Race in Poetry (Liner Notes)

Frequently alluded to by poets, race is one of the most debated issues in society. However, without any scientific proof of any genetic difference among races or anything of the sort, supporters of the so-called races end up debating nothing but a social construct based upon prejudice of how people look. The prevalence of this debate throughout society influences its prevalence in poetry. 

It is not uncommon for poets that have experienced racism or have lived through times of racial discrimination to refer to such events in their poems. Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about the sad death of a boy in her poem "The boy died in my alley." She depicts the scene with much sorrow  and pain, giving the speaker a sense of helplessness towards the cruelty of prejudice based upon death.

Other poems like "Man's short life and foolish ambition," by Margaret Cavendish, refer instead to the similarities among mankind. Sharing the same hopes, dreams, and failures, mankind is linked in many more ways than it differs.

Race exists in society promoting segregation. However, poetry builds the bridges required to change the popular misconceptions that result from race. The concepts of equality proposed by Cavendish and the violence resulting from unjustified prejudice mentioned by Brooks are both calls of action to their audiences and to question their own take on race.

A Forgiving Midas and his Ironies

When Mr. Norton brings up the story of his daughter and tells it to the Invisible Man, I was reminded of King Midas; the king of irony. How they both loved their daughters, their eventual deaths and how much power they had stood out. Because both men had some sort of involvement in their daughters' deaths, I thought about the irony that was taking place in Norton's character. Clearly, he was a lonely yet loving and forgiving man who believed in his contributions to the college. However, the ironies that began to characterize Mr. Norton's and the Invisible Man's relationship were just as characteristic of the situation as the ones mentioned before.

First of all, the little prejudice Mr. Norton has on the Invisible Man (from now on referred to as IM) allows him to share personal stories such as the tragic loss of his daughter. As their bonding continues, IM, who is driving Mr. Norton, one of the college's trustees, around campus is unable to answer some of the questions about fate that puzzle Mr. Norton. I thought it quite ironic that an educated man sought for answers in a college student of what was considered an 'inferior' race and who was nonetheless than his chauffeur. The fate conversation also stood to me because Mr. Norton wanted to know how his fate would be affected by the college, his contributions and finally, IM. This led me to another irony: it was college that made IM invisible.

Mr. Norton wondered what his fate had in store while IM, as we've already found out was made invisible by the institution Mr. Norton was so proud of. The last page of Chapter 4 made everything even more ironic. Just as IM and Mr. Norton are saying goodbye, the sad yet comforting farewell may have one think that everything would be alright. Instead, this is when the previously mentioned "College made me invisible" kicks in. Something that has yet to happen in college is responsible for IM's invisibility. The irony here is that the institution for which Mr. Norton cared so deeply about, was actually going to make the student he had befriended invisible, the complete opposite than what he wanted.

Another incident in which Mr. Norton was involved in, their encounter with Jim Trueblood, and him rewarding the rapist with $100 is just proof of the ironies that surround Mr. Norton. Irony is itself a recurring literary device that throughout the novel helps emphasize injustice, intolerance and the naiveness of the blind society. However, Mr. Norton epitomizes irony as all of the situations he was in  had some sort of irony.

Invisible Man is Filmed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cctjuE95VA

Vivid and Visible: Imagery of Pain

The frightening scene described by Ellison in the chapter highlights his use of imagery to depict the events in the story.

As I read on, I started to feel fumes of alcohol, cigars, tobacco and lust coming out from the pages. Men from all sorts of backgrounds sitting in the blue gray light near the ring grabbing the blonde dancer, "their beefy fingers sink(ing) into soft flesh... terror and disgust in her eyes."(20) While I read this part of the chapter, the vividness of the descriptions and the quick pace at which everything was happening it didn't feel as if I was reading anymore. It actually felt as if I was watching a movie, but was somehow in the movie, like I was sitting in that room with all of those men shouting. Later, when the narrator begins to describe all the blows he received while on the ring, I noticed that the length of each sentence reflected the length of each action. Like this one for example, "My arms were like lead. My head smarting from blows. I managed to feel my way up the ropes and held on, trying to catch my breath." So much effort to get up! Short sentences, as if at the end of each one he's trying to catch his breath and has very little energy. You can  feel how hard it is for him to get up. You can see his hands holding on tight to the rope and his body struggling. Suddenly though, his efforts are interrupted by "A glove (that) landed in (his) midsection" and as a reader you can feel the punch as he falls down again.(20) The sentence however, doesn't end there but  rather continues with a comma, "I went over again," sort of freezing time at the moment he begins to feel the pain. (20) Eventually, he realizes the game was rigged, him being the only left with the biggest man in the ring, inevitably losing the fight. 

The first pages of Ellison's Invisible Man are packed with literary terms that give the "Invisible Man" an air of solitude and sadness. With words such as death, and the personification of this of this term, Ellison brings to life concepts that allude to the invisible man's situation. Also, rhyme helps to emphasize the contradictory idea of blindness vs. invisibility, "hibernation" vs. "animation" are two rhyming words that 

The Last Splash

Life for Edna Montellier had lost meaning, if ever it had any.

