Tuesday, December 8, 2009
proposal for final project
For the final project I would like to do something with the novels Cal and The Mimic Men.I am planning to do something on the sense of community and or the loss of community in the post colonial societies of Northern Ireland and the Caribbean. I plan to argue that the inviduals living in the societies of Northern Ireland and the Caribbean faced a loss of community while others gained a sense of community. I would focus on the characters of Cal and Marcella since despite both of them being Catholics, neither of them actually fitted into their respective groups. Another character from Cal I would focus on Cyril Dunlop since got a sense of community by being a Protestant and an Orangemen. For The Mimic Men I would focus on the character of Ralph since he did not fit in with any of the groups he joined on his quest to find an indentity. I would also focus on his father since he found a sense of community with his religious followers. I chose to examine the loss and gain of a community with the novels Cal and The Mimic Men since Cal is my favorite novel out of all the assigned readings and I have been interested in the troubles in Northern Ireland for awhile.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Lahiri and Marriage
Alex argued that Lahiri's main theme in her short stories is that "marriage is a necessary aspect of life, something needed in order to live happily and feel fulfilled." However, I disagree with Alex's argument. I don't see that marriage brought happiness or fulflillment to all of the characters in the stories A Temporary Matter, Interpreter Of Maladies and The Treatment of Bibi Haldar.
The character of Shoba from A Temporary Matter was not happy in her marriage to Shukumar. Both Shoba and Shukumar after the death of their child were living seperate lives. Shukumar noted "...he thought how he and Shoba had become experts at avoiding each other at their three-bedroom house, spending as much time on seperate floors as possible" (4). They only began to reconnect when the power was off in the evenings for the one week. When they were making their confessions during the power outage, it seemed that Shoba would go out of her way to be hurtful to Shukumar. Shukumar mentioned "The fourth night, she said that she never liked the one poem he'd ever published in his life, in a literary magazine in Utah. He'd written the poem after meeting Shoba" (19). However, this reconnection was short lived since at the end of the week, Shoba anouced to her husband that she had found and leased an apartment. At the end of the story when Shoba turned off the lights in seemed that the marriage was over. The character Mrs. Das from Interpreter of Maladies, was another woman in a an unhappy marriage. By all rights she should of been happy and fulfilled since she had both a husband and children but she was not. Throughout the story, Mrs. Das appeared to be indifferent to both her children and her husband. Mr. Kapasi noted "Her sudden interest in him, an interest she did not express in either her husband or her children..."(53). Mrs. Das was also distant to her husband. Mr. Kapasi commented "The signs he recognized from his own marriage were there-the bickering, the indifference, the protracted silences" (53). She even told Mr. Kapasi, a person that she little about, that she had in the past had an affair with a friend of her husband and that one of her children was not Mr. Das's biological child. The character Bibi from the story The Treatment of Bibi Haldar did not find happiness and fulfillment from marriage. Bibi in the story gave the impression that she was more interested in the wedding ceremony then in the actual marriage. One of the married women living in the same building observed "On the streets she dragged us to the counter of each and every jeweler, peering into glass cases, seeking our opinions of tiara designs and locket settings. In the windows of sari shops she pointed to a magenta Benarasi silk, and a turquoise one, and then one that was the color of marigolds" (163). No matter what she tried, Bibi ultimately could not find a man willing to marry her. In the end Bibi found happiness and fulfillment by having a baby, and not by getting married.
