Extra Credit: "Drown"

“Drown” by Junot Diaz has a rather interesting take on life as an immigrant and how becoming an American doesn’t change the perspective. The main character of the story seems to embody both typical stereotypes as well as ones that contrast with said stereotypes. It seems to me that the character, and narrator, seems to struggle with his identity when it comes to how an immigrant is “suppose” to act and conform to the stereotype that is given to them.

In the beginning, his mother enters the room to tell him that Beto is home. This doesn’t seem to have much of an effect on him because he says he continues to watch the television. I thought it was interesting that in the first few lines, he mentions, “He’s a pato now. . .” (Diaz 1666), pato being Dominican slang for a gay man. He goes on to say that they had been friends, yet, that’s the first tidbit of information we get about Bato. I think the fact the narrator repeats that his friend is gay, and that he’s in college, proves that he’s jealous. Bato has broken out of the norms by being gay and educated and has become who he wants -- not what society wants.

Before Bato left, we get a sense that the narrator seems to be fighting between his punk-kid life and one that is more than that. Bato didn’t know what the word “expectorating” meant, and when the narrator explained it to him, he said that even though Bato was going off to college, “He hated when I knew something he didn’t. . . Even then I didn’t tell him; he thought I didn’t read, not even dictionaries” (Diaz 1667). This quote gives us some insight one of the stereotypes of immigrants, which is that they don’t know, or won’t learn, how to read or write and become successful.

On the top of page, a teacher compared the immigrants in school to shuttles, “A few of you are going to make it. Those are the orbiters. But the majority of you are just going to burn out. Going nowhere” (1673). This kind of stereotype, in my opinion, hurts people who it applies to because they believe they need to stick to it. If immigrants are known for being illiterate, many other immigrants -- some who may even enjoy learning -- may not take part in learning how to read and write due to the stereotype. I feel that this applies to the narrator due to the fact he sells “shitty dope” (1667) and hides from the Army recruiter when the recruiter is circling around his neighborhood. I think he’s afraid to break out of his stereotype, which is a drug dealer, and become something more, which perhaps could be a member of the Army. This story highlights the fact that being an immigrant in America is challenging. The past has elevated particular stereotypes immigrants feel they need to live up to and it makes it hard for them (and people from all races, including white people) to break out and become nonconformists and be who they want to be.

Critical Commentary for Beloved

I read “To Be Loved: Amy Denver and Human Need -- Bridges to Understanding in Toni Morrison’s Beloved” by Nicole M. Coonradt. This article title immediately grabbed my attention due to the fact that Beloved only dedicated “. . . about fifteen pages of the novel’s 275. . .” (Coonradt 169) to Amy. I thought her character provided an important perspective that we didn’t see in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and wondered why Beloved, or anyone else, didn’t explore her character more. To say the least, she was a pivotal character in the story, since without her, Sethe and Denver would never have survived. Coonradt discusses Amy Denver’s importance and significance in the novel by expressing her similarities to the slaves.

Coonradt discusses how Amy is “the often-ignored young white woman marginalized by society” (Coonradt 169). Yet, had Amy not escaped her own indentured servitude, Sethe never would have survived long enough to birth her baby. Since Amy was a white indentured slave, this “. . . introduced another subtext about slavery which had often been ignored. . . “ (Coonradt 175). Since indentured servitude was much like slavery, it comes to no surprise that Amy may have dealt with another horror that affected many enslaved women.The article touched on the fact that “. . . old slave narratives exercised a willed omission of trauma as a defensive armour against humiliating or embarrassing memories, Morrison. . . seeks to disrupt” (Coonradt 171). We saw the lack of shock value while reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Beloved took slavery and exposed the taboo that came along with it, especially sexual enslavement.

Sethe was not the only character in the novel that was sexually assaulted as a slave. Amy makes subtle allusions to the fact that she may have been assaulted during her time as an indentured slave even though she was white; it seems that race wasn’t a eliminating factor. “Sexual enslavement of women at the hands of sadistic masters, the most extreme subjugation of women in a white patriarchal culture that historically touched women irrespective of their ethnicity” (Coonradt 172). Morrison hints at the fact that Amy may have been sexually assaulted when she mentions her master locking her in the root cellar. It’s also implied when Amy says, “Joe Nathan said Mr. Buddy is my daddy but I don’t believe that. . . All I know is it ain’t him” (Morrison 91). This statement could mean Amy knew her mother was raped, which highlights the sexual enslavement that went on during indentured slave trading as well. Tie that into Sethe’s story about being raped at Sweet Home, and the two seem to be the same side of one coin.

