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.

Final Project Reflection

1. What did you learn from the experience?  I learn that black people were discriminated for a really long time for no reason this even though over the time slavery stopped the racist towards black people was bad in both books Song of Solomon and Huckleberry and Finn.
2. How was the representation of your lens similar in the two novels? How was it different? The representation of my lens are similar in the two novels even though they are not in the same time periods they still relate to the and show the same topic of how black people struggle in the past and how over the time it changes the way the treat black people but they are still been discriminated.  
3. What are some things you got from the novels that you think you wouldn’t have gotten if you hadn’t been focusing on your lens? I think some of the things i wouldn’t gotten if I hadn't have been  focus in my lens would of be the way African American people in both books and how the past affected the way new generations will look at eachother and how they’ll hate each other in the future. Although this people were treated badly they came up with different ways to survive and not let themselves from the whites.
4. What are some things you got from the novels that you think you might have missed as the result of focusing on your lens? I got all of the things from the novels I don’t think I missed something.
5. What are the benefits of using a critical lens? some of the benefits of using critical lens is that you can just focus in on topic and see straight forward what you going for. What are the downsides ? some downside might be that you can be to focus about your lens and forget the other one or the other things you need to do.
6. How did your beliefs change (if at all) about your topic as the result of this project? My beliefs stayed the same because I already know the terrible things white people have done to Negroes in the past.

Final Reflection

Reading Song of Solomon and Huckleberry Finn through the Historical/Biographical lens has opened up new insights into the books for me. I had not noticed so many similarities between the books and the real world events surrounding the authors before reading through this lens. However while using a critical lens to read ones up new points of view and interpretations of the book one tends to focus on the lens and try and make connections to it from everything, which can often take away from the experience of just reading the book and cause one to miss other important points made by the author.

I learned many things about Mark Twain and Toni Morrison that I had not previously known and that I would not have learned had I not been reading through the Historical/Biographical lens.  I learned where Mark Twain took his pen name from and I learned a lot about racial history in America.

Having read both of these books before, it was a new experience and a new way to look at them and it was certainly interesting. Both of the novels reflected the authors own experiences and views on race to a certain extent with Huckleberry Finn reflecting Mark Twain's life more then his views on race and Song of Solomon reflecting Toni Morrison's views on race more then her own life experiences. Toni Morrison is writing from the point of view of a black woman and thus has an inside perspective while Mark Twain is white and writing from the perspective of a white man who knows that the poor treatment of blacks is wrong. Their different perspectives are shown in the way each book talks about race. While it is a present topic in Huckleberry Finn, the theme of race is far more prevalent in Song of Solomon. 

Final- wendy sumano

As I started to read “Huckleberry Finn” I felt as if this book had multiple perspectives and had a broader side of what was actually happening during this time period. As “Song of Solomon” was more of how the same ethnicity people interacted with one another based on their economical background. To my understanding “Huckleberry Finn” was more racist with the vocabulary used but it was not to detail of what was happening. They were both surprising due to the  new content it had that I didn’t know about but they were very enjoyable since a lot of history, not taught in schools, was brought up.

Critical lens had a very important factor in the way I read and understood the stories. As it has benefits it also has downside. As I choose Marxist lens I would of never focused on how the economy affected the their life and the treatment they got but I would have viewed the book from a  race perspective since it was something that was present all the time. I believed that if I wouldn’t of chosen the Marxist lens I wouldn't be able to understand how the social economic structure had a role among black people. But a downside that I saw for focusing on one lens was that I missed the interaction among the general roles. I was too focus viewing the book from the marxist lens that I put to a side all the other lens and perspectives.

Over all, I think this project was an eye opener because I learned that not only were they discriminated by the white people but also by their own kind when they were in a lower economical status. I learned that capitalist ideas change people and cause them to forget what they had to go through in order to be at a higher place in the social classes. People in this country in the past and now only take in consideration their profit without looking at the consequences and the affect they caused on others.

Critical Lens Expert

 Macon a greedy, self absorbed, unforgiving (and unforgiven) a man who is incapable of showing love or receiving it. Hating his wife, Ruth, ignoring his daughters, Lena and First Corinthians, and disowning his sister,Pilate, are the sum of Macon’s family connections.

