Baraka/Dutchman

I saw it coming !!!  "You look like death eating a soda cracker".  This is what Lula says to Clay on page 2747 in scene I.  I surmised from the beginning that Lula was conspiring to kill this man.  I think the actual turning point in the story is when Lula (having been irritatingly flirtacious) turns to Clay and says, "I bet you never once thought you were a black nigger".  It was really at this moment that I realized Lula was a racist bitch.  The way she teased Clay and spoke to him was in a derogatory manner.  She is hatred munching on an apple.  Clay is justified in his reaction to Lula's craziness.  Grabbing her and telling her to shut up is exactly what I would have done.  Clay tries to calm her but she has flipped her lid so he slaps her. 
The one thing I did not anticipate was the involvement of the other riders on the Dutchman.  The ending left me questioning the role of the conductor as well.  Was he in on it? 
All in all, this was a good story that showed the brashness and pure hatred that racism can arouse.  I still feel that Baldwin's story was based more in reality.  I don't know how many awful things happened to African Americans on subways during the civil rights movement (I'm sure certain things did), but I do know that Baraka's take on racism shows the devious manner in which whites taunted and teased them in order to gain a certain amount of trust.  Then, they stabbed them in the back.  Racism is awful (duh!) and the short stories and poems we have read shine a bright light on the horrific treatment the white man imposed on the African American race. 

Baldwin

I am floored by this short story.  I was primarily shocked at the torture of the black man.  Of course, I have read about the awful treatment of the black man; the hangings, the arrests and beatings, and the burning of their properties and churches.  I have never heard of this brutal type of torture.  Not that hanging isn't brutal but... you know what I am saying.  This was uncomfortable to get through.  I guarantee this happened a lot and I have either been oblivious to it (nah!) or I have never come across written accounts of this type of torture. This truly depicts "man's inhumanity to man". After reading the story, my mind went back to a line Baldwin wrote, "They had not been singing black folks into heaven, they had been singing white folks into hell".  Rightfully so!!  The treatment of blacks at this time was horrific.  I thought Baldwin's use of something as beautiful as music (singing) to depict the horrors and plight of the African American race was beautiful.  There is something so powerful about listening to a group of people sing.  Voices raised together are stronger than one voice crying out and Baldwin symbolizes this with the continuous singing. 
I literally DESPISED Jesse by the end of this story which also led me to cry over the idea that, at the time, the white man thought he was so superior to everyone else.  White men living by the word of the Bible and sadistically torturing their fellow men.  I just want to throw up.
I was also crazed by the fact that so many white people were raised with this superior quality.  Jesse's parents were the devil.  The father might as well have had horns and a tail.  After witnessing the horrific torture, this is what we read, "His father's face was full of sweat, his eyes were very peaceful.  At that moment Jesse loved his father more than he had ever loved him".  SAD!!!  And then the true colors of the white man really come out with, "Yeah, said his father, they'll come and get him by and by. I reckon we better get over there and get some of that food before it's all gone."  JEEZ!  It really pisses me off and makes me sad at the same time.  Don't even get me started on the fact that Jesse (as a man) is having sex with black women and that as a kid, his best friend was black.  Baldwin really shows the side of the white man that was so obvious to the black man.  I feel as if this blog is not very coherent, but I feel sort of light headed after reading this.  Yeah, I read King and Barker.  Yeah, I watch crappy horror movies like SAW and Hostel.  But the fact that this horrific treatment of men happened (and in some places - still does) is the scariest thing of all to realize.  It sounds strange to say that I enjoyed this story but it did open my eyes even more to the strength of the black man and what he has to go through just to live and breathe.