Another point Coonradt brings up several times is the difference between races and love. “The fulfilment of this promise [of acceptance and healing] lies in bridging the gulf of racism that still exists between blacks and whites. Perhaps only then can all people, regardless of race, be loved and healed” (169). Although Amy was white, she still brings an important piece of information to the table when it comes to the history of slavery. “Morrison presents Amy Denver as evidence of white exploitation of white, class repression, and the marginalization of women within the white patriarchal culture” (Coonradt 182). Although Amy has very few pages, her character provides another aspect of slavery that isn’t always exposed to people; Morrison provides us with a different aspect of slavery and another story. It also represents white people who were not racist and treating African Americans as people. “Her [Amy] all too human desire to love and be loved supersedes both her concern for safety and her desire for freedom” (Coonradt 174). Instead of running off, she helps Sethe. Her warm heartedness and willingness to risk her freedom to help a stranger shows that color doesn’t define people, their hardships do.

One part of this article that seemed to tie it together for me was when Coonradt discussed the use of Morrison’s biblical references. I never quite understood the importance of Sethe’s back, and this tied the knot for me:

Interrupting her [Amy’s] own flight to help another human being in need, Amy identifies the horrible wounds on Sethe’s back as ‘a chokecherry tree’, saying, “It’s a tree. . . See, here’s the trunk. . . and this here’s the parting for the branches. You got a mighty lot of branches. Leaves, too, look like, and dern if these ain’t blossoms. . .” (Morrison 79). It seems hard to ignore the allusion to the Biblical Tree of Life that In Revelations 22:2 overshadows death, especially as Sethe herself blooms with life in the midst of the ravages of slavery as she faces her own death. (Coonradt 178)

This particular passage of Coonradt’s article made it clear to me what the chokecherry tree on the back of Sethe’s back could represent. Looking at it from a religious aspect and comparing it to the Tree of Life raised several thoughts for me, the main one being that it seems contradictory. In the Bible, the Tree of Life is a tree whose fruit bears the gift of eternal life. Amy mentions that the tree is in bloom and wonders what God has in store for her. The fact that a life symbol would be on the back of a near-dying woman seems symbolic of her strength. Since reading this article, I have a new view of the biblical symbols throughout, such as viewing Baby Suggs as a prophet. I would also include Amy as a biblical figure since she washed Sethe’s feet, which was one of the acts done by Jesus during The Last Supper in the Bible. I concur with Coonradt that Amy should be discussed more often when dealing with the novel since she’s such an integral part of the main character’s survival and her role in introducing a new subcategory of slavery and religious context.

Works Cited

Coonradt, Nicole M. "To Be Loved: Amy Denver and Human Need      -- Bridges to Understanding in Toni Morrison's Beloved.
     College Literature 32.4 (2005):168-87. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web.
     11 May 2015.

Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 1987. Print.

(Biblical facts due to 14 years in Catholic school)

Contemporary Connections for Beloved

Unfortunately, in today’s world. racism is not dead. The article titled “Town Leaders Sorry for Handling of 1944 Rape Case” by Bob Johnson raised some points that were relevant to Beloved. The case involved a then-24 year old African American woman named Recey Taylor and a gang of white men. According to the article, “the married woman was walking home from church when she was abducted, assaulted and left on the side of the road in an isolated area.” When she tried to bring the case to court, the two all white male juries declined her wishes to move the charges forward. Since then, her case has been tried -- and won -- and has received the deepest apologies from the court, the city, and community.

With all of the riots going on dealing with young, black men being shot by cops for what seems like -- due to intense media coverage -- no reason whatsoever, race is a topic that has been elevated once again. Black Lives Matter protests have sprouted all over the nation and have raised the awareness of the injustices that African Americans are still suffering from today. Seeking justice for all is one of the main goals our courts have been working towards, and this case proves to be an example as the justice system continues to work out the kinks in their flawed system.

When reading about cases like this, it frequently makes people wonder how a case like this would have been handled today; certainly much different, but how much? Race still has an impact on today’s society due to all the recent murders. And present murders make people dig up past murders, assaults, etcetera that may have been unjustly sentenced. Yet, Taylor was quoted from the article saying, "I can pray that things would be handled differently now than in the past” -- and it was. Although she believed all her rapists were dead, the justice she finally received from the courts and an apology that was received from the city, courts, and community justified herself -- although it doesn’t undo the action and unprofessional way the court handled her case in the past.

