Paul D and Beloved: Past or Future?

In class the other day, we had a discussion over whether Paul D was the past or the future. We seemed to conclude that Beloved represented the future and Paul D the past, but after some more reading, I have to disagree with this idea.

First of all, a ghost itself goes against the idea of the future. In my opinion, Beloved is merely a remnant of the past, something that could have been had Sethe not killed her. After Sethe (finally) realizes that Beloved is her daughter, it looks like she gives up on her life. She doesn't seem to care about her work anymore and believes that "there is no world outside her door." She then "locks the door tight behind her" and wallows in her past with her children. I'm reminded of the last few lines of Their Eyes Were Watching God when Janie "pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes!" Janie and Sethe both withdraw to their pasts and it doesn't seem like they will comeback to the present.

But where does Paul D stand in all of this? His motives and intentions are pretty unclear. At first, it seems like staying at 124 is something he really wants. He wants to "make a life" with Sethe, settle down, and become a more family man. This seems like a possible future and positive direction for the family. And yet, after a period of time, Paul D begins having 'house-fits,' where he moves from room to room, farther and farther away from the house. He eventually ends up in the cold house, sleeping with only newspapers to shield him from the cold of winter. He does this to get away from a woman's house which he believes to be 'binding' him. Paul D believes he is "moving out of 124" Bluestone.

Yet this statement seems contradictory to what Paul D actually says. He explains that while he can't remain in the house, he also doesn't want to be anywhere else. Instead of telling Sethe that he is having trouble living in her house, he proposes the idea of having a kid, which would forever tie him down to Sethe, her family, and her house. Perhaps Paul D's itch to leave the house has more to do with Beloved and Denver. Paul D believes that his desire to leave the house has nothing to do with Sethe, who he claims to love. But this argument, too, has flaws. At times, Paul D acts as though Sethe is just a plaything. True, there are the occasional appreciations of her character and personality but it seems like, above all, Paul D just likes sleeping with her (and this too is questionable since he sexually engages with Beloved...).

But despite his flaws, I feel like Paul D would be a much better influence on Sethe's life than Beloved. True, Paul D brings past memories of Sweet Home, but as the carnival suggests, he can create new memories and experiences with Sethe and reintroduce her to the town (town life being something Sethe describes as "28 days of freedom"). I don't see Beloved as a healthy future, so I hope Sethe chooses the man over the ghost.

Graffiti

After the discussion of Style Wars on Thursday night, I was again getting a ride home from Natalie Hummel. One of the things we had talked about after the documentary was the graffiti between the Courier Café and Pizza M's in downtown Urbana. Curious, Natalie and I took a field trip to see the artwork mentioned during the class discussion. Here's what we saw:

I thought the image of the bikers along what is known as Biker Alley was incredible (If you haven't seen it, it's worth the trip). What impressed me the most about the piece was its size. It spanned across an entire wall and a half and was positioned high up off the ground. One thing that I didn't fully grasp while watching the documentary was the sheer scale of these murals. It's one thing to look at a screen, it's another to stand by a wall and look up at the real thing. 

But then I realized that the graffiti in Urbana isn't incredibly large compared to the sizes of pieces in other cities or other countries...

No matter the size, there's no question whether graffiti is artwork or not, even if you're only writing your name.

(not really graffiti since it only exists in digital form, but close enough)

Orange Scraps and Carmine Velvet

I'm not sure if I'm the only one who has noticed this, but there has been a surprising lack of color in the book Beloved, by Toni Morrison. While Invisible Man was loaded with references to black and white, Morrison's novel is more subtle as to when it mentions color. This leads me to believe that when Morrison uses color, she does so very deliberately.

