Thursday March 23rd Genre Blog:
                                         Lady Lazarus By Sylvia Plath

                     Lady Lazarus throughout shows the theme of Suffering.

In Lady Lazarus, the person in the poem has a lot of emotional connection with the author Sylvia Plath. The way she expresses the poem and the word choice she uses forms an idea that she is very unhappy and is suffering.
                  I have done it again.
                 One year in every ten
                  I manage it-
                  (Plath 1418)

                  Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.
                  The first time it happened I was ten.
                  It was an accident.
                  (Plath 1419)

                  For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge
                  For the hearing of my heart-
                  It really goes.
                  (Plath 1420)

These quotes grab my attention and shows that the "Lady Lazarus" that she is describing is not happy and suffering in many ways.

In class we discussed the idea of what Lady Lazarus means. That it is a strong religious symbol, dealing with "Jesus restoring him to life four days after his death" and "to a cat with nine lives" (Plath 1419) . Christ and "the most irresistible enemy of humanity-death" which we see a lot of in this poem.
                                         
We had a classmate present the Literary Context presentation on Confessional Poetry which we learned a lot about the author Sylvia Plath and her rough past. Her father's death at the young age of eight years old. Had a big impact on Plath. Then soon after, while she was in college she attempted suicide by taking sleeping pills. Later on then she got married and had a child, but soon found out her husband was cheating on her and the marriage broke apart. She then, had the responsibility to take care of her children alone, and with little money. She then did not have much time to write her poems and stories but try to squeeze them into her schedule raising her children. Killing herself with cooking gas at the age of  30, what a sad life she had to suffer dealing with. Things never seemed to get better with her. Which gave the poems more emotion and a powerful control about death in her works. Like we see here in Lady Lazarus. The theme of Suffering connects to The Yellow Wallpaper as well, and one of the character is suffering from depression. She is trapped in her house, with a husband that doesn't seem to care much about her instead he cares more about being above her. Both connect to having poor husbands that treated the woman poorly, and they suffered because of it.

Other quotes that show suffering in the poem
              Dying
              Is an art, like everything else.
              I do it exceptionally well.
              (Plath 1419)

             I do it so it feels like hell.
             I do it so it feels real.
             I guess you could say I've a call.
             (Plath 1419)

When I read these quotes, I feel like she is depressed and crying out for help. She wants people to know what she is going through, and what she has gone through her whole life. Her pain and her suffering. The way she writes her lines in her poems are very short, and simple. There is also some repetition in the way she starts some of her lines. Which I think it gives more feeling, and makes us readers connect more to her to feel what she was really going through. The word choice was descriptive like "Ash, ash you poke and stir.Flesh,bone, there is nothing there" (Plath 1420). It gives you a detailed picture of the place of life she was in. The author Sylvia Plath wants to mock her own experience in this poem. We see that the author connects parts of the poem with the Holocaust.
                A sort of walking miracle, my skin
                Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
                My right foot
                (Plath 1418)

               A paperweight,
               My face a featureless, fine
               Jew linen.
               (Plath 1418)
I get the idea that she makes the unknown person in the poem into a Jew, in a concentration camp. That her life was horrible, just like the Jews life was like in the concentration camp. The horrors of the concentration camp are like the horrors she had in her life.  That she was burned by her father's death, and burned by her husband cheating on her. Then she was left to survive on her own with little money in the cold winter time. She suffered like the Jew's suffered in the concentration camp. Which is why I think she connects to those ideas. I feel bad for the way her life was lived. I am curious if any of her other poems suggest the idea that she was suffering for many years of her life. Maybe it was better that she could go to another place where she was much more happy where she isn't suffering anymore? I wonder how her children dealt with the things there mother dealt with and her death. Lady Lazarus was a great poem to read, but a rather odd and interesting poem to read.


http://www.sylviaplath.de/ for information about Sylvia Plath.
           

                                       Tuesday March 21st Genre Blog:
                                             Streetcar Named Desire


The theme that I choose was how Masculinity was a huge part throughout the drama.

