Snow White

I decided to use Snow White as my fairy tale. This is obviously one of the more well known fairy tales and I really liked it when I was little. Snow White lives with seven little man dwarfs in a house in which she cleans and cooks for them and as we all know she eats a poison apple and finally her prince charming comes and kisses her and they live happily ever after. Seeing Snow White acting like she does in the movie it makes girls think that they are supposed to cook and clean for men, look like her and prince charming will always come to save them. In all honesty I think when I was little I only thought about the prince charming coming to save her. But now looking back at this, Snow White's evil stepmom or whatever wants to kill her because she is prettier than her, we see her cleaning and cooking for a bunch of men while acting like it's so much fun, and when she is at fault after eating the poison apple, the man has to come save her. I guess I never really thought about it this way, but seeing a woman acting like this probably had some affect on me and maybe on some level showed me the way women are "supposed to be."

Oh Transcendentalism

I decided to choose the following lines from "Nature" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. "The eye is the best of artists. By the mutual action of its structure and of the laws of light, perspective is produced, which integrates every mass of objects, of what character soever, into a well colored and shaded globe, so that where the particular objects are mean and unaffecting, the landscape which they compose, is round and symmetrical." I really like these lines because I think they are so true. The eye is the best artist and Emerson does a really good job of explaining why it is. After he says this he goes on to say that there is beauty even in a corpse. I think I like what he is saying here because I have never thought about it this way. I think he does a really good job of explaining how the eye sees things and how light affects how we see things. I think obviously reading anything that Emerson writes to understand it you have to read through it a couple of times, and I definitely had to here. But the line the eye is the best of artists jumped out at me immediately.

Frida Kahlo Painting

I am going to blog about one of Frida Kahlo's paintings. It is called "The two Fridas." I saw the movie when it came out a couple of years ago, and I have been really interested in Frida every since. And then today in morning meeting, the presentation had the painting that I would like to talk about. The painting where there are two Fridas, and they are holding hands. One is the indigenous Frida and one is the Spanish Frida. This painting really makes me think when I look at it. The Spanish Frida is more pale, and has on a very lacy dress, and the indigenous Frida has on the traditional clothing and has darker skin. During morning meeting one of the presenters said that Frida is torn on the inside between her two nationalities in a way. And I would completely agree, she is two nationalities and I think it would be very hard to feel so torn. We have talked about this in class before, what it is like to be biracial and/or multicultural. She is painting about something that I think a lot of people today are also feeling. I chose this painting because I just think it is so interesting, and I love the idea that she looked different then what society accepted with the unibrow, and she was constantly making a statement. I know a lot of people think her paintings are so weird. But I think that is partially why I like them so much. They are unusual but they were her outlet, she led a really painful life, and you can tell in her paintings.

Wright's realization

The end of the book kind of depressed me. Wright comes to a realization that humans will never be able to unify. It seems like when he comes to this realization, it severely depresses him. He also seems to think that life will never be as good for him in America as he thinks it should be. So he eventually expatriates himself to Paris. I think in a way Wright is correct. The human race may never be able to completely unify. I do not like to think about that, because it depresses me, but I do think it is true. I do not know if there will ever be a time when all races will be treated equally, or when people will not be discriminated against because of their religion or sexual orientation. I hope that someday this will be, but it seems that people are, as we have talked about before, inherently subjective. And if there continue to be people who have prejudices, then they will continue to be passed on.

Politicians vs. Artists

I think I'm going to have to agree with Wright and say that politicians and artists stand at opposite poles. In my personal opinion, artists and politicians are very different. I think artists see the world in a different way than politicians. I think this is a really hard blog because I feel like you cannot compare artists to politicians. When I think of an artist you think of someone who is creative, eccentric, descriptive etc. When I think of a politician I think of someone in a suit, who likes to be in the public eye, and is not necessarily a pleasant person. Politicians seem to be involved in a lot of deceit, and are powerloving. Artists are more true to themselves and do what they want. Politicians often get caught up in lies and as we have recently seen scandals. Artists are more carefree. I'm having a really hard time trying to make my point about this, because I think this is really hard to explain. But if I had to give an example of two completely opposite people it would be a politician and an artist. Although, I could see how some people could say that they were similar, maybe in creativity or something like that. I think politicians are more extroverted and aritsts are more introverted.

