Racism or Nah...?

Accusing someone of being racist is a bold statement to make however; using textual evidence and an analytical response makes the statement controversial. I appreciated Chinua Achebe’s point of view and reasoning of how/why Joseph Conrad is racist, especially since Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian Writer and Professor, although I was not convinced. If a work of literature does not scream racism or say in the fine print, “This novel deals with racism…” I will not analyze the reading for it. Conrad informed readers about a story about what he personally experienced throughout his journey along the Congo River to the heart of Africa and how that affected people around him. Heart of Darkness, written in 1899, has readers automatically infer that whites will be prejudice towards black, analyzing the interactions of Europeans in specific and Africans. Conrad did not write a novella about the history of Europeans colonizing land in Africa; prior history should have pertained before reading the novella. Therefore, readers are aware the novella will be sensitive towards several topics and in Achebe’s case: racism. Achebe’s statement of “Africans teaching their own people” is a segregated statement. It is as if saying Jews have to teach other Jews about the holocaust and not Nazis. How are third party people supposed to be educated on history if someone who is of that race during the historical time has to teach it? Yes, the way Conrad described Africa and Africans on numerous accounts are portrayed as racist, but that is the purpose of a writer. In order for readers to grasp and understanding of the work, describing scenes and characters in depth is essential to creating a picture of what is occurring.

The way Achebe put passages of Conrad’s novella in his speech helped me get a different point of view of how Conrad is describing native “savages” which supposedly illuminated how he is racist. Conrad described an African woman being “…savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent…” with every compliment came an insult. Then later described a European woman as delicate and elegant in the way she walked toward him. If we stop and think for a minute and picture the African women, we too can describe her as savage and wild-eyed. It is as if you are picturing an African woman who has a dark countenance but in reality, she is delicate and elegant. I agree Conrad could have used diction but Heart of Darkness is still an exceptional novella despite if there are racist comments. 

Scoop in the Gothic

Caution: Blog post may contain many obscene ideas and implications. Viewer discretion may be advised.

What comes to mind when you hear or see the phrase “gothic”? Are you even aware of a gothic genre (i.e.: gothic novels, movies, songs, etc.)? Maybe we have recalled gothic novels and movies, but songs…No idea. By now, you are probably thinking of the people who wear all black with an excessive amount of piercing or tattoos but that is just your ignorant conscious. Gothic genres reflect on the supernatural within real situations to have readers believe in the supernatural. Gothic literature entails powers, the uncanny, the sublime, humans’ psychological state of mind, vivid imagery (i.e.: haunted mansions, dark scenery, open tracts of land, etc.), and most importantly, the supernatural.

In our childhood, we have seen several instances of a gothic genre or even the occurrence of the supernatural.

Movies:

• The Haunted Mansion
•   Dracula
•   Frankenstein
• The Woman in Black

Often times, there are several works of gothic literature, but Emily Brontë’s gothic novel has to be the best by far. Wuthering Heights has to be the best gothic novel I have read this far (I have only read one gothic novel).

Warning: If you have read the novel, do not watch the movie. The movie is very…trash.

While reading the novel, Bronte’s adds an excessive amount of vivid imagery to relate with what is happening in the novel. Not only that but with setting, she brings up themes and topics about the novel and the characters within the novel… all through the use of setting. For example, readers are introduced to a dark house that experiences bad weather and assumes that it is simply just a dark house that experiences bad weather. Although, this dark house that experiences bad weather relate to the dark characters who live within this house, with their dark humor, and their dark attitudes.

In addition, the younger characters in the novel are somehow all related to each other whether it is through marriage (incest) or their parents (cousins). Personally, my favorite set of characters are the two Cathies. “Omg, how was she even able to read a novel with two different characters with the same name?” It was easy once you kept reading, keyword “kept”. Emily Brontë has a mother and a daughter, Catherine Earnshaw Linton and Catherine Linton Heathcliff who possess many of the similar character traits. Although, the loving nature of Catherine Linton Heathcliff (young Cathy) was what differed from her mother. Her mother having sought love through a social status did not experience the same love her daughter experienced. Through the topic of love was when the double nature within these two characters were found. Young Catherine was able to fulfill and continue the life her mother would have lived had she made better choices. Although this novel, written centuries ago, Emily Brontë addressed several themes that can relate to society today. Nobody should hinder a child’s or someone else’s growth and ability to learn from his or her mistakes. The life an older generation once lived is redundant, but the younger generation has the ability to fix the mistakes and make something better out of a previous life. 

More on Wuthering Heights (Highly Recommended) 

Thug Notes!!

Reality of War

I am not a fan of poetry and especially not poems that are short and to the point. To me, it makes it harder to find the author’s purpose of the poem in just a few lines. Essentially, because the author wants the reader to indicate the several meanings in a poem without adding so much detail. When reading the directions of the poem, then reading the poem title itself, I was able to grasp that the poem would be about the military or people of the military. Which would make sense, given that we are currently reading the novel Catch-22. 

