John Cage

During class on Thursday, we listened to and read up on Morton Feldman a pioneer of the New York school of composers. In this school of composers, perhaps the most famous is John Cage. Cage was heavily inspired by Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg, who were both very well known for their radical innovations in music. Cage was also influenced by various East and South Asian cultures. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism, Cage came to the idea of chance controlled music which he started composing in 1951. His most famous piece is titled 4'33" in which there are just four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence. This work challenged the usual definitions and assumptions about music experiences. This piece was controversial and started a controversial conversation in musicology. Here are some of his other pieces that you can actually listen to if you would like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShH-Td3ZiKs

Toni Morrison

As most of you know, Toni Morrison has had a very interesting life and is a well-respected author known throughout the country. Many of her quotes are very profound and inspiring (Ms. King even has a poster of one in her room). I found this video of Morrison speaking with the New York Times about her newest novel and other social issues. The video is only six minutes long, so if any of you would like to watch it, I'd highly recommend it:

 https://www.nytimes.com/video/books/1194834031847/a-conversation-with-toni-morrison.html

Rothko

As we watched many of the Rothko's paintings go by while listening to Feldman's music I particularly liked a couple of Rothko's paintings a little more than the other so I thought I'd share them with you now.

Here are just a few of my favorite pieces by Rothko, please be sure to share your favorites as well.

Why Ella, Toni Morrison?

I know we've brought her up a few times, but I want to discuss Ella a little bit more. She's a really interesting character, and I think we should further consider why Morrison included her. Like Ally brought up, it's important to understand that she killed one of her children as well. However, the reasoning behind her decision was extremely different from Sethe's. Ella chose to not feed her child because it was the product of her rape; whereas, Sethe killed her daughter to protect her from a future of slavery and constant abuse. Ella's actions were derived from a sense of pain and hatred not only directed towards her rapist and child but towards the entire institution that permitted such brutality and agony. On the other hand, Sethe's actions came from a place of love and her need to nurture and shelter her children. However, regardless of the specific reasons, both women killed their children because of the horrible institution of slavery.

This brings me to my more important question. Why does Toni Morrison create Ella's character, and why does she bring up Ella up only in the last part of the novel? Clearly, Ella's character develops an interesting layer to the question regarding the morality of Sethe's murder. We sympathize with Ella when the narrator says, "She had delivered, but would not nurse, a hairy white thing, fathered by the 'lowest yet'" (Morrison 305). Thus, learning about and sympathizing with Ella's experience gives us more perspective on Sethe's experience.

More importantly, the way Ella deals with the present and future teaches us about Morrison's intention while creating Ella's character. As we discussed, Ella believed that the past should never obstruct one's future and that the past should even be "stomped out" if it interfered. By showing a woman that underwent the same horrible past as Sethe and was able to create a future regardless, Morrison shows us that Sethe and others should not allow the past to continue dictating their lives. Ella became a community leader, and her character, in a way, helps Sethe leave behind her past as well to build a future.

Also, I think it's important to note that Morrison only introduces Ella, a woman who also dealt with infanticide, towards the end of the novel. The novel would have been completely different if we had known about Ella's past before because then Sethe's situation would not have felt so much an anomaly. It really makes me think about how my reaction towards Sethe and her infanticide changed before and after meeting Ella.

Feldman and Indeterminacy in Music

I was doing some research on Morton Feldman, the composer who wrote the Rothko Chapel piece, and I found some interesting information about the movement of several American composers in the 50s and 60s who explored similar things in their music. One of the most interesting aspects to these composers is their use of indeterminacy. Indeterminacy refers to the use of compositions that allow for considerable interpretation and freedom to performers. Often, this freedom is introduced by chance as the performer is intended to somehow randomly select how a work is played.  For example, some pieces like Henry Cowell's Mosaic Quartet allows performers to play a series of fragments in a number of different orders. Perhaps the most extreme version of indeterminacy is John Cage's 4'33", which Mrs. Quinet discussed and which consists of 4 minutes and 33 seconds of rest. These sorts of works explore many postmodern concepts like the nature of art and composition and the subjectivity of music. Morton was closely associated with these and other composers, so I think this helps contextualize the very modern sounding work we listened to in class.

Ella-borating on Infanticide in Beloved

I thought Ella was a really well-written character in Beloved.  I like how her story slowly unfolds.  First we see her helping Stamp, then we see her sort of turn on Sethe after the infanticide, and then finally we see her return to try to “exorcise” Beloved.  However, I also thought her reaction to the infanticide was almost hypocritical…or maybe worse.  She herself refused to nurse her baby, letting it starve for five days and basically just letting it die.  To me, it seemed like she did that out of spite toward her rapists.  Maybe it was some deeper anguish that made her commit this act, though; perhaps she simply didn’t view the baby as hers since the white men impregnated her without her consent.  I’m not really sure.  On the other hand, Sethe deeply loved her children and killed Beloved to protect her from the horrors of Sweet Home and schoolteacher.  In some ways it seems that Sethe’s act of infanticide was more righteous.  Ella clearly doesn’t think so, as she shuns Sethe and expresses a very low opinion of her when Stamp pays Ella a visit about Paul D.

In the end, I’m not exactly sure what to think about Ella’s actions.  Similar to so many other issues we’ve read about this year, I’m not even sure I'm in a position to judge Ella.  (Or Sethe.)  What do you guys think?

Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty and Rothko Chapel

The video Ms. Quinet showed us of Mark Rothko's artwork and Morton Feldman's music really stuck with me. The artwork and the music in particular was so beautiful and I couldn't help but be reminded of a couple Walt Disney films I watched back when I was little - Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Fantasia (1940). The music in both films, in my opinion, is reminiscent of some of the music we listened to in that video.
Here is a link to a clip from Sleeping Beauty: https://youtu.be/N6UYITSXjfc
The link to the clip above features Maleficent beckoning Aurora to the dreaded spinning wheel on which she pricks her finger - y'all know the story. Anyway, at the beginning of the clip, the music that plays sounds like that of a woman singing or hollering - kind of like what we hear at some parts of the Rothko Chapel video. And then as Aurora ascends the staircase, there are a couple pauses in the music kind of like what we hear at 7:00 (yes I picked out specific time measures - a bit OCD) of Rothko Chapel, except the music heard at that specific part sounds like a tiptoeing violin rather than what is heard starting at 1:24 of the Sleeping Beauty clip.
Here is a link to a clip from Fantasia: https://youtu.be/Rrm8usaH0sM
The link to the clip above features Mickey and the sorcerer, who leaves Mickey to his devices. Mickey, the sorcerer's apprentice, has chores to do and Mickey uses the sorcerer's magical hat (sorcerer left it behind - bad idea) so he can bring his cleaning utensil (a freaking broom) to life. At 3:09-3:20 of the video, Mickey brings the broom to life and the music sounds similar to 7:00 of Rothko chapel in that there are also pauses in the music but unlike a tiptoeing violin, the music at that part of the Fantasia clip is quirky, bouncy and more playful.
Not quite sure why or how my brain made this weird connection to my favorite pastime (watching Old Disney films lol) while listening to Rothko Chapel. But both Disney films along with the music we hear and some of the artwork we see in Rothko Chapel was made/composed in the 40s and 50s. No matter the difference between indeterminate music (composing approach Feldman used) and Fantasound (stereophonic sound rep system designed for Fantasia), there's a handful of common qualities found/heard in all music made in the early 20th century. Something to think about.

A Hot Thing?

After some intense thinking, I have come up with the therory thatbthe “hot thing” beloved is hinting towards is a body. I feel believed, in her stream of consciousness chapter, is possibly describing her star before she regained physical form and appeared at the steps of 124. Usually, ghost or just heat in general indicated life of some sorts because the circulation of blood emmits a specific body temperature. Beloved describes a rainy and dark landscape, reminiscent of a ship traveling the middle passage, which could be interpreted as a cold space because this is no indication of sunlight nor heat. The hot thing she must be talking about is a body because at the end of the chapter she emerges from a presumed body of water and into a drier place thus indicating she has been reincarnated.

Japan, Where is Your Conscience? – Japan's Comfort Women (Sex Slaves)

When we think of slavery, we often associate it with African slaves in The Americas and Europe. But that's only part of slavery's history. On the other side of the world, slavery has destroyed children and has brutally tore apart families as well. I want to talk about Japan's sex slaves and the miserable lives these 'comfort women' had to endure.

Comfort women were forced into sexual slavery for the Empire of Japan mostly during WWII and were trapped in "comfort stations," or military brothels. Though these brothels existed in the Japanese military since 1932, they expanded widely after one of the most infamous incidents in imperial Japan's attempt to take over the Republic of China: the Nanking Massacre. On 12/13/1937, Japanese troops began a six-week-long massacre that essentially destroyed the Chinese city of Nanking. Along the way, Japanese troops raped between 20,000 and 80,000 Chinese women. The mass rapes horrified the world, and Emperor Hirohito ordered the military to expand its "comfort stations" in an effort to prevent further atrocities, reduce STDs, and ensure a steady and isolated group of prostitutes to satisfy Japanese soldiers' sexual appetites (https://www.history.com/news/comfort-women-japan-military-brothels-korea).

Young girls were kidnapped or coerced off the streets of Japanese-occupied territories. Some were told they would get jobs but were brought to "comfort stations" instead. Most of the women were from Korea or China. They had to face men everyday, every minute.

By the end of WWII between 20,000 and 410,000 women had been enslaved in at least 125 brothels, and 90 percent of the comfort women had died. After the end of WWII, however, documents of the system were destroyed by Japanese officials.

I have read a lot about survivors' testimonies and their descriptions of the way people were tortured and killed by Japanese soldiers. Some descriptions are even more horrific than Sethe's infanticide. The woman pictured above was atrociously tattooed and tortured by Japanese troops (similar to Sethe's "tree").

The Japanese government refuses to sincerely apologize for these atrocities. Today, a statue commemorating the killed and surviving comfort women stands in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

Baby Suggs and Gregor Samsa: A New Hope (except this is definitely not Star Wars and apparently all hope was lost for these two)

Not too long ago, we read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. While Maansi and Liz and I were discussing Baby Suggs, Gregor came up in my mind. I feel like the way he died at the end of The Metamorphosis is similar to how Baby Suggs died. There is no actual cause for either of their deaths, is there? I mean Gregor hadn’t really been eating anything, but he had no desire to go on living at the end of the novella either. Similarly, Baby Suggs wasted away in her bed. I think it's tragic how the both of them lose hope in Beloved and The Metamorphosis, respectively. I understand a little bit more why Gregor gave up on life - who wants to live their life as a roach? Gross gross gross. Side note: I understand why Gregor's family was grossed out, but that does not mean I understand their cruelty. Big difference there.
Regarding Baby Suggs - I think she still had something to live for despite everyone she lost, Sethe's infanticide, and everything she went through when she was a slave.
I don't know. I feel like unless one turns into a gigantic, human-sized bug (maybe ladybugs and butterflies are an exception but guys, what if lifesized cockroaches were walking up and down the hallways at school to get to their next class?), one should never give up on life. Thaaat's just me though.