     The text represents the overall meaning of Macon throughout the story. At the beginning of the story Macon shows his unappreciated attention to his wife, and his wife feels like she not present, and doesn't feel real, and that is why she needs the water mark stain to feel like she is living “she regarded it as a mooring, a checkpoint, some stable visual object that assured her that the world was still there: that this was life and not a dream.” Macon made her feel worthless which made her feel unappreciated and that's why she didn't feel like she was living in reality. The author does describe Macon as a “greedy,self absorbed,unforgiving,and hating” character which is clearly represented throughout the book as we can tell he only is that way because he got everything he wanted. As a child Macon grew up in a wealthy family and he got everything he wanted, so his young life as a result is then reflected into his future life which explains why he is so greedy, and so selfish. Macon does not have the need to feel loved or to love because he got everything he wanted as a kid. The way he acts as a husband,father, and brother is all the same he is greedy no matter what, because he's always been greedy, his mentality is the result of his childhood.

SoS Critical Lens Experts

 This artical talks about the Seven Days the revange from the black people fighting back to the white people some type of revolution "microcosm of the two primary ideological streams which have characrized Afro-American polical thought in the twentieth century." it means that the artical really relate to reality of what was really going on at the time. The artical talks about how Guitar Bains is like Malcolm X because they had the same belief to fight back to get there respect, freedom and revolution

The Seven Day is a group commited to avenging the murder of black people in other words they were the violent revolutionaries fighting back with death, this shows the way it was in the book back in the time. Compare with the times of slavery this times were the worse they got tired with the time and decited to fight back with violence too.

"As Ralph Ellion said thirty years ago, "There is np place like a Negro barbershop for hearing what Negros really think" this articule talks about how black people males openly and candidly comunicate as a community they are, this shows how times where like in the book because they Negro males expressed their ideas in a place were they're were no white people around. Maybe they didn't part of the society and share ideas with the rest of the society specially white foes. 

Lauren Song of Solomon close reading

The historical accuracy of Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison is rather good. "Ain't but two toilets downtown they let colored in: Mayflower Restaurant and Sears." This takes place right before the Civil Rights Movement in a time when segregation was still legal and widely practiced. Looking at this quote and knowing that most Restaurants did not allow those of color in and that the Mayflower was the name of the ship on which the Pilgrims first came to New England, it would seem that the use of Mayflower could be symbolic for change and new beginnings and forward thinking.  Or perhaps it simply refers to the hopeful image of a flower in May. "A young Negro boy had been found stomped to death in Sunflower County, Mississippi. There were no questions about who stomped him - his murderers had boasted freely - and there were no questions about the motive. The boy had whistled at some white woman, refused to deny he had slept with others ad was a Northerner visiting the South. His name was Till." This is referring to the murder of Emmett Till a young man of color visiting Mississippi. He was murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman, and for this he was made to carry a 75 pound cotton gin fan to the river, then stripped and beaten nearly to death by the woman's husband and brother before they gouged out his eye, shot him in the head and tied his body to the fan with barbed wire and threw it in the river. Emmett was from the North where people rarely mutilated and murdered others for flirting with someone of another race, he was unprepared for the violence and hate he met with in the South. The mention of this event in the book not only helps to get a better sense of the time period but helps us to understand the viewpoints and concerns of those living there at the time.

Lauren Song of Solomon Experts

The article I read was "Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon and Black Cultural Nationalism." by Harry Reed. Mr. Reed shares many of my views regarding Morrison and her novel, for instance he points out how Morrison portrays very strong female characters. "A deep reverence for black females and black female networks pervades Morrison's novel. She avoids romanticizing or idealizing woman's hard circumstances, but every woman, except possibly Hagar, has small moments of triumph." (Page 75) Morrison portrayed very strong female characters for not only the time the book is set in, but also for the time in which it was written. And as Reed puts it "Moreover one can view three of Morrison's women-Pilate, Circe, and Ruth-as nationalist archetypes." (Page 75).  I personally enjoy books with strong female characters and the characters in this book are all very well portrayed.

