Blog 6

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston was one of my favorite books to read this semester. It was full of love and tragedy of all kinds. The biggest tragedy, I thought, was at the end when Janie shot her love, Tea Cake. While talking in class, there were debates on why she killed him and why she felt like she was at peace when everything was said and done. I think, personally, that she felt like she was at peace because his suffering was over with and he was no longer going to feel pain. Someone thought it was because she “killed” every husband figure in the past, but I feel she was at peace not because she was rid of him, but because she got rid of his suffering. Tea Cake did many things for Janie during his lifetime. One of the biggest sacrifice was saving her from the rabid dog when they were stuck in the middle of the hurricane. The rabid dog bit him on the face and gave him rabies, which is why Tea Cake died. I really feel like their love was real. “He leaped at the bucket at once. But this time, the sight of the water was enough. He was on the kitchen floor in great agony when she returned. She petted him, soothed him, and got him back into bed.” (Hurston 179)

In this passage, I feel that Janie really does care for Tea Cake. No matter how hard he tries to cover up the fact that he is suffering, she can tell and she is there to comfort him and help him. This is not how she acted toward Jody when he fell ill and all she did was make him feel like crap by bringing up how wrongly he had treated her. With Logan, she just up and left him for Jody and had no remorse in doing so. All her actions are different with Tea Cake. I feel Janie’s actions to kill Tea Cake was, yes to save herself, but I feel  like she made the conscious decision to end his life and his suffering before he grabbed the pistol. She loved him enough to put an end to his misery.

Blog 5

In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, is focused in the late 1800’s where Kate tells the struggles women had during this time period. They were not only battling themselves, but society as well.

       Edna, being a mother and a wife, has many responsibilities placed upon her by her husband and society in general. There are many stereotypes that society places on women who are mothers in the fact that they are supposed to give everything they have for their kids and put everyone in front of themselves. In The Awakening, Edna is faced with these stereotypes and she doesn’t want to give into them. She does not want to sit at home with the children and be the typical housewife to her husband. She wants to go off and do her own thing and be her own person, without the stereotypes attached. Edna does not want to be with her husband, but living in this time period, there was a social pressure to marry a rich husband and have kids. Edna does a great job of explaining her true feelings by saying, “I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose.” (Chopin 102) Edna clearly says she doesn’t want to give in to what society wants. She wants to be with who she wants to be with and she doesn’t want to be owned by any man or disposed of by any man.

       I think this is why she killed herself in the end of the novella. She felt like she was faced with no other alternative. At that point in her life, she had nowhere to turn. Robert was gone, she didn’t want to be with Mr. Pontellier, her kids, she felt, were better off with her parents. She moved out and into her own house, but she still felt like she belonged to Mr. Pontellier, and she was being scrutinized by society and her peers for having an affair and not wanting to be a mother. Yes, she was happy for that little bit of time but she realized that her husband would soon return, Robert went back to Mexico and left her behind, and she would soon need to return to motherhood. The pressure of men and the society in which Edna lived in is what I think drove her to suicide. Society and men have a funny way of boxing women in and expecting so much from them. Soon, some women become so constricted within the walls of men and society, they simply stop breathing.

Gilded Age or Gilded Cage?

In “The House of Mirth” by Edith Wharton, many themes appear throughout the book. The one that I feel is the biggest theme is the economic status of the women involved. There is a huge push on women by society at this time that they needed to find a rich husband to marry within a certain age, or they would face poverty.

This social pressure that Lily Bart faced is what I believe drove her to kill herself. She was told by society and her friends that she needed to be beautiful and find and marry a rich husband to ensure her spot within the social elite. No matter who proposed to Lily, she always found a way to make the marriage not work. She wanted to be independent, and didn’t want to depend on a man to buy her nice things. Women at this time who married rich men, were more or less around to show off how rich the man was. They were given nice clothes and fine jewelry and strut around town hanging on the arm of their husbands. Women were there for show and Lily didn’t want to be an object.

Not wanting to obey by societies rules, but wanting to fit into the social elite class, I feel is what drove Lily into having no friends and no husband in the end. I also feel that this is why she killed herself. She didn’t have anyone left and when she saw the life she could have had with Seldon if she would have accepted him in marriage in the beginning of the book, she felt depressed and saw that she might never have that. Lily might not have felt she had much to live for anymore. At the end, she says, “But the terrible silence and emptiness seemed to symbolize her future-she felt as though the house, the street, the world were all empty, and she alone left sentient in a lifeless universe.” (Wharton 250)

It really isn’t right that Lily resorted to suicide at the end, even if she felt like she didn’t have anything to live for anymore. It’s sad the type of pressure society can put on women to conform and do things perfectly and when women don’t hold up to those standards, they are shunned. Some resort to suicide and this is one of those sad stories.

