Synthesis-Final Project

      I guess the main themes I want to argue is the presence of a Christ figure in each novel. This is a long shot, trust me I know. But I feel like being able to write about this will help wrap my head around it. The more I think about it the more realistic and right it feels.

    The first thing I think we should look at is, what are the characteristics of a Christ figure. Characteristics are;

• Crucified, wounds in the hands, feet, side, and head
• In agony
• Self-sacrificing
• Good with children
• Known to use humble modes of transportation, feet or donkey
• often portrayed with arms outstretched
• Known to have had a confrontation with the devil, possibly tempted
• Last seen in the company of thieves
• Buried, but arose on the third day
• Very forgiving
• Came to redeem an unworthy world
• Brings light into dark world

There a few that I left out for space sake. But for starters I believe Tom from Uncle Tom's Cabin is a Christ figure. He has wounds on his body, maybe not on his hands, feet, or side, but he has them else where from dealing with whippings and other abuse from the slave owners. He lived in agony, emotional agony and physical agony. Being a way from his family and being stripped of his dignity. He was great with children, you could tell children like Eva and George looked up to Tom and respected him. He was self sacrificing. He brought light to the dark world. He knew how to keep going. He never gave up and he encouraged his fellow African community to not give up, especially by singing songs. He was an extremely religious man, even when God dealt him the worst hand, he still stayed faithful.

     In an excerpt of "The Woman Warrior" Maxine Hong Kingston writes about her aunt. In a way I see her aunt as a Christ figure as strange as that sounds. Yes she sinned and was shunned from the community and her family, and committed suicide.  But she died out of love for her child. She didn't kill her child then commit suicide. She made sure they died together. Also, Christ was shunned from the people at that time, everyone made fun of him and hated him for saying he was the king of the jews. Kingston's aunt sacrificed her life for her baby and she was in great emotional agony.

    Now in the novel Beloved the ghost like figure is called beloved. I believe beloved is like a Christ figure, but a devilish version. One characteristic of a Christ figure is one to redeem the unworthy world. I think beloved did this by making the ones around her feel guilty from their past actions. She made them feel repentant. Beloved too rose from the dead, which like Christ gives her that humanistic characteristic. She was able to be a human but in all actuality she is just a spirit being. Like Christ, I  believe that Beloved being in evil spirit probably also had confrontation with the devil. I know this is a long stretch but in a way it makes sense, to me at least.

    All these characters in a way I believe are in some sort of way a Christ figure, or a demonish Christ figure.  Every story has a hero or heroine, I know alot of my comparison of characters and a Christ figure are a long stretch, but if you think about it and my reasoning, it makes sense.

Reader Response-Final Project

   When reading the reviews of Beloved on Amazon, there seemed to be a consensus that the book was amazing, but difficult to understand. One English teacher wrote that she reread the book eight times and at times it is still confusing do the switching and shifts of voice. I decided to filter the search of reviews by choosing to read the comments of those who gave the novel one star. One comment that I thought was the most one tracked minded was this; "Coudn't get past the first chapter. As a mother myself, the description of what this mother did was unbearable and I did not want to read further." I really want to tell this woman, haven't you ever been told don't judge a book by its cover. The same thing goes here. Don't judge a book by the first chapter. Have you ever read a book where all the answers to every problem were given in the first chapter? That would make for a really short book. This woman in my mind was not open minded when reading a book like a reader should be. The same thing goes for another comment, complaining that book was stupid and unrealistic from page one. "a diarrhea filled book." Again another unopened minded person reading a book. 
    Don't get me wrong I honestly, was not the biggest fan of the book either. But that is just because I am a terrible and lazy reader. I want to be able to read something and understand it, because it is easier for me to picture what I am reading as I am reading. It is a very complex book, as most the comments said, I would agree with it. It is unrealistic in parts, yes I would agree with that too. But it tells the story of the pain and suffering, it tells the unthinkable struggles the African Americans had to try and survive on a daily basis. It also told the story of the African Americans and their unconditional love as a community and family. That is what I loved about this book.

Contemporary Connections-Final Project

    All you see over the news or any social media site are the riots of African American's because a white police officer shot an African American. To be honest I don't see a connection in comparing these incidents to Beloved , but what I do see is a connection of the affect of slavery of the kind which Beloved highlights. 
    Because of our nation's past, with the racism and slavery, I believe is the cause of the rioting. It's a couple decades later then when it should have happened, but hey no one is perfect. In the time of slavery which Beloved is written about, there were few riots with in the African American community. Unfortunately those African Americans were mostly linnched for their actions. There were even some slaves who were forced to conceive so that their owners would have more slaves to put to work or sell. Slaves would kill their own children our of love and to give their owners and the white society and big screw you. In today's society it is different. Everyone is equal and we all have the same rights but still there are people of EVERY race who are racist against another race for whatever reason. Obviously the extent to give the opposite race a big screw you isn't one of modering children, but is one of uprising. Except now a days the solution isn't violent by killing to make the riots end, it is violence to stop the rioting and remain peaceful. Honestly today is just the same back them and it seems to me that it is slowly getting worse and more violent. I feel like all the rioting and violence is not because of the racism card, because black officers shoot white citizens just as much if not more, and their are no riots broadcasted about then.

Critical Commentary-Final Project

     I read an article by Charles Sheel, called "Toni Morrison's Beloved: a traumatic book on the trauma of slavery?"  http://www.academia.edu/760890/Toni_Morrisons_Beloved_a_traumatic_book_on_the_trauma_of_slavery_
The above link is the link to this article if you are interested in reading it.

     In this article Charles Sheel cover many different topics, his first topic is saying how he see the work with shocking evocations, stunning poetry, and bewildering complexity. During his writing about this topic he brings up the question if this work belongs to the African Community or is it a universal merit. He believes that this book is written more for the African populating, he uses an example of how a young black girl would find her identity while reading this book, and how that is more powerful then a universal entertainment.
     His next topic he covers is; who's afraid of Beloved's ghost? Or a text-book case of a magical realist narrative mode. Sheels rises the question if it was smart to base a book on the topic of slavery and have it set in a "haunted house." Because of Morrisons choice to do so, the book has been given a magical realism type theme. He debates if the book is more of a magical realism then any other genre.
     Sheel then goes into trying to answer questions in the book by summarizing some major themes. He says:,

"Beloved is clearly set in history and both its bewildering structure and heterogeneous style reflect the immense problem – for the narrator and most of the characters – of how to tell about mostly traumatic experiences involving people who were usually illiterate, whose memories of the past and control over existential choices had to a large degree been erased by slavery in the South, and whose present lives in post-Civil War Ohio were till heavily restricted by racial prejudice and social marginalization. Magical realism, then, does strengthen the grotesque and Gothic aspects of this tale– with the unavoidable side effect of weakening its claims to realism – but it accounts only for a fraction of the poetics at work. Who's charmed by the poetic language and exaltation of Beloved's authorial narrative voice? Or the case for marvelous realism."

 Morrison's next topic is this; Conclusion : Who's afraid of “Toni Morrison's Beloved”?Or the case for the flawed masterpiece

"A great amount of attention has been given to what Is perceived as the single most revolting act, the murdered by the mother, around which the book's plot develops. Plenty of the critical discussion turns around the question: “to be a slave or to die?” The phrase “Sethe's choice” comes up repeatedly in the critical literature on Beloved. There is a certain cleverness about it, no doubt, but come to think of it, Sethe did not choose to kill her children. For when the scene is finally described, it is clear that she acted in a split second when seeing School teacher's appear above the hedge and grasping immediately that she couldn't outrun those four horse men of the Apocalypse. In other words, she acted in the heat of panic and not at all with any benefit of thought or time to weigh any pros and cons. "

Through out Sheels analysis of the book, mostly towards the end, he tries to explain the acts of the characters. I think that Sheels main point overall is that he gives credit to Morrison for the amount of explicit scenes she had written about. He states how some film makers were wanting to take out the language or the sex crimes. But honestly that would be trying to sweeten up how bad the history was. Through Sheels analysis I have realized that when authors write, sometimes the more detailed they are the more emotionally attached a reader can get. Toni Morrison made her characters potray a feeling of guilt through out most of her novel. I think this was a smart choice, because our nation should feel guilty about our actions in the past. To make African Americans and other races go to as desperate measure to have to kill their own child and feel guilty about it. We should feel guilty for them. We should take their guilt and put it on our shoulders.

The Woman Warrior (excerpt)

      In this excerpt I feel like the author  Maxine Hong Kingston is basically thinking out loud. I like how I basically am in her thoughts as she illustrates them. She is telling the story of her aunt who has humiliated her family and is looked upon as an outcast. Her aunt committed adultery and because of her wrongful doing she committed suicide by drowning herself and her new born baby in a well. The villagers were outraged on her adulteration acts that before she committed suicide they attacked her homestead. Destroyed her crops, killed the livestock, spread the blood all over her family's house, and destroyed her personal property. 
     Kingston in this excerpt is the niece of this women, she never met her aunt. Kingston mother uses her aunt as an example/lesson to make sure she never does anything wrong to humiliate her family like her aunt did. Kingston in her thoughts comes up with two reason why her aunt did what she is. She tries to pain a picture of who her aunt was. One picture was that her aunt ran into an evil man. The village in which they lived is one where every one knew everybody and there wasn't any strangers. Kingston thought that this man targeted her aunt and forced her to sleep with him. He consistently raped her and she then conceived his child. The second illustration of one to bluntly say that her aunt was a whore. She wanted the attention while her husband was away. She got so into detail with this illustration that Kingston descriptively gives examples how her aunt cared about her looks to the point of where she would see a freckle and dig it out with a hot needle. To me that just sounds painful.
     Even through all the bad Kingston's aunt has done. I feel like Kingston has slight admiration towards her aunt. Never once did her aunt say who the babies father was. Was she too scared on what he might do, or was he protecting his other lover like she did her child. Kingston also admires her aunt, I feel, because she protected her child. She didn't just leave her child to be tormented by the villagers, or looked down upon as a disgrace, but she took her child with her. She died with her child.

Good Country People

        In this short story, we never really know what happens to Hulga (also known as Joy.) The story ends with Manley leaving Hulga trapped up in the loft in the barn. We as a reader are left wondering if her mother and mother's employee realize the Hugla has gone missing and where she is, is Hulga able to climb down the latter, or does she die up there unable to climb down with out her glasses and leg. 
       Another question I as a reader am wondering, did Manley "stalk" Hulga before he went to her house to con her and her mother. Hulga had a heart condition. Manley used a scenario that he too had a heart condition, and this why he was trying to make some money by selling Bibles. As a reader I feel that to make Manley seem more horrid and creepy we as an audience get the feeling, that he did "stalk" Hulga to find out what makes her the way she is. What makes her so cold. He used her insecurity to get into her head mentally and emotionally. 
      Honestly I feel as if Manley isn't the only villain to this story. Hulga's stupidity doesn't make me as a reader sympathize with her one bit. What women in her right mind tells a guy she barley knows that she loves him. What girl makes herself so vulnerable just to make a man, that she just met happy. She took off her leg and glasses just to "please" him. That just seems so pathetic. At first I had some sympathy toward Hulga, she had a bad attitude because she was dealt a bad card in life, but watching her let her guard down, for a con man. That is where she lost my sympathy. Don't get me wrong I'm one of the biggest hopeless romantics around, but I even thought that Hulga was utterly pathetic. 
      I know this isn't much but I was left with so many questions at the end of the stories, I would like you as readers to let me know on what your take, and thoughts were about the ending and of Hulga's choices.

Streetcar Named Desire

       Blanche, is a young woman with in this play whom raises many questions to an audience. She in my eyes in the one source of major conflict in this play/film. I believe that if she hadn't came to visit her older sister Stella, Stella's and her loved ones lives would be normal as could be.
      Blanche is portrayed as a wealthy woman. A woman who is high maintenance, and needs to have the best of the best. I feel like she is selfish and manipulative. She wants to be loved by all, in her head she is, but in reality most can not stand her. For instance Stanley, Stella's love, he has a bad feeling about Blanche from the very beginning, and through out the play/film the audience can see his view on her doesn't change.
     If I could compare Blanche to a 21st century woman she would be like a celebrity who needs the best of the best. For instance, Mariah Carey, who demands the most expensive wine before appearing on a talk show. Blanche likes to be in control, she likes to be seen as innocent. I feel like this is a way she is manipulating those around her to get what she wants. For instance, when Mitch wants to kiss her, she messes with his mind, to get what she wants. I feel like she pretends to be a little interested in the things he speaks about, so he will be more interested in her and give her all his attention.
    I honestly think that Blanche would have never lost the family land, this whole play wouldn't have needed to be written. To be honest I feel like Blanch didn't even try to keep the land. Heaven forbid, that Blanche would actually have to spend money on something important, and not accessories. She lost her job being greedy and doing what she wanted not what was right. Having intercourse with a student, is another example on how she does not care about her actions or who she hurts, as long as she is having fun and getting attention.

Literary Modernism

            Literary Modernism originated in the late 19th and early 20th century, specifically 1914-1945. It was mainly used in North America and Europe. The main reason for the development of modernism was because of war in particular the world wars. People began to ask questions of what was becoming of the world, and in my views the literary modernism style, was a style to try and explain or answer why things of devastation were occurring. 
           Major events that caused authors to write in a literary modernistic form were women's rights and racial rights. In the 1920s the 19th amendment gave women the write to vote. The NAACP got black officers commissioned during war. There was a conversation of immigration with in North America, should it be allowed or should it not be allowed? People were also trying to find their identity. Especially after the war, it was hard for people to find themselves and try to put their lives back together. 
         Most writers today are still writing under the shadows of modernism which is now called post modernism. Some famous writers of modernism are; Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzegerald, and Wallace Stevens.

            Characteristics of modernism are: 

• Self consciousness and irony concerning literary and social conventions
• narration through fragmented or multiple perspectives or view points
• internalized or interior perception
• realistic details
• heroic individualism of romanticism
• mixes revolutionary and reactionary elements
• questions cultures                 

CITED FROM:           http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/M/modernism.htm         

Lynching- Claude McKay

The Lynching, by  Claude Mckay, is a poem about what it is like to be at a lynching back around the time of the civil war.  It talks about how the black man's sins were still unforgivable, and how his body swayed from the limb of a tree.  Most disturbing is how the women were described as thronging to look, but never did. (Thronging means to rush to the front or to a scene. Like how at a concert you have the people who want to be up close and up front to see.) Also, a part I read that was also disturbing, is when McKay says, how the little lads were lynchers to be.

I guess the main reason, I chose this poem to write about is because of how disturbing and devastating it was. For me, I could never think about watching someone struggle to live. I wouldn't be able to just stand their and watch someone die a gruesome and painful death, and let alone enjoy it. In my history class, that I'm currently taking, we learned that schools were closed, these lynchings were public events that happened during the day, so that as many people as possible were able to attend. That fact alone, showed me at least that they had no regret or remorse for what they were doing, They were able to kill a human being in broad daylight. They sometimes even advertised it. Lynchings were a family event. In a way I picture it was an outdoor drive in theater. They would have a family outing with a picnic.

Claude McKay does a great job at portraying the seen of a lynching. He makes it so his poem just paints a picture in your head. This is one reason why I am a fan of his poetry in particular. He makes it so his poems paint a picture in your mind, which helps plays with your emotions.

Uncle Tom's Cabin- Personal Synthesis

                Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is a common title that is well known around America.  When I think of the story of Uncle Tom’s Cabin I think about the life struggles of an African American. How back before the Civil War, these human beings were treated as someone’s property just because the color of their skin was different.  As a person of color, they had no rights. They weren't allowed to have money, they weren't allowed to be educated, and they didn't have the right to express their religion or even have a religion. They were to work for free and do whatever was asked of them. They would get beaten for any reason, even the reason doing nothing wrong. We as readers are put into shock, when we realize how terribly people of color were treated back then, but to be honest we will never know. We hear the stories and see the examples through Uncle Tom’s Cabin, but we can never feel or come close to know the agony of discrimination and violence colored people faced.

                All this background knowledge of a story about how humans of color just wanted freedom, brings up the question to me is anyone really free? Yes, people of color got their emancipation, but honestly are they truly free?

                At the start of this spring semester, in my class we talked about the term: a single story.  The best way for me to describe a single story is as a stereotype. American’s single story is that we are all stuck up, power seeking, obese people. We think we are the dominate race.  For people of color back in the time before the civil war, even after the civil war, when they were “free,” they had a single story, of being uneducated, good for nothing, waste of space and life, and not deserving of any form of rights. To this day there are people who still believe in that single story. It is a sad fact, but it is indeed a fact.

                Harriet Beecher Stowe, in my opinion was writing what she witnessed, in her time period. Even though she was brought up not to believe in that single story, it still surrounded her world. Slavery was everywhere, the violence and wrongful acts were happening in the streets. It is still happening to this day. It certainly isn't as public or as bad as it was in the days before the civil war, but it still occurs.

Critical Commentary

  I chose the article Sentimental Power: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Politics of Literary History By Jane P. Tompkins (P. 539-561). Her article as an article is hard to understand. From what I got out of this article, Tompkins argues against the point that some people think that women writers were just a group of women that wrote sentimental novels that were responsible for cultural evils that still affect life today. I think Tompkins” overall point is that she thinks that the novels these women wrote were a chance to highlight the American culture and to critique it, with in the aspects, for example how Harriet Beecher Stowe used slavery to highlight the cultural evils of that time.

          If I’m right about the summary of Tompkins’ main points, I believe she is absolutely without a doubt wrong. I don’t think anyone really would take a true event in our nation’s history, to highlight our culture, especially an event as horrific as slavery.

          One point that I’m hoping one of my readers of my blog might be able to explain to me is when Tompkins on page 560 says that “the new society will not be controlled by men but by women.” I don’t understand why she brings this point into play. What was her purpose of this statement?

Textual Background and Context

           I chose the article, A Visitor's Description of Slavery's Atrocity by J. Hector ST. John De Crevecoeur. (p. 422-423) This article is of a white man's journey to a planter's land for a visit and to dine with. The two lived about three miles apart, so the narrator decided to walk to the planter's residence. 
          On his way to the planters residence he felt a change of presence, it went from calm and subtle to where the narrator described the change in air as agitated. The narrator then heard a commotion about "six rods ahead of him." As he walked closer to the commotion he notices there was a cage with many birds ready to pounce on the care. Most to all the birds were large birds of prey. 
         As the narrator got closer he chased off the birds, within the tree hung the cage, and within the cage hung a negro man. The birds were looking to pray on the negro man. The description of the negro man was breath taking in horror. The narrator said he shuddered when he saw him. His disturbing description of the negro man was:
                                "I shudder when I recollect that the birds had already picked out his eyes; his         cheek-bones were bear; his arms had been attacked in several places; and his body seemed covered       with a multitude of wounds. From the edges of the hollow sockets and from the lacerations with         which he was disfigured, the blood slowly dropped and tinged the ground beneath. No sooner were     the birds flown and swarms of insects covered the whole body of this unfortunate wretch, eager to       feed on his mangled flesh and to drink his blood."
        This description of this man really brings me to realize how horrific it would have been to be an African American in this time period, but, then too, I realize I will never come close to be able to realize how it truly felt to be living in the time period, even as a white folk I could not and would not want to live in that time.
        The narrator then also ends his story, about how the negro man just wanted water to help clench his thirst. We learn as readers the negro man was in the cage for two days, and in a ways he was surprised that he had yet to die. The narrator wish he had a ball in his gun so he could put the negro man out of his misery, but he doesn't have the ammo. So instead he gets the negro man the water he had requested.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" Who is to blame?

            The narrator tells her audience how she suffers from a nervous disability/illness. She is to be kept inside all day by her husband John, with no source of socialization besides of her husband’s demeaning comments and her husband’s sister Jennie. The narrator soon becomes distraught and sees images of “creepy” women trying to escape the wall of which the narrator soon becomes obsessed with. Eventually, the narrator’s illness takes over and becomes mental, in her mind she turns into one of the “creepy” women trying to escape.       
     To me this brings up the question, would things be different if John allowed the narrator to adventure out and socialize. Even though he was the doctor, I feel as if the narrator was able to go out and explore, use her cognitive thought process, she wouldn't have turned mental. We try to do things to keep the ones we loved safe. I can understand John hiding the narrator for her own good, but a part of me wants to believe he hid her from the world for his own good. What I mean by this statement, is could John have been embarrassed of his wife? Did he hide her so his reputation wouldn't be ruined, or was he truly doing it for the love of his wife? Back to my original thought, as the audience in today’s society, I believe that if she was given positive human contact, she still would have been ill, but she wouldn't have gone mental ill. The illusions she saw served a person. The narrator wanted to help the “creepy” women escape and be free. In a way I believe the narrator initially thought of herself as the “creepy” women unconsciously who was trapped in the house. The narrator too wanted to be set free. Finally, the narrator turned into the “creepy” woman, not just in her mind, but physically. I believe even though John possibly could have kept her hidden out of the goodness of his heart, he is to blame.
  


 I just want to put in a side note for entertainment. I’m not sure if any of you readers have watched the movie “Mama” released in 2013, but when reading this short story and the narrator turned into a creepy woman, I immediately connected to the image of Mama in the movie. Both to me just wanted to be happy and set free.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin has many different elements I could critically analyze, but one of my favorite parts that I have read so far is the ending of chapter ten.  For the readers whom aren’t sure what is really happening at the end of chapter ten, this is where Tom is about to be taken away by Mr. Haley. Right at the last second Master George jumps up into the wagon and surprised Tom. They were able to say their goodbyes, and you can see the affectionate Master George has towards Tom.

                When you think about slavery, such told in the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin you think of the single story. By single story I mean the stereotypical aspects of slavery, how all the whites hated the slaves. How whites were too good to even speak to or look at the slaves. Even if the whites were against the thought of slavery, they would refuse to speak or look at the slaves, because they were afraid of what other fellow whites would do or say to them. But in this book especially with in the reading I’m highlighting, you see this isn’t true at all.  You see a young white boy, who is against slavery, not afraid to speak his mind and show affectionate to a black slave. He promises Tom that when he is older he will come and save him. George even gave a dollar to Tom and wrapped it around his neck. George said,

“but there, now, button your coat tight over it, and keep it, and remember, every time you see it, that I’ll come down after you and bring you back.”

The above passage to me proves that George feels great affectionate to Tom. In a way Master George looked up to Tom. Many times in this selection of the text Tom gives advice and words of wisdom. Master George always listened to Tom, and you could tell George took everything Tom said to heart.  Towards the end of their discussion Tom asks Master George if he had offended him at all. George told him no, it was good advice.

Tom patted Master Georges’ curly hair head. Showing his affectionate towards George. Uncle Tom’s Cabin truly shows more than just the single story of race back in the slavery days. It shows how not all slave owners were bad and how different races could respect and get along with each other.