Chain Gang with Cherokee

While reading Beloved the majority of the book was very confusing and didn't make very much sense, however chapter 10 to me was the most interesting chapter because I understood what was happening but it also made contributions to the overall background of Paul D. Another reason why I loved chapter 10 as much as I did is because it was the first time in the novel that I appreciated all the details and nuances of Morrison's writing. Primarily the depictions of the Cherokees and the struggles they faced put the whole story into perspective and even helped my understand how slavery was depicted in the story even more.
In this chapter we see as Paul D is sent to a chain gang after attempting to kill the man he is sold to by school teacher. We are given almost no reason to why he attempted the murder other than “other than Halle, Sixo, Paul A, Paul F and Mister.” Meaning that after the loss of all his close “friends” Paul had nothing other to do than lash out. The chain gang itself seems to be one of the most depressing moments throughout the book. The depiction of the housing that is given to the slaves, originally instill dread in me as a reader but as the housing is eventually used as the method of escape it becomes the light in the darkness. The way that Morrison describes the chain gang makes it very clear how terrible the treatment was, from rape to overall deprivation it really expands the scope of the horrible treatments of slavery.  One of the high (Ha) points of the chapter is Hi man. Hi man is a very mysterious character throughout the chapter, he leads the slaves in the chain gang and during the escape becomes the leader and most knowledgeable. Hi man helps organize the escape as he is the first to “pull the chain.”
The escape from the chain and the events that follow after it was one of the most impressive parts of the chapter. It was very interesting that Morrison decided to make the escape possible using rain. It almost gives me a vibe that throughout the book “nature” is trying to fight against slavery, kinda proving that it is morally wrong. The idea that nature is trying to help Paul D is continued when as he is attempting to escape to the north he is told to follow the bloom of trees. Not only is it factually correct that blooms move northward it is yet another example of how nature is trying to help Paul escape the hardships of slavery.
The primary help that the slaves received during the escape was from the Cherokee sick camp. The way the Morrison describes the Cherokee’s is very interesting and is essentially a micro history lesson of oppression.”In between that calamity and this, they had visited George III in London, published a newspaper, made baskets, led Oglethorpe through forests, helped Andrew Jackson fight Creek, cooked maize, drawn up a constitution, petitioned the King of Spain, been experimented on by Dartmouth, established asylums, wrote their language, resisted settlers, shot bear and translated scripture.” In that one sentence alone Morrison gives us everything that we need to know in order to understand why the Cherokee helped the slaves, and what happened to them since essentially the discovery of america. The fact that the Cherokee had been abused by the white man allowed them to understand the terrible treatment of the slaves and gave them reason to why they should help. The Cherokee continued to help and house the slaves until only Paul is left. Finally they give Paul instructions on how to get to the free north and bid him good luck.
The last sentence of the chapter also gives us even more information on Paul D as a character he puts all his experiences and people from his past into a “tobacco tin” which he will not open for anyone especially Sethe. This chapter as a whole gives us a lot of important information regarding Paul D and it helps explains some of his actions as the novel progresses.

Invisible Man and The White Boy shuffle, Importance of Identity

The theme of identity seemed to be a focal point in Invisible Man, it was rather clean cut and obvious that throughout the story different identities are placed on the narrator. The choice whether or not he chooses to accept them is not always his. The narrator in Invisible Man is often confused and not fully understanding of what is happening but as readers we always know that nothing good will come from his given identity. On the opposite end of the spectrum Gunnar in The White Boy Shuffle is painfully self aware of the identities that are placed on him and often makes witty remarks that relate the the given identity. The difference in how the 2 characters accept their given identities allows the reader to understand more about the thought process of both the character and the author.   

