Blog 3: "I Too"

Keeping Your Chin Up

          On the surface, "I Too" by Langston Hughes, is a poem expressing a patient and optimistic outlook towards changing racial equalities.  The opening stanza of the poem, " I am the darker brother.-  They send me to eat in the kitchen- When company comes,- But I laugh,- And eat well,- And grow strong." (Hughes 1039)  I think that being welcome to eat at the table represents his welcome into society, and since eating is something we all do, it more specifically represents his welcome into society as a person.  On a deeper level, I think this poem really speaks of confidence, due to his ability to laugh away others' thoughts and do what he can to better himself for the time being.  The second stanza elaborates on confidence and adds a flare of optimism with, "Tomorrow,-  I'll be at the table-  When company comes.-  Nobody'll dare-  Say to me,-  'Eat in the kitchen,'-  Then.-  Besides,-  They'll see how beautiful I am-  And be ashamed-" (Hughes 139-1040)  This stanza tells me that he understands his value as a person, is sure that he will be welcome into society, and is patiently awaiting that day.  But I think the very last line of this poem is the most important part in regards to confidence, "I, too, am America."  This indicates that, while confident in himself and his predictions, he is just like you, not better or lesser.

          In America today, the media and advertising agencies project an impossible image of "normal" women and men; men are big and strong while women are curvy and slim.  Unfortunately, many people don't fit into these "normal" categories, and this creates a lack of confidence in many men, women, boys, and girls throughout the country and probably the world.  I'm no different.  Until I was about 16 I was an extremely small boy; I was always smaller than everybody in my class, family, and friends.  Even after I sprouted to six feet tall, I was still very skinny and now ungainly.  Even though I knew, as everybody knows, that everybody is different, I maintained a low confidence for most of my life regarding my appearance.  It wasn't until a couple of years ago when I realized that this is probably how I will look for the rest of my life, tallish and slim, and decided that I like that idea.  (Especially after seeing how some of those "normal" big and strong guys aged.)  Now, I'm a fairly confident person; I like the way I look and don't really care what other people think anymore (though, I am still quite embarrassed when given compliments), and that confidence has provoked me into doing more with myself and my life.

          As for a  world full of people who are confident and welcome, I am of two minds.  On one hand, I think almost everybody should be a welcomed member of society and humanity, and I believe self-confidence is something that should be encouraged in everyone.  On the other hand though, people who have been ostracized throughout their lives have created some of the greatest poems, writings, films, and even science.  Galileo Galilei was ostracized from the world and even placed under house arrest in the last years of his life for his belief that the earth revolved around the sun, and he is today considered to be the father of physics.  There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance.  People who are overconfident scare me, because they often think they are better than other people and have no problem stepping on others to elevate themselves.  I think it is of the utmost importance to remember throughout life that you are as good as anybody, but better than no one.

Works Cited:

Hughes, Langston. "I Too." 1925,1959. 1865-Present. Ed. Nina 
     Baym. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. 485-97. Print. 
     Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 2 vols.

Race and the American Novel Part 1: Uncle Tom's Cabin Personal Synthesis

Power: Part 3

          A common theme that permeates "Uncle Tom's Cabin," by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is the presence of a gross inequality in America.  I believe that throughout America's short history inequality has been traditionally fueled by religion, and its worst quality: Justification.  Every religion and religious document is extremely open to each readers own interpretation, and due to this, anybody can justify any action or cause with holy righteousness; many American "accomplishments" have been credited to Christianity.  This is aptly pointed out in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" during Haley and Tom's boat ride downriver.  On said trip a heated debate arises over slavery, a clergyman proclaims, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be, the scripture says," as justification of slavery, and a young man interjects his own interpretation of the divine, "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them," to condemn slavery.  (Stowe 112-113)  Both of these men are quoting from the same book, yet they have reached very different conclusions regarding the Bible's message, and can both charge their beliefs with holy Justification.

          For African Americans this inequality was legally binding and all encompassing, as they had no rights, no voice, and no help.  George Holmes would have us believe that life for slaves wasn't so bad, that in fact there were laws in place protecting them.  Laws such as, "The slave is entirely subject to the will of his master, who may correct and chastise him, though not with unusual rigor, nor so as to maim or mutilate him, or expose him to the danger of loss of life, or to cause his death. [...]  If any slave be mutilated, beaten or ill treated contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, when no one shall be present, in such case the owner or other person having the management of said slave thus mutilated, shall be prosecuted without further evidence, unless the said owner or other person so as aforesaid can prove the contrary by means of good and sufficient evidence, or can clear himself by his own oath." (Holmes 511)  In my opinion, these laws only point out how outrageously unequal blacks were to whites in the eyes of the law itself, by allowing violence by and loop holes for slave owners.