Ginsberg/Howl

I have to admit that I read this poem 4 times!!  The first time, I just thought it was a clusterf**k of words put together by a raving lunatic high on dope and purging gibberish on to paper.  The second time, I thought the same thing!  The last two times I read it, I started underlining certain phrases and words and really thinking about what he was saying.  It was then that I came to LOVE these words (as messed up as they are)!
"a lost battalion of platonic conversationalists jumping down the stoops off fire escapes off windowsills off Empire State out of the moon,..."  In my opinion, Ginsberg is trying to tell us that it is the 'underdog' of society who is brilliant and forgotten.  Part I travels the world with the narrator.  He sees the grime, dirt, and decay of man everywhere he goes.  But..... he also sees the lost potential burried under the hopelessness; "who sang out of their windows in despair, fell out of the subway window, jumped in the filthy Passaic, leaped on negroes, cried all over the street..."  Howl seems to cry about the lost souls.  Is it about drug addicts, derelicts, winos, businessmen, kings, and queens?  All of the above!!  The focus seems to be more on the addicts and lunatics, but aren't they just as brilliant as the 'normal' person? 
When you finally get into Part II you realize it applies to Part I.  The "best minds of my generation destroyed by madness" (from Part I) are all affected by "Moloch" (in Part II).  I believe Ginsberg's 'Moloch' represents the mind and the madness that can eat at it (especially when fueled by drugs).  "Moloch whose name is the Mind! Moloch in whom I sit lonely! Moloch in whom I dream Angels!".  When the mind is altered, it dreams and wanders the world, much like the lost and forgotten derelicts who wander the streets.  Theirs is a different world and sometimes, it is more tolerable when seen through drug-fogged eyes.
The poem can be disected in soooo many ways.  If I knew more about history (and government) in the 1950's, then I'm sure I could analyze the poem differently and give it a political spin.  Moloch could easily represent government or some crap like that.  But, I do think Ginsberg was trying to open the eyes of the "non-artist" so they could really see the hidden, artistic beauty of the world.

The Fish

I really want go fishing now!!  This poem is filled with happiness, despair, survival, and unadulterated joy.  Bishop's description of the fish is both detailed and beautiful; "He hung a grunting weight, battered and venerable and homely.  Here and there his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper, and its pattern of darker brown was like wallpaper: shapes like full-blown roses stained and lost through age."  This short little description lets the reader know that this fish is large, old, and worn.  This is no regular fish either.  He is a survivor.  "....then I saw from his lower lip -if you could call it a lip- grim, wet, and weaponlike, hung five old pieces of fish-line...."  Bishop goes on to describe them as "medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering, a five-haired beard of wisdom trailing from his aching jaw."  He has earned these medals.
I believe this poem speaks on strength.  It implies that the fish  has struggled and survived.  People have an incredible ability to "make it through" the tough times that life deals out.  Sometimes, we wear our scars proudly (the hooks and lines) and this allows others to know that we are survivors.  I was glad that she "let the fish go" at the end.  We can all only hope that, at some point in life, when our captors have us on the line, they will choose to let us go.  I believe , in a way, she compares herself to the fish.  "...victory filled up the little rented boat...."  I think this means she realized that they were both survivors and deserved to be set free form torment (abuse). 
Just a little end note to say that my pessimistic view-point on life was kind of hoping that she kept the fish and hosted a fish-fry later in the day!

Hemingway/Wolfe

The snows of Kilimanjaro was a classic read for me.  I have never read Hemingway before and I found this particular story to be wonderfully entertaining.  I was quite fond of the 'flashbacks' that Harry has.  I found myself thinking that they were really just his life passing before his eyes as he lay dying.  All of the italicized portions of the story appear to be thoughts remembered by Harry of his life in the past.  I believe he was 'writing' these thoughts down in his mind since he could not physically write them down.
The hyena was a great symbol of death.  "It came with a rush; not as a rush of water nor of wind; but of a sudden evil-smelling emptiness and the odd thing was that the hyena slipped lightly along the edge of it."  Hyenas are scavengers, always looking for the carcasses of dead animals (stalking and whining as they circle).  Harry is basically a carcass lying there, rotting away so the hyena is drawn to the smell of decay.
The ending was great too!  I love the 'point of view' approach.  Hemingway moves the story along as if Harry has just fallen asleep:  "Bwana is asleep now.  Take the cot up very gently and carry it into the tent."
Then we read about the plane coming in and the pilot entering the camp.  There is dialogue between Harry and Compton.  This little 'trick of the trade' allows the reader to feel some hope that maybe Harry is alive.  Then the plane takes off and we see the things Harry sees.  I also love that when Harry sees Kilimanjaro, that is when the "hyena stopped whimpering in the night and started to make a strange, human, almost crying sound." 
Hemingway's ability to develop his characters through 'flashbacks' (in this story) was very precise and in depth.  I enjoyed this story.
I would love to do in depth blog about Wolfe, but I will save it for another day.  Let me just say that this story truly touched me and created, in me, a sense of melancholy (sp?).  It was very touching.

