The Good Old Romantics...

The Last of the Flock

By: William Wordsworth

  In distant countries I have been,
  And yet I have not often seen
  A healthy man, a man full grown,
  Weep in the public roads alone.
  But such a one, on English ground,
  And in the broad high-way, I met;
  Along the broad high-way he came,
  His cheeks with tears were wet.
  Sturdy he seemed, though he was sad;
  And in his arms a lamb he had.

  He saw me, and he turned aside,
  As if he wished himself to hide:
  Then with his coat he made essay
  To wipe those briny tears away.
  I follow'd him, and said, "My friend
  What ails you? wherefore weep you so?"
  --"Shame on me, Sir! this lusty lamb,
  He makes my tears to flow.
  To-day I fetched him from the rock;
  He is the last of all my flock."

  When I was young, a single man,
  And after youthful follies ran.
  Though little given to care and thought,
  Yet, so it was, a ewe I bought;
  And other sheep from her I raised,
  As healthy sheep as you might see,
  And then I married, and was rich
  As I could wish to be;
  Of sheep I numbered a full score,
  And every year increas'd my store.

  Year after year my stock it grew,
  And from this one, this single ewe,
  Full fifty comely sheep I raised,
  As sweet a flock as ever grazed!
  Upon the mountain did they feed;
  They throve, and we at home did thrive.
  --This lusty lamb of all my store
  Is all that is alive;
  And now I care not if we die,
  And perish all of poverty.

  Six children, Sir! had I to feed,
  Hard labour in a time of need!
  My pride was tamed, and in our grief,
  I of the parish ask'd relief.
  They said I was a wealthy man;
  My sheep upon the mountain fed,
  And it was fit that thence I took
  Whereof to buy us bread:
  "Do this; how can we give to you,"
  They cried, "what to the poor is due?"

  I sold a sheep as they had said,
  And bought my little children bread,
  And they were healthy with their food;
  For me it never did me good.
  A woeful time it was for me,
  To see the end of all my gains,
  The pretty flock which I had reared
  With all my care and pains,
  To see it melt like snow away!
  For me it was a woeful day.

  Another still! and still another!
  A little lamb, and then its mother!
  It was a vein that never stopp'd,
  Like blood-drops from my heart they dropp'd.
  Till thirty were not left alive
  They dwindled, dwindled, one by one,
  And I may say that many a time
  I wished they all were gone:
  They dwindled one by one away;
  For me it was a woeful day.

   To wicked deeds I was inclined,
  And wicked fancies cross'd my mind,
  And every man I chanc'd to see,
  I thought he knew some ill of me.
  No peace, no comfort could I find,
  No ease, within doors or without,
  And crazily, and wearily
  I went my work about.
  Oft-times I thought to run away;
  For me it was a woeful day.

  Sir! 'twas a precious flock to me,
  As dear as my own children be;
  For daily with my growing store
  I loved my children more and more.
  Alas! it was an evil time;
  God cursed me in my sore distress,
  I prayed, yet every day I thought
  I loved my children less;
  And every week, and every day,
  My flock, it seemed to melt away.

  They dwindled. Sir, sad sight to see!
  From ten to five, from five to three,
  A lamb, a weather, and a ewe;
  And then at last, from three to two;
  And of my fifty, yesterday
  I had but only one,
  And here it lies upon my arm,
  Alas! and I have none;
  To-day I fetched it from the rock;
  It is the last of all my flock.

 I liked this poem a lot. "The Last of the Flock", by William Wordsworth, was written in the heat of the French Revolution, in a time were liberty was what people wanted the most. This started the liberty part of the Romantic movement. Through poetry, Romantic authors wished to portray the feelings and the needs of the common man in a way accessible to all. 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, then, met with William Wordsworth and they released an anonymous book of ballads, caring not about their personal fame but about the effect it had on people. They were trying to return the dignity to common people, tired of the pyramidal hierarchy that gave importance only to the monarchs. For this reason, Wordsworth chose a simple man from a farm as the main focus of his poem "The Last of the Flock." 

The poem tells the story of the owner of a flock of sheep, who lived in happiness with the richness provided to him by the increasing size of the flock. He had 50 in the climax of his career, excited that he was able to feed his family of six children. However, Wordsworth's ballad becomes a sad tale as the farmer remembers how the number "dwindled" down until he had three, then two, then he was left with "the last of all [his] flock." 

The importance of this poem lies in the originality of basing it on a common person. The speaker of the poem realizes that a poor man is in pain, and he cares enough to stop and ask "what ails him." Wordsworth is proving that a common man is worth stopping for. Wordsworth also portrays the owner of the lamb as someone who is humble and hard working, highlighting the benefit of the working class within society. Not mentioning the monarchy or the french king in the entire poem, Wordsworth is focusing on the change taking place in the minds of the people about who is important and who deserved dignity. It could be read as a simple children ballad or song, but in reality, William Wordsworth's "The Last of the Flock" represents the social class that was left behind and transforms the order of significance of each level in society. Wordsworth is achieving quite and peaceful criticism, and I personally think it is highly effective.

Finally In the Lead

"'No, wait,' I yelled. 'Let's follow a leader, let's organize. Organize.'" (276) This is how our protagonist began forming an army of followers in his fight for equality. Or at least that was his plan. Realizing that he had a greater mission in the world than he would've ever thought, the protagonist decides to be the leader and speech maker he knew he could be. He finally accepts the job proposal by Brother Jack, in which he is asked to give speeches as part of his organization in order to bring his race to action.

