Sethe's Love

One of the central events in Beloved that is constantly referred to throughout the novel is the murder of Beloved herself. This death at the hands of Sethe is the source for many passages that give readers a look in to the traits and feelings of many different characters and their interactions with each other. In the narration of the murder, schoolteacher along with some others find Sethe in the shed with the children in terrible condition around her. Howard and Buglar are bleeding nearby, Sethe has just cut her daughter’s throat, and she is about to inflict more damage on Denver. Stamp Paid interfered before it was really all too late, but the murder of one baby daughter had been committed. A while later, when Sethe gives her own account, she includes a bit in her tragic story of when she realized her children would be called for slavery. She claims that she was overwhelmed, so she went forward with her violent action. The decision she makes is portrayed as entirely out of love and a heart of protection, no malice included. Basically, Sethe wants to go forward with the ultimate wrong of taking away their lives so that they don’t have to go through the same slavery life that she dreads.

The reason why Sethe’s position as a mother allows for her to try to go so far as to take away the life of her children is because the past of slavery is so real and present in her feelings. There is a consistent theme of events never dying in the novel, and so the painful memories of slavery unfortunately strongly stick to Sethe. As a result, she is overwhelmed with the reality and there is a backlash in her actions. Overall, she does her very best to avoid thinking about the slavery days and the harsh times. Although it is a real struggle, she attempts to avoid traumatic experiences of the past at all costs. Due to this extreme reaction to the ongoing nature of slavery memories, when Sethe meets the older Beloved from out of the river she fails to recognize her as the reincarnation of her baby. Morrison makes the signs that they are connected so blatant, and so the failure of Sethe to connect just shows how much she has trained herself to forget the unforgettable past. In the text, Beloved is described as having extremely smooth baby skin and a strong tie to the water. And of all people, it would make sense for Sethe to connect to Beloved right off the bat, instead, she has blinded herself and is really unable to see even the clearest of hints. The other few people in the house take note of Beloved, but Sethe is just oblivious to it all. The influence of a story are evident in the moment that Sethe actually recites her version to Paul D, as the story envelops her and she describes it as if she were there again. Morrison continuously pushes the theme of undying events, and the storytelling of Sethe is one tool that is available for her to accomplish this goal.

Because she makes such an extreme decision to express her love, Paul D actually backs out from his relationship with Sethe. While most readers of Beloved feel a certain level of sympathy for her, these feelings are absent in Paul D and he initiates a dry, harsh split between them, breaking their long relationship because of the story rather than approaching Sethe by considering her side. He observes that she loves too much and that it seems like she forgets that she has “two feet…not four.” He means to say that her love is animalistic and that is primitive. Additionally, it carries the implication that Sethe does not know how to restrain herself. Paul D is so adamant in his belief that Sethe is not wise and worthy any longer that he leaves the household entirely. There is actually another character in the book that expresses some of Paul D’s sentiments. This figure is Ella. The two women meet each other through Stamp Paid, since Ella and Stamp Paid work together in the Underground Railroad and are connected in helping Sethe. It does not take too long for Ella to notice the way Sethe is glued to Denver, and she kind of resents that behavior. In her mind, she feels that Sethe goes too far in loving her children. In the end Paul D and Ella both tend to distance themselves from Sethe.

The reaction that Sethe receives opens up questions on why she gets such a cold response when sharing her sad story. Both Ella and Paul D have experienced a lot in the realm of slavery as well, so it makes sense that they have no patience for emotions being spent over matters related to slavery. Basically Sethe takes one option of becoming intense in her love because the slavery deprived her of love, and Paul D and Ella are oddly restrained because they are trying their best to forget slavery. The two parties take two entirely different paths for a shared interest: to forget the cruelty of slavery. Once they align near each other, it is natural that they clash and cause relationships to break. The fact that the way in which the characters want to deal with their memories influences them to their present days is testament to the undying aspect in experiences. 

