Margaret Garner

As we were reading Beloved, I felt like I had heard this story before. So I looked around and came across the story of Margaret Garner, the woman whom Morrison based her novel off of. Margaret Garner was born as a slave during the pre-Civil War era in Kentucky. Like Sethe, she was able to marry a fellow slave, but also had children by her white master. Eventually, she, her husband, and their four children escaped with other slave families across the frozen Ohio river into Cincinnati  She and her family stayed with an uncle there while many of the other slaves escaped to Canada. Soon slave catchers came and surrounded the house where Garner and her family were staying. Her husband attempted to shoot the slave catchers and Margaret killed her two-year-old daughter with a butcher knife. She was stopped before she could kill her other children and herself. Similar to Sethe, Margaret also did not want her children enslaved. However, one interesting difference is that in Beloved, we don't really get the sense that Sethe was trying to kill herself--she is focused only on preventing her children from become slaves.

 So far, Sethe's and Margaret's stories are quite similar. However, their lives diverge as they are jailed. In Beloved, we are not really told about what happens to Sethe when she is jailed. In Margaret Garner's case, she presents one of the most complicated runaway slave cases that the courts had ever dealt with. The main problem was deciding whether to try Garner as property under the Fugitive Slave Law, or to treat her as a person and try her for murder, in the interest of protecting the people of Ohio.It was essentially whether federal or state law should take precedence. In the end she was tried under the Fugitive Slave Law and forced to return to Kentucky. Ohio officials tried to track her down to try her for murder, but her master continually moved them around. She eventually died of typhoid fever in 1958.

Sethe's story in some way's seem a lot happier than the life of Margaret Garner. Perhaps Morrison chose to have Sethe become free so that she could explore the theme of the past always coming back. Also, Morrison probably chose not to discuss Sethe's imprisonment because it is not too relevant to the overall themes of the novel. Additionally Sethe's story is a lot richer because we are able to see the thoughts of her and those around her.

Power of the Past

In Beloved, Toni Morrison gives us bits and fragments of the past for us to piece together as the story progresses. However, even without the complete picture, we can still see how the past has a large effect on the present. When Sethe and Denver lived alone in 124 with the baby ghost, Sethe was always trying to repress her memories of her past and life at Sweet Home. She would never fully answer Denver's questions about the past. Despite her efforts, I think Sethe realizes she can't hide from past indefinitely:

"I mean, even if I don't think it, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happened...The picture is still there and what's more, if you go there--you who never was there--if you go there and stand in the place where it was, it will happen again; it will be there for you waiting for you...That's how come I had to get all my children out. No matter what."

Sethe doesn't want to tell Denver about what happened to her because she fears it might happen to Denver. She realizes the power of the past to repeat itself. But once Paul D and Beloved (who could both be considered figures of Sethe's past) come, Sethe seems to become more accepting of her past. We begin to hear (slowly) more about Sethe and her past as she talks to Paul D and mysteriously connects with Beloved.

With Paul D's arrival, they are able to become more comfortable, almost a family. Perhaps this is because Paul D brings back pleasant memories. With Beloved, the almost idyllic life is interrupted. Although at first she seems innocent, the incident with her choking Sethe is much more sinister. Maybe her appearance evokes only painful memories of the death of Sethe's baby--this painful past only has negative effects on the present.

While we may only be able to speculate now, once we get a more detailed picture of Sethe's past, I am sure we will be able to more clearly tell how the past has power over the present.

Naomi

White Boy Shuffle ends with Gunnar telling his daughter Naomi about the Kaufman family history, just like his mother did for him. Gunnar's mother adopted his father's history as her own, in place of her "misbegotten origins". Perhaps his mother is ashamed of her past family members? If that is the case, then it is odd to think that she would accept her husband's history, which to us readers seems very shameful. I thought that it was because the Kaufman family lived in Santa Monica. In a place full of white people, perhaps Gunnar's mother needed to expose Gunnar to his heritage, explaining why she wanted to move to Hillside. Also, she might have told Gunnar that history so that he doesn't end up like his ancestors--an Uncle Tom. Maybe, Gunnar tells Naomi this history for the same reasons.