When the protagonist finally gave him a chance, Brother Jack introduced the job like this: "How would you like to be the new Booker T. Washington?" (305) Interestingly enough, the protagonist had already portrayed Washington once before, when the phrase "social equality" slipped his lips giving a speech. The protagonist accepts, willing to be seen as the much needed leader in this community. However, the job comes with its important changes. Describing his first experiences, the protagonist said "Inside I found a name written on a slip of paper. 'That is you new name,' Brother Jack said." (309) This change is not felt very strongly by the reader, as we never really knew the protagonist name. However, it's even more a way for him to represent all blacks instead of just an individual character. In being a leader, the protagonist has to rid himself of his own personality to instead become each one of the audience members at the same time.

Then, a metaphor we hadn't heard before comes up in the story. The protagonist is remembering the times when his father "had been beaten blind in a crooked fight," and "of the scandal that had been suppressed, and how the fighter had died in a home for the blind." (334) This metaphor actively describes the "crooked fight" of racial equality, in which the blacks have been "beaten blind." They can no longer see that they are in a fight, as they have become submissive of their place in society. The "home for the blind" is the south, were the blacks who don't think of changing anything stay during their whole lives, conveniently oblivious of the fight going on outside, where they "die blind". It is as if the blacks were trying to fight for their own rights, yet they hadn't been able to organize so as to fight willingly and with open eyes. This is where the protagonist comes in. He is that necessary leader who will teach the blacks the right way to fight.

While giving his first speech in front of a great audience, following up the speeches of Brother Jack on all others from the brotherhood, the protagonist can barely contain his emotions.  He had planned his whole speech, but in the actual moment, the words controlled him and flew out of him with no second thought. He had the answer as to what the race was doing wrong: "do you know what makes us so uncommon? We let them do it." (343) The protagonist finally addresses the fact that it is their own fault for allowing their condition to be imposed down upon them. They are the only people (therefore uncommon) who would allow this to happen to them. Here comes, then, the protagonist's solution to their problem: they have to develop the strength to stop permitting to be treated how they are treated. Before others can change, blacks themselves have to believe in their own humanity.

Hamlet Is In All of Us

The evidence that states that the blacks are in an inferior position and should try to raise themselves up to the human level continues appearing. The whites prove their overly important existence, and convince whites and blacks alike of this false statement. Being white, then, must account for being happier. Or such they say. "You too can be truly beautiful. Win greater happiness with whiter complexion. Be outstanding in your social set." (262) Absurd. The irony of comments like this, especially in the way that Ralph Ellison follows them with the description of the statue of a black slave, can't help but stand out to the reader.

The theme of inaction in the black society is also present when the protagonist first meets Brother Jack. He states "They're living, but dead. Dead-in-living... a unity of opposites." (290) Brother Jack understands that blacks are a people full of the potential to do something, but they are silenced into "death" by the oppression of the whites. It is this behavior that Brother Jack believes the protagonist can bring a change upon. It he can rise the race to action, walls will be overcome.

Then, the mass effect and dehumanization of the black individual continues to take place. It is assumed by most people that a black man is just that: a man who's black. But they don't give the person any opportunity to define himself as an individual different from all other black individuals. As an example to this, Ellison makes a character question the protagonist: "Nonsense," he says, "all colored people can sing." (312) The reader understands the irony in such a statement, because he doesn't picture the strength of such an accepted social construct as who a black man should be.

The protagonist himself has also begun to notice the changes that have to take place within the race for its development, as he changes from a mere black man to a successful leader. He reclaims to the people bothering him late at night "Get rid of your cottonpatch ways! Act civilized!" (320) An allusion to the slavery a couple of decades before is what the protagonist uses to bring these people to action. He claims that even though they had now rid themselves of the chains that tie them to slavery, they have kept, as a race, the idea that they are still slaves. Their personal perception of themselves portrays the blacks as free slaves: not really free, not really slaves.

There is also the known way that Ellison, talking about something else, includes lines that make a lot of sense in the racial struggle. The protagonist is literally searching for a garbage can in which to throw away his trash, and he finds himself saying "I didn't know that some kinds of garbage were better than others." (328) This could have been said in a completely different setting, such as in a political fight for the rights of blacks. The protagonist is basically calling all humans "trash", yet he states that other consider white trash better than black trash. I find it really smart for Ellison to specifically choose to put this sentence in this part, because it brings extra attention to it from the reader. These hidden statements are what really show Ellison's opinion on the struggle the protagonist is facing.

"Eternity" BBC Romantics - Notes

Romantics: Late 18th Century

Samuel Taylor Coleridge:

• opium inspiration + alcohol = addiction + crazy?

John Keats:

• Surgeon, felt patient's pain as his own pain
• The power of empathy! --> decided to heal through words and became a poet
• Romantics: the study of the human soul through poetry
• explain the purpose of life and the earth
• lost his father at 8 years old --> poetry is a journey into his own soul
• greater love of life for tragedy, but still died of tuberculosis at 26
• final days writing poetry and looking at immortal art ruins, his poetry achieved immortality

Percy Bysshe Shelley:

• expelled from Oxford
• wrote atheism pamphlet
•  atheism = freedom
• a god made by man needs men to be heard by men
• cheated on wife with Mary Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the Rights of Women)
•  believed in freedom of action b/c of no punishment from religion
• violator of social conventions: "free love"
• questioning his existence - only in death would he be a true poet
• died in a storm in the ocean, found a book of his poems in his pocket
• his heart was preserved with a manuscript

Lord Byron:

