In Darl's chapter (128-136), we learn more of Jewel and of the tensions that characterize his relationship with the rest of the Bundrens, especially Anse. In this chapter, we learn that Jewel had once gone behind his family's back to buy a nice horse, slipping out every night to work on Mr. Quick's land, and subsequently letting his duties at home fall to the wayside, much to the dismay of his worried mother Addie. When Jewel's whereabouts are finally uncovered, he is met with scorn by his father for "[taking] the work from [his] flesh and blood and [buying] a horse with it (136)." His actions are defended by Cash, who could be said to have been a victim of Jewel's deceit, as he was often left to up Jewel's slack around the house: "'It's all right,' Cash said. 'He earned the money[...] He did it single handed, working at night by lantern. I saw him. So I don't reckon that horse will cost anybody anything except Jewel. I don't reckon we need to worry (135).'"
Even after Cash introduces some logic to the situation, Anse is still angry, which leads me to believe that something else is at stake: Anse's position within his household. When it is still believed that Jewel has taken "a spell of sleeping (128)," Addie dotes over him, dispersing his household duties, taking on some herself "when pa wasn't there (130)," and hiding special food for him. The fact that she does these things in secret, "when pa [isn't] there," suggests that Addie fears Anse's reactions to the special attention she gives to Jewel. Anse feels jealous towards his own children over the affection of his wife, displaced from his role as Addie's husband.
Additionally, Jewel, through his hard work, overturns Anse's belief that "nowhere in this sinful world can a honest, hardworking man profit (110)." Anse leaves his fate largely up to God; he is content in his self-pity and defeat by that which he cannot control. He is described by Samson as being "a lazy man (114)" who seemed to delight in any setback which gave the impression of a divine struggle: "And like he would be kind of proud of whatever come up to make the moving or the settling still look hard (114)." Frankly, Anse is incompetent, incapable, and lacks the enterprise to take things into his own hands. He is in denial of his own incompetency as a father and as a husband, owing his shortcomings to the injustices of "the Lord's Earth (110)." When Jewel disproves the very notion off of which Anse thrives by achieving some sort of gain through hard, honest work, Anse feels threatened, and, in turn, lashes out at Jewel.
-Lauren Gore
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Addie's Sin
"I would think of sin as I would think of the clothes we both wore in the world's face, of the circumspection necessary because he was he and I was I; the sin the more utter and terrible since he was the instrument ordained by God who created the sin, to sanctify that sin he had created......Then I found that I had Jewel. When I waked to discover it, he was two months gone."
This chapter was a shock for several reasons. The first being the nasty unlikable nature Addie shows through her monologue. I somehow imagined Addie as a simple women who did as she was told and got nothing in return. For instance, when Darl told Jewel his mother was a horse I took that mean that she was exhausted to death much like a farm animal. This image presented me with a sad picture of Addie's life. However, it seems I was VERY mistaken. The sad aspects of Addie's life seem to be brought upon herself by her actions and attitude. Her attitude toward death is an example of this masochistic attitude. For this point I would like to ask a question. How does this new information change our view of the odyssey the Bundren's find themselves on?
The second reason I chose this chapter was due to the sin we learn Addie committed. It took me several readings to really understand what Addie had done, but the line that reads "the more utter and terrible since he was the instrument ordained by God who created the sin,..." This passage showed me that it was a minister that Addie had cheated with. (I also might have read ahead a little bit, which helped! Though I won't say who the father is for those who have not read the next chapter) Later in the passage after Addie has described her affair,in vague terms, we learn that Jewel is the bastard child of Addie's lover. This explains the favoritism that Addie has always shown Jewel. We also find that the next two children are simply an appeasment gift to Anse for her sins. What does this say about Addie's character? she is more complex than I originally thought, and I believe this chapter has greatly changed the story. Now I simply don't know what to make of her.
This chapter was a shock for several reasons. The first being the nasty unlikable nature Addie shows through her monologue. I somehow imagined Addie as a simple women who did as she was told and got nothing in return. For instance, when Darl told Jewel his mother was a horse I took that mean that she was exhausted to death much like a farm animal. This image presented me with a sad picture of Addie's life. However, it seems I was VERY mistaken. The sad aspects of Addie's life seem to be brought upon herself by her actions and attitude. Her attitude toward death is an example of this masochistic attitude. For this point I would like to ask a question. How does this new information change our view of the odyssey the Bundren's find themselves on?
The second reason I chose this chapter was due to the sin we learn Addie committed. It took me several readings to really understand what Addie had done, but the line that reads "the more utter and terrible since he was the instrument ordained by God who created the sin,..." This passage showed me that it was a minister that Addie had cheated with. (I also might have read ahead a little bit, which helped! Though I won't say who the father is for those who have not read the next chapter) Later in the passage after Addie has described her affair,in vague terms, we learn that Jewel is the bastard child of Addie's lover. This explains the favoritism that Addie has always shown Jewel. We also find that the next two children are simply an appeasment gift to Anse for her sins. What does this say about Addie's character? she is more complex than I originally thought, and I believe this chapter has greatly changed the story. Now I simply don't know what to make of her.
Jewel's Coping Abilities
"Wait Jewel, I say. But he will not wait. He is almost running now and Cash is left behind. It seems to me that the end which I now carry alone has no weight as though it coasts like a rushing straw upon the furious tide of Jewel's despair. I am not even touching it when, turning he lets it overshoot him, swinging and stops it and sloughs it into the wagon bed in the same motion and looks back at me, his face suffused with fury and despair." :Goddamn you, Goddamn you." (Faulkner 98,99).
To me these lines give good insight into Jewel's character and how he copes with the death of his mother. All the siblings have their own unique personality and way they act. Jewel stands out the most to me as he is the sporadic hothead who expresses his grief by actions such as hoisting his mother's coffin into the wagon by himself. It to me signifies how he is dealing with the despair of his dead mother all by himself even if people are there to give comfort or help. Physically Jewel is the tallest and strongest of the family. His feelings are not as built up as Vardaman's or Darl's who express their grief in the form of thought in their adolescent minds. Jewel's grief is expressed by his outbursts of physical strength. Anger and defiance are what drives him as a character to do the things he does such as riding his horse when told not to by Anse in respect to his mother. By acting out in aggression it is hard to know how strongly Jewel truly felt about his mother when compared to his siblings who are understandable by the narration of their thoughts while you are left with just Jewel's defiance and outbursts. It becomes evident that Jewel's passion for his mother is the most noble when compared to his siblings especially Darl. Jewel's actions show how proud of a person he is and how strong he is not only physically but in his heart. When Jewel says, "Goddamn you. Goddamn you." after loading the coffin it is just his way of expressing his pain and anguish to others as they do not share the same sentiments and sorrows the way he does.
