diversevoices

2006-05-03T16:53:00.000-07:00

As I said in the previous blog, I see similar themes between "A Bastard Out of Carolina" in comparison to "A Street Car Named Desire". WOW!!
A Bastard Out of Carolina was a very touching story. For a young women to go through as much stuff that Bone had to go through with Daddy Glen is sad. And it's even worst that the only person she could never hate, Anney, did nothing to solve the problem. At the end of the story, we find out that Anney comes to say her final good bye to Bone and to give her the birth certificate that they have been looking for. This gives Bone a little bit of closure with the problems she had with Anney and Glen, but I wonder how does Bone deal with the dramatization for the rest of her life?

2006-04-26T19:05:00.000-07:00

The first six chapters of reading "Bastard Out of Carolina" has so far been very interesting and has been very easy to understand compared to most of the novels we read this semester. But like most of the novels we read, "Bastard Out of Carolina" has similar themes such as the novel "A Street Car Named Desire". It's similar that Daddy Glenn rapes Bone while Anney is giving birth to a son, later in the novel we see that Anney knows about the rape and yet takes Glenn side. In "A Street Car Named Desire" Stanley rapes Blanch while Stella is also giving birth to a son. Stella also knows about the rapes and takes Stanley's side.

2006-04-12T17:45:00.000-07:00

On Friday's oral presentation, Lisa and Monica spoke about Southern Music primarily the history of Rock&Roll. We learned that Elvis Prestley became famous and rich because he used his style of rock and mixed with with an African-American flavor. My question is, was there ever a case were a record label used a black person perform rock&roll on records, but used a white person face or performance for the record to genereate more profit?

2006-04-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

After reading Flannery O'Conner's "Revelation", the same theme of religion was used in her other short stories "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and in "The Displaced Person". In Revelation, we meet a very critical and self-centered woman by the name of Mrs. Turpin. Mrs. Turpin owns a house with her huband were they raise pigs. Mrs. Turpin is very happy with her place in the world because she feels that people who own a house is superior to those who dont own a house. Not only does Mrs. Turpin feel that she is superior to those that dont own a land, but she feels that she is also superior to black people.
Conflict in this story took place when Mrs. Turpin, at a doctors office, was degrading and being critical on people, mainly black people. An ill child by the name of Mary Grace heard enough of Mrs. Turpin and threw a book called "Human Development" at Mrs. Turpin. Mary Grace also continue her assault saying "Go back to hell where you came from, you old warthog". This is when O'Connor religious themes come into play because after this incident, Mrs. Turpin see's this as a sign of God because she says, "How" "am I hog and me both? How am I saved and from hell too?" I feel that Mrs. Turpin seen it as a sign that she raised hogs, and yet she was being called a hog from her self shallowness. It's a revelation that later in the story, Mrs. Turping cleans of the hogs, and was pleasant to negro workers as to say that she was cleaning her sins away.

2006-04-05T17:56:00.000-07:00

2006-03-29T20:23:00.001-08:00

I really enjoyed reading Tennesee William's play "A Street Car Named Desire". But personally for me, I feel that watching the movie and see how the characters are portrayed helps me more to visualize what is goin on rather than to just reading the play. Reading the play, we read that Blanche is so concerned on her appearance. In the movie their are many times we see her being concern with her looks. One time when she is hiding her face in the light when her and Stella see each other at the bowling alley and another time when Blance meets Stanley at the house. Thruought many of the novels we read, we read about the male dominance in relationships. But with this movie we can actual visualize what was being portrayed by watching Stella and Stanley.

2006-03-23T16:09:00.000-08:00

After reading the first five scenes of Tennessee Williams play "A Street Care Named Desire", I already see similarities to other novels we previously read. We see the character of Blanche being the role as the southern belle. Blanche is very materialistic and is always concerned on her appearance. In the previous story "Their Eyes Were Watching God" we saw a male dominated relationship between Tea Cake and Janie. In this play we also see a male dominated relationship between Stella and Stanley. We also see a theme of violence in relationships were we seen a drunk and very frustrated Stanley strike a pregnant Stella.

2006-03-15T16:03:00.000-08:00

While reading Wrights " The Ethics of Living Jim Crow" and Hurstons "How It Feels to Be Colored Me", I noticed the difference between both authors outlook on African American life. For one, Richard White is a black male which puts a lot of weight on his shoulders. It was as if he always had to watch what he did or what he said because it would seem threatening towards white men. Respect is part of manhood, although white people who worked with Wright in the factory liked him, they did not respect him for the simple fact that they addressed him as "boy".
In Zora Neale Hurston case, she is definitely proud to be who she is, and doesn't let any negative opinions get to her. Hurston did a good job on the portrayal of a black woman having self-confidence in herself. I think it also helps that she is a black woman, and black woman were not seen as a threat as much as black men were.

2006-02-22T17:43:00.000-08:00

Throughout reading Faulkner novel's, I feel that I really couldn't get into the story as much as the other novels that we have read previously. I have never read any of Faulkner work before now, so his type of writing was all new to me. I was able to keep up with the plot of the stories, but the time shifting of the stories kind of threw me off. Also not knowing which characters did what in the story was a bit confusing to me especially when Faulkner would use a characters nickname rather than the real name.

2006-02-08T15:03:00.000-08:00

James Weldon Johnson's: Autobiography of an ex-colored man, has great lessons that we can learn from. James was taught by his mother at a young age that everyone is equal no matter your race or skin color.
But things got worst for James once he found out that he was partially black. It was as if he didn't know who he was when he looked at himself in the mirror. At school where he was popular and felt a since of belonging vanquished once the white kids started calling James by racial slurs and the black kids saying "we knew he was colored". I feel that this is when James felt that he is no longer part of society because he is "different". For a young kid to grow up, you must have a since of belonging. James felt that he didn't belong in the white nor black society and felt betrayed by his mother which caused him to have emotional rage.

2006-02-02T17:27:00.000-08:00

After taking a few African American History classes over the years, I have some what knowlegdge on what life was being a slave. After reading Frederick Douglass narrative on his life, gave me a little bit more insight of being a slave and what it was like to be disciplined by their master. Douglass narrative definitely made me a little bit more open minded of the life of a slave. Douglass paints a very vivid picture with his narrative as he portrays his life and the life of other slaves. As I was reading the narrative, I felt the pain and struggles that he went through. Some parts of his narratives hurt me as I was reading, but there are two that mainly sticks out in my mind. The first is when Douglass describes the way his aunt was beating with a whip. And the second was when Mr. Covey bought himself a female to be a "breeder" so that he can produce himself more slaves. Being an African-American and a human being, I could never see my self being owned and being whipped by my "master".

2006-01-27T08:50:00.000-08:00

testing