Gang Life

One of the most hyperbolic and captivating depictions Beatty makes in The White Boy Shuffle is of gang life in Hillside. As soon as Gunnar moves to his neighborhood, the first impression he gets of the place has to do with gang activity. The LAPD check if he is affiliated with any group right off the bat, so it is obviously part of the core that makes Hillside what it is. A large part of the reason why gang life is so interesting in the novel is simply because of the hilarity Beatty adds in portraying it. Obscure names are used, the gang Gunnar gets involved in is the “Gun Totin’ Hooligans” for example, not what you would normally expect a gang to be called. And the two thugs that introduce themselves while strolling into class during Gunnar’s first day of school stick to the titles of “Hope-to-Die Ranford a.k.a. Pythagoras” and “Velma the Ludicrous Mistress Triple Bitch of Mischief Vinson.” The actions of the gangs, at least the Gun Totin’ Hooligans (which is Beatty’s main focus), are pretty comical as well. The first look that Gunnar gets of the Gun Totin’ Hooligans is from his tent hide out in the department store, and it is quite a scene. As the rest of the gang members casually loot the store, one guy is taking practice shots with the bow and arrow using the mannequins for targets – not the usual gang activity (or gear). Furthermore, we see that the Gun Totin' Hooligans can’t really perform any violent tasks, partly because of their outdated weaponry tied down by questionable tradition, and they rely entirely on Psycho Loco. They don’t really function as a gang if you think about it, and they even have a poet in residence: Gunnar. So really, based on the picture Beatty gives us, it is tough to really take the gangs seriously. Through exaggeration of names, actions, associations, he is drawing out a definite element of silliness.

All that being said, I don’t think that Beatty is writing out a pointless silliness – there are definitely layers of messages that come along with his portrayal. Beatty is stripping away the veil of toughness that gang members raise for themselves and that the general public assumes of gang members, and he is bringing their identities to the most basic level. He is taking all of the image away, and boiling the matter down to its definitive state. By critiquing gangs under such an exposing light, Beatty shows that the killings and violent situations are all silly, and that there is no substance to them (not unimportant, just pointless and irrational). A prime scene in the novel that brings this idea out is the time when Pumpkin dies. His death comes out of the blue, a surprise to everyone, and there is really no good reason as to why he passes. While Psycho Loco and Pumpkin are robbing a Korean owned store, Psycho Loco shoots a warning shot, and a chain of events somehow suffocate Pumpkin. Basically, the death is an accident. Killed by his own partner in crime, Pumpkin’s death is so random and not glorious that it fully magnifies Beatty’s theme of irrationality in gang violence. People really die – a real blow to any relations of the victim – and it’s all from pointless fights made by gangs, a tragic reality.

Even though there is no apparent good in the gang life that Beatty portrays, it would be a mistake to miss out on the other half of gang significance he alludes to. The gang is a community for people who need a community. In the Gun Totin’ Hooligans for instance, Psycho Loco leads the daily charge, but there are a bunch of other faces in the mix tagging along for the ride. Really they do nothing – if Psycho Loco were removed they would just be a group of nearly randomly assembled teens – but the very fact that they are together is what is important. All the young guys are in it just for the sake bonding and finding a second home where they can connect with peers. It is integral to their lives in Hillside, and Gunnar is a good case in showing how connected and important the gangs are. Coming from Santa Monica, he is pretty soft to start off with, but he eventually is fit into the Gun Totin’ Hooligans, even if he plays a unique role, and gang life in general – anybody and everybody finds a place in the system. Early on in the novel, a passage discussed how Gunnar hated the Cub Scout that he was a part of, but the interaction he has with his gang sharply contrasts that, and this outlines the difference between superficial and pure bonding. Due to the silly way that Beatty illustrates gang activity throughout the novel, the question of whether or not there is a “purpose” to gangs is raised, and I think that the answer to that would be that while there is no end purpose (in violence) there is still a comfort and brotherly connection for the members that is worth noting and valuing.

To elaborate on the vital inner connection of gangs Beatty seems to point out, I think the scene in which the Gun Totin’ Hooligans decide to take on the Ghost Town gangsters in unparalleled fashion is especially relevant. This scene is one of the most memorable and fresh in my mind, because it captures the spirit of bonding so well. In an effort to take out their enemies, the gang cross dresses and then heads over to the cluster of bungalows that the Ghost Town gangsters hang around. After the launch of arrows and balloons has been made, the Gun Totin’ Hooligans wrap up their raid and head out. On the car ride back to their own neighborhood, they have a real celebration by blasting opera music really loud. Gunnar “noticed none of the boys bothered to remove their wigs or makeup” and decided to hit “the high notes with the rest of the fellows.” This moment is so surreal in that it breaks every image someone might have of gang life -- the music, apparel, and activity. In their celebration, they don’t care what they look like and really just feel the joy of life in the company of each other. Through Gunnar’s eyes we can see that he really feels at home and is able to fully embrace the moment too.
Beatty’s cartoonish way of presenting gang life is a successful commentary on the aimless reckless nature of violence and importance of brotherhood in gang life. 