Stanley "Since when do you give me orders"
Stella "Are you going to stay here and insult her?"
Stanley "You're Damn tootin' I'm going to stay here" (1128).

The theme of Masculinity was also seen in the recent pieces of literature we have read. For example in Uncle Tom's Cabin. The men seemed to be a big part of the book that ran the show. They were the ones that took care and dealt with the slaves they owned. They went to the slave trades to pick and sell the slaves. They normally had the voice over the wives. Mr.Shelby owned Tom for some time and had say in whatever Tom did. He was eventually sold off to Mr.Legree. Mr.Legree was a very masculine man. Tom also was a form or masculinity when he later on "defeats" Mr.Legree and tells him that he will no longer work for him, he will no longer obey any of his orders or rules, and he even wanted to free two of Mr.Legree's female slaves he had. St.Clare was masculine as well, as he was a strong slave trader, and had many slaves to be in charge of including Tom. Many of the woman back then had to be in that second place to males especially it was seen in a husband and wife situation. There was also more abuse and sternness with the men towards the woman back during these times. Which showed the idea of masculinity and the power men had.

Another example of masculinity would be in the short piece of literature called The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The man had power over his wife. Ordering her to stay in bed because of her depression. Making it seem as if she was trapped to her bed and couldn't leave. "Since her husband is a doctor, he wins all their arguments" which is a strong sense of masculinity. Just because he is a doctor, means he wins the arguments? That is not fair at all. What if she was a doctor and the husband was in her place, I wonder if he would still win the arguments or if it would be different. The wife also states that she feels uncomfortable in her house, I can see why. From the dominance of her husband and being stuck inside all the time.

Other quotes in the Drama Streetcar Named Desire that dug deeper into why I thought the drama had a theme of masculinity:
   
     Stanley"There is such a thing in this state of Louisiana as the Napoleonic code, according to which whatever belongs to my wife is also mine" (1129).

     Stanley"You see, under the Napoleonic code-a man has to take an interest in his wife's affairs-especially now that she's going to have a baby" (1131).

     Stanley"You hen's cut out that conversation in there" (1134).

     Stanley"Well, you can hear me and I said to hush up!" (1134).

      Stanley beats Stella after standing up for Blanche, during the drunk poker night.

These quotes show the masculinity of Stanley towards other characters more specifically Stella and Blanche, and a little of Mitch when they a drinking at the poker night. The men more of Stanley have a great deal of power and say over these woman. He is mean to Blanche, and tries to get rid of her. "She's not stayin' here after Tuesday.You know that, don't you? Just to make sure I bought her a ticket myself" (1158). Stanley is always stern with Stella. He is like a father to her, babying her around and sticking his nose in her business.

The quotes I listed made me have the thought that the author Tennessee Williams was suggesting and trying to prove how difficult it was relationship wise to deal with people back then. Because of the differences men and woman had to each other. Like Stanley, and how he acted as an animal on the loose. Mean, dominant, and a strong characteristic of masculinity. These quotes really show the true Stanley. What I found interesting is how Stella could put up with Stanley. I think his anger, and emotions towards her friend Blanche would of sent me off right away. I also wonder Why does Blanche stay with Stella and Stanley. If I had to live with someone who treated me like Stanley did, I definitely would want to leave. I also get a feel of sexual gratification from Stanley that is rubbed onto Stella. There is a lot of emotions and sexual feelings and my theme of masculinity throughout. The setting of where Stanley, Stella, and Blanche is more ran by Stanley. As in some of the quotes I listed, he would tell people when to hush up and when to cut the conversation and stop talking. The tone of Stanley's voice is strong and powerful. Compared to Stella, and Blanche, there voice is average, quiet, and overpowered many times by Stanley's tone of voice.

I have learned how to critically read and analyze a piece of literature more in depth. Being able to pick a theme and bring evidence,examples,and ideas from other readings that connected to my theme helped my knowledge of the text. It was interesting choosing a theme and finding more by digging deeper with other resources to strengthen the idea I wanted to prove with my theme of masculinity. This made me think that pieces of literature can have many different meanings. They also have deeper issues that we can discover by exploring, and analyzing a text. Streetcar Named Desire was a great piece of literature to read.

