Blog #10, Racial Issues Throughout Works of Literature

Throughout the semester, our class has read many works of literature based on racial issues including Light in August, Coming of Age in Mississippi, Othello, and Greanleaf.

            In Light in August, race is the central issue in this novel.  Joe Christmas is not sure what exactly he is in terms of race; however, he has heard that he has “black blood” in him.  By not knowing exactly what he is in term of race, affects his life completely because live depended on what race you were.  His supposedly “black blood” makes society treat him badly.  Racism in this novel takes place when it comes to how African Americans are treated.  When Christmas was being hunted down by Percy Grimm at the end of the novel, Reverend Hightower tried to explain to Grimm that Christmas was with him the night of Ms. Burden’s death.  However, Grimm did not listen and was extremely brutal with Christmas’ death so he’ll “let the white women alone, even in hell” (464).

            Coming of Age in Mississippi was another story with racial issues as the central part of it.  Anne Moody faces segregation at a young age when she sees her white friends in a movie theatre.  Not knowing any better, Anne and her siblings ran to see their friends in the white section of the movie theatre; however, because of what they did, they are scolded by their mother and are dragged out of the movie theatre.  This incident opens her eyes towards the differences between skin colors.  Racism is also very intense during this time.  Mrs. Burke in the story treats Anne horribly and she basically attacks her younger brother who she blamed for stealing her coin purse when she accidently misplaced it.  Just like in Light in August, the majority of violence that happened occurred when African Americans disrespected white people or “over stepped” their boundaries. 

            In the play Othello, Othello is seen as an outsider because of his appearance. However, Othello seems to be neither, “What a full fortune does the thicklips owe, if he can carry’t thus!” (503). This reference suggests that Othello is a dark-skinned man.  Throughout the play, Iago, the antagonist, plays off this insecurity when talking of Othello and Desdemona’s relationship claiming Desdemona may want a man similar to herself. 

            In Greenleaf, Ms. May is a racist woman, “Get away from here, Sir!” and in a second muttered, “Some nigger’s scrub bull” (25).  She also treats Mr. Greenleaf harshly when he does not do something the way she wants it done.

            The common theme of race throughout these works of literature has shown me how badly African Americans were treated in the past.  It is horrible to see how people were treated just because of their skin color.  However because of this treatment, it allowed African Americans to stand up for themselves and get the rights they deserved in this country.  It shows that African Americans are strong people to go through what they did and to strive hard to obtain their rights.

Blog #9, Joe Christmas

In Light in August by William Faulkner, Joe Christmas is a character that is very troubled due to his upbringing.  Because of his abused, horrible upbringing, his behavior is violent especially towards women. Orphaned as a baby, Christmas is raised in an orphanage until Mr. McEachern adopts him.  Growing up, McEachern teaches Christmas about things such as the importance of religion and the amount of a hard earned dollar; however, he does not teach him about women.  So he learns from his group of guy friends, “ “They all want to,” he told the others.  “But sometimes they cant”” (185).  Mrs. McEachern tries to nurture him and be the mother figure in his life, but because of Mr. McEachern’s power in the household it has no affect on Christmas and ultimately he rejects her affection as a mother.

His behavior is also due to his racial identity.  Christmas does not know who exactly he is in terms of race because he never knew who his real parents are.  Throughout the novel, it is referred that he had a parent that was “part nigger” (254).  Christmas still does not exactly know if it’s true or not.  However, because a part of him has “black blood” in him, it affects not only him psychologically, but also realistically.  If he reveals his heritage, women would not want him and he would be treated completely differently.  Not knowing his racial identity affects him completely because during this time period, race is everything.  How someone is treated to where someone could live depended on race.  Since Christmas really does not know what he is exactly, his supposedly “black blood” makes society treat him badly.

Up to this point, Christmas has dealt with a huge amount of rejection from people.  Even the prostitute he was seeing, Bobbie, refuses to marry him after he proposes.  Because of his upbringing, Christmas does not know how to have a relationship with women at all unless it is purely physical.  If the relationship tries to become something more, he becomes scared and even abusive. 