She went back to the one place that had aroused that awakened sensation she had had, the one that made her feel like she had been reborn, introduced into the world as a new person (chapter 7).  In the beginning, she tried to live with the changes and the realization of the duality in her life and her lack of involvement in it. However, Edna's transition towards actually being happy and acknowledged as a person instead of just a 'wife' or 'woman' is impeded by her realization that this will likely never happen. And this is just too much for her to handle.

Edna then seeks refuge from her inconvenient truth in the place where she first became aware of it. Yes, the sea. So she shows up unannounced at the Grand Isle and while Victor is worried about making her stay comfortable, she decides to take a stroll down the beach. Eventually, Edna ends up swimming in the sea, wearing nothing but her birthday suit. Feeling finally free, she keeps swimming, not even exhaustion can stop her, and there is nothing that will bring her back to shore either.

Edna's death shows her desperation and need to cleanse herself from the outside world. She could no longer live without a meaningful life. Therefore, when she thinks about Mademoiselle Reisz's words as she swam "out where no woman had swum before" her daring and courageous attitude to rebel and exert her free will, recognized that she was in deed, an artist. Not only had she literally swam far out, but she had also challenged what her marriage stood for by questioning it and deciding it was not right to continue in it, something that most women were very scared of doing.

Edna's last splash is characterized by the things that were going through her mind at that moment. Childhood memories, the hum of bees, her sister, her father, and a dog all crossed her head in that last moment. Her life before marriage when she was still 'free' comes back to her at then when she has achieved freedom one last time.

Life, the Meaningless Monster

Three's a Winner: Marriage, The Institution

This third try at recording my webcast turned out to be successful. Here's what I have to say about marriage  in Chopin's novella.

The State of Boredom: Edna's Collapse

According to Martin Heiddegger, there are three circumstances under which humans ask themselves the question: why are there beings at all instead of nothing? The circumstance I'll focus on here is boredom. In order to experience boredom, humans have to completely run out of things to do to keep their minds off of the question they ask themselves in the state of boredom.

Why does this have anything at all to do with The Awakening?? Well, as I read about Edna's life in the city and how detached she was from her marriage, her children and her life, I wondered why. She was a woman with a "generous husband" envied by other women whose husbands weren't so, her house; a charming home, and a quadroon to look after her boys. Edna's life, even someone today would think, was near to perfect. If all you have to worry about is what gown to wear for Tuesday's receptions, why is your life so miserable?

To answer this, I go back to my Heiddegger reference on the first paragraph. Free time such as the one Edna has on her hands, given that she has absolutely nothing to do other than painful small talk with women she cares very little about, gives people time to think, reflect, and become awake as to what's wrong in their lives. In Edna's life, what's wrong is her lack of involvement, as I discussed in my previous blog entry. Everything is either carried out by her servants (including raising her boys) or her husband (who, in his "walks around the house...makes sure nothing is amiss" leaving her nothing to fix) so Edna has come to the point where she's asking herself the question: why are there beings at all instead of nothing? In other words, what the heck am I doing here? She knows she doesn't fit in that world, after visiting Mrs. Ratignolle, she knew "it was not a condition of life which suited her, and she could see in it but an apalling and hopeless ennui."

With nothing at all to do at home, Edna is bored with her life, which makes her comfort at the beach much more comprehensible, not just because Robert was around but because it was a change in her routine. I think that what Edna wants is something to do. She's tired of small talk and shallowness. The obstacle that impedes her from doing things is her husband, who expects her to comply with her housewife duties and help him with the social side of his business, "Belthrop could buy and sell us ten times over... you'd better write her a note." Edna has asked herself the question and knows that there's more out there. She longs for Robert's company and in a way, all she wants is to break the walls that contain her inside New Orleans' shallow life, kinda like what Robert did going away to Mexico.

Basically, I suppose Edna has entered the point of frustration where she knows she is letting her life pass by and hates to be watching it go passively knowing that she has everything she needs to be taking full advantage of it, except her complicated husband who hinders her happiness and fulfillment. 

Your Life is the in Present

There have been many moments throughout The Awakening in which Edna has literally been awakened in some way. First it was with the sea, and now her "newly awakened being" is demanding what it is being denied. Edna has now become aware of her true romantic feelings for Robert. It seems as though if realizing what she truly wants is what awakens her. She then considers the importance of her past, present and future, realizing that all that matters is the present since it "was hers, to torture her as it was doing then with the biting conviction that she had lost that which she had held." The realization is somewhat overwhelming for Edna but she is ready to take charge. By claiming that the present is hers, Edna is claiming back her life. She is ready to take action and exercise her free will. Her present, she now knows, is her day to day life and it is all that matters. She is far too afraid to venture into the "mystery" of the future, possibly because she knows it is not what she wants it to be. Edna also admits that her "past offered no lesson which she was willing to heed," however, she is, in a way learning from her past everything she doesn't want for her future.

