zBlogging the Literary Life - AP College English

Demonic Beloved

Beloved has an unnerving obsession with Sethe.  When Denver tells Beloved not to let Sethe know who she (Beloved) actually is, Beloved has a complete shift of character.

She says, "Don't tell me what to do.  Don't you never never tell me what to do."
Denver says, "But I'm on your side, Beloved."
Beloved says, "She is the one.  She is the one I need.  You can go but she is the one I have to have."

Clearly, in this scene, Denver is proclaiming her allegiance to Beloved over her mother, yet Beloved is does not care.  She possess one single desire, and will cast aside anything, and anyone that gets in her way of getting Sethe.  Creepy.

What do you think Beloved means when she says, "She is the one I need...have to have"?  Why does she need Sethe?  Is it vengeance?  love? ...?

A little bit from my paper

In William Faulkner’s Light In August, the religion of different characters provides an understanding of both the character and the book as a whole.  Joe Christmas’ relationship with god is particularly insightful as it measures the themes of race, religion, and the relationship between the two.  Christmas – who is neglected of any race – re-examines his relationship with god many times throughout the novel.  Christmas’ separation form racial belonging coincides with a feeling of separation from God. 

The question I am answering is how does Joe Christmas' race affect his religion and relationship with god.  The underlined portion is my thesis.  If anyone has any suggestions or thoughts I would appreciate them. 

Black vs. White

I found my notes from a few days back to one of the final discussion questions (# 7). As I was reading over our answers I was thinking about the contrast between this books'  white versus black as compared to Heart of Darkness. In Percy Grimm's speech ( 448-449), he mentions "white blood" and "black blood." These two symbols represent good and bad, respectively. On the contrary, in Heart of Darkness Conrad depicts these to represent the evil Europeans (white race) and virtuous Africans (black race). What other novels have you read that agree with one of these forms of symbolism?

Joe: Control?

Joe Christmas throughout the entire novel in unable to decide which racial culture he should associatie with because he himself is not sure of what he is composed of.  In fact though, I believe that Joe Christmas is just constrained but his undying need for control.  By siding either as white or black Joe must eliminate one part of himself and all of the oppertunites that accompany being part of that racial community.  Joe Christmas is afraid to do that.  He is unsure of himself so he is unwilling to sacrifice the life that he is accutomed to to fit into a facet of society.  Joe is undecsicive and weak, fighting these features with outbreaks of violece and manic actions that defy any set character structure.

Throwbacks Emporium Deluxe Excellent Style

I think the major struggle in LIA is the struggle towards identity. Joe constantly has to deal with becoming what he is- black or white. He has to figure out who Joe is.

At the end of the novel, Joe is left with no identity. While the novel unfolded, Joe lived with each of the possible identities he could have adopted. McEachern represents  the white identity; the black half of Jefferson (the church, Joe's night romp) represents the black identity, and Joanna Burden represents the in-between, the gray identity. After living with each identity, Joe decides against adopting it, and he subsequently kills it. Once he kills all three of his potential identities, he no longer has a place in society, and he is killed.

The Meaning of Light

After finishing the novel, I'm still a little confused as to the meaning of the title, Light in August. We started brainstorming possible ideas in class last week, but I'm not sure we ever actually came to a consensus, and I'm curious what everyone thinks. Here is one possible idea:

Faulkner illustrates the light in August as "that fading copper light would seem almost audible, like a dying yellow fall of trumpets dying into an interval of silence and waiting.” It often appears at dusk, when the daylight begins to shadow into the blackness of night.

I think that the August light refers to an opportunity for reality and self-exposure--a chance for the characters to finally define themselves apart from societal expectations. Hightower and Miss Burder hide themselves in the shadow world of their homes, waiting for the time when summer light appears beyond their windows. When Joe Christmas is on the run, wandering through the woods, he too notes the grayness of light that comes at dusk, and he begins to gain a deeper, truer sense of identity. Each of  these individuals is so close to defying the controlling forces of stereotypes, and I believe this is something they battle with throughout their lives.

The darkness, on the other hand, represents the places where societal expectations become self-fulfilling prophesies.  Ms. Burden's relationship with Christmas occurs only in the darkness of night, because the two characters are playing out their gender and racial roles. Perhaps the absence of light signifies a confusion about identity, or simply a false sense of identity.

The light in August can only occur in nature, removed the blackness of society and all of its prejudices.  As the characters look toward light, they look toward hope of one day being able to be who they really are.

Grimm Brutality

In class my group wasn't able to present our assigned question yesterday, so Bernie told me to post it up on the blog to get some feedback. If you guys remembered question 9 from the LIA packet, it was the one about Grimm's brutality towards Christmas, and how other things like race, sex, and religion connected to it. After re-reading the part where readers are first introduced to Grimm, we felt that he had some kind of desire to go to war. The book says "he was too young to have been in the European War...he realized that he would never forgive his parents for that fact" (450). I think that Grimm obviously wanted to partake in some form of violence, and brings it into his everyday life of "insuring public order." On the following page, Grimm seems to feel as if he does not have much to live for, "He could now see his life opening before him, uncomples and inescapable as a barren corridor" (451). These two things seem to make him a more unhappy person, which could feed his anger.
After looking at some of the background info on Grimm, I can see how he is (unreasonably) violent towards Christmas. Not only his desire to fight feeds his rage, but also the knowledge that some people gave in to Christmas knowing that he was part black makes him angry. When Hightower is attempting to defend Christmas, Grimm yells, "Has every preacher and old maid in Jefferson taken their pants down to the yellowbellied son of a bitch?" (464). This quote shows his knowledge of Christmas' relationship with Burden, which infuriates him because no white woman could have sex with a black man without people considering it rape. Also, both Burden and Hightower are not well liked by the Jefferson community, which could also have added to Grimm's anger that people no one wanted around, provided or at least tried to, a safe zone for a criminal to go.

Black and White...but Which is Which?

Since my group only had 89 seconds to present our answer to the final discussion question in class yesterday, I thought I'd add a bit more from the discussion we had while coming up with an answer. We had question #7, which asks about Percy Grimm and his speech (448-119). I found his comparison of "black blood" and "white blood," calling them bad and good, respectively, interesting, in that it was the opposite view of Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness, where Marlow, Kurtz, and white Europeans in general were seen as the evil race, and the native, black Africans as the force of goodness. At the same time, though, both novels involve a search for identity, a journey, and other elements. Thoughts?

Time in Light in August

As we begin to wrap up Light in August, I was starting to think about my essay, and one of the essay questions, about time and how the author's manipulation of time contributes to the effectiveness of the work.  The way Faulkner uses time in this novel is very interesting.  For me, it made the book more interesting.  I liked how we learned the end first and then went back to the beginning, then finally learned the resolution.  I liked learning what would happen in the end first, because then I felt like what eventually happened was not the emphasis.  I could concentrate more on learning about the characters and what they were like and what caused the outcome of the book.

I'm sure some people don't like reading books where the element of time is messed with, but I really enjoyed it.  Why do you think Faulkner wrote his novel like this?  Also, did you like how he messed with time, or would you rather read the novel chronologically?

The Color of Rape: Or so it seems

So just about all of us had to write a a short essay on The Color of Rape, by Barbara L. Bush. Today, I was talking with some of my colleagues about this article. We all came to the same conclusion: Bush metaphorically reinvented the wheel on every page. She belabored every single one of her arguments to the point that I personally had trouble reading what she was writing, due to how boring it was. I don't totally agree with her view. I personally think that Joanna wanted for Joe to "rape" her. Therefore, in my opinion, it was just some rough sex that happened. Any thoughts?