Final Goodbyes

I wave Ruth out of the room and am left standing in the empty apartment alone. The apartment is stripped bare of almost all the furniture, with only the faded floral wallpaper left. I look down at my plant sitting on the table; it is in full bloom, ready to thrive in a lush bed of soil. I have nurtured it for what seems like a lifetime. Looking from those bright, healthy leaves to the tired walls and floors of the apartment, I can imagine my husband coming in after a long day of work, taking off his hat and still managing a smile. This place is adorned with his memory. To be leaving here for good - the thought forces up "a great heaving thing," (Hansberry 151) from my heart, and I suppress it with a fist to the mouth. I take one final glance around the apartment and go on my way, pulling on a coat as I leave. As I reach the staircase outside, I suddenly remember my plant, which is still sitting on the table, and quickly turn back to collect it. Leaving the apartment for the final time, I clutch the plant to my chest, deciding that my husband will always be with us.

Puzzle Paragraph

While others might say it is impossible to relate outer space, the fates, and The Glass Castle to poetry by Langston Hughes, it is actually completely possible. The Glass Castle, a novel by Jeannette Walls, contains a scene that conveys the message of Hughes's poem, 'I, Too', perfectly. The poem asks for equality between black and white people, and this equality is shown when Jeannette goes swimming with her friend Dinitia, who is black. Jeannette explains that "all the black people swam in the morning,"(Walls 190) and is at first nervous, however she is able to fit in right away. She and Dinitia swim all morning, with no racial barriers between them. After getting out of the pool, Jeannette observes that her eyes were "red and stinging from the chlorine," (Walls 192), as if the chemicals, like fire, had burned her; similarly, the experience of swimming with Dinitia in harmony burned away Jeannette's racism.
The fates can also relate to Hughes's poetry, specifically 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers'. The poem's narrator makes allusions to important historical events and places, such as "the Euphrates...the Congo...the Nile...the Mississippi," (Hughes lines 5-8) and also raising the pyramids and the civil war. The fates, who decide the destiny of humanity, have a similar omnipresence, knowing the "ancient, dusky rivers," (Hughes line 12) of time, just like the narrator.
Finally, 'The Weary Blues', another one of Hughes's poems, centers around a "musical fool," (Hughes line 13) who plays the piano as skillfully as Jimi Hendrix plays guitar. The pianist plays until the "stars went out and so did the moon," (Hughes 32), leaving the world dark and hopeless. This hopeless state is reinforced by the reference to objects in outer space - the stars and moon - that are millions of miles away from earth. African Americans believed at this time that racial equality was equally as distant.
In this way, it is in fact possible to relate seemingly random things to Langston Hughes's poetry.

Extra Credit

Question: What is the problem with romanticizing nostalgic memories of the past?

F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his book The Great Gatsby, uses Jay Gatsby as an example of how constantly fantasizing about the past creates only disappointing, hollow results. For instance, when Gatsby is finally able to meet Daisy, his longtime love, after so many years she "tumbled short of his dreams," (Fitzgerald 101). Daisy was the reason for every single one of his actions over the previous five years, but even she did not live up to Gatsby's expectations. By romanticizing the few memories Gatsby had of her, he drew so far away from reality that there would be no way any human being could be the Daisy he wants. He was left with a present world, which was disappointing compared to what he imagined. Additionally, it would be impossible for Daisy to remain the same person she was in the past. Gatsby wants Daisy to admit that she only loved him, no one else, but Daisy is not able to. She says "I can't say I never loved Tom," (Fitzgerald 140), which upsets Gatsby greatly. He is unable to process that she loved both of them, and that she is no longer the same woman she was five years ago. It is impossible to recreate the Daisy of the past because she has been shaped by all the new, different experiences she has had during her years without Gatsby. Romanticizing old memories did not help Gatsby in any way - he just became an empty man searching for something that does not exist.