• fanatism of romanticism - celebrity
• bestseller poetry: chose to embrace public life as to give meaning to his own existence
• no worship of god, but yes worship of Byron
• romantics: dissatisfied, yearning for new sensations - scandalists!
• mobs followed him when news came of possible homosexuality; left home to Venice

Romantic Movement:

• Anatomy: Romantics against it "The body could not be understood in scientific terms"
• imagination = soul itself. unconscious = true identity
• religion is not the center of existence, but each person's mind and body
• a poet has no identity because it is expressing other's feelings
• life guided by individual will and desire guided by no external god or laws: no solid afterlife!
• no immortality = liberation from the pains of a corporeal existence
• poetry can achieve immortality by trapping the author's emotions in his words
• poetry became a substitute for religion "poetry is something divine, the center of all knowledge" -PBS
• desire of experience and celebration of originality
• rockstars and celebrities + liberty = romantic
• INDIVIDUALITY makes us all romantics

Response: 
The Romantics are people who, throughout poetry, are trying to find the liberty of a world with no constraints. According to romantics, the human soul and human life should be analyzed through the work of literature. Atheism is strongly related to romanticism, as no God was good enough for romantics to be worth constraining their lives. Individuality, and the search for knowledge on one's own experiences is what characterizes the romantic movement. Without realizing it, many of us might be romantics, guided by the desire of controlling our own lives with personal experiences and glad to let out our emotions through our writing.

Dehumanization complete

I have started to notice a recurring theme in the novel: the dehumanization of black people. Through examples and thoughts, Ellison has proven that the protagonist has been losing his identity, along with everyone else. The subject is first introduced when Mr. Emerson's assistant claims "Identity! My God! Who has any identity anymore anyway?" (187) The reader then realizes he still does not know the protagonist's name, so what is his identity? Does he even have one? The reader undergoes these realizations just as the protagonist does too.

The protagonist has begun to realize that he has been forced to be that whom the whites want him to be, thinking it was what he wanted too. The first time that he is against those social rules, is when he thinks "So I wasn't supposed to think! To hell with him." (200) Although said to a black man, this revelation might be an answer to more than just this situation. The protagonist has decided that he will think his way through life, instead of just accepting the situations handed out to him.

For the whites, the world is a machine controlled by them, and them only. This comes up to the protagonist during his only day in the factory, in which Mr. Brockway tells him "we the machines inside the machine." (217) Programed by whites. blacks have the function of being useful for whites in any way they need them to be. Interesting too about the factory, the desired product is extremely white paint, as even the logo says "'If It's Optic White, It's the Right White.'" (217) This alludes to the idea that only those who are "George Washington white" deserve to be treated as humans. 

The dehumanization and loss of identity of the blacks continues in certain ways that Ellison describes a specific scene. Instead of just saying things straight, Ellison chooses to make it ambiguous so that is can relate to a greater idea. This happens when the protagonist describes his actions as "moving toward him, shouting, more at a black blur that irritated my eyes than at a clearly defined human face." (225) When he sees a black person, he is just seeing the idea of a black person, or the social construct that defines the description of a black person. This is also how Ellison wants us to see the protagonist: not as a specific character but of the representation of the thoughts and actions of a black man in that setting.

Spectators are glad to find out that blacks truly are how the picture them in society, just like everyone feels reassured when they discover that a Latino dances well or that Gringo is lazy and has bad eating habits. This feeling is described by Ellison when someone says "They really do have rhythm, don't they? Get hot, boy" Get hot!" (237) In this way, the protagonist becomes the good-rhythm, hard-working, identity-less black that whites want him to be. Dehumanization complete.

Re-Discovering Himself in A Hospital

While his first work day in the factory, our lost narrator has an accident. This accident (maybe caused by his boss?) is so strong that it is enough to knock him out of his senses and even forget his identity and place in the world -- if he ever had one--. Just when he is about to totally lose his conscience, the protagonist describes how he was "shot forward with sudden acceleration into a wet blast of black emptiness that was somehow a bath of whiteness." (230) His final loss of conscience accounts for the loss of blackness in himself, as instead of seeing black, he is faced with a white vastness. This is kind of how he must've felt when he was being born. In this way, this moment is like a rebirth for him.

The protagonist, upon his awakening, discovers that he no longer believes the ideas that had so long ago been planted in his mind for him. He says "But we are all human, I thought, wondering what I meant." (239) No longer does the protagonist believe that they are all human, or at least he is starting to questions its truthfulness. The idea that they are all equal and that blacks and whites co-unite in this perfect world is not sounding as appealing as it did before.

When the protagonist can not remember who he was before the accident, he faces himself preferring to keep it like that. Understanding that he was never truly an individual before, he cares not to be someone specific anymore. He says "I lay fretting over my identity. I suspected that I was really playing a game with myself and that they were taking part... they knew as well as I, and I for some reason preferred not to face it." (242) Giving up on "the game" of life is what the protagonist decided to do once he found out he was only a piece in the game. There was no identity necessary if you are just a piece of someone else's game.

After this revelation, the protagonist decides that he wants to be free. He knew it could destroy him as a human, but in the way it could also destroy the whites' construction. Under this pretext, he says "I had no desire to destroy myself even if it destroyed the machine; I wanted freedom, not destruction." (243) He had no true idea of how he was going to accomplish this freedom without destroying the ties that united him to the white society, until he realized "when I discover who I am, I'll be free." (243) The protagonist thought he knew who he was before, but now that he has gone through a personal awakening, he realizes that he hasn't figured out who he is yet. It is only until that moment in which he deciphers his true identity that he will be able to free himself of the limitations he possesses. As he recovers his conscience, the protagonist begins to do these small actions that place him closer to the realization of his true self.