The identity of the narrator in Invisible man seems to have been beaten to death but the core concept is that as the plot continues and the narrator evolves as a person many different INCORRECT identities are placed on him. Several examples include a boxer in the first chapter, an educated college man and a union worker all in the span of 1 chapter, and then of course the direct “new identity” that is given to the narrator by the brotherhood. With each new identity that is placed on the narrator it seems that he becomes more confused. With only brief moments of clarity such as the real purpose of the letters and the final chapter, the narrator spends the most time attempting to fit into a mold which he is the complete wrong size.

Gunnar in The White Boy Shuffle also has identities placed on him throughout the book but unlike the narrator it seems that he has more moments of clarity and understanding than confusion to the new identity. For example when Gunnar is called a “cool funny black guy” he understands what it means and takes it stride, Gunnar continues to joke about the idea of colorblindness and makes “uncomfortable” comparisons between race “colorblindness” and the medical condition of colorblindness. As the novel continues Gunnar begins to care less and less about what he means to other people and rather what he is to himself. It may be argued that Gunnar cares far too little about what he is to other people, but his independence and ideals create the identity that he accepts as his own.

The difference in how each character chooses to accept the identities that are placed on them shows what type of person they are and what the author is trying to show my placing the identity on the character. Gunnar the tone of the novel is conveyed very well with the humorous approach to the identity while the serious tone and conclusions on race made in Invisible Man show how identity helps define not only a character but also the novel as a whole.

The Retrieval of the Simple Life

Their Eyes Were Watching God starts with Janie, the main character only days after the discovery of her own sexuality being forced into an unwanted marriage. The marriage is forced by Janie's grandmother and is the attempt to do what is best for Janie's future. Janie marries an old farmer whom she doesn't love but assumes love will blossom as the marriage continues. Not only does she not love her husband, she also hates the work that is required of her. When her husband finally decided that Janie is too spoiled and needs to work the fields along with the housework does she escape and find a new man.

Chapter 4 gives the impression to the readers that Janie hates doing manual labor and is very spoiled, why else would she run away from her husband while he buys a mule for her to help on the farm? Its seems very clear that only reason she runs away is to get away from the “dirty” lifestyle and not have to do the hard work on the farm. In reality she was planning to run away whether or not Logan was to force her into working the fields, then when she sees a man on the road she uses her opportunity and escapes into a better life. This makes it clear that Janie was fed up with her lifestyle and wanted a change. However when Janie finally finds her true love: Tea Cake.She changes her attitude regarding work. When Janie and Tea Cake move to the Muck, Tea Cake starts working and picking beans out in the field to make money. Despite the fact that Janie has over one thousand dollars in saving she decided to work with Tea cake and take part in all the lower class activities that she previously avidly hated.

The change in opinion seems to stem from the lack of choice, but when Janie chooses to work on the glades she is giving herself a second attempt at happiness. The reason why Janie feels the need to find happiness is because when she only started to accept herself and learn more about her feelings to become happy, she was immediately sent off to the “right” stable life choice. Since after escaping her forced marriage she was once again forced into a role she did not enjoy. In order to finally fulfill her life she does what she wants, and what's she wants is to spend time with her true love no matter what work is required or the social class that she is with.

Does this portion of the text cause the reader to think if Janie loves Tea Cake so much that she will tolerate the work or does her opinion of the work change? I would love to know your opinion.

