Understanding "Sing for Freedom. The Story of the Civil Rights Movements Through Its Song" by Carawan, Guy, and Candy

        Civil Rights historical legacies root themselves in social injustices that occurred to African American individuals throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Singing roots itself back to a date not specifically known by any human record. It is widely known that social injustices are cruel in nature and aim to harm those they are being projected at. Singing, however, is widely known to have stress-releasing endorphins that soothe and calm the anxieties of the person singing and have a rejoicing, affiliating power to those listening. Within these two realms, one experiencing cruel social injustices could find considerable solace in singing about the hard times with those experiencing the same sorts of harsh realities. In doing so a bond gets created that carries on through song through many generations. Specific wording allows these songs to become specific to their group of suffers. The wording doesn’t create interference in their succession to the future though it does hold close to its past roots, instead, it creates a bridge that connects future generations to the reasons our nation is the way it is today. I will use “Ballad For Bill Moore” and “Why Was The Darkie Born” from the book Sing For Freedom to illustrate this assessment.

        Back in the day, there was no advanced technology that allowed us to stream live posts of prejudicial and discriminating acts as they were happening, instead, those who felt wronged would sing about it. Newspapers were not interested in printing how many men and women who died due to prejudicial reasoning, not all news mattered as not all lives mattered. So it was interesting that “Ballad For Bill Moore” words by Don West (found on page 95) was sung, but not unusual, Bill Moore was a man who believed in equality and died for that belief, although his skin color was white. “The lyncher’s bullets know no color/ As they come whining thru the night/ They’ve brought death to many a Negro/ And William Moore whose skin was white.” (Chorus 3) This was equivalent to the morning news when workers would start their day. One person started to sing the lyrics of the happenings around them and others working near would start to sing along; word of mouth was at work in its finest hours. This was a song binding its legacy to the historical slavery origins by stating within its lyrics that Bill Moore “… walked for peace, he walked for freedom/ He walked for truth, he walked for right,/ End segregation in this country/Eat at Joe’s, both black and white.” (Chorus 7). These songs were a testament to what was going on in the world as they knew it. They were songs that had powerful word combinations that gave strength to their feelings of overwhelming injustice.

        It was as important then as it is now for people of any DNA make-up to get out how they felt and it has always been true that humans have a need for affiliation with other humans, so it is no wonder that less fortunate people of a less fortunate time would do whatever they could, which happened to be singing. They sang sweet and they sang low, they sang with passion and they sang with a beat, it made the day go by and it made the hard times a smidge less hard, it even made explaining the fate they were dealt a little less harsh. In “Why Was The Darkie Born?” by James Bevel and Bernice Reagon (found on page 154) it is portrayed that a young child is asking its mother why were dark-skinned babies born and the mother gives an honest reply, “Somebody had to pick the cotton/ Somebody had to pull the corn/ somebody had to build a great nation/ and that’s why the darkie was a-born” (Line 3-6). Truth that was riddled with discrimination and prejudice so much that it became traditional for them to sing their feelings in an effort to cope. By the written account of the history of this time period, it seems to be the one thing that they were, to a larger than normal extent, allowed to have as they worked; so they took this inch of slack and ran a mile with it embedding it into their culture. In this song, its reference to picking cotton and pulling the corn was part of its legacy to the historical slavery origins. Also by stating within its last stanza “Come here my little baby,/ Sit on your mama’s knee/ And I will try to tell you/ Why your Ma ain’t free.” (53-56) we know this is an attempt to cope with slavery, an attempt to accept it through explanation. It is always the case that what we try to justify through our best attempts at common sense explanation what we feel is wrong or don’t understand in an effort to soften the feelings of injustice.

        Without such telling lyrics and rhythmic poetic beats, these songs would simply be stories that would get changed throughout the years by horrible word of mouth gossip. These two songs, like many others, work well to remind future generations of all the struggles and harsh realities that came before them to ensure a better tomorrow.



                                                                         Work Cited:

• Carawan, Guy, and Candy. Sing for Freedom. The Story of the Civil Rights Movements Through Its Song. New South Books. 2007. Pgs. 95, 154.

WWI to The Beats: Connecting The Dots

        During WWI those defending our country sat in the trenches with other soldiers, sat alone, or sat with soldiers of like countries fighting to save human freedom from power-hungry individuals that focused on turning humans into robots. Back then advanced technology didn’t consist of the words internet, cell phones, and streaming entertainment; it came by way of the words they thought of in their minds as they lay awake at night. Whether it was those on the front lines or those behind the lines, those aiding from home fronts or those aiding from tents with peroxide and bandages, back then everyone had a thought and something to say and a great many of them wrote those thoughts on whatever type of paper they could find. During WWII the need to remember all the tragic events wasn’t as prominent as it was during the First World War but there were still those who retold what they saw to be their reality at that time and how it made them feel. After both these wars came to their respective ends and people trickled home to their loved ones or sometimes no one, many became wrapped up in a Beat Movement to escape the horrible memories that plagued any media form from schools to coffee shops. Everyone had a story to tell, everyone had an opinion, everyone had a thought and a theory as to why this and why that, it was virtually impossible to live under an innocent naïve rock. Victorian proper was no longer an option of popular interest and complete freedom was always a pipe dream because when it comes down to it we are all just waiting for that call to duty, war duty, parental duty, societal duty, and/or educational duty. It is my point to connect the dots from WWI to The Beats on a yellow brick road paved by good intentions.