Even having decided to find who he is, the protagonist has trouble processing the ideas that will help him find his place within -- or outside -- society. Living with Mary, the woman who offered her house after his shaky release from the hospital (notice the biblical name), the protagonist is faced with her conversations that push him to be a better person. She always reminded him what was expected of him, and tried to form him into a leader of the race who could change their position in the world. However, the narrator "found living with her pleasant except for her constant talk about leadership and responsibility." (258) Even in his apparent search, the protagonist knows he is supposed to become someone who matters for his race, but his fear and his idleness prevent him from becoming that man. This may be a message from Ellison, showing us that men like the protagonist, who have all the capacity to do something yet choose not to do so, are what keep the race in the position they were in.

From Fear to Blending In

When the narrator first goes to college, his feelings towards whites are that of fear and inferiority. He feels he is not good enough for whites, and that he basically has to act the part of the slave. However, as he sees the example of other blacks and he moves to the "melting pot" city, his opinions start changing, and he begins to see that other option.

For instance, it is an important event in his day when he realized he "too had touched a white man and [he] felt that it had been disastrous." (114) Not even physical contact with a white was within his limits. For the narrator, Dr. Bledsoe was like a hero, as he was the only man he knew who could touch a white man with "impunity." The irony with which the reader is forced to read this highlights Ellison's opinion about the social constructs relating to blacks and whites. Ellison disagrees with the force that prohibits the narrator from touching a white man.

Even words that include the word "black" are considered a contradiction, as the narrator proposes when the orator talks about "a white blacksmith." (122) Talking about the underground escape of the race during slavery, the orator highlights how "their own have always helped their own." (123) Whites are represented as antagonists who don't even help the race, yet the white founders are to be treated as godlike. The inconsistencies that occur throughout the book with regards to black's opinion of whites confuse the reader as to what Ellison really wants us to think.

However, when the reader finally thinks all blacks are submissive to the power of whites, Ellison brings up Dr. Bledsoe, who says he "had to act the nigger." (143) To become the powerful man we know him to be, Dr. Bledsoe had to know and understand that he would be seen as a nigger, and as derogatory as the term would portray him, he had to live with it. By faking that he was no danger for powerful whites, Dr. Bledsoe was able to get where he is now.

This same idea is expressed by the vet when the narrator meets him again in his trip to New York. He very wisely says "play the game, but don't believe in it -- that much you owe yourself."(153) The relationship between blacks and whites is therefore represented as a game in which whites decide the rules and the winner, and some blacks follow along stupidly while others understand it and play along. They might even win the game, like Dr. Bledsoe did, if they learn to use it in their favor.

After having such strong opinions about the white's and the black's place in the world, the narrator can't help but be surprised when he sees how different everything is "up north." "At the street intersection I had the shock of seeing a black policeman directing traffic--and there were white drivers who obeyed his signals as though it was the most natural thing in the world." (159) Seeing as this was probably normal already when Invisible Man was published, maybe Ellison did it this way so that the reader can't relate to the narrator's feelings.

Keep Your Eyes Open

As we had already noticed that Ralph Ellison was using black and white as adjectives for almost everything, the reader is prone to noticing these colors and how they are used. Therefore, when the orator talks of the "White House," it is impossible for the reader to ignore the fact that the president's house is called white. The irony of this fact that is now given no second thought stands out, bringing about a feeling of unfairness towards the government of the country.

The colors are also used in other instances that remind the reader about the social constructs behind each race. When the orator continues talking about the Founder, he says "your parents followed this remarkable man across the black sea of prejudice, safely out of the land of ignorance, through the storms of fear and anger." (120) That the sea of prejudice, which could have been any color, is depicted as black stands out just the same, as it makes the reader see prejudice as something of black people. The blacks, who were prejudiced, ignorant, and living in fear and anger, were helped by the Founder to find a better road to follow.

A sentence that I found really interesting was when the narrator said he was "stumbling along, holding on desperately to one of my eyes in order to keep from bursting out my brain against some familiar object swerved into my path by my distorted vision." (147) This is not the normal way to say "I felt bad". This could mean that the narrator is trying to hold on to his points of view, but his ideas and his thoughts are in danger of bursting out his brain. At the same time, he knows that the obstacle in his path is "familiar," probably consisting on another human being or on his own obstacles. However, the sentence clarifies that his "distorted vision" is what causes the obstacles to get in his path, so he realizes his vision is distorted, and it's causing him all the troubles he has had. His distorted vision is how he sees whites in a weird way, considering himself inferior to their power. The narrator clearly has a path, and a dream he wants to accomplish in life, but he secretly realizes that his own way of seeing things is what denies him of great opportunities.

The vet also gives a kind of explanation of why and how the narrator is an invisible man. He says "they wouldn't see you because they don't expect you to know anything, since they believe they've taken care of that." (154) Here, it becomes apparent that the invisibility of black men is entirely their own fault, as they allow whites to believe that blacks don't know anything so are not worthy of their care. However, the vet says they have "taken care of that," which could mean that they don't want blacks to know anything, so that they never become a threat to their society. This also implies, though, that blacks can reverse their invisibility, if they only begin to know.

The Vet Sets Them Straight

Notice how in this scene, the vet and the narrator have no name (blacks) while Mr. Norton does (white). It is almost as if the two blacks were invisible. They are so trivial, that no name is necessary. This also shows how blacks were interchangeable. A black was a part of a larger group, while a white was an individual.

