African-American Literature

During our class discussions about Antoinette in Wide Sargasso Sea , I kept drawing parallels to the character Lucy Josephine Potter from Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid (we read it during sophomore english with Dr. E). Lucy is from the West Indies but left to give herself a better life so she lives in North America as a domestic servant to an affluent white family. The novel follows the life of Lucy as she matures and learns/recognizes about her place in the world. Throughout the novel, Lucy struggles with her identity, ranging from her cultural background to her sexuality. Throughout Wide Sargasso Sea , I kept seeing similarities to Lucy  because I saw some parallels between Antoinette and Lucy. First, the most obvious comparison was how both characters are from the West Indies but end up living in a "foreign" land, like England in Wide Sargasso Sea  or the United States in Lucy . While both characters feel out of place, Antoinette endures more hardship since she is forcibly remo...

During class discussions, one of the debatable topics we came across was who we felt more sympathy towards: Rochester or Antoinette? Like everyone else, I was on Antoinette's side in the beginning of the novel because we were hearing her side of the story and experiencing things with her. In the bathing pool scene with Tia and Antoinette, while I did think that Antoinette was being ignorant about the social cultural issues at hand, I also felt bad for her for not knowing right from wrong because her mother never distinguished them for her. I felt that Annette was a relatively absent mother who is partly to blame for the way Antoinette turned out. However, Annette also dealt with her fair share of struggles, especially after losing Pierre to a fire that is solely her husband's fault. Because of this, Annette's spiral into "madness" was justifiable as any mother who loses a son would go crazy. Seeing that Antoinette's mother-figure was Christophine, I had sympa...

In yesterday's panel presentation, we talked about how Meursault could be exhibiting characteristics of Alexithymia (a personality disorder characterized by a lack of social attachment and emotional awareness) and how his act of murdering the Arab was really him enacting his revenge on his absent father. Much of the author's argument is that Meursault's cause of Alexithymia stems from a childhood trauma of having an absent father, but I think it's hard for the readers to connect with this rationale since we aren't given any information about how Meursault feels about not having a father or what Meursault's relationship with his father was like. While I do agree with the plausibility that Alexithymia could have caused his actions on the beach, I think it's more probable that it's due to him not having a strong, constant relationship with his mother. Even though his mother was present for a major part of his life, they had a very distant relationship, whic...

When Franz Kafka chose to have Gregor Samsa transform from a human to an insect, it was a decision that had some significance behind it. As we discussed in class, the feelings and interactions between Gregor and the family wouldn't have been the same if he had turned into a bunny or a cat instead of an insect. While Grete and the mother tend to show some sympathy and love towards Gregor by the end, their initial reaction to Gregor's transformation was a normal, expected one: they were repulsed/afraid and kept their distance from him. On the contrary, if he had turned into an animal that we associate with cuteness and domestic ability, then the family would have reacted differently. For example, if Gregor had turned into cat, the family might have been shocked and scared by what happened, but they definitely wouldn't have isolated him. In fact, they might have kept him really close because a cat is an animal that we keep near us and don't associate fear with it. As t...

When comparing Mrs. Dalloway  to The Sun Also Rises , a notable difference that I noticed was how people influenced characters' personalities in Mrs. Dalloway but the setting plays a much bigger role in changing characters in The Sun Also Rises . In The Sun Also Rises , the first part of the book takes place in Paris. During this time, Robert Cohn, as portrayed through Jake's eyes, is a somewhat shy, self-conscious man who takes part in boxing to cover up his low self-esteem. Although some of what we see about Cohn is biased because we are introduced to him negatively from Jake, there is evidence in the text that shows how Cohn isn't as "strong" as a person as Jake. This idea is further proven on page 47 when Jake is joking around and tells Cohn to go to hell and Cohn gets upset by that. As I was reading that scene, I thought about how Cohn reminds me of a kid who hasn't really experienced "reality" and gets upset by trivial things. Another fact a...

We kind of touched on this idea in class, but I was interested in comparing Clarissa's relationship with Sally, Peter, and Richard, especially how Clarissa acts and feels differently with each of them. Going off of our discussion in class, Richard reminds me of how a teenage boy would act when he likes someone but is afraid to tell the girl. The fact that Mrs. Dalloway is a third person narration makes us as readers like Richard more because we get to read about how he truly does love Clarissa, but he just can't find the courage to express it to her. Richard and Clarissa's relationship is tame in the sense that there is no passion between them. Earlier on, we read that part of the reason Clarissa likes her relationship with Richard is because he gives her space, but I also think that might be part of the reason she doesn't feel "fulfilled" with Richard. On the surface, Clarissa thinks that she would be happier with Peter and regrets saying no to his propos...

We briefly mentioned this idea during class, but I thought it was interesting comparing Mrs. Dalloway's satisfaction in life to Howie's. In my opinion, I think Mrs. Dalloway is more content with her life, or at the very least more exciting, because of how she describes the environment around her. Howie seems like a character who is very enthusiastic about the most trivial details in life but I think the fact that he chooses to focus on mundane details gives insight that, although he might enjoy talking about those things, his life is probably not as interesting and "joyful" as Mrs. Dalloway's life. However, this doesn't mean that Mrs. Dalloway has experienced a fully carefree life with no sadness since she has just recovered from a serious case of influenza and is going out for the first time, along with the fact that she is surrounded by people who have lost relatives due to the war. Mrs. Dalloway seems to enjoy her life more because she describes her surroun...