        During WWI most poets of war broke down their feelings with regard to a patriotic obligation type feeling that rises from illusions of freedom, wants for justice and safety, and/or just animalistic territorial pride for one's place of residence. There was still a looming of Victorian proper protocol and procedure lingering in the air of those in and affected by the war which lent its idealistic romanticized thought processes to those lying on the ground staring up at the stars from battlegrounds, Red Cross stations, and USO benefits everywhere. Poet’s minds were dripping with what was waiting back home and the questions that follow of the realization that death stares at them from every shadow just to cap the thought process with why would a God so mighty allow a man to endure such pain. In A Treasury of War Poetry British and American Poems of the World War 1914-1917 of The Riverside Literature Series, we are introduced to Henry van Dyke early on as he proclaims in rhythmic up-lift in his poem “Liberty Enlightening The World” “O dearest country of my heart, home of the high desire,/ Make clean thy soul for sacrifice on Freedom’s altar-fire/ For thou must suffer, thou must fight, until the warlords cease,/And all the peoples lift their heads in liberty and peace.” (Kindle Location 225) These are men who are not used to hand grenades and scarce rations as they are men who before the war, ran the local grocer or counted out your money at the bank, or better yet just walked out of high school doors. So when they would “…lain/In muddy trenches, napping like a beast/ With one eye open, under sun and rain/ And that unceasing hell-fire…/ It was strange” (Kindle location, 1830) as Wilfred Wilson Gibson said in “Between The Lines”. Though most of the poets of this war seemed to keep a hope about them that resonated through their words such as in A. Victor Ratcliff’s “Optimism” where he states “O day, be long and heavy if you will,/ But on our hopes set not a bitter heel./ For tiny hopes like tiny flowers of Spring/Will come” (Kindle Location, 1618). The war was hard on these boys and men but they fought with the, some would say, optimism that comes with thinking they are fighting an ending battle. They didn’t think another war was right around the corner.

        When along came WWII quite an animosity had built inside the soldiers whose minds fill the pages of Poets of World War II by Harvey Shapiro. These were new soldiers who have not seen war but heard all about it from their parents and/or siblings mixing with returning soldiers who fought not too long ago. All of them collectively knowing of the travesties testing man’s will to live during the First World War. What returning soldiers first saw as nobility to fight for one's country now is a crouching of one's personal space where they no longer feel they understand what it is they are fighting for exactly because the whole of it all is so large that they cannot wrap their minds around what all is going on. During the military downtime, the roaring twenties "kicked its heals up" in the face of the prim and proper Victorian regimented lifestyle and people got lost in F. Scotts Fitzgerald’s huge party of flighty feminine indecision (stay with old Victorian security and money or dive into ex-patriot uncertainty and lavishly lush extremes) and overly mothered men who indulged these women. So when WWII reared its face at these industrial revolutionaries, existential thinkers, and philosophical literary minds it was like dad just pulled the entire breaker box, not just the switch, on the rebel party people still had going on inside their heads. “The war that we have carefully for years provoked/ Catches us unprepared, amazed and indignant. Our…/…leaders make orations. This is the people/ That hopes to impose on the whole planetary world/ An American peace.” (Shapiro, 13) Robinson Jeffers seemed to be a little cynically truthful in his assessment in his poem titled “Pearl Harbor” where he states “But now I am old…”

        It was the old and the young, toe to toe and back to back swapping un-relatable stories that defined what Lincoln Kirstein put so bluntly in his poem titled “Rank” where he said “Differences between rich and poor, king and queen,/ Cat and dog, hot and cold, day and night, now and then,/ Are less clearly distinct than all those between/ Officers and us: enlisted men.” (Shapiro, 52) Where he not only defined the difference but defined the mood with his use of capital letters and profanity in his poem titled “P.O.E” where he clearly packs up the hope WWI poets tried to maintain as he states “We strive to fake a grateful note/ But goddamn duffle bag and pack,/ Gas mask, rifle, helmet, coat/ Too heavy are, so each sad sack, Must flop and gripe: This is some shit./ Up On Your Feet, our orders crack./ It’s All Aboard for THIS IS IT.” (Shapiro, 55-56) Which it seemed to be in metaphorical terms even if it wasn’t “it” in literal terms, in the sense that when WWII was over the nightmares of the battle lingered long after everyone stepped foot in their home.

        Post Traumatic Stress Disorder became a driving force to The Beat Writer. While not all Beat writers were ex-military, it seemed that the ex-military post-war feelings behind the first and second World Wars were mixing unkindly with the looming Vietnam War creating anxiety for what the world was turning into, which was apparently a big fighting ball of testosterone. So, animosity rose even higher between people who expressed political opinions, people who worked the institutionalized government-imposed grind, people who didn’t look the same, and all the –isms man-made language could create. Beat Writers were not necessarily the creators of these hypocrisies in life but more so the ones who felt all of what came from them. All of their feelings mixed horribly with these experimental drug addicts and alcoholics looking to escape the sad realities of life. The un-funny funny thing about life is that when you try to escape the problems and the fears they only come back twice as bad, if not exponentially more, however, what does that truly matter when literary masterpieces are born to try and explain and unify those who should never have been divided, to begin with.

