Larsen’s novel centers on the tragic mulatto. This figure is interwoven with the issues of the “contrary instincts” of female race and sexuality. Critic Deborah McDowell points out that, in focusing on the problems of the tragic mulatto, readers miss the urgent problem of female sexuality. Critic Debra Silverman agrees with this statement but carries it a little further by asserting that it is precisely the “tragic mulatto” who enables the reading of sexuality that McDowell wants to practice; “because Larsen foregrounds color in her text, she uses the focus to illuminate questions of sexuality,” and that by portraying the color border, Larsen enabled readings of other borders as well. “To stop on the border of color, I agree, is a reading that does not touch sexuality, but one cannot examine sexuality in the text without confronting color and the way which color itself becomes sensualized and sexualized.”(599) Critic Kimberly Monda says that Quicksand explores the personal dilemmas that Helga Crane and other black heroines are forced to comply with in order to survive: “self-de...
The first encounter with Helga Crane, Nella Larsen’s protagonist in the novel Quicksand, introduces the heroine unwinding after a day of work in a dimly lit room. She is alone. And while no one else is present in the room, Helga is accompanied by her own thoughts, feelings, and her worrisome perceptions of the world around her. Throughout the novel, it becomes clear that most of Helga’s concerns revolve around two issues- race and sex. Even though there are many human character antagonists that play a significant role in the novel and in the story of Helga Crane, such as her friends, coworkers, relatives, and ultimately even her own children, her race and her sexuality become Helga’s biggest challenges. These two taxing antagonists appear throughout the novel in many subtle forms. It becomes obvious that racial confusion and sexual repression are a substantial source of Helga’s apprehensions and eventually lead to her tragic demise.
In his essay, “Come Back to the Raft Ag’in, Ed Gentry,” Betina Entzminger argues that at the heart of James Dickey’s Deliverance lies the search for a lost masculinity in today’s world, told through the lens of the protagonist’s canoe trip. He asserts that Ed understands the societal pressures upon each gender, forces that compel us towards the stereotypes that pervade our culture. Further, Entzminger believes, “Despite the fact that Ed sees these constructions as constructions, he is unable to rise above them” (Entzminger). Ultimately, Entzminger posits, “Ed dutifully destroys that which challenges his own and his community’s conceptions of gender and sexuality, and he finds comfort in his return to his community at the novel’s close” (Entzminger). However, though Entzminger is correct that Ed never does ascend beyond society’s gender constructions, his error is in his assumption that Ed ever wanted to, or that he even should have.
“…it is said that there are inevitable associations of white with light and therefore safety, and black with dark and therefore danger…’(hooks 49). This is a quote from an article called ‘Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination’ written by bell hooks an outstanding black female author. Racism has been a big issue ever since slavery and this paper will examine this article in particular to argue that whiteness has become a symbol of terror of the black imagination. To begin this essay I will summarize the article ‘Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination’ and discuss the main argument of the article. Furthermore we will also look at how bell hooks uses intersectionality in her work. Intersectionality is looking at one topic and
By paying attention to how identity is constructed dialogically rather than monologically, the reader hears and celebrates the voices that Toni Morrison both directly and indirectly enacts in the text. But this process also enables the reader to critique those cultural hegemonic forces that have silenced some voices in the first place. A dialogic reading not only encourages the reader to relinquish interpretations which reduce the African American community to a monologic, manageable entity but discourages the reader from coming to closure too easily.
...s appealing it is not without consequence. Clare, and those who choose to pass, are not free to embrace their whole identity and will always remain a threat to those they come in contact. Clare exemplified the archetypal character of the tragic mulatto, as she bought tragedy to her own life and all those she came in contact. Clare’s presence forced Irene to contend with feelings of internalized racism, and thus feelings of inferiority. Through diction, tone, and imagery Larsen makes it luminous to readers that "passing" may seem glamorous, however, the sacrifice one makes to do so is not without consequences for themselves and those they care about. Larsen does not allow her readers to perch on the belief that once a member of the dominate group ones life is not without pain and suffering. Every action, even those that seem to make life easier, have consequences.