Luxury

F. Scott Fitzgerald uses many vivid similes and metaphors in his novel The Great Gatsby, especially in the second chapter. One instance of this is when Fitzgerald compares the location of a party to "one slice in a long white cake of apartment houses," (Fitzgerald 32). This image of a pure white cake shows the simple elegance of the wealthy, and the sweetness that the less wealthy imagine comes with having money. Later on in the chapter the color of the sky is compared to the "blue honey of the Mediterranean," (Fitzgerald 38). This gives the image of something rich and exotic, which can also be associated with wealth. By using this kind of language, Fitzgerald shows the desire for wealth and luxury during the 1920s. He includes it in chapter two specifically, during Myrtle's party, to emphasize his point. Since Myrtle and her friends are not rich, even though they pretend to be, Fitzgerald includes extravagant figurative language in the descriptions of their party to show the contrasts between the two. Their gaudy attempts at appearing wealthy, such as crowding the apartment with "tapestried furniture" and an "over-enlarged photograph," (Fitzgerald 33), are the exact opposite of the clean elegance of the white cake and the blue honey previously mentioned. Their endless quest to for wealth only increases their distance from it.

Myrtle's Apartment from the 2013 movie

Punctuation Synthesis

Claim: It is valuable to adhere to the rules of punctuation in today's world since proper punctuation provides meaning and clarity unstructured sentences cannot.

Following the rules of punctuation increases credibility and creates an air of intelligence in literary works. In Ben Dolnick's piece "Semicolons: A Love Story", he explains how he begins to believe the author William James is "intelligent, humane and excitable," (Dolnick 2) just by James's skillful use of semicolons. James, by following the rules of punctuation and using semicolons accurately, is able to appear insightful and credible to readers. Although this seems like the meaningless work of one person, it is in fact crucial for authors sound intelligent in their writing. Lewis Thomas, who wrote the piece "Notes on Punctuation", is an accomplished scientist as well as an author. While he plays with punctuation in this piece, such as when he divides an entire paragraph into different sentences enclosed in parenthesis, in official lab reports and scientific papers, he must use the rules of punctuation. If he strays away from them, he will risk looking uneducated or looking like he is trying to be humorous. Considering that fact that Thomas is trying to be humorous in "Notes on Punctuation", it is fine to use unconventional punctuation, but in academic papers it is a must to follow the proper rules.

The Nobel Prize

Throughout her novel The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses beautiful language to describe the story, even when it comes to discussing the most horrible events. Her ability to show things exactly as they are, without censorship, was what led to her receiving the Nobel Prize for her novel. In one section of The Bluest Eye, Morrison relates styles of whipping to winter and spring. The "firm but honest" (Morrison 97) winter whippings were preferred to the "nervous meanness" (Morrison 97) of the spring whippings by the narrator. In this passage, Morrison is able to show the differences between something natural and beautiful, like the changing seasons, and something unnatural and cruel, like whipping. She describes the beatings without sugarcoating them, which is something she does throughout the novel. By revealing many traumatizing events outright, Morrison provides a catharsis for readers. The reason Morrison won the Nobel Prize was because she gave "life to an essential aspect of American reality" (nobelprize.org). When people read her novel who have gone through the experiences described, they are able to feel a sense of relief. In a way, they can feel a sense of peace because stories similar to theirs were released to the world and did not have to be hidden anymore. Her ability to use language to  depict events not usually told to the public helps victims of the problems she displays.

Morrison receiving the Nobel Prize

The Spectrum of Seasons

In class, we discussed how there is a color spectrum of skin color, and how black people whose skin is lighter are treated with more respect while those who have darker skin are considered unruly and wild. The spectrum is similar to the seasons, with spring representing the lightest skin and winter representing the darkest skin. Spring is full of bright, fresh colors and growth of new things. Many people enjoy spring because the cold weather and snow finally disappear - winter disappears. Not as many people like winter since it is usually extremely cold and bleak.
The imagery in The Bluest Eye reveals the relationship between seasons and skin color. Maureen, a girl who falls on the lightest side of the color spectrum, is described used vivid colors, and she even has "a hint of spring," in her eyes (Morrison 62). Her colorful dress and pretty face make her seem like a blooming flower in the spring, set apart from the rest of the black children at her school. On the other side of the spectrum there are the other darker skinned children, in whose yards "grass wouldn't grow," (Morrison 92). This absence of life and growth is just like the cold harshness of winter weather. Pecola, who is also at this end of the spectrum, is miserable and frozen in her fate, unable to break free from her awful home situation. She tries to deny her race and prays to look like a white girl every night, but it is no use. In the novel, Pecola "held her head down against the cold," (Morrison 93) but it isn't enough, since she still sees snowflakes falling. No matter how much she wishes to be on the lighter part of the spectrum, she is still stuck in wintery reality.

