Race and the American novel project part 2

Stacy Halida

 

Synthesis

 

            Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written from a Caucasians perspective and Beloved, written from an African Americans perspective. They both had good themes and issues about them.

            I think that inequality for African Americans is totally unfair. Both of the books talk about that. I never understood the purpose of slavery and every time l learned about it, it made me more confused and upset. I don’t think anyone should be treated differently just because the color of their skin.

            Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and it showed how the slaves were treated so badly that they ran away and created the underground railroad. Slavery was so bad and so many slaves ran away to the North that if anyone was asked if they have seen a slave that had to return the slave to its owner, they were forced to give them back. When I read that it just floored me because all people should be free to make their own choices. (Stowe)

            Beloved was written by Toni Morrison. It also showed how bad one family of slaves was treated that Sethe killed her child so the child wouldn’t be forced into slavery like herself. She also then ran away to try to stay away from slavery. I was also surprised when I read this because I never thought someone would kill their child. But, she did it for her child to keep her child safe from slavery, she did it out of love. (Morrison) This was one of the shocking things that happened in the book Beloved.

            Overall I enjoyed reading both books and I also learned a lot about slavery that I didn’t know before. Slavery was so bad that the slaves were willing to kill their own children and run away and having the risk of they themselves getting killed, because that would be better than going back to slavery.

Works Cited                               

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. 1987.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Toms Cabin. 1852.

  

Race and the American novel part 2

Stacy Halida

Reader Response

 

            From reading some responses on Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com  that people wrote about the book Beloved, I would have to agree mostly with what they wrote. Most of the comments were that it was a very deep book, and that you had to think very hard about it at some points. Others said that it was very easy to follow and that they didn’t want to put it down. Another comment stated that it was a book about a haunted mother/daughter relationship. They said that it was very interesting that the mother would kill her own child for her own well-being.

I agree with most of this information that the people posted. I do feel that the book was very confusing at times, but it was very interesting. I was very helpful that we had class discussions on the book to make sure I understood was I read. It was also very interesting to see the other points of view that people had for the book. It helped a lot that we had deep discussions of this book in class, otherwise I may have been a little lost as to what was going on.
            I agree with that the book was hard to understand at times and that it was a haunted story about a mother/daughter relationship. But, I don’t agree with the comment that stated that it was easy to follow because it wasn’t easy for me to follow it. Overall I enjoyed the book.

Race and the american novel project part 2

Stacy Halida

Contemporary Connections

 

We have many racial issues in America in 2015. Some issues have gotten better and some have not. I do however feel that America has made a lot of progress forward due to racial issues, but there are still many that need to have more progress made on them.

ABC News covers these issues online. Everywhere you look you can see some sort of racism in the world. This helps me relate to beloved because the African Americans are treated so unfairly just because the color of their skin. Everything that African Americans do in the real world and beloved they get treated differently and much more unfairly because of the color of their skin.

Beloved helps inform me of these issues today because it reminds me of all of the inequality that African Americans have. I usually don’t always think like that, but when we read this it really reminds me of all the racial issues we have in the world in 2015.

Stacy Halida Race and the American Novel project part 2

 

Stacy Halida

Race and the American Novel project part 2

Critical Commentary

Morrison writes about the “interior lives” of the slaves to fill in the blanks, for her readers. I thought this was very interesting that this was pointed out. I thought this because many people want to hear about the slaves “interior lives”, but not many people want to tell that part. The narrators and the slave owners didn’t want people to know how the slaves were treated. I like how she gave us readers insight on how the slaves lived on the plantations and why slaves would want to run away like Sethe did with her child Denver. (Raynaud)

She also says that Morrison was also reluctant to even talk about the subject of slavery. But, she then was “kidnapped” by the idea of slavery like the slaves were abducted from Africa into slavery. This passage in the text was very interesting to me because she really didn’t want to write about slavery, but turned out to be an excellent writer of the subject slavery. (Raynaud)

This text helps me understand beloved a little better because I understand why she wanted to write it. I am glad that she wrote it so that we can get a different perspective on slavery.

Works Cited

Raynaud, Claudine. "The Cambridge Companion to Toni Morrison." (n.d.): 43-58.

Blog 6

Stacy Halida

Blog 6

 

“From the Woman Warrior” “No Name Woman” Maxine Hong Kingston wrote about a woman who was said to be her aunt. She has never met her aunt and she is confused as to who she really is. She is to never talk about her aunt because she had an illegitimate child. Since she cannot speak of her aunt she starts to make her own memoirs of her aunt.

This story was very interesting to me because the Chinese Traditions that were involved. I thought it was very odd though that her aunt could not be spoken of. I felt bad for her because she has never met her aunt and now she cannot really know anything about her because of what she has done.

I feel that many other cultures have many more traditions that are harsh and difficult to understand if you aren’t from that culture. Some of the traditions are very interesting to learn about, and that others are just very strange and foreign to me.