Toya Mares

Multicultural Literature: American Minority

Spring 2012 Mid-Term

Web Review

Escapism and the Mystique of Flight: A Critical Review

The concept of flight for human beings is in itself wondrous. We understand that physically we can no more take flight than the forever grounded ostrich. Yet, many have dreamt of flight in one form or another. In fact, according to NASA, Leonardo Da Vinci “made the first real studies of flight in the 1480's” (NASA.gov). But, for centuries before this there have been legends of humans flying as man has imagined himself taking flight to some far off destination. Despite the human incapacity to literally “take flight,” men and women throughout the ages have found escape through “flight,” both figuratively and literally although not so much by propelling himself/herself bodily through the air. There have been countless incidents of “flight” in relation to the state of one’s life, whether it take the form of “mental flight,” loosening and eventually breaking free from the bonds of oppression and subjectivity that have been placed on the mind of a person or “physical flight,” the literal escape from those very same shackles.  It is for this reason that I chose Martin Briones’ essay, Tanya Stanley’s and Sarah McCall DeLaRosa’s web reviews to review.

Martin Briones’ essay, “Consequences of Flight,” argues for the various types of flight that we as humans take, along with the significance of such decisions. Briones explored flight as a concept of an actual “escape, search for freedom, a journey or voyage.” He considers Song of Solomon’s fictional character Milkman’s flight out of ignorance and false consciousness and Pilate’s spiritual flight into the hereafter. Then he turns to the real life events of Harriet Jacobs’ circuitous flight from slavery and Fredrick Douglass’ flight, first from illiteracy and then eventually from slavery. Briones’ essay is significant not only as it deals with the concept of flight but also the ways in which he tackles the idea of consequences regarding such flight. He attempts to deal with first the consequences of Milkman’s flight as he searched for knowledge. There were positive and negative consequences of his leaving; Hagar’s death in his absence and Pilate’s eventual death as a result of Guitar’s stalking. Briones then turns to Harriet Jacobs’s consequences of flight upon learning that she must leave if she can ever hope to avoid becoming her master’s concubine. And finally, back to Fredrick Douglass, Briones details his enlightened understanding that the knowledge he has gained as a consequence of learning to read in its own way is binding, knowledge its own form of shackles.

Tanya Stanley’s web review also considers elements of flight but from a different perspective. First, she confines her argument to only referencing Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon but she does this through a critique of three past students’ essays. Then, she breaks down Leah Guillory’s argument of Milkman’s ability to fly, as in the legend of the Flying African, by disagreeing with her on any “supernatural qualities” Milkman might possess. Stanley then moves on to Gordon Lewis’ essay and his affirmative defense of Milkman’s flight capabilities. Particularly, she touches on Lewis’ acknowledgement that “ [At] the end of the novel Milkman leaps because he has learned that, ‘If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it’ (337).” This is a touching confirmation of the legendary notion of flight in this context. While it may well be that Milkman’s flight leads to his death, he has actually taken flight in many respects, nonetheless. Stanley then deftly moves on to Martin Briones’ essay concentrating on the spiritual concept of flight. Here she mentions Milkman but primarily focuses on Pilate, her physical qualities and her ultimate physical death as the impetus for spiritual flight.

Because this is a web review, a critique of the work of others, I thought it was important to consider Sarah McCall DeLaRosa’s web review in light of her approach. I found DelaRosa’s review to be unnecessarily harsh in tone and intent. She takes it upon herself to blast the work of others but she did not offer anything of particular substance herself. DelaRosa states with regard to Briones’ essay, “I found his essay to be a little less polished, which caused me some problems in following the flow of his argument,” but then goes on to commend him on fulfilling the barest requirements called for in the assignment. She then swiftly moves on to Karen Hrametz and brow-beats her with the statement, “I think it is foolish and even racist to assume that all people with black skin must have the same feelings, experiences, opinions, and emotions, to be expressed by one voice”; but again, does not give a substantive critique of Hrametz’s work. And just so that no one feels left out, DelaRosa tops off her web review with Corey Porter. While she does give Porter a little more credit than the others, it is only a very little. To my dismay, DelaRosa unequivocally states, “I have to admit I had a hard time reading the journal though, because his writing style was grating on me” and again she herself brings nothing substantial to the conversation. DelaRosa could have critiqued these students’ work in a professional way but she chose not to. If fact, she did not even bother to detail where she found problems; she just gave sweeping generalizations and in an academic environment this simply will not do. 

Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1977. Print.

 "The History of Flight." NASA Glenn Research Center At Lewis Field. NASA Ultra-Efficient Engine Technology (UEETWeb Team), n.d. Web. 3 Oct 2012. <http://www.ueet.nasa.gov/StudentSite/historyofflight.html>.

Essay

Breaking the Ties that Bind: The Rise of Critical Consciousness in Morrison’s Song of Solomon

In his1903 publication The Souls of Black Folk, historian and sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois described the struggle of the Negro as a double consciousness, “[t]his sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” (Du Bois 3). While author and activist Aimé Césaire, several decades later (1967) and in an interview with poet René Depestre, would refer to this same struggle as a kind of bovarisme, calling it “a struggle against alienation,” this idea “of being ashamed of being Negroes”; so much so that as an act of survival, one takes on the embodiment of that which is dominant, even to the point of detriment, the loss of the self (Cesaire). It is this struggle that Toni Morrison lays out for the reader in her novel Song of Solomon, the concept and the dilemma of the minority.

The concept of the ethnic minority in American society is deeply rooted in the country’s history. Differing from the immigrant nation that America would eventually become renowned for, these ethnic minority groups included those that were here when Europeans arrived in this geographical space and those that would be brought here by force, namely African slaves. Morrison’s fictional narrative is grounded in this long and circuitous history with its ethnic minorities and the struggles with which so many have constantly battled.

Having not had a choice in coming to this nation as so many others did, one of these struggles has been whether or not the “American Dream” has ever or will ever be the dream for African-Americans. At the age of twelve, the major protagonist in the novel, Milkman, is given an early lesson on the struggle. When he finds Milkman and his friend Guitar fussing about being refused service in the neighborhood bar, one of the owners of the local barbershop, Railroad Tommy, launches into to diatribe on all of things that the young men will not never have, the least of which is the beer they were refused. Ticking off one item after another, he tells them that they won’t have a “private coach with four velvet chairs that swivel,” “a valet and a cook and a secretary,” “five thousand dollars of cold cash money,” “a governor’s mansion, or eight thousand acres of timber to sell”; and, right as he starts to wind down, he tells them what they will have for all their pains, “a broken heart” (69). Even though Milkman and Guitar are just young boys, this conversation is significant because Railroad Tommy is much older and has experienced life. He does his best to prepare these young men for what he believes to be inevitable, life as a Black man in America. He believes it imperative that they understand what lies ahead of them, a world of wants and can’t haves and that it does not matter whether or not they have in some way earned it, as in fighting for their country.

It would be approximately ten years later that Milkman and Guitar would have a similar conversation when Guitar reveals to Milkman his involvement in the Seven Days. Upon explaining the nature of the group in which he is involved and their effort to keep society (white and black) “on an even keel,” Guitar goes further as he tries to make Milkman understand by asking him, “Do we have a court? Is there one courthouse in one city in the country where a jury would convict them [someone that killed a black person]?” (176). Guitar has learned what Milkman has yet to; he has learned that the life he lives is in many respects a social condition. It is a social condition which he, as an individual, has very little control over and that it has been forged on the basis of a perceived superiority/inferiority by the dominant majority. Guitar has come to understand that this perception that the dominant majority has of Black people is grounded in an “unnatural” pursuit of gain.

It is the conversations that Milkman and Guitar that the reader gains insight into the many facets of the ethnic minority’s struggle, including the idea that one is often voiceless and choiceless regarding social standing. One instance occurs when Milkman shows up to Guitar’s apartment to await a confrontation with Hagar, who has been stalking him for months. In a heated discussion about tea, Milkman tells Guitar, “Yeah, well, if this is tea, I’m a soft-fried egg” (128). This of course sends Guitar off on a tangent as he informs Milkman that, “No, you can’t be no egg, nigger… Negro’s been a lotta things, but he ain’t never been no egg” and there are several reasons for this, not the least of which that, “[e]ggs is difficult, complicated. Fragile too. And white” (128). This dialogue between the two friends is significant because in his own way Guitar attempts to explain to Milkman that he actually does not have as much choice or voice in what he is as he has been led or misled to believe by his family. In order to be this “other” thing, he would have to cease being what he is, but to cease being what he is is not to exist at all. There lies the difficulty.

