on Bluestone Road of evil. "When they caught up with each other, all thirty, and arrived at 124, the first thing they saw was not Denver sitting on the steps, but themselves. Younger, stronger, even as little girls lying in the grass asleep." "The singing women recognized Sethe at once and surprised themselves by their absence of fear when they saw what stood next to her. The devil-child was clever, they thought. And beautiful. It had taken the shape of a pregnant woman, naked and smiling in the heat of the afternoon sun. Thunderblack and glistening, she stood on long straight legs, her belly big and tight. Vines of hair twisted all over her head. Jesus. Her smile was dazzling". "Standing alone on the porch, Beloved is smiling. But now her hand is empty. Sethe is running away from her, running, and she feels the emptiness in the hand Sethe has been holding. Now she is running into the faces of the people out there, joining them and leaving Beloved behind. Alone. Again. Then Denver, running too. Away from hher to the pile of people out there. They make a hill. A hill of black people, falling. And above them all, rising from his place with a whip in his hand, the man without skin, looking. He is looking at her". What I get from this is African Americans are very spiritual, ghost believing people and they believe people who die in a violent manner come back as ghosts. Benevolent and evil and maybe a little psychosis on Sethe's part. The way these books are similar is that having been slaves, their children are to be kept innocent and if they have to kill to protect them then so be it.

Reader Response BELOVED

I went on Goodreads and read all the reviews for Beloved. They are mostly all 5 stars with about 5-10 hated it reviews. Some of the comments were "Loved it!" "Tear-jerking", "Toni Morrison is a wonderful storyteller!" "A great ghost story", "The ultimate horror story". It's interesting to know that Toni Morrison wanted to write a story with historical pieces in it because she got frustrated when she tried to find out facts about African Americans and found none. I agree on the comments that I listed above. I understand when young girls call the book trash and worst book I ever read but I don't agree. There is skill to the writings in that book, I like to think of it as 3d. I am being narrated inside of the past that is happening already.

Contemporary Connections: BELOVED

My first source is Gulf News, Gulf News (United Arab Emirates) January 17, 2017

A Wish for a less absolutist world by Linda Heard

Linda writes this newspaper article when politics were dominated with Donald Trump and his tweets. We seemed to have lost the listening to other people's viewpoints and politely disagreeing with them. It could possibly have to do with social media, people tend to get very bent out of shape either defending our President or criticizing him. Indeed he does seem to generate some very hot feelings especially if you are not white or female. I do not believe every Muslim is a terrorist, nor do I believe Mexicans will rape women. What good is it going to do to argue with someone on facebook about my beliefs? Will it help humanity? No, it will not. Will it change Mr. Trump's mind on human race? No, it will not.

My second source is from The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice, Spring 2017
The Color of Post-Ethnicity: the Civic Ideology and the Persistence of Anti-Black Racism
Sami C. Nighaoui

Anti-Black Racism is simply the ignorant thought that African-Americans need to integrate into "white culture" to become an "American Citizen". In the 1950's there was a thought that Blacks could never be as successful as Whites because they aren't smart enough and are too compliant. Basically, an inferior race. The Civil Rights movement was promising at first with the 60's and 70's but the optimism was short lived. Black social mobility over the next 40 years was slowed down. By 2013, the unemployment rate among African Americans was about twice as high as that among White Americans. All the riots in the 60's and 70's accomplished was the ability of politics to change a social and cultural reality that African Americans were skeptical of. The black radicalism in the 80's and 90's was offset by the downward spiral of the previous economic gains and the popularity of the multicultural movement. We thought we saw progress when Barrack Obama was elected the first time but he endured some of the cruelest treatment. He was accused of not being a U.S citizen, he wasn't black enough, etc..The article stated that African Americans are criticized for being proud of their race with the Black Lives Matter being racially challenged by Blue Lives Matter or more recently, All Lives Matter. Putting it simply, yes all lives matter but right now Black Lives Matter. I have heard in 25-50 years the white race will be gone, I say Good Riddens. We share the same dna, in fact, 99.9% of the same dna. We are all humans and should learn to treat each other as such.