Upon reading and analyzing the poem, my inferences were correct. In just ten lines, the author described the stages of being in war through a speaker who experienced it or even assumes how war is. There was a lot of visual imagery used in the poem, obviously to get the reader to paint a picture of what is happening to convey the speaker’s attitude. For starters, the speaker seems as if they wish they were a General or Colonel, “guzzling and gulping in the best hotel” (5), assuming that the Colonels and Generals get the best treatment. As well as the speaker describing the training and treatment of younger soldiers, “And speed glum heroes up the line to death” (3). Both uses of imagery contradict themselves because it seems as though older soldiers train younger soldiers to their death. Indicating that the sole purpose of a General in war is to relax and watch younger soldiers complete every task in battle. The speaker of this poem has a negative or sarcastic attitude towards the epithets of war. Conveying that the trials and tribulations that young soldiers go through in war do not compare to Generals or Colonels. In the two ending lines of the poem is where the bigger picture is found, “when the war is done and youth stone dead” (9), he experienced war and experienced younger soldiers dying; “I’d toddle safely home and die—in bed.” (10), older soldiers then get to die in the comforts of their home. The overall message is to criticize the mistreatment of younger soldiers in war. The sarcasm of the speaker is to convey the irony in the soldiers who sacrifice themselves to become manipulated by older soldiers in war. 

Satire

Pride and Prejudice 

When thinking of the word "satire", I assumed something difficult. That a satire novel would be difficult to comprehend or just boring to read. As you, people know from previous blog posts, I am not a reader. I read more so by force than by choice. UNLESS... If there were a book that everyone is gossiping about, I would most likely read it and join in on the gossip. 

A satire novel is "the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. 2. a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule", quoted from an online dictionary website. A satire novel consist of humor that intervenes with the meaning of the work as a whole but still is considered a literary merit. Humor that criticizes humanity. The satire novel I chose was Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. You might be thinking, "Where have I heard that title from?" which is okay because there is a movie coming out called, "Pride+Prejudice+Zombies". 

Pride and Prejudice is split up into 3 volumes with sub-chapters incorporated in it. The first chapter is an overview of what to expect in later chapters. There is a mother named Mrs.Bennet who is desperate to have her five unmarried daughters named Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia married. There is a wealthy man in their town, Charles Bingley. The girls father, Mr.Bennet made plans with Mr.Bingley and ended up having the family invited to their ball. At this ball, Jane gets familiar with Charles and ends up dancing with him. After this dance, Charles ends up becoming interested in Jane. However, events occur from the night of the ball up until the point where a man named Mr.Darcy starts becoming interested in Jane’s sister Elizabeth. Thus far, two out of the five girls have men interested in them. For a lack of a better meaning, “they have the juice.” (Only teenagers would understand that phrase) Fast forwarding to the end…

Summarizing the entire novel is boring to read so…

Jane- Potential couple with Darcy but that does not happen. She has love for Bingley, the man she was dancing with at the ball.

Elizabeth- Was proposed to by a man named Darcy but she turned him down.

Mary- Single

Kitty (Catherine)- Single 

Lydia- Youngest sister and practically elopes with a man named Mr.Wickman.

Pride and Prejudice is a love story between two young adults who potentially let their pride and get in the way of that, hence the title. In the beginning, I thought it would be a novel about fixed marriage which is so forced. There would not be any love behind a planned marriage. Overall, I thought the novel brought up a lot of interesting themes. It's not everyday where you read a text and learn something from it. Brings me back to grade school where after every book I read I’d have to figure the moral of it. Good times. 

Jane Austen uses characters to express her humor through them, making them satirical characters. The satire in this novel is the attitudes the characters possess. Some characters being Mr.Collins, Catherine, and Mr.Wickham. The author believed that marriage should not occur on forced feelings, pressures to marry from parents, or due to someone's wealth or social status and for this purpose she satirizes the society, like I mentioned before through different characters in her novel. There were characters that were judged due to their wealth in the society and because of that, women were easily attracted to them. 

Let's Play the Blame Game

The blame game is a risky game to play, especially when it is based off a play with very few characters. Already it is easy to figure out who did what. The play Othello was a train reaction of events. It starts off with two people having a conversation and that conversation traveling all throughout Cyprus. It was as if it were 2009 and I was in elementary school, all the kids in the schoolyard circled around gossiping about cute boys. Meghan would whisper to her friend Brandy that she heard that Amanda likes John. Childish right? Which is the jist to the immature characteristics of Iago. Iago sat around gossiping to Roderigo about his emotions towards Othello.

The blame game started off with Rodgerigo and Iago upset about the elopement with Othello and Desdemona. Iago being a fit contestant for the blame game. It all started with his jealousy for the Moor and his greed for power. Iago upset that he did not know and Rodgerigo upset because he was not the one marrying Desdemona. Iago also being upset that he isn’t Othello’s lieutenant. Which led him to spur up lies based on how he felt instead of what was smart. From Act 1 Scene 1, Iago’s deceiving mastermind thought of a bizarre way to take Othello down without potentially being caught. 

