African American Literature (Harmen Alleyne)

Beloved does some interesting things with the perspective and framing of events depending on which character is experiencing/experienced them. Sethe's rememory is probably one of the most interesting narrative choices in this novel, very reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five 's Tralfamadorian time travel. This kind of framing for narratives can make some stories very confusing, but in Beloved  it helps to feed us information. The constant jumping around focuses the story not on advancing a plot, but building the characters and the setting they inhabit. This is a good tactic for building characters, as the narrative jumps around to each person's perspective in turn. Certain events are played on repeat but from different angles. I would be interested to see how this would work in a film adaptation. Would the directors use camera angles? Would there have to be separate arcs for each character? I've seen this done in a few other works where the narrative...

I've said it once and I'll say it again. Their Eyes Were Watching God  seems to me like an archetypal 19th Century British novel. Something about how the prose is structured and the events played out seemed exactly like the events we would read about in 19th Century. There are multiple suitors and each one the main character sees something in them but then they end up not liking a few of them until they meet the one they decide is right for them. Then they get into some trouble with this "perfect" suitor and this problem carries the rest of the plot. The arranged marriage also is very reminiscent of the stifling atmosphere of 19th century novels. Towards the end of the book it becomes a more modern piece (because it starts with a marriage and ends with no partner as opposed to the reverse in 19th century novels), as well as having a more progressive feminist message. Still, some deep dark part of me has a traumatic fit whenever I think of Pride and Prejudice .

In the most recent novel we are reading in class, Their Eyes Were Watching God , the characters all speak in a distinct dialect of English that is non-standard. "I" is changed to "Ah", verbs are shortened, there are double negatives, and so on. Though for some this may be hard to read and understand, especially in a book where most of the story is delivered through dialogue, but I feel that these kinds of literary quirks can really differentiate a story. Not just in a narrative about African Americans, but in other literature with other English dialects. People can usually tell the difference between British English and American Standard English when spoken, but when written as dialogue they very rarely show any of the differences in the dialects. Given, those two are very similar but the same kind of logic can be applied to other dialects of English. Authors usually wrote their dialogue in standard, and they would use a different dialect if the character was "...

Towards the end of Invisible Man  the narrator adopts the persona of Rinehart, and several people mistake him as such. Also around the same time he has an affair with a Brotherhood member named Sybil. In both of those instances, the narrator uses the fact that he has a fake identity to get away with what he is doing. In these cases, does the narrator's invisibility act as a tool that the narrator uses to have his way? Along the same lines, does the narrator even know his invisibility is being used this way. By this point in the book the narrator does sort of know he is "invisible", but hasn't said much about it and hasn't given it a proper name. This use of his "thousand faces" could help him "agree them[whites] to death", but the narrator seems to only use it to survive and not get caught by certain people. What are your opinions on the "thousand faces" interpretation, and are there any other clear examples of other times he's ex...

In Invisible Man , the narrator seems to have a natural talent for public speaking. He begins speaking during his school years before the Battle Royale and has had a speech during the home eviction. He has also been drafted into the "Brotherhood" to do more public speaking. He seems to have a talent for rousing crowds, even if that was not shown in his Battle Royale speech. After the home eviction speech, he thinks of himself as a famous speaker akin to Booker T. Washington and takes pride in that. Now to the main point. Is the author fond of speeches because it makes him more individual? During his speeches he is separate from the crowd, able to show his views on matters and not be just a cog in a machine (as Norton calls it). Even if he may not be truly visible, his unique existence cannot be fully denied. Is not being able to make speeches why he has retreated within his "hole" during the prologue? Is writing this book and sharing his views and experiences how ...

Throughout Native Son, Bigger makes choices. Many of these choices cause him to tumble down a continuous spiral to his eventual trial and execution for the murder and supposed rape of Mary Dalton. While reading this book, I thought at many times to try to call out to Bigger, and give him a bit of guidance because I could see where some of his actions were leading. I realized that I was using education that I had received in my schooling years that Bigger was not fortunate enough to have, and that Bigger's environment hadn't prepared his foresight enough to prevent him from making several fatal mistakes in a row. So is the true culprit Naturalism? I believe that Wright was trying to achieve the same response I gave to seeing Bigger make those mistakes. I believe that his Naturalist "lab" (for lack of a better term) was designed to show how much education can play into the choices we make. And I do not mean only the education you receive in schools. If Bigger had seen...