Genre Blog Post: Short Fiction

In this last and final blog post I am going to focus on a very common theme that I have been working on the whole semester and I thought I should end on and thats dehumanization. I am going to Focus on this theme in the short story called Sexy by Jhumpa Lahiri. I feel like this theme can apply to this story in many ways. My prime example is just how Dev seems to be using Miranda only for sex and in the story it seems to be this way. For example, "The first Sunday she opened the door in the knee-length robe, but Dev didn't even notice it; he carried her over to the bed, wearing sweatpants and sneakers, and entered her without a word. Later, she slipped on the robe when she walked across the room to get him a saucer for his cigarette ashes, but he complained that she was depriving him of the sight of her long legs, and demanded that she remove it."(7). It things like this that shows that Miranda is just being used and to me thats an example of dehumanization.

I can relate this to other classes and other movies that come to mind. I think of back in my English class in 8th grade and we read a book about a girl who was in the sex trade. Even though these are completely different circumstances it did remind me of that. How woman are being used as objects for sexual pleasures. I also see this type of thing in Game of Thrones with the brothels and just having the woman there used as sex objects not real actual people.

When readong this story and using that quote I think it makes a pretty significant impact on Miranda throughout the story. I think she is double guessing herself as the story goes on and guys in general. For example she questioned when Rohin tells her shes beautiful. ""What does it mean?” “What?" "That word. 'Sexy.' What does it mean?" He looked down, suddenly shy. "I can't tell you." "Why not?" "It's a secret." He pressed his lips together, so hard that a bit of them went white. "Tell me the secret. I want to know." Rohin sat on the bed beside Miranda and began to kick the edge of the mattress with the backs of his shoes. He giggled nervously, his thin body flinching as if it were being tickled. "Tell me," Miranda demanded. She leaned over and gripped his ankles, holding his feet still." (16). I think this relationship she has with Dev is really putting her down and it shows. She's to me being used as a sex object in the cheating relationship. It doesnt seem to be more than that to me. they usually end up doing sexual things every time there together so later when she meets this new guy and realizes there might be other love out there compared to just having sex. She starts to double guess Dev. " "Do you remember that day we went to the Mapparium?" "Of course." "Do you remember how we whispered to each other?" "I remember," Dev whispered playfully. "Do you remember what you said?" There was a pause. "'Let's go back to your place.'" He laughed quietly. "Next Sunday, then?" The day before, as she'd cried,"(17) I think this shows the impact of this type of relationship can have on Miranda and I feel like she does feel dehumanized as she was used just for sexual purposes.

I think this story does show this problem of dehumanization but of a different scale compared to that I was discussing in other projects throughout the semester with slavery. I think this has another impact but can be categorized in the same subject. As Miranda was used as the sex object and never really caught up on it throughout the novel and when she did she started second guessing other men she saw and ultimately this type of action can leave a scar on this young woman's soul.