Blog #8, "A Rose for Emily"

In “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, Southern Gothic, modernity vs. tradition, and gender issues happen within this short story along with a small racial issues that are noticeable.  Instead of the Gothic literature as a whole, Southern Gothic occurs because of the location in the South and because of the grotesque element that also takes place that takes on a more realistic value than a supernatural one like vampires, etc.  Instead, it shows how an individual, Miss Emily, is dealing with a society that is changing right in front of her eyes and the suffering she is going through.  This also ties in with the modernity vs. tradition issue.  Miss Emily struggles to keep up with her society rapidly changing to a more modern society.  For example, the modern mail service the town begins to set up.  Miss Emily refuses the mail service to put numbers on her house as an address.  To me, it seems like she is afraid of change and refuses to have any part in it.  Faulkner also used the Southern Gothic style of writing by making Emily the “damsel in distress” because of this fear of change and her refusing to at any cost. Gender issues occur when, “So when she got to be thirty and still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized” (2). This is a gender related issue because in the past when girls became what was considered women in their society, they were married off at a very young age.  However, when girls were not married by what middle age was, people would assume something was wrong with her.  Also, some of the ladies told the man that he would not be able to take care of the kitchen simply because he was a man.  So in this story both sides of gender related issues occurred. The small racial issues I witnessed throughout the story was the use of the “N” word.  Overall, William Faulkner wrote a short story to show that once a person has their mind set on something, nothing can change their minds and that sometimes their actions are controlled by what they truly believe in.

Blog #7: Gothic Literature

Gothic literature is typically known as involving horror; however, not everything in Gothic literature is directly involved with horror. In Gothic literature, tales revolve around mysterious castles/mansions, murder, treachery, curses, treachery, secrets, etc. It is believed that Gothic as a writing style was introduced by English writer/politician Horace Walpole with his story, The Castle of Otranto.  This story gained immense popularity and became a trendsetter for other authors to use the Gothic style in their stories.  Specifically, Southern gothic literature, part of the Gothic genre, includes topics such as mental disease, supernatural elements, and the grotesque; however, Southern gothic literature deals usually goes into characters with disturbed personalities, showing them as damaged or even delusional. 

The Petrified Man by Eudora Welty is focused on the weird, grotesque from the city of New Orleans, voodoo capital, to the freak show.  The petrified man is wanted for rape, which fits into the Gothic scene because of its cruel, violent intentions.  Greenleaf  by Flannery O’Connor also shows Southern Gothic characteristics.  For example, Mrs. Greenleaf’s faith healing and ritual give us a taste of a mystical, peculiar, and religious woman.  When Mrs. May is murdered by the Greenleaf’s bull, we also get a taste of the dark aspect of the gothic aspect in this short story, “One of his horns sank until it pierced her heart and the other curved to her side and held her in an unbreakable grip” (52).  This also represents the grotesque that surrounds murder in the Southern Gothic literature.  These short stories show their audience that the Gothic writing style does not have to involve things like vampires to be considered Gothic literature.

References:

Southern Gothic 

Gothic Literature

Lies For The Greater Good, Blog #6

Marlow tells Kurtz’s fiancée that his last words were her name, which of course is not true.  It seems Marlow tells Kurtz’s fiancée this to ensure that Kurtz really did love her, even though Kurtz was barely considered about her.  Also, Marlow saw how badly Kurtz’s fiancée was still mourning, as if he had died yesterday.  “But while we were still shaking hands, such a look of awful desolation came upon her face that I perceived she was one of those creatures that are not the playthings of Time.  For her he had died only yesterday” (332).  Just one look upon Kurtz’s fiancée made Marlow see how much Kurtz meant to her, which made him lie to her in the first place.  He did it to make her feel better and to prove to her that Kurtz really did care for her even in his last moments.  Although in reality, Kurtz seemed to be the type of man who just used women.

Ultimately, he was trying to portray Kurtz as the perfect person she fell in love with to help her during her grieving instead of the corrupt man he really was.  “But with every word spoken the room was growing darker, and only her forehead, smooth and white, remained illuminated by the inextinguishable light of belief and love” (332).  Marlow really did not want Kurtz’s fiancée to know what Kurtz had really done while he was away.  Marlow wanted her to still picture him as the great gentleman she fell in love with.  “Men looked up to him, -his goodness shone in every act”(334).  In reality, Kurtz was living a very corrupt life even in his last hours of life.

What Marlow tells Kurtz’s fiancée falls into the themes of women and isolation in Heart of Darkness we discussed in class.  During this time period, women were not considered important to men.  They were considered to be possessions more than anything. In the novel, Kurtz lacked compassion, which was considered a female trait. Without compassion, qualities such as greed take over. Also, Kurtz openly cheated on his fiancée regardless of his relationship with her which showed he did not feel any emotional compassion towards her.  The theme of isolation also seems to fit in with these lies because Kurtz had a lack of emotional attachment even though he had his fiancée.  Also, he was only interested in himself even though others, like his fiancée, cared about him.