This article relates to Sethe and her attack from Beloved. As she was about to escape Sweet Home, she was gang raped by the schoolteacher’s nephews -- also a gang of white men -- and unlike Recey, never saw justice for her assault. Her husband, Halle, had witnessed this unjust act and didn’t do anything about it. “I can’t go back and add more. Add my husband to it, watching, above me in the loft -- hiding close by. . . looking down on what I couldn’t look at at all. And not stopping them -- looking and letting it happen “ (Morrison 83). It was hard for Sethe to imagine someone standing by while this heinous act was taking place. Instead of taking action and stopping the rape, he chose not to be a hero. From what we heard from Paul D, it sounded like Halle was rather mortified at what he saw. In my opinion, it was still not a good enough reason to stand by and let that happen to her.

In a way, he acted as her judge and jury, dismissing her instead of helping her. He watched her attack and never made an effort to stop the rape from occurring. Halle made it about himself instead of about Sethe by shutting down and slathering butter all over his face (whatever that was all about), which would inevitably divide their family since he was too depressed or ashamed to run away with his family. This part of the book made me think about Taylor’s case and wonder if there were any bystanders who walked by her, either during or after the attack, and looked at her and kept walking. It makes me wonder how long she laid there until she finally scraped herself up and went home, how much courage it took to report the rape, and how empty she felt when justice wasn’t served. Beloved has inserted more questions and sympathy to my train of thought when it comes to reading news that deals with race today.

Work Cited

Johnson, Bob. "Town Leaders Sorry for Handling of 1944 Rape
     Case."Msnbc.com. Associated Press, 21 Mar. 2011. Web. 11
     May 2015.

Reader Response for Beloved

I’ve never taken the time to read book reviews, and let me just say this is probably more entertaining than social media. I spent a good hour just on Goodreads before I realized I still had not visited the other two sites. I digress, Beloved has a rather wide range of reviews from people both young and old. It varies from this novel is an abomination to this is the best novel in the entire existence of the universe. I was immediately drawn to the reviews that were negative since I think this novel was one of the most complex and intriguing thing I’ve read in a while, I like to see why people didn’t like it. This one star review jumped off the screen from Goodreads:

I know the book is supposed to give you a view on the cruel treatment of slaves but after I finished I actually less sympathetic for them. How exactly am I supposed to feel sympathetic to people who screw cows -that is just disturbing on so many levels- and kill their own babies. Paul D even admitted that the male slaves usually rape the girls. Beloved (the charater (sp)) is supposed to give the book more depth but she was just confusing and quite annoying, so is the mom by the way.

This view to me was interesting because I thought the opposite of this reviewer. Sure, beastiality is disgusting and wrong, but had the people not been African American, would it have made a difference? What about all the white men who locked up and raped the African American women brutally for years? And what about the many years of mistreatment of slaves, both physically and mentally? The schoolteacher in the book even referred his students to “. . . put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right” (Morrison 228). White people saw African Americans as animals; so technically, if they saw them as animals and raped them, they also assaulted animals. In the mindset of a white man, how is that any different?

Some of the other negative reviews were about the book’s structure and how it was too confusing to follow, which I would slightly agree with. It’s very poetic in places and sometimes it gets a little wonky, but I believe that this style adds elements to the story that we wouldn’t get if it were a linear story. Some of the positive reviews from Barnes and Noble were raving about Morrison’s lyrical writing and described Beloved as “indescribable” and “a story not to pass on” and something that you cannot get out of your head once it’s read. Since reading this, I find myself comparing it to things we read in class (such as The Woman Warrior and how “The Unnamed Woman’s” community abandoned her just like Sethe’s did), amongst other things.

One three star review from Amazon that I agree with is:

But while I can appreciate the story, the structure, and the way it was written, I found it extremely tedious to read. It hangs on the thinnest of narrative thread, and whenever a plot threatens to develop, the scene ends and we find out what happened later as an aside. Most of the 275 pages are dense interior monologues, frequently repetitious, that sometimes degenerates into what seemed like random text.

I felt a lot of the novel repeated itself; maybe that was artistic choice, but it was unnerving at times when it seemed like a story was about to take off, then bam, we’re eighteen years in the past. Sethe would repeat her stories, sometimes it seemed without prompt, which made me view her as narcissistic. I think some stories that were repeated did have some positive qualities for the novel; the story about Sethe being raped and losing her milk came up for what seemed every other paragraph, which made the reader never forget it. In a way, we became Sethe, never forgetting what happened. It was interesting to read some of the reviews and seeing how broadly they ranged. Since the reviews were so diverse, I would have to say Morrison achieved her goal of whatever she was trying to write and hopefully, this novel will be talked about for many years to come.