        The Beat Writer’s seemed to glorify alcohol and drug use in The Portable Beat Reader by Ann Charters when Gary Snyder puts it as, “a good deal of personal insight can be obtained by the intelligent use of drugs” (Charters, 306) in his “Note On The Religious Tendencies”. They also opposed governmental reasoning and solutions, like how Tuli Kupferberg wrote 1001 WAYS TO BEAT THE DRAFT where “Flying to the moon and refus[ing] to come home”, “Becom[ing] Secretary of Defense” or “State” or “Health” rank up there with death, and menstruating. (Charters, 387)

         It seems that the facts are fairly easy here since history always has a way of repeating itself somehow, someway, when laying the yellow bricks for that intended road to humanities salvation from all things evil, remember to start Victorian. Starting Victorian will ensure that all women have no opinion to oppose man's will when he says that he is feeling like jumping into battles just to preserve peace. Then when that false peace finally tuckers out the brilliant minds who thought it up, to begin with, go jazzy, go glitzy, go glamorous and go in debt. By acting cocky to ragtime music while ticking off creditors one will ensure that some bomb is inevitably going to drop from the sky and start that whole feeling of jumping into battles to preserve peace thing will occur again. Once that mass genocide of testosterone has subsided go drink some more, go get high on drugs instead of music this time and then go rehab it up with the best brains roaming around so that when the next departure into battle occurs people can write about science fiction as reality because we will have all lost our minds with anger and individuality by then.



                                                                         Works Cited:

• vanDyke, Henry. "Liberty Enlightening The World." A Treasury of War Poetry British and American Poems of the World War 1914-1917, The Riverside Literature Series, Kindle Location. 225.
• Gibson, Wilfred Wilson. “Between The Lines.” A Treasury of War Poetry British and American Poems of the World War 1914-1917, The Riverside Literature Series, Kindle Location. 1830. 
• Ratcliff, A. Victor. “Optimism.” A Treasury of War Poetry British and American Poems of the World War 1914-1917, The Riverside Literature Series, Kindle Location. 1618.
• Shapiro, Harvey. Poets of World War II. New York, Library of America, 2003. Pgs. 13, 52, 55-56.
• Charters, Ann. The Portable Beat Reader. Penguin Books, 1992. Pgs. 306, 387.

A Feminist Psychoanalysis of Conrad's Heart of Darknesss

  Describe how a psychoanalytic reading of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness would differ from a feminist reading. Select a passage from Conrad’s text as a basis for the comparison. What are the benefits of a psychoanalytic reading of the passage? Of a feminist reading? What are the disadvantages of a psychoanalytic reading? Of a feminist reading? This discussion will allow you to become familiar with these theories and apply them in a less formal, interactive environment.

Respond to at least two of your classmates. Identify differences between your application of the feminist and psychoanalytic theories and theirs. What elements of the text (e.g., plot, imagery, and character development) did your colleagues focus on? How did the feminist or the psychoanalytic approach contribute to an understanding of these elements?

For the passage in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad that I chose to compare this passage that Conrad wrote early on in the story along with a follow up passage he wrote in section two of the story. Since we are to analyze this passage within the scope of feminism and psychoanalysis I felt Charlie's reaction to his aunts words was the most fitting for comparison.  

     "You forget, dear Charlie, that the labourer is worthy of his hire, ' she said, brightly. It's queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there has never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over." 

     "I laid the ghost of his gifts at last with a lie," he began, suddenly. "Girl! What? Did I mention a girl? Oh, she is out of it -completely. They- the women, I mean- are out of it- should be out of it. We must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own, lest ours gets worse."

     According to Wikipedia feminism "is literary criticism informed by feminist theory, or, more broadly, by the politics of feminism. It uses feminist principles and ideology to critique the language of literature. This school of thought seeks to analyze and describe the ways in which literature portrays the narrative of male domination by exploring the economic, social, political, and psychological forces embedded within literature." 

     With that being said, readers can view Charlie's statement as sexist. "...out of touch with truth..." Conrad writes this in a piece that is about one mans story, his decisions as a man and his feelings about everything going on around him. Therefor by allowing his main character to say this passage it allows the reader to believe that the main character has no use for a womans beautiful world, that apparently women live outside the realm of reality, a reality where only men live. Not only does Conrad narrate Charlie to say this once but then again in the second part of the story reiterating his feeling that women live in a world all of their own when he says "We must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own, lest ours gets worse." Conrads insinuation through Charlie that women could not manage the stresses of reality and therefore live only in a beautiful facade is the exact passage that feminism works to negate.

"In general, feminist literary criticism before the 1970s—in the  and of feminism—

was concerned with women's authorship and the representation of women's condition within literature; including the depiction of fictional female characters." (Wikipedia)

     The benefits of looking at this passage through the feminism lens is that we can see how women were treated in the past and work to correct it for the future, as we are not just creatures of naive fantasies living in a realm that is not reality alongside our human counterparts.

     The disadvantage would be the other side of the double edged knife. While sexism is not right, we run the risk of loosing chivalry to a notion that we of the female race, know is not true, but when we fight to change how men see us after seeing us for so long as helpless, it creates a backlash of inequality. Women know men need us to need them whether we really need them or not but did we/do we really need to scream inequality for all when not all feel the same way. Some women are proud to be of a beautifully naive mind set. Also aanalysis of books can strip them of their chauvinistic ways only to put great literature under scrutinity for something that was a factual reality of the male thought processes of years past. Also picking apart an authors words, meaning, theme ect. is an attempt to understand what the author meant when we all read things differently. 

