Amy Sidle

March 1, 2010

Midterm - Web Review

            In her 2007 Midterm essay “As the Pendulum Swings: The Victimization of African American Women,” Jennifer Jones discusses that after hundreds of years of oppression by others that African Americans often “penalize, alienate, and victimize themselves.” She continues to say that African Americans “remain skeptical of the dominant culture and its ‘American Dream,’ but, strange as it may sound, they have also become skeptical of each other,” with African American women “receiving the brunt of this unjustifiable treatment.” However, she concedes that “sometimes [these women are] not only the victims but also the aggressors.”

            Jones begins with analyzing the African American woman’s role in Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life. She declares that women were more than “subjugated and degraded in slavery,” but that “they were used by their masters as sexual objects, and, consequently, as breeding machines.” This notion is seen when Douglass’ mother attempts to spend more time with him to her own detriment and against her master’s wishes. Finally after her visits ceased, he took her death much like he would a stranger’s.

            She continues to show a vulnerable woman in Ruth from Morrison’s Song of Solomon, in that Ruth finds breast feeding so soothing, nearly a religious experience, that she forces her son to continue feeding in this matter well past an acceptable age.

            Jones concludes by stating that African American women will never “discover the American Dream until they have completely healed from years of victimization.”

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            In Martin D. Briones’ 2007 Midterm “Consequences of Flight,” he discusses “the concept of flight” and how in African American stories it “can be used to describe an escape, search for freedom, a journey or voyage.” He begins his argument with Morrison’s Song of Solomon, stating that “Milkman is the character [seen] as taking the greatest flight, the flight for knowledge.” Briones claims that Milkman’s “flight for knowledge,” after being told the story of about the gold from his father, “at first was for himself but he later returns to share the new information of his family history with those in his family” only to learn a few of them have died in his absence.

            Briones makes two further comparisons to a slave’s flight: Douglass’ hopes of finding literacy and fleeing slave life; Jacobs’ talk of taking a plunge into an abyss after her master declares he will build a house for them. In each “flight,” they learned something about themselves and how they wanted to “fly” from their current situation.

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            In Corey Porter’s 2007 Final (Part I) “’I Choo-Choo-Choose You!’ or, Quotes from The Simpsons Used as Final Exam Titles,” he passionately discusses his shock that homosexuality is constantly considered an afterthought minority. He claims homosexuality will always remain a minority for “if it weren’t, the reproductive rate of the human race would slowly dwindle to nothing.” He focuses on that some believe homosexuals chose their sexuality, as if “something has gone wrong somewhere in their wiring.”

            Porter uses Andrew Tobias, the author of The Best Little Boy in the World, to address his question inquiry “if thousands of years of decision-making that has pushed homosexuals into their unfavorable minority status.” Tobias discusses a comparison of his voluntary ability to be ticklish to the involuntary ability for a flower to pick its color. Porter, though he admits it is a veiled comparison, deems Tobias’ comparisons not of equal weight – one being of appearance and the other “ultimately meaningless.” It seems that Porter has considerable angst with his chosen discussion, definitely conveying his disgust with the way many view the homosexual community.

            According to Porter, he finally locates a portion of Tobias’ text that relates to his homosexual “choice” question, saying that Tobias “behaves as he thinks he should; constructs elaborate ruses to convince others just how normal he is.” Porter reiterates his initial question that if Tobias “does everything society and those empowered over him…how is it that he is still gay?” Porter ultimately concludes that “Tobias does not choose to belong to a minority [be a homosexual]. He simply is what he is.”

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Midterm – Research Plan

“Because Not Every Author is an Old, White Guy: Why We Read Minority Literature”  

            As an educator I find it imperative to expose my students to a variety of literature by various authors, ensuring their versatility and broad knowledge in all aspects of literature not just the ones traditionally taught in schools for decades, even centuries. It is my plan to complete two research posts: the first an examination of African American literature, especially the slave narrative; the second an examination of world literature, including an emphasis on culture.

