What About Halle?

As we discussed over the course of the first half of the book, Sethe has an extremely strong character, able to rule her life with a seemingly iron grip. She is not fazed by her children running away or living in a house with a ghost, not paying attention to things that should hit deeply on an emotional level. As we later learn, she unquestioningly and without remorse commits infanticide, not regretting the terrible consequences it had not only on her, but her remaining children, family, and standing in the African-American community in Cincinnati. Out of everyone in the story, I feel that Baby Suggs is the one that drew the shortest stick. While many of Sethe’s issues in the most recent timeline were consequences of her own actions, Baby Suggs did not have much influence over the course of her last ten years.

Thanks to the relatively more lax slaving practices of Mr. Garner, Halle was able to buy freedom for his mother, but was unable to earn the money needed to buy himself out before Mr. Garner died and a crackdown on the slaves of Sweethome was initiated. I apologize, but I just want to do a little math here. If Halle was able to earn enough money to buy his mother her freedom from just five years of working Sundays, he wasted most of his time while a slave. If he had instead bought himself freedom first, after that he would be able to earn money working all seven days of the week and buy out Baby Suggs in under a year. It is natural that he wanted to free his mother first, particularly since there was no sign that Halle would be stopped from working at any point, but purely logistically speaking it would have made more sense to buy his own freedom first.

 That entire point proves that the main characters we meet just have too much love, more than is safe for slaves. Halle’s emotions get in the way of doing the right thing in the long run for his family and for himself. The absurd amount of emotional trauma that the characters undergo leaves them clinging to whatever they have left, leaving us the scene of Halle with butter smeared over his face. Sethe is left an iron will and eighteen years suppressing memories, Paul D instead grows a wandering mind and some hope for the future. Because of her love, Baby Suggs does nothing but stand idly by as her generosity to the community and Sethe’s terrible actions make the oldest member of the family lose out on the things she held most dear. Although free, the moment that her community turns on her, she becomes imprisoned in her own house, bound to inaction until her death. 

In Their Last Breaths

The last words that Rölf Kaufman ever wrote graced his suicide note:

Like the good Reverend King

I too “have a dream,”

but when I wake up

I forget it and

remember I’m running late for work.

Likewise, Nicholas Scoby left his debut poem on his note for Gunnar:

i step into the void

bravely,

aaa

aa

a

a

ahhhhh

Dexter Waverly also left a poem for Gunnar before committing suicide:

Abandoning all concern

my larynx bobs,

enlightenment is a bitch.

The tone of these poems is completely different from what we would recognize as a standard note. Those who are happy with what they've accomplished in their lives, such as Scoby and Waverly (who in his last action helped South Africa), meet death with pride. The elder Kaufman finally reveals a transformation from his previous ideals, whereas throughout his life he followed and continued with pride the "Uncle Tom" style of living of his ancestors, here he reveals that not all was as it seemed. To the reader, he was always a perpetuation of the white superiority structure, literally beating down his own son in response to Gunnar supporting his friends and his African-American community. Now, that entire narrative is called into question as Rölf is stuck in the rat-race and is unable to pursue his dreams, but it is still ambiguous as to what those dreams were. Maybe he really supports the African-American heritage of his children more than we originally thought?

Personally, I was expecting from a poetic suicide note something more like Langston Hughes's Suicide's Note:

The calm,

Cool face of the river

Asked me for a kiss.

The completely different tone the Beatty gives to the suicide of his characters reflects the message that Gunnar is sending; committing suicide is standing up for your beliefs and proving your worth by going out with honor. As he said, it is not the Western idea of suicide of giving up on life because they couldn't be successful, and as proof we have the case of Nick Scoby, by all measures and extremely successful man. His reasons for suicide are much more similar to those we normally associate with the act; he couldn't handle the pressure that his fame brought upon him. In that sense, depression drives him and the speaker in Hughes's poem towards suicide as a release, following the Western idea of suicide. Gunnar goes against that, and influenced by Japanese culture instead offers suicide as a final protest, more like the honorable seppuku rather than the sinful suicide. For example, the self-immolation of Buddhist monks as a protest is in a similar vein as Gunnar's mass suicide for African Americans. The humor of the situation stems from Gunnar being thrust into an authoritative position as a leader of the community without his consultation, particularly impressive considering his origins (which were also similar in tone to those of Invisible Man's narrator). Even then, he doesn't attempt to indoctrinate anyone, only saying what he believes about himself, but still becomes a trusted figure to African-Americans. The relatively safe humor of the novel turns very dark towards the end, driving home the dangerous truths behind Gunnar's personal philosophy. 