     To psychoanalyze these connected passages under the psychoanalytical umbrella that says  psychoanalysis of literature "can be the psychoanalysis of the  or of a particularly interesting character in a given work." (Wikipedia) leads us to question why Charlie thinks the way he thinks by way of Conrad's mind. We have to ask whether Conrad was simply describing how it was at that day in age or was that truly how he felt about life around him.

     The advantages to looking at this passage through the psychoanalytical lens is that we can get a better picture as to why the story was written. What the significance is to having this story published and read by the masses. It allows us to look deep within the context of Charlie's words for the meaning to how he feels and why."The chief function of the psychoanalytic critic is to reveal the true content, and thus to explain the effect on the reader of a literary work by translating its manifest elements into the dormant, unconscious determents that make up their suppressed meaning." (Devardhi)

     The disadvantages of looking at this passage through that lens is that we strip away the enjoyment of just reading the words and allowing ourselves to simply be engulfed by the authors characters, settings, tones and themes. Sometimes picking something apart is helpful and other times it just takes away from the simplicity of reading for light minded fun.  

Works Cited

"Feminist Literary Criticism."Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Mar. 2017. Web. 13 Apr. 2017.

"Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism."Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 Apr. 2017. Web. 13 Apr. 

Devardhi, J. "Application of Freudian Concepts to the Explication of Literary Texts: A Case Study of Walt Whitman’s “The Sleepers”."African Research Review3.1 (2009): n. pag. Web. 13 Apr. 2017.

Conrad, Joseph. "Heart of Darkness."Gutenburg.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2017.

Amy Semrau 

RE: Heart of Darkness

Hi Maria,

         I couldn’t agree with you more about the condescending and limiting view that this story takes on women. I also agree that the narrative of a beautifully naïve mindset is one that some women adopt willingly. The difference in literature is the overwhelming representation of a single idea of what women can be and a lack of representation of alternatives. It is fine to have a woman aloof and naïve, but the problem arises when this portrayal is shown time and time again until it feeds into a narrative that dictates this to be the ‘natural’ disposition of all women. I think literary criticism tries to make this clear but the difficulty lies in the availability of female characters and the lack of presenting them as anything but a device for male actualization. You chose to point out the overall tone of the excerpts from a feminist standpoint; they are sexist. That is a stance which is only possible now, in the context from which it is written such a statement would have seemed ‘out of touch’ and foolish. I think the choice to use the feminist lens adds perspective that allows us to see how women were treated in the past, as you stated. The extent of women’s subjugation and lower status is contained not just in the presentation of female characters, but also in the use of the feminine in other ways. I focused this on the need to personify boats as women and the way women are used only to further the story of men. When I read the passages you presented and consider the point you made about Marlow not needing a woman’s beautiful world, it cements the idea that women are not privy to their own stories or whole existence. Nothing is expected of them but to be the object of a man and remain a paragon of beauty or a tool in their conquest.  

Hi Amy,

Thank you for agreeing. However, despite my stated point of view above, I will now play devils advocate to my own words. As I am quirky like that. So from a feminism stand point, yes, the passage is sexist and paints women in a less then flattering light intellectually speaking, but when you read the whole story and read the women symbolically then a whole new light is shed on Conrads story.

The story is, while still in a somewhat sexist way, literally all about a man and his journey, though literature is full of these kinds of stories about women too, where the male roles of the story are symbolic for the womans journey. Conrad seemingly, specifically, made only a select few things in this story feminine. Two of which were Kurtz women, which much like the whole stories paralleling good vs evil nature, Kurtz had one woman of bright lighted purity and one of savage intensity. The third would be the 

feminine named vessel that carries Charlie along the river and deep within himself.

Though I completely stand behind what I wrote above, I felt I needed to further state my feelings on the book to clarify that I do understand the immense symbolic nature of this novella. I do agree that many literary pieces do take an extreme sexist approach in describing women within their stories, however, I believe the sexist parts of this story are to aid the symbolic nature of how Kurtz viewed woman with regard to the standard views of women of this novellas time period. Charlie actually, in one respect feels women are better then men if you read into the words through a psychoanalytical lens that follows the thinking that by not wanting women to have their beautiful worlds tainted by the possibilities of a mans worse world he is helping to preserve womans beauty. It's a doubled edged knife, in stripping woman of their ability to handle the nitty gritty, he is allowing women to be in a category that doesn't need to be amongst the nitty gritty, which men tend to think is complimentary while some women think it's insulting.

Perspective is always subjective to an individuals personal views on life. Open mindedness allows for vast interpretations of all things tangible and non. That's the true beauty in life, to me of course.

~Maria 

Amy Semrau 

RE: Heart of Darkness

Hi Maria,

         Kurtz women certainly do lend themselves to the symbology of the story and I agree that, within the era this books is written, he has presented them in accordance with ideas of the time. From a feminist standpoint, the irony is not lost on me that he writes about women as peripheral tools, in this case only as symbols on the man's journey, in much the same way women are seen of as tools primarily for reproduction or possession in the Victorian era. The use of women as objects and symbols in men's narratives mirrors the perception of women only as objects in the real world. Placing women on a pedestal has multiple functions, one is to exclude her from decision making and power in society, another is to remove choice in their behavior by promoting a metanarrative: if a woman is quiet, sweet, beautiful and innocent, a good man will come along to protect and cherish her... so long as she remains obedient, accepting, virtuous and respectful. I know this is getting a little deconstructionist, but I think part of the importance of understanding benevolent sexism is that it exists to remove choice by perpetuating one view of womanhood.