However, it is the vet who makes interesting comments about Mr. Norton, the narrator, and the school. The vet accuses the narrator of "registering with his senses but short-circuiting his brain." (94) Just like the title implies, blacks, represented by the nameless narrator, have been quieted into humans who live their lives as invisible men, not changing anything or having any effect in their worlds. Similarly, the vet accuses Mr. Norton of wanting a "mechanical man" as a "perfect achievement of your dreams," talking about whites. (94) According to him, blacks' attitude is the whites' fault, but blacks aren't doing anything to change it. Blacks have reached the point of repressing their humanity, ignoring their needs as people in order to please the needs of the "rich white folks."

When coming back from the Golden Day, the narrator is so scared that he can't stop thinking about his punishment while he drives. He "had a sense of losing control of the car and slammed on the brakes in the middle of the road, then apologized and drove on." (99) This road simulates the narrator's road of life. In college, he began to realize how his race was losing control of their own lives, yet he "apologizes"to the white, feels bad for his thoughts, and drives on. The narrator is almost brainwashed, knowing that he was losing all the identity he had ever known, but having no strength to claim it back.

Ralph Ellison uses a pun to amplify the distinction between the whites and the blacks. When the narrator recounts about Dr. Bledsoe's scolding for the fate of Mr. Norton, he describes him as having a "look of exasperation, as though I'd suddenly told him black was white." (102) This is a general way of claiming the impossibility of something being two opposites at a time. However, Ellison uses this in the sense of black people being equal to white people. The look of "exasperation" in Dr. Bledsoe's face represents the fear of even blacks of having to discuss the issue of equality. The invisible men accept their lower place in society, which is exactly what the vet had advised the narrator against doing.

College Life in Black and White

What I noticed the most in these past two chapters was Ralph Ellison's use of colors to describe almost everything. Except for birds, everything was either white, black, or brown. "White building, dark windows, white line..." The importance of the colors in descriptions lies on Ellison's use of them to show the reader what he wants them to get out of the book. Invisible Man is about the colors. The distinction that he makes between the colors of each thing proves that the color was of importance when describing people too. Ellison specifies the color of stuff, showing that if there is a difference between a white house and a black house, there is also a difference between a black man and a white man. Within the story, it is important for the reader to know who is black and who is white, because clearly they were not worth the same in the society.

The narrator, being a black, has strong feelings about his place in this society, and puts himself in a lower position than whites. He feels fear when he thinks he is falling behind the standards, and he is disgusted by those of his same race who treat whites as equal. When first meeting Mr. Norton, the narrator faked his knowledge of his position in the school, just to "flatter a rich white folk." (38) Knowing Mr. Norton could give him a tip or even a scholarship, the narrator was willing to get rid of his dignity and fake a praise.

I have also noticed the importance of dreams within the novel. In the first couple of chapters, two dreams have been of great importance. First, the narrator had a dream in which he was with his grandfather at a circus, and he refused to laugh at the clowns. He opened a letter from his grandfather that said "To Whom It May Concern, Keep This Nigger-Boy Running." (33) The second one is Jim Trueblood's dream that he had before sleeping with his wife and daughter. He had been looking for his friend on a hill, he walked through the door because no one answered, then was scared to find a white woman looking down at him. He tried to run out, frightened of what the woman might do. These dreams definitely are important for Ellison, and dreams will be an important part of the story.

Mr. Norton and the narrator have trouble when they try to look for alcohol and can only find the Golden Day. However, the day is everything but golden, as Mr. Norton nearly dies and Supercargo is kicked unconscious. The narrator is fearful of the consequences it can bring to his life in school, even though it was Mr. Norton the one who said he was a part of his destiny. People in Golden Day are crazy (literally), but they might as well represent the sane population, as some despise the white man, others fear him, and others praise him. The same happens with the blacks outside. It is only a matter of time before the blacks decide they want to be treated equally.

Notice the Invisible Title? We began the reading of Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison. The story is about black people and their invisibility within society. The narrator, nameless for the time being, uses sarcasm and personal experiences to portray to the reader his opinion about how black people are treated. The narrator accepts his own invisibility, saying that he "remembers he is invisible and walks softly so as not to awaken the sleeping ones." (5) This silent acceptance gives the reader the impression of a superiority feeling coming from the narrator, as he sees himself as someone who is awake in a world where humans live asleep. Even though he is "walking softly," the narrator explains that he does it because he is in hibernation. This, he defines as being "a covert preparation for a more overt action." (13) This can be considered foreshadowing, warning the reader that the silent acceptance won't be happening for long. The narrator is gathering the information that he needs to be able to take action.

Ellison also uses paradox to describe the narrator's feelings about having to take action. Listening to a song by Louis Armstrong that inspires him to act for his race, the narrator says "it was a strangely satisfying experience for an invisible man to hear the silence of sound." (13) You can't hear silence, and and sound can't be silent. But this song spoke to the narrator, being a silence that he could relate to.

When later the narrator tells the story of the battle royal, Ellison uses strong imagery to describe the scenes taking place. Ellison says "his muscles twitching like the flesh of a horse stung by many flies." (27) Comparing the narrator's pain to that of a horse, Ellison shows how they are lowered to the status of animals by making them fight each other barbarically. The people sitting around them watching the show regard the blacks as a source of amusement, worth the same as any other animal.

While the narrator is giving his graduation speech in front of the inattentive audience, nothing interests them until he mistakenly mentions social equality. Faking that the audience saw him as a human, the truth came out when the narrator talked of his equality to them. He is forced to say that he "wasn't being smart." (31) The silence and almost fear that came from the white audience after the mention of a possible equality proves others' denial to accept the humanity of blacks.