Maura Entry #8: Final Project Reflection First Draft

After reading two novels through the feminist lens, I feel that using a lens is important when reading and analyzing a piece of literature. By using a feminist lens, I was able to notice a lot more about the importance of gender and gender roles in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Song of Solomon. I was exposed to the realities of women and the roles they were expected to fill, and the pressure they faced to fill the tiny spaces in society they were allowed and nothing more, as mothers and daughters and wives, as reformers and the innocent. By using this lens I was able to notice more than the surface meaning of the novel, enabling me to make comparisons between novels. For example, while both Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Song of Solomon make it clear that in "proper" society, women are expected to fill certain roles, past that, female characters in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn exist only to further the plot or alter Huck in some way. However, in Song of Solomon, while the female characters' stories do affect the main character, Milkman, they are actual three-dimensional characters with histories and motivations that may not necessarily affect Milkman. Using a lens allows me to see the full scope of an issue, rather than just the surface understanding you get by reading the text without the lens.
However, using a lens means that by focusing in so deeply on the issue, I miss a lot of the intricacies of other issues discussed in these novels. For example, when discussing Hagar's obsession with her hair in Song of Solomon, I focused on Hagar's motivation and the pressure she felt to meet society's standards of beauty in order to attract Milkman's attention; completely ignoring the pressures of society in appeasing white standards of beauty, especially, silky smooth hair instead of her natural curls. By focusing so deeply in on gender and gender roles, I completely ignored and forgot about how race played a lot into the story-lines of these novels.

Song Of Solomon Close Reading

When she closed the door behind her afternoon guests, and let the quiet smile die from her lips, she began the preparation of food her husband found impossible to eat. She did not try to make her meals nauseating; she simply didn’t know how not to. She would notice that the sunshine cake was too haggled to put before him and decide on a rennet dessert. But the grinding of the veal and beef for a meat loaf took so long she not only forgot the pork, settling for bacon drippings poured over the meat, she had no time to make a dessert at all. Hurriedly, then, she began to set the table. As she unfolded the white linen and let it billow over the fine mahogany table, she would look once more at the large water mark. She never set the table or passed through the dining room without looking at it. Like a lighthouse keeper drawn to his window to gaze once again at the sea, or a prisoner automatically searching out the sun as he steps into the yard for his hour of exercise, Ruth looked for the water mark several times during the day. knew it was there, would always be there, but she needed to confirm its presence. Like the keeper of the lighthouse and the prisoner, she regarded it as a mooring, a checkpoint, some stable visual object that assured her that the world was still there; that this was life and not a dream. That she was alive somewhere, inside, which she acknowledged to be true only because a thing she knew intimately was out there, outside herself.

    In this passage Ruth seems to be trapped, she seemed to be internally delusional. At the beginning of the passage her smile fades away “let the quiet smile die from her lips”, this demonstrates that she is not happy, as the word “die”, shows that she clearly has a problem and therefore, her smile quickly fades away. Ruth seems to keep her husband unsatisfied “she began the preparation of food her husband found impossible to eat”, in this short line from the passage, the author reveals, Ruth can't cook,and she uses the word “impossible” to show that her cooking is pretty bad.As she was setting the table one thing that was metioned in the midle of the passage was a white line apperently it was a water mark though it represented something “ As she unfolded the white linen and let it billow over the fine mahogany table, she would look once more at the large water mark. She never set the table or passed through the dining room without looking at it”, Ruth seemed to be attracted to the white line for some reason, though it must of been something that held importance because “ she never set the table or passed through the dinning room without looking at it”. In the passage it was compared to “prisoner automatically searching out the sun” or “lighthouse keeper drawn to his window to gaze once again at the sea” and this has some significance because a prisoner has a limited time to be outside and a lightkeeper will be driven to look at out onto the sea. Though ruth saw it as a “checkpoint”, that would “ assured her that the world was still there”, which meant she might of not been living the way she wanted because she was used the mark to show that “the world was still there” and it seemed as though she was lost emotionally and mentally as in the text describes “she was alive somewhere,inside”, which means she was not her usual self, and it was a mental and emotional inter conflict that was represented in the text.