 

         His adoration for women is akin to his view of them as less than human, they are pretty little creatures  

without the will or intellect to comprehend or understand. What I found interesting was evidence that he had no desire to attribute anything to women, even when it benefited him. At one point he mocks the idea that he turned to 'the women' to try to help him get a job. The result is he was able to get a job through his Aunt. How does he respond? He still mocks the idea of getting help from a woman even though it worked, then he simplifies her attitude as a mindless drone eager to make him happy and get him his appointment as though she has nothing better to do (which I imagine he believes to be true). When she does offer some interesting, she is dismissed as 'out of touch' and getting carried away with buzz words. At the same time, he calls her his excellent aunt and relishes in her enthusiastic attitude and pretty ideas of the world. The reflective telling of this story casting his attitude in more sever light since he knows how it will end but is still dismissive of the foreshadowing hinted at by women in the story. Perhaps Conrad as the author is making a statement about this dismissal of women by including the details of there conversations int eh story, or perhaps he was just intent on creating foreshadowing and an ominous presence.

 

         Sorry to go on. You brought out some thoughts in this discussion and I wanted to share them. I don't know if they are 'right', or even if there is a 'right', but it is enjoyable to explore them with you. Thanks

I really enjoy exploring this with you too. Part of the reason why I wanted to go back for my masters was so that I could talk to intelligent people who enjoy using their brains as much as I do. So thank you!

I cant say I disagree at the moment with anything that you have stated or how you have stated it. In literature I don't believe their is a right or wrong per-say because it is all subjective to how the reader wants to interpret the written piece. However there is always the way that the author intended to write it but some authors don't always give up their intentions because they like hearing the debate. From the little bit I have read on Conrad I think he definitely intended his women to be symbolic statues that embodied that time period for exactly what they were supposed to stand for at that time period. While I think that this was a story specifically written by a man about a mans journey I don't think women mattered much more then they needed to matter which is why he left them symbolic and nameless, I cant say I haven't written a character as such because the character was important to the story but not enough to have a life, just a presence and a purpose. However in doing that, it does allow for many doors to open up with questions and possible reasonable answers as to why it was written that way. 

I believe Conrads women were symbolic of good and evil as he presented polar opposites and that due to the nature of the stories events and the relationship between Krutz and Charlie that surrounded them, I can see the women being foreshadowing of those ominous events in a way that paralleled the actual voyage into the darkness that was central Africa where Charlie was faced with Krutz's darkness and finding his way out of it back to the beauty. 

I really enjoyed reading your interpretations and having you read my thoughts as well. Thank you very much Amy!!!

~Maria

Taylor Wikowsky 

RE: Heart of Darkness

Maria, 

I found your interpretation of this text very interesting. When I read the selection the first time, I didn't find it to be sexist. Your post was a whole new perspective for me to look at the text from, which is a huge factor in my enjoying it so much. You mentioned in a later post that a lot of stories have very strong male characters and contain sexist undertones. This got me thinking that perhaps that is why I didn't find the comments of Conrad to be sexist. Your post really made me think about how much we accept from society, right down to our unwavering acceptance of the undertones in what we watch, and read. 

Hi Taylor,

I didn't mean that all stories had a strong male character and contain sexiest undertones, I mean that all stories have a strong character (either male or female) with sexiest undertones. Sorry if I didn't convey that properly. However, you took from what I wrote what I was hoping you would take from it and that is that we become desensitized. Glad I could give you another way to see the text 

~Maria

Psychoanalysis of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

 Based on the readings for this module, identify the key components of one of the major theoretical schools to be studied in this class (psychoanalytic, feminist, Marxist, deconstructionist). On what kinds of questions or concerns is this theoretical approach built? How might this theory be used in an analysis of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”? Discuss specific characters, scenes, or imagery in the story and how it can be approached through your chosen theoretical lens.

Respond to at least two of your classmates. Select posts that take a theoretical approach different from your own and discuss the differences in perspective. What are the benefits of the other theoretical perspective? What are the disadvantages?

I have chosen psychoanalysis as my lens to look through Shirley Jacksons The Lottery. Key components of literary psychoanalytic are symbolism, condensation, and displacement. Freud used these components to break down the human conscious and subconscious. When we think thoughts that lend themselves to decisions we are making these decisions in one of two ways, either consciously or unconsciously through our subconscious which usually manifest within our dreams. Consciously we make decisions based on information we are presented with while in an alert and awake state. Unconsciously we are presented with symbolic images that can manifest from condensed sensory experiences and/or displaced emotions that we attach to people, places, and/or things. This theoretical approach to analyzing literature is built on exploring the conscious and subconscious mind of the author to de-fragment who, what, when, where, why, and how the piece of literature was written. Freud's theory believed that authors wrote not only of what they intended to write but also from that with which they did not intend to write. In psychoanalytical thinking is it not so much about solely diving into the part of the author's personality that makes up each character but also asking the reverse of why the character wasn't something/someone else? In other words, it's asking why and then also asking why not. In the story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson one could psychoanalyze why Tessie Hutchinson was picked but also why Mrs. Graves, Mrs. Delacroix, or Mrs. Dunbar weren't picked. It could be analyzed why Tessie Hutchinson, a woman, was picked but also why Mr. Hutchinson wasn't picked or any of the other men in the village. It would be further analyzed why Tessie Hutchinson was the one who showed up late, then if that had any bearing on why she got picked, while also asking had she came on time would she still have been the one to have been picked, or what if she had never shown at all, would she still have been picked. This story has many avenues that can be addressed through the lens of psychoanalysis because the intention was made clear why this act was being done and it was due to tradition which opens a Pandora's box of questions as to the basis of traditions, especially ones that serve no functional purpose (just as one example).