The character of Shoba from A Temporary Matter was not happy in her marriage to Shukumar. Both Shoba and Shukumar after the death of their child were living seperate lives. Shukumar noted "...he thought how he and Shoba had become experts at avoiding each other at their three-bedroom house, spending as much time on seperate floors as possible" (4). They only began to reconnect when the power was off in the evenings for the one week. When they were making their confessions during the power outage, it seemed that Shoba would go out of her way to be hurtful to Shukumar. Shukumar mentioned "The fourth night, she said that she never liked the one poem he'd ever published in his life, in a literary magazine in Utah. He'd written the poem after meeting Shoba" (19). However, this reconnection was short lived since at the end of the week, Shoba anouced to her husband that she had found and leased an apartment. At the end of the story when Shoba turned off the lights in seemed that the marriage was over. The character Mrs. Das from Interpreter of Maladies, was another woman in a an unhappy marriage. By all rights she should of been happy and fulfilled since she had both a husband and children but she was not. Throughout the story, Mrs. Das appeared to be indifferent to both her children and her husband. Mr. Kapasi noted "Her sudden interest in him, an interest she did not express in either her husband or her children..."(53). Mrs. Das was also distant to her husband. Mr. Kapasi commented "The signs he recognized from his own marriage were there-the bickering, the indifference, the protracted silences" (53). She even told Mr. Kapasi, a person that she little about, that she had in the past had an affair with a friend of her husband and that one of her children was not Mr. Das's biological child. The character Bibi from the story The Treatment of Bibi Haldar did not find happiness and fulfillment from marriage. Bibi in the story gave the impression that she was more interested in the wedding ceremony then in the actual marriage. One of the married women living in the same building observed "On the streets she dragged us to the counter of each and every jeweler, peering into glass cases, seeking our opinions of tiara designs and locket settings. In the windows of sari shops she pointed to a magenta Benarasi silk, and a turquoise one, and then one that was the color of marigolds" (163). No matter what she tried, Bibi ultimately could not find a man willing to marry her. In the end Bibi found happiness and fulfillment by having a baby, and not by getting married.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Ha Jin and his writing in English
Ha Jin in the article Exiled to English, argued that he has to produce his work in English instead of his native Chinese since his work wouldn't pass the censorship present in China. In the article, Jin commented "To preserve the integrity, of my work, I had no choice but to write in English."
Some of his short stories would of caused some conflict if they had been written in Chinese for a Chinese audience. One story that would have caused some conflict would be Saboteur. In the story the police of the fictionial Muji City were depicted as corrupt. A couple of officers targeted and harassed the character Mr. Chiu and his wife while they were eating lunch at a railroad station. Mr. Chiu confronted the officers and was arrested for defying them. At the police station, the police tried to get him to sign a confession for trumped up charges, when he refused he was present with a file filled with fake testimonies of supposed witnesses. He was also locked up in a jail cell for an extended period of time and was refused his medicine for his heart condition and hepatitis. The depiction of the corruption of the Muji police continued when Mr. Chiu 's lawyer came to get him released from the jail. The lawyer was tied to a stake in the yard and was frequently beaten by the cops till Mr. Chiu agreed to sign a confession. Jin's short story A Tiger-Fighter Is Hard To Find is another of his work that would have cause some conflict. The story depicted the the communist party's foray into the arts when a provincial governor wanted to improve a TV series so that it could be set to the capital of Beijing. This involvement in the arts was reflected when the crew decided to reshoot the tiger fighting scene. They decided to reshoot the scene using a real tiger which ended in failure. When they began to film the scene, it was decide to give the tiger a slow acting traquilizer however, the tiger was knocked out before the crew could finish shooting the scene. When the tiger was given smaller dose of the traquilizer, the actor portraying the hero was attacked and almost mauled by the tiger. When using a live tiger didn't work, the tiger was then killed and skined. The crew then decided to dress one of the crewmembers in the tiger skin and have him fight the hero. However, this idea failed when the actor that protrayed the hero almost beat the crewmember wearing the tiger sking to death.
Postcolonial literature would have changed if Conrad had wrote in his native language. If he had only wrote exclusively in his native language, his works such as Heart of Darkness would not have reached as large of an audience as it did at the turn of the 20th century. This change would also been reflected with Achebe and his novella Things Fall Apart. The novella Things Fall Apart was Achebe's response to Conrad's Heart of Darkness since Achebe did not like Conrad's portrayal of colonial Africa.
Some of his short stories would of caused some conflict if they had been written in Chinese for a Chinese audience. One story that would have caused some conflict would be Saboteur. In the story the police of the fictionial Muji City were depicted as corrupt. A couple of officers targeted and harassed the character Mr. Chiu and his wife while they were eating lunch at a railroad station. Mr. Chiu confronted the officers and was arrested for defying them. At the police station, the police tried to get him to sign a confession for trumped up charges, when he refused he was present with a file filled with fake testimonies of supposed witnesses. He was also locked up in a jail cell for an extended period of time and was refused his medicine for his heart condition and hepatitis. The depiction of the corruption of the Muji police continued when Mr. Chiu 's lawyer came to get him released from the jail. The lawyer was tied to a stake in the yard and was frequently beaten by the cops till Mr. Chiu agreed to sign a confession. Jin's short story A Tiger-Fighter Is Hard To Find is another of his work that would have cause some conflict. The story depicted the the communist party's foray into the arts when a provincial governor wanted to improve a TV series so that it could be set to the capital of Beijing. This involvement in the arts was reflected when the crew decided to reshoot the tiger fighting scene. They decided to reshoot the scene using a real tiger which ended in failure. When they began to film the scene, it was decide to give the tiger a slow acting traquilizer however, the tiger was knocked out before the crew could finish shooting the scene. When the tiger was given smaller dose of the traquilizer, the actor portraying the hero was attacked and almost mauled by the tiger. When using a live tiger didn't work, the tiger was then killed and skined. The crew then decided to dress one of the crewmembers in the tiger skin and have him fight the hero. However, this idea failed when the actor that protrayed the hero almost beat the crewmember wearing the tiger sking to death.
