Thoughts on Paul D

Over the course of the book, we've all had time to develop our opinion on what Paul D's place is in the novel. He comes into play early on, and is a symbol of Sethe's past. He charms her and they rekindle their love, all while Denver is eyeing him menacingly from the sidelines. At first we thought this was just Denver's jealousy kicking in--she felt as though Paul D was replacing her in her mother's life. Upon Beloved's arrival, however, Paul D develops a dislike towards the reincarnation of Sethe's daughter. This cycle of jealousy and unrest makes for a very tense situation, and one could argue that this "family" dynamic is doomed to fail. Sure enough, Paul D abandons Sethe upon learning the truth about what happened that day in the woodshed, proving his general flakyness.

At first, I sympathized with Paul D. His reaction is justified, and I'm pretty sure that if any of us were in his shoes, we'd react the same way. However, I then had to consider where he stands in Sethe's life. As it was mentioned upon his arrival, he is a ladies man, and his presence can make even the toughest of women break down in front of him. This explains how intimate he and Sethe get when they see each other, but Paul D should understand that his comforter responsibilities don't stop at sex. When Sethe reveals the murder of her daughter from her perspective, she is hoping he will understand where she is coming from. At this point in their relationship, she isn't ashamed of her past when she is around him. However, Paul D is terrified and flees to the local church. It is at this point that I began questioning Paul D's character. It seems to me that, as much as he enjoys wooing all the women he encounters, he is not ready for the emotional consequences that come alongside the benefits. While his initial reaction is a given, I think it's about time that he return home and make things right with Sethe, or just leave the whole situation altogether.

Meanwhile, Stamp Paid is hitting himself over the head for revealing this to Paul D. He starts to think that he's meddling, and he just managed to ruin a relationship. While he did, I don't think it's entirely his fault. He didn't have any way of knowing that Paul D would react the way he did. Taking this into account, we can see that Paul D's presence in this town is affecting multiple characters in a negative way. Sethe, Denver, Paul D, and Beloved are all unnerved by his presence. While it is apparent that he doesn't mean any harm, I think his time has passed. Personally, I see Beloved's entrance into the novel a symbolism of a future and fresh start. Paul D, on the other hand, represents Sethe's past. While he tries to establish a promising future with her, it is clear that he is maybe pushing for the impossible.

The Four Horsemen & Racism

The chapter of the four horsemen was important in it gave the audience an inside look into the complex minds of southern whites. Not only was the imagery and mentality disturbing, but I also think Morrison was making a valid point in terms of the thought process of racists. Namely, the minds of modern-day whites who think they are progressive, but still retain their racist instincts. The reactions of the schoolteacher, nephew, slave catcher, and sheriff are all rash examples of the racism that exists today.

For starters, schoolteacher sees this whole situation as a disappointment. Based on what we learned about him so far, it is apparent that he plans on exploiting blacks to their full potential. However, upon seeing Sethe perform an unexplainable act, he sees his investment dwindling and knows that this isn't a good day. He goes on to recall the punishment he gave his other nephew. For beating Sethe too harshly, schoolteacher sees it fit that his nephew learns his lesson. He compares the slave woman to their animals in a very casual manner, and "made him stay there, feed stock, feed himself, feed Lillian, tend the crops. See how he liked it" (176). A shock to modern day readers, Morrison presents this as a perfectly reasonable decision in schoolteacher's mind. He represents society's general racism towards black people. In his mind, this is just the way the world is. Even though this book wasn't published until the late 20th century, schoolteacher's role is meant to serve as a reminder of the racism that is still present in the minds of white people; if not to this extent.

At the same time, the nephew is describing his total shock regarding the situation. He is bewildered as to what exactly Sethe's reasoning was for murdering her baby. "What she go and do that for? On account of a beating? Hell, he'd been beat a million times and he was white" (176). The fact that he mentions his race is an interesting twist. On one hand, he is saying that he has had his fair share of beatings, despite his being white. Therefore, he doesn't understand why this person in particular responded to discipline so drastically. On the other hand, he doesn't really seem to understand the luxury he has for being white. While Sethe realizes that there is no way out of this life, a point so strong that she murders her child for it, the nephew just sees beatings as a punishment. I would say that here, Morrison is using the nephew to represent the whites that think they can relate to the hardships of black people, but obviously can't. It's not fair of the nephew to relate himself to Sethe on this level, but continue to treat her as sub-human

I think this is a very pertinent topic for today, especially with all the chaos regarding Ferguson and white on black crime. Even a century after these mentalities were mainstream, we can't say racism has been discarded completely. I'm not sure what this says about our future, but I think this was a very wise point to make on Morrison's part. By showing us the minds of racists, it makes us question the fundamental values our society has been built on.