Chapter 1: Men vs Women

In the first chapter of Their Eyes Were Watching God  there is a stark difference between men and women and their focus while the mysterious woman walks down the road. The difference between how the men and women view the women tells us about the role of gender throughout the book and will tell us what is important to either gender.
The first sentence of the chapter really set the tone for what is to come. It talks about the dreams of men and how they compare to the dreams of women. It talks about how a man’s wish is  “Ships at a distance” and the ability to achieve the wish depends on luck and do not depend on hard work. Some men’s dreams come with the tide while others never come and only bait the man into believe the dream is possible. The meaning of this passage seems to be that men focus more on tangible object or ideals (ships) as dreams. Which in comparison to the wishes of women is very different. It is directly expressed that the for women “The dream is the truth.” Everything that the women do is in order to achieve truth, they can block out specific memories and act and do what they think will find them the truth. This very different compared to the male dream, women actively work to achieve it as compared to just wait for the “tide” to bring it to them. Also women are much more interested in the fundamental understanding of what is happening as compared to men who are only trying to reach a position or objective.
These ideas of dreams are clearly reflected when the mysterious woman walks past the porch. The women who are sitting on the bench begin to critique the woman's appearance. “What she doin’ coming back here in dem overhalls? Can’t she find no dress to put on? In this case the women see the overalls to be an example of lower class and it allows them to raise themselves and feel more important than the women, perhaps to find true in their social standing. On the contrary the men on the porch see the overalls and find a sexual nature in what the women is wearing. “The men noticed her firm buttocks like she had grape fruits in her hip pockets;” the men sexualized the women and made her into a “ship” which they wish would reach their shore. The absolute contrast of what the women pay attention to compared to what the men find important is interesting and telling about the roles of gender, throughout the book. If not for Pheoby, the mysterious women’s friend the people on the porch would continue to “examine” what the mysterious women means to them and how what they see in her can be used to achieve their dreams, either bringing in their ships or helping them find the truth.

What is the narrator to the Brotherhood?

Ever since the narrator was released from the factory hospital his outlook on life had changed. Despite the rather rough start and dependence on Mary, the narrator eventually finds his groove and starts to make the difference and find his identity. The narrator finds his voice while observing the eviction and a new side of the narrator was revealed.

However, the new independence that we see in the narrator is very quickly overtaken when brother Jack comes and offers the narrator a position in the brotherhood. The position is offered for what the narrator represents rather than what he believes and thinks is right. One of the only reasons why the narrator accepts the position in the brotherhood is because it allows him to repay the loans from Mary and give him an almost false sense of self-importance. The whole acceptance into the brotherhood is very rushed and rather confusing for the narrator. One of the most important lines in the requirement of the narrator is when brother Jack says “We've been waiting for you for months. Or for someone who could do what you've done." The quote proves that the Brotherhood doesn’t care about who the narrator is or was but rather what they can mold him into becoming. The Brotherhood the narrator is nothing more than a tool, rather than a person with agency. As we become more familiar with the brotherhood we continue to see how they mold the narrator, when he doesn’t follow their exact rules they send the narrator away to get “educated” in the scientific ideologies of the Brotherhood. For the most part, we see the narrator enjoying the new opportunities and the new ideas that he is learning. But his whole entire life becomes centered on the Brotherhood and it makes up the entirety of his identity, which would seem rather fitting considering in order to become part of the Brotherhood the narrator was given a new name, and a completely new life that he would live.To him the brotherhood is his life, to them he is just a device to continue their mission.  

            Only when the Brotherhood turns it’s back on the narrator does it challenge the new views that he was asked to learn. When the narrator finds out about the meet which he was not called into he does something rather odd, and decides to buy shoes. It doesn’t make very much sense for the narrator to go buy shoes but to the Brotherhood, they are simplify discarding a tool which had lost its use. Naturally the narrator takes person offense to being not called into the meeting and decided to have a person revolt on the brotherhood, they will attempt to continue to control him and send him to learn more about speech’s and the brotherhood ideologies but all that the narrator is trying to do is find a new identity now that his given identity has been discarded by the gifter.

The Power of a Mask

In Lark’s poem, We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar, it talks about how African Americans need to wear a mask to hide their true feelings, they only show what they want the rest of society to see.  A similar concept of wearing a mask is found in the very beginning of the first chapter of Invisible Man, with the narrator's grandfather. We wear the mask can be used as a guide to help understand the reasoning behind why the grandfather decided to use hidden tactics to fight the white supremacy and only on his deathbed reveal the true “fight” that he had been fighting all along.