And Another One

I'm starting to feel that a frame narrative is just a cheap trick to get me hooked on a book. Apart from Native Son, every book we've read this semester has used it, and I can see why it’s such a popular literary device. Anybody reading a book is in it for the story, for the experience of discovering something new and immersing themselves into a different world. It’s often a challenge to stop yourself from peeking ahead in a book, and by giving the reader a taste of what is coming, the author appeases that urge while pulling the reader into their novel. Having a prologue that doesn’t just set up the story but actually sets up the end makes a biographical book become a mystery and an adventure.

The parallel universe that The White Boy Shuffle takes place in a universe that is nearly identical to ours. The cities have the same economic makeup and the country has the same history, but there are slight differences. For example, the neighborhoods Gunnar lives in don’t correlate to any in our world. The most blatant departure from fact is that that no poetry book even came close to Watermelanin’s 126,000,000 sales. Even with the slight differences, Beatty’s main character is quite natural. His experiences so far resonate easily with readers my age, making it a joy to read about his life. The foundation of his life follows the “Uncle Tom” heritage that Gunnar gets from his father. Unlike Janie’s story in Their Eyes Were Watching God, Gunnar is almost out of place in his environment. While Hurston depicted a character who was at one with her environment, and stood by her point of depicting an African-American as a normal human being in spite of criticism, Beatty throws more contrast in the creation of his character. 

Growing up in completely white surroundings, none of the African-American heritage that has defined our previous protagonists shines through in Gunnar. With a Scandinavian name and a white upbringing, only his mother’s stories of his ancestry and his skin color keep him from being a hundred percent white. When his mother realizes that her children think they are better than other African-Americans, she instantly relocates her household to a poor ghetto in Los Angeles. In addition to the troubles of going to a new school with new and unfamiliar faces, Gunnar also has to adapt to a different society and new cultural norms. His host of issues is surrounded by hilarity thanks to the humor and sarcasm of Beatty’s writing. For example, Gunnar’s new junior high school in Los Angeles is called Manischewitz Junior High, named after a leading US brand of kosher products. I look forward to seeing more of how Gunnar’s contrast between the start of his upbringing and his new surroundings affect his personality. Will he be able to adapt to the completely different culture he is now a part of, and when do we meet the famous poet that he becomes? 

Real Characters

I'm loving Their Eyes Were Watching God so far. I'm looking forward to seeing where the plot will go, but right now I am enchanted by the characters. Unlike Invisible Man, this book starts off with a greater coming-of-age theme for the protagonist. Ellison skips over his narrator's transition from child to man, instead focusing in great detail on the narrator's growth as an adult. Although Hurston covers a broader range of years and with much less detail than Ellison gives his protagonist, both succeed at creating very relatable and dynamic characters. Thanks to the strength of their characters, the two authors are able to use their protagonists as powerful mediums for a discussion on many different topics, including African-American rights, coming-of-age, and coming to understand society. 

There are many similarities between the last two books that we've read in class. Both novels follow a similar flashback style and frame narrative. At the very least, there is a prologue in each, the book being told as a story describing that person's life. Both of the protagonists grow over the course of the book from naive and idealistic teenagers through to responsible middle-age adults. The powerful retelling of their personal lives lets the reader follow their growth and change over the span of multiple decades. Making the narrative even more compelling, there are similarities between each of the protagonists and their author, reinforcing the feeling of reality each novel provides.

The greatest difference I've seen so far is the conflict that the two characters face during their lifetimes. The invisible man has many different challenging experiences that, as a whole, result in him growing out of his naive youth and instead applying his ambition and skills towards independently set goals. The narrator is a very analytical character, often caught up in deep subconscious arguments about his own life. His core beliefs change little over the course of the novel, but with more experience he grows to understand what he believed in from the start. Although Ellison's way of depicting character growth is different from Hurtson's, both authors wrote their protagonists extremely well.