Project II: Beloved (RACE AND THE AMERICAN NOVEL)

CRITICAL COMMENTARY: The Scholarly Article I chose is Toni Morrison's Beloved: Feminine Mystiques by Rossitsa Terzieva-Artemis

The main point was how Morrison wrote so complex and how Sethe was still "enslaved." Physically, no but mentally she was still living through and dealing with the past. "Sethe is a woman who's suffering from the effects of slavery after it happened." p 134  An example of Morrison's readers as they read "Beloved" is as follows. "Being present and taking part of what happens in the present tense of the narration and also having an insider's knowledge about what has already happened". p131

I agree with what the article says and also I have learned a few things as well. The concepts that the characters in the book deal with is "performative panpsychism of the African folklore where everything, a living creature or not, is endowed with spirituality, while on the other hand, for the slave holders these are the monotheistic, pedagogical beliefs of the western Enlightment and Modernity." p127

I, Too by Langston Hughes

The Norton Anthology American Literature

The theme I am focusing on is slavery. This poem seems to be about wanting freedom and overcoming slavery in the African American race. "They send me to eat in the kitchen" Hughes (1039). In days past, slave owners made their slaves eat dinner in the kitchen so as not to be seen by the owners eating in the fancy dining room,  should they have guests or not. It was all about shaming the race.

The way this poem speaks to me is through tone. It is strong and independent sounding. Throughout, the structure is deliberate and the words are placed to make the meaning clear.

The significance of this poem is to address racism, equality and independence through the main point of slavery. This poem is similar to the modernist work "To Elise" by William Carlos Williams(782)
It has short deliberate stanzas that reminds me of "I, Too".
"The pure products of America
Go crazy
Mountain folk from Kentucky" (782)

Langston Hughes was an activist especially in racial justice. This poem at first glance seems simple and easy to read, but when I focused on each line, it made more sense to me what this poem was exactly about. Slavery ran rampant in Missouri and racism still exists in 2017.

A Street Car named Desire-Southern Literature

A Street Car named Desire

This play is about New Orleans and several characters. Stella and her husband Stanley, several of Stanley’s friends, Blanche (Stella’s sister) and the upstairs neighbor, Eunice. From the beginning, one could see that this place, New Orleans was not paradise. Blanche comes to “visit” her sister and brother-in-law and ends up staying for almost the entire time. The sisters are from Oriole, somewhere South. It would seem as if they had a pretty posh life until recently. Blanche is homeless and later we find out all kinds of juicy details about her. Blanche tries to talk sense into Stella p. 1140 “In my opinion? You’re married to a madman!” Stella doesn’t want to hear it, despite Blanche being correct. We find out later, Stanley is a manipulative evil man.

The theme I chose is women’s rights for this project. From the start, one could tell that women were not respected in this area or the time period. Women were good for several reasons: cook, sex and have babies. There is no strong woman figure in this story and they were all manipulated by men. Women in this story had no back bone to the rough men and kept going back to them after horrible things happened.

I think that Stanley was grossly misunderstood by Blanche. Yes, on the surface he seemed harmless and simple minded but we find out that what he spun was a terrible scheme including both sisters. A madman was simply a deeply troubled drunk man who, under unknown circumstances ended up in Louisiana in The French Quarter. He seemed to recover quickly enough when he seemed so drunk he lost his temper.

I see Stanley as an opportunist, that is he saw dollar signs in Stella and she was easily manipulated by his good looks. I believe he cheated on Stella and he even raped her sister. What kind of man does that? A madman? I do not believe so, I think he had the misfortune of living in a rough neighborhood, did time in WWII and was an alcoholic. When he was younger, perhaps he tortured animals too. This play was almost entirely dialogue, very descriptive dialogue.

LITERARY ANALYSIS:

I Chose Humanism for my theme of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Beloved. Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity. https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/

Throughout this book there are humanistic themes that seem to be at odds with Christianity. There are some very thoughtful Christians in this book but seem to lean towards the majority which is Slavery. At times it seems as if Mrs. Shelby would gain control and step in to do what she believed was the right thing, but bowed to her husband and site Christianity as an excuse to do nothing about a situation she didn’t feel as right or ignore it completely. “Mrs. Shelby, being entirely ignorant of her husband’s embarrassments, and knowing only the general kindliness of his temper, had been quite sincere in the entire incredulity with which she had met Eliza’s suspicions. In fact, she dismissed the matter from her mind without a second thought; and being occupied in preparations for an evening visit, it passed out of her thoughts entirely.” (53-End of Chapter “A Man of Humanity- (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)” -so aptly named because Mr. Shelby behaved without any.

