During our unit on Toni Morrison's Beloved, we will watch 13th, a documentary about the 13th amendment and the aftermath of slavery to the present. See the interview with film director Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey, below.
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
Due Wednesday, October 9th - First Body Paragraph
Directions: In this space, post your most refined body paragraph and we will give feedback on grammar and style.
During our unit on Toni Morrison's Beloved, we will watch 13th, a documentary about the 13th amendment and the aftermath of slavery to the present. See the interview with film director Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey, below.
During our unit on Toni Morrison's Beloved, we will watch 13th, a documentary about the 13th amendment and the aftermath of slavery to the present. See the interview with film director Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey, below.
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Overview : As we discussed, Toni Morrison employs stream of consciousness in her novel to show how our memories trigger emotions that impact... -
Directions : 1) Please read the following "Recitatif" by Toni Morrison. 2) Take notes . Read slowly, and try to visualize ... -
Directions : Revisit A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen. View the film below if you would like another full review. For this blog post, s...
Racism is a complex issue with many contributing factors and underlying sources. The text Sonny’s Blues and the movie I Am Not Your Negro touch upon many of these ideas. While such events can largely be described, merely the tangible aspects are covered, while the underlying conflict is rarely seen. Following history, we habitually choose the simplest known path. As such, racism’s exploitation became intertwined with daily life and the psychological adaptations endured to change this entailed more than any law could ever try to fix. The changes both sides underwent to eradicate slavery were a complex personal progression and also a societal advancement towards mutual respect. Despite its negative implications, most people acted in self-interest, not in hatred and accepting their action’s harm took time.
ReplyDeleteBaldwin’s portrayal of Jesse when his a young child really emphasizes the point he is trying to prove to readers that racism is not inherent from birth. During the story, Baldwin takes readers back to Jesse’s childhood to get insight into before his ideas and morals were affected by racism. Jesse had a Black friend named Otis when they were eight and they played together until Jesse’s parents stopped letting them. Jesse is upset and confused when his parents tell him this and he argues that “Otis didn’t do nothing” (1756). Jesse’s reaction demonstrates his lack of racial prejudice because he has not been deeply affected by the racism that his parents will eventually pass on to him. To Jesse, Otis is just another eight-year-old boy and he does not view Otis as being any less than him because of his race. When Jesse sees the lynching of a Black man, he initially is horrified by the scene he is witnessing. He recalls “[clinging] to his father’s neck in terror as the cry rolled over the crowd” and wondering what the man could have done to deserve being publicly tortured and murdered (1760). Jesse’s reaction is very different from the other people watching the lynching, as he is horrified while everyone else is overjoyed, which displays how people naturally are not racist until racism has been taught to them.
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ReplyDelete(Intro) Settings of a story have the potential to change a story’s path and outcome. However, it is not only the story that the setting and environment have an effect on. The environment of an individual has a profound effect on not only their character, but their deepest morals and values. In many works of Toni Morrison and James Baldwin, they cleverly and strategically utilize setting as a tool in altering the behavior of their characters.
(Body Paragraph) A character’s surrounding culture and society has the ability to not only alter their behavior, but also formulate entirely new morals and ideals. In Baldwin’s “Going to Meet the Man”, we see the character of Jesse and the duality of his childhood and adulthood. The author first takes a nose dive into Jesse’s racist adult life, where he describes slaves as, “low enough to kill a man,” and, “no better than animals,” (1750-1751). Jesse’s slimy character is further intensified through his disturbing sexual thoughts of black individuals, and his complete lack of remorse for them. We then catch a glimpse into Jesse’s childhood, where he is painted as an innocent child who even has, “a black friend his age, eight, that live[s] nearby,” (1756). Not only is Jesse tolerant of black individuals in his youth, but it is inferred that he does not even understand the concept of slavery at this point. It is not until his parents take him to the castration of a slave wherein Jesse has a profound awakening; as his father is prodding on the castration, “he felt that his father..had revealed to him a great secret which would be the key to his life forever,” (1760). This secret is not a simple retelling of stories from father to son, but rather the teaching of racist tendencies and cruelty, a lesson that Jesse holds near and dear for the rest of his childhood and into adulthood, cementing the effect of his culture and setting on his morals and values. A profound example of Morrison’s focus on setting is in “Recitatif”. With each new setting in the story, the dynamic of Twyla and Roberta is turned on its head. Initially, they were close at the orphanage, but when the setting changed as they got older, the two were completely different, with each having an entirely new set of values. And while they eventually, “behav[ed] like sisters separated for much too long,” the two girls’ surroundings profoundly affected not only their relationship, as well as their individual lives.
