Nigerian Politics and "Civil Peace"

by Colin Gibson

To fully understand “Civil Peace” the reader will need a general idea about what is going on in Nigerian politics at this time. Nigeria during the time “Civil Peace” takes place had just reclaimed Biafra in 1970 after it broke away in 1967. Michael Gould’s book The Struggle for Modern Nigeria: The Biafran War 1967 – 1970 tell us the lengths to which Nigeria went to reclaim Biafra. According to Gould,  “International journalism, describing life in Biafra and giving snap shot pictures of malnutrition, starvation, genocide, and indiscriminate bombing of innocent civilians by Federal Government aircrafts”(139). Achebe, supporter of an independent Biafra, acted as an ambassador for Biafra until it was retaken. After it was retaken Achebe was involved in political parties but soon stopped after he realized the corruption in Nigeria’s government. This corruption is evident in Hadger’s book Nigeria: After the Nightmare. As said by Hadger, “1966 – 1999 were the years when Nigerian state was being abolished by her elite who were consumed by unenlightened self – interest. This tiny group of politicians and military collaborators joined hands to squander Nigeria’s wealth and opportunities “(7). After the Civil War Nigeria was primarily a military government with its main goal of keeping the nation together by any means necessary. As a result of this laws were passed mandating that political parties couldn’t be ethnically or tribally based. Lgbos, Achebe’s ethnicity and primary ethnicity of the region formerly known as Biafra, faced many hardships after reuniting with Nigeria. Lgbos’ political positions were reassigned on the bases that they “abandoned their office.” This same principle was used when Lgbos had their property was taken over by anyone who found it. Because of the unfair treatment of the Lgbos after the civil war tensions grew between tribes which resulted in small scale conflicts between the tribes. Achebe’s wish for a better Nigeria was only strengthened by the fact that he lived there and understood how corrupt their government is.

Achebe used his feelings and life experiences to create the short story “Civil Peace.” This story takes place in 1971 right after Biafra has rejoined Nigeria. The main character Jonathan is a husband and a father of three (one died in the civil war) who works extremely hard along with his family to provide a good living from themselves. Achebe used his own knowledge of Nigeria to create a character that could relate to the hard working life style most Nigerians had to go through preceding the civil war. Jonathan represents that common man in this story; everyone at that time had some type of problem living whether it is lack of food, no shelter, or no money due to the destruction of the civil war. Jonathan and his family faced turmoil like everyone else when thieves came to his house demanding money or else resulting in violence. Jonathan used his head and only gave the thieves a fraction of what they originally demanded; this is an occasion where we can see Achebe putting some of himself into the story by giving Jonathan intelligence, a quality that not everyone had. Most people would not have handled that situation so calmly but Jonathan did and was rewarded by not losing all one hundred pounds.  We finally see that Jonathan constantly using the phrase “Nothing puzzles God” this phrase is another indication of Jonathan representing the common man. In times of great peril people commonly turn to faith to see them through; that is what Jonathan is doing, by believing that God has a plan for everything Jonathan doesn’t despair why bad things happen only that God will sort everything out in the end and make everything as it should be.

I believe Achebe’s intent on writing this was to bring to the attention of the reader the horror and extreme suppression of the Nigerian people under its government. With enough support Achebe hopes to one day liberate Nigeria from its current government and shape it into a government of the people.  After reading this blog has your perception changed about the story? Would you be willing to help Nigeria knowing what you know now?

Hagher, Iyorwuese H. Nigeria: After the Nightmare. Lanham, MD: University of America, 2011. Print

Gould, Michael. "The Struggle for Modern Nigeria: The Biafran War 1966-1970." Events -. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. <http://www.royalafricansociety.org/events/details/1135-the-struggle-for-modern-nigeria-the-biafran-war-1966-1970.html>.

Faulkner’s Fictional Yoknapatawpha County

by Emily Finnegan 

    Faulkner grew up in a very southern family in a very southern town in Mississippi called Oxford in Lafayette County. From the day he was born, he was influenced by the southern atmosphere, southern people, and a southern environment. Faulkner once talked about living in the south and said, “I discovered my own little postage stamp of native soil was worth writing about, and that I would never line long enough to exhaust it”(Charters). Although Oxford was the non-fictional town where he lived, he created his own fictional county called Yoknapatawpha which was neighboring Oxford. Faulkner created Yoknapatawpha county in15 books and more than fifty stories and made it seem just as real as Oxford with many similarities. In order to understand Yoknapatawpha county, we have to explore how Faulkner viewed the south and its different geographical parts and how Yoknapatawpha County represents the south as a whole.

            To understand the South and how Faulkner created Yoknapatawpha County, we have to look at two parts of the south that are distinguishable; the upland and lowland south. Some of the main differences between these two culturally different regions in the south were amounts of slavery, different geographical landmarks, and crops. In the lowland South there was a lot of slavery and crops grown such as rice, sugarcane, tobacco, and cotton which was the basis for its economy. In contrast, the upland south had fewer slaves and grew grains, raised livestock and grew tobacco in much smaller amounts. Both were very culturally different. After reviewing Yoknapatawpha county Charles Aiken says, “A superficial examination of the physical and cultural geography of Yoknapatawpha County initially leads to the conclusion that it is the South in microcosm, complete to its Upland and Lowland sections” (Aiken). Without reading further into the details of Yoknapatawpha County, Faulkners description of his imaginary county could come off this way, but Yoknapatawpha is far more in depth and detailed when taking a closer look and it accounts for a specific region of the south rather than combination of both areas. Charles Aiken explains, "Yoknapatawpha County, like Faulkner's own Lafayette County, is Lowland South. The fictional place is in the loess region of northern Mississippi, east of the Yazoo Basin and approximately eighty miles south of Memphis. Numerous evidences from Faulkner's writings can be marshalled to show that this is the location of Yoknapatawpha, but the most conclusive evidence is a sketch map that he drew in 1945 to explain why both Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians appear in his stories"(Aiken). Not only in his stories did Faulkner explain Yoknapatawpha County in detail, but he also drew multiple pictures as a better visual representation of this county. Reflecting the portion of northern Mississippi from which it was created, Yoknapatawpha possesses such distinguishing Lowland South characteristics as a plantation agricultural system, a cotton economy, and a large black population.

