The Nephew's reaction

In the four horsemen chapter in Beloved, Morrison writes the scene from the point of view of each of the horsemen. Although all of the points of view are interesting, especially the slave catcher who views the whole capture as a job and only that, and Schoolteacher who just sees the lost goods and is think of how to punish his nephew, I think the nephew's take on what is happening is also really interesting.

The first line we get was, "he didn't know he was shaking." This is immediately followed by what can be seen as something like denial. Although Schoolteacher warned him that something like this could happen, he didn't expect it and he seems to start feeling regret at his actions. The nephew thinking things like "Hell he'd been beat a million times" and then later, "I mean no way he could have..." give us the sense that he really didn't think that this could happen. The second quote gives us the sense that the nephew feels responsible for this to some extent. The fact that he is shaking also supports this assertion. Although when he does what he does he thinks nothing of it, as soon as he sees the consequences of his actions, children being killed, he regrets what he has done.

I think this is a really interesting perspective to look at. In the case of the others who are trying to take Sethe and the kids back to Sweet Home, they view none of her actions as their own fault, but the nephew does see what happens as at least partly his fault. This gives us a more nuanced picture of how slavery affected people. In addition to harming the slaves physically and mentally, it harms the masters too in the sense that they have to lose enough regard for fellow humans that they can cause so much harm and not feel bad about it. Basically the nephew in this story shows us the sheer amount of conditioning that the southerners went through to be able to do what they did and not regret any of it.

Overall, these four different perspectives on what is happening in the shed give a nuanced view of the relationship between the slaves and the masters. What do you guys think about these perspectives? 

Style Wars and biting

While watching Style Wars and in the discussion we had afterwords, biting was one of the main issues that each artist or group had with other artists and groups. This idea of a personal style that only you have the right to use is something that is very interesting and can even be seen in modern derivations of this style of art and in the hip-hop culture.

Biting is when another person takes something that you created and copies it blatantly, but this can make some interesting cases. This can apply not only to things like tags and such, but also to color schemes, lettering and the ideas that you throw out. As always there is a very fine line with drawing inspiration from another work and just copying it, but the fact that biting is so frowned upon means that you have to be especially creative in how you portray what you want to portray. You need to make sure that no one else can take offense to what you are putting out. This also applies to break dancing in the form of copying peoples moves or sets of moves. All of this just further increases the amount of creativity that these people have as there are so many way in which they express themselves without copying other people's styles.

Another way to look at the impressiveness of these people is in how rap artist deal with biting. The complexity of the rhymes and references they use is impressive already, and if you add in the fact that they have to make sure to not copy anyone else's rhymes it makes it even more impressive.

One example of this distinctiveness of style can be seen in the songs "Around my way (freedom ain't free) by Lupe Fiasco and "They Reminisce Over You" (T.R.O.Y) by Pete Rock and CL Smooth. "Around My Way" samples the saxophone beat from T.R.O.Y, and when you listen to them they sound very similar, but if you listen closely you can tell that the way the rappers rhyme over the same beat is quite different. Both rappers pause in different places and manipulate the beat to how they want to use it.

Overall, basically the importance of not biting other artists' styles makes pretty much everything done by each of the individual artists more impressive.

Duality in "Afro-American"

Afro-American by Henry Dumas has many contradictions that shed light on to the situations of slavery in America, America itself and Christianity. At the basic level in the poem we get the distinct difference in how his "black mother" and "white mother" are described. He describes the white mother using terms like whore and overall just using language with negative connotations and negative wording. In contrast to this he describes his black mother as "a fine beautiful thang" and uses other language that describes his black mother in a positive light.

The other major contradiction is in how religion is described. The first instance we get of this is in the first stanza when the narrator says said that the white mother sanctified and crucified me. Although both are religious, sanctification is a very positive, giving holiness to somebody, and crucifixion is a very bad side of the religion, being a cause of death. Another duality happens when the narrator says "the holy white plague." White plague is already a contradiction as white usually implies pure or undisturbed while a plague only happens when something is tainted. In addition, there is a distinct contradiction between holy and plague as usually something that brings death isn't holy.

This paradoxical religiously slanted wording provides a very nuanced view of America and Christianity. Although there are good aspects of both, looking at them from another view point can make them look really terrible. In addition to this paradoxical nature, we also get a fairly bad view of Christianity, which seems a little weird as the slave population used Christianity often to reverse the power dynamic and give themselves hope for the future. Overall, the poem gives us a different view of Christianity than we might expect, but the bashing of the whites in charge of slavery/the state of America during the slavery era is portrayed badly as it often is. 

"Niggerish ways"

When the gang is trying to steal the safe from the store during the riots, Gunnar encounters his father who is pulling up with he other policemen, and tries to distract him to let the others get away. When he tries to talk to his father, his father says, "You are not a Kaufman. I refuse to let you embarrass me. You can't embarrass me with poetry and your niggerish ways" (137). 

This scene way very striking to me in a couple of ways. Just looking at what his father says first, "You are not a Kaufman" gives off this very hostile vibe that you would not expect from a father to a son. The fact that he is willing to completely separate himself from his son without even knowing the situations he is in seems like their relationship was already messed up. In addition, Gunnar's father see him as only a source of embarrassment. This seems weird especially when he mentions poetry because the gang he runs with and all the other gangs have resident poets, and it seems to be fairly accepted in the society, but Gunnar's father sees it as a source of embarrassment. This puts a twist on the situation where your parents are supposed to be accepting of what you want to do with your life, and his mother is fairly accepting of everything he does, but his father is angry with him for it. 

