Bastard out of Carolina

This novel by Dorothy Allison definately was interesting enough to keep my interest, as i anticipated what would happen turning each page, but that may also be because of how grossly distrurbing the novel is. Every time I flipped the page I was unsatisfied with any of the situations because I just wanted to reach out and help Bone. This is another example of a female author raising eyebrows with the topic of masculinity in the old South. These men all seem to be lazy, alcoholic, stupid, sex crazy men who cannot keep a job. These details may be exaggerated slightly but they set up the story line on many popular stories of the time. One part of the story that boggles my mind is why Daddy Glen resorted to sexual abuse with Bone. Wasn't degrading her emotionally, mentally, and physically enough? I can only assume it is because he had no strong male figure to show him how to treat women, or maybe it is to show his power over Bone the way his brothers seemed to show their power over him because of their higher status in life. This may also add to why he chose to sexually abuses her, because coming from a family of successful men, Glen couldn't make enough money to feed his family, and rarely kept a job. He cared entirely too much about what other people thought of him, and was always trying to impress others. In a way his weakness reminds me of Stanley. They are both male figures with much control over the people they love, who are feared by their friends and others in town, and who resort to raping helpless women to still make them feel more powerful. I think a major part of his relationship with Anney is their sex life, as it seems to be the last thing holding them together. Even after Anney sees what he has done to Bone, Bone later wakes up to find them fighting and then having sex to make up. That should have been the last of her concerns, or at least behind the safety of her children. It seems as though Glen is jealous that much of Anneys attention is on her children rather than on him. This lead him to act out against the children, a very immature thing for a grown male to do, more something a toddler would do in search of attention whether good or bad. In this story Anney reminds me of Stella, she is struggling between her abusive husband who is hurting her children, or her children, who she gave birth to and is responsible for indefinately. With having her mother pretend that nothing is wrong Bone is left with no one to turn to. She doesnt know her birth father, and is constantly bounced around between relatives. It seems like her aunts are the ones who teach her more than her own mother. This leads her to become isolated, especially after the sexual abuse. After that kind of childhood who could blame her. At this point I cannot wait to finish the book and find out what happens in the whole situation. Will Anney realize what harm she is inflicting on her children? Or will Daddy Glen win?

Movie comparison

In some cases it is better to watch a movie to get a sense of the character rather than trying to imagine in your head what this person would be like. The "A Streetcar Named Desire" play was not one of these situations. Last week my blog focused on Blanche because she interested me, but in the case of the movie I would much rather stick to how I had imagined her. In the movie she was just over the top crazy from the beginning and it was rather annoying. Her drastic moments speaking to Stella in the beginning when she freaked out were just over the top, as were most of her actions throughout the entire play. I mean I know she was supposed to be crazy but in the story it all built up until she completely went nuts, throughout the movie she was just obnoxiously crazy at all moments. Stanley is another character I guess I was kind of annoyed with. In a way I think that the director was mocking males through Stanley, which is kind of weird because at that time there are not many pieces mocking men because they were still "superior" riiiight. He seemed more of a look-at-me-I'm-the-boss-and-wear-small-shirts. The way that he treated both of the girls just disgusted me and seeing it made it that much worse. I think that the director was trying to show that there can be 2 different ways that men act. There is Stanley when he is in power and happy and then Stanley when he is stripped of his power and is more sensitive. His power is lost basically as he loses his self control. When Stanley resorts to hitting his wife, fighting with his poker friends, and even raping his wife's sister yet after all of these people leave Stanley is alone and crying. Well that is until he goes on to screaming in the street for Stella to come back, and when she returns he returns to power. I think his biggest thing is he likes to have Stella there as his wife but more so a sexual object and a weaker person to boss around. The situation of having two different personalities is also evident in women in this movie, basically so in Blanche. While she is always crazy, there is the Blanche who looks for pity and attention, then the next minute she is trying to seduce a young boy to prove to herself that someone wants to look at her. It is funny how much more you can see about a character by watching their actions rather than reading them on paper. I think this story tells much about desire and wanting. The people in this story all want someone to rely on, or someone who they feel can help save them from themselves. I guess sometimes everyone needs to be saved from themselves, but in this situation Stanley and Blanche both appear to need too much saving.

A Streetcar Named Desire

Having already read this play in high school made it easier this time around to get a better idea of themes in the story that I couldn't see before. When reading a play it is harder to get an idea of the characters solely through reading and stage directions, when you can see a character physically it is easier to get an understanding of their exact personality. The character that most interested me in this play was Blanche. She has a mystery about her that makes me want to know more about her. In the beginning she comes in like a true southern belle, all dolled up in expensive white clothing, and is compared to a moth. As the play passes she becomes increasingly less southern belle like. While she continues to say she doesnt touch alcohol you realize throughout the story that she has a dependency on it, as she hides it in the closet and even sips it in the bathtub. Another mysterious way about her is the way in which she hides from a naked light bulb. With a cover over the light she seems more delicate and you cannot tell her true age, which is something she often lies about. When there is a naked lightbulb she is exposed, and it is like you can see right through the thin disguise she is wearing. I think you can really see the downfall of Blanche and all her lies when Mitch rips off the cover to the light and she is exposed. At that moment Mitch reveals all of the lies he knows Blanche has told. From this point of the story life only gets worse for Blanche, and while in a way she brought it upon herself by lying all the time, I could not help but feel bad for her. If she hadn't been left to hold down Belle Reve by herself would she still have the same problems? If Stanley was not with Stella would her relationship with Blanche be different? I hope that had the situations been different Blanche would not have ended up such a mess, but her downfall in the play was inevitable. If I was in Blanche's shoes I'm not sure how much longer I could have kept up the front of being perfect and happy.

The Grave

Katherine Anne Porter's "The Grave" is a story of childhood innocence that many people can relate to. In this story Miranda seems to be the main character, even though it is told from a third person point of view, you can see that she was the person being followed. This story starts off telling the story of a woman who moved her husbands dead body around to different cemeteries while she tried to find a place where she herself would like to settle after death. After her death in Texas her land is sold which moves her husband yet again next to her in a public cemetery. When her grandchildren, Miranda and Paul are out hunting they stumble across the empty graves of the past.

Inside these graves they find "treasures" that fascinate them. Paul takes from Miranda a dove shaped coffin screw, which he declares as being rare. Paul gives Miranda a gold ring that he had found. Being a girl who is always scolded for wearing overalls rather than dresses at some points, she finds joy in the ring. The ring makes her want to put on a nice dress with a sash and sit under a tree in a wicker chair. The ring represents a kind of lifestyle to Miranda that she knows is out of reach, since her father was shorted on the family will and her mother has passed away.

Miranda is too distracted by the presence of the gold ring on her finger to continue hunting, and Paul kills a rabbit he finds to have babies in her stomach. He puts the babies back inside the dead mother and hides it in a bush, making Miranda promise to never tell of what happened. Miranda keeps her promise, and one day enters a market street where suddenly all of these memories are brought back to her of the day her and her brother were still youths looking for adventure. But what sticks out most is the way her brother turned the silver dove over in his hand.

I think that the purpose of this story is to show how much meaning a small thing can have to a child, and how childhood memories of innocence are most clear in times of excitement. Miranda and Paul were excited to have found such simple things from the past in a hole in the dirt where their grandfather had once been burried. Porter shows in this story that no matter where your station is in life you can find small things to make you happy. While Miranda is happy with a gold ring that makes her seem more girly than what she would prefer to be seen as, she is excited and wants to look pretty and enjoy being a girl. Enjoying the smaller findings in life is something that everyone should take the time to do, no matter how busy your days are.