Beloved: Literary Analysis

My theme of Dehumanization is shown a significant amount throughout Uncle Toms Cabin and Beloved, however how they do these things are two different stories. In my last posts about Uncle Toms Cabin I made the claim that dehumanization plays a big factor in the novel but was not as bad as it actually was in real life. I had the impression that it was alittle soft on the subject and never got into the gritty details of the matter at hand. For example this quote from the book "He was possessed of a handsome person and pleasing manners, and was a general favorite in the factory. Nevertheless, as this young man was in the eye of the law not a man, but a thing, all these superior qualifications were subject to the control of a vulgar, narrow-minded, tyrannical master. This same gentleman, having heard of the fame of George's invention, took a ride over to the factory, to see what this intelligent chattel had been about. He was received with great enthusiasm by the employer, who congratulated him on possessing so valuable a slave.
He was waited upon over the factory, shown the machinery by George, who, in high spirits, talked so fluently, held himself so erect, looked so handsome and manly, that his master began to feel an uneasy consciousness of inferiority. What business had his slave to be marching round the country, inventing machines, and holding up his head among gentlemen? He'd soon put a stop to it. He'd take him back, and put him to hoeing and digging, and "see if he'd step about so smart." (10) I feel like this quote shows what Im talking about the best. Its a example of where they do treat George horrible for the work he has been providing and just throw him aside like a used machine. However like I said, I feel like its not as bad as it could be. In Beloved I feel like this was a different story. I feel like Toni Morrison wanted to make sure that you felt the horrors of slavery and really made you feel the pain that they went through. Quotes like  "But then they shoved him into the box and dropped the cage door down, his hands quit taking instruction."(126) and  "Nobody could make it alone. Not only because trappers picked them off like buzzards or netted them like rabbits, but also because you couldn't run if you didn't know how to go." (159) This shows the direct relationship between the animals and the people that are the slaves. This shows that the people see the slaves just like the animals. The author uses this as a direct relationship to show that they are doing the same things to the slaves, that they do to the animals. This really shows the characteristics that I am talking about. Treating these people like animals or pieces of property and not human beings which is really shown in Beloved.  As I have said before that in our fishbowl discussion during Uncle Toms Cabin we did bring up this issue on how We had not felt that wow moment yet and then questioned if we would feel this in a distant future in the novel. However we never got that feeling. In our discussion of Beloved I feel we didn't go over it as much as I thought we would however I think we would of all agreed that we felt that multiple times throughout the novel. Then also in Beloved we talked about the idea of home and that as a slave there is no place where you can feel like your at home. Which I feel is really hard because you never felt secure and I feel like you can put this under that category of dehumanization because you cant live that normal life. Your always on the run and you always felt looked down upon your peers and that life will keep on haunting you as being that piece of property and that is just as bad as being treated as a piece of property. I feel like the essay I wrote about and read in my first post comparing Beloved to that other novel really shows the  message and I finally got that "Oh Shit" moment Ive been waiting for since Uncle Toms Cabin and I feel in Beloved it brings that and that essay brings it more, explaining little details I took for granted which have a deeper meaning and understanding which I really appreciated. 

Beloved: Reader Response

In this post I am going to explore different reviews on different websites and see what other people had to say about the book itself and what their thoughts of it were.

GoodReads- On here it gives the book a 3.76 out of 5 stars. Which is okay. I see mutliple reviews that are good like usual but there was some themes that people mentioned but used them for good and bad reasons. For this review it was a negative one and I found it interesting because someone said the samethings but gave the book a good review because of it.:

I don't give books low marks lightly. If anything, I am prone to being carried away by the author's enthusaism and rate books more highly than they deserve. I am an aspiring author, myself, and that also leads me to be kind to the books.

That being said, I really hated this book.

I like fantasy and magical realism. I find the dreams and allegories that live just underneath the skin of the world we can more readily see and touch endlessly fascinating. I like my stories intense and emotional, and I like it when characters are so full of passion that it obscures their sense of the world around them.

That being said, I really hated this book.

I found Beloved incomprehensible to the point of absurdity. It's one thing to have a book that is full of magic and poetry or to have a character's passion overwhelm their ability to describe the world from time to time, but I also need to know what is going on. For the story to grab me, I need to know what the story is.

Did I mention that I really hated this book?

I know it's trendy to read Toni Morrison, but I recommend this book to absolutely no one. I found it a borderline insulting waste of my time.

Barnes and Noble-
On this website they have it 4 out of 5 stars which seems to be the overall trend of things. Either people said it was a good book or whenever there was a lower review it talked about how confusing it was just like the review about in Goodreads. Heres what this review had to say:

Overall I had a hard time with this book. It was a very slow read for me, often talking itself in circles and leaving me confused. Still, I found the story very interesting and thought provoking. I felt awful for Sethe and her family and for the trials they had to endure. Even though, as I mentioned above, I felt that the 'slavery' theme often got overshadowed, I was still struck by the awful fact that slavery did exist (still exists some places in the world) and just how awful it was. Even the "good" slave owners (of "Sweet Home" where Sethe ran from) were despicable and made me shrink in shame.

It was a good book, but hard to read. I don't know how good the movie was, but if it's true enough to the book, I might recommend watching that rather than trying to push through the book.

Still, it's worth reading if only to get a new insight into the world of slavery and racism that raged (and still lingers) in America and the world.

Amazon-

On here the overall rating is good just like the other websites. On here its overall ratings is 4.1 stars out of 5 which is really good. Most of these reviews on here are 5 stars and the have nothing but good things to say about the novel. But it does say again that its still difficult to read and heres a 5 star rating but they talk about this issue that I've been seeing in the reviews. 

