Throughout this book we've seen lots of instances where stereotypes are mentioned, and its interesting to me how different characters go around these stereotypes.
First off from the get go we have the grandfather. As we all know by now his 'dying words' or whatever was telling his family to play the *stereotype* of black people being submissive while not actually being submissive behind their backs. In this sense he is 'assuring' the white people that he is doing what hes told but in reality he isn't. Hes using a stereotype to push his own motives.
The same can be said for Blesdoe, but he has a much more sophisticated(?) manner of serving the white donors, and letting them believe they have power.
However what really interested me was that one part where the narrator went to the brotherhood party and that one guy asked if he could sing, and the other brothers removed him from the scene.
That, to me at least, was really, really, funny. The brotherhood is always like "we don't see race/ we're postrace", etc etc, yet here they are asking these stereotypical questions. The question doesn't even bother the narrator, the fact they removed him from the scene did. That whole section of "we're not like him, we would never ask you to sing for us" is something that is pretty amusing to me.
Even in the present day world, minorities sometimes have this happen to them.
I think its something most of us have seen before, either in real life or in movies, where person 1 says something that might kinda be stereotypical to person 2, and while person 2 doesnt really take much offense, person 3 butts in and seems more offended that person 2, and starts talking for them, etc etc.
Nico do you like tacos?
yeah, they'r-
why would you ask that? Just because hes Mexican doesn't mean he likes tacos! Mexican food isn't just tacos, you need to get your facts str-
I'm not Mexican.
Not all latinos are Mexican. I'm an American citizen. By birth. I'm not a Mexican citizen, I don't have a Mexican ID, and when I go to Mexico, I still have to fill out all the forms that you do. Why do you assume, then, that I'm Mexican?
Does the fact I like tacos mean I'm Mexican? Does the fact I like tacos have anything to do with my race? With my ethnicity? Can only Mexican people like tacos? What about other people? Do you like eating tacos? Are you Mexican?
Normally, of course, it doesn't end well.
I guess its good that people are aware of stereotypes. Yet this means that sometimes, by acknowledging these stereotypes, we somehow get it into our minds that no one within that category is what that stereotype says.
"Mexicans like tacos." -> "Not all Mexicans like tacos." -> "Never
ask anyone who seems remotely Mexican if they like tacos, you'll hurt
their feelings."
Then, we're more likely to want to correct anyone who mentions that stereotype to a person of said category, as to not hurt person of said category's feelings (and, I guess, perhaps to kinda flex, maybe (?), like, "I am more socially aware than they are, I understand you better than them" type of thing. Idk. Just thoughts). This is what happens in that scene.
We are humans. We like to classify things. Even if we don't consciously knowledge it, we can tell if one person is Asian or Latino or "White", and even then we can split it up even more (Hes Brazilian, shes Chinese, they're English). The brotherhood claiming to be postracial is an obvious lie, as they obviously see the narrator to be different from them.
Claiming to be postracial adds to the invisibility the narrator has.
Did I make a point? Maybe. idk
Friday, September 27, 2019
Friday, September 13, 2019
The River's Kiss
I really don't feel like writing about invisible man right now, so I'll be writing a bit more in depth about my poem I shared with the class today, and talking a bit about what I didn't get to say.
For those in 3rd period who are just looking for something to comment on, my poem was the short yet intense "Suicide's Note" by Langston Hughes:
I remember just flipping through the Anthology looking for a poem to talk about and this one caught my eye pretty quickly. It was short but from the get-go I noticed that it could totally have a much deeper meaning than just someone diving into a river.
Here was my thought process: firstly, its Suicide's Note, not The Suicide note or simply 'Suicide note'. So was it suicide personified that was speaking? Honestly, I rolled that in my head for a bit, but it never really seemed to stick very well. Its not like the suicide itself could have thoughts, and a suicide can't commit suicide. I ended up just thinking about the speaker as the person who committed suicide, talking to us from the grave, kind of explaining his actions. As someone brought up in class, the suicide was a very immediate and swift decision, or at least it seemed to be. Mr. Mitchell brought up the point of narcissism, that its like at the moment, the speaker wasn't really thinking about anyone else other than himself and the river. It was like if nothing could stop him from wanting to 'kiss' the river.
Narcissus would always look into the water and see his own reflection right? This is where I got the idea that perhaps the reader too looked into the river and saw his reflection. Given the tone of the poem, which seems very relaxed, I can assume that the speaker's face was calm and 'cool'. Perhaps yes, the speaker wanted to give himself a kiss, in which case, his own narcissism was the cause of his death, and I can't really say I feel bad for the speaker.
But then there's another definition of a 'cool' face that I talked about in my poetry talk as well. A 'cool face' could also refer to an unfriendly, an apathetic face.
Rivers are beautiful.
You know it, I know it.
