Bastard Out of Carolina

In "Bastard Out of Carolina" by Dorothy Allison I thought about the gender roles that are used in the book. I think that Allison has something to say about the way that women are treated in Southern Society. She pays attention to the "white trash" version of white society.

One of the main points that Allison may be trying to make is the strength of women in this culture. Even though the reader gets the impression that the men are dominate in the culture, the women show extraordinary strength . The women in the Boatwright family in particular seem to be strong and rough. They are raising children and working outside the home. Working outside the home is a big departure from many of the reading about the south. These white women do not fit the mold of the Southern woman. Instead, they redefine how women act and behave. Their work outside the home sets them apart.

From the descriptions of the women in Allison's book the reader sees the the women are far from lady like. Many of the women in the Boatwright family use chewing tobacco and smoke. They also work in the yard growing and doing physical labor. They also seem to be in total control of the family. they are constantly running and managing the household in addition to working. Or when they men do not have jobs or are in jail the women take full of life.

Despite the strength that these women exhibit, I am puzzled why they allow the abuse to occur. I would think with all of their strength and ability to almost live independently of these men they would not allow it to occur. Yet, Allison describes these women in very positive and independent terms.

I think that Allison is trying to send a message about the way in which southern culture really operates. It is very different from the myth of the southern gentlemen and the southern lady.

Cherrylog Road

After discussing Cherrylog Road by James Dickey in class, I thought about the themes that became apparent in the poem that I had not seen. I also thought of possible symbols.

One thing that immediately came to mind was what the junked cars represented. I thought that they acted as a symbol of the past. When the narrator was weaving in and out of them and sitting it the seats he was exploring the past. He describes the partition that separates the woman from her black driver and he imagines what previous lives those cars may have had. I think that those actions represent the author exploring the south's past. A past that has links to the cars that he is exploring. The cars become a catalyst for the past.

I think the cars also have a connection to the past in terms of the author meeting his secret love at the junkyard. The author is breaking the norms of the society by meeting this girl outside of parental supervision. It appears that a moral code was broken. But the cars represent how society held up codes and broke them down based on the activities that happened inside of the cars. It seems appropriate that they would be breaking the moral code of society in a place that represented the past.

The overall message that I figured out from Cherrylog Road was that Dickey was trying to show the reader that the past is a developing concept. The cars illustrate the history and the complex nature of society.

God - Dog

After reading A Dog Sleeping On My Feet by James Dickey I thought about the symbol of the dog and animals and how they all seemed to be connected to this idea of nature and God being one thing.

Throughout the selection of poems by Dickey, it seemed that whenever he mentioned an animal there was a greater connection to God. In this poem, I think that the imagery at the end alludes to Jesus Christ:

A boy with a staff,
To loose them, beak and feather, from the spell
Laid down by a balancing child,
Unstable, tight-lipped, and amazed
And, under their place of enthrallment,
A huge, hammer-headed spirit
Shall pass, as if led by the nose into Heaven.

In that stanza I think that the boy with the staff is suppose to represent God leading people into heaven. The dog is a symbol of the good life and duty. And when the narrator feels the dog on his feet he is recognizing what the good life is. The dog has his purpose and fulfills it. And maybe that is the greater message.

The tone of the poem is not urgent but is more contemplative. I think that Dickey may have written it that way so that the message is not startling. Rather, the message becomes something to strive towards.

A Film & Novel - A Streetcar Named Desiree

The film A Streetcar Named Desire was an accurate adaptation of the play by Tennessee Williams. I think that the most astonishing aspect of the film was its portrayal of the two main characters Blanche and Stanley.

The character of Blanche felt more developed in the film rather than the play. In the film the viewer got the impression that Blanche was more fragile than how she was portrayed in the play. The way that Vivien Leigh leaned up against doorframes, used her hands to appear frantic, and her general body language gave life to Blanche. I also think that the music that accompanied Blanche really characterized her mood and the tension in many scenes. Although, the play had several notes about the music it was still difficult to image the tension without the music queuing the mood.

I had a problem with Stanley in the film. I imagined him to be more gruff and rough. Marlon Brando's acting almost made Stanley seem as if he was of the same class as Blanche and Stella, a distinction that was greatly emphasized in the play. Brando's physical appearance also surprised me as an actor for Stanley. From his description in the play I got the impression that Stanley was not a handsome man. The play characterized Stanley as having common features, not overly impressive. One area that I think that Brando accurately captured the character of Stanley was the way in which he captured his rage and anger with Blanche. At times, it was apparent that the anger was being controlled and at other time is obvious that the anger towards Blanche was unleashed.