The other striking phrase is when he says that Gunnar's "niggerish ways" are an embarrassment. Previously Gunnar was ecstatic when he was called the n-word, but in this context it is very insulting. The way he acts is seen as bad and unseemly, playing into the stereotype of the aggressive. uncultured black man. Gunnar's father dislikes how Gunnar acts so much that that he is willing to hurl what could be considered one of the worst insults at Gunnar. I think this insult is so bad because it is basically telling Gunnar that his identity is wrong and wont be respected by people outside of the community.

Overall, Gunnar's father dislikes Gunnar very much, enough to basically call him out as a completely different person, completely unrelated to himself. He also harbors enough animosity towards him that he is willing to call him an embarrassment, and even call his character bad.

How to get out

Gunnar has a unique life where he exceeds at multiple things and can choose between them to figure out what he really wants to do. He has amazing basketball skills and is a famous poet by the time he is in college. This situation is very peculiar as it gives Gunnar the ability to abandon either of these when he wants to or is not enjoying it, and pursue the other. This is not the case for most people with some talent. Usually people are only really good at one thing, and especially if they are poor they have to pursue that to have a chance to get out of the cycle of poverty. Its Gunnar's talent at both that allows him to not really care much about basketball and allows him to pursue poetry as well.

This situation gives us an interesting dynamic where Gunnar doesn't need to focus solely basketball, and where he doesn't really enjoy it even though he is good because he doesn't need to force himself into liking basketball. Although Gunnar's character is defined by his basketball talent, he doesn't actually buy into the sport that much. The fact that he feels like he is performing shows this to a great extent. Gunnar knows he is just being used for entertainment, and so he plays along with that aspect, but Gunnar never really wants to play basketball for others.

This is opposed in his poetry as he write only for himself for the most part. Gunnar is able to express his true thoughts about issues that he thinks are relevant and he doesn't really need to worry about a public image or audience.

Overall, if Gunnar only had talent for basketball, he probably would have needed to care more about his public appearance as basketball would have been able to give him a good life. If Gunnar was only good at poetry a similar dynamic may have existed, but the fact that he is good at both allows him to express his true self.

Reflections on Ethnic Notions

Ethnic Notions had a large discussion about how the stereotypes of blacks created in the slavery and post-slavery eras continue and are reinforced today. Particularly, the stereotype of the aggressive, uncultured black man that is not respectable and can't do much with his life is and was present and depicted very often. Although this stems from the thought that African Americans were dependent on white population, the stereotype still somewhat exists today.

One major form of this today is in music, specifically the G-rap, or gangsta rap genre. Iconic rappers such as Dr. Dre have many songs that exemplify this stereotype. Songs like "Forgot About Dre" on The Chronic 2001 where Dre asserts himself in an aggressive way as one of the most important people in the era. Other songs like "Bring Da Ruckus" by Wu-Tang Clan on Enter the Wu-Tang Clan- 36 Chambers also show this fairly well.

Many rappers tap into this stereotype, making song about drugs, sex, or killing people and all of these songs seem to be a descendant of this stereotype of the aggressive black man that was created so that people would regret stopping slavery. In addition, many rappers are only characterized by this style of song when in many songs there are deeper messages.

The main rebuttal those making the songs have to say about this is that what they are representing is generally just a depiction of life in the ghetto. Instead of being aggressive because they can't not be aggressive, its is because these people had to survive through rough times and they want to represent their hardship through music. Although this may be true, many also do not like this representation because people tend to generalize more than is needed and this seems to reflect badly on the others of the population.

Overall, this stereotype is still very present today, and I believe it will continue to be as long as it is being used in situations like these. 

Janie and the narrator from Invisible Man

In both Their Eyes Were Watching God  and Invisible Man, we have narrators that are looking for something. Janie is looking for love, or more specifically her ideal setting of love, which she procured through an epiphany under a pear tree, and for the narrator in Invisible Man although his goal changes, by the end of the book he wants to answer the question of his identity, and who he really is.

Both these characters are similar in many ways, but they also have some stark differences. For one, Janie seems to have much more control over her life and decisions than does the narrator. The narrator gets pushed around being forced into roles which he doesn't really want to be in, such as having to find a job after he is kicked out of college, while Janie has enough free will to be able to leave her marriage with the notion that maybe doing this could further her mission of achieving her ideals.

One similarity between the two characters is that they both feel compelled to do something with their lives. For Janie it is only realizing her ideals, but the narrator wants to achieve a position of respect in society and much of his life is lived with that goal in mind. Going to college and experiencing the humiliation of being in a boxing ring before giving a speech to a crowd that doesn't want to listen at all, shows that the narrator has determinations to make his dreams successful. Both of the characters have these ideals in the beginning, but for the narrator, his ideal are shattered and his first impressions of almost everything seem to be wrong. He thinks that the Brotherhood will be good for him, but it only causes him to see more separation in what he thinks versus the ideology of others. He wants to become successful in a way similar to Bledsoe, but then Bledsoe is revealed to not be such a great guy.

The determination of these two characters to reach a goal is similar, with both taking risks at some point in their lives to advance themselves towards what they want to achieve, yet their situations are so different that it is hard to compare them in many aspects. How do you think these characters are related?