Home for Twyla and Roberta was a physical thing. It was the home two 8 year old girls made for a brief several months. It was the food Roberta didn’t eat from her plate, the makeup and intimidation the older girls flaunted, Maggie’s legs like parentheses, their superficial mothers. This single, tangible story takes on many lives and interpretations over time, though it remains a solitary memory. Children don’t see much of themselves until they’re grown. Caught wondering in hazy memories nearly forgotten if they could be so cruel because of what they failed to understand, or if their innocence justified what can only be viewed as hatred by the adult self. As children they would speak about Maggie, “But what about if somebody tries to kill her?’ I used to wonder about that. ‘Or what if she wants to cry? Can she cry?’ ‘Sure,’ Roberta said. ‘But just tears. No sounds come out." is this description is inhumane, or it is only their youth? It’s a tragic picture they paint for Maggie, crying without being heard. And when their future selves see their past tarnished by these details, Twyla and Roberta fail to remember any sound themselves, fail to recall fully the details of that day. Home is a scarred memory that at the time seemed excusable youth. This dehumanization of Maggie was just a memory like jello or bad grades. This is the home they have to go back to, one of youthful ignorance that binds them together through years apart and meetings far between. Even years later Roberta recalls, "Listen to me. I really did think she was black. I didn't make that up. I really thought so. But now I can't be sure. I just remember her as old, so old. And because she couldn't talk- well, you know, I thought she was crazy. She'd been brought up in an institution like my mother was and like I thought I would be too. And you were right. We didn't kick her. It was the gar girls. Only them. But, well, I wanted to. I really wanted them to hurt her. I said we did it, too. You and me, but that's not true. And I don't want you to carry that around. It was just that I wanted to do it so bad that day-wanting to is doing it." There is no innocence here, no room for misunderstanding. Roberta’s acceptance of this consuming want destroys any illusion of home. Lost to the past, marred by the some understanding of truth, and drowned in time. Home, gone but for the truth that Maggie remains, that innocence and ignorance are not options any longer. There is no home to return to.
ReplyDeleteDistinction between white and black, between two Americas, within the private scene of homes and communities, reinforces the dehumanizing generalization that individuals manifest publicly. Baldwin emphasizes this in the physical as well as emotional distance Jesse feels from “the singing” of his black neighbors which “came from far away, across the dark fields.” Here he alludes to the history Americans have with physical segregation and slave labor in the “fields” (1755). Baldwin describes the “terror of human life” that white Americans like Jesse’s parents feel regarding the opposite race. For, “Otis can’t do nothing, he’s too little…We just want to make sure Otis don’t do nothing.” This fear of the unknown, combined with the social superiority Jesse’s parents are surrounded by, leads them to reject their view of Otis as Jesse’s playmate in their “private life” and give way to the “public stance” that all African Americans pose a threat. Rather than a conflicting story of one, Otis becomes a “problem” that must be dealt with, just one more contributing to the larger “Negro Problem.” Jesse’s interaction with Otis teaches him to fear his “private [self],” his natural inclination to “go to Otis,” for he knows that “he could not ask Otis about this” (1758). This is an issue that reaches more broadly than Otis, and therefore, fighting for his friend, if useless in the private setting of his hometown, is certainly futile in public setting. His fear of the unjust social abasement of Otis in his childhood home leads him to reinforce and justify them through his actions as an adult.
ReplyDeleteJames Baldwin was a man of integrity and honesty who wanted nothing but his audience to hear his opinion, and try to make change in their own way. During the period of his most vigorous activism and notable works, James Baldwin appeared on talk shows, radio stations, and many other public platforms. One topic that was very common in his discussions was the fact that black people were often portrayed as villians in films, and black actresses rarely made an appearance. Baldwin stateded, “to watch the TV screen for any length of time is to learn some really frightening things about the American sense of reality. We are cruelly trapped between what we would like to be and what we actually are.” Media is both a result of racism, and also feeds into the segregation that people have created. Because black people were thought of as “less than”, they were portrayed on screen as servants, or the people who caused all the problems that the white men had to deal with. This imitation became a reality to younger children, and people who did not grow up with the knowledge of society, and how skewed the media was. Baldwin urges his people to look at their life, and what they are doing by saying, “we cannot possibly become what we would like to be until we are willing to ask ourselves just why the lives we lead on this continent are mainly so empty, so tame, and so ugly. These images are designed not to trouble, but to reassure. They also weaken our ability to deal with the world as it is, ourselves as we are. ” Baldwin encourages people to find a purpose, and to fight for that, because even though the media can produce ideas that are unrealistic, people can use that to grow.