Free Puppet

A really cool part of Gunnar’s development in my opinion is the way he has turned into someone that is insane. Not crazy insane, but mature and in-his-own-world insane. There is a lot of evidence in his letter to Yoshiko fairly late in the novel that shows how he is really just doing his own thing, not giving a care as to what people think of him or what he should be doing. First off, he is writing the entire letter during half-time, when he is probably supposed to be invested in the game against Cornell. Coach Palomino is foaming over how bad the team is playing, yet Gunnar is laid back through it all, not showing any interest in the game. When coach slaps a player named Isaac Gottlieb for missing a layup during warmups, Gunnar just thinks/writes, “oh shit.” There is no sense of exclamation, no emotion, he is just an indifferent observer. At the same time, Gunnar expresses that he fully capable of crossing the line if he chooses, and he seems to have fun with it. When the national anthem plays before the game he refuses to stand, and when reporters approach him because of this he eventually gets to a point where he equates America with Satan. He knows that he is being completely random, and he feels perfectly comfortable acting in that way.

While Gunnar exhibits a large amount of freedom in his thoughts, words, and actions, Scoby is a little different as the novel progresses. When we first meet him in the novel, he is the epitome of coolness. Lost in his own world of music and always doing his own thing, Nick Scoby is someone to admire. However, he is deeply negatively influenced by the pressures of public expectation. At first, he was able to play basketball or explore in his own music genres on his own or with community friends, but the transition to a public display of his perfection is uncomfortable to him. In the letter, Gunnar requests for Yoshiko to find a counselor for Scoby because he is going “insane.” This is a different kind of insane than the one I label Gunnar with, because it has darker connotation. Scoby is cracking under pressure, and Gunnar analyzes that the reason for this is that Scoby is continuously trying to find a “pair of scissors” to cut the “strings.” This is an allusion to the puppeteer strings illustrated in Invisible Man, where strings represent the everlasting hold white people have on minorities, namely black people. So the problem is that Nick has turned into someone that is trying too hard, and its damaging him. He is trying to free himself from the hold of the strings and then be his own person. However, to be your own person, Beatty is saying you just have to get over the fact that there are strings in the first place, unfortunately Scoby can't face this reality.

Gunnar is able to thrive because he knows how to deal with the strings. While Scoby struggles to snip them away, Gunnar just flat out accepts them. He admits to being attached, and he can only see the string if his eyes fight the fog of his own spirit of freedom. Once Gunnar is in the mature state of accepting reality, he can then take a step back and do whatever he wants. That is why he is able to  do stuff like calmy contemplate whether or not a free-throw is worth it at the height of an important game, get ink all over the basketball (and therefore other people’s uniforms!) during the Cornell game, etc. Gunnar feels his freedom because he understands that the strings are not cut, and he dances. But he doesn’t dance with the pupetteer, he creates his own rhythm and just lets himself go. He is purely insane. 

Creative Writing 104

The whole experience Gunnar has with Boston University is really quite interesting. Specifically, the way Beatty handles Gunnar's interactions with his peers in the Creative Writing 104 course is particularly crucial. Right away, we see that the people in his class are sort of out of touch -- each in their own way, the other students are pretty extreme and odd. The first person to introduce themselves to the class is Peyote Chandler, who is absolutely obsessed with Sylvia Path and tried to kill herself by sticking her head in the oven. Next is chubby Chadwick Osterdorf III, who finds true poetry solely in Rimbaud. And then there is Negritude, who tries to sincerely devote herself to honoring African culture but severely fails. I see an interesting dynamic of how Beatty clumps them all together and juxtaposes them against Gunnar. It all starts with the introductions that are made. Within each personal presentation, Gunnar, the “boisterous black kid,” constantly interrupts. He is the sole nuisance to the class, and his voice is heard loud and clear by everyone. In combination with the absurdity of the other students, it seems like they are a jumbled mess of white people while Gunnar stands apart as the individual black student. To add on to that, when he finally reveals who he is, they all jump on him verbally due to his success in poetry. This change of pace creates a very two-sided connection, with all the other students lending their attention and Gunnar receiving it. Throughout the class period he is clearly in control, and the others are on a different level than him, they are worthy of being warded off.