Lauren Huck Finn Experts

The article "The Life of Samuel Clemens and the Reception of Huckleberry Finn" shares many of my own views and points out many of the similarities between the life of Mark Twain (AKA Samuel Clemens) and the world in Huckleberry Finn. For example "Although Clemens rarely visited Hannibal after he left in 1853, his experiences there played a large role in his writing and, indeed, strongly shaped his best known works, Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The St. Petersburg of these novels is a largely faithful rendition of Hannibal in the 1840's." (Page 20-21) As I have pointed out before the boyhood adventures of Mark Twain are reflected in much of Huckleberry Finn both in the characters and events, as well as the town of St. Petersburg. The article also mentions the origins of Samuel Clemens' pen name of Mark Twain, "In a comic travel piece he filed from Carson City in February 1863, Clemens first signed his name as "Mark Twain." Clemens later said that he took the name, which on the Mississippi meant "two fathoms," from an old writer-pilot named Isaiah Sellers; in Nevada, however, the term meant two drinks bought on credit, so Clemens may have wanted his readers to think of this meaning as well."(Page 22) The author brings up some good ideas in what Twain may have wanted his readers to think of when they read his name. I was unaware that Clemens had taken the name from a writer-pilot, and had assumed that it was his love of the Mississippi and his time on a steamboat that had inspired him to take the pen name Mark Twain. One of the most interesting things the article mentioned that I had not previously known was about Clemens as a father. "Though Clemens loved his daughters, he was a difficult father, one who did not find it easy to grant them anything like the independence he valued in Huck." (Page 24) I found it odd that for all the freedom and adventures he gave his characters he could not bring himself to grant his children the same.

Lauren: Song of Solomon Responding and Reflecting

Song of Solomon is set beginning in 1931 and ending around 1963. It was written by Toni Morrison in the 1970's.  This book was written just after the start of the Civil Rights Movement Act became a law in 1964. The Civil Rights Movement started in 1955 during the events of the novel. 1931 was the pinnacle of the Harlem Renaissance , it also marked the rise of a new sophisticated class of intellectual African-Americans immersed in culture and aesthetic pursuits. In 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person and was arrested sparking protests. This is reflected in the way the book handles race and focuses mostly on the issue of race and racism in America at the time. The time the book takes place in as well as the time it was written in were both changing times in the way people looked at race and civil rights and liberties mainly regarding people of color. The change in class in the late 1920's to the early 1930's is shown in the book in the classes of the different characters. Milkman and Guitar are two different classes and have different experiences because of it. Milkman is privileged while Guitar grew up in poverty after his fathers murder and hates white people because of it. Guitar is a murderer who kills innocent white people, contributing to negative stereotypes and racism. Race is still a major issue in today's world. Being white I don't experience a lot of racism myself, but people still make assumptions about me because of my race. I've gotten plenty of remarks that I can't complain about things because I am white and clearly well off and that means I am perfectly happy. I've been told I can't talk about certain issues because I am white, because I am white I am expected to do better in school, I am expected to meet the social norms of being "a typical white person".

SoS Responding and Reflecting #6 Tony H

How is race portrayed in this book? by how rich or poor you are if your poor and black they would discriminate you and if your rich people are nice to you and don't judge your color. Characters experience racism yes they Guitar those Milkman doesn't because his pretty rich and Guitar is poor and his treated bad.

What is Milkman's feelings about his race? Its alienate it from the African American race his more like into the white people his white wash, doesn't really show that much pride of his culture and race in compares to Guitar. What is Guitar's feelings about his race? Guitar has a bigger stronger feeling of his race his really proud of it and he seems white people responsible for all evil in the world, you can tell he hates white people. They're different in many ways even thought they are best friends. They have different ideas because they are influenced my they're past Milkman is pretty wealthy and hasn't experienced the racist experiences Guitar has been thought in the pass compare to Guitar. Guitar has been thought a lot compare to Milkman his poor and his father was killed in a factory accident and he has this big hatred to white people. I think that racism in this book was based in what you have been though in the pass if you were poor and had bad experiences just because your not rich, because if you were rich and black you were't that effected by racist white people or just people would treat you better. Compare to Huckleberry Finn on portrayal of racism different in this book is that they don't use the work n----- they still use the word negro but is not that effected as the work n----- is you can they are less racist in Song of Solomon. This connects to the real life now people aren't so racist now but if your poor they see you as less than other people who are rich.