            Not only did his representation of Yoknapatawpha county represent the Lowland South in regards to its economy and landscape, but also the inhabitants attitudes, especially those of African Americans in his writing. "The novel, 'A Fable,' and in the short story, 'Mountain Victory,' Faulkner related his perceptions of the attitudes of the poor folk of the Appalachian Mountains and the planters and blacks of the Lowland South"(Aiken). Yoknapatawpha County also represented the inhabitants of Lafayette County. The northern and western parts of Lafayette County, as in Yoknapatawpha, are the areas with the largest landholdings and the largest black populations. Although there were mostly similarities between Yoknapatawpha County and Lafayette County and the Lowland South, one of the dissimilarities was the specific cultural difference in landscape of Yoknapatawpha County and the landscapes of older portions of the Lowland South in relation to the Civil War. These differences can be seen in Faulkner's "Go Down Moses".

            After reading about Faulkner's creation of Yoknapatawpha County I really wondered why Faulkner created this imaginary County in the first place? When asked the same thing by interviews, Faulkner reported that ," I was trying to talk about people, using the only tool I knew, which was the country that I knew"(Aiken). He also stated repeatedly that his principal purpose was to write universally about mankind. I believe that Faulkner created Yoknapatawpha as another representation of his home town Oxford and Lafayette County as exactly the way he wanted it to be. He could minus or add anything he wanted to the landscape, its inhabitants, and other specific details while also keeping it a humble representation of his home. Why do you think Faulkner felt it necessary to create a fictional place to tell stories about a real place?

           

Charles S. Aiken Faulkner's, Yoknapatawpha County: A Place in the American South.      Geographical Review, Vol. 69, No. 3 (Jul., 1979), pp. 331-348

Charles S. Aiken , Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County: Geographical Fact into Fiction.      Geographical    

Review , Vol. 67, No. 1 (Jan., 1977), pp. 1-21

“William Faulkner.” The Story and Its Writer. 8th Edition. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston:       Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. 573-585. Print

The Importance of Relationships in James Baldwin's Writings

by Navarone Simpson

 James Baldwin was a highly influential writer in the African American society in the 1950s and 1960s. Baldwin’s writing focused on certain things that could reach out to a reader and show them that they can relate to this, especially if they were African American living in that time period.  What Baldwin focused on wasn’t specifically how white treated blacks or vice versa but his writings focused on relationships. The writer Morris Dickstein says Baldwin focuses on “the troubled relations between parents and children, between husbands and wives, between lovers trapped in a world that barely lets them breath.” Writing focusing on personal relationships instead of just what is going on in the world and how one person see’s it opens up a whole new insight for readers to understand characters. Through this form of writing Baldwin became highly acclaimed as a civil rights activist after traveling to the south and meeting head figures like Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. The reason why Baldwin could write about these strong emotional relationships that reach out to readers like what he did in the short story “Sonny’s Blues” is because of where he grew up. He grew up in Harlem, one of the poorest cities in America that was and still is highly populated with African Americans. He grew up on those rough streets with a father who was very strict that he hated. He had those first hand experiences of seeing the drug use, the killings, and the relationships Black people had with each other.            

           

Baldwin’s writings however did not fully take off until he left the states and went to France where his first novel was actually published. Once Baldwin left the states he was able to look back at his life overseas and truly capture the relationships and things that he saw through his life in Harlem. Baldwin says in his story “Nobody Knows My Name” “I left America, because I doubted my ability to survive the fury of the color problem here. I wanted to prevent myself from becoming merely a Negro; or, even a Negro writer”(17)            however what Baldwin really found after leaving was his “negro” self and was able to produce beautiful writings about what it is to be black in Harlem.  He recreated something real that a lot of other writers could not, which was a beautiful thing. This recreation of relationships can be seen in the short story “Sonny’s Blues” where Baldwin creates this relationship between two brothers with very different mind-sets. The narrator who is the older brother is a very conventional thinker on all levels while Sonny; the younger brother is much more free spirited. This is seen many times throughout the story but when the two brothers were talking about suffering it is seen no clearer than then that they have two different point of views on how life should be lived. The narrator tells Sonny “But we just agreed I said, that there’s no way not to suffer. Isn’t it better, then, just to- take it?”(75). This shows that the narrator is more conventional in thinking that suffering is something a man has to simply live with and deal with internally. Just take the suffering and move on with your life is what the narrator is saying. To this however Sonny say’s “Nobody just takes it, that’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to. You’re just hung up on the way some people try—it’s not your way!”(75). This shows that Sonny is acknowledging that him and his brother has a monumental difference in views. Sonny says nobody just takes suffering like the narrator is telling him and he cant understand Sonny because Sonny is not dealing with suffering in the way the narrator would.

            How does Baldwin show readers that these two men, these brothers can actually come to terms with each other and understand each other? He uses something powerful that was popular at the time. A specific genre of music, the blues is what brings these two men closer together finally after all those years.  The narrator finally goes to watch his brother play what he loves playing, the thing that now gives Sonny his escape from reality. The narrator listens to his brother’s music, he see’s his movements and how much the music is Sonny’s as well as his own. He finally listens to Sonny through the blues that Sonny plays. The narrator says “Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he will never be free until we did.” Baldwin used the relationship of these two men to show readers what a simple thing like music can create. It can create a bridge to understanding each other as men, as humans and that is not something many writers could do. This is why Baldwin was a very influential writer because he could bring out these relationships between people through story and reach out and put a universal theme to it.

Do you think that if Baldwin did not end up leaving Harlem for France that he would have been able to recreate the relationships he did while in France?

