Invisible

Often times throughout life one feels distanced and afar off from those around him. In our plight for self discovery we each are individually acted upon until we find our own potential or meaning in life. In many ways one can relate with Ralph Ellison’s, “Invisible Man,” as it portrays a man who although a man feels that he is unseen and unheard.
In the introduction of the man who is invisible states, “ I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movies ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” With this opening line we learn that the invisible man is not invisible physically, but is made so by his associations around him. The invisible man happens to be black, and being black he has been overlooked by the masses and therefore has become invisible to everyone around him and often times to himself.
It can be hard to imagine the emotions he must have felt being black and having to face many of the prejudices around him. Although I am not black there are certain aspects of the invisible man’s feelings that many can relate to. We are all unique and have at least at some point had the desire to be seen or heard. If you have ever been avoided, outcast, or brushed aside many of the words that the invisible man has to say have a little more meaning.
It turns out that the invisible man has intellect and amond the many desires he has one is to attend college. We learn this desire as we witness the savage event of the white upper-class place several blacks into an all out, all for one, fight for survival, as they bit them against each other in a fight. The event is called “Battle Royal,” and it is one in which all the blacks are blindfolded and forced to fight amongst themselves till two are left standing. One important point to note is that the invisible man in the story thought he had come to the event to deliver a speech and came to find out that only after having been humiliated was he allowed by the whites to give his speech. After a grueling and demoralizing battle in the ring the invisible man gives his speech and is awarded a full scholarship to a Negro College. Amongst the other feelings that the invisible man had elation set in as he claimed his prize.
The invisible man is one who at least in some ways we can all relate to. I’m not comparing schoolyard pecking orders to racism and prejudice, but the symbolism involved with being invisible and the implications that arise from the stories told by the invisible man offer us a glimpse into his life and allow us to see some part of the sufferings he had to go through.

Christianity

What first appealed to me after indulging myself with Robert Hayden’s poem, “Middle Passage,” was the use of Spanish words. Not having frown up speaking Spanish and having to go through the trouble of leaning it there are words that for me tend to describe certain emotions and qualities of life in a better light. The opening line “Jesus, Estrella, Esperanza, Mercy,” simply translate to Jesus, Star, Hope, and Mercy.
Throughout the remainder of the poem it seems that those elements of Jesus, Star, Hope, and Mercy apply to all characters mentioned throughout the poem. Jesus being the man that he was knew of the sufferings of all the people and knows the sufferings of those blacks on their perilous voyage. Jesus also serves as the center of the Christian faith which in large part was the belief of the slavetraders. The star symbolizes a couple things and in line twenty we read, “ Jesus Saviour Pilot Me.” This line denotes a few relations to the stars which often served as a sailors guide among the rocky seas. Before Jesus was born in Bethlehem a star was shown in the sky to announce the birth of the baby Jesus upon the earth.
Hope is essential for all on board, for the blacks a hope to escape their hardship or ill treatment of their new masters. Hope for the slave traders to find their way home and hopes that by trading these slaves they could make a profit or use them to do so. There is a line just before section II which reads, “Pilot oh Pilot Me,” and for me whether is be due to too much inquisition or overzealous prodding brought forth a few meanings of this line. Before Jesus was crucified he was brought forth among the people and before a man named Pilot, who ultimately would decide his fate. Succumbing to the outcry of the multitudes to crucify the Saviour, Jesus Christ, Pilot washed his hands of the deed and carried on the wish of the people till Jesus was inevitably crucified. This line in many ways speaks for the blacks who were being traded for want of the multitudes, the whites, and just as Pilot washed his hands of his deed to the Saviour the whites washed their hand of the deeds they’d done to the blacks who were sentenced to a life of slavery.
As far as Mercy is proclaimed after the rebellion of Cinquez and the other slaves the two remaining slave traders whom the slaves let live to steer the ship plead for Mercy to the courts to adequately punish the rebellious slaves. The two remaining slave traders plead, “now we demand good sirs, the extradition of Cinquez and his accomplices to La Havanna. And it distresses us to know there are so many here who justify the mutiny of the blacks.” The slave traders believed that the blacks were in the wrong and that their enslaving them did not deserve this kind of mutiny.
Middle Passage evokes the true meaning of Christianity to the forefront of the mind and begs the question what is truly good and what is truly right? The slave traders with their mindset pushed for vengeance upon the slaves, while the slaves in an effort for their own lives rebel for the what is their right and freedom as well.

