Woman Characters this Semester

We have encountered a large number of female characters in the stories we have read so far this semester and I have thought about my favorite and my least favorite. My least favorite so far has been Charity Royall from the most recent book, Summer. To put it simply, I thought she was a short word that starts with the letter "B". After every event she would over analyze it in her mind and then get made about it. Anything Harvey did or said was twisted around in her mind and quickly changed her mood. She changed her mood swiftly without much reason at times. I don't mind Summer not having a happy ending because I really didn't like the protagonist. My favorite character has been Aunt Rachel in Twain's A True Story. The way she answered the question to why she had no trouble in her life was a big "F U" to who asked. The story spoke for itself and she really didn't have to say any more. She could have been angry about getting asked such a question, but the way she handled it was much classier.

Unhappy Endings

The readings we have had recently are certainly considered naturalistic in their writing and an un traditional ending that can be seen as unhappy comes along with that. Ethan Frome that we read today certainly did not end with the protagonist on top. To Build a Fire ended with the protagonist frozen stiff and alone. Roman Fever ended without the two friends making up and I don't see how they can really mend their relationship now. Today many popular books, shows, and movies end with the protagonist "winning", the lovers riding away in the sunset on the white stallion, the football team winning the big game, the nerdy kid getting the hot girl. All of these endings leave the audience feeling good but unfortunately not everything in life ends well. These readings have been a great change of pace to the traditional happy endings that we get so much today.

Will they become classic?

We had a discussion in class last week about which books that are popular now will be popular in the future. I agree very much with the books that we included as not-classic, like Twilight and The Davinci Code, but some that people think will be classics in the future I must disagree with. When I look at which books stand the test of time and are read by future generations, I feel the books must be able to be taught academically. Harry Potter was on the list of what would be classic in the future, but I question if it can be taught in a classroom. Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, EAP, have all stood the test of time because they are all literary and teach us something about the human nature and can be taught academically. Harry Potter I believe is much more like Twilight or The Hunger Games, purely for entertainment purposes. But the magical series has become so popular that I could see it becoming something like The Lord of the Rings, which is still fantasy, but has academic values to it as well. Lord of the Rings also does a great job of entertaining readers and being taught at a young age could inspire students to read. I do not see Harry Potter being taught in English 481 a hundred years from now, but perhaps in a High School English class.

Ode to Naturalism

So, reading Jack London this week has been awesome. What I find to be the most "awesome" about it, is it's real. Fantasy stories like Harry Potter are entertaining, but it's absolutely not real. Even London's fiction is real in a way, believable, and  similar stories I'm sure have happened. London's writing could very easily be mistaken for non fiction. His first version of "To Build a Fire" could have easily been read as an article.
Naturalism is obviously very heavy on nature, which is one of my favorite things to read about. Nature is much more real than most anything else written about, and in that way, much more appealing to read. I know some people love reading because it takes them to different places, a fantasy world. Naturalism also takes me places, just those places happen to be real. Fantasy provides entertainment, but when it comes to literature, naturalism provides the mind to wonder and imagine foreign places, but also learn about life, death, and a lot between.

The Importance of Teaching African American Literature

Racial equality has made great strides since the works we have read were written. It has been over one hundred and sixty years since the American civil war, fifty or so years since the civil rights movement, and African Americans find near equality in much of the country, we even have a half black president. Even with all of these strides, there is more to do, and as a society we can and shall advance even further when it comes to prejudices, and teaching African American literature in schools is an important way to continue this trend of moving towards social equality. It is important to discuss the things we have so far in class, such as the archetype of the "happy slave", a "loving" slave and master relationship, and understanding segregation within classes, like the Blue Vein Society. Reading literature allows us to understand the thoughts and philosophy of another human being, so by reading such literature, we are able to imagine ourselves in such horrible circumstances and how offensive a "happy" slave or nostalgic south is to an entire race of people. Mark Twain was not black, but we can learn from writings like "A True Story", which makes the point that the slaves and their families felt the way white people do. They loved each other and their children just as much as the white man, and for many white people at the time this was a crazy thing to think. It is by reading African American literature and literature such as Twain's "A True Story" that people can imagine themselves in others shoes. It is important to continue to teach these subjects in school, and remember that our history is in fact clouded in very horrible acts. It is important to realize this and learn from it, we can do nothing about the past but control the future.

Chesnutt

I don't know about the rest of you, but I had a very difficult time reading the two Chesnutt pieces for today's class. The dialogue of the black characters was hard to read for comprehension. I found myself focusing on what words they were speaking instead of what they were actually saying. When I have read this before, like in Huck Finn for example, the dialogue is around text with proper grammar. In these stories, the black character was telling a story, so it was nothing but dialogue. No other characters talking for the most part, and no narrator to frame the story while it was being told. Huck Finn has a narrator that I can understand that is telling the actually story. The actual stories being told in Chestnutt were ones I had to pick out. Eventually I got pretty much what the story was, but the effect of a good story is lost when I have to struggle to know the story. Not only did I find the dialogue hard to read, but it was offensive, though I understand that these were written in very different times. I do get offended at times when reading dialogue like this from minority characters, but I have to imagine that the author is only trying to capture what that person sounded like and blacks at the time were uneducated so it may not be far from the truth. In the end I didn't enjoy these pieces because it was such a struggle to simply read them.

Freewoman

One of my favorite things to do with stories is to look at the characters and Freeman's characters have all been interesting. When looking at Freeman's woman, I can see three levels of woman pretty easily.  In A New England Nun, Louissa is rather timid and actually waits 14 years for Joe to return. She seemed pretty accustomed to being on her own and quit on edge when Joe was in her home. She couldn't believe she was going to live with him. Even though she felt this way, she was still planning on marrying him. Luckily for each of them, Louissa overheard Joe speaking to Lily and realized neither of them wanted to get married so she was able to easily call off the wedding.
In The Revolt of Mother , Sarah openly tells her husband she wants a new house and that he promised her a new house on the spot he is building a new barn. For awhile she goes along with it, only complaining to her husband, but what more could she do? Once she has the chance she acts and pretty much gets what she wants, able to adapt the barn into adequate living space. It took some time for Sarah to act instead of speak, but when she did it made a much larger statement than anything she could say.
In Old Woman Magoun, the title character is a "strong" old woman in a sense. She has complete control over Lily's life, treating her like a child though she was becoming a young woman, and when she spoke to others in the town, it was with that "old lady" tone, at least that's how I read it, very forceful and unafraid to talk over men, even with what time period it was in.
I see Louissa as the character that fits the social norm the most, timid, waiting for the man to return. Sarah fell into her role, though she was outspoken about what she wanted, and eventually took action. Old Woman Magoun, who fit the role the least,  had life behind her in support and spoke with authority, and exhibited that authority over Lily. Interestingly, this order goes from youngest (Louissa) to oldest (Old Woman Magoun), and I would agree that many woman become more outspoken with age, even today. As they get older and more accustomed to their own role, not the role society deems for them, they become more outspoken and personally free.