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!