Denver the Sheltered Child

So far in Beloved, we seem to have come to the consensus that Denver is a very sheltered child. We learn that she has no friends, and her favorite spot to pass time is a patch of trees in her backyard. Though Sethe means well, I began to question whether her lengthy precautions were a necessity. From the start of the book we know 124 as being "spiteful," and all those who walk past it are overcome with a feeling of immense sadness. As a result, Denver does't have any friends who want to come over. Though Denver seems to be a relatively normal child when presented in the context of the house, it is soon apparent that she has unresolved issues within her.

In the novel, Denver is portrayed as a particularly possessive and lonely character. For starters, the idea of a time before she came into this world makes her very uneasy. This is why Paul D's appearance into their life angers Denver. She sees that they share a bond from the past she can't match, and he becomes an important part of Sethe's life. Thus, Denver is protective of Sethe. Once Beloved comes into the picture, Denver also can't separate herself from her. This clingy behavior is probably the outcome of the loneliness she has had to endure for a majority of her life. Interestingly, Denver favors Beloved's presence but is wary of Paul D. This is because Paul D represents the past, and while he has come back from a second round at the future, it is Beloved's turn. Additionally, her brothers abandoned her nearly a decade ago, and Denver is now Sethe's only remaining child. This predicament is what causes Denver to be so unnerved when it comes to human relations.

One thing this dynamic made me question was if this was a wise decision on Sethe's part. We learn that the concept of rememory is very important to Sethe. In this world, one can hear or stumble upon someone else's memories and remember them as their own. Considering her hard past, it is understandable why she wouldn't want to open up to Denver about these parts of her life. Sethe has lost so much in her life, and the memories are her only connection. The saying that the deceased "live on in our memories" is very applicable here. However, maybe Sethe doesn't want to share her memories. Instead of hurting Denver, she is worried Denver won't be able to appreciate her memories to the same extent Sethe endured them. We see an example of this when Sethe tells Paul D the story of her milk being stolen. She is frantically trying to make him understand the extent of her violation, but Paul D doesn't really get it. It is maybe at this point that Sethe realizes that the idea of rememory is something she should stray from, supporting her denial that Beloved is the reincarnation of her lost child.

Overall, I guess I'm just confused about where Sethe is coming from. I understand why she has sheltered Denver the way she did, but I wonder if this has some repercussions that may impact the plot later on. By not being taught her mother's, and country's, past, Denver may not be ready to face the world. I feel it's possible that her character may play a turning role later on in the novel.

Is Gunnar Kaufman a Minstrel?

As of Monday, we will have finished reading the The White Boy Shuffle. I thought I would take this time to summarize what my thoughts about the book, namely the minstrel dynamic I noticed throughout. He starts off as a smart, yet still pretty naïve child, and over the course of the book we see him realize his "purpose" in life. No matter what he does, white people are always there to look at him in awe. They fail to see him as an individual, and prefer categorizing him as a black person and leaving it at that. The first chapter of the book shows us the history of Gunnar's ancestors, all who are portrayed in an eerily minstrel light. Gunnar takes this as a guide to how to not behave. However, on several instances in the beginning and more constantly later on, Gunnar starts to realize his unintentional minstrelsy.

Gunnar's upbringing is an interesting one, probably not one other kids have. He is a black boy growing up in a white, relatively accepting society, though he is still seen as "different." He is dubbed the "funny, cool black guy," already a sign of his disconnection from his white peers. He is invited to parties, but in class we mentioned that this may just be the kids wanting a "black guy," not necessarily Gunnar Kaufman. At this point, while he kind of realizes his difference, he simply sees himself in the position he's assigned. It's not until he moves to Hillside that he begins to realize his life in Santa Monica was almost a surreal one. He soon makes black friends and becomes a basketball star. While his innate talent helps him rise to popularity, he starts noticing that he is seen as more of a "basketball machine" than an individual by the white coaches and fans. His final performance at Hillside shows us what he's learned--he comes out in black face and even makes a point of sitting down on his old school's bench.

