Beloved: Spite from All Sides

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, spite is defined as "A strong feeling of [...] hatred or ill-will, [or an] intense grudge or desire to injure" ("spite, n."). Spite comes up many times in Beloved by Toni Morrison, beginning with the first line of the book. We see various characters have spite towards Sethe throughout the novel, especially the baby.

The novel opens with the line, "124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom" (3). Over the next paragraph, we learn that 124 is a house number on Bluestone Road and that there is a baby's ghost in the house. The baby moves and breaks furniture, leaves hand prints, and creeps out neighbors. It does not bring harm to anyone, but it doesn't make life harder for Sethe and her family, especially because no one is willing to linger around the house or even spend time with the inhabitants. At this point in the novel, we have no idea why the baby has spite for Sethe, but it does. 

When the baby comes back to the real world in the form of a girl named Beloved, she still has spite. Beloved does not express it for a long time because she is trying to hide who she is. However, when Sethe reveals that she knows who Beloved is, Beloved slowly becomes spiteful again. This is expressed in verbal and emotional abuse to Sethe, when she continuously accuses Sethe of not loving her and she constantly desires all of Sethe's food and energy and time. Sethe goes along with it because she feels the need to prove her love for Beloved. Beloved's spite slowly drains Sethe physically and emotionally. 

I would argue that the other community members in Cincinnati also feel some spite toward Sethe. Ella, who seems to be one of the more influential women in Cincinnati, is not upset with Sethe for what she did to Beloved, for Ella herself did a similar thing, Ella is upset with Sethe for carrying herself proudly afterwards. Sethe has never shown any guilt, or even self-consciousness over what she has done. This irritates the other women in the community. They don't want to hurt or her like Beloved does, but they no longer spend time with her, and they speed up their carriages as they pass 124 Bluestone Road. 

The spite towards Sethe seen in many of the characters in an important theme in the book. We do not see the spite as necessarily justifed all the time, because we are led to sympathize with Sethe throughout the novel.

Works Cited

"spite, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2016. Web. 17 December 2016.

White Boy Shuffle: Gunnar's Identities

Gunnar struggles with his identity throughout the novel. It does not that other people keep putting identities on him as well. The first identity put upon him is "the funny cool black guy" at his school in Santa Monica. Gunnar seemed content with this identity because it fit who he felt he was. This all got turned around when his mom decided to move to Hillside, and inner-city community in the middle of Los Angeles. At first, he gets labeled as a geeky kid who acts white. Soon, he adopts a nerd identity, but quickly leaves that behind to be a basketball legend. While he is a basketball legend, he is also well-known for his poetry across the country. He now has two relatively famous identities. When he goes to the high school in the valley, the basketball identity overshadows the poetry one. When he takes the SAT, he gets a new identity from the perspective of his counselor and colleges. He is now also a good student. When Gunnar gets to college, the poet identity prevails over the others and that is now the main way he is known on campus.

Does Gunnar see himself the same way that others see him? I don't think so. He is very apathetic about basketball and the fame that comes with it, so there is no doubt that Gunnar would be happy to shed the basketball identity. I fact, on his last day on the high school basketball team senior year, he makes fun of the identity by dressing up in minstrel gear. When it comes to poetry, I think Gunnar enjoys writing poems, but is not especially excited to be known across the country. He's not going to do anything about it, but it is not his choice to have his poems read nationwide to begin with. He doesn't publish his book to share his poetry, but so that he doesn't have to go to college anymore. It is hard to know how he sees himself, but I don't think it is defined by basketball, poetry, or any one of the things in his life that other people use to define him. We never really get to understand his self-identity, even in the prologue or epilogue. We do see, however, that he considers himself, to some extent, the leader of a people. I think that Beatty uses Gunnar's series or outside identities to enforce the idea that Gunnar's life is a show.

Comparison: Is Hurston a Pale Poet?

In some of his writing, Richard Wright critiques Zora Neale Hurston for seeming to be a minstrel figure, playing to the white people's desired entertainment. He also is criticizing Hurston for not speaking about real social issues. In doing this, is Wright calling Hurston a "pale poet?" I think he is calling Hurston a "pale poet" because he is saying that she doesn't talk about real issues, but only pristine and courtly things, like the white romantic writers. Is Hurston really a pale poet though? Maybe.

One major difference between Native Son and Their Eyes Were Watching God is that Richard Wright wrote Native Son intending it as a protest novel, but Zora Neale Hurston did not write Their Eyes Were Watching God as a protest novel, rather as a depiction of what she found in her anthropological studies and as a way to expose the Everglades culture and Eatonville culture to the rest of society. Wright criticizes Hurston for not writing a good protest novel. That's true, because she didn't write a protest novel. I think that this part of Wrights argument is futile and invalid.