Synthesis for Beloved

Throughout the course of this class, it’s rather apparent that race plays an important role throughout literary history, and history itself of course. The purpose of the Race in American Literature project has vastly opened my perspective to things I had not previously learned in history classes. Today, teachers focus on the historical impacts such as the laws that occurred because of the African Americans and hardly about their treatment. They discus the lynchings, but not how or why they are in that position. It’s moments like this where reading Claude McKay’s “The Lynching” would be a great source for history teachers to use to add a contextual background to the material. For example, from Maddie’s blog: “‘And little lads, lynchers that were to be, Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee’ (McKay 927) is especially unsettling. The idea that young children would dance around a dead body as if it gave them amusement is difficult to think about” (Braun The Lynching).

In my opinion, the imagery from McKay gave me a better understanding of how terrible the lynchings were instead of listening to a lecture about the hangings. Novels like Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Beloved make statements that are relevant today. The novels also make main connections, including the differences between the way the slave’s experiences were represented, how male slaves were treated versus female slaves, as well as different religious symbols throughout the novels.

Referring to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, A Slave Auction Described by a Slave, written by Solomon Northup was a rather brief writing, explaining what slaves endured before and during an auction. They were taught to act like someone who wanted to be purchased, “exhorted us to appear smart and lively...he exercised us in the art of ‘looking smart,’ and of moving to our places with exact precision” (Northup 435). This piece continues to shock me because these people were treated like animals for sale, and Northup goes on to tell us how “Buyers would, ‘feel of our hands and arms and bodies, turn us about, ask us what we could do, make us open our mouths and show our teeth, precisely as a jockey examines a horse which is about to barter for or purchase’” (Northup 436). As if this wasn’t already nauseating to hear, that’s just the tip of the iceberg; women faced a different kind of hell.

Sexual abuse of the African American women was something that Stowe didn’t talk about as blatantly as Morrison did. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was supposed to be a political statement, but in my opinion, it wasn’t as strong as Beloved. Stowe’s novel had a variety of characters and stories, but it lacked the factual representation of what was actually going on. One author named Sophia Cantave wrote an article titled "Who Gets to Create the Lasting Images?” relating to the fluffiness of slavery and race in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

The writer acknowledges that the book is a very inadequate representation of slavery [because] slavery, in some of its working, is too dreadful for the purposes of art. A work which should represent it strictly as it is would be a work which could not be read; and all works which ever mean to give pleasure must draw a veil somewhere, or they cannot succeed”. In fiction, therefore, one can “find refuge from the hard and the terrible, by inventing scenes and characters of a more pleasing nature.” (Cantave)

If Stowe’s purpose was to persuade, she should have worried less about the art and more about the content. Make people feel uncomfortable. Make them change their minds about the past; by fluffing the story, it makes it seem like slavery wasn’t really all that bad if you could get masters as nice as the Shelby’s or the St. Clare’s. Beloved exploits the intolerable by opening up the grisly rape culture that was going on during the slave trades. Many times throughout Beloved, the reader is told Sethe’s rape story and about how the young men held her down and “took my milk” (Morrison 20)! Not only that, but her husband, Halle, witnessed the entire assault and didn’t help her. Beloved didn’t stop there -- it also included indentured servitude.

Amy Denver’s character provided a new view that I haven’t read anywhere else. Like the African American slaves, indentured servants were under the reign of a master. And also similar to the slaves, she was subject to the same punishments -- including rape. Nicole Coonradt states in her article “To Be Loved” that the “Sexual enslavement of women at the hands of sadistic masters, the most extreme subjugation of women in a white patriarchal culture that historically touched women irrespective of their ethnicity” (Coonradt 172). Since these people were treated so poorly, it would only make sense for them to have a belief system -- something to keep them moving through the trying times. That belief was religion.

Religion plays an important role in both of these novels. Uncle Tom’s Cabin’s main prophet is Tom himself. He represents many of the aspects from “The Cult of Domesticity”, especially piety, submissiveness, and domesticity. No matter how poorly he’s treated, he puts his master before himself. Tom says to St. Clare that he will not leave him, “Not while Mas’r is in trouble. . . I’ll stay with Mas’r as long as he wants me, --so as I can be any use” (Stowe, 279). In Beloved, the main prophet is Baby Suggs. Much like Tom, she was an “unchurched preacher” who “‘’busted her legs, back, head, eyes, hands, kidneys, womb and tongue,’ she had nothing left to make a living with but her heart -- which she put to work at once” (Morrison 102). These two characters both served as biblical figures, both haunted by something, yet are two individually strong characters who die. Why those figures must die is a question for another post.