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ReplyDeleteAmong people who like jazz, it is considered the one of the most emotional and genuine forms of self expression. Jazz is personal, improvisational, and adaptive, but as the top charts will tell you, it is hard to listen to, and even harder to play well. For Sonny this inherent difficulty seems to follow him in every other facet of his life. The moment Sonny was born, he inherited a family too poor to take a risk on his music in a neighborhood ridden by drugs. He lost both his parents by mid high-school and seemed to only find solace in his music. However, when he attempted to seriously pursue his passion he was stopped by his brother left, “more helpless than ever, and annoyed, and deeply hurt.” (pg 31) Dejected and restless, it is painfully obvious confinement to the public schools of Harlem would only bring Sonny closer to the the problems he hoped to flee with his music. To any reader, even one who has only ever lived in a wealthy and white suburb, he is tragic and relatable. He is also a criminal. In his own words, “I know I did awful things, those times, sometimes, to people.” (pg 43) However these two identities of Sonny do not exist in isolation.It is necessary to examine all the external factors that may have informed his actions, rather than his true self. The prevalence of drug use in his neighborhood, then later with his musician friends, clearly played a role in his own, as did his frustration with not being able to play and leave Harlem. These do not excuse his actions; Sonny makes clear his own fault and guilt, but it does redeem his character. This is a distinction between evil actions and evil people seems to certal to Baldwin's work, and fits perfectly with his overall argument that all people are just as inherently virtuous. Where one might see a difference in intelligence, Baldwin aims to expose that in reality it is just a difference in who has been given a better education. Similarly, systemic problem with drug abuse can be traced to institutionalised oppression, poverty, and a myriad of other aggressors that may drive people to seek a temporary escape from reality. Sonny may not have lived his best life, but he did play well with a losing hand.
No one is born racist. It is a learned behavior as a result of losing a person’s innate innocence and replacing it with hate and fear which manifests in racist ideas and behaviors. In James Baldwin’s “Going to Meet the Man”, Jesse slowly adopts the racist ideas of those around him. As a child, “He had a black friend...They wrestled in the dirt. Now the thought of Otis made him sick.” As he grew older and he noticed the actions of those around him and was exposed to hatred, his thoughts changed. Although he had grown up playing with a black friend, he now despised him. One turning point in Jesse’s views was after the “picnic” in which he was brought with many other white families to watch a brutal killing of a black man as people watched with pleasure. Although at first Jesse’s instincts were to be scared and terrified, afterwards “...Jesse loved his father more than he had ever loved him. He felt that his father had carried him through a mighty test, had revealed to him a great secret which would be the key to his life forever.” He mirrored the behavior of those around him, the crowd, his father, his mother. Instead of being disgusted, the longer he looked around the more “He He began to feel a joy he had never felt before. He watched the hanging, gleaming body, the most beautiful and terrible object he had ever seen till then.” Jesse lost his childlike innocence after exposure to new ideas that went on to shape his thinking and view of the world.
ReplyDeleteAn equal relationship of relating to someone’s struggles opens up a path for a connection to be made, and finding a bond by the means of needing one another. In “Sonny’s Blues”, the narrator feels the urge to write to his younger brother Sonny, even though he didn’t want to for a long period of time when he heard he was jailed. The narrator, “...didn’t write Sonny… for a long time. When I finally did, it was just after my little girl died” (22). The sensation of guilt after he realizes how much Sonny needed him, replying with, “You don’t know how much I needed to hear from you” (22). The importance of love and family was taken for granted by the narrator who realized, “My trouble made his real” (37). The impact of his loss only made him comprehend the struggles that Sonny was going through. The narrator didn’t feel obligated to write to a younger brother that he couldn’t “save” from his struggles, only until the narrator felt the struggle and lost hope of losing his daughter which led him to reach out. The impact of the narrator reaching out to Sonny essentially saved both of them, connecting their fractured family relationship when they related to each other’s struggles.