Dollhouse

The first prologue of The Bluest Eye has its own distinct atmosphere and impact. It is similar to the song "Dollhouse" by Melanie Martinez because both set up the image of a perfect household but move on to destroy that image through mood. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison describes a family and the house they live in, beginning with "Here is the house. It is green and white...It is very pretty," (Morrison 1). The family in the book, a traditional four person unit, are all happy and smiling. Martinez, in her song, also portrays a 'perfect' family through dolls living in a dollhouse. As the song goes on, she ruins the family's flawless image by revealing its dark problems, unseen by the outside world. She uses these shocking, unpredicted confessions in combination with childlike yet haunting background music to create a sinister atmosphere similar to the one created by Morrison. Morrison uses sight, instead of sound, to produce her mood. Her passage gradually loses punctuation, capitalization, and spaces as it nears the end. The sight of this huge clump of text on the page gives the reader chills, and the peaceful image of the family is complete gone. Martinez is also able to use sight in the music video for "Dollhouse", using dark, dim lighting throughout the video to continue the eerie mood of the song - even the more cheerful rooms of the house have a dismal tint. Each writer uses the different senses available to them to influence the atmosphere of their pieces and dismantle the illusion of a perfect family.


                                                         

If you are interested, here is the "Dollhouse" music video.

Synthesis

The relationship between the persecutor and the persecuted bears no positive effects on society; instead the heavy tension between the two parties leads the dehumanization of each.

Despite the more powerful status of the persecutor, their mistreatment of the persecuted can affect them in a degrading way. In Sherman Alexie's piece "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven", Alexie describes the tension between the Native American narrator and a white cashier in a local store. The narrator reports that the cashier "knew this dark skin and long, black hair of mine was dangerous," (Alexie 183), implying that while the narrator has not done anything particularly suspicious, the white cashier already suspects him of criminal activity just by his skin color. This classic example of an oppressor blatantly racial profiling on of the oppressed. From the oppressor's viewpoint, Native Americans are no longer people, they are simply burglars, or thieves. "Indian Education", another piece written by Sherman Alexie, provides an example of how the persecutors can also be dehumanized. In elementary school, the narrator was called "Cries-Like-a-White-Boy" (Alexie 172), which reveals that on the reservation, white people were not taken seriously, and being compared to one was an insult. So, white was no longer a race, but an jibe, a rude thing to be called.

Deborah Tannen also explores the relationship  between the oppressor and the oppressed in her essay "There Is No Unmarked Women". She analyzes how women are judged immediately by their way of dressing and how it is impossible to judge a man based on his way of dressing. In this situation, women are the persecuted, while men and women and the persecutors, since both genders are inclined to discriminate based on looks. Tannen herself is a persecutor in the piece, dehumanizing the women she describes to the reader by addressing them as "No.1...No.2...No.3," (Tannen 389) instead of using names. Since women can be both the persecuted and the persecutors, the cycle of dehumanization is endless.

Then and Now

After completing The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, one cannot help but notice how written language has changed from the 1800s to today. Understanding the novel can seem difficult at first, since Hawthorne uses many antiquated phrases and unfamiliar words, but it is actually very rewarding and can give a new appreciation of literature to whoever reads it.

The novels of today, especially those written for young adults, lack the elegant, detailed, and vivid style of writing that can be observed in older works. For example, in the popular book Divergent by Veronica Roth, the protagonist's mother is described as having "high cheekbones and long eyelashes, and when she lets her hair down at night, it hangs in waves over her shoulders," (Roth 2). This is all the reader gets in terms of imagery - a sentence that does not even reveal the mother's hair color. In contrast, Hester Prynne, the heroine of The Scarlet Letter, is depicted in much more detail. Hawthorne writes that Hester has "dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam," (Hawthorne 51) and continues to describe Hester's face and demeanor. The language used is rich with meaningful, vivid words that help the reader picture Hester perfectly, while the the language used in Divergent is more simplistic. Additionally, most of the imagery Roth includes is short, usually condensed into a few sentences, whereas Hawthorne will illustrate certain objects and people for pages.

These differences in language go beyond imagery, but young adult fiction similar to Roth's novel still sell. This is because while the style is not as developed, the plot is compelling and understandable. So, even though language has changed from the 1800s to now, this does not necessarily make today's literature inferior when compared to novels like The Scarlet Letter. 

The Effect of Clothing

Picture from Career Girl Network

Deborah Tannen, in her piece "There Is No Unmarked Women", talks about how women can be 'marked' by their appearance. She points out that when dealing with formal, business dress, women cannot help but be marked, but men "have the option of being unmarked" (Tannen 3). This means that men have the ability to choose clothing that will not allow people to judge them based on their outward appearance.