Critical Commentary (pages 532-595)

I chose Everybody's Protest Novel by James Baldwin pages 532-539. Baldwin's short essay is criticizing Stowe and the characters in her book Uncle Tom's Cabin. Bladwin says that Uncle Tom's Cabin is an example of a protest novel. A protest novel meaning "a work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender,race is dramatized by it's effect on the characters". Like in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Baldwin also points out a few theme's Stowe uses in her novel. Like whites are superior to blacks and a religious theme. Baldwin seems to make the point that Uncle Tom's Cabin is motivated mostly by fear, more than understanding what the slaves were going through in there times. I both agree and disagree with James Baldwin. I think Stowe does have a big focus on the whole feelings of fear, religious but not entirely what the whole novel is about. I really feel it's about what the slaves went through to gain there freedom and what they dealt with with no equality. There was a big theme of religion throughout the novel I agree with that. James Baldwin stated a lot of things that are dehumanizing about Uncle Tom's Cabin. That added to the understanding of it. "The inability to feel;the wet eyes of the sentimentalist betray his aversion to experience, his fear of life, his arid heart;and it is always, therefore, the signal of secret and violent inhumanity, the mask of cruelty, Uncle Tom's Cabin-like it's multitudinous, hard boiled descendants-is a catalog of violence"(Baldwin 533). That statement seems dehumanizing to me. People should not fear there lives. everyone has the ability to feel. Uncle Tom's Cabin does have violence, but I disagree that Stowe was just writing this novel to give a message just about the violence itself like Baldwin makes it seem. Baldwin also states "Uncle Tom's Cabin is a very bad novel" (Baldwin 533). And I also disagree witht that statement, and I'm sure anyone who has read Uncle Tom's Cabin would also disagree with that statement as well.