Postcolonial literature would have changed if Conrad had wrote in his native language. If he had only wrote exclusively in his native language, his works such as Heart of Darkness would not have reached as large of an audience as it did at the turn of the 20th century. This change would also been reflected with Achebe and his novella Things Fall Apart. The novella Things Fall Apart was Achebe's response to Conrad's Heart of Darkness since Achebe did not like Conrad's portrayal of colonial Africa.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
More Musings on Wide Sargasso Sea
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in her essay Wide Sargasso Sea and a Critique of Imperialism argued that the character Antoinette/Bertha was created by Charlotte Bronte in her novel Jane Eyre to be the embodiment of the boundaries between the human and the animal. Part of her arguement was that in Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys purposely portrayed Antoinette as keeping her humanity even after being drugged and imprisoned in the later stages of her life.
In Jane Eyre, Antoinette/Bertha was depicted as a animal. In the scene where Rochester revealed Antoinette's existence to Jane, Bronte describe Antoniette as "the clothed hyena rose up, and stood tall on its hind feet" (125). In this scene Antoinette was only shown to be nothing more than an wild animal. Antoinette was not depicted as having any human emotions and was not even refered to as a she but as an it. In another part of the same scene Jane committed after meeting Antoinette and learning that she was Rochester's wife the "the manic bellowed, she parted her shaggy locks from her visage, and gazed wildly at her vistors" (125). The image of Antoinette as a crazy wild animal was also present in the scene where she attacked and stabbed Richard Mason with a knife. In this scene Bronte portrayed Antoinette as nothing more than a savage, crazy, creole woman from the West Indies who viciously attacked her own brother for no real reason other than she could.
Rhys offered a greatly different version of Antoinette in which she is depicted as a human with emotions and motives. In the scene where she attack Richard Mason was very different from how it was described in Jane Eyre. Grace Poole noted that Antoinette only attack Mason "...when he said 'legally' that you flew at him and when he twisted the knife out of your hand you bit him" (109). Antoinette was not depicted as a mindless wild animal but as a person with a motive for her attack on Mason. In Wide Sargasso Sea Antoinette's step-brother paid Rochester 30,000 pounds to marry Antoinette. Mason basicly paid off Rochester to get rid of Antoinette and washed his hands of her. Her marriage to Rochester had a signaficant impact on the rest of her life especially the last 15 years of her life which was spent imprisoned in Thornfield Hall.
In Jane Eyre, Antoinette/Bertha was depicted as a animal. In the scene where Rochester revealed Antoinette's existence to Jane, Bronte describe Antoniette as "the clothed hyena rose up, and stood tall on its hind feet" (125). In this scene Antoinette was only shown to be nothing more than an wild animal. Antoinette was not depicted as having any human emotions and was not even refered to as a she but as an it. In another part of the same scene Jane committed after meeting Antoinette and learning that she was Rochester's wife the "the manic bellowed, she parted her shaggy locks from her visage, and gazed wildly at her vistors" (125). The image of Antoinette as a crazy wild animal was also present in the scene where she attacked and stabbed Richard Mason with a knife. In this scene Bronte portrayed Antoinette as nothing more than a savage, crazy, creole woman from the West Indies who viciously attacked her own brother for no real reason other than she could.
Rhys offered a greatly different version of Antoinette in which she is depicted as a human with emotions and motives. In the scene where she attack Richard Mason was very different from how it was described in Jane Eyre. Grace Poole noted that Antoinette only attack Mason "...when he said 'legally' that you flew at him and when he twisted the knife out of your hand you bit him" (109). Antoinette was not depicted as a mindless wild animal but as a person with a motive for her attack on Mason. In Wide Sargasso Sea Antoinette's step-brother paid Rochester 30,000 pounds to marry Antoinette. Mason basicly paid off Rochester to get rid of Antoinette and washed his hands of her. Her marriage to Rochester had a signaficant impact on the rest of her life especially the last 15 years of her life which was spent imprisoned in Thornfield Hall.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Musing on Wide Sargasso Sea
I can see how Antoinette's mother, Annette, went crazy in part one of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea. When Annette came to Jamaica to marry Anotoinette's father Alexander Cosway, she came from a French controlled island to a British controlled island. France and Great Britain have been rivals for centuries which is reflected when she came to Jamaica and recieved less than a warm welcoming. Antoinette commented that "The Jamaican ladies had never approved of my mother....she was my father's second wife, far too young for him they thought, and worse still, a Martinique girl" (9). She was also a daughter and wife then later a widow of slave owners.