Analyzing John Dos Passos

        John Dos Passos seemed to take the average man and make him something more and then take the man of something more and bring him down to average simply by letting what the press does best, twist words, and then letting the “camera eye” reveal the rest. Take Big Bill Haywood, he was an average man, a man who was not big on feeling like a slave to his employer. That’s why when his first employer, “the farmer”, “lashed him with a whip” Big Bill responded by doing “his first strike” (Bradley, Beatty, Long, 1585). After that he would go on to numerous other jobs, more than 11 not counting his impromptu job of a delivery doctor to the birth of his own child. Then, this average man, full of steam and life, became an “organizer, a speaker, an exhorter, the wants of all the miners were his wants” (Bradley, Beatty, Long, 1586) now and that rose him to “the wants of all the workers…, he was the spokesman of the West, of the cowboys and the lumberjacks and the harvest hands and the miners.” (Bradley, Beatty, Long, 1587) Now this average man had power, with power comes responsibility as well as fringe benefits and expensive perks; perks that sway the responsibility and skew the fine line between right and wrong, leaving Big Bill Haywood to stand trial for the overextension of his power. This then led to jail time and being exiled to Russia where “[h]e died there and they burned his big broken hulk of a body and buried the ashes under the Kremlin wall.” (Bradley, Beatty, Long, 1588).

        Big Bill Haywood wasn’t the only person Dos Passos built up to strip down, or present striped to build up, he did this with many people in the public eye for his U.S.A. Trilogy. He also presented those not in the “newsreel” or “camera eye” he gave a voice to the working man that was never going to amount to anything more than another working man. Dos Passos allowed them to voice their thoughts knowing they had at least him as their audience. So when they said things such as, “it ain’t your fault and it ain’t my fault… it’s poverty, and poverty’s the fault of the system.”, (Passos, 14) they didn’t have to feel uneducated, instead, they could feel empowered by the listening ear. He gave a listening ear that allowed them to continue on with their wobbly thought out strung together thoughts that contained blame and fault instead of hope for change. Thoughts that sounded like this, “It’s the fault of the system that don’t give a man the fruit of his labor… The only man who gets anything out of capitalism is a crook, an’ he gets to be a millionaire in short order…But an honest workin’ man like John or myself we can work a hundred years and not leave enough to bury us decent with.”(Passos, 14-15) Seems like Dos Passos character Tim O’Hara was “tellin’ the truth” (Passos, 15) right? I mean Big Bill Haywood did get to have “champagne cocktails at the Ritz and sleep with Russian countesses in Montmarte” (Bradley, Beatty, Long, 1587) before he died in Russia and it did seem like he did have enough money left over to be burned and buried in a remote foreign land under a landmark too non-the-less. What more could the elite want? It’s a shame Tim only felt “like whipped cur.” (Passos, 15) but still felt the ability to fault poverty itself. It seems, that if he didn’t feel so whipped, he might have been able to take a walk in another man's shoes, however, I believe that was Dos Passos's main point behind his modern style.

        Dos Passos figured out a way to bring the headlines, “newsreels” together, full front, then describe further out through his “camera eye” what those headlines were eluding to, talking about, lending a voice to, damning, criticizing, personifying, glamorizing, and/or glossing over. Then in an "icing the cake" fashion he added in the narrative voices of common folk so that literary’s could pour over its ingenuity of art, school-age children could learn the history and those oblivious to the comings and goings of anything outside their 8x8 comfort zoned box could be introduced to the world should they have the attention span to finish this brilliant piece.



                                                                         Works Cited:

• Passos, John Dos. “The 42nd Parallel .”U.S.A, Random House, 1985, pp. 14– 15. The Modern Library.
• Bradley, Sculley, et al. “Fiction as Social History.”The American Tradition in Literature, 3rd ed., vol. 2, Grosset & Dunlap, 1956, pp. 1585–1588.

A Lit Comparison of William Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" and Jean Toomer's "Cane"

        Inside of William Faulkners’s “As I Lay Dying” resides racism of a societal economic stance while Jean Toomer’s “Cane” is home to a racism built up of skin pigmentation. Both derive from fear-based ignorance though one captivates its readers empathetic senses and the other allows its reader to feel the impoverished lifestyle of a dictatorial father. Faulkner introduces his reader to a slave owner that makes slaves out of his own kin; where he never allows one of his own to supersede him in any way, not mentally emotionally or physically. Toomer on the other hand introduces us to several unique and individualistic stories of black slavery that take a poetically empathetic look at the cultural similarities disguised as differences deriving from a fear that what doesn’t look the same can’t possibly be the same. No matter how it is laid out, Faulkner and Toomer both know how to write race-related segregation.