Literary Analysis

In Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, majority of the slaves and characters in the novel were treated poorly, and clearly show dehumanization throughout. Some of the slave owners were true monsters, and didn't care about the welfare of the slaves, or acknowledge that they are human just like them. A slave named Eliza in Uncle Tom's Cabin was told that her son was going to be sold. "I can believe now that you could sell little Harry, poor Eliza's only child" (Stowe 29). It is in humane to sell someone. Then to take away a poor woman's child. To take away the poor child away from it's mother is horrible. Mr.Shelby is a bad slave owner in my opinion because, he wanted to sell Tom and Eliza's child. "They will bring the highest sum of any" (Stowe 31). All he cares about is getting money for them. If Mr.Shelby was a good slave owner, Eliza should not have had to run away with her boy to feel safe. Uncle Tom should not have been sold off just for money. The way the slaves were treated was poorly. "It is true that they have been passing a law forbidding people to give meat and drink to those poor colored folks" (Stowe 71). Anyone that is hungry or thirsty should be able to have meat/food and drinks. No one is human if they don't get them qualities of life they need to survive. For them to pass a law forbidding people to do that is dehumanizing. There is also a "law forbidding people to help off the slaves that come over from Kentucky" (71). That is also not right to pass a law saying a person cannot help another person. A slave in which this case is Eliza and her son, is trying to better themselves and be safe. So, they go over to Kentucky because, Mr.Shelby wants to sell Harry. Who knows how the new slave owner will treat Harry if he is sold. People should be able to help another person if they want to. Mrs.Bird wants to help feed and give a home to the slaves. "If a woman can't give a warm supper and a bed to poor , starving creatures, just because they are slaves, and have been abused and oppressed all their lives, poor things!" (Stowe 72). But all that Mr.Bird says is "we must put aside our private feelings"(Stowe 72). That is not treating the slaves as if they are human. That shows no care, like they are nothing and everyone should have food, warmth, and clothing, like the rest of the world. Buying and selling human beings is dehumanizing."We must drive right to Washington first and foremost, and then I'll clap you into jail, while I does the business"(Stowe 106). Poor Tom being tossed around and put into jail, while his soon to be "ex" slave owner goes to the slave convention to buy more slaves, and try to sell him. I agree that everyone is capable of working, should be out in the working world. But not "deposited on one of the Ohio boats "(Stowe 110) to be shipped to the South, sold to do plantation work. That is slave labor, they won't get paid, they won't get treated fair, poor Tom. "I have been careful, and I have been patient, but its growing worse, and worse ;flesh and blood can't bear it any longer- every chance he can get to insult and torment me, he takes"(Stowe 14). "I have been kicked and cuffed and sworn at" (Stowe 15). No person should be treated like that. Being treated like that, and being dehumanized makes you feel worthless, and makes you feel useless. No one should have to suffer their life , it is cruel. Weather it a slave , or a master.
When I was researching my literary context project some of the authors Emile Zola and Frank Norris were treated poorly throughout their lives. From family to people they worked with. Family members of Emile Zola doubted him and his dream career. His mother wanted him to go into a law career, and even set him up for exams that he failed. It is dehumanizing to make someone, or try to pick a persons career that the person doesn't wanna do.
We read an article, called Stowe and the Literature of Social Change Response by Carolyn L. Karcher. Her article discussed "separation. of families, the sexual explotation of slave women and the cycle of violence that slavery generated" (3). "Women could not defend their bodies without risking their lives" (3). These are some examples of dehumanization. The poor people had to live their life feeling like they aren't a normal human being. No human being should be treated like that. There was a quote that stated "people should strike back against the masters that whipped and tortured them, who defiled there wives, and sold there children"(3). I agree. The masters who owned slaves, the masters in Uncle Tom's Cabin who treated the slaves in humanly should experience what they dished out to there slaves.
I've had an experience in one of my college classes. We attended a presentation about the Negro baseball League. The man's presentation was very interesting and informative. But some of the stories he shared were sad! The way the Negro baseball players back in the day were treated poorly! Strong dehumanization. They couldn't eat in a normal setting, couldn't stay in a hotel they wanted to stay at. They couldn't go to the baseball fields unless it was available and not being used by the whites. Like Tom and the other slaves, and like a the baseball players. There life as a human was different. And I'm sure at times they didn't feel as if they were human beings with how they were treated. My bio teacher once told our class, that his mother was working in a restaurant. A bus of Negro baseball players wanted to stop for food. The owner of the restaurant told the woman working that she had to go tell the bus of Negros that they couldn't eat there. She didn't want to tell them that they couldn't eat there but she would lose her job if she didn't. Putting that lady in that situation is dehumanization, and it definitely is to the baseball players.
I personally agree with the authors interpretation. Because Stowe shows the idea that slavery is bad and it dehumanizes human beings as seen in the examples and experiences. No person should treat someone as though he or she is not a human being. No matter there race, religion, gender, the environment they are from, or if they have a medical problem. Everyone is human and dehumanizing a person is wrong.

                                                         Reader Response

       I started my search on Goodreads, to see the reviews of the essay Josiah Henson. There was a lot of good information as well as a lot of useless information that didn't apply with the essay. Most of the reviewers were discussing the connection between Uncle Tom's Cabin and the essay of Josiah Henson. Most of the responses had said Josiah Henson's essay was "well written". There was a few comments where people thought "after reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, and then reading Josiah Henson, that it was amazing". A few others said "they were happy to read the essay, and they were glad to read Josiah Henson before they went on to read Uncle Tom's Cabin".
     The next site I went to look for reviews was Barnes and Noble. Surprisingly, there were little to no reviews on this essay. The few people that did leave a note about the essay said that "they highly recommend this book to everyone". The others said it "clearly demonstrates, that some men and women are not good people" and that "slavery is wrong". I agree with there comments, and from the information in Josiah Henson's essay I see why they would say that "some me and women are not good people". Because it is true in this world.
     The last site I went to was Amazon. Again, there was only a few reviews. One person said "they had there twelve year old son read Josiah Henson's essay as a prep for Uncle Tom's Cabin, I think it did it's job". Another said "it was a good book, and has some interesting items to it". I agree with all the comments that were made on every site I went to. I felt Josiah Henson's essay had a connection to Uncle Tom's Cabin as soon as I finished reading it. With all the additional comments, things similar to mine, it made the connection a lot stronger. Both characters, Josiah and Uncle Tom had experienced similar things in there life and in there books.