Post-Traumatic Self Love

I think one of the more interesting themes in Beloved is the idea of self-love. Whenever someone experiences an intense trauma, in this case slavery and rape, it is very common for a victim to blame themselves. I think a lot of times this is because the victims tend to carry with them the scars, such as the tree that Sethe literally carries on her back. Those marks make it easy to resent you body for being unable to let go of these events, which can be a huge factor in hindering recovery. Baby Suggs tries to combat that association, which I think is an important and wonderful thing to do.

Forgetting Beloved

When reading that everyone slowly forgot Beloved, I was honestly kind of shocked. At first, I jumped to the interpretation that they forgot Beloved, but also forgot slavery and all of the other trauma that created her. However, I concluded that when people were forgetting Beloved, they are forgiving themselves for the things they did in those traumatic situations. When Sethe says Beloved was her best one, and Paul D claims Sethe is her own best one, Paul d is perhaps suggesting that Sethe should move on from all she has done wrong and focus on what she managed to really bring through the experience, which is herself.

It Was Not a Story to Pass On

So we talked about this quote from the end of Beloved today in class, but I also came up with another explanation of my own.

Of course, this book is very focused on the relationship between mother and child, and part of that relationship is "passing on" traits.  I thought about how Ella refused to nurse the child she had as a product of rape and that got me thinking that the theme of infanticide in this novel is really not just contained to Sethe, although her story is perhaps the most shocking and gruesome one.
However, there is another woman mentioned in the novel who explicitly commits infanticide, and that woman is Sethe's own mother.  Nan tells Sethe that Sethe's mother threw away all the babies she had from the crew members.  In turn, Sethe herself kills her own child (although with a different motive).

So this story of infanticide has been passed down already.  And if this is not a story to pass on, I think Morrison's message might be, at least partly, that it's time for this stuff to stop.  Mothers should not be driven to kill their children, and if they are, then there is clearly something wrong with society (which, of course, there was).  Change needs to be effected, and being "better than it was before" doesn't cut it, just like the Garners' "special kind of slavery" is still horrible.  The effects and the pain of slavery are still present today, and clearly racism continues to be very prevalent.

It's been over a hundred and fifty years.  So when can it end?  When will this story finally stop being passed on?

Sethe and Edna: Two Mothers Trapped

It seems that we’ve read many books featuring mothers with ambiguous morals, Beloved being the latest.  I’m sure we all also remember Edna from The Awakening, who drowns herself and leaves her children behind.  In some ways (many ways), Sethe is Edna’s complete opposite.  She will do anything to care for her children, including make an arduous journey while pregnant so she can feed her young child.  She would never even think about drowning herself while her children lived.  At one point, she even thinks up an explanation for Beloved: she wanted to lay down in the grave with her but couldn’t while Denver, Howard, and Buglar were alive.  She sacrifices herself, in some sense, when she kills her baby girl.  It’s horrifying for us to simply contemplate—think how much worse it was for Sethe to kill her own child, because that was the only way she thought she could save her.

In other ways she’s similar to Edna.  Kind of.  Well.  I mean.  Edna is trapped like Sethe, but Edna is trapped more figuratively, having basically because very apathetic about her life and seeing no path out of it.  Sethe, on the other hand, was not only literally enslaved; she’s also trapped by 124 and by her past, by the judgement of the people in the town.  The difference is that Sethe claws her way out of slavery, and continues on despite the oppressive rejection by others, while Edna chooses to leave life altogether.  So I would say that Sethe’s devotion to her children is much greater than Edna’s.  I feel slightly bad judging Edna, as I’ve never walked in her shoes, but I just think that she’s such a stark contrast to Sethe.  And yet the novels are also similar…after all, both portray the negative effects that entrapment, whether it be literal or figurative, has on the relationship between a mother and her children.

Roll, Jordan, Roll

I'm not sure what clips or audio recordings Bryce found for our presentation, but I found clips of Follow the Drinking Gourd and Roll, Jordan, Roll. I wanna talk about the latter. Roll, Jordan, Roll was a spiritual written in the 18th century by Charles Wesley (English leader of the Methodist movement who wrote 6,000 hymns - okay buddy we see you). Roll, Jordan, Roll was one of the spirituals that were appropriated as coded messages for escape. The spiritual was featured in the film 12 Years A Slave. Below you'll find a link to a clip of the movie. In the clip, the character Solomon Northup (who wrote the title memoir that the movie is based off of) is seen as accepting the hopelessness of his situation and singing to the heavens, singing to God, with the rest of the choir. The actor, Chiwetel Ejifor, conveys so many emotions on his face in this moment, it's truly amazing. This scene always makes me cry (if you guys haven't seen 12 Years A Slave, freaking watch it).
https://youtu.be/mAZhQQN758g