Wendy- Critical Experts lens

Toni Morrison in “Song of Solomon” has slightly similar ideas to Doreatha Drummond Mbalia  based on the relationship and the connection black society had between each other depending on their economical status. Drummond, an African professor with interest on African studies, reads this book with a historical context and historical ideas. Drummond uses quotes to get her point across and to explain her believes.

Doreatha mentions “she is more aware of the role capitalism plays in the African’s exploitation,” while she is adding information about the author. She is talking about how Morrison incorporates these two families with the same ethnicity just different economical background. Adding these two different families builds on the idea of how Morrison views what happened based from her point of view as an African American. They are both talking on how capitalism is creating a bigger gap between these two families and how it’s affecting the relationship among this community. Drummond appreciates how Morrison’s protagonist grows throughout the whole book and becomes more mature to notices what is happening even though at times he might not seem affected due to the wealth his family has. We can also see that people get discriminated in different forms based on the economical status even if they are from the same color skin. People with money are at different levels than the poor even if they are black because that’s the expectations society has put out for them.

While Doreatha also mentions how “Milkman must learn to respect his African self and to realize that money does not ensure happiness.” She contradicts her ideas because before she had said that capitalist plays a role in exploitation and oppression and now she says that that money doesn’t ensure happiness. But in reality how can money not ensure happiness when Mrs. Bains has to be worried of how to sustain her grandchildren while on the other hand Macon has everything he needs and slightly more. It doesn’t give all your full happiness but it does relief from stress.  Milkman has grown with his father’s ideas of only wanting more money for himself without valuing the work people have to do in order to pay him. The greed Dead has is passing on to his child but the point is not coming across since Milkman doesn’t see real difference among him and his friend. Milkman is different from his father and doesn’t follow the capitalist ideas because even though he is from a higher economical class he still has a friendship with poor kids and doesn’t view the difference. His innocent self doesn’t allow him to see difference between people even if he lives around a society that doesn’t allow equality due to the different economical status and power.

Doreatha is in support of how Morrison wrote the book she is just explaining more how it connects to the history around this time period and how it affected many people. It was interesting to view to black women’s point of view of what was happening during this time period.

Maura Entry #7 Song of Solomon Responding and Reflecting First Draft

I was surprised and a bit disappointed by Toni Morrison's portrayal of women in Song of Solomon. I expected Morrison to write female characters that were well-developed and flawed, without condemning them for their flaws like many writers seem to do. I was frustrated by her placing of Pilate, the "strong" woman, on a pedestal. In Song of Solomon, Ruth and Hagar are both seen as selfish in their possessive love of Milkman, and are implied to be rather stupid for following along with society's expectations of them, rather than directly defying them like Pilate does. While Pilate is admirable for her actions, she fills the stereotypical strong female role and doesn't seem to have any major character flaws like Ruth or Hagar- she is a role model, but not human. At the same time, neither are Ruth or Hagar; they are overly flawed, written as a reflection of society, without any redeeming or "good" qualities to create the balance that makes up a good, well-written character.

However, I think Morrison did an incredible job of discussing the relationships between males and females in Song of Solomon.

Responding & reflecting SOS- Wendy Sumano

Growing up I always heard of this idea that everyone is equal in this country and that we all deserve “equal rights.” When I think of equal rights I picture equal education, health insurance and life conditions but little did I know the suffrage color people had to live through in order to achieve something slightly higher than they had before; not even at this point in life  are people equal in this country. As I was growing up the history teachers only gave me a quick view of what Americans had done to this minority group, segregation, but never went to depth of what this group of people did to each other to feel more empowered. But as I started to read “Song of Solomon” Morrison gave a different perspective that is not taught in school. He showed how among the black community they suppressed each other when they could be at a higher level.

Morrison gives an empowering view because she allows us to see what segregation caused among themselves. Morrison uses Mrs. Bains and Malcon to portray one of the many similar cases that happened during this time period. Malcon having property and owning where Mrs. Bains lives allows him to feel superior than this old later even though they are from the same color. Before reading this book I though only whites feel superior than color people and that color people tried to help each other out but I can see a difference in this case. Not everyone was willing to help each other out but they will looking how to step at a higher level and become accepted among other people. Money was an important factor during this time period that brought inequality. It was surprising to learn that before the civil war people were willing to go back to free capture slave but later people weren’t even willing to give up some of their money to help out the ones in need.