When reading novels like this, you can’t help but compare it to present day news. When reading about Recey Taylor’s rape case from 1944 and about the injustice she received is mindblowing. Taylor said, "I can pray that things would be handled differently now than in the past” (Johnson). I think of all the women who were raped and received no justice because of their color and just prayed for a better future, and here we are, 2015. This project has helped me to include all races, all social and economic standings of all women who have suffered. Reading stories like The Woman Warrior by Kingston adds the Chinese aspect, Uncle Tom’s Cabin African American suffrage, and Beloved with indentured servitude as well as African American enslaved women. These novels and stories provide a different story for everyone which establishes a better understanding for humankind and its struggles throughout history.

Works Cited

Braun, Maddie. “The Lynching”. Blogger. Wed. 12 May 2015.

Cantave, Sophia, and Elizabeth Ammons. "Who Gets to Create the
     Lasting Images?

Coonradt, Nicole M. "To Be Loved: Amy Denver and Human Need
     -- Bridges to Understanding in Toni Morrison's Beloved."
     College Literature 32.4 (2005):168-87. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web.
     11 May 2015.

Johnson, Bob. "Town Leaders Sorry for Handling of 1944 Rape
     Case."Msnbc.com. Associated Press, 21 Mar. 2011. Web. 11
     May 2015.

McKay, Claude. "The Lynching." The Norton Anthology of 
     American Literature. By Nina Baym and Robert S. Levine. 8th
     ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2013. 927. Print.

Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 1987. Print.

Northup, Solomon, and Elizabeth Ammons. Uncle Tom's Cabin:
     Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. New
     York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, and Elizabeth Ammons. Uncle Tom's
     Cabin: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts,
     Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.

The Problem of Black Representation in Uncle Tom's Cabin."
     Uncle Tom's Cabin: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and
     Contexts, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. 582-95. 
     Print.

The Woman Warrior

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston was a rather interesting excerpt. The narrator was being told a story by her mother about her father’s sister who had disgraced their family by having another man’s baby -- and then committed suicide due to the harshness from her family. I thought the story was rather bizarre; it was a little extreme for a talk about the birds and the bees. Specifically, I thought it was interesting how the narrator had certain views about American-Chinese culture and said some interesting things.

One thing is her view on relationships later in life. “I use to add ‘brother’ silently to boys’ names. It hexed the boys, who would or would not ask me to dance. . . I hexed myself also--no dates. I should have stood up, both arms waving, and shouted across libraries, ‘Hey, you! Love me back’” (1512-1513). It seemed that the story had resonated in her; she would have rather been sisterly than something more like a girlfriend. She was also concerned about the way she held herself and spoke, “Walking erect (knees straight, toes pointed forward, not pigeon-toed, which is Chinese-feminine) and speaking in an inaudible voice, I have tried to turn myself American-feminine” (1512). She seemed more concerned with visually being American and ignoring her inner-Chinese heritage.

The patriarchal society then was much more harsh than it is today. The narrator made several references to women giving up things for marriage, “All the married women blunt-cut their hair in flaps about their ears or pulled it back in tight buns. . . And at their weddings they displayed themselves in their long hair for the last time” (1511). Not only did they sacrifice their long, flowing hair, but succumbed to the pain of hair removal and other things to maintain their beauty. “Once my aunt found a freckle on her chin. . . She dug it out with a hot needle and washed the wound with peroxide” (1511). The women were concerned about their appearances, even then. It seems not much in society changes.

Society today tends to give boys the benefit of the doubt by referring to the “boys will be boys” phrase, and the narrator here refers to something very similar to this: “It was probably a girl; there is some hope of forgiveness for boys” (1515). This quote was referring to her aunt and the baby she gave birth to. When she gave birth, she nursed it, and then took it into well with her where she committed suicide. The narrator says that her aunt also killed the baby because it was a girl and it would eventually suffered great shame, whereas if it were a boy it would have had a better chance of receiving forgiveness for his mother’s “atrocities”. Even though this was published in 1976, I think most of the things she said are relatable. The culture has obviously changed in a way where having children out of wedlock isn’t a dishonorable event anymore, but the rituals women go through (appearance wise) and “boys will be boys” is still relevant.