End of Native Speaker.

At the end of Native Speaker I want to talk about where Henry wears the monster mask while he is teaching kids speech. In class we all weren’t sure if the mask was real or if the the mask was hypothetical. But indeed it was real, but regardless wouldn’t have made a difference. Henry had the mask on all throughout the book, he wanted to hide his Korean looks from the American world and he tried so hard. He perfected his speech in order to not sound Korean, although Lelia could still tell. He felt bad for his son that he gave his looks to, and felt even worse that he couldn’t mask it from the world.

But now at the end of the book, he is helping other people with the things that he struggled with, and things that he battled with. Lelia and Henry are speech thereapists and helping kids with the same problem that Henry had with speech. At the speech class he wears the mask, but he work the mask all through his life.

Native Speaker

Native Speaker was a tough book to get into, but once I got past the first few chapters I started to almost enjoy reading it. Henry had a lot of points that he made that I really had to think about to fully understand, and I like that in a book. Something that makes you think instead of just reading to get it over with.

Throughout the book, Henry kept making references that seemed like he didn’t want to be asian. Which connected to alot of the other canonical books with identity. It was also very interesting to see how Lelia’s character reacted to her son’s death, and Henry. Lelia was a characted that added so much to the book with being awkward. I found her to be an awkward character because she led Henry on when they first met in making him think that she was very interested in him, and didn’t mind that he was asian. But when Lelia left Henry, she handed him a list, and on the list was basically things she didn’t like about him and sure enough, something about his ethnicity was on it.

Mitt’s death was an interesting turning point for the book. It showed a lot about both pf the characters, and what they are really like. Henry was sorry that he was half asian, and Lelia was sorry that she wasn’t watching him and that he died. Both the characters felt as if it was their fault and that they could have done something about it, but it had nothing to do with either of them doing something wrong, it was accidental. I actually really liked this book, and it sort of had alot of lessons in it.

End of Sula.

The end of Sula was very weird. I didn’t quite understand why Nel decided to forgive Sula. What I think was that she knew that since Sula was dying, she would never have another chance to make things right between two friends. So by going to talk to Sula after Sula getting sick showed that their friendship was strong even though they hadn’t talked for a very long time. Nel wasn’t going to let a man, who meant nothing to Sula get between them. When Nel went to Sula’s funeral she was the only black person that showed that she was brave, and not ashamed of her friends.

When Sula died people saw of it as a good thing. But she wasn’t all that bad to the people in the bottom. They just did things differently. Sula was raised with different values then most young girls. And the saying “that apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree” is a very true statement. She was raised thinking certain things were okay to do, so naturally she is going to grow up and live up to those expectations. If Sula was raised differently, she wouldn’t have grown up differently.

Sula!

Sula has started off as a very interesting book. Good interesting or bad interesting I can’t decide. The book “Sula” seems to be made up of a bunch of women who all are from the same family. All the characters differ and have very few similarities for all being connected in some way. Nel and Sula are good friends, but are radically different. Nel is quite and Sula is outgoing, two very different personalities.  Sula is very tough. I think it was so out of character for a young girl to cut the tip of her finger off, because of Irish boys bullying her and Nel, but she did it to show them what she is capapble of. Sula is different then most young girls, she is smart, knows that she has to make a point to give people something to be afraid of because she is a small black girl, by doing that she shows no tolerance, and a certain edginess that will deter the bullies away from them. This was at the very beginning of the book which shows that we should know that Sula is going to be a different type of character then all the others.

Invisible Man.

The book Invisible Man is a book about a black man telling a story of how he is ‘invisible’. Right from the start of the book there are undertones of how the black man of this time is invisible, or blinded. There are numerous example throughout the book of people being blind, blindfolded, or simply invisible. He feels that it is not himself who is the blind one, just others cannot see him, mostly because he is black.

At the very beginning of the book the narrator, who remains nameless throughout the whole book, is humiliated because of a blindfolded boxing match. They are electrocuted by and electric mat, and all while being blindfolded. The fact that they were blindfolded is not there for any old reason. I find it to be a reflection of the ignorance that the white people in the book have in this particular section of the book.

Another example of the theme of blindness, is when the narrator is looking at the breathtaking monument of Booker T. Washington at his college. The monument is either pulling a blanket off of a child’s head, or he could be putting it on. I feel like maybe the importance of this is that maybe Booker T. Washington is trying to help the child to see, so he is taking off the blanket on his head. Of he could possibly be putting the blanket over his head to sheild him, or blind him, from the cruelties of how black people were treated at the time.

Later in the book the narrator is a public speaker for a congregation called the Brotherhood. He tries to share his knowledge to the people in Harlem where he makes his speeches, and tells people inspiring things. The other members of the Brotherhood don’t like how much the narrator is saying to the crowds, and later the narrator finds out that the brotherhood was behind the violent riots in Harlem. Something that the narrator thought was good for him to partake in, is completely the opposite for what he stood for. Perhaps it is another example of blindness.

Racism is behind all of this “blindess” throughout Invisible Man. The fact that black people didn’t get the same treatment as the white people blocked black people for standing up for what they believed in, and getting treated fairly. The invisibility has to do with race also. Because the narrator is black, he is invisible. He is invisible because people around him don’t see who he is, or what he does simply because he is black.