Discussion Question- How would you describe the relationship between Anse and Jewel and which of his siblings do think relates to him the most if any?
To me these lines give good insight into Jewel's character and how he copes with the death of his mother. All the siblings have their own unique personality and way they act. Jewel stands out the most to me as he is the sporadic hothead who expresses his grief by actions such as hoisting his mother's coffin into the wagon by himself. It to me signifies how he is dealing with the despair of his dead mother all by himself even if people are there to give comfort or help. Physically Jewel is the tallest and strongest of the family. His feelings are not as built up as Vardaman's or Darl's who express their grief in the form of thought in their adolescent minds. Jewel's grief is expressed by his outbursts of physical strength. Anger and defiance are what drives him as a character to do the things he does such as riding his horse when told not to by Anse in respect to his mother. By acting out in aggression it is hard to know how strongly Jewel truly felt about his mother when compared to his siblings who are understandable by the narration of their thoughts while you are left with just Jewel's defiance and outbursts. It becomes evident that Jewel's passion for his mother is the most noble when compared to his siblings especially Darl. Jewel's actions show how proud of a person he is and how strong he is not only physically but in his heart. When Jewel says, "Goddamn you. Goddamn you." after loading the coffin it is just his way of expressing his pain and anguish to others as they do not share the same sentiments and sorrows the way he does.
Discussion Question- How would you describe the relationship between Anse and Jewel and which of his siblings do think relates to him the most if any?
Monday, January 30, 2012
She Is a Fish, But Was a Mother
"Jewel's mother is a horse," Darl said.
"Then mine can be a fish, can't it, Darl?" I said.
Jewel is my brother.
"Then mine will have to be a horse, too," I said.
"Why?" Darl said. "If pa is your pa, why does your ma have to be a horse just because Jewel's is?
"Why does it?" I said. "Why does it, Darl?"
Darl is my brother.
"Then what is your ma, Darl?" I said.
"I haven't got ere one," Darl said. "Because if I had one, it is was. And it if was, it cant be is. Can it?"
(Faulker, 101)
Darl and Vardaman's discussion on their mother's passing provide insight to the overall inability of either character to come to terms with death, and more importantly, highlight each character's failure to have a healthy emotional response to death. Vardaman, being so young, simply can not comprehend that difference that follows after death, unable to tackle the matter of existence and death all together. At first glance, Vardaman's comparison of his mother to the dead fish seems like an illogical comparison, but when placed side-by-side with Darl's own questioning of existence, the dialogue provides the reader with a taste of the difficulty the family as a whole faces when grasping the ideas of death and existence. The absurdity of the conversation itself proves worthy to the irrational reactions to Addie's death. Darl finds connections in grammar, as diction and verb tense seems to directly coincide with his rationalizing of existence. Addie has passed away, thus she is a "was" because only someone or something in existence can be an "is," thus defining Darl's comprehension of his mother's existence. I the case of Vardaman, he seems to relate similar objects as interchangeable, especially with Addie and the dead fish. He attributes the similarity of his mother to the fish, seeing his mother is dead just as the fish is. These rationalizations of death and existence repeatedly occur in regards to both characters, providing methodical responses to Addie's death and highlight the family's inability to properly rationalize Addie's death.
Discussion Question:
How does Faulkner attribute the overall theme of death and existence through each individual family member's accounts and behavior? In what unique ways does each character cope with Addie's death?
Said the Spider to the Fly
"'It's not your horse that's dead, Jewel," I say.... 'See them?' I say. High above the house, against the quick thick sky, they hang in narrowing circles. From here they are no more than specks, implacable, patient, portentous. 'But it's not your horse that's dead.'" (page 94)
While there were several moments in this second portion of the reading that made me pause, this has to be the one that made me think the most. While none of the Bundren children are all that pleasant to be around, especially in and after the time of Addie's sickness and death, Darl is particularly malicious to those around him. Whether this is a coping mechanism or whether he is just an unpleasant person to be around can be debated... but I'm leaning towards the latter. Darl is blessed with an intellect and eloquence that is, thus far, far superior to any we have been exposed to - at least, on the surface. For some reason, I think of Darl as a spider - someone who knows all the secrets of those around him and is sitting in the centre of his web, waiting for the right time to strike. There's something decidedly sinister about Darl and I can't tell whether he plans on using that which he already knows to his advantage or keeping quiet about it. What really struck me, however, was Cora's insistence, later on in the book, on how Darl was the best child out of the Bundrens. This brings me to my question: given what we have gathered about Darl and his character, why do you think Cora is so adamant that Darl is like god's gift to mankind? What does this tell us about her?
too soon too soon too soon
"When I used to sleep with Vardaman I had a nightmare once I thought I was awake but I couldn't see and couldn't feel I couldn't feel the bed under me and I couldn't think what I was I couldn't think of my name I couldn't even think I am a girl I couldn't even think I nor even think I want to wake up nor remember what was opposite to awake so I could do that I knew that something was passing but I couldn't even think of time then all of a sudden I knew that something was it was wind blowing over me it was like the wind came and blew me back from there it was I was not blowing the room and Vardaman asleep and all of them back under me again and going on like a piece of cool silk dragging across my naked legs" (121)
Of all the characters in this novel, Dewey Dell intrigues me the most. This quote, found in italics in the text, reveals her thoughts, which make zero sense. This lack of punctuation or coherent thoughts is consistent throughout the chapter, and seems to point to Dewey quickly losing a grip on her sanity. As we discussed last class, Dewey is struggling with finding a solution to her surprise pregnancy, but the dilemma is taking a toll on her. I believe this is a result of the pressures of her family and the era in which she lives. She belongs to a Christian family, and lives among Christian people (some of whom truly believe in God, while others don't). In the Christian faith, it is frowned upon to engage in premarital sex. Dewey, well aware of this, is terrified that she will be discovered, leading to judgement from her family and friends. Dewey also considers herself Christian, or at least is trying to convince herself that she is. This might lead to guilt for what she had done as well.
"I believe in God, God. God, I believe in God" (122).
Living in the 1920s, Dewey also knows that women are looked down upon in society, and having a child out of wedlock would put a label on her for the rest of her life, making it difficult, if not impossible, to find a husband. On top of all of this, she has no one to confide in except for a cow, who fails to offer her much comfort. After thinking through this, I am inclined to sympathize with her situation, and I begin to understand the reasons behind her deteriorating psyche.