                                 Textual Background and Context (Pages 410-531)

The piece I read was, Josiah Henson.
The life of Josiah Henson, he was an African American slave that wanted to gain freedom. Where he was living in Maryland, he escaped in order to get to Canada. In hopes to get the freedom he wanted. He shared his story of all his journeys and the people he met along the way. This essay connects to Uncle Tom's Cabin because Josiah Henson himself was the basis character of the making of Uncle Tom in Uncle Tom's Cabin. The things Josiah went through were very similar to the things that Tom experienced. This narration of Josiah Henson and what he went through in his life to obtain freedom shows a strong view on Dehumanization. The way Josiah and his family and the other slaves he met on the way were being treated was not how any human being should be treated. Josiah mentions meeting a male slave and a female slave, the male slave was in bad shape "but that of the female, compelled to perform unfit labor, sick, suffering, and bearing the burdens of her own sex unpitied and unaided" (Henson 429). He then talks about that " sometimes, when I have seen them starved and miserable, and unable to help themselves, I have helped them to some of the comforts which they were denied by him who owned them" (Henson 429). "Meat was not a part of the regular food, but my master had plenty of sheep and pigs" (Henson 429). He addresses at the end that trying to get food from people was difficult to do. No person should have to struggle to find food, or to worry that they will go to bed hungry. "I approached the first house I saw, and asked if they would sell me a little bread and meat. No, they had nothing for black fellows. At the next, I succeeded better, but had to make as good a bargain as I could, and that was not very successful. With a man who wanted to see how little he could give me for my quarter of a dollar" (Henson 434). I think its really sad that people find a sense of joy or pleasure in making a person who is desperate for food, to get little as possible for the little money they do have. At least they try to get food with the little money they have, and not try to steal it from someone. I am blessed to have food to eat, and blessed to not have people who treat me poorly like the people who treated Josiah Henson poorly. I couldn't imagine how it felt to live like that. Humans need food, and they also need freedom. The people in this essay were not treated like human beings.

                                               Race and the American Novel Project
                                                 Project Part 1: Uncle Tom's Cabin

           My theme related to the literary depiction of racial issues that I want to explore is,
             Dehumanization: to treat someone as though he or she is not a human being.

Naturalism is a literary Genre that first began as a literary movement in the late nineteenth century of literature. In film, theater, and arts. This literary movement suggested the role of social conditions, family background, and the environment in which it shaped the character. 
It was known that realism was linked together with the idea of naturalism as literary genres. Realism focuses on the idea of literary technique, and naturalism “implies a philosophical position: for naturalistic writers, since human beings are, in Emile Zola's phrase, "human beasts,"(Scheidenhelm 1). The  characters can then be studied through the relationships and their relationships the have to their surroundings.

This term of Naturalism was invented by Emile Zola who was a french novelist, a playwright, a political journalist, and the best known to be actively engaged in the literary school of Naturalism. Born 1804 in Paris. He wrote many short stories, essays, four plays, and three novels. After Zola’s father passed away and left his mother on an eager pension Zola started to write in a romantic style. None of Zola’s family seemed to want him to become a writer. As his mother had set up a law career for him, but he failed the examination twice and then proceeded in his mother's death. Before Zola decided his career was to be a writer, he worked at as a clerk in a shipping business, and then tried to be in the sales department for a publisher company. As a side job apart from his other jobs, Zola wrote literary art reviews for newspapers. Zola was a major figure in the political liberalization of France. Zola was nominated for the first and second Nobel Prize in Literature for two consecutive years, in 1901 and 1902. Zola also had an interest in photography in his later years of his life. Reaching the point where his experience level in photography was near professional. Zola died on the twenty ninth of September 1902 from carbon dioxide poisoning. Thousands attended his funeral, as he was known by many people.