Part of the "pale poet" argument that Wright makes has to do with the fact that Hurston does not blatantly state and argue against an issue in society as a way of provoking change. However, Hurston does show issues with gender roles and institutionalized racism by including Jody and Mrs. Turner. This is just not the central point of the novel and it does not focus on the issues too much, because if it did, it wouldn't be quite as accurate a depiction of the culture. Jody's confinement of Janie to the lonely inside of the store critiques gender roles. Mrs. Turner is "colorstruck" and can't look past the shade of a person's skin tone to see their real personality. These characters are the social critiques that Wright didn't seem to acknowledge in Hurston's writing.

I think that Hurston is not a pale poet, because she depicts both the joys and the hardships of the culture she is describing in Their Eyes Were Watching God. She is in fact making a statement about the reality of American society in the south, but that is not her purpose. Hurston's purpose is to separate the culture she studied in her travels from minstrelsy in a novel, not connect them.

Four Epitaphs: Combination and Paleness

Countee Cullen's poem Four Epitaphs (VB 157) is a set of four made up epitaphs to people that seem totally unrelated to each other. There is one to his grandmother, one to John Keats, one to Laurence Dunbar, and one to "a lady I know." The epitaph to the grandmother discusses how the grandmother hold a seed, imagining how her offspring with live as her in the coming generations. The John Keats epitaph is mocking Keats' flowery and old-English type writing, while also commenting on Keats' gravestone message, which says, "Here lies one whose name was writ in water," meaning that he will not be remembered. Cullen twists those words and says that Keats will definitely be remembered because of the fact that  Death himself was burned by fire of Keats. The epitaph for Paul Laurence Dunbar is a direct allusion to Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask," another poem we read in class. This epitaph is acknowledging the struggle that Dunbar depicts in his poem and commending his honor in continuing to stand tall with the mask on. The final epitaph is very different from the others. It is a criticism of the notion that colored angels will have to serve white angels in heaven.

It is interesting that Cullen chose to put these four people together. The reader is assumed to be familiar with Keats and Dunbar, and they are familiar with their own version of the grandmother and lady. There are two women and two men, two black and two white, two famous and two unknown. They all are viewed differently by Cullen. Humble, ,concealed, and racist broadly cover all of the people in society, from Cullen's perspective. Even though the lad y is unspecific, we all someone (at least) who is convinced that racism is based is in religious and/or scientific truth. This collection of epitaphs generalizes all of society with four people. It was no mistake that cullen chose people this different.

Would Ray Durem call Countee Cullen a "pale poet," based on his description in the poem, "To the Pale Poets"? Durem defines a pale poet as someone who doesn't touch the more serious and painful matters of reality because they are afraid to scare people and get blood on the paper they are writing on. Cullen respects the grandmother and uses flowery language to discuss Keats. With the third epitaph, the paleness tarts to fade. No important matters or harsh realities are discussed in the third epitaph, but it does honor and acknowledge an important poem that is most definitely not pale. The fourth epitaph is pointing out an unfortunate reality about the ingrained racist beliefs in society. I think that Durem would call Cullen a pale poet because even though he is talking about reality and real issues in the last two epitaphs, there are no gruesome images or things that would be difficult to read.

Invisible Man: Cackles of Power, Panic, and Hysteria

In Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison often includes laughter to show strong emotion, especially to when a character feels powerful or panicked. Those two emotions seem totally unrelated and you might notice that humor is not included. It is interesting that characters in the book rarely laugh because they find something funny. It is more often because they are relishing in power or panicking about a crisis they are in.
One example of laughter is during the meeting when Bledsoe is effectively expelling the narrator from the college. "For a moment he looked me up and down and I saw his head go back in the shadow, hearing a high, thin sound like a cry of rage; then his face came forward and I saw his laughter" (141). Bledsoe laughs very hard because he is excited at the power he has to punish someone who dares to threaten him. When the narrator or another important character recognizes newfound power, they will often laugh heartily.
The other important time a character will laugh in the novel is when they realize the impossibility of their situation (often the narrator is the one laughing in this case). This impossibility can be in the form of panic because it is impossible to escape, or hysteria because the situation is impossible to be true. One example of the first of those is when the narrator sees what Bledsoe has done in sending him north. "I laughed and felt numb and weak, knowing that soon the pain would come and no matter what happened to me I'd never be the same. I felt numb and I was laughing" (194). He is laughing not because he finds it funny, but because he is terrified and surprised and his reaction is to laugh. At the end of chapter 24, he is running through the pooping pigeons laughing. "I ran blindly, boiling with outrage and despair and harsh laughter. Running from all the birds to what, I didn't know. I ran" (534). In this passage, the narrator is laughing at the hilarity and absurdity of the situation more than anything else. He is laughing because the situation is crazy but it is somehow happening to him. It is absurd, but real, so he laughs.
It is interesting how Ellison employs laughter throughout the book to express different things. There are many, many times when important characters laugh and it can all be tied to the strongest emotions.

