2/28/2010

Web Review-

Leah’s 2007 midterm dealt with Milkman’s rise. Her connecting Milkman to other course texts and historical persons or fictional characters was exemplary (hence it being part of the model assignment. She notes that, “like Douglass, who stands up to Covey, Milkman experiences an antithesis: he asserts his “haughtiness”—his authority and strength by standing up to his father … like Douglass, he feels the human impulse to escape his oppressive existence and desires to dream … Milkman seeks and finds information about his father’s patriarchal lineage … But unlike Solomon, Milkman does not fly back to Africa”, and hence I have learned through example how to better connect, compare and contrast various texts and characters in a much, much clearer manner.

Rosalinda’s 2007 midterm shows how to weave text, quotes and other information, fluidly and seemingly seamlessly into the exam. This example further helps me as it teaches by example how better to write a paper. Her second paragraph stands out to me as something worth noting for its smooth flow of literary, “Reading and writing is a benefit for everyone and anyone, but when African American slaves learned these traits it was at a cost of knowing the true nature of the state they were in.  Literacy opened their eyes to the actuality of this world they never really knew existed. A world they had never questioned before, but accepted because they had no other choice nor option.  The world of literacy opened up a different perspective on their lives.  They learned that the life they were leading was not the way things should be.  The treatment they received was inhumane punishment for a crime they never committed.  They would not have learned this had they not been taught to read and write.  At some point, they felt that maybe it would have been better for them to not have learned anything at all than know what it was they now knew.” Her words jump off the page with their eloquence and meaning woven beautifully with the knowledge of the textual material.

Jennifer’s 2007 midterm caught my eye simply for the title. Granted I may not use such an inciting title ever in my life, but its quite obvious here and now how such a title can lead someone to jump up and suddenly choose to view that person’s paper. Saying, “Ruth:  She’s “Alone in this World, and a Fucked up World it is too”” just screams- hey look at me! Of course Jennifer has used Morison’s own words here (perhaps turning Objective 1c on it’s head?) Still, I learned that sometimes, a little shout goes a long way in getting people to pay attention to your work.

Midterm Essay

Christianity in Minority Texts

While the texts we’ve read thus far all deal with minorities, many of them have another commonality- dealing with Christianity in some form, many times evoking Objective 1c, which is to observe alternative identities and literary strategies developed by minority cultures and writers to gain voice and choice by using   “double language”, having the same words have different meanings to different audiences; using the dominant culture’s words against them; including how the Christian religion relates to the minority experience, either through overt occurrences like Fredrick Douglass’ retelling of how a religious slave holder was worse than an atheist one; to more less obvious connections, such as Black Elk, who was both a shaman and a Catholic catechist.

To begin with, Fredrick Douglass’s view of Christianity came from the slaveholders’ view of what it meant to be Christian and what rights being a Christian entailed. Douglass saw the irony of how religious masters were often times much crueler than other masters as they chose to back up their harsh treatment with convoluted scripture passages. He notes in chapter 9 that, “I have seen him [my master] tie up a lame young woman, and whip her with a heavy cowskin upon her naked shoulders, causing the warm red blood to drip; and, in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote this passage of Scripture—"He that knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes."“ Douglass notes earlier in in chapter 1 that, “if [the slaves’] increase do no other good, it will do away the force of the argument, that God cursed Ham, and therefore American slavery is right. If the lineal descendants of Ham are alone to be scripturally enslaved, it is certain that slavery at the south must soon become unscriptural; for thousands are ushered into the world, annually, who, like myself, owe their existence to white fathers, and those fathers most frequently their own masters.”

