Maybe life was better outside of the South...

"Alice had never seen a colored woman wearing such nice clothes, a dark straight skirt and silk blouse and a light seersucker jacket. Maybe it was true that life was better outside the South. Maybe, somehow, the world really was a place of hope and light, if only the geography were different from what Alice knew about. Well, it couldn't be any worse (246)."

Alice has become accustomed to her life in the South and doesn't know any different. Her classroom field-trips consist of boat rides through sea human waste and a funeral parlor. There is a naïveté, due to the lack of exposure, that allows for such field-trips to take place. So upon setting eyes on Bobo's mom, she sees a woman of color dress differently to what she is use to seeing. This seems to allow her to see past her surroundings. Alice is already upset with the murder of the young child and the trial injustice soon approaching. However, seeing this woman, welcomes a different perspective to the world she thought to know. But given her present situation in the courtroom, she figured that whatever the North had to offer wasn't any worse than what she was already experiencing.

Could this sighting have encouraged Alice to leave her job as teacher and move on, and perhaps, also give her the courage to speak to Sally Anne?

I was the sorriest post in the class

"They were in the sorriest state in the nation."

Just after sun down, I was on the patio with my nose in my eye phone, and my father walked out and said would I like to watch the Daily Show with him. So consumed was I by ruminations of the South and murder and black and white, I ignored his question altogether and proceeded to tell him all about Emmett Till and what had happened, as though he'd never heard it. Give me some credit though, I was telling it in a new way. I had chosen a fresh and important climax for my story, that being Mamie Till's quote, saying no don't touch him up, I want everyone to see him. I want everyone to see what they did to my boy. And everyone did see, but it was her courage, her outrage in place of acceptance, that made the difference. I could see my effort to make this story one of might in the face of adversity had failed. My father said, not altogether heartfelt, "Uhg. It sure is terrible what people do to each other." Then I heard Jon Stewart and Rush Limbaugh and a few bleeps and a few more laughs.

Is that what we're supposed to take from this book? Is it a tragedy about a travesty? Or is it a condemnation of the South, as the above quote would imply? I check one and am more apt to side with two, especially after the quote from Nordan that Noah showed us before break. I will allow one possibility though - Just like I did, but in his own way and for some other or any reason, is Nordan trying to draw something entirely new out of the Emmett Till story?

Alice

leaned first one way and then the other, down the line of children. She said, "Is everybody understanding this?"

One child said, "The misuse of power is the root of all evil?"

Alice said, "Well--" (246)

Alice and her students are an interesting group of characters in Wolf-Whistle. Alice on the one hand seems to be a magical force of good, (amongst a cast with its fair amount of awfulness) while on the other, she seems pretty socially ignorant and naive. She seems to understand the emotional damage that might accompany taking a group of kids to, say a mortician, and yet she continues with her hilariously-terrible teaching plan, which in itself is not awful because of inaccuracies, the epithets are indeed very true of the world, however the extremity of these philosophical consequences that come from the mouth of the children in relation to what simply just happens, around them, sheds light on what Nordan seems to be saying of the South and of the human condition. That the lessons are awful because they have to be given, and anyone will learn to live with the injustice of human action if it is all that they know. It is Alice's social ignorance that allows for the juxtaposition, -- the terrible-ness with the innocence of childhood, -- or rather the ability of the children to see what is in in front of them better than those in charge of raising them. What seems important about the children in Alice's class is their ability to be influenced by what the rest of the characters consider to be the norm for human action.

Why does Nordan need the voice of the Alice's school children? How might the line, "The greatest depth of our loss is the beginning of true freedom," relate to rest of the novel?"

" Now why do you reckon Bob's gone remind Solon of a plastic Jesus, colored child like he was and Jesus white as the day is long? Solon didn't claim to have no analytical mind, he just meant to pay the boy a compliment, if he wanted to take it that way. Seem like there was a song about plastic Jesus, won't they? Solon looked around in his head for the tune....Well sure, that was it. Bobo the Plastic Jesus, sho nuff. Solon wondered had anybody else ever noticed the resemblance." (169)


To me Nordan is alluding that Bobo is savior to the black race in this bit of Solon's inner dialogue. We have learned that it is Emmet Till's death that propels the civil rights movement into existence, ushering in a new fight for freedom for blacks all across the country. His death was a wake up call to both black and whites to the insanity of the social situation in the country. The song Solon remembers sings of the plastic Jesus resting on the dashboard of the car, an instrument used to signify hope. Nordan is stating that Bobo's horrific death is, in an paradoxical way, a beginning of hope for the black people of America.

The song "Plastic Jesu" itself is fitting to the blog as it is "southern" in feel,. Here in the video it is played by Paul Newman on a banjo, in the film Cool Hand Luke. Newman's character seems to be in a time of despair, so it is fitting for this portion of the book as well.




Q: Am I right about the symbolization or is this just Solon being his normal bogus self?