Perhaps the most described color in Beloved is the color red. One of the first descriptions we get of 124 Bluestone is the "red and undulating light" that Paul D finds when he steps into the house. The red light here seems to represent the spirit of the dead baby which isn't evil, but 'sad,' according to Sethe (although the emotions of the baby can be disputed). "Red baby blood," the dying roses at the carnival, and Sixo's fiery red tongue are other examples of color imagery that, like the spirit of the dead baby, evokes images of the past, death, and of things lost. Red is also used to describe Amy Denver's velvet. The carmine velvet sounds rich and luxuriant but I can't help but wonder if this vision of velvet is only a dream that Amy will never realize. Morrison also uses red to symbolize white supremacy and brutality, by using it to talk about Mister's red comb and Sethe's red chokecherry tree. Overall, the color red that Morrison uses seems to symbolize death and suffering, or longing and the past

There are a few other colors that seem to hold some significance in the novel. Orange, for example, is noted as being "wild." The quilt with the orange patches gives life to Beloved when she's sick and gives comfort to Baby Suggs before she dies. However, I think that orange too is tied to the suffering in the house because the blanket is for the bodies of the sick and dying. Pink is also an important color because it is described as being "the last color Sethe remembered." This is because pink is the color of Beloved's headstone, and thus the color becomes yet another to be associated with death. Orange and pink are quite similar in shade to red, and so maybe that's why Morrison uses them all in a morbid way.

I think it is interesting that white and black are not more commonly used in the novel. It's clear that Baby Suggs, at least, hates whites but there are no sections of Beloved that are like the paint factory scene in Invisible Man. Rather Morrison depicts black and white as "absences" of color and instead tries to point out the importance of other colors that aren't so closely linked to slavery.

Caucasian

Since our discussion of white culture a few days ago, I've been thinking a lot about what "white culture" means. I attempted to put my thoughts to the page several times, all very unsuccessfully. So, in the spirit of The White Boy Shuffle, I decided to write a poem reflecting some of my thoughts on what it means to have a white culture (specifically in Urbana).

---

the cadillac bumps us up and down
in our booster seats
as mom drives us to the bookstore.
we sit in the kids section
flipping through roald dahl.
dr suess.

strawberry field's and co-op(-eration),
we play operation when
dad goes to work.
he returns for dinner
at 6:30, sharp.

stand still
and let mom dress us up
hannah anderson, ralph lauren, merrell
names said as she brushes
our thin brown hair

petit racquets,
ones we grip for forehand volleys
every tuesday and thursday
while we produce pristine beads of sweat
and drink cool bottled water.

back at school, we study colors,
cultures teachers say are easier than the
alphabet.
but i don't know.
if white has no color but absorbs them all too,
what am i?
beige i guess.

Jar Jar Binks: A Racist?

In last week's showing of Ethnic Notions, we were shown crude cartoons of happy-go-lucky mammies, uncles, Sambos. All were portrayed as stupid, and the faces were unforgivably exaggerated. Racism in the first half of the 1900's (and earlier) was clear-cut and obvious. But in present-day America, the line between socially acceptable and inadmissible is very blurred.

In the class discussion following the documentary, we were all amazed at how many racist characters we were able to name from today's popular culture, all of whom we had never realized fit into racial stereotypes. The Suite Life's Mr. Moseby was one that we talked about in class for being a mammy-like figure in that he took care of Zack and Cody. Adding to this list of mammy characters, we could say that Eddie Murphy's character in movies such as Daddy Cay Care or Imagine That or Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's role in The Game Plan, could also be considered mammy roles.

Also fitting into roles defined by Ethnic Notions to be racist are the "Black Rambos" (I think that's what the film called them) which are the African American sidekicks, normally cops, who crack jokes and like violence. Again, a whole list of characters come to mind: Chris Tucker in Rush Hour, Eddie Murphy (again) in Tower Heist, etc. I'm sure you can come up with many more, especially if you generalize and count black sidekicks (there seems to be one in every show/movie)

My first reaction was one of horror, I've been consuming all of these stereotypes, not realizing any of it? As evidenced, there are so many examples of African American characters who fit into certain racist categories. Even our favorite character Jar Jar Binks, from the first Star Wars movie, is suggested to be racist because of his Caribbean accent, dim-witted character, bell bottoms and vest, and ears that are suggested to look like dreadlocks.