The role of strong female roles in literature is both frightening to some and enlightening to others. Although times have changed, Sandra Cisneros’ stories about Mexican-American women provide a cultural division within itself that reflects in a recent time. The cultural themes in Cisneros’s stories highlight the struggle of women who identify with Mexican-American heritage and the struggle in terms of living up to Mexican culture – as a separate ethnic body. The women in Sandra Cisneros’ stories are struggling with living up to identities assigned to them, while trying to create their own as women without an ethnic landscape. In Sandra Cisneros’ stories “Woman Hollering Creek: and “Never Marry a Mexican” the role of female identities that are conflicted are highlighted, in that they have to straddle two worlds at once as Mexican-American women.
Toni Morrison's novel "The Bluest Eye", is a very important novel in literature, because of the many boundaries that were crosses and the painful, serious topics that were brought into light, including racism, gender issues, Black female Subjectivity, and child abuse of many forms. This set of annotated bibliographies are scholarly works of literature that centre around the hot topic of racism in the novel, "The Bluest Eye", and the low self-esteem faced by young African American women, due to white culture. My research was guided by these ideas of racism and loss of self, suffered in the novel, by the main character Pecola Breedlove. This text generates many racial and social-cultural problems, dealing with the lost identity of a young African American women, due to her obsession with the white way of life, and her wish to have blue eyes, leading to her complete transgression into insanity.
Summary: In Claude Pruitt’s article on Sula, Pruitt describes the circular meaning of the text using her own perceptions and the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Ralph Ellison’s the Invisible Man. Pruitt reads the text in circles and circles to find the subtext which she believes provides for its meaning. Pruitt’s article discusses how Morrison circles around the subject of the text to showcase the culturally focused discretions displayed in the 1900’s. She mentions the “nigger joke” that Morrison includes at the beginning of the book (4). This showcases the racism displayed in the 1900’s. The “nigger joke” proclaims the bottom’s relationship with the white people who live outside their society. Pruitt also mentions that if the reader were not to come to this conclusion after the “nigger joke” was presented he/she would come to the realization that racism was prevalent in the 1900’s by the social and economic status of the bottom. The soil on which the people of the bottom live on is not considered productive land while the white land is plentiful and rich. Their place of living causes them economic and social distress. Focusing on place, referencing time and location, Pruitt displays how Morrison’s text ultimately shows how the individual does not create their identity but inside and outside their community their identity becomes created. The struggling characters grapple between their cultural identity and acknowledging the emerging cultural fusion.
Gender, ethnicity, and sexuality are core components that create a solid identity. In the western world Jolene is known as a bisexual Latina female. She is bisexual because she is sexually attracted to men and women, she is a Latina because she is a mixed company of Puerto Rican and German American, and she is a female because she has the physical attributes of a woman. Although gender, ethnicity, and sexuality are all relating factors, they are also separate units of identity. Gender refers to physical attributes and traits that make one appear to be male or female. Sexuality refers to how one feels about their body, one’s sexual orientation, and one’s sexual attraction for others. Ethnicity refers to a group of people who share the same cultural background and heritage. Lopez uses these three different factors of identity and crafts them together simultaneously to suggest the damage of stereotypes. Throughout the novel, Lopez’s Flaming Iguanas highlights the conformity of sex and gender stereotypes, and addresses the socially constructed stereotypes to challenge the patriarchy and expose the damage it does to one’s search for selfhood. Jolene exemplifies how they damage one’s sense of self as she ventures
Race, gender and sexuality have complex intersections; race decides how gender, sexual orientation and other aspects of identification are experienced, developed and practiced. Identity can be understood as a fragmentary sense of self that undergoes constant change. In Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties and The Rain God, the main characters forge plural identities by becoming aware of their ethnic and cultural heritages while discovering personally relevant sexual orientation labels, then reaching out and connecting to that specific community in some way. Instead of identifying a ‘true’ lesbian, Chicano or African-American identity, this paper will explore a process of self-definition that is multifaceted and challenges a monolithic form of identity, creating a hybrid sense of self with the possibility to access different spheres that provides the characters in these texts with new perspectives. Audre Lorde, Miguel Chico and Leticia Marisol Estrella Torez exist in a space that is in-between two worlds, but by integrating elements of their cultures and adapting them to their individual present circumstances, they are able to disrupt rigid sexual and racial categories and enable the formation of polymorphous identities which are subject to constant change.