Heart of Darkness, Blog #5

Some of the characteristics that describe a psychological novel are flashbacks, the psychological aspect of the characters within the story or a struggle within a character’s own psyche, the setting, and the story itself going into a great detail, even on the smallest aspect of the story.  Heart of Darkness is a psychological novel and within the reading the first two sections of this novel, Maslow has already began to use flashbacks to tell his story.  Maslow as a character seems like a very intelligent man; however, his past seems like is weighing him down.  Maslow has seen a lot of things in his life, some not as good as the others; for example, when Maslow witnesses a dying group of native workers on his journey down the African coast. “They were dying slowly- it was very clear.  They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now, -nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom” (279).  He basically gets to see first-hand how colonizers are taking over and either disregarding the natives or making them their slaves in order to prosper in this land.  This also makes the setting seem gloomy and depressing as natives' lifes are being taken over by colonizers.

The effects of colonialism on both the colonizers and those who are being colonized are quite different.  The colonizers are basically the people who are allowed to make the decisions on what is going to happen and if they have to, take the people who are being colonized as workers for themselves or slaves.  The people who are being colonized remind me of slaves in their own home.  They are being abused and the colonizers basically have complete control over what is going to happen to them, whether or not they will survive to see the next day or not.  To me, colonization portrayed so far in this novel seems to be very negative towards the people being colonized.  The colonizers are portrayed as selfish, greedy people while the natives are receiving the worse end of the deal by becoming prisoners. 

Villians

Evil, in my opinion, is doing something that goes against the values we have been taught and destroying something or someone in the process.  For example in some countries, people may cut off someone’s finger(s) if they are caught stealing.  To Americans, that is seen as evil and wrong because we do not practice that belief.  Evil can also be taking advantage of people to gain what one desires.  Iago is considered evil in Othello, and in The Little Mermaid, Ursula is the evil, antagonist.  Ursula is the sea witch who “helps” poor, unfortunate mermaids to ultimately achieve her goals.  Her ultimate goal is to take over Atlantica and become Queen; however, King Triton is in her way.  She comes up with a plan to become Queen through Triton’s youngest daughter, Ariel, who has fallen in love with a human, Prince Eric. She uses this information to bargain with Ariel.  Ursula tells Ariel she can turn her human for three days and within three days she must get Prince Eric to kiss her.  If she can, she will remain human permanently, but if she cannot she will become a mermaid again and be bound to Ursula forever.  All Ariel has to do in order to do this is give Ursula her voice.   Ursula then tricks Prince Eric into falling in love with her, using Ariel’s voice.  As Ursula obtains Ariel as her slave, she begins to bargain with Triton.  If he were to give her power to become Queen, she would let Ariel free.  Triton agrees and Ursula becomes Queen of Atlantis.

            Ultimately, Iago and Ursula are much alike.  They both use people to get what they desire and also seek revenge.  Iago wanted revenge when Othello did not promote him and Ursula wanted to seek revenge on Triton for banishing her from the kingdom.  These characters are “evil” because they messed with people’s emotions in order to get what they desired.  Ursula used Ariel’s love for Prince Eric and Triton’s love for his daughter to her advantage to gain what she wanted while Iago questioned Desdemona’s loyalty to Othello by planting seeds in Othello’s mind that she was cheating with his lieutenant, Cassio. 

            I believe blame should be put on both Iago and Othello, but most of it on Iago.  Iago was the one who deceived many people in order to get his revenge on Othello’s decision; however, Othello allowed Iago to make him believe Desdemona was having an affair.   However, Othello was an outsider and did not “fit in” easily due to his skin color and religious background so it is understandable that Othello would easily be influenced that someone was betraying him.  Most of the the blame should be put on Iago due to him planting seeds for everyone to fall into his trap.

 

Blog 3

Modern can be defined as pertaining to present and recent time; this definition describes our society. We are a society that has learned from mistakes in the past and are trying to make sure that history does not repeat itself. Our society is modern due to us having advanced, intellectual ways of handling ourselves instead of primitive ways like cavemen did. For example, us having advancements in technology to help improve our lives like computers, phones, and televisions. Most people nowadays depend on technology. However, even though we are more “modern” than past civilizations, does not exactly mean we are less violent.


Wars are still being fought to this day. They may not be happening here in America, but they are still happening overseas. In these wars, killing is happening regardless if it is on accident or not. Innocents may be killed in order to prove a point to the enemy. So we may not know exactly who we are killing, but lives are being taken. It is not like a video game where we have a certain amount of lives or we have continue points and so on. This could be a reason why when soldiers return from war time, they become more aggressive, more cold hearted because of what they have seen on the battle field; killing can change a person. It shows us that we are humans and that morality is a very valuable thing we have as humans.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is chosen to rule as king by the gods. In today’s society, a ruler would never be picked like that. Instead, we have a choice on who becomes our next “ruler” by making our opinion known by voting for who we want to help guide us. The death of Electra’s father would have been handled differently if society back then had a better justice system and technology. Instead of simply taking revenge on Clytemnestra and her new lover, Aegisthus, by murdering them, Electra and Orestes could have taken a less violent approach in avenging their father’s death by example taking them to court.