I think that the only area that I wish was different in the film was that of Stella. In the play she played more of a prominent role. In the film it appears that Stella's character was marginalized by the over powering characters of Blanche and Stanley.

I think that overall the film was true to the play. I think that the acting was a good adaptation of the characters, which enhanced the depth of the play.

Fading Blanche

In the play A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams, the main character Blanche becomes the center of the play. I thought I would take a critical look at her character and look at what she represented. Blanche is described as a traveler who visits her sister, Stella, after her life back home at Belle Reve has fallen apart.

The reader gets the impression that Blanche represents the "Old South". She has the classic Southern Belle attitude. The reader gets the impression that Blanche is a damsel in distress. She is waiting upon on man to come and save her. Her life has been dictated by a very antiquated upbringing. It is evident by the fact that Blanche has difficulty using the telephone. And her response to Stanley's attitude represents her own old way of thinking. Stanley takes "women off of their pedestal". And to Blanche that is unacceptable.

The most interesting aspect of Blanche's character is her lying but I think it is in response to her Southern Belle attitude. Internally, Blanche may know that the way of life that she values no longer exists but she chooses to ignore that. And by lying and creating her own world she is fulfilling her dream of an old world. And I think that Blanche as a character changes after Stanley confronts her lies. She is exposed and left in the open. She can no longer live like she had before. Maybe for the first time she has been confronted with reality. The reality that she faces is more that she can handle and the fragileness of Blanche is exposed.

Blanche by the end of the play represents the end of the Old South. The idea like Blanche was fragile and crumbling. And Blanche ultimately represented that idea and how it was destined to end.

Strong, Independent and Freethinking - A New Deal

I was considering Hurston's stance on women and the idea of feminism. The complexity of Hurston's stance makes it difficult to easily determine what her message was regarding women's roles in society. I narrowed it down to a mostly positive idea of women. Janie's image as a woman is that of a strong, independent, and freethinking person.

The first instance that comes to mind represents Janie's free thinking abilities. Janie's grandmother has grand plans for her and wants her to marry a significantly older man Logan. But Janie was not going to have any of that. She begrudgingly marries him. But chooses to pursue her own path and leaves Logan for Jody a young man with big plans. Janie imitates the divorce from Logan, which I thought was an extremely independent move and freethinking considering Janie's place as a poor black woman.

I think that Janie's independence is illustrated when Janie is coming back to Eatonville. She comes back in overalls. Which signifies that Janie was a workingwoman and was working alongside her husband. This was seen her community as a representation of poverty since women were not suppose to work unless they had to. But in reality it was a decision that Janie made herself. Which signified independence.

But the biggest lesson to be learned for Hurston's novel was the resilience and strength of women. Janie was a strong woman. Her ability to withstand the criticism from the townspeople is a sign of strength. But the most significant place I see this is when Janie is forced to kill her husband Tea Cake. Even though it was a split second decision how many people could kill their spouse that way? The ability to do so was a way in which Hurston was able to illustrate the inner strength of Janie.

Hurston's Janie was a head of her time and was an example of women as strong people. Her Janie represented what women could become.

The Attitude

The Ethics of Living Jim Crow by Richard Wright is an autobiographical sketch of life in the early twentieth century South. The examples that Wright chose seemed to be very interesting and unique: chosen as a way of portraying life under the Jim Crow system.

One thing that I noticed about the anecdotes that Wright chose was that the events were small and isolated and didn’t appear to be related to any larger struggle or event. The instance when Wright describes the actions of the storeowners against the black woman. When they took her into the back and beat her for presumably not paying her store bill, seemed almost significant based on the reactions of other blacks that Wright told this too. Relating this Wright, compares this incident to the struggles that he had at other jobs. But he doesn’t give the feeling that this is what everyone’s experiences entailed.

Wrights experiences seem to shock and disturb him. He at first is unable to believe that this is how people were being treated. But the reader gets the impression that the way that Wright feels at this time is the anomaly. Wright gives the impression that most people accept this treatment as ordinary. I was surprised by this sentiment. I would have thought that most blacks at this time would have been offended and outraged by these actions. But Wright gives the impression that this was accepted and tolerated by most blacks.

The biggest message that I got from Wright was this idea that the way in which blacks were treated was acceptable by most people in society. I think that Wright exposed the apathetic feelings of his own community.