Hurston focuses on a much more personal discussion than Ellison. For one, we actually know who we are reading about, making it easier to sympathize with Janie. Another big difference stems from the two slightly different frame narrative setups that Invisible Man and Their Eyes Were Watching God have. Ellison's invisible man wrote the story we see as an autobiographical book, so his internal dialogue fit in well with his actions. Janie is telling the story of her life to a friend, so the reader has a comparatively superficial view of that book. Instead of focusing on particular events in her life, Janie is defined by a series of relationships. She goes from Johnny Taylor to Logan Killicks to Joe Starks and to Tea Cake, her own persona changing depending on her relationship with those men. Even when her relationships aren't up to par, the reader has confidence in the positive resolution of Janie's story thanks to the frame narrative of the novel. 

I look forward to seeing if the similarities between the two novels continue!

Before and After

I’m starting this blogpost before having read the final reading. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I look forward to the resolution that Ralph Ellison gives or doesn’t give me. Invisible Man has been one of my favorite books to read at school so far. Unlike some other novels, it hasn’t been overly confusing, instead striking a balance between a one-sided spiel and a convoluted book. I have loved the clear focus on the narrator and it has been an honor to have the experience of watching him grow throughout Invisible Man.

Ellison excels at making a truly human character, someone who makes both good and bad decisions but, above all, is relatable and understandable by the reader. The narrator starts off as a naïve go-getter ready to make his mark on the world. In spite of adversity, poor circumstance, and unlucky events, he keeps jumping into life. Unlike Bigger Thomas in Native Son, the narrator never blames anyone for his misfortune. His perseverance and flexibility are what made him such an appealing protagonist to me.

The cyclical storyline has been one of the one interesting aspects of the novel. The narrator is constantly unconsciously referring to past events and experiences. Only towards the end of the novel do we get his personal recognition of his grandfather’s dying words. Up until then, the reader has to be extremely perceptive of the subtlety of the underlying plot. The entire novel builds up to the reader’s first glance of the protagonist during the prologue. We finally dig down to the core of being an invisible man in the middle of society. I look forward to seeing what the final chapters uncover.

...

Well I finished the novel. The most important part for me was seeing the narrator realize the injustices cast upon him that the reader has been noting the entire time. He makes the final breakthrough that uncovers the Brotherhood's true colors, giving the narrator freedom once more. Finally, he is able to see his own life as the reader saw it and realize the deeper nuances. I love that the narrator is now able to make conscious and independent decisions about his own actions, stepping out to make an independent impact on the world. Now I really want to see where he goes with that! 

Life Changing

My title might be a bit ambiguous considering just how many different turning points we see in the narrator's life. Part of the reason is that we are following him for a large portion of his life, which is completely different from our view of Bigger in Native Son, who we only saw in a short span of time. Particularly, I wanted to focus on the point where the narrator of Invisible Man decides to throw away the social norms he believes in.

Even after arriving in New York, the narrator is still naïve and idealistic. He doesn’t let anything stop him from his path, zooming in on his main objectives and working towards just that. While in the South, he was the model of the meek African-American man that the white society wanted, up North he starts developing new ideas about his place in life. For example, when grabbing a bite to eat at the drugstore, he specifically chooses against buying the suggested meal in favor of what he thought of as “normal” fare. He purposefully didn’t buy the food he would have enjoyed on the sole basis that he wasn’t the Southern black man everyone saw him, wanting to show that he was different.

Emerson revealing the truth of Bledsoe’s “recommendation” letter, the Liberty Paints factory accident, and the harrowing hospital experience all leave their marks on the narrator. Afterwards, he is no longer dead-set on a goal. Instead, he starts living life a bit more free, allowing himself to do what he wants to take pleasure in his existence. For once, the reader starts seeing some body to the narrator’s personality, his “rebirth” changing the very basis of his being. Now, completely opposite of his actions just a few weeks before, the narrator indulges in some fresh baked yams. First buying one and walking away, as he finishes the yam the narrator realizes, but ignores the restriction he put upon himself. The taste of the hot yam makes him homesick, imagining the shock his peers from home would have if they could see him eating such lowly food. Whereas before he imagined the respect he would garner at the college with his Northern mannerisms, now he is on the flip side of that. His mind goes as far as to blame all Southerners for shunning the things that they enjoyed for the sake of public image, even recognizing that he himself fell victim to that trend. With, “I yam what I am!” the narrator moves into a new phase of his life where he frees himself of the requirements of class, education, and refinement to truly be himself. It might have taken nearly two decades of his life, but now the narrator is climbing out of his shell and showing his true colors to the world. 