Future generations will probably criticize and admire us for our dependence on technology. Technology has allowed us to become more advanced. A few years ago, not everyone had a cell phone, but as you may notice now almost everyone has a cell phone even small children. However once we lose something, like the internet or air conditioning, we begin to become more agitated about not having what we depend on. We did not always have these things. How do you think people who grew up without any of this technology feel now? My father always tells me that our generation is spoiled because he never had any of this when he was growing up. Our generation might just be spoiled and it’s only getting worse as more technological things are being developed and upgraded. Our generation has it pretty easy with all these technological advances. Future generations will probably figure out ways to make sure technological things will never “go out” and their dependence will probably increase 110%. They may also say we were the beginning of the “modern” age, but probably will not really consider us modern like we consider ourselves since I am sure they will be much more advanced in 2000 years.

Future generations might also criticize how we handled topics such as segregation, wars we have fought in, and slavery. However, we did try to overcome these things. We overcame segregation and slavery in the long run so maybe future generations will also admire us for getting rid of these types of problems, but probably still criticize us on them for making these things problems in the first place.

Electra

While reading Electra by Sophocles, the conflict Justice versus Revenge arises. The differences between the two can be seen clearly within this play. Justice can be defined as being logical and reasonable while revenge can been seen as taking vengenance with an overwhelming passion. Electra gives us an inside look into how Greek society was. In Ancient Greek society, the society was known as being a patriarchy. Masculine values were seen as superior to feminine values because male’s values were seen as logical and reasonable while feminine values were viewed as being filled with emotion and passion which they could not control. This play also shows how much honor was to meant to Greek society. Electra refrains from taking revenge for her father’s death because it would dishonor her brother because in Greek society it was the son’s responsibility to avenge his father.


This play is has been read for over 2,000 years because it makes you question, “What is the real difference between justice and revenge? Are Electra’s motives more for justice or are her emotions getting the best of her and does it turn more into revenge?” Electra wants her mother, Clytemnestra, and her new lover dead for her mother’s actions against her late father, Agamemnon. Electra is shown as becoming overemotional about her father’s death and her desire for her mother and her new lover’s death can be interpreted as revenge more than justice. However, her brother, Orestes, is being logical about the situation and actually has a plan; therefore, he is trying to bring justice to his father’s murder. Another reason why this play is still being read because it shows us how their society functioned and to show how far society as progressed from history.

Literature can be written to criticize or celebrate the culture in which it was written in. Sophocles may have written this to celebrate his time period by critiquing the past. This play was written in a time period in which males were superior over females although this play is based on female characters. Why? It seems like Sophocles was trying to say that because of female’s emotions getting in the way, they cannot control themselves during an upsetting time like Electra after her father’s death.

Blog #1

“Coming of Age in Mississippi” by Anne Moody and the supplemental readings have shown how much African Americans, especially in South, have suffered due to segregation and racism in the past. In “Coming of Age”, Anne shows us strong images concerning segregation, racism, violence, love, and family values. Anne faces segregation at a young age when she sees her white friends in a movie theatre. Not knowing it was wrong, Anne and her siblings went into the white section of the movie theatre to see them; however, she gets scolded by her mother and dragged out of the movie theatre. This incident makes her awareness towards the differences between whites and blacks begin. Racism is also very intense during this time; for example, Mrs. Burke and how she treats Anne and how she basically attacks her younger brother, Junior, who she blamed for stealing her coin purse when she misplaced it. Majority of the violence during this time was towards the African Americans who either disrespected white people or “over stepped” their boundaries like Emmett Till who said “Bye Baby,” to a white woman. Throughout the story, love is shown by how races mix during this time regardless of the racism going on like affairs happening with white men and their help. Also, it shows how some people are only happy when they are loved like Anne’s mother and Raymond’s relationship. Family means a big deal to Anne. Even at a young age, Anne tries to help her family survive by getting jobs and giving what little money she earned to help buy food for her mother and siblings. Chapter three begins the way it does to show the hardships her mother went through working just to make the little money she earned a week and to show how she met the white children who helped start Anne’s awareness towards the differences between whites and blacks. With the harsh attitudes and violence going on during this time, I could not imagine living during this time period. Just because someone’s skin color is different, did not mean they were lower than whites. I’m afraid if I would have lived during this time period, my family would have raised me to be racist towards African Americans and maybe even treat them as Mrs. Burke did or worse. If people like Anne Moore did not choice to stand up for what she thought was right, Mississippi would still be a dangerous place to live for African Americans and lynching would probably still be occurring. Also, schools would still be segregated and tensions between whites and African Americans would still be very high. Literature plays an important role in these questions because it shows how people like Anne Moore made a huge difference in history by standing up against society for her beliefs.