Genre Blog: Short Fiction

“Drown” by Junot Diaz is a short story about a man who’s trying to find himself and ultimately questioning his orientation with other males after an incident with his best friend. This leads to the theme of sexuality throughout the story.

We first really start to see this on page 1672, when the main character justifies how worried he was that people wouldn’t look at him the same. He states, “Mostly I would stay in the basement, terrifies that I would end up abnormal, a fucking pato.” He also says, “Twice. That’s it.” as if he has to make sure people know he’s not gay, it just happened two times and it was a complete mistake.

Another one of the passages that show this the most is on page 1673 after he almost gets caught doing stuff with his best friend. “He was laughing, but I was saying, Fuck this, and getting my clothes on.” This quote suggests how scared he was that someone would find out what they did and that he wanted to end anything that may have been going on between them. The language of this passage implies that he was mad and wanted to get out of the situation as soon as possible.

This passage gave us insight to why he didn’t want to see Beto, even though he was really good friends with him. This passage also leads us to see how confused he may be about his sexuality because he wasn’t making Beto stop but the thought of getting caught scared him. He didn’t want anyone to find out, especially his father.

This story may connect to the LGBT movement that’s going on right now and it even may relate to someone going through a similar situation. The story also shows many other themes, such as dealing with abandonment, suppression, control, or even culture differences, each of the themes in this story leads to another. Diaz wrote a very controversial and relatable story to many people, which is what makes it such a great work.

Literary Context Presentaion: Jhumpa Lahiri

For my literary context presentation, I researched Jhumpa Lahiri. One of the most interesting aspects that I found was that she was born in London to Bengali Indian Immigrants and when she was only three they moved to the United States. She is an author of several different works, one being the Interpreter of Maladies, which was published in 1999 and won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

A lot of her stories are about exile- people living far from home or moving to new places. In an interview with The Atlantic, she explains that she finds interest in imagining characters shifting from one situation and one location to another for whatever the circumstance may be. She stated that oftentimes when someone grows up the child of an immigrant, they are always very conscious of what it might mean to be suddenly uprooted. This helps us understand where some of her ideas come from while she was writing her works.

Specifically, it is shown throughout the Interpreter of Maladies, which is a book collection of nine short stories. The fifth short story in the collection is called “Sexy” which we interpreted in class. It’s about a young white woman who has an affair with a married Indian man and is set in present day Boston. It’s a story about learning from mistakes and how our own decisions can influence others. Some of the themes include infidelity, the true differences between 'love' and 'lust,’ judgment and perspectives, relationships, and morality.

There are also many conflicts in the story, a few of these including an affair, secrets, self-image, culture, and even gender. The conflict that I wanted to look deeper into was culture, and one of the passages from the short story that displays this is on page 1651. It’s is when Miranda asks Dev a question, to pursue learning more about him and where he’s from, but he just kind of ignored her and never gave her an answer. He threw it off like he though she really didn’t care about him or his background, which proves the relationship was one-sided. Another passage that displays culture issues is on page 1654 when they went to the Mapparium. This is a significant part of the story because it makes it seem like there is a whole nother world Miranda doesn’t know about. A quote that supports this is, “He explained that many of the countries, like Siam and Italian Somaliland, no longer existed in the same way; the names had changed by now.” It shows how much Dev knows compared to her and how she is not very worldly and he is, which is simply what creates this conflict.

Works Cited:

Jhumpa Lahiri." Jhumpa Lahiri. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2017.

Chotiner, Isaac. "Jhumpa Lahiri." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media

Company, 18 Mar. 2008. Web. 10 May 2017.

Literary Analysis

Throughout Beloved and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the dehumanization of slaves leads to issues with how they carry themselves after escaping and the underlying psychological problems that follow them through life. Dehumanization ultimately shows how large of an effect slavery had on African Americans and how it could haunt them for their whole life. This is represented by various events in both of the books, some of these examples in Beloved include when Sethe had her milk stolen and was severely beaten and when Paul D, along with the rest of the slaves, had less freedom than a rooster on the plantation. Some of the examples in Uncle Tom’s Cabin are similar to what I previously stated in the first part of the project, which was when George Harris was taken away from working at a job he was really good at and when Tom was practically beaten to death. Each novel depicts dehumanization in a different way, but each shows the similar consequences it has on society.