          This inequality also greatly affected women.  Nineteenth century ideological beliefs dictated separate spheres for gender roles; men were to work, provide, make decisions, and generally hold power, while women were meant to have children and take care of the home.  As we learned in class the ideal 19th century women was pious, pure, domestic, and submissive to man and god.  This is disturbingly portrayed in "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; the unnamed women in the story has so little power in her marriage that she can't even get her room changed.  Even though she has expressed to her husband that she has some serious issues with her current room, the cult of domesticity has permeated her mind to a point that she thinks, "I would not be so silly as to make him uncomfortable just for a whim." (Gilman 488)  Why should her comfort be ignored for his? or anybodies?  In fact, she's the "sick" one, shouldn't her comfort be paramount?  I believe that in terms of power and equality, Women have been historically just above African Americans, and even though women were legally people, they were, like slaves, an extension of their husband/man, and held little to no power to do anything about their situation. 

           Equality in the United States today is still severely lacking, but has made some very promising progress since the time of Uncle Tom.  Slavery was abolished in 1863, the 15th Amendment (1870)passed giving African Americans the right to vote, the 19th Amendment (1920) passed giving suffrage to Women, and through the Civil Rights and Women's Movements of the 1960's, segregation was ended and many limitations confining Women and African Americans roles in America have been lessened.  Unfortunately sexism and racism are still alive and well in America, and although many of our old problems have been alleviated, many new problems rise as our society evolves.  

          Inequality in today's America is fueled not by religion anymore, but by capitalism, and in our capitalist nation, the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.  I believe that this economic inequality grew largely due to our ambiguous past.  Historically in the U.S., the only people that could own property, a business, and accumulate real wealth were white men, in particular those white men of Anglo-Saxon decent.  Because of this limited population of "qualified" business owners (assuming most businesses and wealth are passed down and inherited), many of today's most prominent businesses and most of Americas wealth is owned and controlled by one percent or less of the total population.  Unfortunately for most of us then, in America money is power.

Works Cited:
Holmes, George F., "Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin": (504-514). The Southern Literary Messenger 18. Oct.1852.    Print.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." 1892. 1865-Present. Ed. Nina 
     Baym. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. 485-97. Print. 
     Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 2 vols.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, Ammons, Elizabeth, and Cairns Collection of American Women Writers. Uncle Tom's  Cabin : Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism / Harriet Beecher Stowe ; Edited by Elizabeth  Ammons. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. Print. Norton Critical Edition.

Race and the American Novel Part 1: Uncle Tom's Cabin Critical Commentary

Power: Part 2

          In a "Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin," author George F. Holmes accuses Harriet Beecher Stowe of grossly misrepresenting slavery in the south.  Holmes begins by questioning Stowe's character, and deems her not a "lady writer," but a "female writer," and he believes that she is out of line and raises scripture against her,"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.  But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." (Holmes 505)  Holmes makes it pretty clear here how he feels about the duties of men and women.  After attacking Stowe's character and belittling her writing prowess he continues to pragmatically falsify character portrayals and plots throughout "Uncle Tom's Cabin."  To paraphrase a bit,  Holmes believes, "Mr. Shelby could have done more to control Mrs. Shelby, she in turn should have been more obedient to her husbands wishes.  Slave owners, like Haley, would not want their property back dead, and fugitive hunters couldn't just go around shooting runaways.  He even states that Stowe's eyewitnesses should be guilty of accessory to murder if they in fact saw what they say they did."  (Holmes 506-510)  Holmes basically breaks down every character and several plots and points out how inaccurate they are in comparison to the "reality" of southern life.  

          After venting a bit, Holmes employs a little logos, and points out that there are many laws concerning slave safety and protecting them from their owners.  These laws included, "The Slave is entirely subject to the will of his master, who may correct and chastise him, though not with unusual rigor, nor as to maim or mutilate him, or expose him to the danger of loss of life, or to cause his death.  If any slave be mutilated, beaten, or ill treated contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, when no one shall be present, the owner or other person having management of said slave thus mutilated, shall be prosecuted without further evidence, unless said owner can prove the contrary by means of good and sufficient evidence, or can clear himself by his own oath."  (Holmes 511)  According to this a slave owner cannot be truly violent to his property, but if he does, he can apparently take an oath and clear his name.  