It's also worth mentioning Dewey's recurring theme of nakedness, which we have seen multiple times in her chapters. This signifies her belief that despite any evidence, Dewey believes that people can see right through her, giving away her deepest secret. This further points to her shame, guilt, and fear of being discovered.
"...and then my dress is gone: I sit naked on the seat above the unhurrying mules, above the travail" (121).
Of all the characters in this novel, Dewey Dell intrigues me the most. This quote, found in italics in the text, reveals her thoughts, which make zero sense. This lack of punctuation or coherent thoughts is consistent throughout the chapter, and seems to point to Dewey quickly losing a grip on her sanity. As we discussed last class, Dewey is struggling with finding a solution to her surprise pregnancy, but the dilemma is taking a toll on her. I believe this is a result of the pressures of her family and the era in which she lives. She belongs to a Christian family, and lives among Christian people (some of whom truly believe in God, while others don't). In the Christian faith, it is frowned upon to engage in premarital sex. Dewey, well aware of this, is terrified that she will be discovered, leading to judgement from her family and friends. Dewey also considers herself Christian, or at least is trying to convince herself that she is. This might lead to guilt for what she had done as well.
"I believe in God, God. God, I believe in God" (122).
Living in the 1920s, Dewey also knows that women are looked down upon in society, and having a child out of wedlock would put a label on her for the rest of her life, making it difficult, if not impossible, to find a husband. On top of all of this, she has no one to confide in except for a cow, who fails to offer her much comfort. After thinking through this, I am inclined to sympathize with her situation, and I begin to understand the reasons behind her deteriorating psyche.
It's also worth mentioning Dewey's recurring theme of nakedness, which we have seen multiple times in her chapters. This signifies her belief that despite any evidence, Dewey believes that people can see right through her, giving away her deepest secret. This further points to her shame, guilt, and fear of being discovered.
"...and then my dress is gone: I sit naked on the seat above the unhurrying mules, above the travail" (121).
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Neologization capped at 2
"Nowhere in this sinful world can a honest, hardworking man profit. It takes them that runs the stores in the towns, doing no sweating, living off them that sweats. It ain't the hardworking man, the farmer. Sometimes I wonder why we keep at it. It's because there is a reward for us above, where they cant take their autos and such."
This quote drove me to think deeply about why Faulkner put an apostrophe in "it's" but not in "cant." Some of his other misspellings exist to produce a dialectic "sound" to the reading, but this one seems senseless??!!
Although I would delight in dwelling further on this issue, I fear it might not meet the standard of "particularly significant" (darn the added qualifier), and I should instead develop my theory that this quote succinctly encapsulates Faulkner's effort to depict southerners as hopeless and crazed traditionalists who stifle individual expression in favor of God and convention and God's convention.
Noah edicted that we make these short essays concise, so I'll end by simply divulging that I am in love with Addie. It's not simply her superior swimming skills or those cute dimples that turn me on; I love how she stands out. Her characterization seems different (neologism spared) than the other characters in several ways. Her defiance of capitalized pronouns and her hatred for her children (I grew up hating close family and know intimately how liberating it can be) are both strikingly forward-thinking. Faulkner and I have found a solution to the South. If only we can bring her back to life. Or maybe that happens. I'm only page 176.
This quote drove me to think deeply about why Faulkner put an apostrophe in "it's" but not in "cant." Some of his other misspellings exist to produce a dialectic "sound" to the reading, but this one seems senseless??!!
Although I would delight in dwelling further on this issue, I fear it might not meet the standard of "particularly significant" (darn the added qualifier), and I should instead develop my theory that this quote succinctly encapsulates Faulkner's effort to depict southerners as hopeless and crazed traditionalists who stifle individual expression in favor of God and convention and God's convention.
Noah edicted that we make these short essays concise, so I'll end by simply divulging that I am in love with Addie. It's not simply her superior swimming skills or those cute dimples that turn me on; I love how she stands out. Her characterization seems different (neologism spared) than the other characters in several ways. Her defiance of capitalized pronouns and her hatred for her children (I grew up hating close family and know intimately how liberating it can be) are both strikingly forward-thinking. Faulkner and I have found a solution to the South. If only we can bring her back to life. Or maybe that happens. I'm only page 176.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
To Choose to Die
"You all will have to look out for pa the best you can," she said. "I'm tired."
This quote from Tull's mother is possibly the best dying statement I have ever read. From Tull's description of her working almost every day of her life, rarely taking even a moment to rest, one could make the argument that she literally looked around one day and decided that she wanted to die because death seemed similar to sleep. The same suggestion of death as a choice that everyone makes is constantly brought up in reference to Addie's death, especially when Anse insists that "Her mind is set on it, I reckon she's bound to go." Jewel seems to also consider his mother's death a decision, however he sees it as a decision being forced upon her by Anse's indecision, Darl's appearance of indifference, Cash and his coffin and Dewey Dell and her fan. He believes that if it were not for the rest of his family interfering, Addie may have decided to live after all. Even Doctor Peabody mentions that "when I was young I believed death to be a phenomenon of the body; now I know it to be merely a function of the mind." I have read this novel before but only noticed this time that, despite Anse's assurance that Addie wants die and be buried in Jefferson and Cora's conviction that she is holding on just to be able to give her eldest sons their goodbye kisses, Addie seemingly decides to die at the most inconvenient time for anyone. Her coffin is not finished, Darl and Jewel are far away, and there is a powerful storm brewing. While Tull's mother apparently chose to die to escape her life of toil and fatigue, and most characters outside of family seem to think Addie is doing the same, it seems to me that if Addie literally chose to die, she had a different motivation.
Discussion question: Why is the scene of Addie's death narrated from Darl's point of view? Darl is obviously absent from the actual house, however he knows every detail of her death and interjects his own narration of himself telling Jewel that Addie has died. Are we supposed to be led to believe that Darl has some kind of supernatural powers?