Frank Norris was an American Journalist, Novelist, and wrote fiction in the naturalist genre. During Norris’s younger years he began studying painting. Which then exposed him to some of Emile Zola’s works and inspired him to become a writer. He also got acquainted with the ideas of human evolution of Darwin that also inspired him and had an impact on some of his later works. He attended Harvard University and met a professor by the name of Lewis E. Gates that pushed Norris to keep writing. Norris traveled all over the world. Working as a news correspondent in South Africa, was an editorial assistant for the San Francisco Wave, and even worked for a magazine as a war correspondent in Cuba during the Spanish- American War (Volney).

Naturalism has a strong connection to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In 1925 Theodore Dreiser published a novel called “An American Tragedy”. An American Tragedy was a literary genre. It was about a boy who had to step up and help support his family. His life begins to change drastically as his job forces him to do things that aren’t good things. Like Uncle Tom and many of the slaves, they had to step up and be put to work to support family and themselves. The slaves when put into their homes when bought from a slave market, sometimes would be forced to do things that they would never do themselves (Shmoop Editorial Team 1).In 1940, Richard Wright wrote a novel called Native Son which was a study about American racism and how it affects one black man’s life. This also connects to Uncle Tom because the racism and what he had to go through definitely affected his life in many ways. That goes for any black man or woman. Another example would be in 1895, Stephen Crane published the novel The Red Badge of Courage which took place during the civil war tearing up the internal and external life of a man named Private Henry Fleming. This connects to Uncle Tom’s Cabin because, Uncle Tom’s Cabin took place during the time of the Civil War and had great impact on everyone and Uncle Tom (Shmoop Editorial Team 1).

    In Jack London’s Poem, “To Build a Fire” this strongly relates to Naturalism. As Naturalism bases its main idea on the scientific laws, London focuses on the idea that “nature is indifferent to man”. London also does not give the “man” or what is the main character in his poem a name. Because in Naturalistic stories, the characters are usually unnamed and they focus on the narration of what the character is saying rather than their physical characteristics.  The man in the poem is traveling in cold conditions. He was warned that he shouldn’t travel alone in the cold because it is dangerous. But, he thinks otherwise and judges it by his own thoughts and experience. This shows that nature or “the cold” in the man's situation is indifferent to him. He is unconcerned with what others have to say, or what could happen if he goes in the cold alone. A direct quote from Jack London’s poem “But all this - the mysterious, far-reaching hair-line trail. the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all - made no impression on the man, this shows how nature is indifferent to the man, and how he thinks he can survive the cold on his own (London 1).
          Using the Library Data base I researched more information to get to know Emile Zola and Frank Norris. I also used the American Academy of Poets to get more information about what Naturalism is, and gave me more examples to how it is connected to other readings. Such as Uncle Tom's Cabin, and the reading connected to Naturalism for the day Jack London's "To Build a Fire". Frank Norris and Emile also have a few organization pages of there own that I used as resources. 

    Researching this Literary Context movement has gained me knowledge on understanding some of the in class readings we have done. I found a lot of good detailed information that I never knew existed before. As well as learning new people that had a big influence in Literature. I enjoyed looking deeper into some of the people and their background and what they went through through their careers.

  Works Cited

Chase, Richard Volney. "Norris and Naturalism." In The American Novel and its Tradition, Doubleday, 1957

Farrell, James T. "Naturalism." N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uwc.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=7d930dd5-0355-486a-895b-2ea0c68849bb%40sessionmgr4007&vid=4&hid=4104

Lehan, Richard. "American Literary Naturalism: The French Connection." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, edited by Linda Pavlovski, vol. 155, Gale, 2005. 20th Century Literature Criticism Online,go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LCO&sw=w&u=cicctr&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CKSQUKX352992579&it=r. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017. Originally published in Nineteenth-Century Fiction, vol. 38, no. 4, Mar. 1984, pp. 545-557.

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Naturalism Timeline." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 28 Feb. 2017.

"Short Stories: To Build a Fire by Jack London." East of the Web. N.p., 2017. Web. 01 Mar. 2017.