Roshan Redefining Reality

Throughout this class, we've discussed what makes a protest novel and what doesn't. In doing so, we read James Baldwin's critique of Native Son and Irving Howe's critique of Invisible Man . Among James Baldwin's problems with Native Son,  a major problem he has is that Wright made his book too much like a pamphlet, suggesting that protest literature must have a strong message that overpowers the dimensionality of the characters and the quality of the prose. Howe's problem with Invisible Man (though likely a racist one) is that it does not have enough of a message. Howe seems to suggest that Invisible Man doesn't do what a Black author is supposed to do: make a protest novel that comes from a place of rage. Instead, Ellison created a more thoroughly developed character because he wasn't only shaped by his surroundings. The problem these two books seem to highlight is achieving a balance between good writing and a strong message. While not all lite

Whether it's the pear tree, hurricane, or just the pastoral descriptions, nature's romanticism is apparent throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God  but I still can't figure out what its place in the novel actually is. On the one hand, the book's descriptions of the pear tree evidently symbolize not only Janie's sexual awakening but also just her idealized view of nature like she idealizes everything else in the book. In this case, nature would seem to be presented in a pretty romantic light, showing the beauty of nature and how idyllic it can be. On the other hand, the book shows us this really chaotic and tumultuous aspect of nature, which is the hurricane. Not only does the hurricane come suddenly and cause a lot of destruction, but it also threatens the lives of many characters. Suddenly, the depictions of nature, while still beautiful, become dark and turbulent. So, why is something so influential to the psyche of Janie in a good way also portrayed suddenly

I think it's safe to say that most of the men in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God  are purposefully flawed in their behavior towards Janie. So far, the two most obvious versions of these behaviors are Logan, who decides that his say goes in the marriage and even threatens to kill her, and Joe Starks, who restricts her activities to that of a "wife" and physically hurts her. But the man in the book whose behavior actually most stood out to me because of its subtlety  was Amos Hicks. It's made clear to the reader that Amos Hicks is interested in Janie the moment he sees her, but backs off upon realizing that she's married to Joe Starks. However, he doesn't forget about Janie. Later on, Hicks remarks to his friends that Janie isn't as pretty as he first thought. Once you look at her, he says, the only thing that stands out is her hair. He even makes a point to compare her to a woman he supposedly left in South Carolina. Another reason he cites for

As I'm reading Invisible Man,  which is full of intentional irony and everything seems incredibly socially conscious, there's one ironic element that sticks out like a sore thumb and I'm not sure it's intentional. In a world full of thoughtfully built male characters, we've seen maybe three women in the entire book so far. One had sex with the narrator, and one of them was naked. I'm not trying to be that person that says "yeah race is cool, but wHaT aBoUt GeNdEr??" But like what about  gender? I just got a little tired of reading about marginalized people not being seen as individuals when literally the only female character with a name or any substance is Mary, who took the narrator in like a mother-figure and encouraged him to grow his own character until he decided to have nothing to do with her. Again, I'm not trying to sound over-sensitive or anything, but the irony is not lost on me. I was going to let it go because it didn't have en

I read "The Question of Identity" by Kristin Lattany and then I read it again. Then I read it once more as a strange feeling of elation grew inside me. I wasn't elated by the content in the poem, which I found quite upsetting. I was elated because the subject matter resonated with me and my experiences so much. Like when you have trouble articulating your point and someone spells it articulately out and it feels so good. We all want to be understood, and I felt like this poem, and Lattany, understood me. I am not Black, but as a person of mixed-race, people often tell me I'm "racially ambiguous."  I have had so many of the same experiences that this poem talks about, and I feel the same frustration about  having to tell so many well-meaning people my race. I often wonder why it's so important for people to know. The conclusion I have come to (and the one I think the poem conveys) is that people want to know so they can, even subconsciously, put me in

I think it's fair to say that all the major characters in Native Son  represent something larger than themselves. They typically represent a subset of a larger demographic of people. Going off of this idea, I was wondering what role Bigger's family play in Richard Wright's analogy. Even if his family does not necessarily hold their own metaphorical roles in society, they might be examples of the types of people that would influence the Bigger Thomases of the time. After all, these three people are the first people to interact with Bigger in the book, and their relationships with him already show a lot about his personality. What can their relationships with him show about their  personalities? The family member that was the most intriguing to me was Buddy Thomas. He is the only one that really seems to develop his character throughout the novel, and as I said before, it's his interactions and relationship with Bigger that show his own character. One thing is constant