Because all the other students and the professor are white and they have an exaggerated amount of praise for Gunnar, the whole concept of minstrelsy comes up here in my opinion. His poetry becomes something of their superficial pleasures, and more value is put into the fact that he is a black poet who has found success than the content of his work. This idea was previously made pretty clear in Gunnar’s other art of life: basketball. During the pickup games in the park and within the moment that he amazingly discovers that he can dunk with impressive ease, there is a real organic quality to basketball. It is played for simple enjoyment and fun, and no one has any hesitation when stepping onto the court. After landing a spot on the school team, a whole new world confronts Gunnar (and Scoby). He doesn’t feel the same rhythm that he did in the park, and he doesn’t feel the energy of the game itself to the same extent. With the traits of his BU writing class in place, Gunnar seems to also go through the same thing for poetry. Like basketball, there is an organic start. He scrawls poetry on walls and people from his neighborhood stop to read and admire it. There is a certain amount of street cred that he gains, and it is all part of a natural balance of respect. As a poet for the Gun Totin’ Hooligans, Gunnar has a chill role and reputation, but once he gets to Boston, it’s a whole new story. Once again, white crowds smother him with unwanted unnatural attention. With the addition of a book, his poetry is taken from off the walls of LA and put into a very “official” form. Gunnar’s poetry is at one point in the conversation and not just for the presentation, but it takes on an unfortunate transformation for him personally.

The classroom scene starts to get really weird once Gunnar’s peers and professor start chasing him around, there is no way that this sort of thing would happen in reality. Beatty does this intentionally, however, to push the idea of the white person obsessed over a performer. The way Gunnar’s professor characterizes him when he first realizes that he is the great black poet sets up this vibe. Dr. Edelstein excitedly shoots out of his seat and then awkwardly recites one of Gunnar’s poems on the spot, and he is in a frenzy all because “his performer” is in the room with him. Since there is so much insanity in how the white people look past Gunnar as a human, and just seem him as a guy who produces poetry for them, he reacts in an way of desperation -- standing in the school yard, he rips off all his clothes. I interpret this as an opposite reaction to the muddled crazy action of the white people, and he does this by trying to let out his feelings and emotion. The very depiction of the clothes supports this, as they go up in a whirlwind into the air and then fall to the ground. With the same structure, personal expression bursts from Gunnar, and then dies down just as quick. Immediately following this explosion, the white students scurry around trying to collect what they can, trying to obtain his clothes like little prizes. It is pretty dehumanizing that Gunnar just made this shocking move and then all they do is look right past him and see what part of him they can keep for themselves – his clothes.

The statement that Dr. Edelstein makes when trying to defend Gunnar and his nakedness from the cops is what sums all of this up quite nicely. Upon confrontation, Gunnar is backed by his professor who exclaims, “It’s okay, he’s a poet. Matter of fact, the best black…the best poet writing today.” The narrator then adds that he “…had permission to act crazy.” At this point it is quite obvious that on the inside the white people label Gunnar as black, and that they also want him to just perform for them. Beatty has created a wide gap between Gunnar and the other people in the BU writing section which leads to yet another scene that demonstrates the minstrel dynamic. 

The Logan Question

There can be a lot of different opinions about what Janie should have done regarding her relationship with Logan in Their Eyes Were Watching God. It all started because her grandmother, Nanny, who wanted the best for her, but in the end Janie doesn't stick with him, utilizing her own skills of judgment. It is understandable that Nanny wanted Janie to have a husband like Logan in the first place, he is stable and wealthy. This sort of future would be favorable, and Nanny is so adamant about securing the future because she has a bad history herself. When she was still in slavery, she was raped by her master and then chastised and beaten for "her actions" by the master's wife. She had no say or free will in the happenings, and it boiled down to just a pretty miserable life for a while. In her direction of caring for Janie, she doesn't want spoiled history to be repeated, so it is for good reason that she insists Logan becoming a part of the family. 