Invisible Man: Illusion of Optic White, et al. in Chapter 10

Invisible Man is riddled with symbolism and imagery tucked beneath the surface. We talked in depth in class about the multiple layers of meaning in the Liberty Paints factory in chapter 10. Everything in the chapter seems to have at least two sides and Ralph Ellison is very clever in constructing those sides. The part that stands out the most to me is the Optic White paint.

There is the slogan, thought of by Mr. Brockway who I'll discuss more later, that goes: "If It's Optic White, It's the Right White" (217). The first thing the narrator thinks of when he hears that slogan is "If you're white, you're right" (218). This is not very subtle. The Liberty Paint factory is a big collection of not-too-subtly racist symbols. It starts when a big sign pokes out of the fog, reading: "Keep America pure with Liberty Paints" (196). The use of the word 'pure' is not what you would usually find describing paint. It seems to suggest that America needs to be purified of something. As you read into the chapter, you get the idea that maybe America needs to be purified of non-white powerful people.

The narrator's first assignment at the factory is to drip coal-black liquid into pure white paint and mix it until he can no longer see the black. That in and of itself has blatantly racist sybolism because he is drowning the black liquid in whiteness. At one point, he can still see small streaks of grey showing through in the paint samples. When Mr. Kimbro comes to check on him again, the narrator is surprised to learn that Mr. Kimbro cannot see the grey streaks. This is showing that there are some black people with power, such as Bledsoe, but their power is invisible so only the white power shines out.

The narrator's second assignment is to work for Mr. Brockway, the one who deals with the making of the paint itself in the basement. It seems odd to me that the only black person in the factory with any real power is in the basement. No one knows about Mr. Brockway, but he has hidden power and is well favored by the director and "Old Man" (215). Mr. Brockway almost reminds me of Bledsoe because of their behind-the-scenes control that ultimately gets the narrator kicked out. Additionally, the union members and other factory employees dislike Mr. Brockway. I'm not sure, from the character's point of view, it is because of his skin tone, but Ellison seems to want the reader to infer that.

Ellison throws this odd chapter into the novel, perhaps to point out something in the factory that is really happening everywhere. The concept of the factory being a miniature city apart from most of New York City is unusual and is weird to comprehend. There are very likely more levels of subtle symbolism I don't see as easily, but this chapter definitely sets itself apart from the rest of the book in its obvious symbolism.

Native Son: Alarming Foreshadowing in the Opening Scene

Native Son by Richard Wright is a powerful novel about the racial disparities in urban culture in early 20th century America. This novel depicts a young man who lives in inner-city Chicago and runs into deep trouble while trying to do the right thing. The opening scene of the first book begins with a ringing alarm clock and proceeds to foreshadow the book with alarming subtlety and depth. The alarm itself wakes the reader up to the idea that the book will be fast-paced and the first scene will make the reader dive right in.

The first sign of foreshadowing is Bigger and Buddy turning their heads so that Vera and Ma can dress. It is a sign of dignity, a feeling that many characters strive to acquire in the rest of the book. The desire for dignity is what motivates Bigger to run from the police. He doesn't want to get caught right away by the police, so he flees, both shredding his dignity for the future and preserving it in the short term. The other important factor that dignity plays in the novel is the separation between the races. Bigger seems to feel that this separation ruins his dignity by forcing him below the "white world." 

The other feeling that motivates Bigger throughout the novel is fear. This is very visible in the first scene when the rat is running around the room and Bigger has to kill it. He then holds up the rat playfully, causing his sister to faint. Bigger is highly motivated by fear. He knows that if he is found in Mary's bedroom he will be severely punished, so for fear of being caught, he silences her with a pillow. Bigger is also motivated by fear when he kills Bessie. He knows he can't take her because she will slow him down, but he also knows that if the police find her, he won't be safe. So, out of fear of being caught again, he kills Bessie.

The foreshadowing in the first scene sets up the rest of the book, but you don't realize it at first. You only realize after you go back and re-read it. The only thing that is easy to identify from the first scene is a sense of inevitable doom.

Thanks for reading! 
Maggie