This quote from Tull's mother is possibly the best dying statement I have ever read. From Tull's description of her working almost every day of her life, rarely taking even a moment to rest, one could make the argument that she literally looked around one day and decided that she wanted to die because death seemed similar to sleep. The same suggestion of death as a choice that everyone makes is constantly brought up in reference to Addie's death, especially when Anse insists that "Her mind is set on it, I reckon she's bound to go." Jewel seems to also consider his mother's death a decision, however he sees it as a decision being forced upon her by Anse's indecision, Darl's appearance of indifference, Cash and his coffin and Dewey Dell and her fan. He believes that if it were not for the rest of his family interfering, Addie may have decided to live after all. Even Doctor Peabody mentions that "when I was young I believed death to be a phenomenon of the body; now I know it to be merely a function of the mind." I have read this novel before but only noticed this time that, despite Anse's assurance that Addie wants die and be buried in Jefferson and Cora's conviction that she is holding on just to be able to give her eldest sons their goodbye kisses, Addie seemingly decides to die at the most inconvenient time for anyone. Her coffin is not finished, Darl and Jewel are far away, and there is a powerful storm brewing. While Tull's mother apparently chose to die to escape her life of toil and fatigue, and most characters outside of family seem to think Addie is doing the same, it seems to me that if Addie literally chose to die, she had a different motivation.
Discussion question: Why is the scene of Addie's death narrated from Darl's point of view? Darl is obviously absent from the actual house, however he knows every detail of her death and interjects his own narration of himself telling Jewel that Addie has died. Are we supposed to be led to believe that Darl has some kind of supernatural powers?
Faith and The Road
"I have done things but neither better nor worse than them that pretend other like, and I know that Old Marster will care for me as for ere a sparrow that falls. But it seems hard that a man in his need could be so flouted by a road." -Anse
This quote highlights a couple of the things the novel has spoken to me so far: Christianity's role in the novel, and Anse's resistance to the 'road'. In regards to faith, I enjoy seeing the difference between Anse's belief, and that of Cora's. Cora's faith is eloquent and fierce, while Anse's faith, although just as present as Cora's, is portrayed as simple and dim-witted. The sovereignty of God is brought up frequently by both parties, in regards to the rough times they are facing. They are two very different people professing the same belief in different ways. I thought Faulkner's insight into the different depths and types of faith in the south to be interesting and informative.
In regards to 'the road', I questioned whether Anse's resistance to the road to be a symbolizing of the rural south's resistance to the modernizing north. A road symbolizes vast transportation, business, and to Anse (and the people like him in the south) complication. To Anse, the greatest burdens on his shoulders are the saving of three dollars, and the acquiring of dentures. The road presents a great contrast to the lifestyle of Anse, and to me symbolized modernities fierce inconvenience to those not properly prepared for it.
Discussion Question: Given the actions and heart motives of Anse, Is his faith legitimate? Why does he find the road such an inconvenience? and (if not already discussed) What are the benefits to having so many different points of view in the novel?
- Hunter Leeves
Faulkner et Battaile
"And the next morning they found him in his shirt tail, laying asleep on the floor like a felled steer, and the top of the box bored clean full of holes and Cash's new auger broke of in the last one. When they taken the lid off they found that two of them had bored on into her face"
"I think to myself he aint that less of a man or he couldn't a bore himself this long"
""I have bore you what the Lord God sent me" (73).
"I think to myself he aint that less of a man or he couldn't a bore himself this long"
""I have bore you what the Lord God sent me" (73).
The scene after Addie Bundren's death and coffining proved to be confusingly hilarious to me. It certainly was gory, but nonetheless humorous to me. I also am a large horror/gore movie fan, so perhaps this isn't what Faulkner was aiming at, but when looking at his choice of words, I have to think that he shared some sense of humor similar to mine. Most of this writing seemed like Batailles automatism, and this particular scene when Vardaman drills two holes through his mothers face, I liked to imagine them going straight through her eyes. This also led me back to Bataille and his fascination for the symbol in The Story of The Eye. Perhaps Faulkner read Bataille, or Bataille Faulkner, as they were contemporaries of one another. Apparently Faulkner had a large following in Europe as well.
I'm not sure what Faulkner's mind was working at while writing this. It is morbid, sad, fragmented. It is also surprising and hilarious at times so far.
Discussion Question: Did anyone else find this scene to be darkly humorous? What overall impression does the story so far make upon you. What is "the mood"?
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Wash And His Raging Impotence
Wash blindly idolizes Colonel Sutpen, seeing him as the embodiment of what we assume to be the "Old South," an assumption drawn from the context of Reconstruction. For Wash, Colonel Sutpen stands for all that is Godly and righteous, a world in which the white man maintains his dominion:
Wash clings fervently to Colonel Sutpen, playing the role of sycophant to Sutpen's drunken ramblings of Confederate revival.
Wash is further disempowered at the hands of Colonel Sutpen himself when Colonel Sutpen begins to court Wash's 15-year-old granddaughter behind his back. Wash believes the power struggle to be reversed when Colonel Sutpen is found to be the father of Wash's great-granddaughter: "Wash Jones has fixed old Sutpen at last. Hit taken him twenty years, but he has done hit at last (542)," speaking of Colonel Sutpen's obligations to "marry the gal or pay up (548)." However, after Wash's granddaughter gives birth to a daughter, Sutpen shrugs his obligations, again leaving Wash in an impotent rage. At this point, Wash's power has been challenged by all over whom Wash attempted to assert his dominance. The ideals which fueled Wash's self-identity and concept of world order have been debased, and Wash thus begins his violent and deranged decay, taking Colonel Sutpen, his own progeny, and anyone else who dare threaten his power down with him.
Discussion questions: In what ways are Wash's struggles mirrored by Colonel Sutpen? In what ways does Wash himself embody non-Southerners' concept of the "Old South?" Is Wash's Granddaughter somehow aware of her and Sutpen's eventual demise?
Meanwhile on weekdays he would see the fine figure of the man [Sutpen]—they were the same age almost to a day, though neither of them (perhaps because Wash had a grandchild while Sutpen's son was a youth in school) ever thought of himself as being so—on the fine figure of the black stallion, galloping about the plantation. For that moment his heart would be quiet and proud. It would seem to him that that world in which Negroes, whom the Bible told him had been created and cursed by God to be brute and vassal to all men of white skin, were better found and housed and even clothed than he and his; that world in which he sensed always about him mocking echoes of black laughter was but a dream and an illusion, and that the actual world was this one across which his own lonely apotheosis seemed to gallop on the black thoroughbred, thinking how the Book said also that all men were created in the image of God and hence all men made the same image in God's eyes at least; so that he could say, as though speaking of himself, "A fine proud man." If God Himself was to come down and ride the natural earth, that's what He would aim to look (538).
Wash clings fervently to Colonel Sutpen, playing the role of sycophant to Sutpen's drunken ramblings of Confederate revival.