The Gilded Six-Bits

     I thoroughly enjoyed this short story.  Hurston's writing is so poetic in its descriptions---
    
"Her stiff young breasts thrust forward aggressively like broad-based cones with tips lacquered in black".  "Big pitcher of buttermilk beaded with pale drops of butter from the churn".
"The shapeless enemies of humanity that live in the hours of Time had waylaid Joe".

    I love how Hurston blends these eloquent descriptions with the vernacular.  While reading the dialogue between Joe and Missie May, I found myself pulled away from the descriptive poetry and thrust into a shabby, southern, black neighborhood house where collards are cookin-up on the stove and love is in the air.
     I was also drawn into Joe and Missie's relationship.  I found myself thinking how wonderfully playful and loving they were with each other:  a happy, young couple still in the honeymoon phase of their marriage.  I was literally heartbroken when the story finds Missie cheating on Joe with Slemmons.  I was furious at Missie for lying to me and I found myself wanting to kick Slemmons in his 'twig and berries"!!!  My reactions surprised me and I realized that Hurston ROCKS!!  Through her lovely descriptions and her dialogue, she allowed me to become a part of this story in only 8  pages!!  I am somewhat happy that Joe and Missie stayed together.  I think that their relationship will be forever stained by Missie's infidelity.  The baby boy will  grow up in a house that will never again have the sense of playfulness and love that it once did.  And all because Missie wanted some "gold money".  Tramp!

Eugene O'Neill

     I just have to start off by saying this is the FIRST time I have read O'Neill and it won't be the last!!  I loved this play.  The fact that it takes place in one room (the LIVING room) is genius!  The "living" room.  That  is a wonderful contradiction as to what really goes on in there.  The Tyrones aren't busy "living", they are busy dying!
    Every member of this family is dependent upon each other for re-assurance as to who they are.  Mary is so concerned about her hair that it is almost comical (ya' know, since she's a dope head).  "What is it?  What are you looking at?  Is my hair-?"  She says this several times throughout the play and it leads me to believe she is lacking in confidence.  She relies on her family to build her confidence.  But.... to no avail!  She's hooked on "the dope" and she won't be back soon!
Mary's addiction plays out as an addiction to comfort.  She lacks comfort in her "home"; she lacks social comforts, like friends; and she lacks comfort in herself.
     Tyrone Sr. is played as an "old codger" of sorts.  He sort of reminded me of my grandfather.  He's an older man who is given to claiming he's "poor" (land poor) and he likes his whiskey!  He treats Mary in a way that both endears me to him ("None of that, my lady!  You're just right.  We'll have no talk of reducing."), and also makes me dislike him with his backhanded compliments to Mary.  He seems to be a good father and it is obvious he has no problem letting the truth slip out when it comes to Jamie.
     Jamie is like the black sheep of the family.  His drinking and whoring are practically accepted by his family.  It's like they just say, "Oh!  That's sooo Jamie!"  Jamie is very dependent upon his parents for money and a place to stay.  He tries to do his part (trimming the hedge) to earn his keep but he is more concerned about "fat" hookers and whiskey than he is about himself.  He genuinely loves his brother but, at the same time, I don't think he would lose too much sleep if Edmund died.
     Edmund is the shining example of this dysfunctional family.  He has consumption.  Or is it, he's being "consumed".  I love that the "frail" and sickly Edmund is also the one who appears to be the strongest and most independent of the Tyrones.  He has ventured outside of this family to try and find himself---only to find that he's anchored to a sinking ship (his family).
     I have rambled to the point of boredom!!  The final picture of this family is one of sorrow, loss, co-dependency, addiction (to both alcohol and drugs), and love.  It's a beautiful train wreck of a family!!  They continue to look at each other without SEEING each other.  Tyrone Sr. sums it up best with this line: "Yes, forget!  Forget everything and face nothing!  It's a convenient philosophy if you've no ambition in life except to....."  Well said, sir!  Well said!

Stevens/Sunday Morning

"She says, "I am content  when wakened birds,
Before they fly, test the reality
Of misty fields, by their sweet questionings;
But when the birds are gone, and their warm fields
Return no more, where, then, is paradise?"