Works Cited:

Dickstein, Morris “ On James Baldwin.” Critical Insights James Baldwin. Pasadena,

California: Salem Press, 2011. Print.

Reilly, John “Sonny’s Blues: James Baldwin’s Image of Black Community.” Critical

Insights James Baldwin. Pasadena, California: Salem Press, 2011. Print.           

The New Journalism

by Danielle Dunn

Donald Barthelme is one of the writers involved with a fairly new idea and new style of writing called “New Journalism.”  This idea of New Journalism has been heavily influenced by a man named Tom Wolfe since the 1960s-70s due to his belief that reporting needed to be more interesting.  The most important feature of New Journalism is the fact that it stresses the distinction between fact and fiction.  Marc Weingarten describes this form of writing as “one that announced and privileged the journalist’s subject position, effectually blurring the lines between disinterested observation (journalism) and subjective reporting (fiction)” (1091).  In other words, New Journalism is a type of writing that focuses on more descriptive fact and truth, rather than subjective and bias recording of events.  In Donald Barthelme’s story “The Indian Uprising,” he demonstrates Tom Wolfe’s ideals of New Journalism through the use of detailed facts that draw in the readers’ attention to his experiences and encourages them to distinguish truth from opinion.

New Journalism does not suggest that readers are unable to distinguish the difference between fact and fiction.  Instead, it is suggesting that a more detailed version of a story creates a more powerful effect on the way that readers find the truth in a story.  In an interview with Tom Wolfe, he states that the techniques used in New Journalism “enable you to create the most powerful effects, the richest types of characters and situations…” (29). He refers to the downfall of reporters as being the fact that they can tell you every detail of what their story is about, but when their article comes out in a newspaper/magazine/journal, it is condensed into a couple of paragraphs that provide no realistic detail at all, causing it to be categorized as less interesting than what it really is.  Wolfe inspires writers to stay true to their whole story instead of taking away details that provide realism, and only giving a summary.

Although every thought and detail seems to run together, Donald Barthelme’s “The Indian Uprising,” gives a sense of realism as he describes the events of the war as well as his emotions as he experiences a battle within himself between personal and political views.  The narrator in the story struggles with the idea of understanding and often finds it difficult to find meaning in why things happen.  The fact that the narrator searches for the meaning behind things reflects the way that New Journalism writers think in the sense that they are always searching for a truth in stories.  If we all have our own interpretations, how are we ever supposed to find a universal truth?  Is everything meant to have a universal truth, or are we supposed to form our own opinion based on facts provided?

Reilly, Ian. "The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, Capote & The New Journalism Revolution." Journal Of Popular Culture 40.6 (2007): 1091-1092. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.

"Tom Wolfe: The New Journalism." Literary Cavalcade 57.8 (2005): 29. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.

The Toils and Discontent of the Middle Class in John Updike's "A&P"

by Mike Sakinejad

            Novelist and short story writer John Updike (1932-2009) was considered to be one of America’s foremost writers and literary critics. From his upbringing in rural Pennsylvania, Updike was subject to social circumstances that were associated with living in middle class America.  Updike, along with his mother and father, lived with his maternal grandparents because of his family’s meager income (1312). His rearing as a child of a middle class family is exhibited in the subjects he oft chose to write about. Updike chose to chronicle the American small town, and the middle class denizens that inhabited it. In “A&P,” Updike sets his short story in the local supermarket, a “common denominator of middle-class suburbia, an appropriate symbol for the mass ethic of a consumer-conditioned society” (Porter 1155).  Sammy, the protagonist of “A&P,” represents the dissatisfaction with the blind conformity of the middle class that he painfully witnessed as a cashier at the local market.

            During the time this narrative is set, the rise of mass consumerism that adversely plagued and graced American society had been growing strong from the end of World War II.  The conclusion of World War II halted the mass production of tools of war, but brought about the mass production of consumer goods. The increased production capacity of consumer items, along with the influx of returning veterans, led to the improvement of the typical American lifestyle. The establishment of what we know today as the modern middle class, was a fruition of improved economic conditions; but the relative improvement also had significant adverse social consequences. The exponential growth of the middle class would lead to the rapid expansion of comfortable lifestyles in dreary, bland suburbs. No longer was the dynamic urban lifestyle, or the hardworking rural life representative of the average American. Americans who moved into the suburbs, moved into a consumer lifestyle that featured monotonous conformity, which Updike attempts to capture through the narrative. Consumerism, a term first used in 1960, is the “emphasis on or preoccupation with the acquisition of consumer goods” (Oxford Dictionary). Updike is critical of the behavior of a society that is so enthralled with their daily shopping that they appear to lose a piece of their natural humanity. The narrative’s main character, Sammy, routinely belittles patrons as he watches them go about their business, referring to them as “sheep”; as well as offering his brutally harsh, but essentially correct judgments upon what he views as disgusting products of his small middle class town. M. Gilbert Porter argues that Sammy is repulsed “by their insensitivity [and] their loss of individualism.”

            Updike’s description of the market’s “green-and-cream rubber floor” is thick with artificiality, further illustrating the author’s distain of a wide spectrum of middle class suburbia. Sammy witnessed, day after day, the mindless behavior that plagued the average middle class shopper. Sammy remarks “I bet you could set off dynamite in an A & P and the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their lists” (Updike 1314).

            In conjunction with Sammy’s dialogue and Updike’s descriptions of the A&P, Updike uses “brand-name symbolism” (McFarland 97) to further illustrate ideologies of class and social structure. At the beginning of the story, Sammy is associated with the bland HiHo brand crackers. Adversely, Queenie is associated with “Kingfish Herring Snacks,” that mirrors both the regality in the name given to her by Sammy, but also the social tier she is identified with. The duality that is implied with the pairing of, what Sammy sees as, boring crackers with expensive herring snacks, further illustrates how Updike intends to use social class overtones, which dominate the entire narrative.  

Works Cited

Updike, John. "A&P." The Short Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. 8th ed.             Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2011. 1312-1317. Print.