Sutpen would reach that stage of impotent and furious undefeat in which he would rise, swaying and plunging, and declare again that he would take his pistol and the black stallion and ride single-handed into Washington and kill Lincoln, dead now, and Sherman, now a private citizen."Kill them!" he would shout. "Shoot them down like the dogs they are—""Sho, Kernel; sho, Kernel," Wash would say, catching Sutpen as he fell (540).Wash even goes so far as to appoint himself as groundskeeper to Sutpen's property in his absence, an illusion of grandeur which is met with skepticism and mockery, particularly by Sutpen's slaves: "The Sutpen slaves themselves heard of his statement. They laughed. It was not the first time they had laughed at him, calling him white trash behind his back" (536). Sutpen's slaves undermine Wash's concept of the subject-object relationship between the white man and his inferiors; he is subjugated by those whom he seeks to subjugate, leaving him "panting and impotent and raging (537)." Wash is disillusioned, knocked from his imagined pedestal, and unable to depart from the script which comprises his perceived social role.
Wash is further disempowered at the hands of Colonel Sutpen himself when Colonel Sutpen begins to court Wash's 15-year-old granddaughter behind his back. Wash believes the power struggle to be reversed when Colonel Sutpen is found to be the father of Wash's great-granddaughter: "Wash Jones has fixed old Sutpen at last. Hit taken him twenty years, but he has done hit at last (542)," speaking of Colonel Sutpen's obligations to "marry the gal or pay up (548)." However, after Wash's granddaughter gives birth to a daughter, Sutpen shrugs his obligations, again leaving Wash in an impotent rage. At this point, Wash's power has been challenged by all over whom Wash attempted to assert his dominance. The ideals which fueled Wash's self-identity and concept of world order have been debased, and Wash thus begins his violent and deranged decay, taking Colonel Sutpen, his own progeny, and anyone else who dare threaten his power down with him.
Discussion questions: In what ways are Wash's struggles mirrored by Colonel Sutpen? In what ways does Wash himself embody non-Southerners' concept of the "Old South?" Is Wash's Granddaughter somehow aware of her and Sutpen's eventual demise?
Monday, January 23, 2012
Clinging to That Which Robs Us
When I read "A Rose for Emily" the first time I noted that Emily Grierson, like many characters in Southern literature, refuses to let go of the past. However, it seems too simple to place a blanket of mild nostalgia over every character with roots in the old South. To wave away their despair and be satisfied with the conclusion that they miss the old ways of the (in many ways imaginary) Southern aristocracy is to ignore the personal grievances, trials, regrets and hopes of each specific person that we read about. For this reason I decided to search more intently for an explanation behind Emily Grierson's actions.
The quote that caught my attention is when the narrator admits that "we know that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will." Faulkner places this comment in reference to Emily's father, who had driven away many suitors who tried to court her, however after reading the entire piece the line seems to foreshadow Emily's need to keep Homer Barron even after his death. Homer, being not only a "day laborer" but a Northerner, steals the reputation that Emily spends her life trying to maintain. Her status as the untouchable Southern belle who was too good for any man while her father was alive is attacked by the people of Jefferson, who, though they seem to like Homer, still consider him a low-class Yankee with no business courting a Southern woman. After she and Homer are seen together, Emily is trapped in a corner. Without the image of his courtship, she is an old maid, but with it she is seen as having lowered her standards, a notion that does not go unnoticed, or unappreciated, for that matter, by the townspeople. The narrator even goes so far as to comment on Emily's purchase of a monogrammed toilet set and suit for Homer with the mysteriously simple words "We said 'They must be married'. We were really glad. We were glad because the two cousins were even more Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been." I am struck by the idea that many people in the town are either jealous of the Griersons or so tired of the Grierson family's pride that they find satisfaction in watching the last heiress fall. This instills in Emily the fervent need to prove herself as untouchable by their judgement, by the changing world and ultimately by Homer.
I can only guess that it seems fitting in Emily's mind to purchase gifts that would suggest that she is marrying Homer, to prove that she can, in fact, find a husband (the narrator suggests that even after her father's death no one came to court Emily) but then to subsequently murder him so that, at least in her mind, she will not change. With nothing else left Emily clings to the memory of her father, who stole her potential love life as a young woman, then to Homer, who stole her reputation, not to mention his connection to the North, which, as must be noted, was blamed for "stealing" the Southerners' way of life. Despite what she knows they stole from her, Emily's pride does not allow her to acknowledge publicly that she has been wronged or to accept change, even in the form of death, but refuses to bury her father until she is forced to, and when no one forces their way into her affairs, she never buries Homer Barron at all.
Discussion question: Why don't any of the townspeople persist in asking questions about Homer's sudden disappearance? Do they actually respect Emily's pride enough not to ask, and if that is the case, to what extent does stereotypical "Southern pride" play a part in the events and narration of this story?
-Claire Peckham
The quote that caught my attention is when the narrator admits that "we know that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will." Faulkner places this comment in reference to Emily's father, who had driven away many suitors who tried to court her, however after reading the entire piece the line seems to foreshadow Emily's need to keep Homer Barron even after his death. Homer, being not only a "day laborer" but a Northerner, steals the reputation that Emily spends her life trying to maintain. Her status as the untouchable Southern belle who was too good for any man while her father was alive is attacked by the people of Jefferson, who, though they seem to like Homer, still consider him a low-class Yankee with no business courting a Southern woman. After she and Homer are seen together, Emily is trapped in a corner. Without the image of his courtship, she is an old maid, but with it she is seen as having lowered her standards, a notion that does not go unnoticed, or unappreciated, for that matter, by the townspeople. The narrator even goes so far as to comment on Emily's purchase of a monogrammed toilet set and suit for Homer with the mysteriously simple words "We said 'They must be married'. We were really glad. We were glad because the two cousins were even more Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been." I am struck by the idea that many people in the town are either jealous of the Griersons or so tired of the Grierson family's pride that they find satisfaction in watching the last heiress fall. This instills in Emily the fervent need to prove herself as untouchable by their judgement, by the changing world and ultimately by Homer.
I can only guess that it seems fitting in Emily's mind to purchase gifts that would suggest that she is marrying Homer, to prove that she can, in fact, find a husband (the narrator suggests that even after her father's death no one came to court Emily) but then to subsequently murder him so that, at least in her mind, she will not change. With nothing else left Emily clings to the memory of her father, who stole her potential love life as a young woman, then to Homer, who stole her reputation, not to mention his connection to the North, which, as must be noted, was blamed for "stealing" the Southerners' way of life. Despite what she knows they stole from her, Emily's pride does not allow her to acknowledge publicly that she has been wronged or to accept change, even in the form of death, but refuses to bury her father until she is forced to, and when no one forces their way into her affairs, she never buries Homer Barron at all.