        Faulkner introduces us to the Bundren family who was headed up in theory by their Pa, Anse Bundren, however, in actuality it was headed by their Ma, Addie Bundren. In order to lead, a person must be strong but Anse was not a strong man; he was a weak man who lived off of what his family provided for him. Anse’s way of thinking followed a line that businessmen follow, “Nowhere in this sinful world can an honest, hardworking man profit. It takes them that runs the stores in the towns, doing no sweating, living off of them that sweats.” (735) So, it was Addie who was the strength, she did what she had to for her children, all of her children, even the one she had through deceit, Jewel. Well, sometimes more so for Jewel because Jewel was targeted by Anse. He was a reminder to Anse that at one time Addie was loved by another man. So when Addie wanted to take Jewel to the doctors “pa didn’t want to spend the money without it was needful, and Jewel did seem all right except for his thinness and except for his way of dropping off to sleep at ay moment.” (742) Therefore Addie knew she had to do what needed to be done behind Anse’s back. Darl said, “Addie Bundren should be hiding anything she did, who had tried to teach us that deceit was such that, in a world where it was, nothing else could be very bad or very important, not even poverty.” To Anse, life revolved around money but to Addie life simply revolved regardless of a person’s financial situation. So Anse treated his family like they were employees, giving the feeling of trapped slavery amongst his family. The only way one could escape it was through death, something that Anse repeatedly says throughout the whole story is that he “don’t begrudge her it”. Addie knew better though, she knew that Anse was just full of words, like many other people were. Words were not needed for true feelings, feelings she had with her children, feelings that didn’t need descriptive wording. Only those people, like Anse, like businessmen, like those people who didn’t know of pride and didn’t know of fear, had to make up a word to convey what they thought they felt. Addie knew words such as begrudge and love, that came from Anse were “just a shape to fill a lack” (759) because Anse didn’t know what love was and he did hold a grudge, he held a grudge for anyone who cost him money.

        In Toomer’s “Cane”, contrary to Faulkner’s Bundren family, we have many people from several places all trickling through and around Jean Toomer’s life creating this cast of characters that breathe the desire to stay unequal. It is comfortable to want change but to be faced with it brings about an uncomfortable fear of the unknown. “Fellows about town were all right, but how about his friends up North? He could see them incredible, repulsed. … “… with their eyes still upon him, he began to feel embarrassed. He felt the need of explaining things to the.” (654) He was comfortable with Louisa where they were, sneaking around, but should people that don’t know become in the know, well then, that was a fear that Bob could not repress. It was a fear that made him question the whole pigmentation difference on his walk to see her, on his walk to ‘love her’. “Bob Stone, of the old Stone family, in a scrap with a nigger over a nigger girl.” (654) Bob Stone, like Anse Bundren, had words because he had ideas about what was right and what was wrong, neither of which he knew anything about. Much like Anse, Bob, didn’t know what love was. So when Bob said that “He was going to see Lousia to-night, and love her.” (654) he was merely creating a shape to fill a lack.

        Also, much like Anse, Bob got other people to do his dirty work for him. Bob was a businessman, even if he wasn’t a businessman. He wasn’t a man willing to sweat for anything he wanted and when it came to fighting for Louisa he was incapable of standing up for himself adequately, however, that didn’t matter because “White men like ants upon a forage rushed about. … Shotguns, revolvers, rope, kerosene, torches. … They came together.” (656) In the end, the man Tom, who fought Bob for Louisa, was the one willing to do what he had to do for the person he loved, like Addie had for her children, and died.

        So it would appear that both Faulkner and Toomer know how to write race-related segregation that goes beyond the color spectrum to the fear that lies at the heart of the segregation nightmare. They both seemed to grasp the importance men imagined having in the modernist era with regard to their significant other and when they are brought to the reality that they have less power then they think, they become territorial and dictatorial in their stance in life. Those around them can not become more superior to them. They will hold grudges and they will use words to fill what they are lacking.



                                                                         Works Cited:

• Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine.The Norton Anthology of American Literature. D, New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 2012. Page. 735,742,759,654,656.

A Lit Comparison of William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” and T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”

          Structurally speaking William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” and T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” run on similar lines with death being a prevailing theme in both that can be experienced and perceived in different ways. In Eliot’s piece, there are 5 sections that each possesses its own individual narration, including additional character narration in section three alone. In Faulkner’s piece, we are given 15 different character narrations to help solidify that no two people see any situation the same. It seems that the perspective narrations in “The Waste Land” could be themed similarly to the different perspectives that evolve from Faulkner’s 15 narrations if we look under the pretext that Eliot’s poem “…is preceded by a Latin and Greek epigraph from The Satyricon of Petronius. In English, it reads: "I saw with my own eyes the Sibyl of Cumae hanging in a jar, and when the boys said, “Sibyl, what do you want?” she replied, “I want to die." (Wikipedia)

        In Eliot’s “The Waste Land” one of the narrations in section 2 it is repeated to “Hurry Up Please It’s Time. Goodnight Bill, Goodnight Lou. Goodnight May. Goodnight. Ta ta. Goodnight. Goodnight. Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night.” (383) as it seems she too “had five already, and nearly died of young George.” (383) In Faulkner’s piece, we have a woman who birthed 5 children and whether out of spite, selfishness, or a combination of both Addie Bundren makes her death a task for those who claim to love her. Though she is most fond of her son Jewel, her death has been held off long enough but it is still a thought that “him and Darl went to make one more load. They thought there was time. That you would wait for them and that three dollars and all…” (713) This alludes to an air that both women have had their fair share of life and mothering and they are ready to say “good night” (383) and let “…the two flames glare up for a steady instant. Then they go out as though someone had leaned down and blown upon them.” (714) Leaving “rats’ alley, where the dead men lost their bones” (381) and a “handful of rotten bones that Addie Bundren left.” behind. (714)

        Each story is not only the death of a mothering figure or the perception of the loss of a loved one, but the life that breathes around them as life does continue on for everyone around the one who’s time is up. Both Eliot and Faulkner knew just how much the supporting characters mean to the story at large. They could see the big picture and all those present inside one's life. Eliot wrote how the “nymphs”, “their friends” and the “loitering heirs of City directors” they had all “departed” leaving the solace of the bitter cold to run through those who the departed left behind.