ReplyDeleteA strong education lays the foundation for a vibrant and successful life. Education provides tools to thrive in life and explore passions. Education works to shape malleable young minds. Well then, what happens when students are deprived of the resources required for an enriching education? It is simple, they lose out on opportunities. Sadly, this has been a common occurrence in predominantly African American neighborhoods. Priority is given to the schools in the more affluent and overwhelmingly white neighborhoods. Those are the schools with the newest and nicest things; those are the schools doing everything in their power to set their students up to be successful and active members of society later in their lives. In the powerful documentary, “I am Not Your Negro”, James Baldwin, an outspoken civil rights activist, gives his perspective on the issue, explaining, “I don’t know if the board of education hates black people, but I know the textbooks they give my children to read, and the schools that we have to go to”. Growing up in Harlem, he experienced the inequality in education like no other. School buildings were in shambles, textbooks were outdated and supplies were hard to come by. It’s hard to compare the education the white children were receiving and the education the black children were receiving. Education inequality has also been explored by Maya Angelou in her short stories. However, “Graduation” does a particularly good job of showing how the the difference in the quality of education can shape the lives of the children. At the Lafayette School, an African American school a white male is bragging about the Country School, the white school in the area. It is made known to the African American kids that the white school was being given state-of-the-art upgrades, “A well known artist was coming to teach art to them. They were going to have the newest microscopes and chemistry equipment for their laboratories”. Resources play a tremendous role in education and having the best gives the school major advantages over their counterparts. The lack of support and funding has adverse effects on the children that get the short end of the stick. They begin to feel as though they are not destined to succeed and they are lead to believe they do not have or deserve a future.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to add one more quote but im looking for the right one to be able to tie up the ideas of the paragraph.
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ReplyDeleteRacism is not originated from birth but rather from the influences of one’s surroundings, and Baldwin emphasizes this idea through the character Jesse. He begins by describing the blossoming friendship between Jesse and Otis; it was a relationship untouched by the evils of the external racism. Jesse did not see Otis as African American, but rather as a true friend, and he held no prejudice to African Americans. In fact, after watching a lynching, he fell “to his father’s neck in terror as the cry rolled over the crowd”. However, the innocent child of Jesse was transformed into a racist as a result of the world that surrounded him. He comes to a mental deadlock, pondering, “will a lot of ****** be there? Will Otis be there… he felt that Otis knew everything. Baldwin assets his dissertation that racism is not something a person is born with, but from external factors. Through the evolution of Jesse, the author is able to captivate that message and present it profoundly.
ReplyDeleteEven today, it is uncommon for a character not to be presented as a stereotype. Some directors may believe they are doing someone justice with these narrow representations, while, in actuality, they are doing the complete opposite. For example, a filmmaker might think he is opposing racism by having a black actor star in his movie, while the character may act as a complete racial stereotype. As “I Am Not Your Negro” highlighted, a majority of black characters in film and TV seem to be reoccuring representations of one of two stereotypes. Either the African American character is a minor role, shown to be foolish and devoted to their white “masters”, or they are a one-dimensional hero, sacrificing their happiness for that of their white co-star. First, consider “I Ain’t Gonna Open That Door.” Most white protagonists are depicted as heroic, noble, and courageous; here, the African American protagonist is only characterized as lazy. Of course, this does little to advance the audiences’ views on African American people. In fact, it seems to be advocating this stereotype, making the black man into comic relief. Though not as cruelly-intended, “Imitation of Life” also displays this stereotype. In this film, the one black character that is shown seems to be the maid. Clearly, this is problematic as it promotes the idea that that is an African American woman’s only duty: to serve her white family. If misrepresentations like these exist in the media, people might be further influenced by them. However, there are some that are not as single-minded, though still harmful. This applies to the second stereotype, which shows the African American protagonist as an underdeveloped, sacrificial hero. Sidney Poitier’s character in “The Defiant Ones” acts as an example of this. In the scene where his character is about to hop onto a train, gaining his freedom, he makes a senseless decision. In order to protect the other white protagonist, he jumps off. “I Am Not Your Negro” analyzed this scene, claiming that “the black man jumps off the train in order to reassure white people.” That statement appears to be true, seeing how the filmmakers are trying to persuade prejudiced viewers. However, what they are doing is still dangerous; they have re-established the idea that a black man would sacrifice everything for the happiness of the white man. This is no different than him being a servant or a maid, as the other two films suggested.