Toni Morrison and The New Yorker

While doing research on Toni Morrison and Beloved, I came across a really interesting article by The New Yorker. It discusses how Toni Morrison has allowed a whole new generation of black writers to write freely about social issues. Something interesting for me specifically was that the article discusses Ellison as one of the these writers that was inspired by Toni Morrison and Ellison wrote Invisible Man, my independent study novel. The article is pretty long, but really interesting if you would like to read it here is the link:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/10/27/ghosts-in-the-house

A Follow Up to Yams

Earlier in the semester when we were discussing Things Fall Apart by Achebe, I made a post about the importance of yams in the novel and how Kendrick Lamar still uses these yams as a symbol of power and influence in his song, King Kunta. While reading my independent study novel, Invisible Man, I noticed that yams play a really important role in the novel. When the narrator is struggling to find his identity along with his cultural identity, he comes across a yam vendor on the streets of New York. The narrator earlier in the novel has been embarrassed to do stereotypical things, but after having a crisis decides to buy yams and eat them on the streets of the city. This is the first time in the novel the narrator has not been embarrassed of his cultural identity. In Achebe's novel, he uses the yams as symbol for power and respect within Igbo culture. In Ellison's novel, however, he uses yams as a symbol and representation of black culture. Yams are clearly a significant symbol throughout literature and are still used as a symbol to this day.

Slave Escape Stories

For my part of the research project, I discussed three stories of slaves that courageously escaped from their owners to the North via the Underground Railroad in Ohio. As you guys might remember, my stories were about a mother that faced serious legal troubles, a couple that escaped under a disguise, and a man that escaped with the help of William Still and became an important religious figure and scholar. I was really interested by the stories of these former slaves and their journey to freedom, so I found a few more that I would like to share with you guys.

One former slave, Henry Brown, decided to escape his plantation in 1848 when his wife and children were sold to another state. Out of desperation, he chose to hide in a wooden crate until he arrived at the home of an abolitionist. He lived in the crate with only a few pieces of bread and water while traveling in a wagon, on a steamboat, and on a railroad. For an hour and a half in the steamboat, he was placed upside down and nearly died. After an extremely long and dangerous journey, Brown eventually successfully landed in a free state. Later, Brown spent years in Great Britain and worked as a magician, performing with the same crate he escaped in.

Another amazing story is that of Harriet Jacobs. Jacobs was brutally abused by her plantation owner, and after she gave birth to her two children by another man, she was determined to leave. She eventually escaped in 1835 and was forced to live in a small attic inside her grandmother's house in the North. She lived in the attic, which was 9 ft x 7 ft and shorter than 3 ft high, for nine years. Barely any light or air entered the room. She spent the years watching her children through a very small peephole and only leaving the room at night for brief exercise. She later was able to reach New York and Boston and bought her freedom a few years later.

There's plenty of other stories, and I encourage you guys to take a look at them. These personal accounts provide perspective on slavery and escape.

The Sad History of Africville the Destination of the Underground Railroad

In researching the underground railroad, I thought it was interesting to look at where the former slaves went after their escape. As you know, many slaves escaped to Canada, which had abolished slavery and offered a promising destination for many slaves. One thing I found was that many slaves in Canada set up communities where they lived together. One prominent example of such a community is Africville, outside of Halifax in Nova Scotia. The community was first founded by slaves freed by the British during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. The community continued to grow throughout the 1800s. Unfortunately, the community of Africville struggled as the city of Halifax failed to develop it or provide basic services, such as improved plumbing and roads. The city mistreated the community, treating it as an industrial area that was the site of toxic waste disposal. Eventually, in the 1960s following decades of decay, the government of Halifax condemned the area as blighted and tore it down for the construction of a highway and a bridge. This was harshly criticized by community members and activists who felt that the community was targeted since it was mostly black. These events were effectively the end of the Africville community. In 2010, after years of investigation, the Halifax city council officially apologized for its actions, designated some of the land as a historical monument, and offered compensation for descendants of families from Africville. The history of Africville both serves an example of a community of freed slaves that was established following their escape and of the sad mistreatment of former slaves and their descendants that continues to the present day.

A México por la Libertad

Today the issue of illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States is very controversial, but over 100 years ago, it used to be the other way around. Although most fugitive slaves took the Underground Railroad north into free states and Canada, a similar path existed to the south into Mexico. Slavery was abolished in Mexico in 1829 by Mexican President Vicente Guerrero.

Nathaniel Jackson and his family were instrumental in offering slaves refuge and helping them cross the Mexican border. Jackson was the son of a plantation owner in Alabama. He and his family owned slaves, but eventually emancipated them. He married Matilda Hicks, who was once a slave on his family's plantation, and headed to the Rio Grande Valley with their children and five other families in covered wagons in 1857.

There were many ferries set up across the Rio Grande in the 1850s, so border families were able to assist slaves to cross into Mexico. Although military forts were also present along the river (remnants of the Mexican-American War of the 1840s), the structures were too far from each other for border officials to patrol. It is believed that about 3,000 slaves escaped across the river in the 1850s.

The Texas Rangers was born out of an organization of men that were slave hunters. They tried to retrieve slaves that crossed the Rio Grande for slave owners and would be paid according to how far into Mexico the slaves were found. There is still a lot of history to be uncovered about the Underground Railroad to Mexico.

