Journal #7: Abolitionist Poetry

In Frances E. W. Harper’s poem “The Slave Mother” I spotted a ton of imagery in this poem. Not just imagery in the visual sense, but also auditory. With imagery the reader is supposed to experience in his or her own mind what picture and scene the author is painting. In Harper’s poem the very first line is a perfect example of imagery, “Heard you that shriek?” (Harper pg. 1231). Automatically I hear in my head, not a yell, not a shout, because to me those words of despair have a heavier tone, but I heard a shriek; a blood wrenching, high pitched shriek. To me that tells that this is a sad poem and I’m supposed to be feeling sympathy or empathy for the author or characters in the poem. As I read this poem towards the end Harper is describing the pain and misery a slave mother is feeling as her child is being taken away from her. Harper uses more auditory imagery by using “His lightest word has been a tone of music around her heart” (Harper pg. 1232). Used as a metaphor, I can still imagine and hear as the reader the joy of music that is compared to her son’s voice in her mind and heart. This tells me that the boy is the light and joy of this mother’s world. The last verse now ends with another shriek as the son and the mother are torn apart. I can hear as the poem reads “No marvel, then, these bitter shrieks disturb the listening air: she is a mother, and her heart is breaking in despair” (Harper 1232). As the poem starts and as the poem ends I can sense auditory imagery as I hear the mother shrieking in pain as her son is taken away from her forever. Harper is persuading her audience or reform in that no mother should have to feel the pain of having her child rip from the heart and physical grasp of the love she has for that child. If this slave were to be a white woman, she would not have to proceed with any government law, proceeding or injunction that she had to have her child taken away for monetary purposes and that the fact that her skin is different. I think Harper telling this narrative is a moral suasion for the audience to feel in order for there to be sympathy to then in return find a social reform of children not being taken away from their mothers. It’s interesting because in the text it says “He is not hers, although she bore for him a mother’s pains; he is not hers, although her blood is coursing through his veins” (Harper pg. 1231). This is a huge hit at what reform should happen in that a child should not be taken away! The blood of this child is the mother’s, yet because of the law that the mother is slave, therefor a child is, the child belongs to the law and that child can be taken anywhere. I think Harper uses this imagery to convey to the audience pathos of how no mother should have to go through that pain.

Journal #6

What I found to be the most interesting was not only the depiction of race throughout Jacobs’ “Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl” but also the gender roles women okay throughout he story. Jacobs describes that men who owned women slaves kept their dark secrets of affairs with their slaves away from their wives because of the destruction it would cause to the family and the member of society. I found it so interesting that, from what I understood, men found slaves to be the women that they never have had and forced them to be the women they never wanted to be. The girls never wanted to be a slave, but because of births of the color they have they must be one and because of their gender it makes it even worse. The power behind the men and how they treated their slaves was absurd. They would make them have intercourse, beat them, frighten them anything, but they would never do so to their beautiful, white wife.  During Jacobs’ story the role of women changes slightly. She finds freedom and from a women, Mrs. Bruce, but women were still going to be treated unequal to men, despite the gender they have. Mrs. Bruce does no conform to society; she gives freedom to a black woman, which is completely uncalled for! She is resisting this role for change and for one day that all women can be free, no matter what their color. What I found so interesting was on page 777, that Jacobs describes, what I think she is describing the American woman. “If slavery had been abolished, I, also, could have married the man of my choice; I could have had a home shielded by the laws…” (Jacobs). It so interesting because she is describing the American woman as being free and choosing the man that she so wishes. Jacobs is a women, but she is not free so she has to put up with her masters telling her who she can and can’t marry. But I love how she tells her master that she can do whatever she wants in the story. She is proclaiming her identity as this women that she thinks she ought to be, but hr owner beats her and tells her no. But, its fascinating that she keeps fighting for what she wants and that is freedom and a husband. That is an American women role as well, a fighter. Jacobs continues to fight her fight in her story not only as a slave into freedom but a women into the powerful being she was put on earth to be.