It Must Be the Corduroy Jacket

Due to my new corduroy jacket it seems only fitting to write a chapter of a new hip textbook that would encourage the students sampling the book to grasp the ideas presented. Among other reasons the ability to use fanciful diction such as “juxtaposition,” and “poststructural,” can allow me the freedom of expounding upon the subject matter.
Modernism is one of the literary movement which has caught my eye as it has illuminated in me an interesting approach to story telling. With modernism ther are a variety of ways to express oneself and one of the most appealing parts of modernism is the allowance of the reader to figure out the morals and characterization of the plot. Interestingly enough this happens to be my favorite form of literary expression. Through reading only but a few of the modernist writers the perspectives and ideas that each reader can come up with are as unique as the pieces themselves. After having our in class discussions I was able to see for myself the different vantage points and perspectives that people have on others and it is interesting to note that more often than not disagreement ensued.
In order to instruct and teach new students reading their hip new textbook about modernism seems like a challenge and one that I have so deemed worthy of accomplishing. Engaging students and making modernism appeal and attract to them is the main goal all the while helping them recognize modernisms many qualities. Modernism allows the reader flexibility as to the meanings derived from its text which in turn allows those such as students the opportunity to expand upon their own perspectives and allows them to analyze and decide for themselves morals and meaning that each modernist piece offers.

Wake Up Society

For many realist writers the way in which a story is taken by the reader ultimately resides in the hands of the reader themselves. Realism allows readers the opportunity to learn a lesson or moral if they so choose. “The Petrified Man,” written by Welty, demonstrates this aspect of Realism for the reader as it gives the reader the opportunity to decide for themselves the intentions of the characters depicted in the story. The story itself takes place in a beauty parlor where we find ourselves among a group of women gossiping. Most of the story is told through the stories of their gossiping. While the ladies are gossiping there is constantly a little boy by the name of Billy, who as we will learn is the son of a Mrs. Pike of whom we learn about more and more solely through the gossip which is ever-present throughout the story. Leota who is the beautician seems to be the gossip monger of the beauty parlor and mainly attends to a Mrs. Fletcher, a women who seems to resist the norm of what her particular society has prescribed for her. During the dialogue we learn that among the gossip Mrs. Fletcher is prenant and is appalled to learn from the flighty Leota that a certain Mrs. Pike was informed by her own beautician Leota. As the story moves forward we seldem hear comments from the little boy Billy although it seems that he is soaking up all that he hears as Mrs. Fletcher makes a remark unknowingly regarding Billy’s mother saying that she would get even with this lady to which Billy responds, “Why, what are you going to do to her?” Billy is immediately pacified and told to pay no mind to the conversation, demonstrating the ill advisement and treatment of one so young.
We learn a lot from this piece of Realism as it offers a sort of wake up call to society. We as a whole affect others around us and just as Billy is learning from the adults around him we too in society learn and see what is going on in the world around us. Billy plays a central role in the story and illustrates the culminating fall of society as he is surrounded by squawking hens engulfed in their own miseries and misconceptions of life. Although the moral or morals that are in this story are not definite we can see the affect of any society and the impact all that live in a given society have on eachother. The women in this story are working women embittered by the lack of provision and care they receive from their husbands. IF the women do not know it their snide comments about their husbands and backstabbing remarks concerning other characters in the story are all heard by that one little boy Billy.
There is much to say concerning the affect the gossiping and other actions these women have on Billy, but allows the reader to see in a bery realistic way how our personal character can affect others, especially the youth of any society. I believe that much of societies problems start with us as people and the message we send to younger generations is definitely heard and acted out as they see it. “The Petrified Man,” allows us to see at least this particular society in a negative light. The affect and interactions although portrayed negatively in this story allow the reader to learn for themselves this affect and can essentially lead the reader to decide to make that negative affect into a good affect as both are reflected in society.