We have discussed in class that the women up to when we met Eva seem to round out their husbands with more caring ways, humanity. We met the detestable Mr. Haley who has no wife and seems to cut the book into a different episode. Eva is a remarkable little girl who sees humanity in everything and everyone. “Often and often she walked mournfully round the place where Haley’s gang of men and women sat in their chains. She would glide in among them, and look at them with an air of perplexed and sorrowful earnestness; and sometimes she would lift their chains with her slender hands, and then sigh woefully, as she glided away. Several times she appeared suddenly among them, with her hands full of candy, nuts, and oranges, which she would distribute joyfully to them, and then be gone again.” (232-Evangeline)

Tom showed humanity to Eva when she fell into the water and without thinking, he saved her. When Eva persuaded her father to buy Tom, she stated “I want to make him happy”. In The Chapter Of Tom’s New Master, and Various other Matters St. Clare is being described, “In childhood, he was remarkable for an extreme and marked sensitiveness of character, more akin to the softness of woman than the ordinary hardness of his own sex” (239)

St. Clare is a huge character for my humanity topic not only for his love for his mother who he describes as a woman of uncommon elevation and purity of character, and he gave to his child his mother’s name, fondly fancying that she would prove a preproduction of her image.” (243 Of Tom’s New Master)

Ophelia is another character that I would say had humanistic viewpoints. She came to the big city of Orleans to help out her dear cousin. “The minister, who inclined strongly to abolitionist views, was quite doubtful whether such a step might not tend somewhat to encourage the southerners in holding on to their slaves, while the doctor, who was a stanch colonizationist, inclined to the opinion that Miss Ophelia ought to go, to show the Orleans people that we don’t think hardly of them, after all. He was of opinion, in fact, that southern people needed encouraging.” (246 Of Tom’s New Master) Ophelia was quite conscientious in all things that seem to matter.

Marie St. Clare seems to be devoid of humanistic qualities at all. Completely absorbed in her own problems she doesn’t appreciate her husband, daughter, Ophelia and most of all her “servants.” (260 Tom’s Mistress)

Eva is a truly remarkable child. “Eva’s peculiar,” said her mother, “very. There are things about her so singular; she isn’t like me, now, a particle;” and Marie sighed, as if this was a truly melancholy consideration. Miss Ophelia in her own heart said, “I hope she isn’t,” but had prudence enough to keep it down. “Eva always was disposed to be with servants; and I think that well enough with some children. Now, I always played with father’s little negroes—it never did any harm. But Eva somehow always seems to put herself on an equality with every creature that comes near her. It’s a strange thing about the child. I never have been able to break her of it. St. Clare, I believe, encourages her in it. The fact is, St. Clare indulges every creature under this roof but his own wife” (265 Tom’s Mistress)

The best moment for humanism comes in the form of St. Clare when he is discussing religion with Ophelia and Marie. “Religion!” said St. Clare, in a tone that made both ladies look at him. “Religion! Is what you hear at church, religion? Is that which can bend and turn and descend and ascend, to fit eery crooked phase of selfish, wordly society, religion? Is that religion which is less scrupulous, less generous, less just, less considerate for man, than even my own ungodly, wordly, blinded nature? No! When I look for a religion, I must look for something above me, and not something beneath. “The Bible was my mother’s book,” said St. Clare. “By it she lived and died, and I would be very sorry to think it did. I’d as soon desire to have it proved that my mother could drink brandy, chew tobacco, and swear, by way of satisfying me that I did right in doing the same. It wouldn’t make me at all more satisfied with these things in myself, and it would take from me the comfort of respecting her; and it really is a comfort, in this world, to have anything one can respect.” (280-281 Tom’s Mistress)

CRITICAL COMMENTARY:  I chose James Baldwin’s Everybody’s Protest Novel; On page 533, he writes that Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a very bad novel stating that Ms. Stowe’s motivation for writing the book was to say slavery was wrong. Baldwin also goes on to say that her characters lacked depth and the stronger ones like Chloe and Topsy are largely dismissed. I don’t disagree with these criticisms but as a whole I felt this novel was important for whites to read and reassess slavery on a more human level. At the time, this novel was shocking and heart wrenching. The last paragraph talks about the terror and damnation of religion or more aptly called “theological terror.” 

READER RESPONSE:  On goodreads, I found most everyone rated this book four out of five stars. The review says “Stowe’s puritanical religious beliefs show up in the novel’s final, overarching theme-the exploration of the nature of Christianity and how Christian theology is fundamentally incompatible with slavery.” I absolutely agree with this statement and feel exactly the same. The other regular people who wrote reviews said overall it was a great book but many people disagreed on if it was considered “classic” or not. Stowe’s character is being discussed on how she influenced Abraham Lincoln and did not mention how The Civil War sparked interest. Some people thought she down played the brutalness of slavery for her own personal gains. I agree that she did not go into many gory details but considering this was written in the 1800’s and many other aspects are to be considered I would give her a pass. 