Denver

One character in the novel I often overlook is Denver. I think Denver is a really important character because in all of the household's rumination on their history, Denver remains separate from all of it. Her character brings up the question of whether or not the unawareness is a good thing. I think if she were to be previewed to the horror's of her family's past she might feel weighed down to the point where moving forward in life would prove a huge challnge, and she is really young for that. However, if she remains in the dark, she will be missing a major part of her family's history, which might make her an outcast, as she often feels

Wasn't slavery abolished 150 years ago? Not really.

You would think that slavery doesn't exist in our world, but actually more than 40 million people remain trapped in modern slavery, including:

• 10 million children
• 25 million people in forced labor
• 15 million people in forced marriage
• 5 million people in forced sexual exploitation

Someone is in slavery if they are:

• forced to work—through coercion, or mental or physical threat;
• owned or controlled by an "employer," through mental or physical abuse or the threat of abuse;
• dehumanized, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as "property";
• physically constrained or have restrictions placed on their freedom of movement

Many forms of contemporary slavery exist:

• Forced labor
• Debt bondage – the world's most widespread form of slavery, often entire families are forced to work for nothing to pay off generational debts
• Human trafficking
• Descent-based slavery
• Child slavery – different from child labor (much worse), includes child trafficking, child soldiers, child marriage, and child domestic slavery
• Forced and early marriage

More numbers:

• 30 million people are in slavery in the Asia-Pacific region, mostly in bonded labor
• 9 million people are in slavery in Africa
• 2 million people are in slavery in The Americas
• 1.5 million people are in slavery in developed economies
• 16 million slavery victims are exploited in economic activities
• 4 million people in slavery are exploited by governments
• US $150 billion – illegal profits forced labor in the private economy generates per year

No country is immune to modern slavery. We must not think that modern slavery only exists in developing countries—it is also happening near us. The numbers are staggering and disturbing.

Levi Coffin House

Levi Coffin, who is often referred to as the "President of the Underground Railroad," and his wife Catherine were heroic in helping fugitive slaves escape to freedom by providing supplies and a safe shelter. The Coffin House in Newport (present-day Fountain City), Indiana, became known as the "Grand Central Station" of the Underground Railroad because of its location where three of the escape routes to the North (Madison and Jeffersonville, Indiana; Cincinnati, Ohio) converged and the number of fugitive slaves who passed through it. During the twenty years (1826-1847) that the Coffins lived in Indiana it is believed that they helped as many as 2,000 slaves escape to freedom in the Northern United States and in Canada. One of the many slaves who hid in the Coffin home was "Eliza," whose story is told in Uncle Tom's Cabin. The Coffin House was purchased in 1967 by the State of Indiana. The house was restored and then opened to the public in 1970. The site is a registered National Historic Landmark.

The story of William and Ellen Craft

The two slaves were a married coulpe, however were kept in diffrent planations under diffrent masters. In order to escape, Ellen, whom was light-skinned, cut her heir short and dressed as a man and wrapped her head and arm in bandages in order to appear as an injured white man.   William acted as "her loyal black manservant."The two boarded a train headed north in their disguises. The plan was faulty from the start, Ellen sat next to a close friend of her mstaer's, luckily she was not recignized. The two traveld all around the south. Ellen could not read nor write however since she had her arm in the sling, it prvented her form having to write. The two eventually made it to Boston, but fearing the notion of slave-hunter, the two set sail for England.



I found all of these stories, and a few other on:
https://www.history.com/news/history-lists/5-daring-slave-escapes

The Escape of Eliza Harris

Maansi's research about examples of escaping slaves, combined with our research on the story behind Beloved, made me wonder about other well-known novels about slavery that might have been based on real people.  I found out that Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous Uncle Tom's Cabin, which we already talked about in class a couple of weeks ago, was actually based on a real Eliza Harris, who is a character in the novel.  Like Maansi told us, Eliza's story is also one of relationships between mother and children.
Eliza's master was going to sell her only living child, and so Eliza fled with the infant—like Sethe, to the Ohio River.  The river was partially frozen, with blocks of ice floating on the surface.  Eliza waited until nightfall when she heard what she presumed to be slave hunters outside the house she was hiding in.  She then escaped the house.  She got across the river by moving her baby from one piece of ice to the next and pulling herself onto it as well.  Sometimes the block sank under their weight.  Eventually, Eliza thankfully made it across the river, and someone sent her to a rest house and then to a station of the Underground Railroad.
I think it's quite amazing what so many people like Eliza did.  Obviously the fact that they were forced to escape in treacherous conditions was completely awful, but the feat that she was able to accomplish—bringing herself and her child to safety across a frozen river in the dead of night, successfully escaping from slave hunters who had infinitely more resources at their disposal—is just incredible.  It required so much bravery and strength not just of body but also of mind.

The story of Harriot Jacobs

Hariot  Jacobs, born a slave in North Carolina, lived under a cruel and abusive master. Jacobs could not wthstand the brutal sexal harrasemnt from her master this she fled her planation in 1835. After fleeding, she stayed in her grandmother r house but sense she knew how highly it was for her to get cuaght, she decided to hide herslef in a tiny attic-like room. The room was infested with rats and was only 9 feet long and 7 feet wide. There was not port for light nor air, adn Jacob spent a rough 7 years in the tiny room. She made her escap in 1842 after a friend helped her find a boat leading to Philadelphia. After the boat, she took a train to New York. She later became an aboloitionist andwrote a book recount her traumatic experiences as a slave.

