Race and the American Novel Project Part II: Synthesis

One of the more interesting things that I think parallels the multiple discussions, readings, blog posts, and other activities that have taken place throughout the course of the semester is how views of African Americans have changed throughout the years, even in regards to those who have historically supported them. From Uncle Tom’s Cabin, to Beloved, to the blog posts, to the class discussions, and eventually to the contemporary racial issues of today, views on African Americans have changed significantly over the years.

In regards to Beecher Stowe, her view of blacks seems to be very one dimensional and, although sympathetic towards them, rather stereotypical. She paints the African American characters in her stories as having one personality trait and not being complex. Tom is a loving grandfather figure, Chole is a happy grandmother figure, Eliza a brave mother, Geroge a strong and intellectual father and husband, Cassy a hardened worker, etc. While none of these traits are necessarily bad, many of them are simply not complex, and they seem to be there to fulfill one specific role in the story. I also feel this has to do with the writing style of Beecher Stowe’s day, but this nonetheless translates to her African American characters. An example of this is one of the first descriptions given of Uncle Tom mentions his piety. “Uncle Tom was a sort of patriarch in religious matters, in the neighborhood….it was at prayer that he especially excelled,” (Stowe, 27).

In the novel Beloved, the characters are given much more depth, complexity, and they are much more flawed. Again, this could be a product of the time as this type of writing has become more popular, but even several short decades ago, one would assume that African Americans were not always written this way. I also feel this is also because Morrison is an African American woman, and therefore has a better grasp on what it is like than Stowe. I feel that, like Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the way that the characters are introduced gives us a lot of details about them. A flaw in Sethe’s character is evident within the first few pages of the novel, “Counting on the stillness in her soul, she had forgotten the other one: the soul of her baby girl,” (Morrison, 5). Every character in the novel is flawed in some way, some more than others, but none are the picture perfect example of piety and diligence like the African American characters in Stowe’s novel. All of Morrison’s characters are complex and have more than one or two simple attributes to them.

The article that I chose for my commentary section on this project also speaks to this theme. The author herself is an African American, like Morrison, and she identifies with the struggles that they went through, and she herself says that she still feels the scars of slavery. “That is, I am always reminded of that historical period where I am referred to as ‘black,’ or ‘African American’; these identities, labels, are a manifest struggle to name the curious result of slavery in this country,” (Gourdine, 18).

Through our discussions and blog posts, it is evident that views towards African Americans have changed since the time of Stowe. I think that our discussions and the various ways that we talked the characters in Stowe and Morrison’s novel demonstrate that everyone in the class has a positive view of African Americans, and expresses pity at their plight depicted in the novel. But more than this, the students saw them not only as objects of pity but also as complex characters that represented more than just themselves. This was evident in our discussion of Stowe’s novel when we talked about the character attributes of some of the major characters and “peeled back the layers” so to speak to reveal more than just what was written there. I also found the blog posts often dove into the complex issues surrounding slavery and showed that people really thought about what they were posting, it was not just an expression of pity but also an attempt to understand all the issues in regards to the culture of slavery in the south.

The current issues of the day, such as the riots in Baltimore and other places over the past year, as well as the increasing sensitivity worldwide to racial issues clearly shows that people’s attitudes have changed. Many now are becoming more and more aware of racial issues that are prevalent today, and people are doing more and more to stop it and raise awareness of it. An example of this that appears in the article that I used in my post on contemporary issues is about a top high school football player who uncommitted to Oklahoma University following the racist comments of the fraternity. “One of the nation’s most sought-after high school football players, Jean Delance of Mesquite, Tex., who is black, withdrew his commitment to play for Oklahoma, citing the videos,” (Fernandez, Perez-Pena).

I hope that it is clear that since the times of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the public’s views of African Americans has changed. They have gone from being feared, stereotyped, or pitied to being accepted into society, befriended, and defended when attacked racially. The struggle of African Americans is not fully over, and they have many obstacles to overcome, but they have certainly come a long way since the days of before the Civil War. Theirs is a story of struggle, sacrifice, hardship, and perseverance, and I hope that we all take the time to appreciate the fact that they have contributed so much to this nation and that we can learn so much from them.

Works Cited:

Fernandez, Manny, & Perez-Pena, Richard. “As Two Oklahoma Students Are Expelled for Racist Chant, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Vows Wider Inquiry”. nytimes. The New York Times Company. 10 Mar. 2015. Web. May 14 2015.

Gourdine, Angeletta KM. “Hearing Reading and Being ‘Read’ by Beloved”. NWSA Journal. Vol. 10. No. 2. (Summer 1998): pp. 13-31. JSTOR. Web. 14 May 2015.

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Random House, Inc., 1987. Print.