Porter, Gilbert M. “John Updike's "A&P": The Establishment and an Emersonian Cashier.” The             English Journal 61.8 (1972): 1155-1158. JSTOR. Web. 19 Apr. 2012.

Mcfarland, Ronald E. "Updike And The Critics: Reflections On 'A&P'." Studies In Short Fiction             20.2/3 (1983): 95. Humanities International Complete. Web. 19 Apr. 2012.

The Importance of Setting in "Sonny's Blues"

by Emily Voshell

            When reading James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues,” it’s crucial to understand the cultural importance of the setting and time period of the story.  Although the Harlem Renaissance occurred more so in the 1920s and 1930s than in the 1950s when this story takes place, its effects on the African American culture and the Harlem area were still prominent.  The Harlem Renaissance created a place for “streams of black writers, musicians, performers and film-makers, a refuge from the all-persuasive racism of American society” (Stuart 40).  Harlem became a place separate from society where people were free to do as they pleased which allowed for creative art in the forms of writing, poetry, paintings, and music to flourish; however it also gave life to drug use, sexual adventure, and poverty. 

            The Great Depression and World War II radically changed Harlem.  Individuals had barely any money or hope, and those African Americans who did go off to war received little credit or respect when they returned to the states.  Instead of people venturing into Harlem with hopes of changing their life, Harlem turned into a rundown, poverty stricken city.  A place that was thought of as a place for people to run away to, was a place that trapped people.  In “Sonny’s Blues” Baldwin described Harlem depicts this entrapment.   He makes it known that a lot of people are no longer happy there, but for those with no money and who have already fell under the weight of the cities bad habits it was extremely hard to get out.  The most obvious portrayal was Sonny’s addiction to heroine.  The narrator also seemed to be a captive of Harlem despite his college degree, and the fact that he did not succumb to the pressures of drugs.  Baldwin also mentions a failing school system, and lack of resources that may have also kept residents in Harlem. 

            The town’s prosperity which was turned to poverty, and sorrow was also illustrated in Baldwin’s story.  He speaks a lot about the darkness of the events, people, and the town itself, and all of the tragedies that stain the memories of the characters.  According to John Clarborn “[Sonn’y Blues] bops the reader over the head with billy clubs of proliferation tragedies: the uncle’s murder, the estranged brothers, Sonny’s arrest, the daughter’s sudden death by polio, the eternal recurrence of heroine addiction, and all the other tales submerged in the passing references to the background characters that populate the story’s Harlem scene” (90).  Some argue that the darkness that fills Harlem during this time is the racism that African Americans have been running from and thought they’d escaped by going to Harlem was catching up to them.  They’re now realizing there’s a large African American population concentrated in one area that is almost cast aside.  Clarborn argues that “[t]he emotional resonance of the family’s traumas in the South overflows the past and spills into 1950s Harlem” (90). After believing that Harlem would be gratifying, the Afrcan American citizens are beginning to see that it was a place for the dominant white culutre to prison them.   

            It’s important to understand the history behind Harlem when inquiring “Sonny’s Blues” because Baldwin conveys the hardship of racism, drug and alcohol abuse, and impoverishment that filled Harlem at this time between the prosperous Harlem Renaissance, the battles of World War I, the Great Depression, the Great Migration and the Civil Rights Movement.  Baldwin also mimics through his characters that, through the tragic lives they lived they were able to become more appreciative and respectful of life; do you agree with this idea?

Works Cited

Clarborn, John. "Who Set You Feelin'? Harlem, Communal Affect, and the Great Migration Narrative in James Baldwin's "Sonn'ys Blues"." (2010): 89-99. Print.

Stuart, Andrea. "The Harlem Renaissance in the Twenties Produced a Wealth of Black Talent. But What Was its Legacy and Who Did it Really Benefit?." New Statesman. 126. (1997): 40-41. Print.

Henry James's Social Criticism in "The Real Thing"

by Sage Stubs

“The Real Thing,” written by Henry James, is a story that was inspired by George du Maurier.  Du Maurier was a friend of James and a fellow writer.  He began his career as an illustrator for books, and later became a novelist as well. It was actually James himself who pushed du Maurier to enter the literary world (Kelly). Henry James kept a notebook in which he wrote an entry about his short story, “The Real Thing.” In this passage, written on February 22, 1891 at the Westminster Hotel in Paris, James discussed the influence that Du Maurier had over the creation of his short story. George had told him about his own experience in which a pair of gentlefolk had approached him to work as models. Like the couple in James’ story, the pair, despite their higher social status, was unable to earn their own money (From James’s Notebooks). James was perplexed by George’s experience and went on to write “The Real Thing.”

James criticizes the social class of the English gentlefolk. He described them as “good-looking gentlefolk who had been all their life stupid and well-dressed, living, on a fixed income, at country-houses, watering places and clubs, like so many others of their class in England, and were now utterly unable to do anything, had no cleverness, no art nor craft to make use of as a gagne-pain[livelihood]” (From James’s Notebooks). In his story, the gentlefolk present themselves as being above everyone else. They expected that their good looks and social status would make them good models. They looked down on the other characters that were actual, professional models, yet from a lower class. In the end, they are proven to be useless to the artist. They lacked talent and professionalism.

The critic, George Montiero, explained how James used “The Real Thing’” to criticize the social class of the gentlefolk during his time. James demonstrates how this social type appeared to be of higher class, yet they were no better than those of lower classes. Even though the Monarchs were good looking, english gentle folk, they were “superficial, untrained, and unprofessional” compared to the real models who, in contrast, were “trained, competitive, intelligent, and qualified” (Montiero). The English gentlefolk did not have the skill to make a living for themselves. James wrote in his notebook that the gentlefolk “could only show themselves, clumsily, for the fine, clean, well-groomed animals that they were (From James’s Notebooks).”

Did you, as a reader, find this social criticism of the upper class to be apparent when you read this story?