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ReplyDeleteRoberta and Twyla became friends nearly by default. They were two young eight year olds confused by their situations, both coming from broken homes, just trying to navigate through it all. They found comfort in their similarities, understanding at least somewhat of what the other was going through. Race never created a divide between them until Roberta’s views shifted when she was introduced to racism in America, her perception of how blacks and whites interact altered dramatically. Once she left St. Bonny’s for the first time, she didn’t see Twyla until eight years later. Roberta seemed distant and uninterested in Twyla during their encounter, embarrassed by her presence. She even admitted to Twyla later that times were different, "Oh, Twyla, you know how it was in those days: black-white. You know how everything was." But Twyla didn’t know how it was. She never viewed the world in that way. When they were at St. Bonny’s together, they were equals and became friends because of what they had in common.
ReplyDelete1st Paragraph: Literature has always been an outlet to express social issues such as race and discrimination. From as far back as history can take us until today , we use literature as a source of documentation for how our communities have grown and what still needs to be changed. The influences of our environments is how change occurs and how we move forward as a society. In Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif”, the idea of our surroundings influencing our lives is illuminated throughout the text. Morrison’s two main characters, Twyla and Roberta, bring to light the relation of race in an environment. Although it is never revealed which girls are which race, it becomes obvious they are from different cultures. When the girls were first forced to meet, Twyla immediately passed judgement onto Roberta because of the surroundings she came from. “My mother won’t like you putting me in here.” This refers to how her mother thinks and how that has affected Twyla’s perception of the world. This one situation is sadly why many social issues, like race, are passed on throughout generations. Later on in the story when Twyla and Roberta meet again, both of their environments had changed. When talking about their time at St. Bonny’s, they recalled a memory that the two girls would disagree on. Twyla did not want to believe she could have ever done something like this. “Like hell she wasn’t, and you kicked her. We both did. You kicked a black lady who couldn’t even scream.” As the two girls grew up and who they were surrounded by changed, their influences changed as well.
ReplyDeleteMany people suffer from drug addiction in this day and age. In popular music, drug use is often talked about in a positive manner, rather than addressing the risks associated with them. Nowadays it’s more common to hear popular musicians discuss taking Xanax and drinking, in a much different music style than in the past. In the 60s and 70s many people think of the “hippie” movement and the popularization of drug use with the goal of expanding your mind. During this era, many popular musicians such as The Beatles, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, etc., used drugs and publicly talked about this. For many of these people, drugs were their downfall but in other cases musicians were able to recover through musical expression. Music tends to work in mysterious ways, where you don’t get to see immediate effects and you can’t always tell that it’s what’s helping you. In “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, the main character is Sonny’s brother who gets to see his brother’s struggle through drug addiction. When Sonny returns to Harlem to see his brother, he takes his brother to a jazz club and performs for him. During this time you’re able to see how music helps him, and how he uses it to express himself. His brother is left in awe as “Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so many others” (47). He begins to understand how music can help people and what it can do for the person playing it. As he sees it, this is because “the man who creates the music is hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hits the air. What is evoked in him, then, is of another order, more terrible because it has no words, and triumphant too, for that same reason” (45). This can happen with any type of person, music can effect them deeply whether they’re listening or playing it.