While this seems to be true, when dealing with casual dress, the situation is a lot different. Casual dress is commonly seen at school everyday. It is nothing fancy - basically the opposite of  casual dress. When discussing casual dress, men and women both do not have a choice in whether they are marked or not. If a girl wears a floral skirt with a nice blouse to school she will be considered very feminine, if she wears a mismatched, messy outfit she may be labeled as lazy or strange. If a boy wears a button up shirt and khakis to school he will be considered preppy, if he wears athletic shorts and Nike t-shirts he will be labeled as sporty. There are many different outfits to describe and many different assumptions to go along with them, but the point is that with so many options of casual dress to buy, there is no way to go unmarked, regardless of gender. This is especially true in a school setting, where students are constantly scrutinizing each other based on looks and clothing style. So, even though business dress allows men to choose their marked status, casual dress does not.

Easy A....or Not

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a classic novel that has inspired many creative minds. Its influence can even be seen today. Easy A is a movie that came out in 2010 and is loosely based on this book. There are a few similarities between the two, but there are also some key differences. 

One similarity is the scarlet letter itself. The protagonists of each work both wear a red 'A' on their clothes at some point. While on the surface this seems like a simple comparison, it is actually an important difference. Wearing the scarlet letter means two very different things to each protagonist. Hester Prynne is forced to wear the " ignominious letter" (Hawthorne 53) as a punishment for her sins, and as time passes she begins to equate the letter to herself, thinking that the letter is all she is. On the other hand, Olive Penderghast, the heroine of Easy A, wears the scarlet letter by choice. She sews it onto her clothes as an act of anger, showing that while she has given up trying to fight the harmful rumors being spread about her, she will make the most of it. Olive uses the scarlet letter to control how people view her, while Hester loses control of how people see her by wearing the letter. 

The Scarlet Letter and Easy A have many similarities and differences, but even so it is interesting to see a modern interpretation of a book from so long ago. 

The Easy A movie poster from IMDb

Double Standards

The discussion in class about how gender can influence public space really caught my attention. When it was pointed out how if a girl is with a group of all boys she is 'thirsty' but if a boy is in a group of all girls he is a 'playa', I noticed that it really resembles double standard between men and women that is present in society today. If a women dates a lot of different people she is labeled as promiscuous, which is of course negative, but if a man dates a lot of different people he "gets high-fives for his...antics." (Sexual Double Standards). This contrasting situation can affect public space in more ways than one would think. If a man shows up with a new girlfriend each week, there will definitely be whispers-but most will be of the envious type. On the other hand, if a woman shows up with a new boyfriend each week, the whispers will be far from envious. She will be berated for her actions. So, while both situations generate a similar response on the outside, the motive behind each is very different. Additionally, the woman would be shunned by many of her peers because of her behavior, while the man would gain positive attention and probably more friends for his. The double standard between men and women when it comes to dating can alter public space in a drastic way. 

Here is a short video that highlights some other double standards related to labeling that are similar to the ones discussed. 

This video can be found on Youtube

The Work of Architects

Our discussions in class about the symbolism hidden in different memorials really opened my eyes. I never realized how architects convey meaning just by styling a monument in a certain way. For example, the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, in Thiepval, France uses wide arches to emphasize empty space inside them. This mirrors the empty space caused by the absence of the missing soldiers. 

(Picture is from cwgc.org)

The architect of this monument clearly put a lot of thought into it's design. Whenever an architect starts making the plans for a monument, he or she must have to take time and consider the emotional meaning of the of structure and make sure the meaning shows. Many familiar monuments, such as Mount Rushmore, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument probably have hidden symbolism that is just waiting to be discovered. 

If you think about it, architects borrow this technique from writers, who always add meaning to unexpected things and wait for someone with a keen eye to discover them. Writers are also able to borrow a bit from architects in their own pieces, "creating images of houses," (The Shapes of Bodies 41) with their words. In war literature, these portrayals of houses can represent many things and are extremely useful in helping civilians understand the war and accept it psychologically. War monuments, designed by thoughtful architects, also help civilians in this way. So, architects and writers can both contribute to aiding civilians in healing emotionally during and after wars. The idea that the influence of the styling alone of a monument can have so much meaning is incredible to me. I never even realized it until we discussed it in class!