Wright using parenthesis

Recently in the book, Wright has been using long paragraphs enclosed in parenthesis more commonly. One example of this is the first paragraph on page 267. I am not going to typed out the entire paragraph because it is quite long. But when Wright uses the parenthesis in the book it seems to be when he is explaining what he was thinking or how he was thinking at the time. I think this a good way to do this, and I think it is important to the story to get this information. In this particular paragraph Wright is talking about what it meant to be black in America, and how he "began to forge in the depths of my mind a mechanism that repressed all the dreams and desires that the Chicago streets, the newspapers, the movies were invoking in me." Not only is using asyndeton here like we talked about it class, but he is talking about how he tried to not dream about things that were coming naturally to him in his everyday life. He is in a way having us be in his mind, and know what he is was thinking at the time which is really interesting, and helps to explain some things.

The new move

I definitely think that the move to Chicago was a good thing for Wright and for his family. He has wanted to get out of the south for so long. And he finally had the chance, so he took it. He even said that if he did not leave when he did leave, then he never would be able to. And he also said in the book that if he waited until the whole family could go together, they would never leave. So him going first and then bringing the rest of his family was a good idea. The north will probably be at least a little better for him, although he still will not have it easy. There is a a reason why Shorty wanted to get out as well and why so many other blacks want out. They probably think that life will be a lot better in the North when in fact it will probably be just a little better. Overall, I think he needed to get out of the southern culture and the move was a good thing.

Wright's stealing

I really cannot decide if Wright is justified in stealing. A lot of people around him are stealing, so it was amazing he went such a long time without trying it. The reason that he is stealing is so that he can get out of his house and eventually move north where he thinks everything will be better. But stealing from your boss, like he did at the movie theatre, and from the grain house and from his neighbor were not the best choices. I know that he said in the book if he had not stolen and just worked for the money it would have taken a couple years for him to leave, and he could not stand waiting that long. And after he does steal, he feels badly about it. This is why it is so difficult for me to decide whether or not he is justified. It's like what we talked about in class, it is hard to say whether he is good or bad. I would have probably done the same thing if I were in his position.

"Learning how to live in the south."

When Griggs says that Wright needs to "learn how to live in the south," he is saying that Wright needs to learn how to conform and live in society. Right now, Wright is in danger of getting hurt because he is not conforming and he realizes that something is wrong with his society. Griggs is saying that in order for him to survive and keep a job in the south he needs to learn to behave a certain way around white people. He has to be more careful about what he says and does. As he has experienced before, when he does not keep himself in check, which he seems to have a hard time doing, then he gets fired from his jobs. There is a kind of behavioral code in the south between blacks and whites, and if you do not follow it you will be punished. When Wright is working in the optical shop and he is accused of not saying Mr. Pease, this is an example of one of the "rules."

Is Wright justified in refusing to say the speech?

I think that Wright is in fact justified in refusing to say the speech. First of all, the principal is trying to bribe him into saying the speech by saying that he was going to make him a teacher and he decides who graduates and who does not. This is ridiculous, and I do not think anyone should ever give in to bribery like that. I do understand that the principal is in a way trying to protect Wright from the white people that will be in the audience. And if he says something that they do not like, they might harm him or even kill him. If Wright did give in and say the speech, then he would be conforming to society. And he should not do that because the society he lives in is so messed up and unfair, and he had been working so hard not to conform.

Why is Wright so angry with his Uncle Tom?

He is really angry with his uncle because when his uncle asks him for the time, Wright says that its eighteen past five and then he says that it might be a little fast or a little slow. His uncle gets really angry with him and says that he is being "sassy." His uncle then wants to beat him. He says that he is going to give him "a whipping." Since Wright did not want to be beat for not doing anything wrong, he gets razors and threatens to cut his uncle if he trys to beat him. Wright is angry because his uncle wants to punish him for no reason. This sadly seems to be a common theme in his family. I would be furious if anyone wanted to punish me for doing something, that I did not do or did not mean to do, especially if it was a family member.