ReplyDeleteIn many senses, childhood is a time of learning and innocence. They are pure and see the world in a nicer lense. In this time of learning, they are heavily influenced by those who they grow up with. In “Recitatif”, Toni Morrison exhibits this quality by portraying Twyla and Roberta as very close and similar when they are younger and then growing up and parting their separate ways. When Twyla and Roberta first met, Twyla knew that her mother would have not wanted them to associate with each other. However, after so much time together and being similar ages, Twyla and Roberta grow to be very close friends at St Bonny's. Twyla even expresses that “we got along all right, Roberta and me. Changed beds every night, got F's in civics and communication skills and gym” (3). After they part their separate ways, Twyla and Roberta, who were once so similar, begin to part and differ. Twyla ends up “working behind the counter at the Howard Johnson's on the Thruway just before the Kingston exit. Not a bad job. Kind of a long ride from Newburgh” (6) and when Twyla first sees Roberta again after parting from St Bonny’s, “she was sitting in a booth smoking a cigarette with two guys smothered in head and facial hair. Her own hair was so big and wild I could hardly see her face. But the eyes. I would know them anywhere. She had on a powder-blue halter and shorts outfit and earrings the size of bracelets. Talk about lipstick and eyebrow pencil. She made the big girls look like nuns” (6). Once a humble young kid, she changed and was now hanging out with a different crowd always on the road and dressing more revealing. How they got to where they were was all based on their surroundings that they grew up in. From when Twyla was a kid, she had always been a little embarrassed by her family, especially shown when she went to church with her mom and took a napkin out to shake Roberta’s moms hand. It is with this attitude and family that surrounds her that shapes who she becomes; a humble young woman. Roberta on the other hand, grew up with a mother that took great care of her, bringing her “chicken legs and a whole box of chocolate-covered grahams. Roberta drank milk from a thermos while her mother read the Bible to her” (5). Roberta’s mother was probably more relaxed planning for her child's future and therefore let her do whatever she wanted. Although Twyla and Roberta grew up in similar places together, when they both get out of St Bonny’s and live with their families again, based on who they were influenced by, they changed a lot and grew their separate ways.
ReplyDeleteTrusting the reader – completely trusting the reader – to use a work as a lens through which to see an issue from myriad perspectives is an act of audacity. It is nothing short of bold to confidently prod the reader to ruminate on a topic, especially one that is controversial, such as race, and push them outside of the limits of their own perspective. Recatatif is such a work and Toni Morrison fearlessly leads the reader, and her characters, on a unique social experiment, and the outcome is at times perplexing, often uncomfortable, if not “jumpy,” but ultimately, enlightening. Morrison’s story creates an ever-shifting reality with an ambiguous and indistinct value structure. This is the landscape over which both the reader and the characters must traverse in order to reach an appreciation, if not a realization, of their own beliefs and standards regarding race and even their own place in humanity. In the end, Morrison allows each to jostle themselves out of their respective comfort zones, because “the truth was already there.”
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of trusting the reader and it ties back in well to the prompt of expressing the authors strategies!
DeleteIt was easy for Twyla to start off disliking Roberta; all she had known was the outside world and its negative views of associating oneself with someone of a different race. In fact, the thought of rooming with Roberta in St. Bonny’s orphanage made Twyla “sick to [her] stomach. It was one thing to be taken out of your own bed early in the morning- it was something else to be stuck in a strange place with a girl from a whole other race. “ Before she was placed in the orphanage, Twyla was influenced by outside sources, in particular her mother, who placed their views on race into Twyla’s head and manipulated the way she thought. However, at St. Bonny’s, “all kinds of kids were in there, black ones, white ones, even two Koreans.” It was isolated from the outside world, as well as the race issues that were going on, causing them to almost forget their past divides. In fact, because race was rarely discussed at St. Bonny’s, they “got along all right, Roberta and me. Changed beds every night, got F's in civics and communication skills and gym.” However, their safe haven from racism was broken when their mother’s came to visit, and outside influences brought race back into the forefront of their friendship. When their mothers met, Twyla’s mother, “simple-minded as ever, grinned and tried to yank her hand out of the pocket with the raggedy lining-to shake hands...Roberta's mother looked down at me and then looked down at Mary too. She didn't say anything, just grabbed Roberta with her Bible-free hand and stepped out of line, walking quickly to the rear of it.” After that moment, Twyla seemed resentful of Roberta saying, “the wrong food is always with the wrong people,” when observing the large amount of delicious food Roberta and her mother were eating. Essentially, this moment was the beginning of the end for their friendship.
ReplyDeleteThis is the rough draft of my first body paragraph. It still needs a lot of work as I still need to condense and organize my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how hard you try to escape your past, it will stay with you. The same goes for your home. Baldwin says, “Some escaped the trap, most didn't. Those who got out always left something of themselves behind, as some animals amputate a leg and leave it in the trap. It might be said, perhaps, that I had escaped, after all, I was a school teacher; or that Sonny had, he hadn't lived in Harlem for years.” Because of his profession and the duration of Sonny’s stay in Harlem, they believe that they had finally escaped, that they would finally be looked at the same way as others. However, in the following sentence he says, “It came to me that what we both were seeking through our separate cab windows was that part of ourselves which had been left behind.” They realized that leaving a place doesn’t mean that it is entirely gone. You still think about what it was like to live there; your family, your friends, the sense of community, the food, the shops. Every town has a different atmosphere. When you move, you leave part of yourself behind and bring with you the values you learned while you were there.