Shocked by Humanity

       Bigger is by no means an average human being. He has had many extenuating circumstances that affected and controlled his development in a dog-eat-dog world where he was the bottom of the food chain. The oldest male in his household, society dictates that he has to take responsibility for his mother and two siblings, but as we see Bigger is clearly conflicted about any decision he tries to make. This is particularly dangerous since his younger brother looks up to him and Wright’s protagonist is far away from being a good role model. It shows the power dynamic that perpetuates the petty violence that controls Bigger’s life. Afraid of standing up to the consequences of his actions, Bigger beats up Gus to get out of robbing a white man, leaving himself no choice but to take the job chauffeuring for the Daltons. Overall, the start of the novel clearly sets up how secluded Bigger’s life has been, living in poverty his entire life and resorting to crime to survive without a better option on the horizon. 

       Taking a job working for a rich white family was perhaps the smartest decision Bigger ever could have made (just thinking of average circumstances, not what actually happens in Native Son). Mr. Dalton even turns out to be quite the philanthropist¹, giving Bigger a raise before he even starts work. Now, Native Son is far from an ideal world, but even there it is possible to make the right decisions and lead a good life, as evidenced by the previous chauffeur working for the family for ten years. Truly, the catalyst of the novel is the jarring transition from a poor African-American life and culture directly to that of a rich white family (Bigger even notices this himself when first going to the Daltons, realizing how conspicuous he looks in their neighborhood). It was hard enough for the protagonist to figure out which door to enter the house was for him, and being thrown straight into the family lives of strangers would be hard for any man. Mary’s mannerisms and Jan’s communism were the finishing blow (although getting drunk certainly did not help Bigger’s decision making skills) that threw Bigger off completely and commenced the downward spiral that resulted in Mary’s death, beheading, and incineration (and by extension, Bigger’s own demise). Perhaps a slower transition into higher class society would have benefited his long-term prospects, or at the very least a less radical family to work with².

       Although he was a product of his environment in many ways, Bigger was still a human. Some might argue against free will, but from a first person view you always have a choice to make, and in the end, live with the consequences. Although there was plenty of shock for the new chauffeur on his first day of work, there are many ways to deal with surprise in life that aren’t so criminal or terminal. Even Bigger himself had shown bursts of good decisions that show him capable of making the right choices. I kept this mindset throughout reading Native Son, and while I feel somewhat sympathetic to Bigger’s case, the whole tale of insane events could’ve been avoided altogether³.

¹Perhaps Mr. Dalton’s use of his money wasn’t the most effective to reach the general population, but you can’t argue that he wasn’t a philanthropist. Donating to the NAACP in its early years is undoubtedly helpful, but just not directly to Bigger and his world view. If we focus just on the conditions the protagonist had growing up, Mr. Dalton by no means helped him, as seen by the constant worry of Bigger’s mother about the overpriced rent and the direct trouble that caused.

²I say this because of all the trouble I noticed Bigger had in his first meeting with Mr. Dalton. Bigger Thomas had spent his entire life being educated about a certain norm that people must meet, and those societal norms covered both his own life and that of the higher class that controlled it. The Daltons with their progressivism and modern thought were completely contrary to what everything in Bigger’s life had told him was standard. Had he been more lucky (or less, depending on how you look at it), he might have ended up in a stereotypical white family that was just as racist and traditionalist as most of society was at that time. What could have happened then?

³What might be even more striking than the circumstance or events of the case depicted in Native Son is Wright’s masterful setup of the novel. Reading it is quite a shocking experience in of itself, especially at the start where Bigger’s actions move just as fast as his crazed thoughts, but rarely did I doubt what I was reading. The detail of his background and his environment that so influenced the events of the book made me forget just how insane it really is for someone to act this way. Perhaps Wright using the case of Robert Nixon as an influence made Native Son all the more realistic, just like how any good lie has a bit of truth in it.