Named and Namelessness: Alice Walker’s Pattern of Surnames in The Color Purple  By: Charles J. Heglar

The main point of this scholarly article is to explain why Alice Walker decided to keep most of the men nameless for the majority of the book. Charles says that the reason Walker did this was, “to draw attention to her examination of male dominance; on the other hand, in the few cases when she supplies a surname for a character, Walker indicates an alternative to such domination.” (Charles pg. 1) According to Charles, Walker withholds the men’s surnames in order to diminish their patriarchal authority. By the end of the book, Albert is referred to by his first name once he makes his transformation, humanizing him. Samuel is referred to by his first name quicker than Albert because his concept of God becomes less Eurocentric while in Africa with Nettie. When looking at the women, which is where most of the article focuses on, they are given surnames to establish an alternative to male domination. When looking at Shug Avery and Sofia Butler, they are given surnames because they are able to break away from the imposed stereotypes given to them by society and be models for others, like Celie. Lastly, when looking at a character introduced briefly early on in the book, Miss Addie Beasley, she is given a surname because of her influence on Nettie wanting to become an educated woman. Although Beasley couldn’t help Celie once she found out she was pregnant, she helps one of the major characters in the book.

I found this article and perspective on the namelessness of the male figures very interesting. We talked in class on our thoughts and opinions on why Albert wasn’t named by Celie and the majority of us thought it was to give Albert power, not to take his power and authority away. I can say I was one who thought the namelessness, was, in fact, to give the men power. I was intrigued by this article and the viewpoints Charles has on this aspect of the story. His thoughts on the surnames of the women though I think I agree with because it makes sense that the two most influential people to Celie and the most influential person to Nettie are the ones who have surnames. They are the only women in the story that really challenge the typical roles and behaviors of women of this time period.

When looking at Sparknotes, the author did not do a general analysis on the book as a whole, they broke it up into the different letters sent. So I am going to choose to look at the letters at the very end of the book where Celie is in her final letters with Nettie and is dealing with life without Shug, who ran off with a man a third of her age. The author of Sparknotes analyzes this part of the book by thinking that, in her final letters, Celie is able to show how much she has developed since the beginning of the book. She is able to analyze her own feelings, which she was not able to do effectively at the beginning of the story. The author feels that since Walker keeps the element of writing a key component in Celie’s growth and redemption, she is underlying the very importance of literacy in African-Americans. Since there is a difference in the writing levels between Nettie and Celie, Celie still gains much out of her writing. Walker wanted this to be noticed to show that writing is important and educational levels should not be used as a barrier between people, but used as something to bring them closer together.

I do agree with this author on the fact that, through writing, Celie is able to show just how much she has grown and how much she has learned throughout her life. Even though she is not as smart or as educated as her sister, I feel that Celie did get more out of writing than Nettie. I feel that Nettie used it simply to get in touch with Celie, yet Celie used to as a way to let her feelings out that she couldn’t necessarily tell other people, or she was told she couldn’t tell other people. Celie used writing as an escape, not just to keep in touch with Nettie, since she didn’t start addressing her letters to Nettie until the end of the book, where in the beginning she addressed them to God.

These two websites and articles are VERY different and in many ways. The website analysis was more general and covered a lot more topics. The scholarly article focused on one thought and one theme, if you will, in the book. I found the scholarly article to be the strongest, most interesting and most engaging simply because Charles went into more detail on why he analyzed that part of the book the way he did. I found his article to be very intriguing and I actual sat down and read the whole thing. (That says a lot!) I feel like Sparknotes is very removed from the analysis and Charles article was more involved. Sparknotes’ analysis didn’t challenge the interpretation I already made, but Charles did, in fact, challenge how I viewed the reason why the men were nameless. It definitely made me look at the book in a new light, and think more abstractly about that part of the book. After thinking about it, I don’t know if I agree with, by not naming the men, it takes away their power, simply given the time period. But I do respect his analysis. I never took notice that the three women who challenge the patriarchal “norm” are given surnames and after reading Charles’ article, I do agree with his statement that it takes away from the male dominance.

Kindred

I can honestly say I was nervous going into the book, Kindred by Octavia Butler because I was worried it was going to be another desensitized recollection about slavery. Slavery was a prominent time in American history that should not be taken lightly or dramatized in any way. I was, in fact, pleased with how this book was written and the story that was told through Dana’s eyes. The part of the book I really want to focus on is the end that we talked about in class today. I didn’t give my two cents worth on my thoughts and opinions on the significance of Dana losing her arm in class, so I am giving it now.