In either case, I was very curious to see how Naomi would end up. In some ways, she and Gunnar are very similar. We saw that Gunnar had problems with his absentee father. While it looks like Gunnar will stick around with Yoshiko and Naomi, we've seen how detached he can be. He is much more interested in poetry and not as concerned with smaller things like money or family. Naomi might have to face her own sort of absentee father as she grows up. In terms of mothers, Yoshiko and Gunnar's mother are very similar in their personalities. With regards to identity, Gunnar grew up in "white boy culture" as a black boy and later moved to a more "ghetto" neighborhood. He struggled to fit in, but was eventually accepted by the black people. Similarly, I wonder how Naomi, being biracial, will fit in, and whether she will identify more with being Japanese, black, or simply both. In the world of the novel, I don't believe biraciality was ever covered. It was never addressed in the "multicultural" school of Santa Monica, nor it the schools of Hillside (I might be wrong). Biraciality is something Naomi will probably have to deal with on her own. Who knows? Maybe Naomi, following her father's footsteps will grow up to be the messiah of biracial people. Anyway, I would be very interested to see how Naomi's life plays out.

Blacks and Koreans pre-LA Riots

I am going to be giving context to why, if Ms. Kim had been "one hundred percent Korean, [the crowd would] have busted a few windows just for appearance's sake" (133). Around the 1950s and onwards, the was a trend towards (mainly white) suburbanization out of cities (colloquially known as the "white flight"). Consequently, businesses began moving out of cities and into the suburbs to be near the wealthier population. Within urban Los Angeles, Koreans began taking up most of the shops and businesses in mostly black areas. Along with the culture gap, blacks oftentimes felt threatened economically by this foreign immigrant group. This led to tensions between Koreans and blacks.
Another big catalyst for the negative relations between blacks and Koreans was the case of Latasha Harlins (whom Ms. Kim mentions). Here's a link for those who want to find out more (Click Here) but I will briefly summarize it for you. On March 16, Korean shop owner Soon Ja Du saw 15-year-old Latasha Harlins put a bottle off orange juice in her backpack, and thinking that she was stealing began to beat her. During the scuffle, Harlins tried to leave, putting back the drink, but was shot and killed by Du. In court she was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, but was sentenced to 5 years of probation, 400 hours of community service, and a fine of $500. This resulted in much outrage from the black community. The rapper Ice Cube would release the controversial song "Black Korea" as a result (which also mentions a lot of what I talked about in this post). Tupac would later dedicate a song to her. The Harlins case, coupled with the recent Rodney King incidence is said to be the major cause of the 1992 L.A. Riots (known as Sa-E-Gu, or 4 2 9 in Korean).
During the riots many Korean-owned stores were targeted, being stolen from and vandalized. To fight back, many of the Koreans got weapons and stationed themselves on rooftops to shoot down any would-be thieves and vandalizers.
To bring this back to the novel, I thought that maybe Beatty was trying to make a point in  the incident with Ms. Kim. The black people overlooked the fact that she was Korean and accepted her as one of them. Similarly, despite Gunnar's more "white" upbringing he is eventually accepted by the black community and is even appointed "Negro Demagogue." Perhaps Beatty is suggesting that being black is not so easily defined.

Janie and the Invisible Man

I know it is a bit late to be talking about Their Eyes Were Watching God, but I realized a connection between Invisible Man and TEWWG after writing the Hurston response paper. TEWWG ends with Janie alone in her room, finally at peace and content. She is independent from her society, no longer needing to participate in porch-gossip or be the center of the community. The Invisible Man realizes that in order to discover himself he must get rid of any outside influences and hides out in a basement, writing and waiting. Both protagonists realize that society cannot help them achieve their goals. Also, in their travels, both protagonists experienced situations which they thought were beneficial for them. Janie thought that a life with Jody would be perfect for her. The Invisible Man thought the college and the Brotherhood would help him make something of himself.

