Jennie Huebenthal

CRCL 5931 – Seminar in Multicultural Literature: American Minority

Midterm Part I: Web Review

While reviewing Sara Moreau’s spring 2006 A Right to Choose, I recognized how closely she related her essay to Object 1: The voiceless and choiceless. The three young females she decides to review lived the earlier portion of their lives unable to speak or act against the cruel mental and physical abuses they had to endure. Therefore they lead a life in which they had no choice on how they could live it. Sara was able to relate when and how each female came to a revelation in their life. Revelations that I’m not sure caught the first go round in class. She first talks about Harriet Jacobs’ (in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl) two main revelations in which she refused to stay voiceless and choiceless. Sara states that Jacobs, “In her eyes, even though she knew her master would be furious, being impregnated by a man she knew would fight to have his children freed was much more tolerable than having her master’s children. She knew this violated her morals and would disappoint her family, but it would keep her children from being fathered by Mr. Flint.” Jacobs took it upon herself to decide who shall father her children. This plan of action did not provide the full outcome that she expected. So Sara writes, “Jacobs decided that she had had enough; she would not let them use her children against her. The love she had for her children and her refusal to let them live as slaves is what gave Jacobs the voice she needed to stand up and be able to make choices for herself.” Sara goes on to First Corinthians’ (in Song of Solomon) time of revelation.  She describes how Corinthians woke up one day to find herself over forty, alone, and living with her parents. Corinthians used this opportunity to seek employment, but because the color of her skin, she had to settle for a “less dignified” position so that she can free herself from her family. Sara goes on to say, “That ‘unrespectable’ job was, at least, her choice, and it was better than relying on her parents for the rest of her life.” I do not completely agree with how Sara portrayed the “horrible conditions” that Corinthians had to live, but she did make valid points as the different types of mental abuse that I had not noticed.  Lastly, Sara goes on to a novel that I have never read. She did a great job of describing the novel (Push) of what seems to be a very sad, scary life of girl’s sexual abuse and forced incest. She describes Precious’ breaking point, as when, at age sixteen (and pregnant again) she is sent to alternative school where she taught the tools that will help her gain “the courage, strength, and skills to stand up for herself and turn her life around.” All in all, this literature has reminded me of the oppression female minorities have had to endure in order to be heard and respected.

The second piece I reviewed was Sonya Prince’s fall 2007 Does Literacy Really Guarantee Freedom. This essay discusses both sides of this question. First she reviews Frederick Douglass’ opportunity to learn how to read and write. Once his “teacher” is reprimanded for teaching him these gifts, he over hears his master speak of literacy as a tool that will spoil him and make him unfit to be a slave. Sonya then points out, “Douglass realized that he could use literacy to escape slavery. He realized that reading and writing could only help in his quest to become a free man”. In Douglass’ situation, literacy does provide an outlet to freedom. Then Sonya goes on to discuss Harriet Jacobs, in the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl) as having to “hide the fact that she could read or write for fear that she would be punished”.  She knew she had the making of a secret weapon that would prove to be beneficial to her on two main occasions during her quest to freedom. So again literacy would be the main tool to her and her family’s freedom. In the novel Song of Solomon, Macon Dead Sr. lost the American Dream and part of his freedom due to his lack of reading skills. While his granddaughter, First Corinthians, was not guaranteed freedom with her exceptional collegiate skills because later in life, Corinthians became employed doing the same type of work that many of her ancestors tried to escape from (according to Sonya).  I would have to disagree with Sonya with this finding. I do believe Corinthians was provided the opportunity of freedom from her family and situation with her advanced education, but that she did not take advantage of the many opportunities that may have presented her upon her graduation. I believe that she had the education to provide her the possibilities for change (however limited due to the color of her skin). Possibilities that I believe her ancestors, without her skills, rarely had the chance to take advantage of. I feel that the author of this midterm had a stronger case towards literacy being the gateway to freedom. I believe that literacy really does guarantee freedom from oppression, abuse, and change.

My final review was Danny Corrigan’s fall 2004 And The Children Shall Know Their Names: The Significance of Names in Classic Slave Narratives, Song of Solomon, and Push. I felt this piece was beautifully written. Danny reviews the significance of one’s name and in choosing what they would like to be called, an aspect that was denied for many African Americans in the past. He exposes how having the ability to choose our own name provides us with a sense of power, freedom, and control. When slaves were denied this right, many lost their history and ultimately themselves. In the one of the Classic Slave Narratives, Danny writes, “Because African Americans have traditionally been denied their own names, such resistance to unchosen names is no small matter.” In The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African, Equiano, who was provided at least three name changes, bravely fights for his birth name. Danny describes his struggles and his eventual success in reclaiming his identity. His next example is from the novel Song of Solomon, in where even the naming and renaming of the city streets possessed power. This example showed the shift of power between the races, one that each race would take advantage of when the situation presented itself. Danny goes on to talk how even the nicknames given to one another can provide a shift in power and control. When Macon Dead Sr. was presented with an opportunity to change his name, he welcomed it as creating a clean slate and marking a new beginning of his life.  According to the text his wife, Sing, “Liked the name. Said it was new and would wipe out the past.  It was a past that his grandson would evenly spend his adulthood seeking. This book became a journey for one’s identity with only their recorded names and nicknames as their guide. Danny showed me the significance and importance of a name and how no matter how hard you try to escape your past, it will not vanish because it will live on in a name.

Midterm Part II: Research Plan

Employment… Does it chose us or do we choose it?

For my research project, I have decided to complete a research essay on a minority group we will be discussing in class, the Hispanic population. The primary text will be Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya. I will focus on how this minority group chooses their occupations. I will review several factors that may play a role in their journey to become employed and how one comes to the realization of the job they will pursue. I will use our class objective 1, 2, and 6 to help in the explanation of this topic. The following list categories what I will research:

1.      Job Opportunities

a.      Does their employment chose them or do they choose their employment?

b.      Why have they chosen their field of work?

c.      How does their job affect their identity?

2.      Minorities - Race and Gender

A.     How much does an individual’s race and gender play in their life opportunities?

3.      Obstacles - Hardships and challenges

a.      Do they face any obstacles as they pursue their occupation?

b.      If they do face obstacles, what type of hardships and challenges do they face during their journey to employment?

Midterm Part III: Essay Assignment

Twice the Minority and Twice the Struggle

Throughout world history, civilizations have had majorities and minorities. Whether it was based on gender, family origin, physical features, or language, every civilizations has had a group of people who are the most dominate culture. The dominate culture determined the rules and rights of their society. During the time of American slavery, the oppressed culture had little to no rights. Among this repressed culture were the slaves and the women. For those individual‘s, who were women slaves, they became the double minorities. Still in the twentieth century, (racially) minority women faced oppression Their powerlessness and struggles are evident in the stories told in the novel Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Song of Solomon, and a poem by Maya Angelou, "Still I Rise".   

Harriet Jacobs, in the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, provides a compelling and powerful true story of her struggle for basic humanity and independence. Her life was not always restricted and painful. Jacobs was born into a family that was fortunate enough to have accommodating and reasonable masters. It was not until the death of her mother (after the age of 6) that she was aware of her family’s circumstances.  Even as a child, her master was kind enough to provide a comfortable living and took the time to teach her how to read and write. Skills that became invaluable to her in the future. Education, in her circumstance, helped to be the golden key to change, opportunities, and her freedom. When she was entering her teen years, she began working with a local doctor’s family. She lived in this home unable to speak or act against the cruel mental and physical abuses she had to endure for in fear of additional punishment, rejection, and of their loved ones. She was expected to be mute and obedient or else face the consequence. Not only was she expected to be treated as a slave because of the color of her skin, she also feared being raped because she was a female.

With a verbally abusive master and a resentful mistress, she took matters into her own hands. Instead of becoming the sexual desire of her master’s dirty fantasies (whom she feared and hated), she decided she would choose who she lay in bed with. Rather than being raped by her master, impregnated by him, then stripped of her children, she allowed herself to be impregnated by different white man who may be able to help her children live a better life than she had. The situation did not go as well as planned and the next thing she knew she was planning her escape.  Her escape was difficult, scary, and risky.  As a female slave, she had no protection from the law and no rights to her own children. In the end, she would make the hard journey to freedom, and she would prove it to be worth it.

               The females in Song of Solomon have all struggled with being both a woman and African American. They fought to have a voice among their loved ones. They fought for their right to make their own life decisions.  One person who took full control of her life was Pilate Dead. Pilate began her life fighting to be birthed from her dying mother. She then had to discover how to survive alone as a very young black girl in a country that, only a generation before, had freed their slaves. She spent her life gaining the respect needed to succeed; the same respect a white man wouldn’t have trouble receiving.

In Maya Angelou poem "Still I Rise", she addresses her struggle as a minority woman living in a man’s world. The poem reflects the hopes and dreams of a woman rising from the oppression this world has pressed upon her.  She speaks of how valuable a woman is to society and how her value can be compared to the richest resources available to man. She compares her riches as precious, priceless, and as rare as oil wells, gold mines, and diamonds. But yet she makes it clear that society does not value a colored woman as important as any of these resources. She was also not afraid to express her womanhood as beautiful, sexy, and sassy. Qualities only a woman can pull off with grace.

 Angelou speaks of the great degradation and oppression a colored woman must face every day by society. Yet as she is stepped on, ignored, and battered she will rise. She will be strong and will rise from these atrocities regardless of what people may think of her. She will not be held down. She will not be trampled, ignored, or abused into submission.  She will rise.

“You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise…

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise…

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide…

I rise

I rise.”

These ladies faced built up years of repression (because of their gender and race), yet they each found the strength necessary to challenge civilization of their rights as human beings. They challenge civilization to notice them as individuals worthy of the same opportunities and respect as any another other member of the society. Battered and bruised, they took the chance to take control of their lives and succeed in doing so.