Stowe, Harriet beecher, and Elizabeth Ammons. Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Print.

Race and the American Novel Project Part II: Reader Response

Beloved is considered by many to be a classic piece of literature, and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988. It is considered by many to be a deep, emotional, complex, and layered book. After looking over several reviews from the sites Goodreads.com, Amazon.com, and Barnesandnoble.com, many people seemed to agree with this assessment. However, there were also a large amount that disagreed with this assessment, and found the book confusing, slow, boring, and the language too lofty. I personally agree with the latter reviewers.

The majority of the reviews that I read in regards to the novel were talking about the complex characters, masterful writing style, and unique and interesting plot. One reviewer wrote that it was “One of the most beautiful books I've ever read.” And other’s praise the writing style, one review saying, “Morrison’s use of words to describe events and characters in the book is gorgeous. I've read it numerous times and each time i fall in love over and over again.” Many reviewers also praised it’s realism in how it depicted the events of the lives of slaves and the horrors they went through. Overall, the majority of reviewers were extremely satisfied with the read, and even those who gave it average reviews still said that it was a good book, many simply citing the writing style and narrative as confusing.

There were those however, who thought that the book was not good at all. They said that it was drawn out, strange, uninteresting, confusing, and the writing was too abstract. “I found Beloved incomprehensible to the point of absurdity...For the story to grab me, I need to know what the story is,” wrote one reviewer. Another who read the book said, “It was more disturbing than I thought it would be, giving gruesome details on things that were depressing.” I thought it was interesting to view the contrast between these two types of readers, and to see that many of the reasons the novel is praised by those who enjoy it are the very same reasons that those who did not enjoy it criticize it.

I fall into the latter category of people. I am sure that I will get pushback on this, but I found the novel hard to get into. I found the writing style of Morrison to be rather dry and uninteresting, and extremely confusing. The constant shifting between viewpoints and times with little to no clues as to when it was happening was frustrating. The book was not all that interesting to me, and I felt the plot was thin and not intriguing. I agree with one reader that said that the book seemed rather pretentious. I thought story and writing style were very odd, and though I know it was trying to be realistic, I felt that the way the characters talked and how they thought was poorly written. With that said, I do see why people would praise a novel such as this, and I will admit that the character of Beloved and more specifically the supernatural elements of the story were some of the highlights. I had no problem with the graphic nature of the novel, as I felt it made a lasting impression of the horrors of slavery, although I did find it disturbing.

On the whole, the novel was mostly praised, and I think it will continue to be praised by many for a long time to come. Many see it as a masterpiece of literature dealing with complex issues and that it is still relevant despite the setting of the story. While I do agree that the novel is unique and interesting in some aspects, I simply did not enjoy it. I think part of it was my expectations upon hearing of the rave reviews were skewed and so because it was not what I was expecting I was disappointed. The novel was one that I am glad that I read for the sake of being more “cultured” so to speak, but not a book I will be reading again.

Race and the American Novel Project Part II: Contemporary Connections

Racism is still present today, whether people want to admit it or not. This is clear in the wake of the recent wake of tragedies and their subsequent protests that have happened around the country. Examples include those in Ferguson, New York, and Baltimore. However, one story that faded out rather quickly, but I feel is just as important, is one that occurred on the campus of the University of Oklahoma in early March of this year.

The incident I am referring to involved members of a national fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, chanting racist comments on their way to a formal event that was celebrating the founding of the fraternity. “The campus here has been reeling since members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon were shown in two videos chanting a song whose lyrics included racial slurs boasting that there would never be an African-American member. The song also referred to lynching…” (Fernandez, Perez-Pena).

The fraternity was shut down immediately by its headquarters in Illinois. The videos sparked protests from students across the campus, and some of the students involved were expelled from the University. Indeed, it seems that there have been very few black members of the fraternity, “William Blake James II wrote on his blog that when he joined in 2001, he was only the second black member…” (Fernandez, Perez-Pena). This is a particularly troubling incident, and although it is not as tragic as the incidents in other parts of the country that led to a loss of life, it is still sad to hear about nonetheless.

This incident, although recent, does in some way tie into the novel. This deals with the founding of the fraternity, which took place in 1856. “The fraternity — started in 1856 in Tuscaloosa, Ala., before the Civil War — celebrates its Southern heritage,” (Fernandez, Perez-Pena). The novel Beloved takes place in 1873, with flashbacks to the 1850’s. The novel provides an accurate account of the time, and this is the context in which the fraternity was founded, among the rising tensions just before the Civil War. This should give us some clue as to what the founding ideals were of this fraternity and what kinds of events shaped its early development.