By the time he gets to college, he's started to more fully understand where he stands in society. He is a pretty well-known poet, and he realizes that whatever he does, his fans idolize him. Even upon taking off all his clothes in public and parading down the street, police officers don't arrest him because of his poetic credibility. This makes Gunnar realize that whatever he does, people will judge him for what they portray him as, not for who he actually is. I think this is the cause for his outlook on life. He doesn't really care so much about pleasing his white audience, per say. Rather, he does the exact opposite of what he would assume they would want to see. His acting this way, though, and realizing it has no effect on the crowds' delightedness, makes me realize that he really is a minstrel figure, despite his unwillingness to be one. It's almost as if the white people see him as "something different," and even if they try to be extremely accepting, they are subconsciously incapable of viewing him as anything other than a performer.

The White Boy Shuffle

Chapter 4 was an especially pivotal point in the novel. We see Gunnar transition from being the "whitest black kid in town" to discovering his innate basketball talent and joining a gang, among other milestones. One thing we considered in class today was the symbolism of this new assimilation, and what kind of theme Beatty is going for--it is definitely no longer the realism Richard Wright presented in Native Son. I think we all came to the general consensus that Scoby is Gunnar's portal to the rest of his life.

The first big thing that was Gunnar's gateway to social accommodation was when Nick Scoby called him the n-word. An interestingly pivotal point in the novel, Gunnar took this as a compliment and sign of acceptance rather than an insult. Even though he was the same color as the people of Hillside, he felt like a total outsider before this moment. It was as if Scoby was saying yes, you are black enough. Gunnar's newfound friendship with Scoby is a fruitful one--within this chapter we see him blossom from a nerdy misfit to one of the most popular kids in town. I think it would only be fair to credit Scoby with this growth.

In this chapter, we noticed that everything seems to be linked in a chain of events. Soon after Gunnar befriends Scoby and realizes he is a pretty cool yet intellectual guy, the class sets off to the Shakespeare competition. This scene is pivotal in that it is the first (and so far only) time we've seen Gunnar be superior to Scoby. Here, we see him sacrifice his attempt at winning the competition for making a simple, yet powerful, point. Scoby is in awe, and later that day on the bus ride home he calls him a "crazy n-----" and invites him to play basketball. When Gunnar picks up the sport and is automatically a basketball prodigy, I couldn't help but wonder if this had some racial connotations. I also found it interesting that, as we see becomes a trend in the book, Scoby is the one who, in a way, christened him into the sport.

However, just as he commits a jaw-dropping slam dunk and gets his spankings for doing so, he heads off to class where he has an epitome that his poetry is still an important part of him. I like Gunnar so far because it seems like both poetry and basketball play an important role in his life, and he hasn't dropped his "nerdier" poetry skill in an attempt to being a more macho basketball player. On the contrary, I don't think Gunnar has found himself yet. He mentions several times that he doesn't even really like basketball--he just does it because he's good at it. I suppose this leads me to wonder what exactly Paul Beatty's intentions with crafting this character are. So far, Gunnar doesn't seem to possess the typical "black boy" mentality. Also, he is found to be ironically bad at dancing, inspiring the white boy shuffle Beatty named this book after and hinting at the bigger theme of this story.

Challenging Racism

In response to today's movie night, I thought I would write a blog post addressing how racism is still prevalent today. However, I've noticed that the criticism of all things remotely racist probably isn't the way to go, either. While overexposure of racist occurrences succeeds in criticizing them for the time being, it also makes racism a commonly talked about topic, which I'm not sure is a good thing. This topic has succeeded in thoroughly confusing me, but here is my take on it.

Upon watching the documentary, I learned that a few of my innocent childhood memories have racial roots. I found this quite unsettling, as even the seemingly nonsense "eenie-menie-miney-moe" has chain gang connotations. I also found it interesting that while this is definitely something that has an uneasy past, I don't think we're going to drop the phrase anytime soon. The meaning has obviously been reduced to a game of random selection, and I feel like the main connection people have with this phrase is simply a reminder of their younger years. I wondered if alienating the phrase altogether would make it less of a problem, "one less thing to worry about," so to speak, but I've decided that doing so may simply cause more harm than good. Similar to the controversy over cuss words (namely the n-word), I feel like "banning" something intangible can potentially cause it to carry more weight than it originally did. There is something about labeling something as taboo that makes it even more taboo, if that makes sense.