At some point, it seems like we've gone too far. Are we just looking for racism? What's wrong with having a funny alien with long ears? And as for the African American sidekicks and babysitters/single fathers, aren't there hundreds of white characters who play the exact same roles?

I think that the problem with our depictions of African Americans is not that there are too many funny sidekicks, it's the lack of serious black characters.

On the drive home from the Ethnic Notions movie night, Natalie Hummel and I tried to see if we could think of a single thoughtful African American protagonist in recent films/TV shows. We could barely come up with five. That is, in my opinion, scarier than the long list of comedic relief characters.

Gunnar and the Gun Totin' Hooligans

As we begin to delve into The White Boy Shuffle (I know, a new book already!) I think Gunnar's move to the hood is very interesting. At first, it seems as though he hates this neighborhood of hypodermic needle-littered parks and racist police officers. The 'hood' is very different from the environment he lived in in Santa Monica. There he had many friends, though he did feel a bit different from his predominantly white classmates, but in the hood Gunnar and his sisters are very much the outcasts. They are mercilessly beaten and insulted daily for being "white Negroes." And yet, Gunnar very much wants to become affiliated with a gang, which he describes as becoming a "soul brother".

At first I was very confused. Why would Gunnar want to forge a relationship with a group like the "Gun Totin' Hooligans" after he's abused time and time again by these gangs? But after our recent class discussions, it seems like his family legacy may have something to do with it. The Kaufmans have a history of being Uncle Tom's and bending down to racism (ex. Swen Kaufman running into slavery, Franz von being a 'seeing eye dog' for his master, and even his father being a sketch artist for the LAPD). But Gunnar tells the reader that while most fruit don't fall far from the tree, he's "tried to roll down the hill at least a little bit." By that, he means he wants to get away from his family's willing submissiveness to whites. So when Gunnar moves out of Santa Monica and into a neighborhood where he's surrounded by people of his own race, I think he feels it's an opportunity to break away from the Kaufman line (a gang member is definitely different than an Uncle Tom).

Of course, tied into this are wishes to fit in to a new environment and find some sort of identity, but I think that differentiating himself from his shameful lineage is the main reason for Gunnar's determinedness to join a gang, even if it means getting beat up and humiliated.

Mist' Starks

The cast of Their Eyes Were Watching God has been steadily growing as we get deeper into the book.  One character in particular has me feeling conflicted: Joe Starks.

When we first see Joe he's a "cityfied, stylish dressed man" with three hundred dollars in his pocket and big dreams. He promises to treat Janie like a lady, and when she throws off her apron to run away and marry him, I was cheering for her (at the very least, Joe seems like a big step up from Logan Killicks).

But soon it becomes clear that Joe is extremely patronizing/sexist. According to him, "a woman's place is in de home," when a woman speaks they are getting "too moufy," and even a game like checkers is "too heavy fuh de brains" of a female. It seems as though his vision of a woman is one who remains silent and sits pretty for the men to stare at ("she was there in the store for him to look at"). To make it worse, he hits Janie when she insults his pride, or when she cooks a dinner he doesn't like.

Yet when we get a little bit of insight into Joe's own thoughts, we can see that he acts the way he does for good reasons. He wants to "make a big woman outa" Janie. He believes that by making "a pretty doll-baby like Janie sit on de front porch and eat p'taters dat other folks plant just special for her," he will make her happy. In his eyes Janie is above the "gum-grease" of society and he does his best to keep her out of unfavorable social events.

I think it's important to note that he also performs a lot of good deeds for the town: saving a mule from its misery, giving free food to the poorer people of the town, etc. Here Joe's actions are generous but it's possible that the motivation behind them was just to gain more status in society. In fact, Joe could be trying to put Janie on a pedestal just to make himself look better.

Good guy, bad guy, it's kind of hard to tell, but maybe the switch from Logan to Joe wasn't so glorious after all.