Race and the American Novel Part 2 Blog 4

            One issue brought up in Beloved is the dehumanization of African Americans. I think this happens in most novels about slavery including Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Stowe writes, “It’s commonly supposed that the property interest is a sufficient guard in these cases. If people decide to ruin their own possessions, I don’t know what’s to be done. It seems the poor creature was a thief” (201, Stowe). Here St. Clare refers to slaves as property and creatures. He thinks since they are property you can treat them however you wish.

               Also, in The Lynching Claude McKay portrays acts of dehumanization. McKay says, “The woman thronged to look, but never a one/ Showed sorrow in her eyes of steely blue” (927, McKay). This woman felt no compassion towards the innocent man being lynched. She instead took interest in the cruelty and saw it as entertainment. It makes me wonder what it would take for this woman to feel sympathy. How different would she feel if it was a white person being lynched? The act of lynching dehumanizes the victim into a display for others’ enjoyment.

               An interesting aspect of Beloved is that it is not only whites dehumanizing African Americans, but also African Americans dehumanizing one another. I usually think of dehumanization in the case of white slave owners dehumanizing their slaves so they can mentally accept slaves as property and justify their actions, which is what St. Clare does in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Yet, in Beloved Paul D. says, “You got two feet, Sethe, not four” (194, Morrison). Paul D. is implying that Sethe’s actions in killing her baby was animal like. I think Paul D. is completely wrong, Sethe did not want her children to go through what she has endured as a slave so she killed her baby out of love. It was awful that she killed her baby, but at the same time it shows her “Too-thick love” (194, Morrison) as Paul D. describes it and I don’t think Paul D. can fully understand Sethe’s feelings towards her children.

               It’s interesting how many ways dehumanization is brought about and in so many different texts that we have discussed in class. In the article How Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved’ is Taught in Schools Anna Clark says, “Teaching Beloved provokes a reckoning with literary complexity and the deranged American relationship with race” (3, Clark). Beloved is so different compared to Uncle Tom’s Cabin because it shows, as Clark says, “Deranged American relationships with race”. Beloved includes dysfunctional relationships with and without race being included. Where, Uncle Tom’s Cabin has unrealistically perfect characters. So, when Paul D. makes dehumanizing remarks to Sethe it adds to these mixed up relationships and ideas about race, which is much more realistic.

Works Cited:

Clark, Anna. "How Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' Is Taught in Schools." The Daily Beast. Newsweek/Daily Beast, 4 Oct. 2012. Web. 14 May 2015.

McKay, Claude. "The Lynching" 1919. 1865-present. Ed. Nina, Baym. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. 2013, 1463-1473. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 2 vols. 

Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 1987. Print.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Ed. Elizabeth Ammons. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Print.

Race and the American Novel Part 2 Blog 3

In the Barnes and Noble reader review section the first comments I looked at were the highest and lowest rated. I found that these reviewers were the most unhelpful. The ones with the lowest ranking did not usually leave an actual comment and if they did it was usually just one sentence that stated how they disliked the book. I found the most honest and useful comments to be those with two to four ranking out of five because these people for the most part gave their true opinion and put some effort and thought it. One of these comments was by theokester who said, “Overall I had a hard time with this book. (…) often taking itself in circles and leaving me confused. Still I found the story very interesting and thought provoking” (Barnes and Noble). She goes on to say, “Even the ‘good’ slave owners (of Sweet Home where Sethe ran from) were despicable and make me shrink in shame” (Barnes and Noble). I like how theokester put the word good in quotes because there is no such thing as a good slave owner. All slave owners are supporting slaver. I also thought theokester gave a true impression of the book because many times while reading Beloved I was also left feeling very confused, especially throughout the book when the point of view would shift or the setting would change without a clear warning.

On Goodreads I found it was interesting at how many more reviews they had compared to Barnes and Noble. The average rating was a 3.72 out of 5. So, I decided to focus on those that gave Beloved a 3 or 4. Most of them were very similar to one another, but I like what Terri commented saying, “The characters were very self-absorbed and disjointed, like ghostly memories without cohesiveness, which may have been the author’s intent” (Goodreads). When reading a book I never remember to consider what the author’s intent was when writing the novel. What did Morrison want readers to take away from reading Beloved? I think the disjointed characters was on purpose because it is more realistic, unlike some of the characters in Uncle Tom’s Cabin specifically Eva. These disjointed characters are more relatable unlike having perfect characters that don’t have flaws.