Discussion question: Why don't any of the townspeople persist in asking questions about Homer's sudden disappearance? Do they actually respect Emily's pride enough not to ask, and if that is the case, to what extent does stereotypical "Southern pride" play a part in the events and narration of this story?
-Claire Peckham
The man himself lay in the bed.
For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin. The body had apparently once laid in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him. What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust.
Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strain of iron-gray hair.
*
Above is the strange and somewhat mysterious ending to A Rose For Emily. Although we now understand the smell, the buying of the arsenic and what happened to Homer Barron, we are left with the description of a room, arranged by who we can assume was Miss Emily, that is in likeness to an art exhibit dedicated to the metaphysics of love and death. The "long sleep that outlasts love," appears to have decomposed Miss Emily's sanity as well as the body of her former lover. The indentation of the head on the second pillow seems to say that she might of habitually lied by his corpse, pretending that everything hadn't gone so wrong in her life. She wanted to restore an idea of glory in the aristocracy of the south and the tomb she kept was a last ditch effort.
Emily's father would not have approved of her marrying a yankee, so she didn't, she killed one. The love, like Emily's hopes for a life fulfilling the expectations of her family, looks to have died with both of them. Barron's body was in the "attitude of an embrace," but now, like the house Emily lived in in, time has warped everything into the pose of decay itself. How does Faulkner describe the house, the town, the character Emily (her physical and mental manias), and what do you think it might mean in a more general argument? Do you think that the murder and exhibition of the body really has philosophical implications or is Faulkner not offering a symbolic representation of the South? Is the story purely aesthetic - or does Faulkner have more to say?
*
-grayson
Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strain of iron-gray hair.
*
Above is the strange and somewhat mysterious ending to A Rose For Emily. Although we now understand the smell, the buying of the arsenic and what happened to Homer Barron, we are left with the description of a room, arranged by who we can assume was Miss Emily, that is in likeness to an art exhibit dedicated to the metaphysics of love and death. The "long sleep that outlasts love," appears to have decomposed Miss Emily's sanity as well as the body of her former lover. The indentation of the head on the second pillow seems to say that she might of habitually lied by his corpse, pretending that everything hadn't gone so wrong in her life. She wanted to restore an idea of glory in the aristocracy of the south and the tomb she kept was a last ditch effort.
Emily's father would not have approved of her marrying a yankee, so she didn't, she killed one. The love, like Emily's hopes for a life fulfilling the expectations of her family, looks to have died with both of them. Barron's body was in the "attitude of an embrace," but now, like the house Emily lived in in, time has warped everything into the pose of decay itself. How does Faulkner describe the house, the town, the character Emily (her physical and mental manias), and what do you think it might mean in a more general argument? Do you think that the murder and exhibition of the body really has philosophical implications or is Faulkner not offering a symbolic representation of the South? Is the story purely aesthetic - or does Faulkner have more to say?
*
-grayson
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Wash
Wash made little to no sense to me on the first reading. I suspected (and was later found right) that we were jumping into the middle of a longer tale and thus lacked helpful back-story. Although the ending of Wash could likely have stood as the ending of the entire work, titled Absalom, Absalom!, I later learned that the story stretched even beyond the slash and burn incident.
Both characteristically and metaphorically, Sutpen resembles the Emily of A Rose For Emily. In his action and by the significance Wash Jones (heretofore referred to as "Wash") attributes to it, Sutpen stands as an enduring memory of a proud and aristocratic South - a South that is increasingly historic and fading. Despite his central role in the story, Sutpen failed to motivate much interest in me. Instead, the character of Wash I found much more interesting. This passage - the bulk of which is one majestic 151-word sentence - is illuminative:
"Meanwhile on weekdays he would see the fine figure of the man...on the fine figure of the black stallion, galloping about the plantation. For that moment his heart would be quiet and proud. It would seem to him that that world in which Negroes, whom the Bible told him had been created and cursed by God to be brute and vassal to all men of white skin, were better found and housed and even clothed than he and his; that world in which he sensed always about him mocking echoes of black laughter was but a dream and an illusion, and that the actual world was this one across which his own lonely apotheosis seemed to gallop on the black thoroughbred, thinking how the Book said also that all men were created in the image of God and hence all men made the same image in God's eyes at least; so that he could say, as though speaking of himself, 'A fine proud man. If God Himself was to come down and ride the natural earth, that's what He would aim to look like.'"
This passage gets at the "point" while also raising some questions. Faulkner considered slavery an integral part of the story of the War and the South. Juxtaposing a poor white in the metamorphosing environment of the Civil War South provides an interesting contrast. Beyond the issue of race and supremacy lies the greater question of what Wash symbolizes in this story. If Sutpen himself fills the role of the grey-bearded Amish man trying to cross the street in Times Square, then what is Wash? Clearly Wash and Sutpen are too different degrees of Southern authenticity. We dare not forget that Sutpen has his letter from General Lee.
Where, then, do we place Wash in the Southern metaphorical landscape? Is he also an outdated extension of Southern aristocratic culture, him an envious immitation rather than an authentic, Lee-certified Southerner? What significance is it that, rather than reaching his own destruction in whatever way fate would have, he instead went mad and slaughtered and burned those around him?
More than anything I am driven to explore 1) the significance of Wash's idolization of Sutpen and 2) why Faulkner saw it fit to sadisticize Wash, and how that contributed to the larger message.
Both characteristically and metaphorically, Sutpen resembles the Emily of A Rose For Emily. In his action and by the significance Wash Jones (heretofore referred to as "Wash") attributes to it, Sutpen stands as an enduring memory of a proud and aristocratic South - a South that is increasingly historic and fading. Despite his central role in the story, Sutpen failed to motivate much interest in me. Instead, the character of Wash I found much more interesting. This passage - the bulk of which is one majestic 151-word sentence - is illuminative:
"Meanwhile on weekdays he would see the fine figure of the man...on the fine figure of the black stallion, galloping about the plantation. For that moment his heart would be quiet and proud. It would seem to him that that world in which Negroes, whom the Bible told him had been created and cursed by God to be brute and vassal to all men of white skin, were better found and housed and even clothed than he and his; that world in which he sensed always about him mocking echoes of black laughter was but a dream and an illusion, and that the actual world was this one across which his own lonely apotheosis seemed to gallop on the black thoroughbred, thinking how the Book said also that all men were created in the image of God and hence all men made the same image in God's eyes at least; so that he could say, as though speaking of himself, 'A fine proud man. If God Himself was to come down and ride the natural earth, that's what He would aim to look like.'"