However, though the slaveholders might have wanted to be seen as pious and God-fearing, that in no way changed their views towards other aspects of their life, including how they viewed slaves, Douglass notes in chapter 9 that, “He [Master Thomas Auld] made the greatest pretensions to piety. His house was the house of prayer. He prayed morning, noon, and night. He very soon distinguished himself among his brethren, and was soon made a class-leader [cf. ch. VII “class meeting”] and exhorter [lay preacher]. His activity in revivals was great, and he proved himself an instrument in the hands of the church in converting many souls. His house was the preachers' home. They used to take great pleasure in coming there to put up; for while he starved us, he stuffed them. We have had three or four preachers there at a time. The names of those who used to come most frequently while I lived there, were Mr. Storks, Mr. Ewery, Mr. Humphry, and Mr. Hickey. I have also seen Mr. George Cookman at our house. We slaves loved Mr. Cookman. We believed him to be a good man. We thought him instrumental in getting Mr. Samuel Harrison, a very rich slaveholder, to emancipate his slaves; and by some means got the impression that he was laboring to effect the emancipation of all the slaves. When he was at our house, we were sure to be called in to prayers. . . . Mr. Cookman took more notice of us than either of the other ministers. He could not come among us without betraying his sympathy for us, and, stupid as we were, we had the sagacity to see it.” And “While I lived with my master in St. Michael's, there was a white young man, a Mr. Wilson, who proposed to keep a Sabbath school for the instruction of such slaves as might be disposed to learn to read the New Testament. We met but three times, when Mr. West and Mr. Fairbanks, both class-leaders, with many others, came upon us with sticks and other missiles, drove us off, and forbade us to meet again. Thus ended our little Sabbath school in the pious town of St. Michael's.” The reason for the disbandment of the Sabbath school was not for its religious teachings but for its literary teachings. This anger against a literate slave ties Douglass’ statement back to his youth when he mentions how slaveholders feel that giving a slave the opportunity to read is similar to giving them an inch so they will take a mile- Mrs. Auld learns this from her husband, when she initially tries to teach Douglass the same material as her young son Thomas at the time was learning.

            Though Douglass wasn’t allowed to learn to read the Bible, Harriet Jacobs’ account shows us how she had to read between the scriptural lines in order to survive Dr Flint manhandling her. Jacobs tells us more about Christianity, as when she has had relations with a “white unmarried gentleman” and how her grandmother initially disowned her for indulging in premarital sex. More than her grandmother’s initial disapproval is Jacob’s own inner monologue against herself and how she perceives her reader’s judgment of her. In chapter ten, she writes, “Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader! You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of a chattel, entirely subject to the will of another. You never exhausted your ingenuity in avoiding the snares, and eluding the power of a hated tyrant; you never shuddered at the sound of his footsteps, and trembled within hearing of his voice.” She implores her reader to not judge her because of her (and the reader’s presumed) Christian upbringing that looks down upon extramarital sexual relations and may be quick to adjudicate over her for her actions. She also writes in chapter ten that, “I know I did wrong. No one can feel it more sensibly than I do. The painful and humiliating memory will haunt me to my dying day. Still, in looking back, calmly, on the events of my life, I feel that the slave woman ought not to be judged by the same standard as others.” While Jacobs might not have used the terminology of the various Commandments, such as the sixth (You shall not commit adultery), she has in no uncertain terms voiced her decisions against what she feels are the seemingly assured disapproval of her readers, due to their Christian upbringing.