Quilt Codes

I was really intrigued by Elizabeth and Margot's presentation on quilt codes in class the other day, so I looked it up later.  According to Dobard, one of the authors of Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad, the code "was a way to say something to a person in the presence of many others without the others knowing.  It was a way of giving direction without saying, 'Go northwest.'"
The concept is incredibly well-conceived in my opinion.  So, here is a picture of the symbols of their meanings and a picture of what could be a real quilt code:

The story of Henry “box” Brown

Henry Brown's story starts when his family was shipped and sold away in 1848. Desperate to escape slavery, Brown sketched out a plan to ship himself from Richmond to Philadelphia. With the help of two abolitionists, Brown fit himself into a tiny three by a two-foot wooden crate that was placed on a wagon, the steamboat and then train that was headed to Jame M Mckim's house, who was an abolitionist. With only a few biscutits and a some water, he embarked on his joureny. At one point Brown was left upside down for ninety minutes, letting blood flow straight to his head. He arrived Philadelphiaphia aft 27 hours and his story mad ehim a minor celebrity in NEw england. After the Fugitive slave act, he fled the oiuntry to Gret Britian. He later returned to the unitred states in 1875 and worked as amagician.

Margaret Garner and Sethe

As we discussed in class, Margaret Garner was an enslaved African American woman who escaped in 1856 but was apprehended by U.S. Marshals under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.  Like Sethe, she killed one of her young daughters to save her from the evils of slavery.
In the novel, Paul D. berates Sethe for acting like a beast rather than person.  However, Sethe responds that she was doing what she thought best for her child based on the information she knew.
Clearly the situation is complex and nuanced, and it presents a moral dilemma.  Lucy Stone, an antislavery activist, said about Margaret, "Rather than give her daughter to that life, she killed it.  If in her deep maternal love she felt the impulse to send her child back to God, to save it from coming woe, who shall say she had no right not to do so?"
Margaret knew the terrible, awful realities of slavery, and she especially feared for her half-black, half-white daughter, knowing that those evils could be compounded.  She, like Sethe, felt that it was her duty to save her children from that kind of torture.
So, is there a right or wrong answer to what she did?  Can we even answer that, since none of us have been close to being in that situation?  What do you guys think?

A Reflection on Amistad

You know how some things make you sad and others things are so far past sad they just devastate you?  Well, that’s kind of how I felt watching that part of Spielberg’s Amistad, most acutely when those evil men were feeding disgusting slop to the people they had brutally kidnapped.

Usually I feel at least slightly sympathetic or, if I’m feeling particularly ungenerous, apathetic when people get killed in movies.  But if I’m being totally honest, when the Mende tribesmen killed the crew of the La Amistad, it was really satisfying.  I can hardly think of anyone more deserving of such gruesome and painful deaths, though really, the crewmen deserved much worse.  It sort of reminds me of the catharsis in tragedies, though really I wasn’t even close to being at peace until I remembered those evil crewmen would rot in Hell for the rest of eternity.

Nowadays, you’ll hear so many people say, “Well, that’s just the way it was back then.”  No…slavery really is not “just the way it was back then.”  There’s literally no excuse at all for kidnapping people, enslaving them, and torturing them in order to make them perform free labor.  Normal children don’t torture their classmates or even animals, which in my opinion proves that slavery isn’t “the way it was.”  Nobody made the United States sanction the slave trade or domestic slavery.  I mean, how many of us have been exposed to sex trafficking; yet how many of us can agree that it’s absolutely wrong, no gray about it, and is entirely unforgivable?  So, Roy Moore, when you said the U.S. was great back in the time of slavery just because of family values, you were WRONG.  No time in our history during the years of slavery was great.  I just can’t comprehend what an idiot you must be to argue otherwise.

Listening to Toni

Along with the Morgan and Hopkins interviews, I found a video about Morrison. In the video, Morrison talks about how she came to write, how writing is a way of thinking and that it helps her maintain control; she is free to do whatever she wants.
She talks about what she wanted to read before she decided to start writing: She wanted to find a story about how racism hurts and how it can destroy you. I guess Morrison couldn't really find the story or stories she was looking for so she decided to write her own.
There's a more recent book by Morrison that came out in 2015: God Help the Child. In this story, Morrison wanted to focus on the confusion about race. The main character is, and I quote, "very black," and said main character was discriminated for it and abused by her own mother.
I loved hearing Toni Morrison talk. The cadence in her voice is so relaxing and she speaks with such conviction about her books and about writing. Speaking of writing....along with all of the above, she talks about what writing meant to her, why she kept with it and the most recent story she has out there.
God Help the Child's probably next on my reading list.

The video's only 4 minutes long and totally worth watching:
https://youtu.be/EjdyX2wnwdY

Amistad Interviews

I was slightly shaken after watching that little bit of Amistad in class this past week to the point where I started wondering how the actors felt about playing various characters. I ended up finding some interviews online of Morgan Freeman (Theodore Joadson) and Anthony Hopkins (John Quincy Adams). Both actors talk about the story, their respective characters, history's role in shaping the future, the meaning of freedom, and the overall significance of certain scenes.
Morgan: https://youtu.be/nQIFqT7AFCk
Hopkins: https://youtu.be/s8ccLS1lniY
Neither videos are too long so I'd check both of them out.