Fastforwarding to Act 5 Scene 2, when the climax hit its peak. Iago was able to easily convince Desdemona of her infidelity with Cassio. Any husband would be corrupt with the news but, Othello’s reaction is what wowed the audience. Killing Desdemona was Othello’s way of saying he can only trust what information is being fed to him rather than what he witnessed. By now, one would think that Othello is one to blame for her death. He should not have listened to Iago but, rather listened to Desdemona when she was telling the truth. Plot twist, Iago is to blame for every event that took place that led to the death of Desdemona. If he put his pride aside and expressed his feelings towards Othello, none of this would have happened. He told Brabantio about the elopement, he convinced Rodgerigo to pay him for planning his scheme, he got Cassio out of Othello’s service, and had Othello believing Desdemona cheated on him. The only thing that Othello can be blamed for is the death of Desdemona. In the end, it all seemed like it was a game of who is the best gossiper in Cyprus. 

Like the best rapper in the game said, “Let’s play the blame game, I love you more.” 

-Kanye West

Assimilation within Literary Works

Assimilation: The state of being absorbed into something, experience, information, etc or absorbing one cultural within another cultural group.

Do you ever think about how you walk around school and find that everyone either talks the same or dresses the same? Would that be considered assimilation? Absorbed by the people around you, something or being absorbed by the information you are being fed. Assimilation can be both positive and negative. Positive when the information and experiences are positive but vice versa when it’s understood the wrong way.

I do not believe in religion, I never really did. Truthfully because I did not understand how people worshipped a different God or figure, that always figured. Therefore, I am unique, I am not religious however, I am a firm believer and follower of Christ. Anyone can take that information and look at me differently because I do not believe in religion. That is assimilation in a negative way.

Invisible Man identifies a character that is engrossed into a community where he goes through the state of assimilation. Establishing that he is invisible reveals that he would not encounter anyone or be involved in any experiences that would make him different. When the narrator joins the Brotherhood, they took his experiences and qualities and absorbed him into their ‘mastermind’. Giving speeches and fleeing the city to support causes that had nothing to do with the Brotherhood. Potentially blinding him into believing that the Brotherhood is for the better. What they needed was more black men so the community would always be on their side. Which relates back to how Dr.Bledsoe his masked in the best judgement of white people instead of standing up for his own race. Seems as though everyone in this novel was assimilated into the white world and believing that they have no important role in it because they are black. This brings up the theme colliding cultures because assimilating is the state of absorbing one cultural within another culture.

Being assimilated into a white community is also revealed in Native Son. I feel as though nobody really caught on to how the newspaper media played an important role in Bigger’s demise. Yes, he was already doomed from the beginning, but doesn’t it seem as though the newspaper media blew things out of proportion? Which led to the point where the justice system was assimilated into the opinion of the media instead of their own evidence and judgement.  During the inquest of Bigger Thomas, the news reports on what happens during the inquest and they discuss his upbringing down South.  The purpose of the article is to strike fear in the readers that they should fear black people like Bigger Thomas.  The reporter quotes an editor of a southern newspaper who suggests “residential segregation is imperative…to keep them as much as possible out of direct contact with white women and lessens there attacks against them” (355). Bigger Thomas is used as an example to continue segregation based on race.  The killings suggest that black people should not encounter white people simply to keep peace.  Because Bigger killed a white woman, the black community is penalized for his actions. The newspaper judges Bigger before the trial begins making his situation worse.

Assimilation: The state of being absorbed into something, experience, information, etc or absorbing one cultural within another cultural group.

Literary Merit

Literary Merit: The quality shared by all works of fiction that are considered to have aesthetic value. The concept is considered criticized as being subjective since personal taste determine aesthetic value.

-Definition from College Board

To me I feel as though a literary merit is a novel that teaches us a lesson. Remember when we were in elementary school and at the end of the novel there was always a lesson or the moral of the novel? For instance, The Boy Who Cried Wolf--if you lie about needing help and when the time comes when you are in danger, help will not come. Then when we get older we read books like The Lord of the Flies--one still exist even though they were masked but an uncivilized society. We can always take a work of literature and relate back to real life situations that may relate to us.

The novel Black Boy depicts a character that is put into a society of racial inequality. The literary merit behind this book is how an individual survives in a society filled with prejudice and intolerance in the environment. To be completely honest, the narrator is a mischievous child who nobody likes to put up with. He went through a large amount of different jobs, his family members have a hard time dealing with him, and he constantly moves from household to household. Depicting that for him it's pretty hard to survive in any given environment. Living down south was not for him so he decided to find a better lifestyle up north. Finding that racism did not exist as much in the north than it did in the south. I would not say I personally learned a lesson from this novel but the overall lesson was basically survival of the fittest in a prejudice society.