The New and The Old

"Barn Burning" by William Faulkner is a short story that represents the anger and distress that was felt by many disenfranchised whites in the aftermath of the Civil War. In " Barn Burning" there are a few symbols that lead the reader to believe that the Snopes family's way of life and out look has been greatly influenced by the societal changes after the Civil War.

The most prevalent symbol of the change that the Snopes family experienced and how it affected them is the plantation home of Major de Spain. The Snopes family arrives at the de Spain home as sharecroppers. The reader gets the impression that the Snopes are just taking the place of the former slaves that lived on the de Spain plantation. The plantation is described as "and he had never seen a house like this before. Hit's as big as a courthouse."(165) It can be imagined that its size and grandeur were great. To the Snopes family it represented the past and the old order of the South.

On a personal level Abner Snopes the father whom was described as a mean and rough person, the house represented the way of life that he could not have. He was now placed in the category of white trash and it was impossible to get out of it. He was the "new slave" of the post war south. And this filled him with rage. The burning of the barn is his symbolic way of defying the present and looking to the past.

But for Sartoris, Abner’s son, the new South is all that he really knows. The de Spain plantation to him represents a new and peaceful place. He sees the house and "he forgot his father and the terror and despair of both.." (165). The house doesn’t have the connation of the wonderful past but rather it is a symbol of the new and hopeful future.

I thought about the difference in the father and son's perception of the same house. I thought that it might have represented the changing attitude in the south and a generational gap. The father represented the past and the way things used to be. And the son represented the future. This generational gap may have been intended for the larger context that attitudes were changing. The focus on the past may have given way to a focus on the new future of the South.

Choices

William Faulkner's “Dry September” was a disturbing tale of lynching in the south. After discussing it and then thinking about it I found that Hawkshaw the barber was a more interesting and complex character than he first appeared. His stance that the men of the town were lynching the wrong man and his apparent participation in the act make Hawkshaw a hard character to understand. Like many people of the time I think that Hawkshaw was conflicted over what to do. There were many competing ideas and forces that surrounded Hawkshaw and that most likely made it difficult for him to do what was right. I thought about what may have made Hawkshaw participate in the lynching even though he knew it was wrong.

From what can be inferred from the readings Hawkshaw lives in a small southern town where everyone know your name. And being a businessperson of the town Hawkshaw was especially well known. I think Faulkner alludes to Hawkshaw's local super-stardom because Hawkshaw is one of the few characters that the reader knows the name of. The stardom that Hawkshaw has may put him in a precarious situation, especially with the men. He has to see these men on a frequent basis because of his profession. And for these men to think that he was a "niggerlover" would not be good for the business and for that mater his family. It would be difficult to stay behind and condemn the lynching and still remain in good standing in the town. In order to protect the way of life he had come to enjoy and his standing in the town Hawkshaw was forced to choose to go with the men on the lynching trip.

Another reason that Hawkshaw may haven went along with the lynching against his principles was the sheer peer pressure that was involved in the barbershop. Once the momentum of the room got going it would have been hard for anyone in the room to disagree. Each person was revving and inciting the violence and the idea of lynching in the other. One can imagine the energy in the room. Even though Hawkshaw was opposed to lynching Willie Mays he may have been caught up in the action. His rightful thinking mind might have been taken over by a mob mentality.

Hawkshaw was opposed to the actions that the mob committed that night but there were greater things at stake. His reputation, business, and social standing were all at stake that evening. Or was it just a mob mentality? I would like to think that I could stand up for what I thought was wrong. But with so much at stake I am unsure. I think the bigger message that Faulkner had in store for the reader was: Could anyone resist the pressure?

Chopin- A Woman or Her Own Character

I found it amazingly similar that Kate Chopin's and her characters share extraordinary strong personalities and lives. Kate Chopin was a woman ahead of her time; INDEPENDENT. As a young child, her father died in a train accident and she was left to be raised by mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. All of these women were widows. From an early start there was a strong, powerful, and self-dependent, female influence in her life. Soon after Chopin married her husband he died of swamp fever. She was left to raise 5 boys and 2 girls all of whom were born before she was twenty-eight years old. From her early start she saw strong woman and she herself was forced to become a strong woman because of tragedy that had befallen her family. Her own personal life surely influenced her writings and the characters that she wrote about.

In her short stories, At the Cadian Ball and The Storm, Chopin creates this very strong, sexual, and independent character Calxita. Claxita unlike many of her female counterparts of the time feels and acts like she is in charge of the world around her and she deserves that right. Calixta, I think is a reflection of Chopin herself. When Bobinot proposed marriage to her Calixta accepts it on the premise that she is doing Bobinot a favor. I think that Calixta may be a reflection of how Chopin believes that women can be independent of men. Having no real strong male influences in her life Chopin was reflecting her belief that woman could take charge which was a mostly unpopular belief at the time.

