Invisible Man

This story was a little hard to decipher at times. But then again it reminded me a lot of Booker T. Washington from earlier this semester. In the beginning it seems that this man could really be invisible but sticking to a more realistic view I knew this wasn't magic or storytelling. The invisible man was feeling invisible because no one knew who he truly was, maybe not even himself. You go on to read and even though in class discussion many were against the idea that racism and stereotyping was involved I do believe it was. Being African American and proud to be so in this time was difficult. When I read about the "mugging" my first thought was well this is very racially involved. I thought this because this man was not mugged he was approached first and beaten up shortly after. I feel that the man mugged was ashamed of himself and wanted to portray himself more as the victim by saying he was mugged by a black man at that. As you go on to read and the grandfather gets involved and the talk of war is brought up I began to understand this a little more. Like Booker T. Washington there was much play on the education of races and manipulation as well. The invisible man knew he was not more powerful or more authorative than the men holding him down but he was smarter and stronger-willed. This story goes through trouble to get to triumph unlike more of the uplifting things people like to read where light troubles and triumphs are mixed in to have a happy ending. The invisible man gets in fights, he is beaten, he is torn down, he is ashamed of himself, he is a coward to me as well when I read the things he says sometimes. But in the end it is always like he really did play of the lion and lamb act. He was the lamb and the white men were the lion he used trickery, manipulation, motivation, and praise to get to where he wanted to be and the "lion" didn't even notice. His meekness and cowardness wasn't that at all it was merely a way to get a scholarship. I know I've said it before but reading this constantly took me back to the reading on Booker T. Washington. African Americans were outnumbered and pushed down when it came to being successful and educated. The white men always thought they were better and higher. It is sort of ironic and even humorous that playing on being "undeducated", "ignorant", "agreeable", "meek", were all an act. The invisible man knew exactly what he was doing and he got the last laught ( well his grandfather did ) in the end.

A song in the front yard Brooks

Brooks was able to portray the good girls who wanted to be bad as said in her biography before the poems. I enjoyed reading Brooks work because it was easy to relate to or to understand. In this particular work I think that by saying simply in the first few lines" I've stayed in the front yard all my life. I want a peek at the back." She is speaking of a woman who has lived the "up" life in the guidance of her mother. The boring life, the educated life, the mannered life, etc. Now she wants to see what the other side is what is behind the scences of the higher class people. She wants to be able to stay out late, to wear provocative clothing, to entice men, to have fun, to wear make-up. Every woman can understand this. The higher class women want a taste of what the other side is as well as the lower class women wanting to see what it would be like to live priveleged. " Where it's rough and untended and hungry weed grows." She wants to be exactly where things seem as they appear instead of where things don't always seem as they appear. In the backyard there are no secrets everyone is who they are and they have nothing to hide. A slice of honesty and bravery. Even though many might not consider a night woman or a charity child the best person in society it is honest. These people that have nothing to hide live the most because they are exposed. It is brutally real. Yes they might grow up to be "bad women" or go to jail. But it is this pathed destiny that makes this girl crave it. It is a white girl wanting to live as a black girl and a black girl maybe even wanting to live as a white girl. These two will never pass though because race expressess such a difference even unconsciously that it is not possible. Both of these girls and races may want what the other has but it is that symbolism that sticks out in the poem. No matter what the life is neither is better than the other.

Fame and Fear Philip Levine

First I wanted to just say that I found it extremely interesting that Levine was a student of Robert Lowell and John Berryman. I liked this fact because I really enjoy Lowell, I also like Levine as well. A major point made in much of Levine's work is of the working class men and women. As he was himself. As one can also see time is a great point as well. "Half an hour to dress"..." save my smoke-stained lungs"..."drink himself to death"..."smoking traces puddled at my feet like so much milk and melting snow"..."Christmas ornaments on the racks"..."screw back my wedding ring." All of these lines jumbled together sometimes seem a little confusing. What I take from it is the past, present, and the future. This individual has been through time. I know that for me the smoking of cigarettes always reminds me of someone passing time or getting through a moment. I saw this in a section of the poem as well " Ahead lay my second cigarette, held in a shaking hand, as I took into myself the sickening heat to quell heat, a lunch of two Genoa salami sandwhiches and swiss cheese on heavy peasant bread baked by my Aunt Tsipie, and a third cigarette to kill the taste of the others." This reminds me of a working class man. Levine worked in a factory at age 14 during the wars. I imagine he saw much of a routine day of a working class man smoking cigarettes to keep warm, pass the time, and they were affordable because you could make them yourselves. Cigarettes to quench hunger, used to socialize, it was a working class trademark which is why I feel it fits perfectly with his definition in this poem. He writes of this man dressing up in a chemical suit to protect himself from the chemicals yet he poisons himself all day long with these cigarettes. Just another passage of time.