Kelly Koenig

March 7, 2017

Race and the American Novel Project

Uncle Tom's  Cabin

TEXTUAL BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT:  The textual image I chose is of an Iron mask, collar, leg shackles and spurs used to restrict slaves. This picture shows the injustice and inhumanity of Slavery to me. These are clearly torture devices used to put the African Americans in place, showing the inferiority of their race to the white man. The idea of humans that are property to buy, sell, abuse, restrict and dehumanize makes me weep for justice.  The horror that went largely unmentioned in Uncle Tom’s Cabin is hard for me to imagine but seeing these illustrations and ads gives me an unfavorable impression of these historical times. I feel we have gone so far beyond racism by having non-segregated restrooms, drinking fountains, shops, buses and so much more by having a first black President, Barrack Obama. America has elected him two terms and he served despite the opposition of old white men. Today, we have taken steps toward the ancient past by electing an old white guy who could possibly bring bigotry and hatred back to our fine Nation.  

Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman--The Yellow Wallpaper

Kelly Koenig

American Literature

March 3, 2017

Realism and What is it? Literary Realism attempts to represent familiar things as they are. Realist authors choose to depict every day and banal activities and experiences, instead of using a romanticized or similarly stylized presentation.

Other Realist Authors include Honore de Balzac 1799-1850

He has a keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society. Balzac is one of the founders of realism in European Literature. His writing influenced many famous writers-Emile Zola, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Jack Kerouac, Akira Kurosawa, Henry James and philosopher Friedrich Engels.

Edith Wharton was another realist author-1862-1937

Edith Wharton was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer and designer. Wharton combined her insider’s view of America’s privileged classes with a brilliant, neutral wit to write humorous, incisive novels and short stories of social and psychological insight.

A little background I have found on Charlotte was that her father wasn’t around much after she and her sister were born leaving the raising of the children up to relatives and their mother. Frederick Beecher Perkins was a relative of well-known and influential Beecher family, Harriet Beecher Stowe of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Charlotte was known as a Reformist and Socialist who fought against the injustices of women’s lives in many ways. She wrote Women and Economics-1898, Concerning Children-1900, The Home: It’s work and Influence-1903, Human Work-1904, The Man-made world or Our Androcentric Culture-1911, Herland and founded, wrote for and edited The Forerunner, a journal published from 1909-1917

Charlotte defended Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Women’s Bible which was against the Patriarchal viewpoint of the Church’s influence suppressing women.

Kessler, Farley Carol—Professor of English American Studies in Pennsylvania

Knight, D Denise—Faculty in English Department at Cortland, Teaching fulltime. She published 15 books, over 51 articles, essays and encyclopedia entries in addition to nearly 50 book reviews and delivered over 40 talks at academic conferences.

  Upon doing research on Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman I believe her story The Yellow Wallpaper is her semi autobiography when she was battling postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter, Katharine. In the late 1890’s, women did not have as many rights as we do today. The doctors handled “women sicknesses” in cruel and unusual ways. To classify Charlotte as “hysteric” is grossly underestimating what she was feeling. On p 486, “John is a physician, and perhaps— (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind)—perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster. You see he does not believe I am sick!” Charlotte doesn’t seem to agree with the Doctors’ advice and even says so. Her opinion isn’t even considered and by taking away what she loves most (her writing and household chores) is very cruel.

            Charlotte has a vivid imagination and there are lots of different theories on this story. One I heard was that she had multiple personality syndrome. I personally don’t believe that but it truly is one imaginative story with that wallpaper. John doesn’t seem to give Charlotte’s thoughts a care, he seems to know what’s best for her. In fact, I believe she is getting worse with the way she is being treated as a patient and not a wife. At least a loving husband would not certainly treat his loving wife that way, or would he? He belittles her at every turn, calls her names and seem to think she’s being silly and whimsical. On p 496, Charlotte was determined to get something accomplished. She secured a rope and locked the door and threw the key down into the front path. “I don’t want to go out, and I don’t want to have anybody come in, till John comes. I want to astonish him.” She peeled off the wallpaper and made her hasty escape. Her husband fainted when he finally retrieved the key and saw his wife creeping around the room. I take this to mean she was a stronger person than he was because she escaped.