In My Dangerous Desires, Amber Hollibaugh addresses how sexual liberation cannot be separated from race, class and sexuality. Hollibaugh was raised in a biracial, working class family. She grew up trying to find a place in the world for her mixed race, poor, female, femme, and lesbian self. However, as Hollibaugh’s knowledge of herself and society grew, it became evident that her quest for sexual liberation can not be separated from her economic and class struggles.
From the identity map I created in class, I decided I would explore my personal connections more. The readings: “The Fat Girl”, “The Bluest Eye”, and “Between the World and Me” were the texts that stood out to me the most because they can all interlink with each other in one way or another. Naturally I would like to explore body image, race, beauty standards, and society’s expectations within the selections I chose. From the selections I chose to write my essay about I think “The Bluest Eye” is what connects the three stories the most because so much is challenged in this novel, though not all is overcome.
In the story, “Recitatif,” Toni Morrison uses vague signs and traits to create Roberta and Twyla’s racial identity to show how the characters relationship is shaped by their racial difference. Morrison wants the reader’s to face their racial preconceptions and stereotypical assumptions. Racial identity in “Recitatif,” is most clear through the author’s use of traits that are linked to vague stereotypes, views on racial tension, intelligence, or ones physical appearance. Toni Morrison provides specific social and historical descriptions of the two girls to make readers question the way that stereotypes affect our understanding of a character. The uncertainties about racial identity of the characters causes the reader to become pre-occupied with assigning a race to a specific character based merely upon the associations and stereotypes that the reader creates based on the clues given by Morrison throughout the story. Morrison accomplishes this through the relationship between Twyla and Roberta, the role of Maggie, and questioning race and racial stereotypes of the characters. Throughout the story, Roberta and Twyla meet throughout five distinct moments that shapes their friendship by racial differences.
Self awareness of a person’s identity can lead to a challenging scope of ascertaining moving forward: the moment he/she has an earth- shattering revelation comprehending, they of African descendant and they are a problem. The awakening of double-consciousness grew within the literary cannon sensing the pressure of duality in the works of Native Son and The Bluest Eye, Richard Wright and Toni Morrison respectively create two characters who deal with this struggle. It is illustrated through both text how society creates situations that impose the characters Bigger and Pecola encountering extreme measures in the mind frame of double consciousness in their pursuit of survival physically, the search for identity, the desire of self- expression and self-fulfillment.
The Merriam Webster Dictionary lists exactly seven definitions for the word “instinct.” However, the one that most accurately depicts human nature describes instinct as “a largely inheritable and unalterable tendency of an organism to make a complex and specific response to environmental stimuli without involving reason” (“Instinct”). In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the soldiers in the war depend primarily on instinct, often taking action without clear thoughts or proper reasoning. Hypothetically, if a grenade were to be thrown in front of a group of soldiers escorting a disabled civilian through a jungle, each soldier would have a distinct reaction. Some will choose to run away and leave the others behind, while some will choose to save the civilian first. One’s decisions reflect his or her thought processes, but one’s reactions will reflect his or her character. Tim O’Brien’s and Norman Bowker’s instinctive responses and post-war experiences prove that war exposes the core of one's identity.