PTSS: Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

I came across this theory called Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by educator and author Joy DeGruy, whose research on multigenerational oppression from slavery and institutionalized racism culminated in her 2005 book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing (PTSS). PTSS describes a set of behaviors, beliefs, and actions associated with or, related to multi-generational trauma experienced by African Americans that include but are not limited to undiagnosed and untreated Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in enslaved Africans and their descendants. PTSS differs from PTSD, which results from a single trauma experienced directly or indirectly. "When we look at American chattel slavery, we are not talking about a single trauma; we're talking about multiple traumas over lifetimes and over generations," says DeGruy. "Living in black skin is a whole other level of stress." PTSS posits that centuries of slavery in the US, followed by systemic and structural racism and oppression, including lynching and Jim Crow laws, have resulted in multigenerational maladaptive behaviors, which originated as survival strategies. In formulating her theory, DeGruy wondered what happens when stressed people lack treatment for generations and how have black people coped. She argues that the adaptive behaviors that African Americans created to survive in a toxic environment are misinterpreted as "cultural." DeGruy states that PTSS is not a disorder that can simply be treated and remedied clinically but rather also requires profound social change.

The Sun Also Rises (Independent Study)

I chose The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway for my independent study project. Published in 1926, the novel describes the Lost Generation, the generation that came of age during WWI. The story is told from the point of view of Jake Barnes, who is an American expatriate living in 1920s Paris. Jake and his other expatriate friends journey from the wild nightlife of Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona, Spain to watch the bullfights. Although some elements of the story, like the numerous bars and the characters' constant consumption of alcohol (alcohol is all they drink really), seems repetitive, I enjoyed Hemingway's sparse, restrained style of writing. The restrained descriptions of the characters made me imagine how they would behave in real life. The novel also presents one of the most memorable characters in literature that I have read in Lady Brett Ashley, a promiscuous British expatriate who is wanted by many men, including Jake. Brett's masculine, independent nature is a trouble for the men, but they are attracted to her nonetheless. The book deals with post-war themes such as moral bankruptcy, unrealized love, and masculinity. It was especially interesting to compare these themes with those of The Wasteland, which deals with the same disillusionment of post-war Western society. Overall, I would give this book a solid 7 out of 10.

Ernest Hemingway trying his hand at bullfighting

in Pamplona, 1924. Right of center, in white pants

and dark sweater, facing charging bull

Toni Morrison Quotes

Toni Morrison throughout her life has experienced so much and is very educated. She is a very profound writer, and I really enjoy some of her quotes. Here are some of my favorite:

"At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough."

"If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it."

"As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think."

"There is really nothing more to say - except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how."

"What's the world for you if you can't make it up the way you want it?"

"A dream is just a nightmare with lipstick."

"The function of freedom is to free someone else."

Toni Morrison Background

Toni Morrison has lived a very eventful life that has led to many interesting stories. Also after researching an author, I feel as though I can better understand where they may be coming from in their works. Toni Morrison was actually born Chloe Anthony Wofford but changed her name as some people actually found Chloe too hard to pronounce. She was the only black child in her first-grade class and the only child that could read. In college, Morrison wrote her thesis on the suicide of famous authors, and one of her favorite authors growing up was Jane Austen. In 1987, she was named the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Council of Humanities at Princeton University. Winning this award made her the only African American woman to hold a named chair at an Ivy League University. One year later, in 1988 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved and won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1993. Her house actually caught on fire and burned down in that same year. As you can see Morrison is a very experienced person and has gained lots of knowledge throughout her life.

What does the past do for us?

While discussing memory and the past, I'm really struck with the concept of what our memory actually does for us. Memories can be tough, like with Sethe and her experiences at Sweet Home. She's constantly tortured by the literal and figurative remnants of her life as a slave and runaway. However, I think the past can shape who we are in a positive way as well. Our memories, big or small, teach us how to live and improve our futures. We learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of others. For instance, on a small scale, maybe a test that you were unprepared for teaches you to study harder in the future. Regardless of the immensity of the situation, the memory of the occurrence prepares and shapes us. This brings me to the ultimate question: is it better to live a life free of worry and blissfully unaware of pain or a life filled with constant anxiety regarding the future? It's a tough question, but I'd say I would choose the latter. I would rather be conscious of pain and danger (regardless of the emotional toll it takes) so that I can be prepared and perhaps even prevent it for myself and loved ones. But then again, who knows? What do you guys think?

The Color Purple (Independent Study Book)

For my independent study research project, I chose to read The Color Purple by Alice Walker. It's an epistolary novel that follows the life of the main character, Celie, an African American woman living in the post-slavery era. The novel is very similar to Beloved because it tackles the social hierarchy under a blatantly racist and sexist society. I really, really enjoyed the novel (like a lot). Walker's writing is very straightforward; brutal details regarding sexual assault and domestic violence are described extremely directly. For this reason, I was uncomfortable reading at first; in fact, the first page told the story of Celie being raped by her father. However, because of this, I couldn't put the book down either.

A lot happens during the timeline of the novel because it follows decades of Celie's life, so it's hard for me to explain what the novel is really like. But, I can say that the book discusses so many important themes such as sexuality, racism, sexism, and gender roles. A few times the writing got so heavy that I was overwhelmed (in a good way) and had to put my book down. More than anything, the book was just downright interesting; I was constantly excited to learn more about Celie and her life. I very seriously would recommend this book to all of you! Reading it was a wonderful experience.