I found that I needed to understand the genuine horrors of slavery before I could understand this book. You have to know why Sethe does what she does before you can grasp her actions. Toni Morrison makes that difficult to do . . . maybe she doesn't want anyone to read it who isn't prepared to give their souls to it. So be prepared not to read in your usual way. They aren't just words to be taken in at your normal pace. You'll read, and re-read, and break it down, accept it, then go back and read it again. We all should be changed by this book

Overall I had a hard time with this book. It was a very slow read for me, often talking itself in circles and leaving me confused. Still, I found the story very interesting and thought provoking. I felt awful for Sethe and her family and for the trials they had to endure. Even though, as I mentioned above, I felt that the 'slavery' theme often got overshadowed, I was still struck by the awful fact that slavery did exist (still exists some places in the world) and just how awful it was. Even the "good" slave owners (of "Sweet Home" where Sethe ran from) were despicable and made me shrink in shame. 

It was a good book, but hard to read. I don't know how good the movie was, but if it's true enough to the book, I might recommend watching that rather than trying to push through the book. 

Still, it's worth reading if only to get a new insight into the world of slavery and racism that raged (and still lingers) in America and the world.

Beloved: Contemporary Connections

When looking at the biggest issue of dehumanization of African Americans in 2017, I think the most prolific issue has been police brutality and our criminal justice system. This can be seen from both sides especially through groups like Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter. In today's America we face this issue and looking at it through Uncle Toms Cabin and Beloved shows me how both sides tend to view this issue. As looking at it through my topic, I used the theme of dehumanization and I said in my other projects that to me this issue wasn't described as horrible as it really was. Almost like just scratching the surface, especially for an anti-slavery novel. Then with Beloved it goes into the details and not overemphasize it but really giving a point. I can see this seen in today's version of the police brutality and the dehumanization that is seen with it. Through the Black Lives Matter movement you can see that there message is going to be put through with a point just like Beloved. You can see this with the media as well. If you want to sell a story you want to make it interesting, so you make it sound a lot worse than maybe it was. Where they dont want us to forget these things that are happening and they want to make it sound really bad and that's the message they want to bring. Then with lets say with Police you could say that they are the Uncle Toms Cabin in which with these instances they kinda glaze over these incidents. Now whether or not these things are true or whatever happened or who initiated these incidents to happen will have to talked about at a different time however this is what I see when looking at today's issues through these two books.



http://www-lexisnexis-com.ezproxy.uwc.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr&csi=6742&sr=HEADLINE(Funeral+Is+Held+for+Brooklyn+Teenager+Killed+by+Police)%2BAND%2BDATE%2BIS%2B2013

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Race of the American Novel Project: Beloved/Critical Commentary

I read a peer reviewed text that talks about dehumanization of these slaves in "Beloved" as well of another book called "Bacchae" by Soyinka. This essay goes over comparisons between these two novels on how these novels showed characteristics of dehumanization and why these authors used them in particular ways. For example, in the text it says "The works of the two modern writers and Nobel laureates Morrison and Soyinka unveil the malaise about the past of the African diaspora. They treat slavery as a crime against humanity and dramatize how dreadfully it undermines physical capacity, individuality, and dignity. Elaine Scarry (1985, p. 29) gives voice, in The Body in Pain, to pain and examines the body as a product of inscription"(90). I think it adds a deeper understanding on the motives and messages Toni Morrison is trying to bring to the novel. In this essay they continue to go over different instances where they show the theme of dehumanization. Later in the article it continues to give more and more examples that go along with the theme and showing how horrifying Morison made slavery. So with this article it helped me understand the motives Toni Morrison might of had when writing all these different instances where the novel goes over dehumanization, and I would have to agree with the articles logic. When reading it, it helped me understand more of that motive Morrison had when writing the book and makes me realize how much impact it now has on how I look back on the novel. For example the article goes over this instance " According to Morrison, millions of Africans were caught in the Middle Passage. Those who died were denied burial and mourning. The unburied body is a prime example of the Lacanian real, and Lacan calls the tomb the first human symbol. Morrison (1987) deals with the relation between dead bodies and their tombs, between the real and the symbolic. Beloved, her self, is a walking reminder of the improperly buried"(92). I never thought of this while reading the book but when reading this article it sheds a whole new light and perspective that I didn't see in the novel which makes more sense to me now when I would look back at it. So it made me understand those hidden messages in the novel that I didn't pick up while just reading it and everything they bring up makes sense to me and brings the novel into a new light.


Source: http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.uwc.edu/stable/25704096?seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents