blog questions for this week

1.)Mrs. Thomas’s out look on the world is that she cant change the life she was given and all that she can do is to work hard to make it a little better. She is a realist and can only see the world through a bleak view. Bigger is a romantic. He sees how the world could be a better place but only for him. He knows that the world is a better place for some people but just not for him and he wants to change/escape from his own reality.

2.) It is human nature to be hostile toads one thing on another.  In this time period  the vast majority of white people are hostile toads black people.  Bigger is shocked to find a white family that is so comfortable with a black man but is so dysfunctional themselves.

3.) Everything in book one is based on fear. Everything in Bigger’s life revolves around fear.  His plan to rob a white man is because he is scared of what might happen to his family if they don’t have money. The murder of the white girl Mary was not purposeful but once it was done Bigger’s whole world was nothing but fear.  

Native Son Book One Blog Q&A #2

Here are the rest of the questions and answers.

How does Bigger feel about his home and its surroundings?
Bigger hates his family and the environment in which he lives.  He despises his family because he knows all too well that they suffer and that he is powerless to help them.  He hates his home because everywhere he looks, he sees oppression.  He sees all the things that he could do if only he weren’t a poor African American.  He sees all the places where he is forbidden to go.  He sees all the things that he will never be able to have.  This daily reminder of his suffering and misery is the reason why Bigger hates his home and his family.

Who are Bigger's friends and what event takes place that creates a level of aggression with these friends?
Bigger’s friends are Gus, Jack, and GH.  They are part of Bigger’s gang of sorts.  Gus came up with the plan to rob from Blum’s (a white man) store.  Although he was the one who came up with the original idea a month ago, Gus is hesitant to actually perform the deed.  Outwardly, Bigger is all for charging into the store, but he does this to boost his own pride and confidence.  Inwardly, he is also afraid of the probably consequences that will happen.  He initiates an argument with Gus in order to show to his other friends that Gus is a coward while he is unafraid.  In this argument, Gus states that Bigger is the true coward and is afraid of Gus accepting the challenge to rob Blum, knowing that if he (Gus) does, than Bigger will have to carry out the plan.  Bigger becomes enraged and picks a fight with Gus knowing that he has the upper hand with his knife.  He forces Gus to be submissive to himself and ends up scaring his friends so much that they all leave, thereby ruining the plan.  Before they leave, however, GH says, “You done spoiled things now, I reckon that was what you always wanted…”  He realizes what Gus had realized earlier.

Who are the Dalton's, and where and how do they live?
The Daltons have a cook who makes all their meals, and Bigger is their newest chauffeur.  Mr. Dalton is a wealthy businessman married to blind Mrs. Dalton, and their daughter Mary takes classes at the university.  She has a boyfriend named Jan, and she regularly skips classes to go meet him.  While her parents (or at least her father) are firmly against communism, Mary is beginning to be a communist under the influence of Jan.  The Daltons are millionaires who live 4605 Drexel Boulevard.  They live in a mansion with the most modern technology, furniture, and decorations.  This is a far cry from the home that Bigger lives in.

--Maria(:

Native Son Book One Blog Q&A

I came home from Model UN in Chattanooga and sat down to update my blog. Here are the first few questions and answers for Book One: Fear of Native Son!

At the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to the Thomas family. Describe this family and the conditions in which they live? Be descriptive and use concrete details!The Thomas family lives in poor conditions.  All four: Bigger’s mother, sister, brother, and he, live in one single tiny room.  His mother and sister Vera share one cot while Bigger and his brother Buddy share another.  There is “a narrow space” between the two beds.  There are rats living in the walls of the room and often come out in search of food.  Bigger’s mother is very loud and expresses what she thinks.  For example, when a rat appears in the room, her eyes become “round with fascinated horror” and screams at Vera to “get up here on the bed!”  Vera is described by Bigger as “a sappy girl” not having “any more sense than to believe everything she was told.”  Buddy is “tough, plenty” and Bigger doesn’t worry too much about him.  As for Bigger himself, he is depicted by Wright as having a tough exterior which he doesn’t like to break to his friends or to himself.

