A Streetcar Named Desire

In class we discussed the possibility that Stella knew that Blanche had been raped by Stanley, and was choosing her husband over her sister. I thought of this situation a little differently. I thought it was possible that Stella didn’t want to give up her current happiness and therefore didn’t want to accuse Stanley of what had occurred. I agree that Stella knew that Stanley was guilty of raping Blanche, but she was willing to accept this in order to make sure that no drastic changes occurred in her life. If Blanche was to go to a psychiatric hospital and the two sisters were no longer in contact, it would be no different than before Blanche showed up at their house. One reason that I believed this was the case was when Stella said “What have I done to my sister? Oh, God, what have I done to my sister?” (p. 689). I took this as Stella feeling directly responsible for what was occurring. She didn’t seem to feel as though Stanley was a factor in this situation; she seemed to feel as if she directly made a decision to have her sister taken away.
Stella and Blanche obviously weren’t extremely close. It seemed as though they had rarely spoken in the last few years. While the dialogue in the story didn’t come right out and say it, Stella seemed to know that Blanche wasn’t the person that she made herself out to be. Stella may have made the decision to have Blanche put away because she thought that Blanche could only bring down Stella’s life. If she knew that Blanche consistently lied and made herself look like someone she wasn’t, why would she choose this liar over her own happiness? Stella also didn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that Stanley hit her, because she was happy. I’m sure if she was unhappy with Stanley she wouldn’t stay in this situation and be beaten just to live a miserable life.
I guess this situation could easily be viewed either way. I would have to believe that most people reading this will disagree with me, but I just figured I would throw my thoughts out there for others to think about. In my eyes the most important thing to Stella was her happiness. She could set other issues aside as long as she was happy.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

While reading this book it was very apparent to me that Hurston was not displaying black people like any of the other readings we have read so far. The focus in this book as not the way that black people were being oppressed, it instead displayed the way that they lived their lives as if they did not face many of these problems. It displayed racism as if it were not a problem they had to deal with in this community they were in. This was in great contrast to the other writer’s stories we have read during this semester. For example Wright displayed many of the hardships that black people faced during the time of the Jim Crow laws. He displayed how unequal black people were and how badly they were treated by the white people. Their Eyes Were Watching God only had one example of this type of behavior. When Janie and Tea Cake went outside of the community, they briefly felt the problem of racism. Tea Cake was approached by two white men with rifles that wanted him to help clean up the mess left behind by the storm. They approached him by saying “Hello, there, Jim,” (p. 169) which Tea Cake obviously took as very disrespectful. They quickly made him start cleaning up the area and burying the dead bodies that were laying around. Eventually Tea Cake thought of Janie worrying about him, and took off running in order to escape the situation and find her.

It was much different to read about a community of black people that did not have to face the hardships of racism. It was a much more positive representation of way black people were able to live during this time period. However, it seems as though this was only the case because no white people lived in this community. I liked reading about a situation during this time that didn’t focus on the hardships that black people faced. Instead it showed how some people were able to settle in areas that allowed them to live life with almost complete freedom. It also focused more on other hardships such as gender relations and physical abuse. I’m sure if this situation were analyzed further racism still was a factor in their life, but this community they lived in seemed to have sheltered them from the problems that other areas were dealing with.

The Ethics of Living Jim Crow

I found The Ethics of Living Jim Crow to be a very interesting writing about the way things were after slavery had been abolished. Black men and women were now free and able to make many choices on their own, yet were far from equal and very restricted in their actions. Black people were expected uphold great respect for the white people, while they were shown no respect in return. When Mr. Morrie told Mr. Pease that he had been disrespected and called Pease, it showed the manipulative problems that could still occur. It also showed the control that the white men still had over the black man. They were making things up because the narrator wanted to advance in the work place, and they were threatened by his actions. Unfortunately their tactics worked, the boy had no option but to leave the job or receive a beating. From this point on he gained a better understanding of the way that the world worked for a black man in a society controlled by white men.
Throughout the rest of the story the boy learned of the ways that the world worked at this point in time. I found it unfortunate that even though he was “free”, he had to adapt to the way that the world currently worked and the way that black people were expected to act. While black people were no longer slaves, it seemed as though they were still able to be mistreated at any time. One of the worst situations in the story was when one of the bell-boys was forced to marry the negro maid because she was pregnant. When the child was born it was much lighter in complexion, and obviously it was a white mans child. This was possibly one of the sickest jokes I could imagine, the humiliation involved and the distress put on these two “supposedly legal parents” was disgusting.
White people in the story constantly referred to the boy as being “lucky” when he finds himself in a precarious situation. I found it interesting in the choice of words here, considering it didn’t seem to me as though luck was involved in any sense. He may have been lucky that he wasn’t treated worse, but the way that he was being treated was in no sense lucky.
This writing can best be compared to Frederick Douglas’ writings about his experiences with slavery. Both writings show the first hand experiences with the way people were treated during these times. While Frederick Douglas’ writings were during the times of slavery and explained the problems during those times, Richard Wright explains what types of problems were encountered after slavery had been abolished. Both writings were disturbing in the sense that people were mistreated for no ethical reason.