Saturday, July 28, 2012
Catharsis in If He Hollers Let Him Go
The catharsis of the novel would be the scene with Madge in the room of the ship. the dynamic that exists with Madge and Bob reminds us how helpless bob feels about his status in this society when he thinks about the look he and Madge share right before he is captured. "I felt buck-naked and powerless stripped of my manhood and black against the whole white world" (Himes181). As the reader we feel a sense of pity and fear towards Bob because we know that if the door is opened he will get beaten. Bob himself knows this and that is why he feels "naked" and "powerless" the used the words to describe how he isn't a man in this society he is just another black person and right now he is their target. he is also getting the feeling that he is an animal, and this would be correct in the eyes of the men waiting outside the door. Due to popular belief black men were considered savage animals that only wanted to cause harm to white women. Because of this information I could clearly understand why Bob feels as though he were "buck-naked... against the whole white world". Bob is evidently under the white mans thumb, and he is understandably frightened.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Mrs. Hall VS. Ruth
During
our last class we discussed Mrs. Hall, and why she does things to Ruth. During
my readings I found a passage that caught my attention to Mrs. Hall and the
reasons why she acts the way that she does. “I’m determined Ruth shan’t have
them, if they fret me to fiddling-strings;” (1242 Ruth Hall). This is what Mrs.
Hall tells Mr. Hall regarding Ruth’s children, due to this comment that Mrs.
Hall has made I feel like she is doing things just to anger or to make Ruth miserable
Mrs. Hall is willing to take both of Ruth’s little girls even if they make her
crazy in turn. Another place where I saw that same train of thought was in the beginning
of the book Where Mrs. Hall is interviewing Ruth about her attire. Mrs. Hall
was being very condescending and very rude to Ruth while she asked her about
her background, and her overall skills. One passage that I Remember was when Mrs.
Hall spoke to Ruth about her choice of reading material ‘“I hope’, continued
the old lady, ‘that you don’t read novels and such trash.’”(401 Ruth Hall). Here
we also see the way that Mrs. Hall talks down to Ruth, and puts her decisions
or beliefs down. In my opinion Mrs. Hall has had a game plan from day one to
make Ruth’s stay at the home as unbearable as possible, and following the death
of Ruth’s husband the “old lady” as Ruth calls her has decided to take the last
remaining things she currently has that makes her feel good; Her only daughters.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Anger in the House. Family issues.
The article, “Anger in the House: Fanny
Fern’s Ruth Hall and The Redrawing of Emotional
Boundaries in Mid-Nineteenth Century America,” by Linda Grasso, helps us
understand the necessity that women have for literature as an outlet for anger.
The article talks about Ruth Hall and the negative feedback she got from people
because they thought her work was too angry, un-lady like, and against family. Elizabeth
Cady Stanton felt as though she had to defend a colleague and revered
her work as “an inspiring act of resistance against the ‘romance’ of dependency”
(Grasso 252). Unlike Staton, there were other female activists who didn’t appreciate
Fern’s attitude about family relationships or the position of women in society.
Women like Caroline Dall who made their voices heard by cracking down on Fern’s
writing. Dall describes Fern’s writing as “devoid of good character and sound
morals, she also lacks talent. In order to discredit Fern's authority to speak
anger in public, Dall judges the novel on aesthetic grounds and pronounces it wanting”
(Grasso 256). Also the changing image of the all forgiving Christ made Fern
sound as if she were writing something that went against the beliefs of any good
Christian. We see this when Grasso states that “when a forgiving, turn the other cheek, Christ-like
model becomes the only justifiable "womanly"
response to injustice, women are left
without a way to express anger that does not automatically threaten their gendered
source of power” (Grasso 259).
From the beginning I was drawn to what
was said about Fern once everyone knew who she was, “Vulnerable and exposed, Fern
was lambasted for expressing "unfemininely bitter wrath and spite"
against the male members of her own family. Accused of "demean[ing] herself
as no right minded woman should have done," her most heinous crime was engaging
in unfilial behavior” (Grasso 253). Evidence of this can be seen when Ruth
requests employment from her brother, and in turn he sends her back a condescending
letter telling her that she isn’t worth the sacrifice of employment because she
just isn’t a good writer. “I have looked over the pieces you sent me, Ruth. It is
very evident that writing never can be your forte; you have no talent that way.
You may be employed by some inferior newspapers, but be assured your articles never
will be heard of out of your own provincial little city” (Fern 221-22). We see
that in her writing Fern lets we know that her brother was being an unpleasant
person to talk to and for her even to ask for help from that man must have
meant that she really needed it. Her brother with no remorse clearly refuses
employment.
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