Brace yourself, this post is not as funny as usual. How could it be, I'm doing homework during Spring Break

"The next shot was worse, didn't even hit the truck, that boy's losing his touch. Then the next one hit him high on the left side, and Solon thought, 'Well, now I know what it sounds like when a rib breaks. It sounds like a banjo string, real bad out of tune.' This was the shot that turned him over on the seat, flop. Shock, it's not such a bad thing, really, shock ain't."

If you read an encyclopedia article about the murder of Emmit Till, you will likely discount Lewis Nordan's revitalization of the event.

But reading the article in Look magazine is a whole different story. When I skimmed over the Wikipedia article on Emmit Till I didn't see "Bobo" anywhere, but sure enough, the Look article refers to Emmit as "Bobo Till" almost exclusively. Nordan's description of the initial conflict between Bobo and Carolyn (Sally Anne Montberclair) also bears a closer resemblance to the Look account than the historical archive. The Look writers concluded their description of the incident with much emphasis on the "wolf-whistle" that Bobo made to Carolyn. Nordan chose this colloquialization for his book's title.

I went to the Look article to find an explanation for Nordan's Solon character, and although I think I found it, I will stop short of telling what I found and instead ask the class...

How historically accurate do you think this account is, and what purpose do you think Nordan's embellishments serve? The only hint I'll give is that the exchange of fire between Bobo and "Solon" both did and didn't take place.

Wisdom, by Solon Gregg

“It scared him to think that murder and suicide might be just another vain dream, an ideal hope that, once it was accomplished, would turn out to be just like New Orleans, just like everything else in this life, nowhere near what it was cracked up to be, and only another way of feeling bad about himself” (109).

I found the 5th chapter to be incredibly engaging. The stream of Solon Gregg’s thoughts about murdering himself and his family was given in such a hopeful way, giving a disturbing look into the way people like Solon Gregg can think. In this particular quote, he seems to have a moment of clarity, reflecting on his past decisions that have brought him only pain and misery. I semi thought that after this he would decide to turn from his ways, but of course that won’t happen (at least yet). He then quickly pushes aside this thought when, according to Solon, God miraculously gives him the perfect opportunity to go through with his murder suicide, saying, “In Jesus all things were possible, if you only believed” (125). The way he rationalized his actions, despite having at least a small amount of wisdom displayed in this quote (the first one), was terrifying to say the least. Besides saying he is psychopathic, why would he move so quickly from his point of clarity to intentions of murdering Bobo, his family, and himself?

Confederate Buzzards

"Rage Gage didn't like cutting hair up underneath no bunch of buzzards. Especially buzzards named after white men. He wondered why the scientists down in Jackson couldn't be naming a few buzzards after colored people. Ain't like they don't have plenty of buzzards to go around. Half them buzzards ain't even got a name. That's the truth (90-91)."

The recurrence of the buzzards in this story struck me as odd in our first reading, and this scene in Rage Gage's barbershop confirmed that there has to be something more to the scavenging birds than eating dead armadillos. To me, there is a connection between the buzzards and the white people, specifically the original Confederate soldiers whose corpses drew them into Mississippi in the first place. The birds are described as "part of the glorious history of the South (68)", just as Confederate soldiers are, and some of them are said to be so old that they are actually the same birds who feasted on the dead soldiers. I find this detail important because it gives the reader an idea that the soldiers who fought to defend slavery are still around, at least in spirit, and the next description of the younger birds who wander aimlessly in the world, longing for freedom and purpose that their ancestors had, could be compared to the descendants of old white Southerners who still have trouble finding a place in the modernized and, in some places, racially integrated world. I think that Rage Gage has the same feeling about the buzzards, and it doesn't help that half of them are named after white government representatives of Mississippi. Rather than naming the other half after black people, as Rage Gage suggests, I feel like the rest of the buzzards represent the poor white class who have no better standards of living than their black neighbors, but who continue to loom over places like Rage Gage's barbershop and wait for their chance to assert what power their skin color gives them.

Discussion question: Could the section about the buzzard named Ross Barnett be connected to Solon Gregg's own story as he visits Lord Montberclair? If not, why does it exist?

Family Ties

"Alice imagined that this was the way that wives and husbands talked after supper. She thought this was the way she would have confided in Dr. Dust, if they were married, if something had scared her." (85)

Maybe it's just me, but I can't shake the feeling that Wolf Whistle is haunted by the specter of incest. Solon's recollection of his abusive father is the big example, of course, but there are a number of smaller and subtler moments in the novel which hint at the same issue- Joyce and Cloyce's rhyme about Eugene Brister kissing his sister, for example (84). When Alice imagines herself speaking to her uncle as a wife would speak to her husband, one begins to wonder what Nordan is saying about family relationships, and connections between people in general. On some level, Wolf Whistle is a novel about people who don't know how to relate to each other. "Are we alone in this world?" and "everyone is alone in this world" are codas which appear frequently throughout; relationships between blacks and whites shift disastrously and arbitrarily; along with Alice's estrangement from Dr. Dust, Nordan takes pains to render the splintering and chaotic dynamic of the Gregg family, as well as Lord Montberclair's anxieties, by turns violent and tender, regarding his relationship with his wife. With childlike innocence, Red worries that Runt is angry with him. Wolf Whistle is full of characters who try to connect with each other and often go about it in the wrong way. Romantic and sexual relationships, friendships, familial love, and interracial harmonies seem to be built on shaky, shifting, and unsteady foundations. Alice whispers "I love you" to pillows and parrots because she can't say it to Dr. Dust. She talks to her uncle like a husband because the people in Wolf Whistle have trouble knowing how families and marriages and friendships and societies are put together.

Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

Questions: What do Alice's anxieties about family and love tell us about relationships in Wolf Whistle? What sort of portrait of social connections is Nordan painting?

"He could do this one job, snuff the nigger, then come cruising back into town in that sweet little El Camino, tool on over to his house, and how would you say it, close down his family life forever, end on a positive note." (124)

I found this moment worth mentioning because of what we talked about, concerning Solon's character, during last class. Solon seems to have an endless barrage of malicious ideas running through his head at all times and he convinces himself that he is a decent person by taking note of the crimes which he does not commit because they are to heinous even for him. In this moment he comes to the conclusion that he and his family should just quit while they aren't too far behind and commit mass suicide or more like let themsleves be murdered so that Solon can forgive himself for their murders by killing himself last. This would somehow justify his crimes and put him at peace with his family and God. Interestingly enough he realizes that his daughter might want to get married instead of ending her life at fifteen and Solon seems to be okay with this. He even decides to give her the blood money he's going to earn as a wedding present. This type of negatively-reinforced rationalization, provides Solon with the motivation to continue doing the horrible things he enjoys doing and in some moments seems proud of. So far, this book seems to be full of characters who are extremely distant from the other characters in the novel. No one in this book seems to really like each other and most of them certainly dont trust one another. If i ever visit this town i might want to carry a concealed handgununder my shirt too.

Question: How does the apparent distance between characters quide the story's action and why does Solon feel the need to convince himself that he really isn't that bad of a criminal?

Why be Funny?

"It was a happy dream, and filled with hope, although Solon wondered where he had come up with so many bullets. He must have won the bullet lottery. And he must have gotten holt of a heavier pistol too, .38 caliber at least, Solon would have to guess, judging by the amount of carnage" (Nordan 110).

Lying abruptly within the surreal crisis that Solon experiences during his time in the Arrow Hotel, this passage highlights one of the most fascinating dualities in Wolf Whistle, the existence of humor within such great sadness. Obviously, Nordan writes the story as a retelling of the Emmett Till saga predating the Civil Rights Movement but does so through a bizarrely comic means. Here in the story, Solon is contemplating murdering his family as well as himself, yet Nordan decides to frequently inject his pitch black sense of humor throughout. For instance, he coins the term "bullet lottery" (110). Although the humor is indeed pervasive, it never seems to wholly undermine or derail the flow of the story. Somehow the gonzo sense of humor meshes well with the telling of the story and in a way helps the reader better understand the state of mind of characters like Solon.

Discussion Question: Much has been made of the profound impact that the Emmett Till trial had on Nordan, why then does he decide to fill his retelling of the story with wild humor as well as profound sadness and horror?

Vulgarity & Me

"Some days you just have to hang in there for a while, and endure the worst that life has to offer, self-doubt and hard luck and low self-esteem, the whole shooting match, before events just seem to turn themselves around 180 percent...and good things start to happening, you couldn't stop them if you tried."

Rather than take a quote from the work of literature assigned for the week, I thought I would mix things up a bit and take a quote from Prevention magazine. This quote emanated from the legislative lips of Sarah Palin. I expect the reflective downtroddenness she exhibits referred to her failed presidential bid and her daughter's unexpected pregnancy, while the upbeat resoluteness at the end referred to the quickly approaching bear-poaching season.

Just joking! This quote is the omniscient narrator of Wolf Whistle divulging Solon's thoughts. And Solon's reflective downtroddenness concerns his toaster strudeled son and his inability to exact informant's spoils from Lord Montberclair, while the upbeat resoluteness refers to his ability to extract hitman's spoils from Lord Montberclair for murdering bobo and his whole family and himself but not Wanda, if, and only if, she chooses not to be murdered.

I'm wondering what Nordan's characterizations are trying to say about the South. He depicts scenes of chaos - both in the southern streets and in southern minds, but to what end? The quote is something that anyone - you me Sarah Palin and even Solon - can agree with and relate to. This humanization of Solon we cannot turn a blind eye to, although at the same time, he is vicious and depraved. My conclusion is that the contrast only helps the reader to see, that the chaotic slums and murderous thoughts could encroach upon their back alley and frontal lobe, should they have lived in the South at that time. The humanization serves as authentication.

How much of Solon do you see in yourself, or, do you consider him a redeemable/redeemed character?