Bishop's Want of Truth

The facts of life at times are the most simplified complications we have in life and in writing. When we read a good book it is often determined to be good as it is not real and the situations found within are romantic and unrealistic that their illusions draw us in. Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell both poets and writers had often exchanged their writings with each other in a bond of friendship. In this particular instance Bishop is writing a letter to Lowell explaining distaste for Lowell’s latest book as it alludes and professes many truths and sub truths that Bishop feels to be unnecessary. Lowell had just written a book called The Dolphins which included a number of poems about Lowell and a love for which he had for a Caroline Blackwood. Included in the book were letters which he had received from Lowell’s second wife Elizabeth Hardwick. The problem that Bishop had was the she felt that Lowell had portrayed the stories and situations a bit off and that is was a violation of trust and mixed fact.
As Bishop and Lowell had a bonded over the years and sharing much of their personal literary works with each other I’m sure there would have not many else who have been able to talk some sense of in the very least offer some satisfactory criticism to Lowell and his new published book. It can be seen the friendship that they shared as Bishop explains to Lowell, “If you were any other poet I can think of I certainly wouldn’t attempt to say anything at all; I wouldn’t think it was worth it. But because it is you, and a great poem ( I’ve never used the word “great” before, that I remember) . and I love you a lot – I feel I must tell you what I really think.” In this explanation Bishop is explaining to Lowell the reasons why she is writing the letter and it also shows the great friendship as Bishop goes as far as suggesting her love for him in writing this letter for him. Bishop goes on to explain to Lowell that this book he has written will be something that he may regret in the future and one that she herself does not want to have him regret.
Essentially Bishop is trying to her help her friend not to use this book. Bishop’s emotions about this book can be summed up in this line from her letter which reads, “In general, I deplore the confessional – however , when you wrote Life Studies perhaps it was a necessary movement, and it helped make poetry more real, fresh and immediate. But now – ye god – anything goes, and I am sick of poems about the students’ mothers and fathers and sex lives and so on. All that can be done – but at the same time one surely should have a feeling that one can trust the writer – not to distort, tell lies, et.” It seems that in many ways Bishop is fed up with everything that is made up. She doesn’t the lies that more often are written in literature, but the truth to be told. In many ways Bishop is compelling her friend, Lowell, to be better than the rest and stay true to himself.

From Past to Present

For most writers and authors the plight for explanation and futher understanding of other and self can be a daunting task. T.S. Eliot in “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” implores the ideas and concepts of writers and their traditions or talents. For everyone the expression that surfaces in their writing is a representation of our personal tradition and talents.
Eliot delves in to other’s writings and how it is they come to express themselves within the confines of their writings. “No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead.” As Eliot sees things the way in which a writer represents himself is based upon other writers and how their respective writings have reflected upon them.

We are all in many ways influenced by others whether we like it or not. “I have tried to point out the importance of the relation of the poem to other poems by other authors, and suggested the conception of poetry as a living whole of all the poetry that has every been written.” Eliot derived a lot of the meaning he found in all forms of writing based upon how it came to be. Eliot describes in this case how poems as they are related to other poems and how that relation essentially makes or breaks them. Writing like many things in life comes from a long line of antecessors who have affected the way we write even today. Eliot essentially claims that writings of many different forms are; only because the once were. We as humans use writings of the past to help change the way in which we write in the now, and as we look towards the future.

Gender Role

Over the course of the years the roles of men and women have changed dramatically. In the Feminist Manifesto, written by Loy, what role gender plays in the minds of the people can be contrived. Gender role is something that is ever changing and something that I have never given much thought to. The rights and privileges as I have known them throughout my life have always been that women are as equal to men every aspect of life itself. I was not born in a time when women had to fight for their right to vote and find it hard to imagine how strongly opposed these views once were. Loy was a women and one bent of finding equality in regards to all aspects of equality among the genders and especially in regards to sexual exploration. In the feminist Manifesto Loy is calling on all women to express themselves in all aspects of their life. Loy writes, “ -Professionalism and commercial careers are opening up for you- IS THAT ALL YOU WANT?” This line in particular addresses women to look at themselves to see if they are just settling for careers or do they want more?
Loy is imploring women to address all the issues that encapsulate equal gender rights which include freedom of sexual expression as this is a right that women have. Loy goes on to state, “there are no restrictions the women who is so incompletely evolved as to be un-self conscious in sex, will prove a restrictive influence on the temperamental expansion of the next generation; the women who is a poor mistress will be an incompetent mother – an inferior mentality and will enjoy an inadequate apprehension of Life.” Loy is suggesting that the women who do not enjoy themselves sexually will have something of an incomplete life. Depending on the morals one might have the sexual exploration push given by Loy might prove something of empowering. Although it seems that even nowadays when a women is more promiscuous as a whole they are referred to as sluts while if a man is promiscuous he is know as a player. It is interesting to note the general consensus that society plays on gender and how when one gender expresses themselves sexually they are gloried as when the other gender does they are demoted to having less value. I do believe that these judgments which are placed upon men and women of a society we are in reality downgrading each other. It is not right to herald the promiscuity of one gender and shun the other whatever your moral standards may be.
All in all I believe that Loy’s point about finding equality among gender in all aspects whether they be of sexual exploration or the privileges we all have the right to enjoy, neither should settle for something less than they deserve. Men and women in my mind are equal and as such are entitled to the same freedoms no matter what gender role they play.