Journal #5: The Theme

The theme I found in the readings by Apess and Sigourney was annihilation. The two focus on the suppression of the Native American race and the mistreatment of that race when the Europeans came over to take over their land and claim it as theirs. I absolutely love “An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man.” I find that the title summarizes the entry so clearly and it’s almost comical. An Indian is making a looking glass for a white man, giving the reader the impression that a white man is too clearly ignorant to understand for himself how to understand the Indian race, so one must make a looking glass for him to look through to understand is disposition. I believe I share similar beliefs with my peers that Jesus never discriminated based on color of skin, he looked at the souls of those he was serving. Apess makes it so very clear that why would a race (white) that prides itself in Christianity, not follow exactly as to what the leader of the religion taught them to do? I believe this entry is  a pioneering concept that takes the context of the Bible into his time period and applies it to the greedy, white settlers and it can also be applied to our generation as well. I really enjoyed reading this entry because I agreed with him so much on his rhetorical analysis of the teaching of Jesus and pressed questions onto the white man to consider why they  are discriminating so much. As  for Sigourney, I believe “Indian Names” shares the same theme as did Apess’ entry. Sigourney, though, touches on topics of esthetics of America and how everything that has been named was named by the very mere people that the pioneers kicked out. How awful would it be to have a land that is all your own, name it, tend to it, worship it and live with it as much as you live in it and then to have a stranger come in and literally strip you of it. That is really the theme here in “Indian Names” is that all the beauty in “the new world” was created by the Native Americans. She wishes to, in this poem, address that she sees the beauty, the names, the sounds, the colors and the life of the land that the Indians did see and she appreciates it so much more than the people who robbed them of their land. “To a Shred of Linen” was more difficult for me to understand, but after re-reading it I found the theme that matches with the other two. In the poem she addresses a “rustic lover” and how the damsel works at her wheel. I think the “rustic lover” represents the group of Europeans that claimed all the Indian land and the wife represents the Indians. The Indians worked so hard to keep the land beautiful and all the pioneers could see when they came to claim the land was how rich they could become by taking it all. Another line that caught my attention was the line “They brown complexion bleach’s?” I believe here, Sigourney is trying to convey that the Indians have had their skin “bleached” by the wave of pioneers. The Indians have changed or really disappeared from the land they once knew. I also think the line at the very end “So shall thine end be better than thy birth…” Sigourney is conveying here that she hopes the “end” of America is better than the birth of America, meaning she hopes that when the time must come for this country to end she hopes that it does not end how it started with discrimination, war, hierarchy or death upon the Native American race. The overall theme of annihilation is expressed throughout these three passages by explaining the discrimination and robbery the Native Americans had to endure during this time period.

Journal #4 -- The Explication

An element of fiction that I caught onto in “The Tenth of January” was the presence of irony. As the story is following the life of Asenath, we pity her. She is, by social standards, ugly due to her physical presence and Asenath ponders her existence. She struggles with her love for Dick and torment from other girls. The piece of irony I find the most interesting is the prediction of her death. On just a normal day she wakes up and feels a calm, peaceful presence on her, something that she usually does not wake to. I find it so interesting to read this line “There was a future to be settled, but she would not trouble herself about that just now” (pg. 13). The irony behind this day is this day is the day she is finally put to rest of all hate, pity and shallowness. It’s so interesting that such a character can wake up and “feel” something about the day and as the plot and climax rises, we see she in fact “feeling” the sense of peace as she is swallowed by the fire. What I find so interesting is that this story mirrors out everyday lives as well. We wake up starting the day, doing our usual routine, but when something interrupts that routine we have to track our steps back thinking, “if I didn’t take those extra 10 minutes to make breakfast I might have avoided this situation” or to more dramatic instances like Asenath, we wish we could express our love for someone, but it takes an extra step in our day and dignity to do so. All it takes are actions to make this world and our country work and I believe that is also what Phelps is trying to convey as well, is that the small things we do with people could potentially alter the course of their path.

ENGL 20503 Post #3

I think what Irving’s short story, “The Wife” says about American values regarding marriage is that through the promise made at the wedding ceremony, the promise does and will last. In America today divorce is such at a high rate, but there is still a valuable American idea of marriage, that through thin and thick a marriage can and will last. Even through poverty stricken times, which Irving writes about, the love, devotion, understanding and affection a couple has for each other through the hard times will prevail. When it comes to women with American values, this short story still frames a woman as a delicate, understanding, warm-hearted being that can prevail through a hard time with a smile on her face and devotion to her husband. I think is beautiful, but also a part of me thinks that why can’t a women get mad at this situation too? In this context she is submissive to her husband and dependent on his income for her happiness, but what if she had her own income, like she was living now? I would be pretty dang mad about having to step down from a two salary house to one, but what I do agree on is that love does prevail and through this short story that is made clear. Economically this story states that American values hold true that you can’t succeed without some monetary goods, but this story again shows that through love one can succeed far greater things. I like how he addresses how pride is something that tears a man apart more rather than the fact that he is losing his money. That is an American value that encompasses all these ideas of marriage, women and economics.

ENGL 20503 Post #2

I think what we read about the advancement of the print culture in America was fascinating. I am in the journalism school here and we’ve briefly touched on the subject of the invention of the printing press, who invented it and the basic icons of the advancement of print, but I’ve never read anything like this before and I really enjoyed it. I think taking away all that I have read in this section will be beneficial to me as I advance in my career. If in further discussion history of print culture comes up, I have some knowledge of what’s going on. I find it so interesting the magnitude of influence Benjamin Franklin had in this era. Although, I have heard sleezy things that Mr. Franklin was like as a character, it doesn’t defeat the notion of how influential he was in creating this American ideal of education. I appreciate that even today as a student and young journalist in America that he would be so willing to pursue our right to the First Amendment and give future generations that right to exercise it in such a way where we are free from tyranny and persecution if we said something that might offend another party. Overall, I really enjoyed this selection of reading for today. I enjoy expanding my knowledge of American history through the eyes of literature.