     The woman in this poem is happy right where she is.  She's wearing her robe and having a lazy Sunday while contemplating life and death.  Sounds like my Sunday mornings!!  Seriously though, she seems to be perfectly pleased with her surroundings and she also seems to feel that she is already in paradise.
     Steven's paints a vibrant picture of the "here and now" of this woman.  The opening stanza creates the idyllic setting of this woman's life.  She is in her robe, drinking coffee, and eating oranges while gazing at the "green freedom of a cockatoo".  The darker side of this woman's life is that she fully knows she is going to die. 
"She says, "But in contentment I still feel
The need of some imperishable bliss."
Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her,
Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams
And our desires.  Although she strews the leaves
Of sure obliteration on our paths,
The path sick sorrow took, the many paths......"

     I think the woman wants her current life and surroundings to be her paradise AFTER she dies.  She questions the Christian view of paradise.  I think this poem speaks on the pleasure of being content with ones' life and being confident enough to question religion.  I am a Christian woman, but I continuously question certain aspects of faith.  I find the answers on my own.  I think the woman in the poem is questioning these things to ultimately come to an acceptance of death.  Death is inevitable and how a person deals with it is part of the journey of life.

Robert Frost

     Mending Wall is a wonderful look at how most people deal with other people (neighbors).  I believe the central idea of this poem is the phrase, "Good fences make good neighbors."  I love how the 'pine tree neighbor' is completely indifferent to the fact that he has a neighbor.  He just wants to fix that darn wall so he doesn't have to see his fellow man.  Why let others in when you already have so many problems of your own?  The 'apple orchard neighbor' is 'on the fence' about letting his neighbor in.  He seems to want to strike up a relationship with the other fellow but the wall needs mending.  The wall could also symbolize racism/bigotry now that I think about it..........
     Home Burial reads like a short story instead of a poem.  I felt the sorrow, anger, and pain of the husband and wife.  The loss of a child is an experience that I NEVER want to have.  This poem reminded me of a movie I recently saw entitled Rabbit Hole.  It is a look into the lives of a husband and wife who have lost a child.  The poem and the movie show the decay of a relationship with the hope that the relationship is strong enough to work itself out.  It always seems someone needs to be the stronger of the two in any relationship and in the poem (as well as the movie) the husband is the strongest.  "Can't a man speak of his own child he's lost?"  This is a man who is willing to talk through the tragedy and his wife is still grieving in her own way.  The relationship is strained and we can only hope he WILL follow her and bring her back by force.
     Design is a beautiful little poem about life and death.  It's about the strong overpowering the weak.  It asks the question if design actually fits into the whole scheme of life.  Maybe it is Frost's questioning of God as designer/creator.  "What but design of darkness to appall?----If design govern in a thing so small."  Maybe Frost just saw a spider on a white heal-all and wrote about it.  Who knows?  I usually have a hard time getting to the 'meat' of poetry, but this Frost fellow seems rather wonderful.

Zitkala Sa / Impressions of an Indian Childhood

     "I hate the paleface that makes my mother cry!"  I think that about sums up Sa's feelings about the white men who ultimately grind her heritage into dust.  The recollection of Sa's childhood is a powerful one and it gave me a little more insight into the role the "paleface" played in the conformity of the Native Americans.
     I love how Sa and her mother were so peaceful and content living in the wigwam and inviting fellow tribesmen to come and eat and tell stories.  I also enjoyed "The Coffee-Making" snippet. This short recollection tells of an "old grandfather" that stops by Sa's wigwam for a brief respite.  Sa knows that she should welcome him and make him coffee.  She does just that (but she uses old coffee grounds and creates a "muddy warm water").  The old grandfather accepts her hospitality.  When mother returns, the elders sort of laugh together (not in a condescending way).  "But neither she nor the warrior, whom the law of our custom had compelled to partake of my insipid hospitality, said anything to embarrass me."  I believe the previous quote speaks volumes on the Native American culture.  Native Americans are truly a 'family' with customs, traditions, and laws that strengthen their heritage.
     Enter whitey!!!!!  Sa's older brother had gone East and was educated by the white man.  When Dawee returned, "his coming back influenced my mother to take a farther step from her native way of living."  Mother is still continuously cursing the "paleface" and yet, she starts to slowly conform.  (I don't think she sees this in herself - she is very emotional and blames the "paleface" for the death of her other daughter and her brother).  Sa wants to attend the school in the East and her mother is reluctant to let her go.  Sa ends up going East and thriving as a student.  She realizes her heritage and customs are being systematically deleted from her and her fellow Indians.  Through the cutting of their hair and the suppression of their native language, these young Indians are being molded into what the white man sees as the 'perfect American citizen' (ironic, right?).  It all boils down to control and conformity on the part of the white man.  White-boy egos always get in the way of growth and acceptance.  Sa realizes all of this later in life.  I believe she is grateful for her Education, but she had to sacrifice so much of herself to attain it.  Education vs. heritage/culture???  It shouldn't have been a choice.  It should have been a partnership. 