What I find so sad in Edna's situation is that Robert, the one guy she is in love with and  because of whom she has been "awakened," has gone to Mexico and she still has to answer to an unloving marriage she's found herself in. Therefore, Edna's resolution to take her life in her hands is probably not going to carry out any change, since the one person that change was worth the trouble for is no longer there.

Edna and Robert  reminded me of Katy Perry's  song, The One That Got Away 

Here's Why I Oppose

After scavenging my classmates' blogs for anything I could contradict, I came across Vicente's responses to  Kate Chopin's The Awakening, which we've been reading as a class in his blog Good Books Exist but the Make Me Sleepy. Below, I've written some of the reasons why I think differently than him.

Sorry Vicente, don't take this personally.
From this point on, this blog response is directed to you.

Well Vicente, I happen to disagree with you. First of all, keep in mind that although the context of the plot is somewhat important in order to predict where it's headed or have a better understanding of why the characters are the way they are, I don't think the fact that The Awakening is set during the victorian period is that relevant. I say this because when I started reading the novel, I actually thought it was set during the sixties until activities performed by the women, such as "sewing" led me to think otherwise. The  way the characters behave however, has very little relevance over what time period they're living in.

I also disagree with your misinterpretation of women as slaves or even comparing them to the black race and their hardship. Yes, women and blacks have had a rough time getting recognition throughout history. But, since you brought up the "relevance" of their struggle in connection to their time period, I must suggest that women in Chopin's novel are not in any way similar to slaves. Although women like Mrs. Pontellier are not entirely free, they are at a much higher position than slaves (if we compare their situation to that of 19th century slaves.) Mrs. Pontellier isn't entirely free because not only did she not marry the man she actually loved, she basically had to marry Leonce and she is now stuck in a life in which she is obviously unsatisfied. As much unsatisfaction as her marriage produces, Mrs. Pontellier can find refuge in her walks to the beach and being near the ocean, and still has all her basic needs met. Slaves however, had a harder time meeting their basic needs, and although they had everything provided for by their masters, everything they got was in deed, basic. Also, they could not stroll down the beach whenever they pleased or go near the ocean as Mrs. Pontellier could and, the possibility existed that families would be separated. At least Mrs. Pontellier has her kids near, although she doesn't show her love that often, and her family is in no eminent threat of separation.

Therefore I think your comparison between the beginning of women's rights and slavery is unfitting. Women can't be compared to slaves, both rights movements were completely different and, actually, women who fought for their rights came from the upper, wealthy class, unlike the slaves who had very little wealth.

Although you did specify that women were a kind of "slave of society," with which I do concur, given that women did follow society's norms of what was expected of them (such as being a mother, a housewife, and sewing) they did have ample freedom to do other things even if it meant disapproval. The problem was, not many had the tools (education) and courage to exercise it. 

The ADELES

If you live somewhere with access to a radio, computer, television or civilization, then it is highly likely you know of or have heard of Adele. The British 23 year-old singer, with style reminiscent of the 60's, was recently awarded with six Grammys for her album 21, the longest running number one album by a female in Billboard history. Her success and fame have changed the beauty and talent standards in the music industry. Her unconventional full-figured body, burly voice and honest lyrics could have prevented any record label from signing her. However, the wonderful reception she has had has made her looks irrelevant to the quality of her music, and are actually something she's proud of. In an interview with 60 minutes, she said she "never looked at magazine covers and said 'that's what I have to look like to be a success' ".

 Adele has become an advocate for women and a role model to anyone who is a enslaved by body image. Clearly, her confidence goes beyond and does not depend on what people think or say about her. 

The singer's honesty as she writes her songs, unafraid to share with the world her pain and heartbreaks is also a way she unknowingly encourages women to stand up for what they believe is right, even if it means leaving your boyfriend and saying good-bye as she does in her song "Turning Tables":  "Under your thumb, I can't breathe, So I won't let you close enough to hurt me, I've braved a million storms to leave you, as hard as you try, no, I will never be knocked down."  Sometimes, being alone is better than being around bad company, Adele shares this and promotes it through her lyrics.

Where I'm going with this is Adele is all about the empowerment of women whether she knows it or not (I think she does). As I read Kate Chopin's The Awakening, I came across another much weaker Adele, which, given our study of feminism in class  reminded me of the Adele I've been telling you about in the paragraphs above.

Adele Ratignolle is described as "the fair lady of our dreams...golden hair, eyes like sapphires, pouty red lips". She embroiders and sews as she sits with Mrs. Pontellier to talk. Madame Ratignolle fulfills her duties as a wife, bearing children almost every two years and goes about her shallow life thinking everyone is interested in her stories. 

Adele Ratingnolle, apparently content with the life she leads has no other worry in her life. She's beautiful, has already had children, has stories to tell and has fulfilled the role of housewife, although she probably has maids that clean up after her and take care of her children while she gossips with Mrs. Pontellier and Robert. Women like her, what the author calls "motherwomen" wouldn't dare to question their lives because they are too sure that no one can have it better than they do, (education has taught them so) even if they're boring themselves to death.