One of the most eye-opening ways dehumanization was displayed in Beloved was when Sethe had her milk stole and was severely beaten by Schoolteacher’s nephews. This had a large effect on the main character considering how often it’s brought up in the novel and how it was one of the main factors that caused her to run away. Sethe described what happened as, “I am full God damn it of two boys with mossy teeth, one sucking on my breast and the other holding me down, their book-reading teacher watching and writing it up,” (Morrison, 83). Then after this happened, Sethe went to Mrs. Garner to tell on them, and as soon as the boys found out, they beat Sethe with cowhide and made a scar the shape of a tree on her back. On top of it all, her husband, Halle, watched it happen from the loft above and wasn’t able to do anything about it. This is dehumanizing on so many levels because Sethe was treated more like an animal than a human having her milk sucked out of her breasts and then being whipped so hard that she had a huge scar, no woman should be unable to take care of their child because of such a traumatic event like this. Then the fact that Halle had to sit and watch because there was nothing he could do about it made everything worse. It’s wrong that Halle was deprived of the right to speak up while something like this was going on.

Another huge example of dehumanization in Beloved was when the book talked about how Paul D, along with the other slaves, had less freedom than a rooster on the plantation. When Mr. Garner was in control, the men had some freedom. Mr. Garner had stated, “Y’all got boys. Now at Sweet Home, my niggers is men everyone of em. Bought em thataway, raised em thataway. Men every one,” (Morrison, 12). Then after Garner’s death, Schoolteacher took over and took away every freedom from the slaves. He introduced whipping, torture, and humiliation. He often made them feel less than human. At one point he stated, “Mister, he looked so.. Free. Better than me. He was allowed to be and stay what he was. But I wasn’t allowed to be and stay what I was. Even if you cooked him you’d be cooking a rooster named Mister,” (Morrison, 86). In the book, the rooster represented masculinity to the Sweet Home men because even as a rooster, whose name was Mister, he had more power than them. Schoolteacher changed them for eternity by beating them down and making them feel less important and ultimately less than a human. This was one of the events that made Paul D long for freedom more than ever before. It’s sad to think that a person would ever feel that a rooster had more importance and more freedom than oneself, this is dehumanizing on so many levels because no animal should ever be freer than a human is.

The example in Uncle Tom’s Cabin that I have previously used took place after George Harris was hired out to a bagging factory. George was promoted very fast and became one of the best workers; he even invented a machine for cleaning hemp. Word eventually got out that George created such a machine and “All these superior qualifications were subject to the control of a vulgar, narrow-minded, tyrannical master” (Stowe, 11). His master hated the idea that George might be better at something than he is and didn’t like the idea of his slave “holding up his head among gentlemen” (Stowe, 11). Mr. Harris ended up demanding George’s wages and declared that he was going to take him home. He immediately ended George’s career at the factory and returned to the plantation for a life of hoeing and digging. He also restricted George from seeing his family on a normal basis. This portrays the theme of dehumanization because it took away George's right to a rather normal life, including the little bit of freedom he had while working at this job. It also took away his right to see his family on a regular basis.

Another obvious example of dehumanization in the novel I also previously mentioned is when Tom was beaten practically to death for not abiding by what Master Legree wanted. After Cassy and Emmeline escape, Legree was unable to take his wrath out on them and directed his anger towards Tom. He suspected that Tom knew something about the girl’s escape and after Tom’s refusal to speak about the subject he went mad trying to get information from him. The book stated, “‘Well Tom!’ said Legree, walking up, and seizing him grimly by the collar of his coat, and speaking through his teeth, in a paroxysm of determined rage, ‘do you know I’ve made up my mind to KILL you’” (Stowe, 375). Tom, the religious man that he had come to be told Legree that he’d rather die than tell him any information he may have known, which made Legree’s temper flare-up even more. He ended up beating poor Tom through the night and then ordered Sambo and Quimbo to continue the beating. Tom remained righteous through the end and hoped for salvation. This depicts dehumanization because it was restricting Tom from living free from cruel and unusual punishment.

When comparing the two novels, Beloved has a very different way of showing the negative effects of slavery than Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In Beloved, Morrison went about it by showing that the effects of slavery will always come back to haunt anyone that was apart of it. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Stowe went about it by displaying how the whole system of slavery never lead to anything positive.

Dehumanization is very significant in these two novels and is ultimately the driving force between both of them. Morrison and Stowe both made a significant contribution to history by writing novels that could change a ton of people’s perspective on such a large topic.

Works Cited:

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Vintage Books, 2004. Print.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin. Ed. Elizabeth Ammons. New York: Norton, 2010. Print.

Reader Response

After looking into all the reviews of Beloved, I realized that the book was fairly popular between everyone who read it and one of the only reasons people didn’t like it was due to the difficulty level it had. The book was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, which shows that the novel was an outstanding piece of work.