Finally, after reading a few recent reviews on Amazon the majority seemed to be either for or against the book without much evidence backing up what they had to say. One review that stuck out to me was from Alicia who said, “You have to read the whole book to understand what is going on…somewhat…it’s like Morrison was writing in riddles because at some points it wasn't clear as to who was talking and what they were talking about” (Amazon). I agree with Alicia that at the end of the book there are still many unanswered questions. This is kind of unsettling since you read the entire book trying to understand what is happening and who Beloved truly is and then after everything there are still no answers. I guess it leaves it up to the reader to decide what really did happen.

Works Cited

"Beloved." Amazon. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2015.

"Beloved." Barnes & Noble. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2015.

"Beloved." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2015

          Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 1987. Print.

Race and the American Novel Part 2 Blog 2

In “The New Threat: ‘Racism without Racists” John Blake describes the type of society we live in today. He quotes what scholars and psychologists are saying, “Whites and racial minorities speak a different language when they talk about racism” (4, Blake). The main point Blake is trying to convey in this news article is that racism is not what it used to be, but is still a very prevalent issue. He uses a few different studies to show how racism has changed and is now more involved with your subconscious rather than your conscious actions.

One study he listed was about job applicants. A professor at the University of Chicago sent out 5000 fake resumes that were identical to one another except for the names of the individuals. Some had “white sounding names” while others had “Black sounding names”. In the end the applicants with “white sounding names” were fifty percent more likely to get a call for an interview compared to the applicants with “Black sounding names”. The article stated, “Racial biases can in some ways be more destructive than overt racism because they’re harder to spot and therefor harder to combat” (25, Blake).

I somewhat agree with this article. It is like racism that is programed into your mind at a young age. Blake says, “When babies are as young as 3 months old, research shows they start preferring to be around people of their own race” (13, Blake). You do not consciously know you are being racist. It is almost the exact opposite in Beloved. People are openly racist and they don’t care because it is accepted by society. When Amy Denver first sees Sethe she says, “Look there. A nigger. If that don’t beat all” (38, Morrison). Also when Sethe recalls being back at Sweet Home she remembers Sixo getting in trouble for killing a pig. Morrison says, “Schoolteacher beat him anyway to show him that definitions belonged to the definers- not the defined” (225, Morrison). This is implying that schoolteacher is the definer and therefore better than the defined, slaves. As the article states this is still happening today except not as blatantly. It occurs in your subconscious where you do not actively know you are being racially biased.

I think a good solution to this is to stop denying that it is happening. Instead try to continuously prevent this from happening. Think about decisions you personally have made and if they are racially biased. I also disagree with this news article because I don’t think that racial biases can be more destructive than overt racism. Just reading Beloved readers can understand some of what African American slaves went through, yet will never be able to fully comprehend what they endured.

Works Cited:

Blake, John. “The New Threat: ‘Racism without Racists’- CNN.com.” CNN. Cable News Network, 27 Nov. 2014. Web. 14 May 2015.

            Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel. New Yourk: Knopf, 1987. Print

Race and the American Novel Part 2 Blog 1

In “Is ‘Hell a Pretty Place’? A White-Supremacist Eden in Toni Morrison’s Beloved” David Cosca brings up many controversial issues in Beloved. The main theme he focuses on is white supremacy. Cosca points out how people that are in somewhat similar situations have extremely different perceptions, specifically Sethe and Amy Denver. Both Amy and Sethe are escaping servitude positions that involve men who can be physically violent, both are alone and on the run. Cosca says, “We begin to understand through her interactions with Denver that no matter how well-intentioned a whitegirl Amy may be, her perspective of the world is deeply white-supremacist, and she insults Sethe to her face without even seeming to realize the cruelty of her statements” (6, Cosca).

I don’t think many people understand white privilege and how it is still relevant today. Morrison brings in Amy who is currently facing the same struggle as Sethe. Yet, at the same time Amy cannot possibly understand everything Sethe has gone through. Cosca comments on Amy and Sethe’s interaction saying, “Amy’s willingness to help Sethe (…) does not justify or excuse Amy’s ill treatment of Sethe, but it does reveal something important about Amy as a whiteperson: her sense of race-superiority is so deeply a part of her consciousness that it exudes from her even when her actions are intentionally benevolent” (7, Cosca). 