The title of Book One is Fear, how is this title symbolic and prophetic at the same time? What was Wright's intention with this title?
Fear is symbolic of black people’s fear of the white oppressor at the time the book was written.  In the rat scene, we find a parallel between Bigger and the rat.  Bigger traps the rat by getting Buddy to block the hole in the wall and cuts off its only means of escape.  The rat is trapped with no escape.  Like it, Bigger is trapped.  He has very limited choices as to the jobs he can take, the places he can go, and the things he can say.  The rat is also described as being fearful; its “belly pulsed with fear.”  Bigger is also afraid, except he is afraid of the consequences of upsetting a white man. 

What initial event happens in the beginning of the novel that is clearly a foreshadowing of events to come?
The initial event is the killing of the rat.  Just as the rat was trapped and eventually killed by Bigger, Bigger is also trapped with no means of escape and will die with or without the support of a white lawyer.  The “thing” trapping him is the oppression and racism against African Americans.

--Maria

NS Intro Q&A #2!

Here's my answer for the second question:

Analyze the following quote from the introduction to Native Son, written by Richard Wright:

From these items I drew my first political conclusions about Bigger: I felt that Bigger, an American product, a native son of this land, carried within him the potentialities of either Communism or Fascism. I don’t mean to say that the Negro boy I depicted in Native Son is either a Communist or a Fascist. He is not either. But he is product of a dislocated society; he is a dispossessed or disinherited man; he is all of this, and he lives amid the greatest possible plenty on earth and he is looking and feeling for a way out.

I believe that what Wright is saying about Bigger is that Bigger, being a person born and raised on American soil but also oppressed by so many others born and raised on American soil, has or will eventually acquire the rebellious nature and the personality needed to break social boundaries.  Much like how the much-oppressed Russian peasants came together, drove the czar out of power, and established the communist state of Soviet Russia, Bigger has the potential to be part of a great movement.  This will ultimately become the Civil Rights Movement.  Bigger is also searching for equality among all people, something that Germany’s Nazis strove for.  Perhaps only Bigger’s goal stemmed from racial oppression, but both his and the Nazis’ arose out of poverty.  The Jews in pre-Nazi Germany had abundant wealth and prosperity, things that most middle-class Germans did not, most likely would not ever, but wanted to have.  In Bigger’s world, he sees that all white people have everything they could possibly ask for: better homes, better clothes, better food, and better education, just to name a few.  He sees all this, and he wants to have it.  This is Bigger’s potential to become a communist.  A fascist is basically a dictator, and I believe that Wright writes that Bigger has the potential to become a dictator because if Bigger does get wealth and prosperity, his anger and emotions he felt before would lead him to think that it is fair and just and possibly even right to oppress whites.

Lovelovelove, Maria(:

bigger

hey its Rachel! this is my answer for the first question!

All of the Biggers that made an impact in Wrights his life where aggressive tours something and had a lot of pent up anger tours white people. But they all had very different personalities and strong spirit, and all took racial discrimination very personally.  Bigger no.1 was a bully. He took pride in making people smaller and weaker then him feel bad. Bigger no. 2 was not directly hateful to white people but only the ones that put him down physical and emotionally.  

(kinda short, i ran out of things to say)

Native Son Intro Q&A

Here's my answer to the first question for the introduction of Native Son. I'll be adding some more stuff in comments later.

In the introduction, written by the author Richard Wright, Wright discusses at length the making of his protagonist, Bigger Thomas; he reflects on his childhood all the way up to his adulthood, and outlines specific examples of when he met a Bigger and the informing aspect of each incident. Please discuss the many Biggers that Wright experienced in the course of his life, and what did they ALL have in common. Please use concrete details to support your analysis.

Wright states that he has met at least five specific Biggers in his life, and Bigger Thomas of Native Son is a composite character formed mostly from these five people.  Bigger No.1 was a bully, and Wright was one of his victims.  Bigger No.2 was a tough man who hated the fact that he had nothing compared to whites and consequently made use of his anger by never paying for what he bought.  The third Bigger was also a rebel and never paid for his movie tickets.  The fourth Bigger took Bigger No.2 and No.3’s action to a higher level by going out of his way to break Jim Crow laws.  Bigger No.5 also broke Jim Crow laws, specifically the one regulating streetcar segregation.  Biggers No. 2 through 5 completely despised the South, its racism, and the Jim Crow laws.  They had no care for the segregation laws and chose to break them, not just once, but time and time again.  All of them dabbled in violence – for how could they not in the time and places in which they lived?  Their rebellious natures would have prompted them to take a stand sooner or later.  Wright implies that he admired them for their daring.  He states that he agreed with their ideals but that he was too afraid to act as they did.

--Maria(:

Native Son Intro Blog Questions!

We've finally started our first novel!! It's called Native Son, written by Richard Wright, and really thick..haha.  Here are the questions for the introduction (which is at the back of the book):

In the introduction, written by the author Richard Wright, Wright discusses at length the making of his protagonist, Bigger Thomas; he reflects on his childhood all the way up to his adulthood, and outlines specific examples of when he met a Bigger and the informing aspect of each incident. Please discuss the many Biggers that Wright experienced in the course of his life, and what did they ALL have in common. Please use concrete details to support your analysis.

Analyze the following quote from the introduction to Native Son, written by Richard Wright:

From these items I drew my first political conclusions about Bigger: I felt that Bigger, an American product, a native son of this land, carried within him the potentialities of either Communism or Fascism. I don’t mean to say that the Negro boy I depicted in Native Son is either a Communist or a Fascist. He is not either. But he is product of a dislocated society; he is a dispossessed or disinherited man; he is all of this, and he lives amid the greatest possible plenty on earth and he is looking and feeling for a way out.

What is the heart of Bigger’s fears?

--Maria(:

Gothic Literature Story-By Allison

I remember when Jane was a young girl, she was the happiest individual, but yet she was so young she knew nothing of this merciless world. From the first time I laid eyes on her, she illuminated my phantom, as now I am a changed man. From all my years, there are not enough words to describe how beautiful she is. Inside and out, there was no woman to ever live that could be as great as she. All the years going by…how all of them passed so quickly. To this day, I wish I could have been there. I wished I could have been more involved in her life, to not just be an outsider only to hear about her accomplishments. I wish I could have made a difference.

Every year, time was running out and I had control of that time. It was not until a few years after the incident that made her leave. On an unusually dark and dreaded wintery night, everything began to change. Jane was walking home from the shops, as she felt something rushing within her blood. What a surge of anxiety pacing down her spine, filling each vein in her body with a sense of uneasiness. Her muscles were filled with apprehension, causing each step she took on the gravel road to be more wretched. I recall it was the first day it began snowing in the city, as everyone surely awaited for it. Certainly, it could not be too long before it was cold enough to gaze at the scene of little light blankets to embody the terrain. All around the city, everyone loved to see the seasons change, especially when leaves of every color of the rainbow soar with the chilled winds. On this night, it was not the same for Jane.

Earlier in the day, Jane had returned home at around noon for lunch as she always did. She walked to her front wooden door, and stepped inside her house. The fireplace was still burning with the wood chopped from the trees in the woods. To her, the entire environment seemed a little erroneous on this day. In fact, she was right. Jane called for her mother, and what she received was very unusual: no reply. She went into the kitchen, where her mother usually cooks lunch at this hour, but she was not there. Actually, even the table was not set, nor had a she set out a pot to cook with. Everything was silent in the house, and Jane could hear only the sound of her thoughts and the air diffusing as she exhaled out of her nostrils. Peculiar, thought Jane, and so she left. Knowing that her father was at work, Jane assumed her mother had to leave for an urgent errand and would be back to cook supper.

