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Sense of Self

One aspect of Beloved that I found especially fascinating was the way that Toni Morrison explored the sense of self and identity of a lot of the characters. Through Slavery, the identity of those who are enslaved is greatly reduced. Some of it is intentional, like how Schoolteacher talks about Sethe in terms of “breeding” and her “foals.” Some of it is a byproduct of the system, like not knowing your real mother or language. The disconnect between families causes many enslaved people not to know about who they are. They also work so much that they don’t have time to discover who they truly are. Some of the lack of sense of self or connection is almost a form of self-protection. Lots of people were prepared for the inevitability of being torn from their parents or children so they didn’t allow themselves to become fully connected as mothers, fathers, sisters, or brothers. We’ve talked about Sethe, Beloved, and Denver a lot in class so for my blog post I want to focus on Baby Suggs and P
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Eatonville

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While reading Their Eyes Were Watching God, I became curious about the history of the town of Eatonville. While reading the book, the only places we hear about in Eatonville are the store and Janie’s house. We see Eatonville through Janie’s eyes but she doesn’t spend much time away from her work or home because of how controlling Jody was. What was it like to live in Eatonville during such a racist time? How did residents celebrate their newfound freedom? I wanted to see what it would have been like to live in an all-Black town.        Known as a Freedman’s Town, Eatonville was founded in 1887 and was originally part of Maitland. It was America’s first incorporated Black town. A former slave and philanthropist bought land from Josiah Eaton who was also the namesake for the town. Church and School were vital to the history of the town. The town was home to St. Lawrence A.M.E. Church and Hungerford Normal and Industrial School. With post-primary education and vibrant churches, Eatonvil
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On Black Boys and Native Sons

Reading “Black Boys and Native Sons” was honestly a bit of an emotional experience for me. It sums up so much of what is wrong in the way that many people view Black people and people of color in general. Irving Howe’s piece is extremely racist and ignorant and is the embodiment of how many liberal white people view people of color. By writing about Native Son in the way he did, he ironically proved one of Richard Wright’s points.        I found a particular offence in the way that Howe reduces Black people to our suffering. He seems to think that Wright has somehow misunderstood the Black Experience. Race was a central theme of the novel, however, someone like Howe is so preoccupied with his ideas of black people that he is unable to see the Black Experience as anything but what he believes. I would be willing to bet that he is the type of person who would preach about equality but when confronted with actual racism he would disregard it. He is the type of person to see racism only
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When Dr. Bledsoe called the Narrator a N****r

One aspect of Invisible Man that I found really interesting was the way in which the n-word appeared in the text. The N-word has a long history and has had a huge variety of uses over time. I’d like to acknowledge that there is no way that I can discuss all of its uses and how everyone views the N-word. I wanted to discuss this more fully in a blog post because these topics can be difficult to discuss in class due to the demographics of the class.        Although used only a handful of tiems, the N-word has been employed throughout Invisible Man in almost every use of the word. It was used by the white people at the Battle Royal during the fight, in his dream about his Grandfather, several times by Dr. Bledsoe, and several times within the Narrator’s own narration. It was used in jokes and in the most viooently offesive and racist way. I found the instance with Dr. Bledsoe to be particularly interesting and, although we read that section a while ago, I have continued to think about i
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Is Dr. Bledsoe a Sellout?

One discussion that we had in class that I found particularly interesting was the debate about weather or not Dr. Bledsoe is a sellout to his race. We talked about it after reading the passage where the Narrator sees Dr. Bledsoe raise and lower his mask in front of Mr. Norton. Most people in our class agreed that Dr. Bledsoe was a sellout but I disagreed with that idea at the time of the discussion. Apart from the following passage “I'll have every Negro in the country hanging on tree limbs by morning if it means staying where I am,” I felt that, while Dr. Bledsoe acted poorly, he was in no way a sellout (Ellison 143). I would define a sellout to be someone who actively puts down other black people for their own gain. I think of someone like Daniel Cameron , the attorney general of Kentucky, when I think of a sellout, but I wasn’t ready to brand Dr. Bledsoe one.        When we discussed this passage, I saw Dr. Bledsoe as someone who manipulated the system for his own gain. Howeve
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Native Son & Character Development

The level that Richard Wright describes and forms his characters is, in my opinion, a big indicator of the purpose of his book. Native Son is a protest novel with specific goals which relate to what it is protesting. Wright wanted to show the flaws of the American System and how it affected black people. He wanted to reach lots of people and share his message, his goal was neither artistry nor character depth. Bigger’s purpose in Native Son was to serve as a reflection of his environment, not to be a full character or person. He shows enough of Bigger so that we can understand him but Bigger never really grows and changes as a character. Wright wants to show what happens to a person if they’re put under such harsh conditions. Bigger changes as the system affects him more since he acts as a mirror.        While Richard Wright’s characters are simplistic reflections of their environments, I wouldn’t necessarily call that a bad thing. His goal was to prove a point and make a statement.
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