After all, this perspective build on the idea that I have that as we try to become equal with people of different cultures without knowing we suppress our kind and don’t take in consideration into what extent we have to change in order to fit in and feel power. However, the way I view American education has evolved; I feel like the government “protects” its citizens from knowing the real situation therefore  teachers omit so much of what happened in reality. The way Morrison incorporated the different ways people interacted among each other was an interesting way to see how depending on the money you had that was how much power society gave you. Money was an important role at this time period because people of color who had property was view at a higher level from the blacks perspective but for the whites they will always be inferior no matter how much property they owned or how much money they had. Student should be able to analyze these events from different perspectives and understand why people acted in different forms.

Lauren Huck Finn Responding and Reflecting

While reading Huck Finn through the historical/biographical lens I have noticed that many people and places in the book are a close resemblance to people and places in Mark Twain's childhood. Huck lives in a little town on the Mississippi River called St. Petersburg that closely resembles Mark Twain's own childhood hometown of Hannibal Missouri which was a small port town on the Mississippi River.  Mark Twain's father was a judge, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn we see the most predominant father figure to Huck is not his own abusive father, but Judge Thatcher. In the novel Huck is about 13-14 years old and is a very independent and successful boy. When Mark Twain was 13 he left school to become a printers apprentice and quickly became an editorial writer, the reflection of success at an early age is shown in Huck's having quickly gotten rich in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and being able to return to school where he does very well. Mark Twain like Huck was fascinated by the river in fact Mark Twain is just a pseudonym, his real name is Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain is a river term which means two fathoms, it means it is safe to navigate. With such a passion for the river it is no surprise that some of his most famous works take place on or near the Mississippi River. We are often influenced by our own histories and passions, I myself am an avid roleplayer and I find my stories are often influenced by my own inner desires and emotions.  One of my characters, a vampire named A`leveara lives in the middle ages where not only are women second class but vampires and hunted down and killed. She spends much of her time in the forest and breaking traditional gender roles while running for her life from hunters. This character embodies many of my feelings and views on society. She is a reflection of my feelings of being oppressed by my elders and being an outcast in society.

Song of Solomon close reading- Wendy

Yes, Mrs. Bains. You got something for me?”

“Well, that’s what I come to talk to you about. You know Cency left all them babies with me. And my relief check ain’t no more’n it take to keep a well-grown yard dog alive —half alive, I should say.”

“Your rent is four dollars a month, Mrs. Bains. You two months behind already.”

“I do know that, Mr. Dead, sir, but babies can’t make it with nothing to put in they stomach.”

Their voices were low, polite, without any hint of conflict. “Can they make it in the street, Mrs. Bains? That’s where they gonna be if you don’t figure out some way to get me my money.”

“No, sir. They can’t make it in the street. We need both, I reckon. Same as yours does.”

“Then you better rustle it up, Mrs. Bains. You got till”—he swiveled around to consult the calendar on the wall—“till Saturday coming. Saturday, Mrs. Bains. Not Sunday. Not Monday. Saturday. (Morris 46-47)

In this part of the passage, Mrs. Bains goes looking for compassion in Macon after she has two months of rent overdue and can barely make ends meet to feed her grandchildren. Thought she went in looking for a solution to avoid eviction, Macon gave her no support but a deadline that she needs to meet in order to continue to live in her home with her grandchildren. Throughout this scene Morris builds on this idea of Marxism and the different rights citizens are given based on their ethnicity and economic status.  

Mrs. Bains begging Macon depicts that capitalism has taken over the country. During this time period when both Macon and Mrs. Bains are being segregated due to their skin color, Macon turns his back towards his people and only cares about his money as we can see from his dialogue when he continues to use the repetition of the phrase “my money.” Macon’s constant use of “my” shows how he feels great ownership and possession towards the money Mrs. Bains owes him. He isn’t being humane and understanding when he gives her a quick deadline and states that the consequences of her failing to make the payment will be eviction. Adding on he constantly repeats the word  “not” which shows that he will make no exception and is not willing to negotiate with Mrs. Bains about the money. Similarly, in their conversation Macon puts Mrs. Bains on the spot when he asks if her grandchildren would be able to live on the streets without a roof if she doesn’t make the payment. Macon is only looking at sleep in part of Maslow’s hierarchy because he is the owner of their shelter and is wanting more money. He is trying to get put food underneath shelter.  Macon is showing his capitalist ideas by overusing the small power he is given by owning property amongst other blacks. During this time period it didn’t matter whether you have property or not if you were black  but the only way to feel powerful in this powerless time period was to suppress your own kind. The only way Macon could feel powerful in his society was to take advantage of his people and push them into an extreme situations.