Ellison's diction is interesting, as he chooses to include the dialect of the people to show how they talked down to blacks. "Leggo, nigger! Leggo!" (28) is how the white sitting in a chair responds to the narrator's plead of help when threatened with the electrifying rug during the battle royal. There is no compassion in his words, that give the feeling that the suffering black man is anything but visible to him. The man chose to ignore him, just like the "sleeping ones" choose to see blacks as invisible men.

Gone With the Waves

So the pages came to an end, but there is an uncertainty that keeps the story alive forever. As Edna prepares to let go of her emotions, she asks Victor for a towel to go swim in the sea. Her indifference at this point keeps her from caring about the coldness of the water or even her nakedness as she enters the water. Edna swims far out, as she had been meaning to do ever since her first search for awakening. Nothing made her look back, not even fear of losing herself in the depths of the ocean. 

"Exhaustion was pressing upon and overpowering her." There is never any concrete assertion about the outcome of the story, but Chopin gives hints to the reader. This one, about the water overpowering Edna, suggests that she will drown. However, this doesn't worry Edna, as she continues swimming despite her tiredness. Edna continues thinking all the way, remembering Robert's final goodbye "because [he] loves her." Even though Edna loved him back, she thought "he did not understand," saying that he never knew what she was feeling. Here Chopin is saying that even though Robert loved Edna, he didn't really see what Edna had been trying to become, and he could never step in her shoes and understand what she was going through.

The possibility is open that "Doctor Mandelet would have understood," but it is too late. This also implies that there is no future ahead of Edna; she has given up, and there is nothing that will bring her back to shore. "Her strength was gone." All that had kept Edna living, her strength, her fight against the injustice that overpowered her, her love for Robert, the children, it was all gone. Having nothing else to look forward to, Edna decided to let go of her life.

Before being able to leave completely, though, Edna felt the "old terror" coming back to haunt her. However, she is strong enough to disregard it. Chopin knows that it is hard to let go of the only life you have ever know; she knows that all good things come with the fear of making a mistake. She also knows, though, that it's worth it. The fear can be temporary, and it should be ignored to prevent losing opportunities. Edna knows what she wants and what she needs, so the terror she feels is not enough to stop her. 

"Edna heard her father's voice and her sister Margaret's." Edna is still tied down to her past, remembering her father and her oldest sister. These are the people who formed her, who led her way into the world and taught her all she knew. Now, in moments of worry and uncertainty, it is these same people who lead her way out of the world. They provide a security in her that gives her the strength to continue onto the unknown, the deepest waters. She remembered the world she was leaving behind, noticing the "barking of an old dog chained to a sycamore tree." Edna understood that, like all she had ever known, the dog was chained to the world, thinking it was living in freedom but not having enough power to decide its own future. It was the tree that kept the dog from running away; it was the barking that showed an eagerness to be free.

The final images before the abrupt ending of the book are ones of peace and beauty, with the "hum of bees, and the musky odor of pinks." The world doesn't sound like a bad place; in fact, it seems pretty appealing. Why, then, does Edna choose to leave it behind? Following from past events, there are a number of reasons why Edna may have finally decided to commit suicide. It could be a symbol of success; as Edna realized her mission was complete and she had become awakened, there was nothing left for her to do in the world. It could also be proof of failure; Edna understood that nothing she did would ever make people like Mr. Pontellier and Robert understand, so she gave up and in a silent attempt at cowardice she ended her life. I personally think this last option is the case, because there was no proof of success in any of the characters who watched her change. However, the reader should not be sad with how things turned out, because Edna left with pacific acceptance and the world behind her had the sweet smell of roses.

Video Blog 3

Video Blog 2

Video Blog 1

The Man's Reaction

Except for the beginning of the book, the focus of the story and the action has been mostly on Mrs. Pontellier. There is, however, another character whose emotions and responses should be noted to understand Mrs. Pontellier's effect on the world around her. Mr. Pontellier is the man of the house, or at least had been before his wife decided to change before her eyes. Mr. Pontellier feels angry, worried, but most of all confused, as he doesn't understand where his wife's strange conduct is coming from.

The first evidence of Mr. Pontellier's disapproval with the situation came when Mrs. Pontellier claimed to having left the house on Thursday just because she wished to. To that, he says "why, my dear, I should think you'd understand by this time that people don't do such things." (100) Mrs. Pontellier doesn't even find herself opposing his restricting comments, merely explaining that she wanted to leave, so she did. Catastrophic as this behavior seemed to Mr. Pontellier, a couple of minutes later he did that which he had so earnestly accused his wife of doing with no double thought about it. "I'm going to get dinner at the club. Good night." (102) Obviously needing a reason to go out of the house was a law that applied only to women. The juxtaposition that these two events create is enough for the reader to understand the unfairness of the laws governing woman conduct.

Mr. Pontellier's self-assessment doesn't find any flaw in how he treats Mrs. Pontellier. In fact, he considers himself "a rather courteous husband so long as he met a certain tacit submissiveness in his wife." (110) Until this moment, Mr. Pontellier took this behavior for granted. Bad idea. Now that Mrs. Pontellier is acting to demonstrate specifically her lack of submissiveness to society's restrictions, Mr. Pontellier has no idea what to do. It takes all of his self-control to continue being courteous to his wife. 

