Annie Reflection 2

I hated this book. With a passion. I wanted to fling it across the room the entire time I was reading it. I hated the characters - especially the female ones. They nittered and twittered about with their hands clasped at their chest, or one hand flung across the forehead as they fainted, saying 'oh deary me'. Bessie let herself be cowed repeatedly by Bigger, and Mrs Dalton was just kind of their. The only semi-good female character in the book died. Then I couldn't stand Bigger and his internal monologue either. And I hated the way he ran away, not because he ran away, but they way he did it.

What he should have done, after he fled the scene of his crime, was waited for the police to search a section of the city and then gone and hid in that section, rather than trying to stay ahead of them. Once people have searched a section, they tend to think that it's clear. At the climax, when the policeman is coming onto the roof and Bigger hits him with his gun, he should have remained hidden. The policeman would have gone away and Bigger would have been safe. But no, by attacking that man, he sealed his fate.

Another problem I had with the book was the freaking twenty or so page long speech that Mr Max gave to the court. Most of that was unnecessary and just him repeating himself. What he was trying to say was convoluted, and I didn't get much of it, although I may have just been distracted by the fact that I wanted to fling the book across the room.

What the book is trying to say is a little confusing. I read a bit of the afterward before I got bored, and it said, I think, that the author wanted to portray Bigger as kind of the image that the whites saw. I believe he said that it's purpose was to shock people or something like that. I could go look. The book is sitting over on the coffee table, but that's a lot of work. If he meant to shock, I suppose he managed that. I don't know if I was "shocked" persay, but I was certainly frustrated by the characters and how they dealt with things. And then he threw in Communism on top of race, and it seemed like he was trying to do a little bit to much.

Yup, I really didn't like this book.

Research Topics

From your posts so far, I see the following research topics emerging:

• segregation in housing, especially within cities
• relationship between Communists and African Americans
• Communism, the arts and the Red Scare

Niki's First Response And Video

I’m actually pretty interested on the part the movies play in this book, at least, in the beginning. Bigger seems to form many of his viewpoints based on the lives he sees played out on the screen, rather than his own. Which makes sense, in a way. He’s very limited in his worldview, forced into a very specific role by society as a whole, unable to fly, as he says it. So, how would he be expected to develop an opinion of the rich white people, or the Communists, based on his own experiences, when he was never afforded the opportunity to have them?

Stemming off of that point, another interesting aspect of that whole idea is the way rich white people and Communists are so closely compared to one another, both directly and indirectly. The both of them are little more than concepts in Bigger’s mind, each representing a class of evil, destructive forces, be it through bombs or subjugation. Both lifestyles are portrayed almost comically, as unreachable extremes, which, especially when seen through the eyes of someone with no other experience of either, allows the readers of this book to take a good look at the ridiculousness presented by the both of them.

Which, I think, plays well into the introduction of Mary, a character who embodies the main features of either group. She offers us the first tangible intertwining of two seemingly opposite worlds, the world of the rich white people, and the world of the low-down Communists.

Anyway, I thought all that was interesting. Good use of… I don’t know, would that be symbolism? I don’t think so, but I can’t think of the word, right now.

Also, this video relates perfectly to Mary and Jan’s trip around town. It was pretty much all I could think of the entire time I was reading it.