However, there are some differences in how the novels end. While Janie has already found what she sought, having wrapped herself in the horizon, Invisible Man ends with the protagonist still working on understanding himself and discovering his identity. Also, while it is unclear whether Janie will participate in the community later, in Invisible Man, the narrator says he will eventually rejoin society once he is ready to perform his "social responsibility." There are reasons for the different endings. Hurston, interested in folklore, wanted to write a good story. The novel also had some feminist elements in it, so it had to end definitely and with a strong message to get its point across. Ellison wrote his novel to be an allegory for all American people. He stops at where the Invisible Man begins self-discovery because that will be different for every person who reads the novel.

Independence

"Sometimes Janie would think of the old days in the big white house and the store and laugh to herself. What if Eatonville could see her now in her blue denim overalls and heavy shoes? The crows of people around her and a dice game on her floor! She was sorry for her friends back there and scornful of the others." (134)

This segment from Their Eyes Were Watching God reminded me of the scene in Invisible Man where the narrator is eating a yam:

"It was exhilarating. I no longer had to worry about who saw me or about what was proper. To hell with all that, and as sweet as the yam actually, it became like nectar with the thought. I only someone who had known me at school or at home would come along and see me now. How shocked they'd be! I'd push them into a side street and smear their faces with the peel." (264) 

In both scenes, the protagonists remark on their current situation. Both realize that what they are doing would not be considered "proper," and yet they do it anyways. In the Invisible Man's case, he gains a sort of freedom in eating the yam, and is also inspired. This yam is a connection to his heritage. This connection allows him to understand the elderly evicted couple he comes across and lets him make a rousing speech from the heart. In Janie's case, she realizes how free how society's expectations she is. To me this scene represents how much better this marriage with Tea Cake is than her previous marriage. Compared to the previous ones, Janie is a lot more free and able to do what she wants. The scene also reinforces how independent Janie is, as she disregards what is and is not "proper."

By the end of Invisible Man, and up to where we are in Their Eyes Were Watching God, both protagonists gain a better understanding of their freedoms and independence. The narrator of Invisible Man does this by completely isolating himself from society to understand his identity. Janie does this by seeking true love and by following her own expectations, not society's.

True Love

I feel like sometimes we treat Janie a lot older than she really is. She is about our age, or a bit older. She is still a young girl, her head filled with these ideas about love. Even after getting married to Logan, she seems to accept it for a little while believing that love will come from marriage. Once she realizes love is not happening and meets a seemingly much more eligible Joe Starks, she runs off. Not surprising. Joe Starks also does not end up meeting her expectations, though she does stick around. In this way, I feel she has matured. Perhaps she was taking her grandmother's advice seriously. Despite her relationship with Jody, she is still living quite comfortably. Once she is finally free from Jody, it makes sense why she moves on to Tea Cake. In her experimentation with love, she has been to the middle and the high (in terms of status). Where is there to go but the bottom? And so she goes to Tea Cake. Being much younger than her, Tea Cake makes Janie  herself feel young. She becomes once more that young girl still trying to find true love. Just like with Logan and Jody, she feels that she has found true love with Tea Cake. Despite suspicions from people like Phoeby, who feel he might be after her money, Janie stays with him. Perhaps she stays with him because she wants to find out whether he is true love. I haven't read much farther than this, but if Tea Cake does not work out, then maybe that is where she will stop with her idealistic view of love. One last thing--Janie mentions to Phoeby that she is selling the store and is going to "start all over in Tea Cake's way" (114). This might explain why we saw Janie in working clothes at the beginning of the novel.