Enticing first sentence that ties in you intro well and great quote. Just might want to frame it more to get your point across in your words.
DeleteThe shifting perspective from which James Baldwin decided to write this story I found fascinating. It showed the progression and development as Jesse as a character. The story opens displaying a strange complex readers are yet to explain, but as Going to the Man continues the Jeese’s actions are explained. We see him grappling with feeling lust towards those of the African American race opposed to his white wife. Due to his past he is unable to cope with these emotion, so he displays it as anger. Shockingly I found myself feeling empathetic towards Jesse, although he was clearly a bigot. This path was unknowingly forced upon him. There are certain moments that define who we will become, which are usually out of one’s control. For the protagonist it was the picnic gone wrong. That day he went from the vibrant, boy to a confused man. Baldwin purposefully makes this transition obvious so readers can grasp the severity of these events. Jesse’s first reaction to the lynching is that of any moral and non prejudice bystander, “What did he do Jesse wondered… but he could not ask his father”. He perceives the malicious reactions of those around him as normal or proper because it’s all he knows. He emulates that without understanding, “He watched his mother's face. Her eyes were very bright, her mouth was open; she was more beautiful than he had ever seen her, and more strange. He began to feel more joy than he had ever felt before.” Jesse would never know the impact this situation would have on his life but ever since he misconstrued hate for fear and confusion. He had been stripped of his innocence too young leaving him as fragile shell of a man.
ReplyDeleteThe prose needs work but I think it gets across the ideas i wanted to know. Not sure about structure or if I should split it up.
DeleteEvery childhood comes with realizations and discoveries, quite literally the mind “grows up”. Many of these discoveries are integral to success as a responsible adult, but skewed opinions can interrupt this learning and deflate all hopes for pure individual thought. James Baldwin recalled a moment in his childhood stating that “It comes as a great shock, around the age of five or six or seven, to discover that Gary Cooper killing off the Indians, when you were rooting for Gary Cooper, that the Indians were you.” Twisting such common childhood fantasies highlights how our society is constantly tarnishing our minds, taking the wholesome ideas we have and translating them into a variety of preconceived notions. How can our conscience be skewed so easily by surrounding voices? More importantly, what can we do to stop this influence. In Recitatif, by Toni Morrison, we watch two young girls of different backgrounds, find common ground in a trying time of their lives. Although they come from different races and backgrounds, Twyla mentions how they “got along all right, Roberta and me. Changed beds every night, got F's in civics and communication skills and gym.” Regardless of their race, the girls maintained close throughout their difficult childhood, before matured and became separated by time and the influence of their acquaintances. Children and their actions show repeatedly that we are not born racist, but it is ingrained in our minds by the surrounding environment. Baldwin’s young character, Jesse, in Going To Meet The Man illustrates this concept perfectly.
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ReplyDeleteThough Going to Meet the Man is a work of fiction, the ideas depicted in it ring especially accurate and still prevalent even within modern society. The notion of a once pure child having “wrestled together in the dirt” with an African American friend to later in adulthood being “made sick” by the thought of him, alongside deeply enjoying a lynching, may appear to be an extreme case but ultimately depict deep truths of parenting and education. In the words of Malcom X, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it.”At its core, racism is learned and inherited, not an innate quality that one is born with. Alongside providing housing, care, and love, parents also pass on their views and values to children, demonstrated in Going to Meet the Man. In extreme cases, racism can even be systematically taught in school systems to maintain imbalance of power and control over the minds of students. Such is observed in Prentice Hall Classics: A History of the United States, a textbook often used in the Texas educational system. This book sugarcoats slavery, and encourages students to consider the ‘positive aspects’ of it, alongside even suggesting that not all slaves were unhappy. Wrongfully or incompletely educating the youth aids unknowing complacency in their own inherited oppression.
ReplyDeleteOops i mean complicit not complacent
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