“The river’s tent is broken; the last fingers of leaf Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed. Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song. The River bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers, Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends, Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed. And their friends, the loitering heirs of City directors; Departed, have left no addresses. By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept… Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song, Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long. But at my back in a cold blast I hear the rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread ear to ear.” (383)

        That passage seems to be a similar allusion to Faulkner’s section where Darl explains the river where he Vernon and his father taste the bitter cold of a non-violent surface that was cutting them in half. Addie may not be walking with them but she is there as she always had been displaying the allusion of peacefulness when in actuality it’s the “ludicrosities” of “three blind men” who journeyed the “horizon” and “valleys of the earth” as men who focused on their “misfortune”.

“I had not thought that water in July could be so cold. It was like hands molding and prodding at the very bones. Vernon is still looking back toward the bank” (754) … “If ever was such a misfortunate man,” pa says. “If ever was such a misfortunate man,” pa says” (756) … “Jewel and Vernon are in the river again. From here they do not appear to violate the surface at all; it is as though it had severed them both at a single blow, the two torsos moving with infinitesimal and ludicrous care upon the surface. It looks peaceful… for the dead eyes of three blind men those mammalian ludicrosities which are the horizon and the valleys of the earth.” (757)

        It seems each river has a personification that is a cold bite with a man’s sing-song words repeated for emphatic dramatic effect to softly speak volumes about the magnitude that each river plays on them all. While Eliot writes a long poem of a scattered nature and Faulkner writes a long story of a poor family’s trek through nature, nevertheless, each author is using combination narrations where not just one person tells the story. This gives each piece the same air of multiple perspectives tying with individual opinions to a central theme that seems to center on death, the fact that we are all headed there, and the journey to it. They both use the bigger picture of a journey to exemplify how complicated life can be while illustrating in multiple voices how different it is for and within every single person.

                                                                   Works Cited:

• Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine.The Norton Anthology of American Literature. D, New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 2012. Page. 698-793.
• Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine.The Norton Anthology of American Literature. D, New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 2012. Page. 378-391.
• “The Waste Land.” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waste_Land. Accessed 29 July 2017.

Lit Discussion of O'Brien's "The Things They Carried"

                                                       Boom-Down, Like Cement
        I chose to read O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” due to its fascinating style of writing. It has this small yet powerful story hidden amongst all this military artillery and combat gear. O’Brien very carefully and cleverly opens this story with a seemingly never-ending list of, well, “Things They Carried”, justifying the title. Within this incredible amount of items that O’Brien intertwines the personal items and the story behind some of them, namely the story behind Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Lieutenant Cross’s story unfolds through the third-person omniscient because O’Brien knows all the things that Jimmy Cross thinks that none of Cross’s platoon knows he’s thinking. “Lieutenant Cross felt the pain. He blamed himself.” (667) Through trinkets that Martha had sent Lieutenant Cross he was able to imagine a world with her in it as his love, and due to the monotonous boredom that comes along with heavy loads and tediously long days away from civilization Lieutenant Cross allowed his mind to become consumed with thoughts of her. O’Brien states one of the most impactful lines when he states “Imagination was a killer.” Throughout all that these men were forced, chosen, and chose to carry, Lieutenant Cross chose to force his self to carry the guilt of not having prevented Lavenders’ death. He chose to place the blame on his wandering mind that was intricately woven into all of these items. “Lavender was dead. You couldn’t burn the blame.” (676) In this blame Cross now burdened as his own, he became not only the antagonist but also the protagonist as well, in a man vs. self type of conflict. A man died on his watch there was no one else to blame, his platoon did nothing wrong and even the enemy, the mostly invisible enemy could not be the sole bearers of the blame. No, it was the man who was put in charge of keeping this platoon safe and his men alive. By carefully ticking off each and every item the platoon men needed, wanted, and chose to carry O’Brien was able to shape each character individually as well, as a unit. Which did the right thing of presenting this platoon as a band of brothers, which is hat they solider into each of them from day one. Had Lieutenant Cross not had his head in the clouds daydreaming about a love he manifested in his lonely hours, then he might have been able to keep Lavender alive, or so O’Brien would have us believe Cross feels through his sequential list of events that happened to this one specific platoon.

        War stories are ridiculously hard to tell when the writer or storyteller has never actually been to war. So, by O’Brien carefully listening to his friends tell their war stories he was able to make a list of war-related details, which just so happen to work extremely well at effectively setting the stage for his piece without deriving from the list itself except to background and anchor Lieutenant Cross’s items. It is the items and their respective journeys with their respective solider that set the stage for where they are located. Simple dialogue for emotional effect carries the reader even further along in their trek to Than Khe. “They searched the villages without knowing what to look for, not caring, kicking over jars of rice, frisking children and old men, blowing tunnels, sometimes setting fires and sometimes not, then forming up and moving on to the next village, then other villages, where it would always be the same.” (672) These words strung together in a checklist, ticked off kind of way helps to add to the setting which aids in describing how each solider could become a part of their surroundings or, such as with Lieutenant Cross, lost in thoughts that took them away from the visions of destruction and isolation that kept them moving “humping” forward.


                                                                     Works Cited:

• Charters, Ann. “The Things They Carried.” The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction, 9th ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, pp. 664–677.