While reading through reviews on Goodreads, I found that people who read this book either hated it or loved it- no in between. The average rating of the novel on this website is a 3.76 out of 5 stars. There was a variety of comments on the book, but most people liked how Morrison wrote an “American Horror Novel” that showed the horrors of American slavery. One of the commenters who gave it five stars stated, “To me, great horror has the scary element (e.g., a ghost) and then, lurking behind it, something so vast and evil that trying to think about it can make you go insane. Beloved did that!” I agree that Morrison did an excellent job writing a book that could give any readers goosebumps from fear of what the slaves had to go through. Most of the people who left one or two-star ratings felt that it was hard to read or just didn’t like the whole story line of the novel, which I believe is only partially true- the book was hard to read, but the story behind it was still magnificent.

While looking at the reviews on Barnes and Noble, I found the average was 4 out of 5 stars. This website had a large of a variety of ratings. Someone who left a four-star rating stated, “Morrison's brilliant masterpiece transposes the mind of the reader into the time of the Civil War, where escaped slaves are continuously disturbed by their precedent.” This comment is the perfect way to describe the book, I think it’s amazing how Morrison wrote a story about a haunting in slavery but put a bigger picture behind all of it. Just like on Goodreads, the people who didn’t like Beloved felt it was too difficult to read.

The reviews on Amazon were the most supportive, the average rating was 4.1 out of 5 stars. This is the highest out of all three websites, the comments I found were more positive than anything. The first review that I read stated, “A truly great book. Its message resonates louder now than ever.” This person had left a five-star rating and also said the story was outstanding because of it wasn’t just about their suffering, but about persevering through the insufferable. This evaluation of the novel goes right along with the trend of other reviews, most people felt that no other author could write such a jaw-dropping story using the “magical realism” that she did.

Overall, I agreed with almost all the comments about Beloved and I would personally give it a four-star review only because of how difficult it was to follow at some points. Besides the difficulty of reading it, the ultimate lesson behind the words on the pages was unyielding, and I enjoyed reading the novel. When comparing Beloved and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, I think Beloved had more positive reviews between all the sites.

Work Cited:
Morrison, Toni. "Beloved." Goodreads. Web. 6 May 2017.

Morrison, Toni. "Beloved." Barnes & Noble. Web. 6 May 2017.

"Customer Reviews." Amazon. Web. 6 May 2017.

Contemporary Connections

Although people have been fighting for equal rights for centuries, it’s still a very prevalent issue throughout America with many diverse groups of individuals. Some of these include the LGBT Movement, the Feminist Movement, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and even the Blue Lives Matter Movement.

The movements that I could relate my theme to the most to is a mix between the Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter. There have been many issues between cops and African Americans that has been resulted in riots, shootings, and even senseless deaths. African Americans are arguing that cops or whites, in general, are dehumanizing them and profiling all of them as a negative part of society.

One of the articles I found on this topic was called “Blacks and Cops” written by Steve Byas, and coincidentally it’s about a black sheriff who gives his no-nonsense perspective on relations between blacks and police. David Clarke joined the police force at a young age and rose steadily through the ranks, being promoted to detective, on to lieutenant of detectives, to the police captain, and finally as commander of the first district. Then in January 2002, he became the Sheriff of Milwaukee County. The article talks about the book that Clarke wrote, called Cop Under Fire: Moving Beyond Hashtags of Race, Crime, & Politics for a Better America. In this book Clarke talks about the brief history of the Black Lives Matter Movement and how it’s based on the wrong premise that white cops are driving around, looking for blacks to harass, and even shoot. He states, “The bottom line is this: If you stop when a cop tells you to stop, and if you don’t point a gun at a cop or try to fight them, you’ll probably survive your encounter with the police.” He even talks about the cases of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice, and he explains to readers the lessons of each of them. Most of his book is written in defense of local law enforcement, but he does discuss some of the other issues. This is one of the perspectives of a cop and how he feels about the movement, but there are many others views taken on a topic like this.

The next article I found takes a different approach to the topic and is called “Policing the Colony” written by Chris Hayes. It offered information on violence and issues regarding compliance throughout the city. One of the main things that it highlights is the case where victim Michael Brown was shot to death by the police on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri. It talks about Section 29-16(1) of the municipal code of the city of Ferguson, Missouri and how it codifies the fact that it is a crime to “fail to comply with the lawful order or request of a police officer in the discharge of the officer’s official duties.” Ferguson cops routinely issue orders that have no legal basis and then arrest citizens who refuse those orders for “failure to comply.” During a protest in Ferguson in 2014, cops even went as far as tear gassing people who were standing in their yards because they “refused to comply” and wouldn’t go inside their homes. The author then goes to question if this is acceptable and if officers have the right to do something like this. There are many other aspects to this article, but it ultimately questions if cops are taking advantage of their “power” and categorizing all African Americans as bad parts of a community.