         Holmes finishes his accusations by painting his own picture of the south,"as for the comfort of their daily lives and the almost parental care taken of them on well-regulated plantations, we may say that the picture of the Shelby estate, drawn by Mrs. Stowe herself, is no bad representation. (Holmes 512)  In Holmes opinion, the average slave in the south was more or less willing and had a pretty decent life.  In concluding his review Holmes calls Stowe a liar and offers her a holy warning, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." (Holmes 514)

          I believe that Holmes is a representative of the southern slave owner.  He has a lot to lose with the abolition of slavery, and wow, is he ever on the defensive.  What Holmes is failing to understand is that, while based in reality, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is a fiction, and in fiction certain details may be embellished for dramatic effect.  As a reader in modern times I think that too accurate of a depiction of slavery would have appalled the readers of its time, and would have made it easier to dismiss.  She really could have embellished on the violence and cruelty of slavery, but instead kept the violence quite mild.  Stowe used a more subtle way to reach the minds of Americans and entered through their hearts.  All of Holmes' bluster and defensiveness leads me to believe that even he knows that there is some truth to Stowe's depiction of slavery, because it's often quite easy to blow off a lie, the truth on the other hand stings.

          While I disagree with most of what Holmes has to say, I do believe his critique adds to my understanding of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," by highlighting its ambiguous reception.  Today's audience inherently knows that slavery was and is wrong, but in the mid 19th century it wasn't so cut and dry.  Let's face it, the U.S. got pretty rich from slave labor, which gave many Americans of the time a desire to uphold slavery.  Also, in the mid 19th century, the only media sources available were books and newspapers, which were more than likely owned and run by rich white men and presenting their opinions, making it very easy for average Americans to ignore slavery or to believe what they are told by the media.  Due to these facts there were very mixed feelings towards slavery and slavery related literature.  I think that ambiguities like these really present the boundless reach of man's greed, and show us that people will do almost anything to get and stay rich.

Works Cited:

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, Ammons, Elizabeth, and Cairns Collection of American Women Writers. Uncle Tom's  Cabin : Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism / Harriet Beecher Stowe ; Edited by Elizabeth  Ammons. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. Print. Norton Critical Edition.

Holmes, George F., "Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin": (504-514). The Southern Literary Messenger 18. Oct.1852.    Print.

Race and the American Novel Part 1: Uncle Tom's Cabin Textual Backgrounds and Context

Power: Part 1

          It is important to remember that in the 1850's not only did society and nation condone slavery, religion also worked in some rather insidious ways to uphold slavery.  In "The Life of Josiah Henson," by Josiah Henson I believe that Christianity is implicated as a tool for slavery, by scaring African Americans into inaction and obedience.  Henson tells of growing up in slavery with his pious mother under a stern master.  He goes on to tell of his earning the respect of his fellow slaves, and always working effectively and loyally for his master.  Even when the opportunity for freedom presents itself in a free state, Henson believes," the idea of running away was not one that I had ever indulged.  I had a sentiment of honor on the subject, or what I thought such, which I would not have violated even for freedom."  (Henson 431)  While he doesn't come right out and say it I believe that the honor he speaks of is based in his christian beliefs which led him to help his fellow slaves at much personal risk, to stay with his master, to work to the best of his ability, and in this way I believe Christianity kept many pious slaves in the thrall of slavery.  

          On a boat heading down river after being cheated out of his freedom and sold, Josiah has had enough and devises a plan to kill the boat crew, take any essential provisions, and flee north to freedom.  Standing above the sleeping captain, axe poised to kill, a heart-stopping thought stops Josiah," What! commit murder! and you a christian?  I had not called it murder before." (Henson 433)  Even though his oppressors have no problem lying, cheating, stealing, torturing, raping, and killing while being Christian, Josiah is again led by his own Christian beliefs to ignore his own physical well-being in favor of a clear conscience and an honest life.  Josiah's story helps me better understand the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe by giving me a little insight of the religious slaves reasoning process, and helped me understand how Uncle Tom could so pragmatically accept his place in life.  I know that this wasn't the case for all of the former slaves, and that leaves me dreading to think about the slaves without religion, and the hopeless existence they must have endured.

          Throughout history some of the most atrocious acts, like wars, genocide, and oppression have been carried out in the name of one religion or another.  Many examples present themselves throughout history, the Crusades of the middle ages, the Holocaust during WWII, and Manifest Destiny during America's early years to name a few, sadly there are countless other examples.  In America's short history the ruling class has been diabolically ingenious when dealing with its problems and getting what it wants.  I think that what happened to the Native Americans is the most obvious, but certainly not the only, example of America's ambiguous problem solving techniques.  Beginning with deception, disease, and pitting tribe against tribe, soon the railroad industry came along and waged a war against the buffalo, and later Native Americans were forced onto reservations and into Indian Boarding Schools, which tried to "kill the savage but save the man."  In these ways Americans brought the Native Americans, their culture, and their best resource, the buffalo, to near extinction, and all in the name of religious duty, Manifest Destiny.