Even though I do trust in the judgement of Nanny, I also have a sympathetic side towards Janie and her choices. She is obviously just getting her bearings on life as a developing young woman, so I think it is actually healthy for her to find independence in what she does. The downside is that she just doesn't have the wealth in experience that Nanny has to make her choices. What I find admirable in Janie is that she is slightly aware of this fact. On the outside, she really wants to go forward and do anything and everything, but she is not ignorant. She has the sense to give Nanny's opinions a thought, so she successfully finds a balance in her actions. On one hand, she goes forward and kisses Johnny Taylor -- a moment when she got to experiment with the pleasures she wanted; yet on the other hand, when Nanny scolds her for what she has done, there is not a trace of resentment. Superficially she has the attitude of wanting to do whatever, but the narrator does reveal that the kiss had been reduce to the feeling of a "manure pile after a rain." This admission is key, because it shows readers that she is not rash in her sexual exploration, she is purely trying to find what is ideal and true to her love. If Nanny says that something is wrong, she takes some real consideration as to whether or not that could be right, and in the case of the kiss, she almost agrees. 

An even stronger case of how Janie is open-minded to Nanny even if she doesn't always follow through in action, and why I find her a favorable character, is the way she deals with the Logan question itself. From the start, Janie never wants to be with Logan, but somehow, the marriage goes through. How could Janie approve (even if it is only partial approval)? She puts an honest and hopeful faith into the future and that it will work out. She hates Logan in every way -- his appearance and demeanor -- but she finds a way to try things out. The narrator of TEWWG points out that she thought that in the end she would find love. To me, that kind of love experiment is just plain risky. But the point is, she trust what her grandmother says and attempts the new life. Not too long after, we find out that she feels that finding love will be impossible, the reason why she ultimately leaves Logan, but there should be a certain amount of respect for the amount that she tried to make things work by obeying Nanny originally, no matter how reluctant she was. 

After spending a little time with Logan, Janie moves on to marry Jody right away, a mercurial quality that sends a lot of criticism her way. The way I see things, it is pretty sad how the direction of her life turns towards disappointment with Jody once she marries him. Some may say that she deserved the hardships and such for not fully listening to Nanny, but to this I have to disagree. It is not a deserved fate for her, just a necessary one. What I mean is that this is where the aspect of her individuality comes into play. To fully realize her own identity, she had to make her own choices. And remember, she wan't making moves on the whim, she tried Nanny's way first. The strong independent spirit of Janie is only put into a real context if the reader considers her nature of obedience as well. It is appropriate for Janie to have thoughts about the pear tree, and finding a love and life that suits her best is a search she has the right to take. 

In the end (after Jody is gone), Janie is finally able to let down her hair and express herself with her braid. But to get to this stage, she first learned the hard way what the realities of life are by living with the constantly worsening Jody. She made her decision, and faced consequences for it, but all after making an obedient move. So another question that arises is whether or not the original decision to marry Logan and live her life with him would have saved her trouble anyways. As their marriage progressed, he starting making her work more and more. That experience alludes to a not so easy life that may not have been that different from the arguments she had to endure with Jody. The key difference between the two situations is that one was made out of an independent decision, a healthy move that allowed her to actually develop. The themes of experienced wisdom and youthful curiosity contrast sharply and expose the ways Janie develops as a strong woman through a chain of experience in love. 

An Additional Perspective

I thought that viewing the documentary on Ralph Ellison was extremely valuable. It gave more insight into what type of a person he was, and how that influenced his work. First off, I saw a lot of how his childhood and upbringing influenced him to be a writer at all. The documentary stated that he had a “painful childhood” which was caused by race issues, as expected. His parents made a conscious effort to keep that to a minimum by not residing in the deep south of Alabama or the sort, but avoiding racial issues, of course, was nearly impossible no matter what. Though his mother taught him to live with his chin up in any circumstance, and to be an ambitious young man looking for the bright side in every situation. Furthermore, his mother had to be independent and really strong herself, because Ellison’s dad died when he was young. When his dad was alive, he did express that he wanted Ellison to be a poet, so in a sense he did get his wish. So the combination of his dad’s vision for Ellison’s future, and the drive to be a great person instilled in him by his mother led Ellison to become ambitious indeed. A thought comes to my mind when I think of how Ellison lived a troubled childhood and then went on to become a successful novelist – there is a recurring theme of successful people having rough upbringings. The theory is that a hard life early on creates a drive to bounce back and prove you worth and value as a person. And there are many great examples to support this idea: Albert Einstein, Jim Carrey, Adolf Hitler, Stephen Colbert and countless others. Raph Ellison may have had some of this as a part of his life, naturally learning to survive and excel in the world because of a rocky beginning. For him specifically, success meant to find an identity and express that journey through a voice in literature. He was focused in having a defined public voice to convey what he thought was important in the human experience. According to the documentary, this is the way he put it (with some of his buddies), “we pretended like segregation did not exist so that it could not limit our horizons.”