We Wear the Mask uses the term mask as a way for the African Americans to hide their true emotions and project only what they want to be seen. This is very problematic because they hide the “tears and sighs” while all that the world sees is the smiles that are on the mask. This relates very closely to the feelings that the grandfather of the narrator holds. The grandfather is shown on his deathbed, where after a life of clear submission and consideration of being "the meekest of men" he announces that his son should continue the "good fight" and appeal to the white man to such extremes that it would make them sick(Ellison 13). This statement catches the narrator and the whole family by surprise, so much so that they rush the smaller children out of the room. The c mask that the grandfather had been wearing his whole life had finally come off and exposed the true emotions of the grandfather. In the grandfather’s head the mask made him a spy and tricked the white people into believing that he was submissive the whole time, which made him a secret rebel. The poem makes very similar points, it allows the world the believe one thing but only the mask wearers know the truth about what they feel. In the poem Dundar asks "Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all the tears and sighs?" which really reinforces the separation between the people who wear the mask and the rest of society (Harper 76). However it makes the reader ponder if the separation that is being made is positive?

The grandfather of the narrator thinks that the separation is an essential portion of defining his life and the life and injustices of African Americans, and it allows the lack of “clear revolt” of wearing the mask to be the revolt in itself. This further affects the narrator and will hopefully influence his journey into becoming the character that he was in the prologue

-Jan O

Works Cited:

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage International, 1995. Print.

 Harper, Michael S., and Anthony Walton. The Vintage Book of African American Poetry. New York: Vintage, 2000. Print. 

Power of Laughter: Prologue vs Chapter 1

In Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison creates a stark difference in the attitude of the narrator in the prologue as compared to the attitude of the narrator in the first chapter. With the interesting structure of the story it makes the reader ponder what happened to the narrator throughout the story to create such a clear difference in opinions and beliefs. The differences can be seen through the actions of the narrator but also through the narrator’s descriptions of his beliefs. Most importantly the use of laughter in the 2 separate passages gives insight to the reader to the change that occurred. It is my belief that as we continue to read this story the progression of the narrator will become clear and the progression will be the most important aspect of the novel rather than the story line.

In the prologue the narrator seems kind of deranged and his ideas and belief seem very odd and not conforming to societal norms. The narrator is constantly identifying himself as “invisible” which he believes is both positive and negative. The disillusioned idea continues to progress when he reveals that he wants to use 5 phonographs to play the same record at the same time. Together this all seems very odd, almost insane behavior. But at the same time the ideas and thoughts that the narrator is having do make sense in a very convoluted way. However in the first chapter the ideas of the narrator make a lot of sense to the reader, sometimes even to the extent that we are not sure if the narrator truly understands what is happening to him. A clear example of the narrator not quite understanding the setting to the fullest extent was during his graduation when he was cast into the battle royal and all he could think about was his up coming speech. This rapid change makes the reader wonder why the narrator changed his opinion and what possibly could have happened in the story to change his opinion in such a extreme way. One of the few hidden pieces of evidence that show the reader what happen is the different use of laughter in the 2 different sections.

In the prologue, the narrator is seen beating a man to an inch of his life after he insults the narrator with an assumed racial slur. The act of the beatings itself seems very irrational and uncontrolled, but the aftereffects are very clear and simple to understand. In the news paper the attack is described as a mugging despite the lack of stolen items. This causes the narrator to laugh and ponder the possibility for an invisible man to rob someone.  Then as we read the first chapter the laughter is used in a very different way and has definite negative conations towards the narrator, the example of this is while the narrator is attempting to read his graduating speech he is constantly interrupted by the laughter of the drunken men. The laughter seems to hold power in both situations, in the first chapter it shows power towards the drunken men because they have the right to decided if what the narrator is saying has importance or not. The power completely changes in the prologue when the narrator is holding power over the beaten man and maybe even holding power over societal norms. The change in power dynamics gives the readers insight into what happened in the story and what allowed the narrator to gain the power of laughter rather than the submission of being laughed at.
-Jan