Dry September - William Faulkner

In this story Hawk is a barber in a presumably small southern town. While working one day Hawk faces an inner struggle that many of us have faced at one point in our lives. A black man is going to be murdered for an attack on a local unmarried older woman, Miss Minnie Cooper. The black man, Will Mayes, is accused of these acts but something in Hawk tells him that Will Mayes is innocent. When he starts to tell the customers in his shop of this they get enraged, even going far enough to call Hawk a "niggerlover". Because of this Hawk must make an important decision. Does he speak up about what he thinks is right only to be ridiculed, or does he let them go on and murder a man who he believes is innocent, solely because the color of his skin.

There may be a few reasons why Hawk did not speak up and save the mans life. At one point everyone is put in a situation where they must choose between what is right to you, and what is right to everyone else. It is always easiest to just go along with the majority, especially in a situation where your loyalty to a certain group of people is being questioned. In speaking up he only angered his customers, which is never good in the past as being a business person in a small town. Your whole career is based on reputation and when this story was written in the south the last thing a white man wanted to be called was a "niggerlover". So Hawk goes along with everyone, all the while knowing it is wrong.

Being from a small town where politics is everything it is understandable why he didnt want to risk his job, maybe even his life if things got to serious to save another man. Of course in no way does this make it alright that he didnt speak up, because its better to speak your mind than whats on the mind of others. This story made me think of many situations where I was forced to choose. Looking back I realize that I did not always make the right decisions, and often went along with the crowd. Faulkner made me realize how much of a struggle it is, in the past and today, to speak your mind while going against a crowd.

In the end Will Mayes ends up being lynched like many black people in the south without a fair trial like one a white man would receive. Which disgusts me in the end of the story when the men responsible for his death make it obvious that they were on Hawks side as well. The story says " Shhh! Shhhh! they said, freshening the icepack, smoothing her hair, examining it for gray, 'poor girl!' Then to one another: 'Do you suppose anything really happened?' Their eyes darkly aglitter, secret, and passionate. 'Shhhhhh! Poor girl! Poor Minnie!'"Basically in the end you realize that the men killed Mayes solely for the reason that he was a black man being accused of a crime, they didn't care if he was innocent, as they all figured he was. This is just another example of the fact that not all things in life are fair.

At the 'Cadian Ball *

At the Cadian Ball was my favorite of the readings this week from Kate Chopin. Her stories were shorter than most of the ones we have been reading, so it kept my mind from wandering during the reading. At the Cadian ball is a story that sets up the scene for its sequel "The Storm". In this story they are setting up the scene for what will in the next story become two different marriages. When Alcee leaves to attend the ball his cousin Clarisse asks his slave where he went, and when he tells her that he left and probably will not be returning for a few weeks she panics. Meanwhile he is at the ball trying to convince the object of many mens affection Calixta to go back to the Assumption with him. While they are talking a black man interrupts to tell Alcee that someone needs to speak with him but they laugh it off until Clarisse appears. She tells him something has happened and he needs to go back, which sets the stage for Bobinot to enter and talk to the object of his affection Calixta. When Alcee and Clarisse return Alcee realizes that Clarisse is in love with him and wanted to avoid losing him for weeks, at the same time Calixta promises marriage to Bobinot. Both of these situations will later lead to unhappy marriages, in which is seems Alcee and Calixta are in just to avoid the situation of getting out.

I liked the way that Kate Chopin set up the scenes so that it is as if you can picture the ball they were at. Like something out of a movie about the Disney princesses. Her description was really good and kept me interested throughout the whole story. I think that her portrayal of Calixta was a way of putting herself into a story. While she may not have been as bold and sexual as Calixta I think that it portrays her opinion on how a woman should be. Calixta knows exactly what she wants, and realizes that Bobinot is lucky to have her, and makes that evident to him and anyone who reads Chopin's story. After reading the pieces by Chopin I think I would like to read more of her work to see if there is a similiar portrayal of strong women characters.