            I hope to answer why we continue to read, for instance, Douglass’ Narrative of the Life some 200 years later. Despite the obvious history and heritage, what is it about Douglass’ tale that resonates with students still? And why is it essential for students to learn about the people and cultures from Native Americans to Chinese to South Africans? Students should be well-rounded and culturally informed about worldly matters that have not only influenced their own culture but the events and cultures of the nations that make up our home planet.

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Midterm – Essay Assignment

“Education as a Tool for Identity”

            Literacy is supposed to be the most significant form of fundamental education. When persons immigrate to a new country, the first thing they attempt to do is learn the language so they may communicate both verbally and written. Unfortunately for the African American people, history kept literacy at bay, discouraging their education and assimilation into the American majority.

            In Frederick Douglass’ slave narrative, Narrative of the Life, he discusses his struggles with teaching himself to read and write. He results to “various stratagems” for he “ha[s] no regular teacher” and his mistress “set[s] her face against [his] being instructed by any one else” (100). Literacy is regarded for whites only to keep their “property” in check; Douglass notices that for his mistress “to treat [him] as a human being was not only wrong, but dangerous [to do] so” (101). She realizes that her kindness to Douglass is detrimental to the plantation; however, to her Douglass’ literacy is a ticking time bomb for his liberation and subsequent liberations of the rest of her work force.

            As described in Objective 5c, Douglass realizes that literacy is his path to empowerment. He is so determined to learn to read and write that he recruits “all the little white boys whom [he meets] in the street” and “convert[s] [them] into teachers” (101). He exchanges bread for the “more valuable bread of knowledge” (101). Douglass knows that if he is ever to leave Mr. and Mrs. Auld’s oppressive grasp, he will need the knowledge of reading and writing to help him with the transition. It is this spark of empowerment that will allow him to successfully, though far from easily, seek his independence and gain an identity as a man and not a slave.

            Though literacy grows through the generations of the Dead family in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, it is the use of an education that is not utilized. Macon Jr. swears to ensure his children’s literacy (Objective 6a) after witnessing his father’s destruction from being illiterate; Macon recalls that he “couldn’t read, couldn’t sign his name” (63).

Morrison writes that “hopes for Corinthians were especially high since she’d gone to college. Her education had taught her how to be an enlightened mother and wife, able to contribute to the civilization –or in her case, the civilizing – of her community…she believed…she was a prize for a professional man of color” (188).

            Corinthians’ education didn’t exactly “educate” her in the way it liberated Douglass; her education seems to be for show, for raising her on the hierarchy of spousal choices for the men of the community. Unfortunately her education goes unused, not unnoticed: “Corinthians was a little too elegant. Bryn Mawr in 1940. France in 1939. That was a bit much” (188). The very education that is supposed to lift her from the blue-collar-negro jobs of her community only lands her right back to where she would have been without it, the maid of some rich, woman writer.

            It is disappointing that Morrison did not allow Corinthians’ education to take her to a new level for the Dead family, show the readers what Corinthians, a black woman of the 40s, 50s, 60s, could have accomplished with the education she earned and deserved. Her experience parallels Langston Hughes’ famous words in “Harlem”; he writes:

            What happens to a dream deferred?

            Does it dry up

            Like a raisin in the sun?...

            Maybe it just sags

            Like a heavy load (1-3, 9-10).

Corinthians’ dream of being an educated house wife and mother is deferred. Not gone, not completely out of grasp, just deferred. Though she does not partner with a doctor, like her mother wished, or even settle for a post office worker, like her father claimed he would accept, she is content in her decision to be with Mr. Porter. It is with him she realizes that her education does not make her better than anyone else, but just that educated.

            Though literacy and education are often used in African American texts to symbolism freedom, they are not solely kept as liberation tools. Education can certainly reflect change for the better and a sense of empowerment, but depending on the situation, like Douglass and Corinthians, education can allow one to realize his/her true identity – something to never give up on.