Works Cited:
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, Ammons, Elizabeth, and Cairns Collection of American Women Writers. Uncle Tom's      Cabin : Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism / Harriet Beecher Stowe ; Edited by Elizabeth    Ammons. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. Print. Norton Critical Edition.

Henson, Josiah. "The Life of Josiah Henson." 426-435. Boston: Arthur D. Phelps, 1849. Print

Blog 2: "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Work Through It

          The setting of "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman consists primarily of one large, ill-papered room at the top of a colonial mansion, and I believe that this room symbolizes the unnamed main character's changing life, mind, and sanity.  For most of the story she is confined to this one room to recover from depression, and at first it doesn't seem too bad.  To paraphrase her description, it is " a large room with lots of windows and sunshine, ready for kids, but it has a distracting and ugly yellow wallpaper." (Gilman 487)  I believe the room represents the life she is supposed to live with kids,sunshine, air, and not a whole lot else, and at first she seems fine with it, but she can already see how unappealing the boarders of that life are.  Later she tries to talk to her husband about her issues with the room, and laughing at her plight, he talks her out of it when she implores, "Then do let us go downstairs, there are such pretty rooms there." (Gilman 488)  Everybody has different aspects of their lives, maybe a creative side, a family side, or a professional side to name a few, and I think the different rooms of the house represent different parts of her life.  While the room upstairs represents a life of family and domesticity, the other rooms could represent an academic, social, or professional life, and when she expresses an interest in trying one, her husband laughs and tells her the one upstairs is the best one for her.  With only this one room, or aspect of her life and mind, she begins to focus on the yellow wallpaper and its pattern which she describes as, "strangled heads and bulbous eyes and waddling fungus growths that shriek with derision!" (Gilman 496)  Towards the end of the story I think the room becomes her entire world, represents her whole mind, and she is trapped in that one narrow aspect of it.  The wallpaper represents the boarder of sanity around her mind, and I believe the yellow color of the wallpaper was meant to caution her and the pattern was meant to distract or scare her away in order to protect her sanity.  By the end of the story she throws caution to the wind, isn't thwarted by the pattern, and shreds the wallpaper.

          In my opinion, and I think Gilman would agree, the best way to treat depression is to get busy in life physically and mentally, not laying around all day bored and pensive.  In my limited experience with depression several years ago many aspects of my life were disrupted, and I had to make a choice: I could sit around and feel sorry for myself, or I could work through it.  I have never been one to feel sorry for myself, so I began to work through it.  I took this very literally, and began working extra hours, going to the gym everyday, running, bicycling, enrolling in college, and doing odd-jobs at my mom's house, like plumbing, masonry, and yard work.  All the while, I was too busy to think about how unhappy I was, and at night I was too physically exhausted to lay awake pondering.  Before I knew it I didn't need the distractions anymore, and my life was taking some positive turns; I'm back in school, have picked up some useful trades along the way, am in pretty amazing shape, and, more importantly, I'm happy again.  When we don't acknowledge our problems, and just shut them up in a room hoping they'll go away, they grow and drive us crazy.

          When we ignore our problems on a national or global scale we begin to see social injustice, like the U.S. before and after the Civil Rights and Women's movements, that are upheld emphatically, often times violently, and are extremely difficult to repair.  The "Yellow Wallpaper" to me is a precursor to the Women's movement and the "problem with no name," proposed by Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique.  On a national scale, the plight of women across the U.S. was ignored and belittled.  As a result we saw a national epidemic of "sick" women, and I wonder how many of them went insane or did something deplorable.  Whether you think there is a problem or not, and whether you like it or not, if someone, or many someones say that there is a problem, then it's time to talk about it and hopefully reach some sort of solution that doesn't leave anybody in the dust.  I think a world where we faced our problems head-on and out in the open would foster a general sense of equality and the togetherness of people, and I would love to live in that world of  discussion and reasoning, where nobody tried to get ahead at the cost of another person.  

Works Cited:

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." 1892. 1865-Present. Ed. Nina 
     Baym. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. 485-97. Print. 
     Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 2 vols.

Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique / by Betty Friedan. 20th Anniversary ed. New York: Norton, 1983. Print.