final reflection

By choosing a different lens from what I’d normally would do, opened my mind up more in realizing that I don’t have to analyze things always in such a complex way(psychoanalytic) because doing too much can be an overkill, and looking at it simply might be the right way at times. The representation of the lens were similar for this book in that both focused on race and their controversial problems such as segregation, civil rights, and equality, but also differed in many ways. For example, Huck was written by Mark Twain, a white man, giving a lens through a white little boy in the 1860s in the south. Twain depicts African-Americans as they were during the time, slaves, but gave them the characteristics of being dimwitted and naive, almost being child-like. In Song of Solomon, it was written by Toni Morrison, an african american woman, omnisciently telling the life of an african american man in the times of the 1960’s. She illustrates them as being rich and educated, for his grandfather was a doctor. I believe if I didn’t look at the novel through this lens, I wouldn’t come to a consense that although it was satirically written, Twain presented Jim and the rest of the slaves in a very grotesque manner that is very racist. As for in Song of Solomon, I saw how ignorant Milkman was being about him being black and that thinking that just because he has money, it excluded him of the racial discrimination. Something I felt that I missed out on from focusing on this lens was how gender played. The benefit and the downside of using this lens is that I tended to combine race and economic status; if the person was white then they had to have some kind of money, but that isn’t the case. Ultimately, your race doesn’t classify how much money you have. My beliefs changed about this lens by thinking I am limited of what I’m going to write, but actually there’s many extensive things I can cover in this case. It doesn’t have to be only about that lens, but be integrated in something else and see how race integrates with that issue.

responding towards song of solomon

There’s segregation all over the book of Song of Solomon. Even though most of the limitations aren’t there in concrete form, there still a brick wall in people’s minds who don’t cross certain paths because of their race. In other terms, it’s people staying in their lanes.  The most memorable part of the novel that stuck to me was when Milkman’s family is going for a drive and as they’re looking around the area, Lena, one of Milkman’s sister asks why they’re in the region if “those are white people houses”.  Even though it's such a childish thing to ask, people as of now question the same the thing. I even do this. I feel out of place if I go somewhere that isn't necessarily filled with 'Latinos' or economically meant for me. The system of exclusion was broken, but people don't integrate with others just because sadly that's the way it is. As of now in society, we'd like to believe that most of us are pretty diverse with who we hang out with, but at the end of the day there's a big similarity we all have that incidentally groups us as friends, acquaintances, partners, etc. ranging from race, social status economically and on so forth that suppressed us.

I do relate to staying in my nonexistant hurdle because I’d feel excluded being conciously aware that there’s differences that are polar between me and others of another culture, generally white people. I think it’s a safety net for me to hang out with people who are the same as me in that sense because I know I won’t get judged, while in the view of if I do put myself out there, there’s this prolong fear of not being accepted and it can just be because I’m not white.

realization of skin color

In the excerpt of the struggle for race and class consciousness based on the novel, Song of Solomon, the author analyzes Milkman’s persona on what the story is really about. Doreatha targets his attitude about being of African-American descent. He doesn’t see what’s the purpose of having a racial identity while many thought it mattered during the critical period of the 1950s to 60s when the civil rights were beginning to be demanded. He doesn’t care about what’s occurring because Milkman doesn’t believe there’s much correlation because it doesn’t affect him directly or personally. This is indicated when he reacts to the death of Till, a black girl who was lynched stating’ “Fuck Till. I’m the one in trouble”. By saying this, Milkman believes that his problems are so much more bigger than a boy who is now dead and doesn’t see the reasoning of why people are concerned over who isn’t living anymore. As the book continues, Milkman comes to an epiphany that he can’t be cynical for he’s bigger than what he thought he was since he belongs to a group that’s brutally discriminated against.

The big eye-opener to Milkman was when he was assaulted an officer. He realizes that he’s still African-American and people won’t treat him differently regardless of what’s his economic status. This is a turning point for him in his journey of his identity of what it means being black.

doctor street vs. main avenue

Town maps registered the street as Mains Avenue, but the only colored doctor in the city had lived and died on that street, and when he moved there in 1896 his patients took to calling the street, which none of them lived in or near, Doctor Street. Later, when other Negroes moved there, and when the postal service became popular means of transferring messages among them, envelopes from Louisiana, Virginia, Alabama, and Georgia began to arrive addressed to people at house numbers on Doctor Street. The post office workers returned these envelopes or passed them on to the Dead Letter Office. Then in 1918, when colored men were being drafted, a few gave their address at the recruitment office as Doctor Street. In that way, the name acquired a quasi-official status. But not for long. Some of the city legislators, whose concern for appropriate names and maintenance of the city’s landmarks was the principal part of their political life, saw to it that “Doctor Street” was never used in any official capacity. And since they knew that only Southside residents kept it up, they had notices posted in the stores, barbershops, and restaurants in that part of the city saying that the avenue running northerly and southerly from Shore Road fronting the lake to the junction of routes 6 and 2 leading to Pennsylvania, and also running parallel to and between Rutherford Avenue and Broadway, had always been and would always be known as Mains Avenue and not Doctor Street.(4)

Morrison establishes a fine line between the two races of African-Americans and Whites. The distinction of the two is shown at the beginning of the story where the narrator sets the scene. Much confusion is put into thought to a street that is called differently to the races. The name originally given is Main Avenue, Doctor Street fits better to the African-Americans; there’s reasoning to why the name seemed “appropriate” to their eyes. However, the Whites are superior and will name the street whatever they want no matter what it’s preferably called by everyone else.