            Jane thought that day would be like no other, but she was in for an unexpected bewilderment for the evening. Upon her arrival back to her house, she had found something even more peculiar: strays of articles and blood leaving a path leading for the unknown. With curiosity, she followed the trail, only to come across one of the most horrific sights she would ever see. Under the beloved oak tree where she would read tales as a young girl to escape from the reality of society, a long and thick rope was attached to it. Dangling by the rope was Jane’s mother. She was hanging tightly as the winds swayed her lifeless body back and forth. Colorless, she was, as everything around Jane was filled with essence and vitality, and her mother resembled to be nothing now as she has vanished forever. Jane saw a note that was held in between the rough fingers of her lost mother. It read: “Things happen for a reason Jane, things happen for a reason.” At that moment, Jane decided that she should take one last look at her mother, as she could not bear to see her like this. And how is this all true? For I was the one who stood inside the house, looking out the front window, and witnessing it all. Even when Jane was walking a mile down the road, I was still standing there waiting. I saw the expression on Jane’s face, her young face overwhelmed with hysteria as her eyes began to inflate with tears of woe and frustration. I continued to view her with an emotionless gaze, as I could feel her heart mutilated, like a glass mirror shattered into endless pieces scattered everywhere. That is how Jane’s heart was exactly, her heart as well as her mind was scattered, lost from reality. The loss of her mother prevailed her to postulate that her own existence had perished as well. What could have I done?

            The incident had left Jane in an alienated state and she could not live her life this way. All of her dreams, hopes and aspirations were not her concentration anymore. All she could do was one thing, and that was to run. Whenever Jane was upset, she went alone, and this was quite beneficial to her in the end. Upon these incidents, Jane left to explore the world, but focused on defining herself and where she should be in her life. She traveled all around, experiencing new cultures and having a wondrous time escaping her true reality. Jane kept in brief contact from time to time, I received a few postcards from her. Each postcard was from a different place where she had explored, and at the end of each postcard read, “The world is full of astounding terrains to which I am grateful to see. Love, Jane” I would wait weeks for postcards, checking from the mail man daily to see if anything had come.

The most remarkable postcard was one that had come on a cool autumn day years later. On one side, there was nothing, no image and no venue. Holding the strange postcard, there was a red arrow. I turned the flimsy card over, to find a tragic image. It was Jane with her head over her shoulder and she was hanging lifelessly from a tree looking tormented and hardened. Underneath the image, read in writing that I have never seen in my life before in flawless cursive was, “Things happen for a reason.” That was it and I fought to not believe what I thought I had just read. Immediately I looked out the window, to only remember of such the tragic incident occurred a few autumns ago and how much pain and abuse that affected me, and more importantly had affected Jane. In uncertainty, I lay the postcard down and stare at it while my eyes filled with spite and grief. I should have stopped her all those years ago, my little Jane. She is gone forever now, as she was a remarkable girl, like her mother, who was capable of anything to alter this unfortunate society. Am I the next to go and pay for society’s consequences? Have I not changed for the better? I am not sure, but the chilled winds blowing in the air around me helped me reason if I am one to blame as I could barely breathe to fulfill my slowing beating heart. …….Jane, how could this ever happen?  