            More scripturally significant than Jacobs’ account is the by far most Christian referenced novel of the semester thus far, based solely upon its title, character names, and references within its plot is Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. Many of Macon Dead’s lineage, including his wife Ruth, his sister Pilate, her daughter Reba and her (Reba’s) daughter Hagar, let alone Macon’s own daughters Magdalene (Lena) and First Corinthians (Corinthians), take their names from the Bible. This alone has some bearing on their view of Christianity, as Morrison explains in an interview with Tom LeClair that, "I used the Biblical names to show the impact of the Bible on the lives of black people, their awe of and respect for it coupled with their ability to distort it for their own purposes" (LeClair 126). So too, the actual Song of Solomon scripture passage and how it deals with the plot of the novel. The scripture passage tells of a woman and a man, while the poem suggests movement from courtship to consummation, such as when the man declares: "As a lily among thorns, so is my beloved among women." (2: 1) The woman replies: "As an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my lover among men. I delight to rest in his shadow, and his fruit is sweet to my mouth." (2: 2). The courtship and eventual consummation in the scripture passages is a far cry from the life that Macon Dead the second and his wife Ruth endure. Ruth is no lily among thorns to Macon, and sees Macon not as an apple tree among other trees. Morrison echo’s the scripture passage, as there is no real religion in Macon the second’s life and he is often called Caucasian, much to the derision of Milkman- this lack of religion is seen in the scripture passage, as it is often interpreted as an allegorical representation of God’s relationship with the chosen people of Israel- comparing God and His people with the relationship of a husband and wife.

While there is plenty of sex in Morrison’s Song of Solomon, the Earth Diver Native American Origin stories have one of the least consummatory birth stories next to Christ’s conception in Mary’s womb ever recorded, as some students picked out Christian counterparts to the characters in the Iroquois Earth Diver stories. The Adam and Eve account in Genesis tells of how God has Adam sleep and takes a rib from him and creates Eve: “So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh/The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man,” (2: 21-22) Here, the ribs that God takes from Adam are similar to the two arrows that the West Wind placed next to Tekawerahkwa while she slept through the night. The connection is that the two arrows have bone arrowheads and can be compared to the rib bone that God used to create Eve. Even Tekawerahkwa’s two sons Teharonghyawago or Good Mind/Holder of Heaven, and Tawiskaron or Bad Mind/Flinty Rock can be likened to Cain and Abel in that one brother is jealous of the other, and in the Iroquois Creation Myth, 1816, albeit reversed from the Bible account where Cain kills Abel, Good Mind kills Bad  Mind. However, in Creation Story I, from the Iroquois Indian Museum, Good Mind banishes Bad Mind, whereas in Creation Story II, the two brothers are said to have “created everything in the world… When finished, everything was in perfect balance.” The similarities are there, though the similarities being present may be from

            If Native American Origin stories having Christian influence seem odd, then Black Elk may be the farthest from most people’s minds. However, as a Catholic Catechist, Black Elk’s writings have somewhat ambiguous meanings. His writing of his lengthy dream, involving the Six Grandfathers has Holy numbers, among them most notably the number twelve –three each of four types of horses- black, white, sorrel and buckskin, equaling twelve, for example. However, Michael F. Steltenkamp writes of how Black Elk's Christian conversion happened when a local Jesuit priest abruptly interrupted Black Elk’s Lakota ritual at a dying child’s bedside. This cultural collision resulted in a relationship that Black Elk could understand as providential. Steltenkamp writes that “The same zest for learning … that led … Black Elk to join the Buffalo Bill show … led him to quiz the Pine Ridge Jesuits constantly about the story of Jesus and the church. [Black Elk]… became one of the … most successful native catechists on the Pine Ridge Reservation.” Black Elk may have been both a shaman and a Catholic Catechist, but his writings, while having both Native American and Catholic meanings, are there only if one looks hard enough for them.

Bibliography:

LeClair, Thomas. The Language Must Not Sweat: A Conversation with Toni Morrison. New Republic March 21, 1981. 25-29

New American Bible: Genesis 2: 21-22; Song of Songs 2:1-2

Steltenkamp, Michael F. Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala. University of Oklahoma Press (September 1997)

Research Plan

     Using a previous paper (Projecting Ethnic Identity Onto Inanimate Objects), Suzan Damas and I will use Objective 1d- the Color Code, to argue that children’s views about themselves are projected into the toys they play with, that nothing has changed since Dr Kenneth Clark’s landmark 1954 Doll Test, as seen in Kiri Davis’ recent recreation of Clark’s famous test and as seen in literature from Toni Morrison and Sandra Cisneros.