Use of the Vernacular

Recently, we've discussed Hurston's use of black vernacular in her novel. She writes in two voices: the narration in standard English and the dialogue in vernacular. This juxtaposition is not so much of a contrast as a comparison. The narration has a calm, flowing, and passionate voice, allowing for a smooth reading for the text. The dialogue is lyrical and adds character to the book. While it may take a while to easily understand the dialogue, once you get into it the novel is all the more enjoyable. Putting the dialogue and narration next to other brings out their unique qualities.
I found Hurston's use of black vernacular similar to Sterling Brown's in "Strong Men." I am not sure of the time period (perhaps during the Black is Beautiful Movement), but many African American writers started using black dialect in their literary works to show that it was not some crude, backward speech--there was an inherent beauty in it. Perhaps this is why Hurston and Brown used dialect in their works.
This also reminded me, surprisingly, of the Divine Comedy, written in the early 1300s by the Italian Dante Alighieri. During this time is was standard to written all scholarly and great works in Latin, the language of learning. However, Dante chose to write his epic poem in Italian, specifically the Tuscan dialect, to show that one could create a great work out of a "common" language. His work actually helped establish this Tuscan dialect as the standard Italian language. Like Dante, Hurston and Brown wrote in the black vernacular to show its beauty.

Ex Machina

The metaphor of the machine has been thread in throughout the novel. Mr. Norton refers to the narrator as a "cog." Lucius Brockway calls the narrator and himself the "machines inside the machine." In the beginning of the novel, the narrator is a cog in a well-oiled machine. He performs his tasks just as the whites and blacks expect him to. However, ever so slowly he begins to disrupt the status quo. Whether it is by saying "social equality" instead of "social responsibility", or by gaining realization about the world around him, he slowly becomes a "defective cog" in the eyes of those in control, who also fear that he might ruin the operation of the machine as a whole. This is actually quite a common theme in utopian/dystopian literature. The protagonist realizes the problems with society and the authorities want to quiet this person so that they don't disrupt the peace. And so, the authorities deal with the narrator of Invisible Man. Dr. Bledsoe sends him away from the college to maintain its integrity and his own position. Bledsoe 
makes minor repairs to the cog and moves it to another part of the machine. Now the narrator arrives in New York, and continues to become even more "defective." He gains a better understanding of the racial dynamics between blacks and whites (after listening to the vet on the bus). He bristles at a waiter's stereotyping. He adds sarcasm and irony to his array of verbal tools. He rebels against those around him (his boss and coworkers at Liberty Paints). The breaking point of all of this is where he literally breaks the machine in Liberty Paints. He has escaped the machine. In a last-ditch effort to maintain the status quo, the factory doctors try to give the narrator a non-surgical lobotomy--so that "society will suffer no traumata on his account." In terms of the machine metaphor, they, unable to fix the cog, melt it down into pure metal, removing from it any function or capability. They fail to realize that this metal can be molded, either by the narrator himself or by others. Thus, once again exposed to society, the narrator begins now to verbally speak out against the injustices done to him and other blacks. He has molded himself in the image of an aspect of his childhood--a speechmaker. However, the Brotherhood has now recruited him and begun molding him the way they see fit. What plans the Brotherhood has for the narrator have yet to become clear, but I am expecting the narrator to once again escape this new machine he has become a part of.