gothic story

“ill be back before you know it ” He said to his wife a six years. “I know but a year is a very long time to go with out you” the wife said with love and fear in her eye for she knew this could be the last time she would ever see him. “ill always be faithful to you, no matter what” the woman wisped with tears streaming down her face. They shared one last hug, one last kiss, and one last goodbye, before he marched off with three hounded other men wearing that damn camouflage suit that she hated so much. She watched as he joined the amorphous blob of men, watched as he boarded a plane, and watched as he left her, with know one to keep her company, for the first time in 6 years. She stood alone and cried silently for a while and vowed to herself that she would always and forever love him and keep that promise because it was the only thing he ever asked of her. Three months after her husband had left her, the Wife had grown very lonely.  One day she went into town to buy some groceries. While looking at the watermelons she realized she had no idea how to tell if a watermelon was ripe or not because her husband had always picked out he watermelon, which made her immediately succumb to tears. The woman missed her husband with every ounce of her heart and wanted nothing more then to talk to him because they could only write letters to each other so it would be weeks before she would hear from him. As she was weeping in the middle of the fruit department she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see a man with a very kind face looking at her and he said “excuse me miss but is every thing alright?” She tried to pull herself together and said, “yes, yes I’m fine. And what’s it to you?” in a stern and slightly annoyed tone.  The man replied in a soothing tone “ because everyone needs to know their cared for” and then he walk away from her leaving her speechless and smiling. She then picked up a watermelon, made her perches and went home still thinking about the man and smiling. A few days later, she was still baffled by the man’s kindness, at this point she was determined to find him and thank him. So every day for a fortnight she went to the grocery store looking for the man and had no luck. Until one day when the woman was there to actually buy food for herself, she saw him. Her knees and hands started trembling because she was so nervous. She though to her self “why am I so nervous to talk to this man? I only want to thank him, nothing more and nothing less.” She walked up to the man and said “excuse me” The man turned around and smiled with delight when he say that it was the woman. He said “well look who it is!” The woman said “You really made me feel a lot better the other day and I would love to properly thank you so, thank you.” The man looked at her and smiled then replied “ you can properly thank me by telling me your name.” “Stella” she said with a grin. “Sean” he said while admiring her hair. “And now that we properly know each other it would be rude of me to not ask you to dinner” Stella replied to this is a some what disappointed tone “I have a husband whom I love very deeply” To which he replied  “ just because you have a husband doesn’t mean you cant have friends.” The woman smiled and said “I guess your right” then she gave her directions to her house and when on her way. Over the next couple of months Stella and Sean became very close and Stella started developing feelings for Sean and she knew he had feelings for her but they never spoke of it. Until one night when the two where at Sean’s house talking about their lives and dreams when Sean leaned over and kissed Stella, she was alarmed and horrified at first, but then she realized that she felt butterflies like she had never felt before in the pit of her stomach. And Stella never left Sean’s house that night. The next morning when Stella woke up from her night of mischief and thought to her self how good it felt to not feel lonely, but then remember the promise she had made to her husband of six years and tried to block out her feeling of guilt. But she continued on spending time with Sean for the next few months and continued to write to her husband and her husband’s return was approaching quickly.  Stella had decided not to tell her husband of her affair because she knew it would break his heart. Stella and Sean had talked about her husbands return many times and they agreed that they could still be friends but noting more. It was not one week before Stella’s husband was supposed to return and she was spending all her time with Sean. By this time Stella had developed deep emotional feelings for Sean and in vise versa. It got to the point where she was not looking forward to seeing her husband. But the day finally came and Stella and Sean said their goodbyes and shard one last kiss before Sean left her house and Stella left to go pick her husband up at the airport. When Stella saw her husband for the first time in a year she was happy to see him, but did not feel the love for him that she did when he had left. She looked into his eyes and felt compassion, but not love. And then he picked up off her feet and kissed her, and still she felt nothing.

When the Good Times Don't Roll (a short Gothic story)

When the Good Times Don’t Roll

    I guess life is predetermined.  I suppose the things that are thrown your way don’t result from accidents.  Maybe that’s why I’m dying of hypothermia right now.

    I used to be happy.  I worked as the housekeeper for a wealthy man James, his wife Clarice, and his two baby children.  Day in, day out, I cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner for his family, washed and ironed their clothes, changed diapers, and cleaned their room.  It wasn’t so bad, really, since I stayed in their huge and luxurious mansion.  I lived in the moment, not stopping to think about what I would do in the future if I ever lost my job as housekeeper.  In this way I passed my time for so many years that I’ve lost count.

