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