Throughout the book the one common theme seems to be race. Because that has to do with his invisibility, his blindness, and his unfair treatment. The unfair treatment is reflects his race, and other peoples ignorance. As the narrator says in the beginning of the book, he is not the invisible one, the other people just refuse to see him. And that about wraps up my blog post of 500 words.

Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a book about a woman who is trying to live her life as she pleases, but is stopped by people in er life being persuaded to life for someone else. She grew up believe that money, and a high status in life is the way to be happy. Janie soon finds out that that isn’t how life should be. She discovers that life is more valuable then expensive things, and a lot of money. She finally gets to a point where she can live her life for Janie, and no body else. That was very important to her because her whole life she has been degraded and controlled. From her grandmother telling her about money being the only important thing, to controlling men in her life. She always had something tying her down. But when she escaped being tied down, was when she was truly happy.

Dilsey Chapter.

I liked the Dilsey chapter the best out of all the previous chapters. I liked it because it was actually understandable, maybe because of the way it was narrated. It was narrated in the sense that everything was happening at that time, it wasn’t a series of memories being recalled, and people dwelling in the past, it was in regular time.
I noticed that Dilsey seemed to be the patient one who sort of knew everything about the household, but kept her mouth shut. What I thought was weird was how when she and Mrs. Compson were on the stairs, Mrs. Compson said something that really brought Dilsey down. Dilsey showed her emotions on her face, but didn’t let Mrs. Compson see her. Not letting Mrs. Compson see her reaction to the comment shows that Dilsey is a strong woman regardless of how she is treated.

Quentin/ Jason entry….

e”But to have them think that… I didn’t even know she had a report card. She told me last fall that they had quit using them this year. Jason is mad that he has been decieved, he is the one who is used to doing the decieving and for someone else to do it, he is extra frustrated.  And now for Professor Junkin to call me on the telephone and tell me if she’s absent one more time, she will have to leave school. Quentin didn’t really have much attention when she was growing up, so she goes out and skips school to leave with people who give her the attention she desires. She has been around someone who lied, and now she is doing it herself. Her mother was just as permiscuous as she is. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! How does she do it? Where does she go? You’re down town all day; you ought to see her if she stays on the streets.”

In this passage, Jason is sort of ranting, letting off some steam about the promiscuity of Quentin. He has been lied to, and put under the impression that she was telling the truth, and now he knows he has been lied to. I think it’s ironic how he feels angry for being lied to about grades, when he has stolen hundreds of dollars from Quentin. I think that is more serious then a report card. I don’t think he is concerned I think he just wants to be the one in control.

Jason sort of seems embarassed that someone not in the family has found out about it before him, Professor Junkin was the one who called him. He knew about this, before Jason did which shows to other people that he has been decived.

I think that is Quentin was raised differently she would have behaved differently growing up. She never really had a mother figure, and the figure she did have behaved exactly like her. The saying “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” shows it’s meaning between the relationships of Quentin and the people she grew up around, or was raised by.

“She smelled like trees. In the courner it was dark, but I could see the window. I squatted there, holding the slipper.  I couldn’t see it, but my hands saw it, and I could hear it getting night, and my hands saw the slipper but I couldn’t see myself, but my hands could see the slipper, and I squatted there, hearing it getting dark.” (Page 72).

In this passage Benjy is having a flashback. This passage isvery annoying due to the repetativeness and the utter fact that it doesn’t make sense with what Benjy was talking about before.
Benjy states multiple times throughout his chapter that “she smelled like trees”. She meaning Caddy. For some reason Benjy is obsessed with one time that Caddy got up and climbed a tree with dirty underwear. He obsesses over it, and brings it up multiple times in his chapter. It doesn’t really seem like an important thing for a person so dwell on.

Benjy keeps saying how he coudln’t see the slipper he was holding, but his hands could see it. Hands, don’t see, hands feel.  Benjy just keeps on restating that he can’t see anything, but his hands can see it. I think that might have something to do with his handicap. Or possibly since it was dark, he felt it alot and became famililar enough with it, that he could see it in his mind even if he didn’t have to use his eyes. Another thing he says is he could hear it getting night. Peopl don’t normally phrase recognizing that it’s night time with the word hear. I think that that shows the Benjy is more observant then he is thought to be. Because he could hear it getting night, he could hear the certain bugs that chirp, or certain noises from the street that only come at night. I think although Benjy has a handicap, he is quite observant to his surrounddings.

Tom’s jealousy.

I found it interesting how Tom is becomming a little bitjealous of Gatsby. Tom all of a sudden is asking who Gatsby is and how he made his money. On page 107, Tom says, “Who is this Gatsby anyhow?”.
“Some big bootlegger?”
“Where’s you hear that?” I inquired.
“I didn’t hear it, I just imagined it. A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers, you know.”

It seems as if Tom is trying to convince himself that even though Gatsby is rich, he didn’t make the money in a respectable way. Making Tom’s lack of great fortune not seem as big of a deal to him.

I don’t understand why Tom is getting jealous of Daisy seeing and going to Gatsby’s parties. Daisy has remained faithful to Tom, while Tom is the one who had been unfaithful. Perhaps Tom is jealous of Gatsby because of his money. Maybe Tom is thinking why would Daisy remain with me when she could have a man who has a great fortune? I don’t think that Gatsby is necessarily looking to break up any marriages though.