When slavery was banned on the island, Antoinette and her family were left poor and isolated. Antoinette remarked "I got used to a solitary life, but my mother still planned and hoped perhaps she had to hope every time she passed a looking glass" (10). They were the only white people in the area for several years after their white neighbor left. The former slaves only tolerated them since they were poor and lower then poor blacks in the social strata. When Annette would ride her horse, the former slaves would heckle her particularly when her clothes became worn. Antoinette observed "She still rode about every morning not caring that the black people stood about in groups to jeer at her, especially when her riding clothes grew shabby"(10). The hostility toward Antoinette and her family was manifested in certain ways. Annette's horse was mysteriously poisoned by who she supected as some of the former slaves. Antoinette noted "Then one day, very early, I saw her horse lying down under the frangipani tree. I went up to him but he was not sick, he was dead....later that day Godfrey found him, he had been poisoned" (10). Even when she would look at the ocean from the house, the locals would point and laugh at her.
The buring of the plantation's main house and the death of her son Pierre, were the final circumstances that pushed a already stressed Annette over the edge. One of the new maids set Pierre's crib on fire with him still in it. Antoinette stated "I thought, Pierre is dead. He looked dead. He was white and he did not make a sound, but his head hung back over her arm as if he had no life at all and his eyes were rolled up so that you only saw the whites"(23). The house was set on fire with Antoinette's family still in the structure. on escaping from the house they were met with a crowd of former slaves that were more than willing to lynch them, and only the actions of Aunt Cora saved them. The combined stress of her favorite child dying and the burning of the house with the family almost being lynched affected Annette greatly. Several weeks later Antoinette stated "I had been awake before and had heard my mother screaming 'Qui est la? Qui est la?', then 'Don't touch me. I'll kill you if you touch me. Coward. Hypocrite. I'll kill you.' I'd put my hands over my ears, her screams were so loud and terrible"(28).
When slavery was banned on the island, Antoinette and her family were left poor and isolated. Antoinette remarked "I got used to a solitary life, but my mother still planned and hoped perhaps she had to hope every time she passed a looking glass" (10). They were the only white people in the area for several years after their white neighbor left. The former slaves only tolerated them since they were poor and lower then poor blacks in the social strata. When Annette would ride her horse, the former slaves would heckle her particularly when her clothes became worn. Antoinette observed "She still rode about every morning not caring that the black people stood about in groups to jeer at her, especially when her riding clothes grew shabby"(10). The hostility toward Antoinette and her family was manifested in certain ways. Annette's horse was mysteriously poisoned by who she supected as some of the former slaves. Antoinette noted "Then one day, very early, I saw her horse lying down under the frangipani tree. I went up to him but he was not sick, he was dead....later that day Godfrey found him, he had been poisoned" (10). Even when she would look at the ocean from the house, the locals would point and laugh at her.
The buring of the plantation's main house and the death of her son Pierre, were the final circumstances that pushed a already stressed Annette over the edge. One of the new maids set Pierre's crib on fire with him still in it. Antoinette stated "I thought, Pierre is dead. He looked dead. He was white and he did not make a sound, but his head hung back over her arm as if he had no life at all and his eyes were rolled up so that you only saw the whites"(23). The house was set on fire with Antoinette's family still in the structure. on escaping from the house they were met with a crowd of former slaves that were more than willing to lynch them, and only the actions of Aunt Cora saved them. The combined stress of her favorite child dying and the burning of the house with the family almost being lynched affected Annette greatly. Several weeks later Antoinette stated "I had been awake before and had heard my mother screaming 'Qui est la? Qui est la?', then 'Don't touch me. I'll kill you if you touch me. Coward. Hypocrite. I'll kill you.' I'd put my hands over my ears, her screams were so loud and terrible"(28).
Friday, September 18, 2009
Musings on Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe presented a complex African society in Things Fall Apart. This complexity is seen in how he portrayed women in the African village. One powerful and mysterious woman of the village was the Oracle. The Oracle was an overall powerful woman of the village since the villagers percived that she was able to communicate with the gods. This power over the villagers was reflected in that only she could decide when the village would go to war. The Oracle also had the power to decide the fate of the prisoners of the village. This was witnessed when she ordered the death of Ikefuma's death after he had already became a productive and valued person in the village. She also had the power to take Ezinma away from her parents at night with little resistence from both of them.
