Great Class!!

I must admit that I only signed up for the class because it was one of two left that I needed to take before transferring to Wright State.  But again, I love to read so I was looking forward to it.  I guess my expectations were just that I would learn more about American authors and their readings, and I did.  I am SOOOO glad I did.  I feel that these are authors and stories and poems that I should've already known about and am ashamed to say that I had only heard of a few.  I have taken other lit classes here at Sinclair but this was back when I first started and I must say, I don't retain information too well. 

I don't feel my ideas about being an American have changed too much.  I have always been proud of being an American and am still proud of this.  I am not proud of our ancestors actions towards people of different races, genders, religions, sexual orientations, etc.  But that still is around today and we are still fighting it.  Maybe not like it was, but it's still here.  I'm not sure this will ever change completely.  Hell, as a nation, we can't even agree on things.  I feel it is better that it used to be but we have a long way to go.

Now my definition of American Literature has changed!  For the better!  I was one who in the beginning felt that not all written words are literature, and I still fell that way, even more so.  But I also learned about more literature that I ever have.  Poetry is now in my vocabulary.  Good or bad, I have a new respect for it.  It still boggles my mind how some of these authors mind's work!  How do they come up with their words?  How do they put them all together so they make more sense, (somewhat)?  I always thought that maybe I could be a writer some day but I think I lack their imagination, dedication, and discipline.  Any way, I'm sure I will find my path, and when I do,

LOOK OUT!

Invisible Man

I know that Ellison stated that the story was not about race but I don't see how it could not have been about race.  His grandfather himself felt like a traitor for being meek and cowardly and not standing up for his race and what he believed in.  Then his grandfather spoke to Ellison's father on his deathbed and told him to live his life the same way.  "Live with your head in the lion's mouth.  I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open." )(1254)  In other words, give in to the white race and be at their beck and call. 

This is exactly what the people in "Ain't Afraid of Your Jails" were fighting against.  African Americans were already granted the rights to be treated equal but they couldn't eat at the same lunch counters.  They couldn't ride in the front of the buses.  They had to drink out of a different water fountain and use a different bathroom.  What about this is equal?  These people stood up for what they believed in and were punished for it.  Physically and emotionally. 

In "The Invisible Man", the narrator believes that genuine obedience will win him respect and praise. To some extent he is right, as the white men reward his obedience with a scholarship. Yet they also take advantage of him, forcing him to take part in the

"No Named Woman" comes from a collection of memoirs titled "The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts" by Maxine Hong Kingston. 


In Maxine Hong Kingston's story "No Name Woman", I feel the author does not honor her aunt by retelling the story.  The author talks about how her family never speaks her name.  "We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born." (1568)  Her aunt has disgraced her family and brought shame to them.  "Don't tell anyone you had an aunt.  Your father does not want to hear her name.  She has never been born." (1576)  The author feels that by retelling the story she is honoring her aunt in a way her family was never able to do.  But the beliefs of her family show that even today, 50 years later, they are still afraid of the spirits of their ancestors.  They want her to suffer forever, even after her death.  "The Chinese are always very frightened of the drowned one." (1577)

At first I thought that she was showing her aunt some honor by telling the story and saying that she did exist, even if her family denied her.  But after reading it again, I respect how strongly her family feels about it.  We all have "rules" or traditions handed down from generations, and maybe we don't like all of them but there are some that need to be respected.

I loved this story, how vivid it is and how imaginative Kingston gets with how she perceived her aunts last hours.  At the same time, why this?  Why now?  Why bring pain to her family again after they expressly asked her not to?  "...What happened to her could happen to you." (1570) "You wouldn't want to be forgotten as if you had never been born."  Her mother clearly tells her the story as a warning, as a way to teach her a lesson.  She just didn't want her to have sex or to get pregnant. 

Adultery is definitely looked at differently today that it was back then but she respects other aspects of her culture, why not this one?

Freedom Fighters

 At segregated lunch counters from Greensboro to Nashville, young college students face arrest to bring the injustices of segregation to light. And a small group of blacks and whites from the north calling themselves the Freedom Riders brave mob violence in their attempt to expose segregation in bus stations across the South.

I feel guilty for not knowing more about these brave people.  These people that risked their lives to take a stand for what was rightfully theirs.  Freedom.  Yes, this happened before I was born, although not too much before that.  But I still should know more about the people who fought for their right to be equal to everyone else.  Their right to sit in the front of a bus.  Their right to drink out of one drinking fountain.  Their right to enter through the same door as white people.

The actual accounts of those days were eye opening.  The cruelty they endured and yet they had such strength.

I set it up on my computer so I could read the transcript at the same time as watch the actual footage from the special on PBS.  It was moving, riveting, sad, and so many other things, all at the same time.  I will never know what it felt like to be in their shoes, and I hope I never have to.

 

While I do have more blogs to post, I just need to digress here for a moment.  Thought the presentations as a whole were awesome!!  The amount of work that the class put into them was great.  They all made me appreciate this class even more.  Like I said in my presentation, the discussions were one of the things I liked the best.  All the different opinions and different aspects, whether you liked the reading or hated it, you were still able to voice your opinion.  As Tina pointed out, the perspective is different for everyone.  That's what I love about literature and this class.

The part that bothers me is the lack of respect some of the class had for their classmates, the professor, and the class as a whole.  We are adults, and I use that term loosely for some of you, so we should all act like adults.  Your tardiness was rude.  Surfing your phones during class was rude.  Leaving class early just because the professor wasn't there was rude.  Talking while someone is presenting, or while the professor was talking was rude.  We all listened to you when you had something to say, we deserve the same respect.

As one of the older students in the class, maybe I am asking too much from you but I'm pretty sure some of the other students in the class will agree with me. Just GROW UP! Some of us actually take our higher education seriously.  That's all.