Since our introduction to Ralph Ellison and then the documentary in class was through Invisible Man, I was naturally thinking about what the connections were between Ellison’s personal life and the novel. It didn’t take long to recognize the numerous similarities that exist between him and the narrator. He actually has quite a bit in common, which make Invisible Man sort of autobiographical. In terms of plot and life storyline, there is a lot of overlap between the two men. As forward-thinking people, they both are granted scholarships to college, something that makes them ecstatic and encourages their growth as people. Once at college, a lot of exploring is done, but then at some point before they finish and graduate, they head off north. There, they work various jobs, wading their way through new environments and trying to find their place as African-Americans. Ellison definitely faced racism in the latter part of his life too. At least the documentary revealed one instance of these occurrences. The original university that Ellison was supposed to attend was Oklahoma University, however, race riots delayed his enrollment and eventually the scholarship he received sent him all the way to Tuskegee Institute. These similarities in life events align the two men in the readers mind, and it makes sense to then look at their goals and ideologies. Both attempt to find some sense of identity, and Ellison as a black writer reflects his own strides towards enlightenment by writing out the process in Invisible Man. As the novel progresses, he makes aware the idea that all people should look for their identity and place in their context. To do so, there is a particular attitude to adopt according to Ellison’s illustration throughout the book. This mindset is to not care what stereotypes people have and want to place on you. In transformations such as the pork chops and grits scene to the yam scene, the narrator rebels against the shying away from stereotypes. If he likes something, then he will eat it, and nobody can tell him who he is or what he can do. By the type of person the documentary made Ellison appear as, it seems like he himself lived by these concepts – a further connection to the narrator. Ellison wore clothes that differentiated him, and he called himself a “Negro” which set him apart. His actions and thoughts were defiant, showing that he was on a genuine life search for his own identity, not waiting for others to call him out the way they may have wanted.

Another aspect of the documentary that I found particularly fascinating was the look at other novels that Ellison worked on during his career and the practices he had with studying and copying Hemingway. Both of these parts of his life were interesting since they gave a broader picture of who he was as a person and writer. One of the mentioned novels that caught my attention was King of the Bingo Game. In this work, the main character struggles to find a way to help his sick family members, and finally attempts to do so through winning money by playing bingo. As the documentary points out, Ellison is playing with the metaphor that his life is based on chance, and so is the game, which determines what his life will be. This highly symbolic context is similar to the style of Ellison in Invisible Man where he has several scenes such as the battle royal and paint factory scenes in which symbolism is so straightforward and vivid. Another thought that came to my mind was the similarity of theme this novel has with Native Son, which pushes the idea that the fate of a black man is almost predetermined, but also fickle. The chance of bingo and Bigger just waiting for an accident/major crime to occur both critique the idea of injustice for African-Americans in society. A final ponderance I found from thinking over the novel about bingo is that the only source I had for reflecting on it other than a few lines of summary was the film version on screen. To me, the intensity and emotion in the protagonist was clear to me through the documentary’s portrayal, and this actually relates to the scenes done on Invisible Man in the film. I found that my imagination from reading the novel were freshened by the proposed depiction of Ellison’s text. For one, I appreciated the exaggerated quality of the grandfather. It was almost eerie, which is the feeling I got when reading his warning and also his involvement in the narrator’s dream. There was an accurate weight to his influential qualities. The narrator on the other hand I had a few qualms with. It seemed as if he was actually toned down too much. It would be good for scenes near the end when he is obviously further matured, but the problem is that a lot of the scenes are from earlier on. I suppose that the prologue was adequately acted out then, but places like the battle royal, I envisioned more of an eager naïveté that defines his character for much of the novel. So those were a bunch of thoughts stemming from what I thought about King of the Bingo Game, one of the many thought-provoking novels brought up in the film.