Final Essay Post

I plan to use the literary champion option. At this point I want to promote Lowell as the writer that I'd like to get published. I enjoyed Lowell's work the most over the semester and I feel I can understand most of his work as well. I plan on doing more research on Ezra Pound as well to be able to portray my essay as she would have. This should be fun!

I Knew a Woman- Roethke

I really enjoyed this poem. It was extremely uplifting and beautifully written. Roethke's observations of this woman's body are very graceful. To write about someone and say that they are beautiful in their bones is very loving. Roethke noticed everything about this woman that no one else did. The way she sighed in relation to the outside world, the way she moved, even down to compairing her voice to the voice of a goddess or a singing tone. I was interested in the very last line " These old bones live to learn her wanton ways." Now is Roethke speaking of himself or the woman. I can see both or maybe I am completely off. I'll explain; If Roethke is speaking of himself I imagine he is comparing every inch of himself down to his bones to this woman. If this is the case he wants to be everything she is in order to keep up or in other words be good enough for her. If he is speaking of the woman does he mean that eventually this beauty and grace that she embraces will fade? Or that eventually his love for her will wither? If he measures time by how a body sways is he speaking of youth?
I can understand that point as well...if he is speaking of youth I don't feel he is speaking about the outside perspective of a being. At one point in this poem he says " My eyes they dazzled at her flowing knees..." I don't believe he literally means he can see her knees but he can see how they let her move. He can see beneath her clothes, beneath her skin, beneath everything right down to the beauty of her bones. Everything only gets more beautiful from there.

"Wasteland Tie Together"

Wasteland really seemed like quite a few different poems sort of put together to create a "wasteland." After discussing this in class and learning more on T.S. Eliot I was able to derive a few ideas of my own. I see a lot of death in Wasteland and I see how it ties a lot of things together. One specific point that was extremely interesting was how Tiresias was tied into other areas of the work. From Part Three " I Tiresias though blind, throbbing, between two lives, Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see at the violet hour the evening hour that strives Homeward and brings the sailor home from the sea." From Part Four " Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead, forgot the cry of gulls and the deep sea swell and the profit and loss." A Phoenician was a sailor that used the sea in order to transport a certain purple cloth now I see the relation between the profit and loss of the phoenician and the profit and loss of Tiresias. All in all the ending result was death.
The goal in life is to live long enough to die. I see these in all parts of this work. No matter what the path death is always the ending goal. T.S. Eliot included many things and it is so interesting to see him use history and knowledge to tell his stories. I also see a lot of "death by water". I can also link this to maybe a feeling of being overwhelmed or even giving up and letting death take over. Because when death arrives everyone must give up at some point and let go in order to die. I think Wasteland is sort of a middle grey area between what some people consider heaven and hell. Wasteland is everything in between.

Feminist Manifesto

At times throughout this manifesto I found things that were some what confusing and maybe even offensive at times. After reading this over numerous times I believe I have seen the relativeness to the work. Mina Loy is a modern feminist. I understand where she is coming from. A line I really enjoyed was this, "Leave off looking to men to find out what you are NOT- seek within yourselves to find out what you ARE." I can completely see what this means to me. Women are constantly comparing themselves to men in all areas. Don't get me wrong I do believe women and men should have equal opportunities but all in all women and men are not ever going to be completely equal. This is why we are different. Men are men and women are women. I think what Loy is trying to say is is this...Don't worry about trying to become what powerful and successful men are, worry about becoming what you are and finding your own strengths and unique attributes. Competition is always good between anyone and everyone however coaching yourselves to be equal isn't right. Be what you are.
To go on women have been given stereotypes according to their actions and their characteristics of everyday life that men have not. Loy brings this up when she says it is basically consituted to be a Parasite, or a Prostitute. What I repeatedly take from this manifesto are the labels put on women and the women just going along with those labels because it has been given to them. Loy says that men and women act as enemies until the interest of sex emerges and a sexual embrace results. Loy has a voice in this manifesto it is powerful and it is good. Regardless of this manifest being "right" or "wrong" it has a strong opinion which is something that I respect.
Now when Loy goes on to discuss the mistress, and the mother. Usually when I think about feminism I reflect on reform and equality. Loy continually throws feminism back onto women. Instead of it being the outside world it is a woman's choice to truly live her life and find out who she is. I am enjoying viewing feminism this way instead. I have always had strong values and beliefs about knowing who I am and loving myself first...this is what I like to see feminism as. Feminism should be what females make it! Not what the rest of the world thinks. Not a comparison. Not an equality to men.