This powerful role of a woman differed from how the other women of the village were portrayed. The women of the village were not allowed to grow yams which could only be grown by men but could instead, grow other crops tha were considered women's crops. Women were considered to be property and could be beaten by their husbands if they so wished to. The character Okonkwo was freqently depicted as beatening his three wives. However, there were some inconsistencies in how the women were portrayed. Despite being considered property, Efwefi, Okonkwo's second wife, lefted her husband at the time to marry Okonkwo. This ambiguity toward the depiction of women is seen with the deaths of the old warrior Ogbuefi Ndulue and his first wife Ozoemena. Despite Ogbuefi Ndulue having died before Ozoemena, the people of the village was going to bury Ozoemena first instead of her husband.
Connected to this is how femininity is depicted in the story. This is seen when Uchendu, Okonkwo's uncle on his mother's side, asked Okonkwo if he knew why they said mother is supreme. He commented " A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you"(78). Here it is presented that women are maternal beings that forever provide comfort and protection for a person to run to.
This powerful role of a woman differed from how the other women of the village were portrayed. The women of the village were not allowed to grow yams which could only be grown by men but could instead, grow other crops tha were considered women's crops. Women were considered to be property and could be beaten by their husbands if they so wished to. The character Okonkwo was freqently depicted as beatening his three wives. However, there were some inconsistencies in how the women were portrayed. Despite being considered property, Efwefi, Okonkwo's second wife, lefted her husband at the time to marry Okonkwo. This ambiguity toward the depiction of women is seen with the deaths of the old warrior Ogbuefi Ndulue and his first wife Ozoemena. Despite Ogbuefi Ndulue having died before Ozoemena, the people of the village was going to bury Ozoemena first instead of her husband.
Connected to this is how femininity is depicted in the story. This is seen when Uchendu, Okonkwo's uncle on his mother's side, asked Okonkwo if he knew why they said mother is supreme. He commented " A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you"(78). Here it is presented that women are maternal beings that forever provide comfort and protection for a person to run to.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Should We Read Heart of Darkness?
Critics and supporters have debated over whither or not audiences should continue to read Heart of Darkness since its publication over a century ago. After having read all of the readings concerning Heart of Darkness, I have come to the conclusion that people should read Heart of Darkness. J. Hills Miller in his essay Should We Read "Heart of Darkness"? commented that " I begin by claiming that 'Heart of Darkness' is a literary work, not history, autobiography, travel witing, journalism, or other genre" (465). In the novella by Conrad, he presented a fictional story that critiqued the conquest of Africa by Europe during the late Victorian era. The novella presented the dark side of imperialism in the 1890s with several vivid descriptions of the corruption of the system and of its benefactors during the height of imperialism. It is fictional story with fictional characters with some basis of truth of what was happpening in Belgian Congo in the late 19th Century. Modern audiences should not forget that when Heart of Darkness was first published it was a comtemporary story.
One of the most vocal critics of Conrad is Chinua Achebe. In his essay An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness, he argued that Conrad was a racist. However, the way modern audiences compared to late Victorian audiences view race very differently. Peter Edgerly Firchow mentioned in his essay Race, Ethnicity, Nationality, Empire that the concept of race for the Victorians was tied to the ideas of nationality and ethnicity. Firchow also mentioned that word racist did not exist at the time Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness. Readers must remember that Conrad wrote his novella in the 1890s during the heyday of European imperialism so of course it would reflect the attitudes present at the time of the novella's publication. Achebe did in his essay make several valid points in how Europe has regarded Africa as a lesser entity however, his argument that Conrad was a racist should not stop people from reading Heart of Darkness.
One of the most vocal critics of Conrad is Chinua Achebe. In his essay An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness, he argued that Conrad was a racist. However, the way modern audiences compared to late Victorian audiences view race very differently. Peter Edgerly Firchow mentioned in his essay Race, Ethnicity, Nationality, Empire that the concept of race for the Victorians was tied to the ideas of nationality and ethnicity. Firchow also mentioned that word racist did not exist at the time Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness. Readers must remember that Conrad wrote his novella in the 1890s during the heyday of European imperialism so of course it would reflect the attitudes present at the time of the novella's publication. Achebe did in his essay make several valid points in how Europe has regarded Africa as a lesser entity however, his argument that Conrad was a racist should not stop people from reading Heart of Darkness.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)