    People change.  I didn’t change, but James and his wife did.  With each passing year, the man and his wife grew increasingly more irritable towards each other, especially as the two children grew up and moved out of the house. They didn’t sleep in the same room anymore, they didn’t eat their meals together, and every day, each of them drove off somewhere to do their own things.  When they came home at night, the fought, usually in the privacy of the basement.  I was glad of this; I didn’t have to hear them screaming and swearing at each other, and it was possible for me to forget that anything was wrong at all.  During the day, I went on with my usual life, cooking and cleaning for them, and in the night, I just tuned out the faint voices coming from below the house.

    After one unusually bad night, James and Clarice came up from the basement, went to their separate rooms, and stayed quiet.  I felt somewhat afraid, but I didn’t know why, so I ignored the feeling and just kept on quietly eating my dinner at the kitchen table (I always ate after James and Clarice to show respect).  Suddenly, Clarice burst out of her room, screaming.

    “Where is my topaz pendant necklace?” She asked me.  Well, actually, it was more of a demand than a question.

    “I’m not sure, Ms. Clarice, shouldn’t it be where you keep the rest of your jewelry?”

    “Don’t get smart with me, you filthy liar!”

    I drew back, stunned.

    “I-I would never, Ms. Clarice!”

    “Oh really now, then where has my topaz necklace disappeared off to?  Oh, I’m not sure, Ms. Clarice, check to see where the rest of your jewelry is.  As if I haven’t done that already, you stupid woman!”

    I was completely shocked.  After all my years working for Clarice, I had never, and I mean, never, seen her get like this.

    “Ms. Clarice…”

    “Don’t you ‘Ms. Clarice’ me! I know why you’ve stayed here for all these years.  You get a nice place to sleep, good food to eat, expensive things to steal while James and I are gone, everything you could possibly want is in our house, and you’ve been taking them!”

    “No, I haven’t, I wouldn’t never take anything that didn’t belong to me, Ms. Clarice, never! Don’t I have all these years of service to prove it?”

    “Of course you do, all these years to sneak in and steal things from me!”

    “Ms. Clarice-“

    “By God, can’t you two women keep it quiet for once?”

    James stuck his head out of his bedroom door.

    “James, this lying woman stole my topaz pendant and God knows what else from me!”

    I silently shook my head no, willing him to help me.

    “Mr. James, I really-“

    “Be quiet.”

    I fell silent.

    “Clarice, how many times have I told you? I’m not involved in your affairs, do what you want, just don’t interrupt my sleep. If you want to get rid of her, get rid of her. I don’t care.”

    He slammed the door and locked it.

    Clarice turned to me.

    “You.  Pack your belongings, or my things that you’ve stolen, and get out of this house.  I never want to see your face again.”

    I moved slowly, but I did as I was told.  I felt like a wooden doll as I took a purse and filled it with my most beloved things: the earrings my mother gave me, a tiny wood-carved mouse, and the watch my parents had given me a long, long time ago.

    Clarice opened the front door, and I walked out into the biting cold wind.  I heard the doors slam shut behind me, and I knew I wasn’t going to be let back in.  It suddenly occurred to me that I had nowhere to go.  I’d never planned for the day of my expulsion.  I’d always assumed that I would stay with James and Clarice as their housekeeper until I died.  Guess that didn’t work out so well.

    I started walking, to where, I didn’t now; James’ land spanned a total of 27 acres in an isolated area.  My feet took me to a clump of bushes, I think.  I sat down against a tree trunk in knee high snow.  It was cold.  I hadn’t needed anything more than a light jacket during the winter while living with James and Clarice.  Well, that was okay, because I’d just die all the more quickly.  I closed my eyes and waited to fall asleep.  I could feel my nose, toes, and fingers numbing from the freezing temperature.  Just a few minutes, and I would fall asleep.

    I wondered if Clarice knew today was Christmas.

-Maria, your Ultimate Decepticon! >.<

P.S. I hoped you like it; I'm not the best at writing stories.