Well, at least the non-polluted ones are.
If you felt like something with a beautiful face was apathetic towards you, that it was uninterested in you, would you not want to be acknowledged by it? Would you not want it to notice you, so that you could fully see and surrender to its beauty? If this was the case, then when the river asks for a kiss, then the speaker was much more interested in obliging to the river than truly wanting to die. Maybe all the speaker wanted was a kiss, maybe in his life he felt sad and alone. Touch deprivation can truly send someone spiraling into depression fairly quickly.
Something that I didn't bring up in class, but I read elsewhere, was that wanting to die, wanting to not be alive, and wanting to kill oneself are very different feelings. I don't think the speaker wanted to die, nor do I think the speaker wanted to kill himself. I feel like, in these situations, the person would be much more tense. If someone wanted to die or kill themselves, I feel like they would not put so much emphasis on the river wanting a kiss.
Our speaker must've finally found peace by being able to kiss the river and not be alive anymore. Kisses in literature are often seen as signs of love, obviously, but also hope. In his last moments, maybe the speaker was hopeful that this would end his sorrows? There is also the fact that in literature, rivers are also used as metaphors for the passing of time, that time is free, like the water (I thought this was important to add, because the speaker could have easily jumped into a pond or lake with the same results, why was a river chosen?), and death is the abrupt stopping of time. In this sense, perhaps the speaker hopes that he will become immortal? Or maybe, that he will become an icon, that people will remember him?
These are some thoughts I had when reading through the poem. Its a poem I'd like to share with more people, if possible, because it has a much deeper meaning in it than one can see at a first glance.
For those in 3rd period who are just looking for something to comment on, my poem was the short yet intense "Suicide's Note" by Langston Hughes:
The calm,
Cool face of the river
Asked me for a kiss.I remember just flipping through the Anthology looking for a poem to talk about and this one caught my eye pretty quickly. It was short but from the get-go I noticed that it could totally have a much deeper meaning than just someone diving into a river.
Here was my thought process: firstly, its Suicide's Note, not The Suicide note or simply 'Suicide note'. So was it suicide personified that was speaking? Honestly, I rolled that in my head for a bit, but it never really seemed to stick very well. Its not like the suicide itself could have thoughts, and a suicide can't commit suicide. I ended up just thinking about the speaker as the person who committed suicide, talking to us from the grave, kind of explaining his actions. As someone brought up in class, the suicide was a very immediate and swift decision, or at least it seemed to be. Mr. Mitchell brought up the point of narcissism, that its like at the moment, the speaker wasn't really thinking about anyone else other than himself and the river. It was like if nothing could stop him from wanting to 'kiss' the river.
Narcissus would always look into the water and see his own reflection right? This is where I got the idea that perhaps the reader too looked into the river and saw his reflection. Given the tone of the poem, which seems very relaxed, I can assume that the speaker's face was calm and 'cool'. Perhaps yes, the speaker wanted to give himself a kiss, in which case, his own narcissism was the cause of his death, and I can't really say I feel bad for the speaker.
But then there's another definition of a 'cool' face that I talked about in my poetry talk as well. A 'cool face' could also refer to an unfriendly, an apathetic face.
Rivers are beautiful.
You know it, I know it.
Well, at least the non-polluted ones are.
If you felt like something with a beautiful face was apathetic towards you, that it was uninterested in you, would you not want to be acknowledged by it? Would you not want it to notice you, so that you could fully see and surrender to its beauty? If this was the case, then when the river asks for a kiss, then the speaker was much more interested in obliging to the river than truly wanting to die. Maybe all the speaker wanted was a kiss, maybe in his life he felt sad and alone. Touch deprivation can truly send someone spiraling into depression fairly quickly.
Something that I didn't bring up in class, but I read elsewhere, was that wanting to die, wanting to not be alive, and wanting to kill oneself are very different feelings. I don't think the speaker wanted to die, nor do I think the speaker wanted to kill himself. I feel like, in these situations, the person would be much more tense. If someone wanted to die or kill themselves, I feel like they would not put so much emphasis on the river wanting a kiss.
Our speaker must've finally found peace by being able to kiss the river and not be alive anymore. Kisses in literature are often seen as signs of love, obviously, but also hope. In his last moments, maybe the speaker was hopeful that this would end his sorrows? There is also the fact that in literature, rivers are also used as metaphors for the passing of time, that time is free, like the water (I thought this was important to add, because the speaker could have easily jumped into a pond or lake with the same results, why was a river chosen?), and death is the abrupt stopping of time. In this sense, perhaps the speaker hopes that he will become immortal? Or maybe, that he will become an icon, that people will remember him?
These are some thoughts I had when reading through the poem. Its a poem I'd like to share with more people, if possible, because it has a much deeper meaning in it than one can see at a first glance.
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