Ellison: From reading only the first chapter, I was very disturbed by Ellison's novel. At first, I was a little confused as to why the narrator was in this kind of situation only to deliver his speech. Not to mention the crowd he was going to give the speech to. These white men, these men who have a high position in their town, come to listen to his speech in a place like that? This whole time I wondered if the narrator of the story could just leave the place, but then I realized what resulted in his speech. I didn't care whether he got the scholarship or not. I was more disturbed as to how he got it. The poor kid was electrocuted, beat up, etc. and for what? No man should go through that to get an education which frustrates me. I can now see how important an education was for a young African American of that time; they were willing to do anything to go to college.
Baraka: "An Agony. As Now" stood out to me the most because I could feel the agony flowing out of the narrator. Because this poem was written during the Civil Rights Movement, one can see just how much pain an African American was experiencing. The short sentences/fragments seem to work in order to make more of an impact of the narrator's emotions. Although I can't understand the exact situation, it is obvious that he is in pain due to the treatment and experiences he is going through which I'm assuming is the treatment from the white society around him. But this pain doesn't go away as revealed from "The Poem of Willie Best." He seems to take it a step further and--this was my impression--blame God for his hurt, or that He will do nothing about it, "no help will come" (1459).
Lorde: I can see a lot of dominant, powerful, and outspoken characteristics from Lorde. She has the voice of a bold female, an aspect that I could see greatly benefit the era she was living in. In "Coal," this presents her position in society as an African American. What does she have to deal with? Words. Words that come from hatred. I love how she describes the way she feels when those words are said to her. I also got the impression from her poem "The Woman Thing" that she has a negative view on men, just in the way she portrays the male species as hunters. And after reading "Harriet" I can understand where she comes from. In addition, Lorde is a mother, noting to the lines, "All this day I have craved food for my child's hunger" (1476).
Walker: I'm a little disgusted by Dee's treatment to her family. I guess because she is the older sister, she has the tendency to be "authoritative" in her approach towards her mother and sister. Even at the thought of Maggie having the quilts, Dee is shocked; she doesn't like the idea at all. Because of Dee's attitude, I sympathize more with Maggie and admire her for letting her sister take the quilts. Poor Maggie was scarred from a fire, therefore being just another person in Dee's life, not necessarily a sister. In this whole chaos, I wonder if Mama favors Maggie more than Dee? And why?
No comments:
Post a Comment