  Calixta's affair may have been a metaphor for Chopin's own loveless life. Her husband dying at such a young age may have caused Chopin to feel devoid of a meaningful relationship. Claxita used Alcee as a means to get something that she had been looking for. Calixta's search could have represented for Chopin own search for a relationship.

I think that Chopin may have been using her own characters as a method of portraying her own life. The way that she viewed the world and what she wanted was shown through Calixta’s personality.

The Bonds of the Land

I am beginning to pick up a recurring theme in most of the pieces that we have read. The ultimate and maybe undying connection to the past and to the traditional family land. In Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, the theme of a deep connection to the land is very apparent. The Usher family has lived on the same piece of land for many years. And now Roderick and his sister Madeline are the only members of the Usher family left.

It seems as if the Ushers are unable to leave their ancestral home. I think this is best explained by the fact that the narrator is invited to come and visit the Usher home rather than Roderick traveling away from his home. I think that one of the symbols that appeared to me was that when Madeline was finally dead they put her body in the vault in the house. It seems to me that this may have been symbolism for the fact that even in death there is a deep connection to the property. Her life was so connected to that house that even in death she was unable to escape the bonds that tied her family there.

Roderick was connected to house himself. Unable to leave because of his metaphoric bonds to the house Roderick perished there. Seeing this deadly connection to the House the narrator leaves.

When I thought about this obvious connection to the house and land I thought: What could Poe possible be saying by using this morbid tale? I thought that Poe may have been using this as a commentary on the undying connection that people of the South had to the land. He might also have been trying to say that the connection to the land was unhealthy and brought out the extreme fanatical lengths that Southern citizens would go to protect their land and their way of life. This radical devotion to the land could have foreshadowed the Civil War and the measures of devotion to the land to the point of death that Southerns would use to protect the land.

Swallow Barn

Swallow Barn by John Pendleton Kennedy was the classic metaphor of the Old South. I think that the metaphor of Swallow Barn may have been especially true for people who had never been there during the time period in which Swallow Barn was written. The beauty of the property was a powerful idea because even when I think of an old southern plantation the images of a slow creek, hanging trees, and an old barn come to mind. Frank the main character is a classic southern gentlemen with interests in politics and not religion. Kennedy paints a picture of a classic southern life.

I was surprised to find that Kennedy himself was familiar with Southern life. Writing Swallow Barn as a satirical representation of the South brought up a question in my mind : What was Kennedy trying to point out? Kennedy was trying to point out that southern life was very political. By emphasizing how the property of Swallow Barn was transferred and exchanged so many ways was an attempt to show the complexity and the political nature of land in the south. Land was an important feature of the South. Kennedy explains how Frank had been interested in politics and wanted to explore it further so he went to Washington to get a first hand view of what there was. Kennedy here is satirizing the only way that southern gentlemen had to protect their way of life. To protect there their land they had to use the power of government. Southern lifestyle was being assaulted so Frank and others like himself knew in order to protect their agrarian gentry politics had to be used.

The message that I think Kennedy was trying to send may have been that southern gentlemen knew that their way of life was waning. In order to protect this they used government. The question that still remains unanswered in my mind is: Do the southern gentry at this time feel that slavery is wrong or is it just that their way of life is being attacked?

John Smith an Advertisment for Virginia

In " The Generall Historie Of Virginia" John Smith tells the narrative of his capture by local Native Americans. In class we discussed reasons why John Smith may have used the third person to describe the events he was involved in. One of the conclusions that we came up with was that by using the third person John Smith put himself above the actions that occurred. After thinking about it for a bit I think that Smith used the third person to make his narrative stronger. The third person establishes Smith a main character in his own story rather than a participant. By becoming a character in his story he increases the excitement and intensity of what is happening rather than just describing it first hand. John Smith essentially turn an account of life in Virginia from an anecdote into a tall tale.

I also thought to look at this tale from the perspective of a regular person in England during this time period. I thought that the story that John Smith told would be considered a very interesting and thrilling narrative. To someone whose daily existence consisted of a monotonous task the story that Smith told would probably be their ultimate expression of an adrenaline rush. It seems that John Smith might have really been the first man to sell the new World in England. When I thought about it, John smith was the ultimate marketer. Selling the New world as a place of adventure: whose curiosity wouldn't get the best of them.