Danial Reflection 1

My initial response to the book is it makes a clear line drawn between black and white, I mean we don't even see any of what the white side of town is like until Bigger goes to take his job. In the book, it is said that Mr. Dalton wasn't always rich, he had made some money for himself, but the majority of it has come from marrying his wife, Mrs. Dalton. This seems like something that would seem impossible when you look at the situation Bigger is in, the place he lives and the conditions. I mean, at the start of the book, he has to fight off a giant rat, not the greatest example of wealth. Very clear cut from who has a stronger start in achieving the american dream. On another note I would have to say my least favorite character though, so far would be Jan. Jan insisted over and over again to Bigger that he was his friend and his equal. I would personally agree with the way Bigger felt about this, especially the way they treated Bigger, they forced him into a situation that was very uncomfortable for him, and just so they could feel better. Bigger has grown up knowing a way of life, and even if he hated it, who was Jan to try to tell him of another and to say it was better. Jan went to far and was clearly trouble, and it is fair to say that if not entirely, the murder of Mary was somewhat his fault, he got himself, Mary, and Bigger drunk, dead drunk. Although Bigger didn't exactly behave like a saint either. Bigger seem to be out of his mind, his sanity certainly seems different than others, and he's aware of that, I read to page 109, and he talks about how intelligent and superior he is, because of how he is, and it certainly seems to border with insane the way he thinks of it. He is thrilled at the thought that he killed a white women and no one would think him capable of it. Another thing, is that bigger takes Mary purse with him after disposing of her body, and he finds 20 dollars lying around, Bigger gets 25 to 50 cents for a day, and makes with his new job, 25 dollars a week, Mary has nearly that much for walking around, another clear case that shows the differences in there status. I hope I have butchered this, I have no time to clean it up.

Reflection 1 Annie

This book, so far, is really weird. The character Bigger especially. It's like he's bipolar or something. His emotions seem far too wild and they change and swing without any order or reason. Without even being provoked, he pulls the knife on what's his face, that one guy and refuses to back down. It was really creepy. Then he's all, oh, I'm going to be calm down. When the Dalton's daughter is introduced, his opinion about her keeps changing. First he hates her, then he likes her, then he hates her again. I'm just on pg 86 or so, right after he smothered her with the pillow to get her to shut up, and that part was weird.

So I don't like his character very much.

Maybe, though, the character is supposed to be like that. I'm not sure about this, but wasn't the stereotype about blacks back then was that they were all over the place and emotional and stuff like that? Maybe Wright created Bigger to be a stereotypical black - even if that stereotype was wrong. He did it to prove that the idea about blacks was wrong and weird and unexplainable.

The Communist bit is convoluted too. When we were reading Huck Finn, we talked about the Marxist approach with things having to do with money and class and the like. There kind of seem to be two ways to look at this book from the Marxist standpoint. One, Bigger thinks that the Communists are bad and evil and not to be trusted. So Richard Wright could be trying to say the same thing and is trying to write a message against Communism. But at the same time, Wright could also be trying to say that Communism is a good thing. The first two Communists we meet are the daughter of Mr. Dalton - Mary, right? - and her friend, Jan. Both of them are young, friendly, nice, and likable. They want to help those who are in a less fortunate situation than them, like the blacks. So it seems like Wright is saying that Communism is, in fact, the way to go because it's fair for everyone and every race, and they people there are more friendly and better than the people who are Capitalists. So it seems to be a little bit of a conflicting message.

All in all, I haven't quite decided what I think of the book yet other than the fact that it's weird.

The Assignment and the How-To

Hi Everyone,
In order to post, you need to click that Blogger logo in the upper left corner.  See it? The orange box with the squiggly thing in it?  Then, click on the pencil next to your blog title.  That will allow you to write your post.  When you are done, click "Publish."

Here's Your Assignment:

One thing that we have said repeatedly in our class is that American literature is an ongoing conversation about a few central topics.  These topics are ingrained in our national narrative, the story of who we are as people.  This week, you will begin thinking about topics that connect to this American narrative, and these topics will become the focus of your research after winter break.

To get you started generating topics for research, use your lit circle books.  I'd like two written responses from you this week, both posted to your group blog.  I also expect you to read and respond to each others' posts.  If you were to type your response in Word first, it would be about a page.  DO NOT JUST ANSWER A LIST OF MY QUESTIONS.  Instead, generate two or three paragraphs on the questions that interest you most.  The questions to consider:

• What do you like best about your book?  What do you like least?
• What was the most powerful part of the text?  The most exciting?
• Which of our central questions (American dream/possessions, nature, race and equality, individual power, etc.) does your text address most thoroughly?
• What questions does this book raise for you?  What does it make you wonder?
• What are some topics that you could research (based on your book)?
• What place do you think your text has in the body of American literature?
• How does the text "talk back" to some of the authors we've already read?
• What do you know about the author of your book?  Are you curious to know more about the author's story?