All posts from here on out will be for African-American Literature

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Why I Had No Sympathy for Rochester

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...
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Gregor Samsa as a Pet

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...
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Janie's Tragic Marriages

In Janie's first marriage with Logan Killicks, she is severely unhappy because of several reasons. The main reason Janie is upset is because of the lack of love and passion between her and Logan. From a very young age, Janie has had this very specific idea about what marriage and love should be like. Just as she briefly gets a view into what that kind of life would be like, Nanny immediately marries her off at the age of 16. While it's often the case that young girls who involuntarily get married off don't tend to feel the happy emotions traditionally associated with marriage, this lack of feeling was exaggerated in Janie's case because she had extremely high and romanticized expectations. That said, I don't think the failure of the marriage is entirely Janie's fault - Logan made it worse by trying to control Janie and force her to do manual labor instead of just letting her be. In class, we briefly touched on the idea that Logan's behavior towards Janie isn...
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