The narrator is introducing the setting of the story and begins to briefly tell the story about Main Avenue. There was always much confusion of the actual name of the street for it seemed as if it was mentally graved to the group of the African-Americans that they have an established name for it and that “a few gave their address at the recruitment office as Doctor Street”. Knowing the fact that many people believe the place is called something else shows the significance of what the name means to them. It’s a part of their culture that they don’t want to be stripped from them so they “[kept] it up”.

Although there’s a majority that the strip of lane should be called Doctor Street, the whites aren’t going to give in and change the name. Theres no doubt that there’s some folks other than the african-americans whom used the name Doctor Street, but because they don’t want to comply into their idea, they’ll leave the name as Main Avenue as a sense of subliminal supremacy. The author demonstrated how the whites, primarily the ones who were in authority of the postal service, “had notices posted in the stores, barbershops, and restaurants ...had always been and would always be known as Mains Avenue and not Doctor Street.”(4) tried to force something into the society.

unintentional flaws

Morality and adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Julius Lester exemplifies the flaws in the anti-racist reputation of the novel. Lester discusses how ‘a boy held captive by a drunken father is not in the same category of human experience as a man enslaved’. I agree with this because one can’t use that as an analogy. Although, it’s not right for a parent to be abusive towards their child, comparing slavery with it downplays the severity of that issue. In Huck’s case he is still considered a person while the people who were owned by others weren’t. They were given the sense that they were property, dehumanizing them. The negative connotation this book implements is that Twain doesn’t realize how grave slavery is by creating a false comparison between the two situations.

Twain’s “huckleberry finn” shows much of the segregated minds in the time period of the 1800’s. As Huck is taking Jim to the free land of Cairo, he begins to have an inner conflict of is he doing the right decision doing so. Based on how times were back then, Huck couldn’t have the amiable bond he wish he could with Jim due to the restraints from his societal expectations where he’d be “[called] a low down abolitionist” p.37 ; as of now, such pressures aren’t measured so extreme. However according to Lester, this internal conflict isn’t as special as Twain wants us to think it is because he wrote this book 20 years after slavery was abolished. Adding to what this critiquer is saying, many already agreed with anti-slavery at the time, but subconsciously still racist. It’s ironic for the novel to be about slavery seen through the eyes of a white boy while the African-Americans are painted child like being uneducated and irrational. Ultimately, Twain had good intentions in not creating a prejudiced scene, but did so anyway.

Final

The two novels were a fantastic experience because I only saw the book through the psychoanalytic lens, this was different since I only used to read to find the main message of the story,but I never concentrated on something so specific. The experience I learned through reading from a certain perspective, was that there can be many ideas just from looking through a critical lens, but also you can make interpretations on why things are occurring in the book. If I would of real the book through one of the critical lens I would of seen Huck Finn as a normal immature kid just trying to escape, and the Milkman as a hopeless man finding a treasure he would never be able to find. Through my lens I was able to determine that the Milkman and Huck were both trying to pursue something, Huck was trying to pursue freedom from his guardians, who in part he felt were rough on him, and The milkman was trying to pursue his interest in the gold he couldn't find. Though there were some other things, like hucks friend being a minority and some of the challenges he has to faced during the slave era, and I think I might have missed this If I was just focusing on the psyconlytical lens. Though using just the psychoanalytic lens I was trying to determine the characters emotions and mental conflicts, and try to see how that played a role in their actions, or what was the reason behind their actions. Though the downside was that I didn't really look at all the characters I only focused on the main characters. The way we used the lenses did change my view of books, because now I can read a book and look at it through a critical lens instead of  trying to figure out the theme of the story.

SoS Responding and Reflecting

The story shows less affection of milkman, he seems to be really separate from the other character. Though it is due to him being really desperate to find gold and become really rich. In order for him to find gold he leaves in a desperate attempt to hopefully find gold near Macon’s old Pennsylvania farm. I can tell Milkman wants to be rich and he wants it the easy and fast, from my personal experience I have to dealt with the same problem, wanting to be rich really quick, without having to work a lot, though it is typically hard and though it is hard, in your mind you want to continue to find any means possible to get what you want, and I see this in the milkman and he wants to get rich by any means possible even by traveling to another place to see if he can strike gold, though after arriving the place he comes to find out that there is no gold, and he eventually gives up and pursues to find the family history. Since Milkman doesn’t find gold he gives up his pursuit, he is mentally worn down since he comes to find out that there was never gold and, his mentally broken down, which is why he didn’t keep on pursuing to find gold. This shows that Milkman had a mentality change, and his mentality changed he went from being more greedy, to showing that he had more interest in the family history.