There is a significant connection that I see between these two articles and Beloved and Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The articles prove that even now blacks feel as if they aren’t being treated unfairly. African Americans are often arguing that they are dehumanized and feel as if they don’t have the same rights as everyone else, but many officers would deny unfair treatment. It’s hard to say who’s in the right or the wrong, but it’s easy to understand where each side is coming from. The readings from these novels may affect how we think about this issue because we now know more about what slaves went through, and it opened our eyes to how much African Americans went through to get where they are today. These novels helped me personally realize that they have fought so hard to get where they are they deserve more than what is given to them.

The movement is very controversial and has multiple aspects to it. I touched both sides of the movement because there are always two sides to every story. It could be very true that cops are unfair towards African Americans and don’t give them the rights that they deserve, but it could also be true that some officers are only doing what they feel is best for society.

Works Cited:

Byas, Steve. "Blacks and Cops." New American (08856540), vol. 33, no. 7,

03 Apr. 2017, pp.29-30. EBSCOhost.

Hayes, Chris. "POLICING the COLONY. (Cover Story)." Nation, vol. 304,

no. 13, 17 Apr. 2017, pp.12-18. EBSCOhost.

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Vintage Books, 2004. Print.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin. Ed. Elizabeth Ammons. New
York: Norton, 2010. Print.

Critical Commentary

The scholarly essay on Beloved that I found was called, “The ‘scent of ink’: Toni Morrison’s Beloved and the semiotics of rights” by Elizabeth S. Anker. The essay starts by summarizing Beloved and describes the book as “one of the most widely read and taught novels of the twentieth century.” The essay also provides examples from the book to strengthen the argument that the novel produces a “semiotic of rights.”

Anker explains that rather than staging an unqualified appeal for civil or human rights, the novel casts suspicion on the related constructs of rights, freedom, and self-determination. Meaning that instead of the book pleading that African Americans should get equal rights, it questions the corresponding constitutional rights, freedom, and self-willpower that the slaves should be able to have.

One of the main points of the essay was how unexpected it was for the book to depict a mixed feeling status of writing and textuality. In other words, the essay confronts how bold it was for Morrison to almost talk poorly about paper and ink, due to how it could destabilize the supports of the book’s narration. She did this by having the characters be unbearable to the scent and sound of paper and ink, but also use this equipment to provoke their troubling flashbacks to slavery. The essay then provides examples of this throughout the book, which includes how one of Sethe’s primary triggers is the ‘scent of ink’ (p.6) and how Paul D is unhinged by ‘notebook paper.’ Anker then describes how Schoolteacher’s worst punishment was just to involve writing and forms of education to create and inflict the violence of slavery. The essay states, “Within Beloved the technologies of writing and the corresponding definition of the human that they augur directly sanction the institution of slavery.”

The author of this paper interprets many parts of the book in ways that I would have never thought of, which tremendously adds to my understanding of Beloved. One of these interpretations is on Schoolteacher’s notetaking. The quote from the book that Anker breaks down is, “I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; her animals ones on the right” (p.229). The essay describes this “assigning and cataloging of ‘characteristics’” as fulfilling two goals, which are “first, to calculate her financial worth as property and, second, as evidence in Schoolteacher’s lessons in scientific racism.” The author then says how his method of teaching ends up portraying the partnership between property and the semiotics of rights, showing how the character’s theories not only work together to condone slavery but completely force it. This helped me understand why Morrison brought in the idea of Schoolteacher always taking notes on the slaves into the novel. I always thought the character did this because he wanted to learn more about the differences between races, but it makes more sense that he would do this to appraise them and use it to prove that whites are better than blacks.

I completely agree with all of the author’s interpretations because of how much they added to my ideas of why Morrison included certain parts in the novel. I believe this text was very eye-opening to someone else's thoughts on a novel that can be broken down to mean so many different things. I like how Anker provided an abundance of examples in the book and used each of them to prove that the book displays a semiotic of rights. Overall, I enjoyed reading this essay that dove into the novel and even connected it to my theme of dehumanization.

Work Cited:
Anker, Elizabeth S. "The 'Scent of Ink': Toni Morrison's Beloved and the Semiotics of Rights." Critical
Quarterly, vol. 56, no. 4, Dec. 2014, pp. 29-45. EBSCOhost.

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Vintage International, 1987, 2004. Print.

Race and the American Novel Project --- Project Part 2: Beloved

Diving deeper into the theme of dehumanization and relating it to another book, Beloved by Toni Morrison.