Just as Guitar shares these life lessons with Milkman, so too does he with Hagar. When Guitar returns to his apartment, he finds Milkman gone and Hagar there as broken a woman as he had ever seen. I think Morrison takes this moment in the text to speak to Hagar as the minority. As Guitar takes in the devastation that Milkman has left behind, he tells Hagar,

You think because he doesn’t want you anymore that he is right – that his judgment and opinion of you are correct. If he throws you out, then you are garbage. You think he belongs to you because you want to belong to him…You’re turning over your whole life to him… And if it means so little to you that you can just give it away, hand it to him, then why should it mean any more to him? He can’t value you more than you value yourself (330-331).

It is in this moment that the author speaks to this idea of the minority dilemma, martyring oneself through a false notion of sacrifice that will ultimately only lead to the death of the self. Morrison articulates the need for self-worth that stands outside of anything that anyone else, the individual or the collective, thinks or does. America’s ethnic minorities have throughout its history experienced much bloodshed in the name of “belonging”. The desire to belong amidst an atmosphere of staunch adversity can often be overwhelming and when it has been decided that there can be no belonging because one simply not wanted, this realization can lead to one’s own demise. But it does not have to, as Guitar beseeches Hagar to understand.

            Yet, it is Hagar’s struggle with the complexities of the color-code which are the hardest for her to bear. She was caught off-guard by Milkman breakup with her. But the reason she wanted to hurt him extended far beyond the breakup and the callous and insensitive way he went about it. The narrator explains that the reason Hagar went on a manhunt for Milkman one a month for nearly six months wielding a weapon with which to kill him was because she has seen his “arms around the shoulders of a girl whose silky copper-colored hair cascaded over the sleeve of his coat” (140). And the reader comes to understand that this is a bone of contention for Hagar because towards the end of the novel, in a fit of fever that will end in death, the last conversation that she has with her grandmother, Pilate, is an plea to understand why Milkman would prefer a woman with “silky…penny-colored hair…lemon-colored skin…gray-blue eyes…and thin nose” (341). She struggles with the possibility that Milkman wants someone who looks nothing like her (the minority) but is in fact the very embodiment of all that she is not, the dominant majority. Hagar is vexed by the notion that Milkman would covet that which has shunned he and his people for so long. But she does not understand that Milkman has been socialized to desire that which is representative of the dominant majority. His father, in many respects, has done the exact same thing in choosing his wife, conducting his business, raising his family and dealing with his community. These are the principles that have been fostered throughout Milkman’s life so it is understandable that he should follow his father’s path.

            What is not immediately evident but does eventually become quite clear is that Milkman’s father was not the only lasting influence upon his life. Guitar and the Tommys have also been influential to Milkman’s changing and maturing perspective of life. They have been crucial to Milkman critical awareness. But, ultimately it is Pilate and the quest for his family’s history which have by far had the most impact on Milkman. It is Pilate’s connection to her ancestors that prompts Milkman to split the veil of Du Bois’ double consciousness and to dispel Cesaire’s notion bovarisme. The reader learns in Pilate’s death just how deep that connection runs. Not only does Milkman realize that he loves and respects his aunt and the life she lived but he feels so free of the bonds to which he has felt bound by that that he lets go of all that was weighing on him and flies, just like his ancestors before him.    

Césaire, Aimé. Discourse On Colonialism. New York, NY: Monthly Review Pr, 1972, 2000. Print.

Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. The Souls Of Black Folk. Bantam Classics, 1903, 2005. Print.

Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1977. Print.

Research Plan

For my research I would like to further consider the minority dilemma. I would like to delve deeper into the American Dream and King’s Dream and any impact that this may have on the minority. I would also like to go deeper into the color-code and how this complicates all three: the minority dilemma, the American Dream and King’s Dream; especially as it pertains to these “New Americans” who are quickly becoming a minority unto themselves, whilst further complicating all the America has come to know as the black/white dichotomy.