In fact, Mr. Pontellier finds himself going in search of the family's physician, taking his wife's conduct as a sickness and looking for a solution. Doctor Mandelet seemed to think that it was all a passing stage in Mrs. Pontellier's life, and should all be cured when given some time. However, he could not restrain from asking the questions that were bothering him. "Has she been associating of late with a a circle of pseudo-intellectual women--super-spiritual superior beings?" "Nothing hereditary? Nothing peculiar about her family antecedents, is there?" (126) The doctor clearly agrees that there is something wrong with Mrs. Pontellier, even daring to mock her by calling her ideals "pseudo-intellectual." It is therefore not only a problem of how Mr. Pontellier sees his wife's change, but this shows that everyone in society was programmed to disapprove of Mrs. Pontellier's (or, for that matter, anyone's) opposing behavior. Chopin used Mr. Pontellier and the doctor to represent the general hostility that she, Mrs. Pontellier, and The Awakening would receive when trying to form an opposition towards society's view of women. 

Who? What? Why?

After the reader is quite sure that he has discovered what Mrs. Pontellier is up to, and prides himself in recognizing what the awakening means for the character, there comes a moment when he realizes it still isn't clear why Mrs. Pontellier is searching for an awakening. Even though we, who have been raised in modern society, might not see any apparent reason to become isolated from society in search of a new sense of freedom, it is clear that Mrs. Pontellier was living under completely different circumstances.

There are some who assume that it was all because of love, claiming that a deep love for Robert "was the cause of all Edna's need for freedom, her awakening." This is, however, not the case. Robert is a distraction, a way for Mrs. Pontellier to prove to herself that she isn't tied to anything. In other words, Robert is a tool for her to accomplish her awakening more sure of herself.

Living in a world where woman oppression is constantly putting their freedom at stake to maintain the balance of society, Mrs. Pontellier doesn't need excuses like love for another man to justify her need of realization. She makes it quite clear that "she felt no interest in anything about her. The street, the children," even Robert, "were all part of an alien world." (105) Love was one of those things Edna decided to leave behind. Even though she still had greater feelings for Robert than she did for her husband, Edna's reason for awakening was more than just attachment to passing emotions. Mrs. Pontellier wanted to separate herself from the world, break the rules, defy the standards imposed on her long before she could even think for herself.

Robert might have helped Mrs. Pontellier, as he seemed to be the only one who understood her need of change. That doesn't mean he inspired it; he just didn't oppose it. Also, the passion for Robert had been instilled in Mrs. Pontellier once her marriage didn't give her enough to look up to. Yet, the need for an awakening come from way before. "At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life." (36) Mrs. Pontellier has been thinking about this since she was young, understanding the unfairness of how the world treated people like her and forming the desire to rebel against it. Robert was a key inspiration in beginning the much longed for awakening, but by no means was he the reason behind it.

Half Asleep

Mrs. Pontellier continues her road towards awakening, getting closer and closer as she begins to understand that no one can stop her. To the dismay of everyone around her, Mrs. Pontellier refrains herself from womanly duties and decides to pursue her own likings. It is under this pretense that Mrs. Pontellier starts calling herself an artist, showing her drawings to others and using her family and the maids as models. 

Even though Mrs. Pontellier felt she had wasted her life doing things for which "Fate had not fitted her," and she had been obligated to fulfill responsibilities decided for her before she was even alive, she wasn't willing to be pulled down by her past in her way to her future (past blog). Mrs. Pontellier regarded her past as “nothing, offer[ing] no lesson which she was willing to heed.” (90) The reader is then forced to accept that the character that Chopin wants us to learn from is the new Mrs. Pontellier. There is no “lesson” in the same character’s past persona. This can also be considered a call from Chopin to all the women living in oppression to leave their past behind and search for a new future.

In her road to awakening, Mrs. Pontellier seems to be doing quite well. Chopin has already told the reader that she made it. “She had been denied that which her impassioned, newly awakened being demanded.” (66) The title of the novella is The Awakening; it starts when Mrs. Pontellier isn’t “awake,” continues as she becomes aware of her sleepiness, and she has now reached the point where she considers herself an awakened soul. What now? If Mrs. Pontellier has already accomplished the point of her life and of the story, what else does the book have to offer us? Is she now going to create a sect to unite all women against society? Is she going to kill herself in honor of those who couldn’t live a worthy life? The reader is left with unanswered questions as Mrs. Pontellier reaches her desired state yet there is half of the book left.

 

We have known Mrs. Pontellier for feeling foreign to the world around her, but it is the first time in which she “had suddenly become antagonistic.” (105) Everything around her belonged to the same world, except her. Now she didn’t only feel like she didn’t belong in it, she also felt opposing to its ideas and its people. It is no longer okay for Chopin and for Mrs. Pontellier to watch the world reproachfully from the outside, it is necessary to take action against anything you don’t agree with. Maybe that is what the rest of the book will be about. Maybe Mrs. Pontellier will dedicate her free time towards fixing the laws of society that were imposed to her of which she doesn’t agree with.

An Ocean of Uncertainties

It is after the first 50 pages that the quote at the back of The Awakening is mentioned for the first time in the story. "She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before." (p. 60) Even though the quote is featured as a summary because of its metaphorical meaning, when it appears in the story it is actually very literal. Mrs. Pontellier is facing the challenge of swimming "far out" into the ocean for the first time, because she had only splashed in the surface until now.

