Start of African American Lit. Posts

 From this point on all blog posts are related to African American Lit.

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Sethe, Beloved, and Grief

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  Portrait of Two Women  by Lo ïs Mailou Jones (c. 1950) Throughout Beloved , important information is kept ambiguous to the reader until methodically revealed, gradually creating a full picture of each of the characters’ lives and experiences (at least ones important to the story)—that is, except for in the case of Beloved. Beloved’s reemergence into the world and her final departure are both largely left to the imagination of the reader. So is the meaning of Beloved’s reappearance in Sethe’s and Denver’s lives, which is the subject of this blog post. I certainly don’t think that there is a single definitive reason for Beloved’s return, but wondering about possible purposes of her character lead me to think about the relation between Beloved and Sethe’s grief for her.             Sethe acts completely unapologetic about killing Beloved in order to save her from going back to Sweet Home. Even when faced with her neighbor...
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Representation of Black Women in Native Son

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Portrait of a Young Woman - artist unknown, late 18th century                The blind spot in Native Son most discussed in class was that of the book’s representation of Bessie and black women as a whole, and whether this representation is effective in its depiction of the experiences of black women. To make a blanket statement, none of the women in Native Son are developed enough as characters to be depicted as full, well-rounded people. However, Bessie gets the brunt of this flat representation as she is objectified, dehumanized, and devalued by Bigger throughout the book, and then is literally treated as an object as her body is brought out as evidence in court for the murder of a white woman. I think it can be argued that there are reasons for this lacking depiction of Bessie, but I do not think that this novel is at all an effective representation of what it is like to be a black woman.        ...
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Transience in The Mezzanine

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                In my first blog post, I would like to examine the ways that I think Howie’s narration his life fits into Aurelius’ idea of the transience of life, and also the ways that it doesn’t.             We know that Howie disliked Aurelius’ view of life. However, despite Howie’s protests to this view that life is fleeting and trivial, I think that much of The Mezzanine supports this idea. Howie obviously has a strong fixation on man-made products. In his detailed descriptions of various types of machinery or products, he often talks about how they have changed over time, or when they first emerged. Like in the case of milk delivery, he may even reminisce about the end of these products. Additionally, Howie sometimes talks about things that, as readers born in the early 2000s, we cannot relate to because they don’t exist anymore. My favorite example of this occurs when Howie is talk...
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