Amy shows this by not addressing Sethe’s serious needs when presented right in front of her. The only thing on Amy’s mind is velvet and at one point it even seems like she is going to leave Sethe lying on the ground. When she actually does help Sethe it is very minimal. Morrison says, “So she crawled and Amy walked alongside her” (41, Morrison). Amy would not even let Sethe lean on her so she could stand up and walk like a human being. By forcing a pregnant Sethe to crawl on the ground while she walks beside her shows just how little she cares about Sethe’s human dignity. Amy feels like she is doing a lot to help Sethe by just being there, but she does it with so much disdain that she reveals her feeling of superiority based on her skin color.

Works Cited:

     

     Cosca, David. “Is ‘Hell A Pretty Place’? A White-Supremacist Eden In Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” Interdisciplinary Humanities 30.2 (2013): 9-23. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 14 May 2015.

     Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 1987. Print.

Literary Context Blog: Native American Renaissance

In the Native American Renaissance writers focused on the relationship between tradition and modernity in Native Americans lives along with setting and tribal identity. Everything is written from a Native American point of view and they construct their ancestor’s history in their writings. This is shown in The Way to Rainy Mountain, where N. Scott Momaday focuses heavily on setting.

In describing the setting and the changes in their location the colonization of Europeans were automatically included. Momaday says, “They never understood the grim, unrelenting advance of the U.S. Cavalry. When at last, divided and ill-provisioned, they were driven onto the Staked Plains in the cold rains of autumn, they fell into panic” (1465). The setting, where they lived, was extremely important to the Kiowa’s, it was their life and they needed the land to survive. At one point Momaday said, “They could find no buffalo, they had to hang an old hide from the sacred tree” (1467). This shows that as the colonization of Europeans encroached on the Kiowa people their lives were drastically changed.

I think one of the main points of the Native American Renaissance is to tell their side of the story. In school we never learn much about Native Americans or different tribes and their traditions. This writing period allowed for American Indians to share their history from their own point of view and not the skewed version we learn about in grade school. 

Works Cited

Kalaidjian, Walter B. The Cambridge Companion to Modern American Poetry. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

"N. Scott Momaday- Kiowa Poet and Novelist." N. Scott Momaday- Kiowa Poet and Novelist. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2015.

"N. Scott Momaday." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 1 May 2015.

Porter, Joy, and Kenneth M. Roemer. The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. Print.

Westling, Louise Hutchings. The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment. New York, NY: Cambridge U, 2014. Print.

Blog 6 The Woman Warrior

In The Woman Warrior, Maxine Kingston takes a family story and makes it into a story about Chinese history and culture. She does this by taking part of a story her mother told her and fills in the blanks using her cultural knowledge with different scenarios of how her family issue could have happened. By doing so she is carrying on her aunt’s legacy. She says, “My aunt haunts me- her ghost drawn to me because now, after fifty years of neglect, I alone devout pages of paper to her” (1515).

Everyone has at least one family secret that they know they should keep to themselves. I know my family has quite a few and they are slowly becoming common knowledge with each new generation. I think it is because as time passes we are faced with choices. Whether or not we think that these stories should be told. Kingston chose to tell her aunt’s story even though she knew her family never wanted anyone to know that the aunt even existed. Kingston also had to choose between her Chinese traditional values and new American values as she said, “If I made myself American-pretty so that the five or six Chinese boys in the class fell in love with me, everyone else- the Caucasian, Negro, and Japanese boys- would too. Sisterliness, dignified and honorable, made much more sense” (1513).

 

Kingston’s Chinese cultural tradition was to keep their family stories quiet which I think is a lot like grade schools in America. For example, we grow up being taught that the Colonists were great people and America is a great country that never does anything wrong. It’s not till high school or even college that this illusion is shattered and we learn about the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese Internment Camps, and how awful the Colonists treated Native Americans. This story sheds light on controversial history. 

Works Cited

Kingston, Maxine. "The Woman Warrior" 1976. 1865-present. Ed. Nina, Baym. 8th ed. New York:               W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. 2013, 1463-1473. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of             American Literature. 2 vols.