When I first read that part of the book, I was confused on why Octavia Butler incorporated that, and at that point in the book. After rereading it a couple times and thinking about it and the time period, I feel that Dana lost her arm, a part of her, in the 1800’s while traveling back and forth. This physical change to her body will be carried with her for the rest of her life, just like slavery will be carried with her for the rest of her life; as her ancestors are the reason she is able to live the life she wants and can consider marrying Kevin. “His body went limp and leaden across me, I pushed him away somehow-everything but his hand still on my arm. Then I convulsed with terrible, wrenching sickness.” (Page 260) The fact that Dana lost her arm in the place where Rufus’ hand was signifies, to me, that even in death, Rufus controlled Dana in that instance and in the future, as she will have to cope and live with one arm. Rufus has forever had an impact on Dana she will never be able to just forget or cover up, like the emotional, mental, and psychological damage. When Dana is trying to learn how to rewrite or go about her job back home with one arm, this is will be because of Rufus; she will be forced to change her life because of Rufus, leaving a forever impact on Dana. 

When finishing the book, The Handmaid’s Tale, the part I found myself questioning the most was this execution. I found it rather odd that the women attending the Salvage are not able to know the crimes of which these three women are accused of. Aunt Lydia states on page 275, “… It has been the custom to precede with the actual Salvagings with a detailed account of the crimes of which the prisoners stand convicted. However, we have found that such a public account, especially when televised, is invariable followed by a rash, if I may call it that, an outbreak I should say, of exactly similar crimes…” This quote makes me feel that the women of Gilead are not good enough or trusted enough to know what their fellow Handmaid’s did. I feel it is another way the government keeps the people pushed into the ground; by having them think they aren’t good enough or trusted enough to hear the truth. It’s another way for the men running the system and the rich women for that matter (Aunt Lydia, who obviously knows the truth) to remind the rest of the women they are the unimportant ones in the greater scheme of things. I know, if I was in Offred’s position, I would want to know the truth on what actually happened; if the death of these women were actually justified or something minor and blown out of proportion.

The man who was beaten to death by the Handmaids, his reason for death was explicitly stated by Aunt Lydia on page 278. “This man, has been convicted of rape. He was once a Guardian. He has disgraced his uniform. He has abused his position of trust. His partner in viciousness has already been shot….I might add that this crime involved two of you and took place at gunpoint. It was also brutal. I will not offend your ears with any details, except to say that one woman was pregnant and the baby died.” I’m not sure exactly when his reasoning for death was stated and the woman’s reason was not said. Maybe it shows that men can handle the truth and not get copycat ideas in their heads like women might. Also maybe, showing that men are more emotionally stable than women. I’m not sure!!

The part of The Hunger Games I am going to analyze is at the end of the book, where Peeta and Katniss are trying to fight off the sub-human, dog like creatures. During this scene, I didn't think anything of it other than it was the Gamemakers way of bringing the three together to fight to the death. It wasn't until Katniss said and noticed there was something familiar about this animals that I started to question the ethics of the Gamemakers. Once she realized it was the eyes of the fallen tributes, I was taken aback. I feel like the Gamemakers wanted to make sure Katniss and Peeta knew and understood that the fighting was not over. When Katniss started to question if not only the eyes of the fallen tributes were apart of the animal, but their brains too; it made me wonder, since this story line is projected into the future, if the Capitol was able to keep or revive the brains of the tributes to put into these animals so they were able to understand what was going on and communicate with each other once again. If so, it would take creepy to a whole new level!

When Katniss says, "And worst of all, the smallest mutt, with dark glossy fur, huge brown eyes and a collar that reads 11 in woven straw. Teeth bared in hatred, Rue..." Looking at the quote, I wonder how Rue could be filled with hatred toward Katniss since she did ally with her and survive together. Katniss did everything she could to save her, she even killed her killer, and then sang her a song and placed beautiful flowers around Rue before the hovercraft picked her up. This part of the book gives me reassurance that, if in fact, the Capitol used the brains of the fallen tributes, they would of had to alter their minds because Rue couldn't of hated Katniss. I have been in situations vaguely similar to that of Katniss, when I see features of people I know on random strangers I see walking about. I take double takes and stare for a while wondering if it's actually the person I know or someone else. Once I realize it's someone, then I feel odd for staring but the fact that I was so sure it was a person I knew and it wasn't is creepy. I couldn't imagine what was going through Katniss' mind at the time was she came to her realization.