I think that our reading of Beloved can greatly inform how we view this issue. The fact that the novel is so blunt about the reality of slavery is shocking, and yet I think it provides good context for what is it like to be on the receiving end of these racist comments. Slavery and those who lived through it suffered unimaginable horrors, many of which are uncomfortable even to talk about. When comments like these are spouted off without thinking, it brings up images, emotions, and feelings that are hurtful and have scarred the history of the African American people and America as a nation forever. People will never forget the terrible atrocity of slavery, and comments such as the ones said by the students are disrespectful, mean-spirited, and bring up hurts and wounds in exactly the wrong way. The struggle of African Americans should instead be looked at through eyes of compassion, reverence, respect, and pity.  

Work Cited:

Fernandez, Manny, & Perez-Pena, Richard. “As Two Oklahoma Students Are Expelled for Racist Chant, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Vows Wider Inquiry”. nytimes. The New York Times Company. 10 Mar. 2015. Web. May 14 2015.

Race and the American Novel Project Part II: Critical Commentary

In her article, Hearing Reading and Being “Read” by Beloved, one point that the author Angela KM Gourdine makes is an argument about what the character Beloved is. Not so much as to what she is physically, but more in regards as to what she represents. In the view of Gourdine, Beloved represents, what she calls “disremembered”. The reason that Beloved returns is to once again be remembered.

Essentially the argument that Gourdine makes is that Sethe repressed or “dismembered” Beloved after her death and that in anger, Beloved returns in order to once again be remembered by her mother. “...I am suggesting that Beloved is repressed memory resurfaced and the consequence of attempts to repress and ignore painful and explosive memories,” (Gourdine, 15.) Beloved is not simply content with Sethe remembering her, but wants to change the present. She wants to be connected again with Sethe and be one with her. This is why she begins to drain the life from Sethe, because she is Beloved’s sustenance. “To resist her own devouring, Beloved sustains herself on her mother, and by reattaching the umbilical cord, her lifeline, she drains Sethe,” (Gourdine, 23).

Gourdine points out that Sethe not only represses the memory of killing her daughter, but also those memories of Sweet Home and her time as a slave. She points out that this repression takes place not only in the mind of Sethe, but in all black women in some way. Gourdine goes even further and connects this repression to society as a whole. “Beloved reminders the readers, and those she encounters in the world of the text, that slavery, though repealed, is still with us; every dark body is haunted by it, marked by it,” (Gourdine, 18). Try as we might as a society to repress memories of slavery and try to escape it, we still feel its effects today, and repressing it will do no good.

This take, I feel, is a very profound one. I agree with this assessment, and this makes enhances the theme of letting go of the past. Viewing the story in this light, it is much easier to see that the novel is a story of a woman who has to forgive herself for what she has done. Sethe’s inability to forgive herself and simply repress the memory only makes it worse. She is filled with regret yet cannot fully bring herself to let go of her dead daughter. She thinks of what she had to do and the memory of what she had to endure, and it drags her down. She lives in the house with the ghost, and Beloved’s arrival symbolizes her repressed memories incarnate. Her memories come to the surface and begin to suck the life out of her (i.e. the umbilical cord). It is only when she faces her terrible memories and learns to live in the present that she can fully be free. I think one of the last lines in the book sums up this point perfectly, “me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow,” (Morrison, 322).

This article was a difficult one to decipher, and there were multiple themes in it, so zeroing in on one was difficult. However, I found this interpretation very interesting and insightful. I thought it was helpful that the author brought in other sources than just the book to support her various theories, and this enhanced the credibility of her arguments. This article definitely helped me understand just one of the main themes of the novel, as I am sure one could come up with dozens and dozens of themes present in this highly complex book.

Works Cited:

Gourdine, Angeletta KM. “Hearing Reading and Being ‘Read’ by Beloved”. NWSA Journal. Vol. 10. No. 2. (Summer 1998): pp. 13-31. JSTOR. Web. 14 May 2015.

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Random House, Inc., 1987. Print.

Extra Credit Blog: My Undergraduate Research & Creativity Symposium Experience

The Undergraduate Research & Creativity Symposium was a great experience for me, and I really enjoyed looking at and listening to everyone’s creative ideas, thoughts, and work. The thing that I most enjoyed about it was that it covered a wide range of topics, not just art or artistic expression. While I do think art is important and should be celebrated, it was also interesting to hear people’s ideas about using science, research, and their creativity to overcome problems that they saw or questions that they had. This blog post will be a brief rundown of the things I most enjoyed about the Symposium.