Work Cited

"From James’s Notebooks." Henry James. Bruce Robert McElderry. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1965. 116-122. Twayne's United States Authors Series 79. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 9 Apr. 2012.

James, Henry. “The Real Thing.” Henry James’s Short Story. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. <http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2098/>.

Kelly, Richard. "George du Maurier: Overview." Reference Guide to English Literature. Ed. D. L. Kirkpatrick. 2nd ed. Chicago: St. James Press, 1991.Literature Resource Center. Web. 10 Apr. 2012.

Monteiro, George. "Realization in Henry James' 'The Real Thing.'." American Literary Realism 36.1 (Fall 2003): 40-50. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Vol. 108. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 10 Apr. 2012.

Women and Children during the Great Depression

by Rachael Bollinger

        Tillie Olsen was one of the few proletarian writers of the Great Depression who created the most powerful depictions of the working class in America. Olsen’s stories and writing style developed in relation to her “socialist upbringing, working class life, motherhood, the Depression and communist party” involvement (Dawahare 261). She was a left feminist writer who criticized the way women were viewed in society due to the lack of assistance and trust women received from the government during her time. Tillie Olsen’s autobiographical story, “I Stand Here Ironing,” shows us “motherhood bared, stripped of romantic distortion, and re-infused with the power of insight to the problems of selfhood” as a result of the Great Depression (Frye 287).

            The Depression was an economic collapse during the 1930s which resulted in a quarter of the nation’s families to have no financial income. Parents who lost their jobs felt immense guilt and suffered from self-doubt as a result. During this time, women were forced to take then full responsibility of child-rearing while also working, resulting in poor child care and unsatisfactory work circumstances. The Depression also affected children, who took on greater responsibilities at an earlier age than later generations.

These new accountabilities and environmental stresses initiated guilt in mothers and as we see in “I Stand Here Ironing,” Olsen questions her own guilt for Emily’s lack of individualism and development during the Depression. However, she defends herself by describing guilt as “a word used far too sloppily, to cover up harmful situations in society that must be changed” (1064). Olsen places the blame for Emily’s separateness on the government by repeatedly stating “they said…They persuaded [her]” (1066-1067). By doing so she conforms to society and became a “part of the general cultural pressure which operates to define and limit the power of individual choice” (Frye 290), especially that of women. Nonetheless, by working and raising her children, Olsen developed a sense of class consciousness and class agency that created an opportunity to develop into a representative of history. Although she is limited by external constraints and her gender, she is able to “assess her own responsibility, her own failure, and finally her need to reaffirm her own autonomy as a separate human being who cannot be defined solely though her parental role” (Frye 289). Olsen realizes that her wisdom came too late. She became skeptical of her daughter’s life and begins to limit her talents. She does not want Emily to be defeated but to only let some of her abilities prosper because “She is a child of her age, of depression, of war, of fear” (1070). The Depression deprives children of their imagination and hope for a future because they see the toll it leaves on their parents and other role models.   

            At the end of the story, Olsen refers to Emily as being “more than [the] dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron” (1070). She fears that Emily will match society the way that she did and instead is hopeful for a promising future. As a mother, Olsen debates her parenting style and how her actions affected Emily’s growth as an individual. During this time period, should Olsen feel guilty for the way that Emily was raised? And in your opinion, does the Great Depression take a greater toll on Emily or her mother?    

Work Cited

Charters, Ann. "I Stand Here Ironing." The Short Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2011. 1064-1070. Print.

Dawahare, Anthony. "'That Joyous Certainty': History And Utopia In Tillie Olsen's Depression-Era Literature." Twentieth Century Literature 44.3 (1998): 261. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Apr. 2012.

Frye, Joanne S. "'I Stand Here Ironing': Motherhood As Experience And Metaphor." Studies In Short Fiction 18.3 (1981): 287. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.

Flannery O'Connor: Incomprehensible?

by Susan Skirta

            The majority of Flannery O’Connor’s work can be interpreted and comprehended in numerous ways. While researching I noticed a continuous pattern in what the readers found most interesting along with questions that boggled their minds. One of the main elements in all of Flannery O’Connor’s works was her references to religion. Not just any religion though, mainly Catholicism. Having attended a catholic school for the majority of my life I took interest in her reasoning behind this. L.Lamar Nisly describes her interest in his book Wingless Chickens, Bayou Catholics, and Pilgrim Wayfarers and gives some insight on why this was such an impact to her. Flannery O’Connor grew up in Milledgeville, Georgia, where Catholicism was tolerated, but not the most popular religion. Although no one gave her a hard time, she felt like an outsider all her life in her community of 300 people (Nisly 29). She had trouble making connections there and constantly felt as if she were an alien compared to the others. As she grew older she struggled to gain understanding through people she met, but literature always remained her safety net. Due to the solitude she found because of the religious gap and also because of her severe case of disseminated lupus erythematosus, she was able to concentrate all her energy and fascination into her writing. She became observant of the actions of the protestants around her, which gave her the sense of the “do-it-yourself religion” that is “full of unconscious pride” (Nisly 41). All these observations and life experiences also taught O’Connor a useful lesson in her work, how to appeal to her audience.

            Flannery O’Connor understood that because of her religious practices and the day and age she was writing to would provide her difficulty in getting readers. This just pushed her harder to get her work out there in a way that would not hinder her approaches. These approaches consist of abrupt, shocking endings, grotesque imagery, and the goal to leave the reader speechless (Nisly 49). She tackles this by giving up on writing to a specific audience, but through another interesting process. She sits down to write, a monstrous reader looms up who sits down beside her and continually mutters, “I don’t get it, I don’t see it, I don’t want it,” She ignores all these complaints and won’t let it gain control, but she feels she must make the reader see even if it means making him see the extremes (Nisly 50). The extremes to her were the grotesque ways in which she places her characters accordingly. These grotesque actions are justified in that they are meant for the reader to create a sacred space for the reader to actually consider the religion in the story and the reality in which it implies (Nisly 51). I understood that the grotesque images that O’Connor exemplifies are necessary to bring the reader to a new level, but I wasn’t sure if the brought me to connect with the sacredness of the moment. The characters that endure the violence also left me puzzled as to why each one seems tortured in some way. The article “Flannery O’Connor and the Art of Holy” by Arthur F. Kinney addresses this issue and a resolution would be that he felt O’Connor thought that these characters were like saints of the devil stripped of everything by him, as real saints are stripped by God (May 123). Is this the real reason why she put these characters through so much pain? The truth is, we don’t know.