While I do agree that we have come a long way over the past century, I feel like it would be colorblind to assume that racism doesn't exist today. I've found that anywhere I turn, one form or another of racism can be found. In the documentary, we witnessed black people performing in minstrel shows, degrading their race and further enforcing their stereotype. Reflecting on modern day entertainment, one example I forgot to mention in class is Key & Peele. While I and millions of other viewers have watched their videos and found them rather entertaining, this class has made me rethink the concept of their videos. From portraying contemporary black people to recreating slave auctions, they have risen to fame by using race as their main punchline. On one hand, this reminds me of minstrelsy, but on the other I wonder if I'm over thinking it. In today's society, calling this racist would be considered racist, in the way that constantly bringing up racism is unnecessary. This leads me to concept of colorblindness, as introduced to us in The White Boy Shuffle, and whether trying to achieve it is ideal.

As we exhausted in class today, shows like The Suite Life of Zack and Cody portray a rainbow of characters each with very specific anti-stereotypes. The Asian girl is the dumb and rich, the white girl is smart but poor, and the overseer of all of this is a well kept black man. This made me wonder whether blatantly flipping the racial roles is a good idea or not. I feel like it is definitely a much better alternative to satisfying the stereotypes, but this seemingly purposeful portrayal can cause some people to question its legitimacy. Meaning, is Disney Channel trying a little too hard to get as racially diverse as possible. This made me realize that colorblindness in society is basically unachievable (much to the disgrace of Gunnar's teacher), yet constantly challenging the racial aspects of everything isn't helping things, either. In conclusion, I'm not exactly sure what a probable ideal is, and whether we will see it anytime soon. I definitely think people are trying, though I wonder what the world will look like a century from now.

Logan and Joe

Today in class we talked about Janie's first two relationships--Logan Killicks and Joe Starks. I think it's safe to say that both men are pretty crappy husbands, but I was hesitant to side with Janie.

First off, we mentioned how Janie may just be too lofty to appreciate either of her men. However, if I were in her shoes I don't think I'd be enjoying myself either. One thing I found interesting, though, was that while they were both pretty bad, the way she handled them may have factored in to her misery. During her short marriage with Logan, once all the frill and poetry is gone, he really starts expecting her to actually help out on their farm. While Janie is taken aback at being used to shovel manure, we have to remember that this was the norm during these times. When a couple owned a farm, both were expected to contribute. She soon leaves him rather quickly for the seemingly magnificent Joe Starks. However, it soon becomes apparent that he is much worse than Logan. While Logan was just complaining about her laziness and incompetence, Joe takes their 20 years of marriage to psychologically deteriorate her. Making her conceal her hair in an insecure attempt at controlling her, he also repeatedly belittles her to the helpless mayor's wife position. Later, near the end of his life when they are both showing signs of age, he takes out his insecurities onto her, calling her old and wrinkly when he isn't much better. Additionally, his buying the mule that one time may have seemed heroic in the moment, but in the grand scheme of things he is really quite abusive.

Still, their actions alone weren't enough for me to side with Janie. One thing that particularly bothered me was how freely she moved on from both of them. Considering how traumatic she made her experiences seem, I'd assume that her parting ways with both of them would be a little more dramatic and heartfelt, like a sort of unshackling. However, she just seems to discard both of them without a care in the world, relating back to her pear tree ideals of love. When she ditches Logan, she simply gets up and walks away, not really caring about the way she leaves him. Considering that Logan wasn't as abusive as Joe turned out to be, I still have some sympathy for him. Likewise, when Joe is on death's door, she continues to verbally attack him in an attempt to stand up for all the times he's abused her. I am glad that she's finally taking charge, but quite frankly this doesn't seem like the time. I kinda wanna tell her to pick on someone her own size. When he finally dies, she feels no emotional connection or regret. She is definitely an independent woman who doesn't need a man, but her jumping around from guy to guy this easily makes it harder for me to sympathize with her troubles.

In the end, it is nice to see how happy she feels when she is single, and the power she gets from detachment. However, when she meets Tea Cake and they start having a relationship, I am worried as to how it will end. I'm also curious as to how this book will end, and why we see her returning in muddy overalls in the first chapter.