Also, there's a movie directed by Steven Spielberg (same director in Amistad) out based on The Color Purple, which I hope to watch soon. Movie review coming soon!

Independent Study Reviews?

Since we've all finished and written about our independent study books, I was wondering what everyone read and what you thought about your books. I'm curious to see what everyone did and am guessing others are too, so if you'd like to you could make a post or comment on this one with a short summary (without spoilers!) and review. 

I read The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann as I mentioned in a previous post. Basically, the novel is the very long story of a German engineer named Hans Castorp who visits his cousin in a Swiss sanatorium for people who have tuberculosis for a quick 3 week trip and then ends up staying there for 7 years. It explores life at the sanatorium, which follows a weird routine and is almost completely isolated from the outside world. Hans basically abandons his life and spends most of his time philosophizing and meeting a bunch of eccentric figures. Mann started writing the novel shortly before WWI, but only finished in 1922, so in many ways the novel is a consideration of Europe and its various intellectual movements leading up to WWI. I enjoyed the novel and it had lots of interesting ideas and themes, but it is very long (like 700 pages...) and some parts can take awhile to get through. While there are lots of things that happen in the novel (it has romance, skiing adventures, and a duel), there are also long sections devoted so philosophical tangents and intellectual arguments. Mann intentionally makes the novel long and almost monotonous to evoke the nature of life at the sanatorium as Hans adapts to the strange routine there as 7 years of his life somehow drags along slowly and quickly at the same time. Overall, it's an interesting novel of ideas that evokes sickness and a somewhat unique lifestyle very well, so if you are looking for a long but provoking read I'd recommend it.

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

Our discussion of the past and memory in Beloved reminded me of a pretty famous William Faulkner quote that I think conveys a similar idea to what Morrison explores: "The past is never dead. It's not even past." This quote comes from his novel Requiem for a Nun, and as in Beloved, argues that the past continues to affect us and even exists in some tangible way, so we cannot escape it. The quote was famously used by Obama in a speech in 2008 that addressed the issue of racism. It's perhaps unsurprising that Faulkner would have a similar conception of the past and history as one of the leading figures of the early 20th century Southern Renaissance movement of literature, which often dealt with the burden of history, particularly in the context of the South and its very recent memories of the Civil War and Reconstruction. In dealing with these historical institutions and events that left an immense impact on Southern society, Faulkner apparently came to view the past in a similar way to Morrison. I think this quote is really important to consider in how it applies to our own time. Looking back to the 20th century, I think everyone would agree that the past of slavery was not at all past, given the rigid structure of segregated society put in place by Jim Crow Laws. Since we are currently living in the present, it might be less obvious, but I think the racism that still exists in American society today acts in much the same way. Even if the most blatant Jim Crow-type forms of institutionalized racism are gone, their impact has not gone away and they continue to shape our society. Whenever we think about issues in our own society, it's important to consider the historical context because that historical context is still an active force in the present.

The Nature of Time

One thing that we've discussed in class about Beloved that sort of reminded me of a theme from my independent study book, The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, is the consideration of time. In Beloved, the idea of the past and whether we ever really move on from it is discussed by Sethe, particularly related to her experiences at Sweet Home that continually haunt her. In a slightly different but related way, time is considered by Mann in The Magic Mountain. In the novel, an engineer named Hans Castorp goes to a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps to visit his cousin, who has tuberculosis, for a 3 week long stay, but ends up staying on the mountain for 7 years. Mann discusses time a lot in the novel, particularly how time can seem to slip by quickly for long periods of time when life is routine and monotonous. Mann achieves this very clearly in the novel by having the first 3 weeks of Hans' visit take up probably about a third of the book (about 200 pages), the rest of his first year at the sanatorium take up the next large portion, and the 6 following years taking up probably less time than these other sections. Additionally, during Hans' stay he becomes increasingly separated from his former life in his home country as he is separated from his family and former life. I think it's interesting to see how these differing considerations and conceptions of time are explored in the two novels, as the nature of time and the past really is a sort of mysterious aspect of human existence.

Ghosts! But they're not scary?

When a ghost is not used for a simple scare, they can add a unique layer to their stories. In Beloved, the ghost of Sethe's baby adds a unique feeling to the story. The ghost adds a sense of fantasy in a story that is far from playful and magical. The ghost makes the story a more unique one, a blend of serious storytelling coupled with a sense of disbelief. SImmillary, Henry James' The Turn of the Screw uses ghost to add uniqueness to its story. The Turn of the Screw is a unique story that appears to be a ghost story but is more of a psycological analysis of the main character. The ghosts featured in the story haunt the main character, but the ghost act as a secondary element to the story, because the reader doesn't know, is they're real or figments of the main character's imagination. James uses the ghost to spark thought in the reader, thought about whether or not the main character is sane. When authors don't use ghosts as a scare tactic, their story develops a second layer.

What Should We Remember and Forget?

While I am reading Beloved, I am very struck by the dilemma of memory. It seems to me that Sethe wants to forget her times at Sweet Home, which is perfectly understandable, but she also wants to make sure her family doesn't live the same life she did. So, I wonder what the balance is between remembering and forgetting. Should one remember as much as they can so that they can provide that much information to save people from their same fate? Or should you forget enough so that only enough remains for a general word of caution?