This passage gets at the "point" while also raising some questions. Faulkner considered slavery an integral part of the story of the War and the South. Juxtaposing a poor white in the metamorphosing environment of the Civil War South provides an interesting contrast. Beyond the issue of race and supremacy lies the greater question of what Wash symbolizes in this story. If Sutpen himself fills the role of the grey-bearded Amish man trying to cross the street in Times Square, then what is Wash? Clearly Wash and Sutpen are too different degrees of Southern authenticity. We dare not forget that Sutpen has his letter from General Lee.
Where, then, do we place Wash in the Southern metaphorical landscape? Is he also an outdated extension of Southern aristocratic culture, him an envious immitation rather than an authentic, Lee-certified Southerner? What significance is it that, rather than reaching his own destruction in whatever way fate would have, he instead went mad and slaughtered and burned those around him?
More than anything I am driven to explore 1) the significance of Wash's idolization of Sutpen and 2) why Faulkner saw it fit to sadisticize Wash, and how that contributed to the larger message.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Old Ties and the Oratory of Decay
William Faulkner's short story A Rose for Emily, a title which he says is an allegory on his sympathy for his constructed character in Introducción a la narrativa breve de William Faulkner, presents what was to me at first a strangely descriptive account of a physical entity and a physical space.
The narrator in the fragmented, non-linear telling takes the role of one of the community members. His voice is at first questionably sexist, favoring the view of the men in their reasons to attend her funeral "out of respectful affection for a fallen monument", while the women are presented as favoring the less important, "to see see the inside of the house". This was extremely impressive to me after a second read, when I (and perhaps the audience in general) sees that the women truly cared for what was important in the story (to find out what was in the house).
The description of the house is gaudy, archaic with "cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies", all which seem to be in ugly contrast with one another. The description of the house also seems to fit the attitude of the community toward Emily herself, as the house holds "stubborn and coquettish decay".
I think the tension presented between men and women relates to the comparison of the two popular conceptions of Emily. She was a monument of the past, archaic and important, magnified, venerated, and important to the history of the city. This is also presented with Colonel Sartoris relieving her of her tax duties, seemingly because she was of his time, the old South, and his traditional disposition led him to feel an obligation toward helping this sympathetic character. Once again, in contrast, "Only a man of Colonel Sartoris' generation and thought could have invented it, and only a woman could have believed it". This grouping, generalization, and mindset continues throughout the narrative and presents reactions to events in Emily's life. It is important to realize that this narrative view presents a subjective one, and thus may not characterize Emily as well as an omniscient point of view may have. It does, however, characterize the townspeople, and thus characterizes what Emily is for them. She is hardly a responder, and more of a statue, an idol, and a representation of the old. She allows the town to have a converstaion with itself upon her. She is the subject of their "porch conversation"
It seems as though Emily is clinging to something from the past, with her old house. We later learn that she is actually in poverty, and thus does not have the means to change her house to the new of the block. She also must remain due to the death of her former sweetheart. The aesthetic value assigned to her through this house, and through her china-painting lessons, are misconceptions. She taught the lessons to relatives of the Colonel, and once he dies, the lessons stop. He seemingly set this up for her to have financial help.
Emily is also connected to an "invisible watch", where time is present, but has no continuation within the world of Emiliy. Her father's portrait remains visible in her home, linking her to tradition and the past.
But why does Emily kill her sweetheart? Her kin comes to try to rid her of him, as the townsfolk called them for such a duty. He did not fit the framework in which the town pieced her in. She was poor, but marrying "a day laborer" was supposedly against "noblesse oblige", let alone the fact that he was "a Northerner". His appearance and mannerisms are quite southern to me, "with his hat cocked and a cigar in his teeth, reins and whip in a yellow glove", but that isn't enough for the town.
The fragmented time line aids Faulkner in disorienting the reader from the connection of events. It is difficult to connect the Arsenic purchase and the peak of the love affair as well as the relatives' visit. This adds to the surprise of the decaying body. But why does he have to die?
Discussion Question: What do you think is Faulkner's reason for killing of Homer Barron. What does he represent in Emily, in the townsfolk, and in terms of history?
-Adam Amrani
The narrator in the fragmented, non-linear telling takes the role of one of the community members. His voice is at first questionably sexist, favoring the view of the men in their reasons to attend her funeral "out of respectful affection for a fallen monument", while the women are presented as favoring the less important, "to see see the inside of the house". This was extremely impressive to me after a second read, when I (and perhaps the audience in general) sees that the women truly cared for what was important in the story (to find out what was in the house).
The description of the house is gaudy, archaic with "cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies", all which seem to be in ugly contrast with one another. The description of the house also seems to fit the attitude of the community toward Emily herself, as the house holds "stubborn and coquettish decay".
 |
| How I like to envision her house |
It seems as though Emily is clinging to something from the past, with her old house. We later learn that she is actually in poverty, and thus does not have the means to change her house to the new of the block. She also must remain due to the death of her former sweetheart. The aesthetic value assigned to her through this house, and through her china-painting lessons, are misconceptions. She taught the lessons to relatives of the Colonel, and once he dies, the lessons stop. He seemingly set this up for her to have financial help.
Emily is also connected to an "invisible watch", where time is present, but has no continuation within the world of Emiliy. Her father's portrait remains visible in her home, linking her to tradition and the past.
But why does Emily kill her sweetheart? Her kin comes to try to rid her of him, as the townsfolk called them for such a duty. He did not fit the framework in which the town pieced her in. She was poor, but marrying "a day laborer" was supposedly against "noblesse oblige", let alone the fact that he was "a Northerner". His appearance and mannerisms are quite southern to me, "with his hat cocked and a cigar in his teeth, reins and whip in a yellow glove", but that isn't enough for the town.
The fragmented time line aids Faulkner in disorienting the reader from the connection of events. It is difficult to connect the Arsenic purchase and the peak of the love affair as well as the relatives' visit. This adds to the surprise of the decaying body. But why does he have to die?
Discussion Question: What do you think is Faulkner's reason for killing of Homer Barron. What does he represent in Emily, in the townsfolk, and in terms of history?