            Flannery O’Connor was a very complex author and insight behind her works creates a better understanding of each aspect of her works. Even though these are just a few criticisms of her work, which help readers understand her decisions, there is still much more to them. Does she use certain characters for her works? Would she use the same ideas if her stories were located in more drastic settings? Now that we know her approach to the audience, does it make the reader comprehend the story differently? Questions can continually pop up when contemplating her dynamic work and no matter how much you research the answers will never be sufficient.

Work Cited

May, Charles E. "Flannery O'Connor and the Art of Holy." Critical Insights. Pasadena, CA: Salem, 2012. 113-28. Print.

Nisly, L.Lamar. Wingless Chickens, Bayou Catholics, and Pilgrim Wayfarers. Macon: Mercer UP, 2011. Print.

"The Lottery": A View on Death or the Need for Tradition in Society?

by Casey Watson

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” has caused a huge discussion among the public. Most people hated it simply because they didn’t understand the meaning behind it or it was too brutal for them. Some intellects looked deep into the story to define some type of meaning to the story. Gayle Whittier, a professor at Birmingham University, thought that it was a misogynist parable, or a story focused on the hatred of woman with a moral or spiritual lesson attached to it. He states that the lottery and society favors man as the leaders in the village. In the lottery, two males conduct it and even the males that are head of the household chose the ballot from the black box. Women aren’t given any choices until they are already in danger of the lottery. Women in the village are said to be weaker than the men in the village and they are only commentators because they say more than they do during the lottery: “In any case, the male alphabet continues over the women’s voices, defining the ritual despite them, for, in ‘The Lottery,’ untoward and vocal females like Tessie Hutchinson will be ‘shut up’” (Whittier 355).

Tessie Hutchinson isn’t like most women in the village and she speaks out when she is chosen for the lottery. Doing this causes the village to look at her in a different light because she is challenging the silence of women, as well as showing that she is unwilling to be sacrificed for her family and village. One other point made is that the black mark on Tessie’s piece of paper was made by a man. At this time, only a husband could open his wife’s body by violence. The slip of paper with the black mark represents the dominance that men have over women. Tessie represents everything that a woman should not be. Tessie is “now stereotyped as the uncooperative, dissident, overly vocal, unmotherly ‘bad sport…’ What will be stoned to death at the end of the account is a traditional image of the ‘bad woman’” (Whittier 360).

            Amy Griffin from Schreiner College interpreted “The Lottery” in a much different way. She focused on society’s need for rituals and the tendency of violence. Griffin compares the process of growing crops to the life cycle. She stated that ancient peoples did sacrificial rituals to imitate what happens during a resurrection: “Seeds buried… represent death. But with the life forces of water and the sun, the seed grows, representing rebirth” (Griffin 44). Griffin believes that man has a need for rituals such as this. Another way this is represented in the story is in the relationship between the two conductors of the lottery, Mr. Graves and Mr. Summers, and the life cycle. Mr. Summers is said to set the stage for the whole lottery because of his name and how nice he is. Mr. Graves is said to represent the darkness of the lottery because of his name and quietness. This shows that “Life brings death, and death recycles life” (45). The ritual wasn’t taken serious by the village and some things changed since the very first lottery. The villagers don’t understand the true meaning of the lottery and only continue to do it because it is a tradition and they want to feel like they are a part of that. Even though things have changed in the lottery, they still kept the gruesome act of stoning at the end, which shows society’s need for violence.

            These two interpretations shows that “The Lottery” can have many different meanings, it just depends on the way you look into it. Since this story has been judged so harshly by its readers, I think it’s good that these critics have shown that you can interpret it any way you please as long as you can justify your reasoning. After reading about how Whittier and Griffin interpreted “The Lottery,” in which ways would you agree and disagree with their views?

Works Cited

Whittier, Gayle. "'The Lottery' As Misogynist Parable." Women's Studies 18.4 (1991): 353.

Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Apr. 2012.

Griffin, Amy A. "Jackson's The Lottery." Explicator 58.1 (1999): 44. Academic Search Complete.

Web. 9 Apr. 2012.

Capturing a Moment in Time

by Chris Dehoff

Eudora Welty is regarded as one of the South’s greatest writers of all time, winning countless awards for her short stories and novels. Welty was born in the deep south of Mississippi to a very well educated family, growing up in a very sheltered home environment. Many critics say that her stories do not portray the racial tensions that were occurring at the time. Many even said that Welty was oblivious to these tensions; possibly a result of the sheltered family life she experienced as she was growing up. This can be demonstrated in her short story, “A Worn Path.” While this story does portray characters of different race --Phoenix Jackson, an elderly African-American woman caring for her grandson and a white hunter she encounters in the woods -- racial tensions that were common in society at this time were not present in the story. Although the characters interact with one another, no direct racial segregation or hints of racism are present. This story was published in 1940, almost fifteen years before segregation was abolished. I thought that this was interesting because Welty fails to include this time period’s social norm into her stories, giving the reader the impression that she either was oblivious to this phenomenon as others criticized or simply did not want to portray the South in a negative way.