For the first part of the Symposium, I looked at the artwork and poetry collections that were on display in the commons. I found the poetry collection to be very interesting, especially since I am in the creative writing class from which they were submitted. It was interesting to view and read the different collections and see how the poetry related to their particular theme. In class I had heard ideas spouted off about what other students wanted to do, so to be able to see them first hand on display was really neat. The artwork was also very impressive, and I enjoyed looking at all the various pieces on display. Most were of the human figure in some pose, and it was intriguing to look at all the different interpretations people came up with, whether it be more abstract or realistic looking. The other artwork seemed to be random, but was also very impressive, and I am always in awe of people who can use simple ink and paper to make images come alive.

The second part of the Symposium I participated in was the first round of oral presentations. The first presentation was talking about the evolution of sexism towards women in math and science. It was interesting to learn about the involvement of women in these fields, and yet disappointing to hear that many of their achievements were undervalued or overlooked simply because they were women. The study done on sexism towards female professors and staff of the UW- Manitowoc campus was relevant and I feel proved their points well. The second presentation was on homelessness in Manitowoc County. I found it eye opening, as this is a subject that is barley talked about among the community. Also, I feel that their solution of buying bus passes to facilitate the homeless people’s travel with only $100 demonstrated their resourcefulness and knowledge of the real problems facing these people. The poetry reading at the end was excellent and emotional. The use of visual aides was interesting and something I had never seen done before in a presentation of a literary piece. I felt it helped convey the emotion and feelings of the speaker and added depth to the words she was reading.

The last part I attended was the poster session. I found the projects interesting and thought they all looked professional and well thought out, with the information on them clearly laid out, and the use of visual aids such as charts or graphs was helpful in interpreting the data and information on them. I thought one of the impressive aspects was how some studies had been done over the course of multiple years, with student passing their accumulated information down to other so they could continue to study whatever that subject was. I also thought that the other studies were well conducted and that all the topics were interesting and thought provoking.

The Undergraduate Research & Creativity Symposium was a great experience and one that I found stimulating in a variety of ways. I felt that the different expressions and research that was presented was all interesting and that everything looked professional and well done. It was a successful afternoon, one in which I learned much. I feel that it was successful and the people who had work in it should be proud of themselves, as they helped contribute to a great day that reflected positively on the University.

The Disturbing Dangers of Devaluing Women

The excerpt we read from The Woman Warrior was a powerful, yet disturbing piece of literature. This piece was a true story, with some embellishments, about the author, Maxine Hong Kingston, imagining what life must have been like for her aunt whom she never knew. Her aunt committed suicide because of the treatment she received due to a suspiciously timed pregnancy while her husband was away in America, and she was in China. To me, the most disturbing aspect of this story is that whoever this person was who impregnated her, she had to have known them well.

“He was not a stranger because the village had no strangers. She had to have dealings with him other than sex” (pg. 1509). To me, this is perhaps the most disturbing part of the story. Kingston is not sure whether the pregnancy was due to rape or, perhaps the sex was consensual. Both possibilities are  equally troubling. If the man was an attacker, it meant that Kingston’s aunt would had to see the man around the village regularly, constantly reminded of the abuse that she took from him. Also, if the man was a consensual lover, then it meant that he stood by and said nothing while she took the brunt of the hatred from the other villagers. The fact that if he was a lover, and he got involved with a married woman should also say something about him. In both cases, it is clear that whoever this man was, he clearly did not care about her.

I think that the scenario that her aunt finds herself in speaks volumes about the mistreatment and the disrespect given to women throughout history. The passage, “Women in China did not choose. Some man commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil,” (pg. 1509), explains this perfectly. If their feelings were mutual or not, it did not matter. He viewed Kingston’s aunt as below him, so she had to do what he said. Perhaps she was in love with him, but did not want to have sex. This didn’t matter, she had to do what she was told. This story shows perfectly what can happen when women are viewed as second class citizens and have no power to speak out.

The public shaming of her also shows what kind of things happen in a culture where women are looked down upon and treated poorly. In modern America and other countries where women are treated more equal than before, divorces and other such goings on are not public matters that are laid out for everyone in the community to see. “The villagers had also been counting. On the night the baby was to be born the villagers raided our house,” (pg. 1507). In modern times, at least in America and other western nations, nothing like this would happen. Matters relating to families are more private and couples can choose what they want to disclose and not disclose to others. Matters such as divorce, adultery and the like should not be dealt with by the public, but instead should be a private matter dealt with by only those that the couple wants involved.

I think this excerpt raises some interesting questions and points about what happens in a culture that devalues women. Because in many of these cultures women lack, or have lacked in the past, a say in many aspects of their life, they are unable to control many of the things that happen around them. This leads to situations that are harmful to everyone involved, and this is just one of the many reasons that women should be given full equal footing with men all around the world, regardless of the situation. This excerpt is a strong reminder of the dangerous stress, pressure, and physical and emotional turmoil that result in a culture where women are belittled.