-Adam Amrani
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
A Confederacy Lost
"I can hardly remember my father's look, I cannot
Answer his voice as he calls farewell in the misty
Mounting where riders gather at gates.
He was old then--I was a child--his hand
Held out for mine, some daybreak snatched away,
And he rode out, a broken man. Now let
His lone grave keep, surer than cypress roots,
The vow I made beside him. God too late
Unseals to certain eyes the drift
Of time and the hopes of men and a sacred cause.
The fortune of the Lees goes with the land
Whose sons will keep it still. My mother
Told me much. She sat among the candles,
Fingering the Memoirs, now so long unread.
And as my pen moves on across the page
Her voice comes back, a murmuring distillation
Of old Virginia times now faint and gone,
The hurt of all that was and cannot be."
Donald Davidson's "Lee in the Mountains"
I find this poem very interesting because in reality this is a poem written about General Lee's son who edited and published General Lee's memoirs. The first person speaker is Lee's son, and he describes his father's nature, his father's endeavors, his father's life. The poem provides a look into General Robert E. Lee's life, and a son's admiration. In fact, Robert E Lee's son loved his father greatly, thus he speaks so highly of him in this poem. The son has never witnessed the wartime brutality, yet he speaks of his father's life, almost vicariously living through his memories. It seems the poem is about a son's devotion and love for his father, a love for what his father stands for--a Southern way of life. The excerpt is pivotal in understanding the son's anguish because he never truly knew his father, but he has his memoirs, the sole remaining evidence of who his father truly was and the South as it used to be. Robert E Lee was a true Southern Confederate, a thing of the past, a memory that has no voice.
General Lee's life and story are not remembered by the many. He fought and died in vain. He fought for a place which admonished change and new influence, a place of conservative thought and understanding. General Lee is gone as is the Southern confidence of his time. The poem highlights a son's struggle to be at peace with himself and his father's legacy. Throughout the poem there are various undertones about the historical Southern past, and of times which used to be, and he notes "old Virginia times now faint and gone." The speaker even notes the old Confederate cry, the march of the armies, the young going to fight for their long-instilled Southern beliefs and ideals, only to die. The speaker references various facets of the old South, and a time that used to be, but can no longer hold true in current society. Thus, the poem highlights an implied view of Southern life, and its gradual detriment.
Discussion Question: How does the death of Robert E. Lee and his failures prove pivotal to the detriment of the Southern mentality in the poem? Although there is a clear split between Northern ideals and Southern conservatism, why does the poem highlight aspects of Southern Life to be a thing of the past, a dream forbidden?
Eyers and Archetypes, O'Connor and Senility, First Reflections
Edward Eyers and Southern Archetypes
Edward L. Ayers does a nice job in his abbreviated chapter highlighting (mis)conceptions, identity topics, and archetypes of the South. He highlights the problems and the necessity of conceptions about the south, from within and without the region. He states that the intra-conceptions are necessary, economically, that "The South needs these internal differences....needs as much diversity as it can be made to contain" and that much of "Southern culture is made to order" (5). He questions the reality of self proclaimed southern identity among blacks, stating that they have "made parts of Southern states their own through sweat and sacrifice" emphasizing the spacial and physical, as he says "they have loved certain farms, houses, and streets" (4). This selective southern love is definitely not sparse in literature. It reminds me of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson. The piano in the play serves as a medium for the character’s modern struggle and desire to simultaneously shed their past slave narrative as well as forge their own generations continuum of their ancestors struggle.
| The Piano |
- Discussion Qustion: Is studying the South as an "outsider" akin to being an Orientalist? Do I (or any other students not from the South) have enough "credability" to say that Ayer's self identification as a "friendly Southerner" is a bit too much?
Flannery O'Connor and Dark Humor
The short story titled A Late Encounter with the Enemy by O'Connor struck me as quite brilliant so I decided to write about it a bit. The dark humor presented by the quite selfish and foolish characters provided an interesting take on some thoughts that Eyers wrote about. Sally Poker Sash seems to have a passive internalized distaste for education and "the upstarts who had turned the world on its head and unsettled the ways of decent living" (19), and wishes to show them all by presenting her comically senile grandfather who had served some part in the Civil War, although "he didn't remember that war at all"
A colloquial language identity is presented in the grandfather's speech, as he calls girls "guls", national "nashnul", and tuxedo "tuxseeder" (20). He seems to be proud of his role in a "national" event and that "It wasn't a thing local about it". His senility seems to have created a lapse in his extreme Southern pride, and he now only cares about beautiful women.
Sally Poker Sash's desire to return to history, the old ways, perhaps the Southern ways, at first annoys her grandfather on stage, as "He had no use for any of it. What happened then wasn't anything to a man living now and he was living now" (22) and later drives him into a fit of seemingly violent involuntary memory involving high levels of stress and fear, which kills him as he satirically becomes a "corpse, in the long line at the Coca-Cola machine"
- Discussion Question: Is O'Connor suggesting that extreme historical and Southern pride are silly, through Sally, or suggesting that the loss of this history and identity can be tragically silly as well, through the grandfather?
Monday, January 16, 2012
Welcome to the class blog for E344L: The American South in Literature, Film and Other Media. Here, we will post our responses to the readings for the day. Each student has to post at least six times in the course of the semester, and will have signed up for posting dates early on. When it is your posting date, do one of two things:
Option 1: Create a new post. In that post, consider one "moment" in the reading that strikes you as particularly significant, and that you think illustrates what the author or creator is getting at by showing us what he or she is showing us. Think about what the "point" of the story, novel, film, or other text is, or what "argument" the author is making about a given theme with this text.
Quote that moment, and then then write a short paragraph in which you explain why you chose it and why you think it is so significant for the author's argument.
Finally, write a short discussion question that this moment leads you to think about. What does this moment make you speculate about that you'd like the whole class to think consider?
Option 2: Comment on someone else's post. If, when you login to the blog, someone else has already chosen the moment that you were going to choose, you don't have to create a new post (or choose a different moment). Instead, you can add a comment to someone else's post. In a short paragraph, explain how and why you agree or disagree with the previous poster's interpretation, and explain how you would expand on it (or alter it). Your comment should not be an answer to the previous poster's discussion question; it should be a reaction to their interpretation of the quote.
Following your comment, add your own discussion question--again, one that you'd like the whole class to consider.
Following your comment, add your own discussion question--again, one that you'd like the whole class to consider.
We'll go over your posts, comments, and questions in class.
In addition to your required posts, you are welcome to add videos, music files, images, and anything else that you think we should bring into our class discussion of a text. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
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