Edith Wharton / Roman Fever

     Can anyone say "CAT FIGHT"???????????  This story was great.  At first, I thought it was going to be some story about how Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley were going to weep into their tea about getting older.  I also thought there would be some remarks about how they want to live vicariously through their daughters.  I was pleasantly surprised when they began chatting about their past, and a letter, and what could only be described as a love triangle.
     The letter that promised a tryst with Mr. Slade (Delphin) was written and sent to Mrs. Ansley by her "friend", Mrs. Slade.  I can only imagine that it was done to test the strength of the two women's friendship, as well as the fidelity of her then boyfriend, Delphin.  One of the highlights of the story was when Mrs. Ansley informed Mrs. Slade that she actually did meet Delphin that night despite the fact the letter was falsified.  Mrs. Slade had not anticipated that Mrs. Ansley would ANSWER the letter.  So, over tea in Rome, Mrs. Slade finds out her husband and Mrs. Ansley actually "hooked - up".  She kind of shrugs it off and says, "Yes; I was beaten there.  But I oughtn't to begrudge it to you, I suppose.  At the end of all these years.  After all, I had everything; I had him for twenty-five years.  And you had nothing but that one letter that he didn't write." (pg.852)  This is actually somewhat of a forgiving remark (with a side of 'slap in the face') but the real shocker is Mrs. Ansley's remark.  (Just a quick note here: the two women were always comparing their daughters.  Mrs. Slade's daughter, Jenny, was just not up to her standards (being high-class and all).  Mrs. Ansley's daughter, Barbara, is brilliant and more to the liking of Mrs. Slade. "I appreciate her. And perhaps envy you.  Oh, my girl's perfect; if I were a chronic invalid I'd - well, I think I'd rather be in Jenny's hands...... I always wanted a brilliant daughter...and never quite understood why I got an angel instead." (Mrs. Slade speaking on Barbara pg.848))
     The story ends on the best (and quite shocking) remark made by Mrs. Ansley in response to Mrs. Slade's remark about having everything "and you had nothing but that letter".   Mrs. Ansley says, " I had Barbara."
Take that Mrs. Slade. 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman / The Yellow Wall-paper

     How cool was this story????  I found Gilman's descriptions of the narrator's "temporary nervous depression" to be quite enlightening.  The following are just a few sentences from the story:
    "so I take pains to control myself - before him, at least, and that makes me very tired." (pg. 809)
    "But these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing." (pg. 810)
    "I don't feel as if it was worth while to turn my hand over for anything, and I'm getting dreadfully fretful and    querulous." (pg. 812)
    "I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time." (pg.812)
     I fully believe her "temporary nervous depression" has a name, and that name is John (her husband).  John appears to be a professional at squashing her hopes, dreams, and desires.  She desperately wants to write, but feels compelled to do it in secret for fear that her husband will find out.  She also wants to have some company and entertain some friends, but her husband believes that would "exhaust" her.  She feels trapped in a lifeless marriage.  The wallpaper (yellow, dingy, and faded) symbolizes her marriage and the "woman" that is trapped inside is her. 
    Gilman makes the yellow wallpaper come alive: 
"The color is repellent almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight." (pg.810) 
"It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper!  It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw - not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things." (pg.816)
     Gilman uses depression and wallpaper to convey her thoughts on the plight of the everyday woman.  I agree with Gilman...........rip the wallpaper down.