Before this epiphany, Mrs. Pontellier felt no control over "her body and her soul." She describes her purely automatic life as that which she does "unthinkingly, as she walks, moves, sits, stands, goes through the daily treadmill of a life which has been portioned to her." (p. 66) This image of life as a treadmill is very strong, as it is something that you use with a purpose but work as hard as you try you will never get anywhere new. The same happened to women in their daily lives; they always had something to do but when reminiscing about the past they found that they were caught in doing so much that they never truly did anything.

The Awakening is slowly becoming a very strong plead to the women of the late 19th century to get out of their "treadmill" and into a true and dignified life. It is noteworthy that only no "woman had ever swum before," implying that men had been allowed to swim "far out" and only women had been asked to stay in the shore with such a wide range of possibilities stretching out in front of them.

However, even Mrs. Pontellier has moments in which she wished she could just allow society to move her here and there without her having any responsibility to deal with. Even though she had been impulsively demonstrating her nonconformism with her society's plans for her life, Mrs. Pontellier found herself "not seeking refreshment or help form any source... she was blindly following whatever impulse moved her." (p. 67) Chopin shows that it might be easier to just accept the situation and go along with it, but depending on the end of the story, she could be pointing out that it is worth the try. The reader is left wondering what Mrs. Pontellier finally achieves as the story moves on to other points.

In a different observation, the story line of The Awakening hasn't exactly been very exciting until now, which is probably on purpose. To demonstrate the nonoccurrence of events in a woman's normal life and to avoid distracting the reader from the true argument at stake in the book, Kate Chopin kept things simple with the plot while still managing to make a very strong, feminist point.

An Inward Life that Questions

As the story progresses, the instances in which the reader realizes that this is not just a tale about a happy family start to make themselves more noticeable. There are random mentions of a way of thinking characteristic of dissatisfaction. While Mr. Pontellier seems to have nothing to criticize of society, Mrs. Pontellier is in need of relief.

It is made known to the reader that Mrs. Pontellier, at a very early age, had "apprehended instinctively the dual life - that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions." (p. 36) In a society where it is naturally accepted that women have to fulfill the roles they have always been required to do, no one expects any questioning. But Mrs. Pontellier refuses to conform inwardly, which in turn shows Kate Chopin's nonconformity. In 1899, when The Awakening was first published, there was an upheaval of criticism for the direct way in which Chopin shows women's oppression within marriage and their daily lives. Chopin is able to inspire the female reader to take action, to speak out about their situation, to question internally.

Chopin describes the female life as "a responsibility she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitter her." (p. 44) Women's responsibilities had been decided well before this time period, so Chopin argues against accepting them any longer. It is not Mrs. Pontellier's place in the world to conform to what society asks of her, and she chooses to demonstrate this belief to obvious refusal to do simple things.

When Mrs. Pontellier is sitting outside the beach house at 1:00 a.m. with Robert, there is nothing but upright boycott keeping her out in the cold. Mr. Pontellier tries to knock some "sense" into her, accusing her it of being a "folly." (p. 65) Mrs. Pontellier is tired and cold enough to want to go it, but she decides to suffer through it in an attempt to show her discomfort with her current life.

But not even other women think well of Mrs. Pontellier's open opposition, as they tell each other "sometimes I am tempted to think that Mrs. Pontellier is capricious." (p. 61) This shows the controversy that may have arisen from the mere publishing of The Awakening, in which even women (the oppressed) were against a movement that could make their lives more worthwhile. It is difficult for one voice to fight against the apparent beliefs of a society, so Kate Chopin's book's importance lies on its ability to propose an alternative view.

A New Controversy

That's right, we have now begun a new book. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, is a feminist book first published in 1899, which according to the book description was received with great controversy. It was uncommon for women to speak out in this time period, so that could explain the reaction. However, when seen from modern times, The Awakening is considered a very influential classic.

The story starts very low-key, set out to describe Mr. Pontellier in his daily occurrences. A small mention of his wife and his children bring a clearer view into his background, but there is not much description about his interactions with the people around him. Mr. Pontellier leaves the house one night and everything seems perfect, but it doesn't stay that way for long. Without much warning, the reader is faced with an ever-present issue. At night, when one of the children is diagnosed with a fever by his own father, and Mrs. Pontellier refuses to care much, Mr. Pontellier questions "If it was not a mother's place to look after her children, whose on earth was it?" (21) Man's opinion about women's place in society is then introduced to the reader. Mr. Pontellier is sure that the children had to be looked after by the mother, and his job was only to earn the money.

The reader isn't sure about the author's position in this debate, but it is probably going to be revealed later in the story. Most women accepted this ideal of how they should behave and what role they should fulfill, but it becomes apparent that Mrs. Pontellier has a problem with this when she finds herself facing "an indescribable oppression... [that] filled her whole being with a vague anguish." (22) The problem of woman's role in society is then present in the reader's mind for the rest of the reading, but Chopin stops talking directly about it as if wanting us to remember it when reading the story but not seeing only that.


The perfect woman according to Mr. Pontellier (and for all we know, according to Chopin too), is described in The Awakening as being those who "idolized their children, worship their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels." (26) This obligates women to forget about their self needs and care only about being there for others. Comparing, then, Mrs. Pontellier with this image of perfection and saying that she was not like the others explains just how much her uncaring nature towards her children was frowned upon by society.


Mrs. Pontellier doesn't feel like she is like all the other "mother-women" living in Grand Isle. It seems as if until now she has done her best to fulfill her role in the most accepting way possible, but it now becomes apparent that she is looking for a change. In chapter VI, "Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her." (34) This quote is enough to suggest to the reader a change in character from the idle Mrs. Pontellier. We are now expecting to see the story develop through Mrs. Pontellier's defiance of society's plans for her life.