             Through research I discovered that Welty wanted her readers to view her work as it was without a link or correlation to her life. I assumed that is why many of her critics thought she was oblivious to the racial tensions of the South. I believe Welty’s true feelings and depiction of Southern culture can be displayed through the photographs she took, which most readers do not know of. Welty took many pictures throughout the 1930s and most of them were of African-Americans. Robert MacNeil, a long time friend of Welty said, “While white people in the Deep South like Mississippi were surrounded by blacks at the time…they were socially invisible. In a way, these two decades before the civil rights movement began, these photographs of black people give us insight into a personality who saw the humanity of these people before we began officially to recognize them” (Frail). Welty said these pictures were not a “social document” but of a “family album.” This shows Welty was ahead of her time, especially being from the South, because of her social acceptances of African Americans. Whether or not she photographed whites or blacks Welty always used the same size pictures so that one was not favored over the other (Samway).

 In Welty’s story, “One Time, One Place” she acknowledges her photography and stood by her beliefs by saying, “And had I no shame as a white person for what message might lie in my pictures of black persons? No, I was too busy imagining myself into their lives to be open to any generalities.” Through her photography, Welty showed many viewers the life and culture of the South , however she believed there was something more to these pictures. When asked about one of her photographs of a proud standing African-American woman, Welty explained that she did not see the Depression, African Americans, the South, or any sorry state of the world, but just the story behind the woman’s face and her struggle to prevail.

Critics will still argue that because Welty was such a prominent Southern writer she should have put her thoughts out or at least talked about racial tensions in her stories instead of acting oblivious. In my opinion, I do not think Welty needed to include anything civil rights movement or problems of the South. She did this through her photography and believed that while she was proud of being a Southerner she would rather “capture and reproduce the inner calm found often in life’s tumultuous mindscapes and landscapes” (Samway). In an ending interview with Welty’s long time friend, Reynolds Price, he tried persuading her to get back into photography; Welty states she would not, saying that, “I’ve done what I have to do. I’ve said what I had to say” (Frail).

-Do you think Eudora Welty would be viewed differently if her stories revolved around racial tensions in the South? And do you believe using photography was a good way of Welty to depict her true feelings and culture of the South?

Works Cited

Samway, Patrick H. “Eudora Welty’s Eye for the Story.” America Magazine (1987) 417-420. Print.

Frail, T.J. “Eudora Welty as Photographer.” Smithsonian Magazine (2009). Online.

Feeley, Kathleen. “Remembering Eudora Welty.” America Magazine (2001). Online.

Welty, Eudora. “One Time, One Place.” Print.

The Depiction of the South and Christianity in Flannery O'Connor's Works

by Amanda Robles

            Flannery O’Connor, a devoted Orthodox Christian from the South, wrote a collection of letters, short stories and novels throughout her life. In these writings, Flannery captured the grotesque and negativity of the South in a bizarre and imaginative style. Despite the fact that most of her life experiences were limited due to her short-lived life and lupus disease, her stories were known for the normal scenarios found in day-to-day life with ridiculous imaginative twists that she was able to come up with on her own. Through these scenarios and stories, O’Connor portrayed the tensions between the Christian faith and the secular part of society in the South. She used an extreme emphasis on violence and distortion of Southern society in order to portray the tensions. O’Connor also directed her writing to portray the Southern biblical practice and the distrust of modern religion and secularity.

In one of her short stories, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” an ordinary Southern family and their Christian grandmother are traveling to Tennessee when they end up in a minor car accident, just to become murdered by a well-known Southern criminal known as the Misfit. Many readers find this story disturbing as the Misfit orders his men to kill the family members one by one, as the grandmother is left praying to God, pleading for her life. The grandmother, telling him he should not kill a lady and that he should pray to God instead, was killed in the end by the secular Misfit. Many people, including Michael M. Jordan, author of “Flannery O’Connor’s Writing: A Guide for the Perplexed” and myself, viewed this as secular views overcoming those of Christian faith. In fact, however, O’Connor’s real vision is that the grandmother dies with honor and grace of being a Christian and that she becomes “a good woman,” ending her life in a Christian way. This is also true for another of O’Connor’s short story, “The River” in which a boy baptizes himself. In a horrific and tragic way, Bevel drowns and ends up passing away. As violent and horrifying this may be, O’Connor portrays that although his life is over, he died after becoming a Christian and that he has “left this life of sin, sorrow and suffering for a glorious life in the Kingdom of Christ” (Jordan, Michael M., 2005).

            Although she was devoted to her faith and her stories reflected these views, critics argued that her stories do not always directly reflect this. ‘Reading between the lines’ is sometimes needed to pick out the Christian hints. In response to this, in 1957, O’Connor stated, “I am no disbeliever in spiritual purpose and no vague believer. I see from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. This means that for me in the meaning of life is center in our Redemption by Christ and what I see in the world I see in relation to that.” This just restates that her stories are all told in how she views the world, in a Christian way. Also, O’Connor viewed herself as a literary artist, not a preacher. Her stories reflect Christian morality, but these are not as direct as one might expect. As an explanation for audiences not being able to interpret her Christian meaning behind her stories, one can say that society as a whole has developed a more secular viewpoint.

Extremely proud of being a Southerner, O’Connor still found many flaws in society. In a lecture she gave at Georgetown University, Washington, DC in 1963, she introduced the Catholic Church and the South as being against each other. As the lecture went on, she explained the similarities between one another, explaining that they each had a religious background, human limitations, a respect for the concrete and actual and an acknowledgement that “good and evil in every culture tend to be joined at the spine (Elie, Paul, 2008).” She was proud to be from the South because it was a culture; it had a history, manners and idiom.

As we read through different stories of Flannery O’Connor, we read through different scenarios in which Christianity is imposed, and in which good conquers evil. A question I have is how has society as a whole changed into a secular society? How would Flannery O’Connor interpret this change? Also, in order to understand her stories does one have to be a devoted Christian like her, or can even the most secular people see the tensions of good versus evil in her stories?

Works Cited

Arbery, Glenn C. “Ontological Splendor: Flannery O’Connor in the Protestant South.” The Intercollegiate Review 46.1 (2011) : 41-50. Print.

Elie, Paul. “What Flannery Knew: Catholic Writing for a Critical Age.” Commonweal 135.20 (2008) : 12-17. Print.

Jordan, Michael M. Flannery. “Flannery O’Connor’s Writing: A Guide for the Perplexed.” Modern Age 47.1 (2005) : 48-57. Print.

Parallel Between Joyce and Gabriel in "The Dead"

by Laura Schutt

          Authors frequently write stories to parallel situations they have experienced in their own lives. In James Joyce’s “The Dead,” Joyce uses the main character Gabriel to create parallels to similar situations Joyce went through.  The story was written to explain how Joyce experienced self-knowledge which describes how he has come to realize his status in the world and how it is different from the way he had originally perceived it.

            Joyce never considered himself an Irish nationalist and had no interest to preserve the old Gaelic language. The Gaelic language was not of any importance to Joyce because “Joyce, foreseeing the decline of Gaelic and not fired by nationalism, refused to have anything to do with the revival” (Hogart 16).  Joyce preferred to move forward with the times, while the country was trying to preserve the old language. The language was so important to the rest of the country because the number of people who practiced the Gaelic culture and language greatly declined after the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 (Hodgart 16).  The Gaelic League wanted to preserve the language so they actually created an exam that everyone had to pass if that person wanted to hold a position in the Irish Republic (Hodgart 16). The Gaelic League feared that after the Battle of Boyne, the Gaelic language would diminish and they wanted to preserve as much of their old Irish roots as much as possible. However, Joyce wanted to move forward and stay with the English language that he is familiar with as opposed to trying to learn the Gaelic language to support the old Irish culture.

            Old Irish culture exists mostly in the eastern part of Ireland whereas the people that prefer not to speak the Gaelic language are considered a “West Briton,” which Joyce takes offence to and comes to realize how rejected he is in society. In “The Dead,” “Joyce for the first time is trying to say something important about the whole of Ireland: the east-west axis which is not only geographical but cultural and historical is fundamental to the story” (Hodgart 53). The Gaelic language is part of the culture in eastern Ireland and anyone who does not want to learn the language is considered an outsider and are typically put down for this decision.  Joyce uses Gabriel in “The Dead” as a symbol to represent how he is now becoming aware of his self-knowledge” (Litz 58). The self-knowledge is the feeling Gabriel expresses after Miss Ivors, who is part of the Gaelic League, call him out for being a “West Briton” at the dinner party. Gabriel is very saddened by this statement and no longer things of himself so highly anymore. The story “The Dead” enables Joyce to use Gabriel as the character who experiences all of these feelings that Joyce had for being considered an outcast simply because he did not want to learn the old language and wanted to move forward. In the end, Gabriel feels “dead” because of how he has now realized the way people actually view him as opposed to the way he thought people viewed him and is depressed to come to this conclusion by the end of the story.            

            On the larger scale, why would a change in the language of a country cause such controversy? Do you blame Joyce for not wanting to conform to the old Gaelic language?

Works Cited

Hodgart, Matthew. James Joyce: A Student’s Guide. London. Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. 1978. Print.

Litz, Walton A. James Joyce. New York. Twayne. 1966. Print.

The Language of a Culture

by Maggie Thomas

            Zora Neale Hurston, like many other African American writers of this time (1900s-1930s), was involved in the Harlem Renaissance. Through this movement and through her work of short stories and novels she gained notoriety with “writing that was uniquely ethnocentric and at the same time appealing to both mainstream and minority audiences”(Heard 129). Hurston was known for writing and depicting her characters in the dialect and spelling that was common in their own communities. As an anthropologist she traveled the south, around the US in general and even abroad to Haiti to study different cultures and mainly the African American culture to depict in her writing. Hurston truly embraced her southern heritage and the mind-set shone through her writing.

            Today, Hurston is given the recognition as one of the greatest African American writers of her time. But, there are always the critics and the ones who disagree. There were critics that were openly disagreeing and disapproving of Hurston’s writing. Richard Wright who was an African American author most known for his work “Uncle Tom’s Children.” He openly disliked Hurston’s work stating that she “voluntarily continues in her novel the tradition which was forced upon the Negro in the theater, that is, the minstrel technique that makes the 'white folks' laugh” (Carpio). This criticism comes from Hurston’s realistic depiction of Negro talk and her common setting in her stories as the South. Hurston’s defense was to criticize Wright’s own work and state “since the author himself is a Negro his dialect is a puzzling thing. One wonders how he arrived at it. Certainly he does not write by ear unless he is tone deaf” (Carpio). Hurston accurately tried to capture the dialect of African Americans in the South and in the country. Even though she was a part of the Harlem Renaissance which took place in New York City, North, she was never influenced by the Northern Disposition as Wright was. Wright openly criticized the Jim Crow laws and advocated for black civil rights, but all from New York City where he resided, he drew an obvious barrier between himself and the South. Hurston stayed true to her southern roots for she “preferred Southern rural settings” (Carpio).

            Hurston was a major player in the Harlem Renaissance and it allowed her to gain literary standing and truly started her career as an influential writer, but she does not see the North as a proper place for the true character of the Negro to be depicted. As an anthropologist “she analyzes how identity markers like dialect and skin color adversely limit the admission of non-mainstream social groups into the mainstream society” (Heard 130). She uses her depiction of language and marginalized non-mainstream southern rural blacks as main characters in her stories. But, gives her main characters personality that is to be admired in any race, which is what her writing is really about. Transcending social barriers of race. Was Hurston right to use the common dialect of Southern rural blacks? Or as Wright thinks, does it give her less credibility?

                                                            Works Cited

Carpio, Glenda R. and Werner Solloros. "The Newly Complicated Zora Neale Hurston."             Chronicle Of Higher Education 57.18 (2011): B6-B9. Academic Search Complete. Web.             30 Mar. 2012.

Heard, Matthew. "Dancing Is Dancing No Matter Who Is Doing It": Zora Neale Hurston,             Literacy, And Contemporary Writing Pedagogy." College Literature 34.1 (2007): 129-            155. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Mar. 2012.