The documentary was something that I definitely thought added a lot to experiencing Invisible Man, and I look forward to viewing the film on Zora Neale Hurston and how that will inform my reflection on Their Eyes Were Watching God. 

Let the Eagle Fly

One of my favorite poems from our poetry reading days has been “America” by Henry Dumas. It really is short and sweet, compact with a lot of meaning to glean once reading it. This poem is inherently open to a lot of interpretation because of all the metaphorical language within, and so I thought I would chip in and give my personal thoughts surrounding the poem.

America  by Henry Dumas

If an eagle be imprisoned

On the back of a coin

And the coin is tossed into the sky,

That coin will spin,

That coin will flutter,

But the eagle will never fly.

Right off the bat, I want to lay down the metaphorical elements and their connections. I take the eagle to be the people of America, and the coin to be the nation itself. The eagle operates on two levels, because it is the people as a whole, and also the subset of people that are considered minorities – people that are oppressed in society. This dual possibility is available because the eagle is a patriotic symbol that generally is inclusive about all the people in our country, and the starting word “if” shows that a portion of these people are in not so good situations. And to be even pickier, Dumas specifically illustrates using “an eagle.” He does not say “the eagles,” he says “an eagle.” In other words, he makes it clear that we are one people, unified and identified as American all together.

The central metaphor of the poem is that of the coin representing the country as a whole. So the coin tossed into the air is, figuratively speaking, America going through time, thriving as a nation in some way. Dumas then brilliantly connects the already mentioned eagle, people of America, to this core metaphor that the poem revolves around. In the second to the last line, he uses the word “flutter” to describe the coin in motion. “That coin will spin, That coin will flutter.” In my mind, I usually associate the word flutter with a bird’s motion, not much else. So this interesting word choice is a move meant to transition the reader into thinking that the coin behaves like the bird. The coin is the bird. Dumas is saying that the people are the nation. One makes up the other, and concurrently is what defines it. By using the word flutter, he produces an eloquent and smooth transition that brings the message full circle, and lets the significance of the poem sink in. There is one eagle and one coin, and they are the same.

There are many angles Dumas could have taken, but he chose to use a coin to illustrate what he is trying to say. It is a powerful choice that makes a lot of sense if you consider that a coin tossed into the air always has an arc. There is time in which it flies up in the air, but then also one where it sails down to the ground. In the poem, all that is mentioned about the coin itself is that it is tossed into the air, the first half of its travels. So it is important to note that this is only the beginning of its travels; it is implied that this journey of the coin also has an end in which it will plummet to the ground. While he leaves the imagery of the coin open ended, he follows by saying that the eagle will never fly, once again going back to the idea that the coin and eagle are equivalent. And the reason why the eagle can’t fly is because it is imprisoned. These lines all culminate in the point that the nation can’t go on, it will plummet to the ground if the people who compose the nation, who are the nation, are restrained by oppression and imprisonment. America kills its own flight and trajectory through the air by imposing restraints on itself.

It is pretty justifiable to say that the people who are referred to as imprisoned in this poem are African-Americans. The word choice of “imprisoned” evokes connections in the readers mind of when black people were actually slaves, and so it puts a weight on the sense of hard times they have to go through because of America’s set up. Basically, the poem is a protest poem. It is pointing out the oppression in society, however, it doesn’t do it in a Native Son manner. In that novel, the whole technique was dependent on shocking scenes and plain exposure to how the country is messed up. Everywhere you look there is trouble and it is not right. In “America,” on the other hand, there is a comment on society, a strong comment, but still not a "complaint." There is no boiling anger present in the voice Dumas uses in sharp contrast to what can be seen with Wright at times. Rather, the attitude is very matter of fact, proclaiming that the ideas presented need to be accepted, but not in a noisy way. If anything, the poem is more related to Invisible Man, which appeals in an intellectual battle of protest. There is a challenge to society, but it is not quite as direct and emotional as Native Son. I am not saying that the poem doesn’t call for change, it definitely does, just in a milder yet arguably more effective way. All of this creates a poem that is purely a cool declaration of injustice intertwined with complex undertones. Speaking technically, I think the cause for this effect is partly the conciseness and brevity of the poem, but also the fact that it is an announcement and not a demand. Dumas pulls this off by starting “If an eagle...” almost like an introduction to a logical argument. There is an air of confidence that he is bringing a message into clearer definition.