The tone of the conversation was “low, polite” which shows how he was emotionless about the situations. For Macon the money in his hand was what mattered the most instead of helping Mrs. Bains who was helpless and was struggling to live. Macon was pushing Mrs. Bain down in the social class due to her only getting “relief check” that was just enough to feed the children and didn’t pay her rent. Macon wants to feel superior in his society amongst the people he lives since he cannot go higher in the social pyramid amongst whites. Also in part of their conversation

Close Reading

”Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom.  Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free—and who was to blame for it?  Why, me.  I couldn't get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way. It got to troubling me so I couldn't rest; I couldn't stay still in one place.  It hadn't ever come home to me before, what this thing was that I was doing.  But now it did; and it stayed with me, and scorched me more and more.  I tried to make out to myself that I warn't to blame, because I didn't run Jim off from his rightful owner; but it warn't no use, conscience up and says, every time, "But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could a paddled ashore and told somebody."  That was so—I couldn't get around that noway.  That was where it pinched.  Conscience says to me, "What had poor Miss Watson done to you that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and never say one single word?  What did that poor old woman do to you that you could treat her so mean?  Why, she tried to learn you your book, she tried to learn you your manners, she tried to be good to you every way she knowed how.  That'swhat she done."I got to feeling so mean and so miserable I most wished I was dead.”

In this passage from pg(#74) Huck seems to be struggling with his friends release and it seems as though he is having an internal conflict .Throughout the passage  Huck doesn't seem to be very happy with his friend release. At the beginning he said he felt “trembly and feverish”, which meant he didn’t feel so great about his friends release. Huck seemed to be over thinking a lot, the use of word choice “conscience”, came up which means his problem was having to do,with society and he would be going against it because someone had rights to his friend, which was his guardian Miss Watson. Miss Watson had provided Huck with A home and that was another internal conflict he was having because he knew how much help she had given him, and he states at the end of the passage “she tried to be good to you every way she knowed how.  That's what she done." Although Huck didn't like Miss Watson very much he feels and obligation to her because she did a favor for him, now he has to do something for her. Huck has to battle between his friends freedom and Miss Watson, though he seems to be indecisive, as to the end he states that he feels “mean and miserable” and  “I most wished I was dead”. This suggests that he has an obligation to do right for society, but deep down he also know his friend is property, which he knows isn’t right.

SoS Critical Lens Close Reading entry#5

"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 this 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 a 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 concert for appropriate names and the 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 notice 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 be known a Mains Avenues and not Doctor Street".

Though this quote might seem like an unimportant description of the name of a street in the town where the book takes place, it is actually deeper than that. This passage demonstrates that while racism looked different in the North and Michigan, it was still a reality for African-Americans who lived there. Black people move to Doctor street and they started sending and receiving letters to their relative in other places but some of their letter were sent back or never got to their destination because they still wasn’t named Doctor Street according to the white people that street didn’t exist for them.   

The passage begins by explaining how the white people gives the street where the Doctor lives Mains Avenue, but the African American people know it and name it as “Doctor street.” They name it Doctor street because that’s where the doctor lives and because he's the only doctor that attends to black people in the city. Later on a lot of black people decide to move and live in Doctor street because they need a doctor close where they live this is demonstrating the times are changing African American people are living in better places they becoming more wealthy.

However this doesn’t mean that the people are giving them the respect they deserve because even though this people are living in better places they are still treated as less than white people because the street in not named “Doctor Street” even when everyone calls it and knows it as “Doctor street” they also sent out letters from to the street telling the black people to stop calling it Doctor Street. This proves the lack of support to black people they don’t care about their opinions is like they don’t have the right to express themselves in the society. The street was name Mains Avenue and it stays like that just because white people say so, is like the black people’s voice is not valid.