Bigger and Dr. Bledsoe

In Native Son, we discussed how Bigger never shows anyone his true personality. He acts subservient towards whites and puts up a wall of emotionlessness towards his family. It is only in prison where we see Bigger's true thoughts and feelings. Similarly, Bledsoe has two masks. To the whites he is humble, gracious, and servile. To blacks he shows himself as a leader wanting to further the black community. The narrator believes this until he finally reads Bledsoe's letters. Both Bledsoe and Bigger were low in status and use masks to try and raise themselves. They also become their masks. Bledsoe becomes greedy for power and selfish. Bigger lets the idea of white superiority become ingrained in him. So far, we see that Bledsoe has not escaped the confines of the mask. Bigger, although too late, does manage to discard the masks. He even wants to go a step further--to understand people as they truly are and let them understand him: “He would not mind dying now if he could only find out what this meant, what he was in relation to all the others that lived, and the earth upon which he stood” (Wright 363).
 Another similarity between Bledsoe and Bigger is how they affect the people around them. Both of them managed to enlighten someone. Bledsoe taught the narrator of Invisible Man how to use the mask and not become it (as the narrator had earlier, truly believing in the superiority of white people). Ironically, Bledsoe himself is consumed by the mask he put on in desire for power. Likewise, Bigger was able to help Jan understand him and other blacks as individuals and not all the same. He might have also helped Max in understanding his situation and those with similar situations. Another way Bigger and Bledsoe affected people was in their perpetuating of stereotypes. Bledsoe continues to be the subservient black man to whites in an effort to rise in status. He even gets other black students like the narrator to do the same thing. Bigger also portrays the same stereotype in order to keep his job. However, Bigger becomes a second stereotype. That of the primitive and savage black man. In telling Britten how he did not want to eat with Jan and Mary, Bigger gives the media evidence that they could use to say that the primitive black people do not want to be disturbed by white society. In killing and "raping" Mary, Bigger becomes to white people the savage black man hungering after white women.

Bigger and Bledsoe, although seemingly vastly different characters, do share many similarities once you take a closer look.

Peggy and Mr. Dalton in Native Son

Hopefully it is not too late to come back to Native Son. I thought Wright did an excellent job in showing the different ways whites reacted to blacks during his time. Mr. Dalton, Mary, Jan, Britten, Max, Peggy, and Buckley represent different attitudes common among whites during Wright's time. I will focus on Mr. Dalton and Peggy. Mr. Dalton is a rich white man who proudly talks of his support of the NAACP. He donates much money in support of blacks. However, none of this is that great when you consider where he sends the money to: The South Side Boys' Club. He gives them ping-pong tables. Even Bigger says that he and his friends occasionally commit crimes there. Thus the money does not go anywhere useful. Mr. Dalton represents rich white people in Wright's time who would donate money and support the black cause, but because they don't really understand blacks, they cannot truly help them. We talked about a sort of blindness between blacks and whites in Native Son. I think this is a great example of that. Mr. Dalton wants to help black people, but he doesn't understand them. At the same time, blacks might not let the whites understand them, perhaps because they have to retreat behind the stereotype of the subservient, simple-minded black person. This is one of the points Wright  is trying to make. Even Bigger comes to this conclusion at the end of the book. He realizes that he wants to go and interact with people: understand them and let them understand him. “He would not mind dying now if he could only find out what this meant, what he was in relation to all the others that lived, and the earth upon which he stood” (Wright 363).

Although we didn't talk much about Peggy, I felt there was a lot to her character. Peggy, the Irish maid, adds another aspect of how whites react to blacks in the book. On one hand, Peggy is able to sympathize with Bigger--the Irish were often discriminated against in America. Also, the Irish were subject to harsh British rule--a sort of parallel to how blacks were enslaved in America. Both Peggy's and Bigger's ancestors share common troubles. This would explain why Peggy is very kind to Bigger. At the same time, even Bigger notices something is off. Peggy always says "us" when referring to the Daltons and always talks about Bigger's "people." When the Irish began immigrating to the US, they were discriminated against as "lesser whites." Oftentimes they came to America because they fell on hard times in Ireland. Thus, their low status led to much hatred and rioting against them. In America they were often considered just as inferior as blacks. Since the Irish had to compete with blacks for the same jobs, they often distanced themselves from blacks to show they were not like them. Although the novel is set in the 1930s, this history might explain Peggy's attitude towards Bigger.
Both Peggy and Mr. Dalton are just two examples of the wide variety of reactions Wright wrote in his novel towards blacks. The novel does a good job in portraying the relations between blacks and whites during the 1930s.