"Mr. Howard? I did not know you were such an amazing teacher. Seriously, I never enjoyed literature since I had your class. Please do tell us what is your secret." Said Minnie.
Mr. Howard at the end of the day logs on to Standard Score and changes Minnie's grade to a 4.
Yeah Minnie is a total *#ss sucker. And sadly that is how our world works. A constant need to lower our standards saying what people want to hear. Why? recognition? trying to get what we want? but let's be honest we simply look like retards trying to please someone, going against our principles and against what we truly are. Like a play, pretending to be someone we are definitely not.
The nameless protagonist asks Dr. Bledsoe: "Have you seen all the campus sir?"
"Yes, I think so. I was one of the original founders, you know" Dr. Blodsoe said.
"Gee! I didn't know that, sir. Then I'll try some of the roads".
"Of course I knew he was the founder, but I knew also that it was advantageous to flatter rich white folks. Perhaps he'd give me a large tip, or a suit, or a scholarship next year" (Pg. 38)
Yes, he totally licked his *#ss. It is interesting how it seems as if he were doing something totally natural, sucking *#ss for a personal benefit. But is it really that? what lies within those nice words?
Inferiority, exposing oneself as dependent from the person. Treating the person as superior, in this case Dr. Blodsoe, as someone that is better, respectable, worthy of admiration. Underestimating who we are, feeding a person's ego for something that we pretend to achieve.
Perhaps Ellison wanted to expose that difference in races, present segregation that even if it was not evident in the moment it was still present. The inability to treat each others as equals, the need for admiration to be recognized, in a way the dependency of the black race to the white race to exist, to be able to obtain what they want. The inability to stand by themselves.
The saddest thing is that when we sometimes lower ourselves for nothing. Ask Mr. Tangen, it does not work with him.
jueves, 26 de abril de 2012
martes, 24 de abril de 2012
It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free by Adele Sandino
It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free
It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquility;
The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the Sea;
Listen! the mighty Being is awake,
And doth with his eternal motion make
A sound like thunder—everlastingly.
Dear child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here,
If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year;
And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine,
God being with thee when we know it not.
sábado, 21 de abril de 2012
Inferiority.
Superiority and inferiority, both feelings that haunt the human race. Feelings that define the meaning of segregation, and our a direct cause for it.
When trying to understand what was going on in chapter three, I came to read something very ironic. The school boy said: "with his eyes closed he seemed more threatening than with his eyes open" (86).
STOP
Who?
Mr. Norton
Who said it?
The nameless protagonist.
Mr. Norton is white. The protagonist was working for him, taking care of him and holding himself responsible for him. Seems reasonable that he felt threatened by him. But why when he was close to him he felt a "a shudder of nameless horror"? (86). He is "only a man". But a white man. And that makes a complete difference. When the protagonist felt as it were "a white death which had been there all the time and which how now revealed itself in the madness of the Golden Day".
Seems like the protagonist is scared of Mr. Norton's death holding himself responsible for it. This reveals how dependent the protagonist, who speaks for the african american community, where of whites. To the point that there dead presence creates death itself. A sense of fear, inferiority that itself positions whites as a better race, and gives a reason for segregation.
Ellison represents this scene to portray how segregation is present even when it does not seem like it. Mr. Norton was dead, but still caused something indescribable to the protagonist. Slavery was over, but segregation was still present. Even today, after the civil rights, we see how men tend to find ways to underestimate others, justifying their superiority.
lunes, 16 de abril de 2012
I am not invisible.
I am writing this, am I not? You can read it, can you not? I exist. Don't I?
Doubt. The most dreadful feeling. Especially when it comes to doubting one's existence. But it is interesting how the nameless protagonist of the story, does not doubt his existence, rather doubts that others see him exist.
We can relate this to the historical context, the feeling of invisibility because of color, a contradiction to the term since one assumes that being invisible is to be transparent, with no color, unseen. And that is not the case of the color black. On the contrary it is visible. I can go unnoticed, I am white as a vampire. But black people can't. Scientifically the color black is the absorption of all the colors in the spectrum, is that considered invisible? What an antithesis.
Just wanted to point that out.
I was talking about doubt, and how the concept of invisibility goes beyond just race, or color. Ralph Ellison's phrase of "to be unaware of one's form is to live a death" (7), helped me read within the lines. In this sentence doubt comes to play.
When I read this I thought how this could be a perfect epitaph for a future paper. But obviously I was not close reading it. Everyone determines there existence by others, that is why the nameless protagonist thought he was invisible. We do too. We feel no one sees us simply because we are not asked to prom, we are not popular, we are not recognized. We underestimate who we are determining ourselves by others. That is how society works. Creating doubt on our existence. Ellison agrees with this, but what he expresses through what the protagonist said, is that our existence is our form.
But what is form? Our essence? what we think of ourselves? who we are? Wait. The protagonist says he is invisible, isn't that what he is?
He is invisible. He is aware of his invisibility, "I myself after existing some twenty years, did not become alive until I discovered by invisibility" (7). He discovered that others saw him invisible, and assumes that to be true. But he has a form. He knows of his existence, and knows it cannot be determined by the invisible spectrum people assume he is. I guess what I am trying to say is that he is seen as invisible, but his form is visible. At least to himself. If one does not know what his/her form is, one does not exist. He is invisible but he exists. If our form becomes invisible then we "live a death", the doubt of existence becomes a reality.
Form is certainty of existence.
Side note: the fact that Ellison does not give a name to the protagonist, alludes to the whole concept of invisibility. No name, seems as if it did not exist, but the words and what he says are the form, the proof of existence.
Doubt. The most dreadful feeling. Especially when it comes to doubting one's existence. But it is interesting how the nameless protagonist of the story, does not doubt his existence, rather doubts that others see him exist.
We can relate this to the historical context, the feeling of invisibility because of color, a contradiction to the term since one assumes that being invisible is to be transparent, with no color, unseen. And that is not the case of the color black. On the contrary it is visible. I can go unnoticed, I am white as a vampire. But black people can't. Scientifically the color black is the absorption of all the colors in the spectrum, is that considered invisible? What an antithesis.
Just wanted to point that out.
I was talking about doubt, and how the concept of invisibility goes beyond just race, or color. Ralph Ellison's phrase of "to be unaware of one's form is to live a death" (7), helped me read within the lines. In this sentence doubt comes to play.
When I read this I thought how this could be a perfect epitaph for a future paper. But obviously I was not close reading it. Everyone determines there existence by others, that is why the nameless protagonist thought he was invisible. We do too. We feel no one sees us simply because we are not asked to prom, we are not popular, we are not recognized. We underestimate who we are determining ourselves by others. That is how society works. Creating doubt on our existence. Ellison agrees with this, but what he expresses through what the protagonist said, is that our existence is our form.
But what is form? Our essence? what we think of ourselves? who we are? Wait. The protagonist says he is invisible, isn't that what he is?
He is invisible. He is aware of his invisibility, "I myself after existing some twenty years, did not become alive until I discovered by invisibility" (7). He discovered that others saw him invisible, and assumes that to be true. But he has a form. He knows of his existence, and knows it cannot be determined by the invisible spectrum people assume he is. I guess what I am trying to say is that he is seen as invisible, but his form is visible. At least to himself. If one does not know what his/her form is, one does not exist. He is invisible but he exists. If our form becomes invisible then we "live a death", the doubt of existence becomes a reality.
Form is certainty of existence.
Side note: the fact that Ellison does not give a name to the protagonist, alludes to the whole concept of invisibility. No name, seems as if it did not exist, but the words and what he says are the form, the proof of existence.
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)