In both The Secret Life of Bees and How It Feels to Be Colored Me, The Boatwright sisters and Zora Neale Hurston herself are great, driven and optimistic people. Hurston took so much pride in her race and didn't let prejudice and racism get in the way of her dreams. "No, I do not weep at the world--I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife" (294). The way Hurston writes with such optimism and pride in her heritage is extremely admirable since she wrote that during a time where black's had such limited right's in society. Hurston knew she had a lot to offer to the world and the pigmentation of her skin definitely wasn't going to get in the way of that. This connects to the The Boatwright sisters, especially August in particular. She had that same type of optimism in life. August never let the fact that she was a black in South Carolina get in the way of her dreams. This novel and autobiographical essay both go into the magnificent lives of colored individuals and they feel they're as what Hurston said,"Not tragically colored" (294).
"I feel like a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall. Against a wall in company with other bags, white, red and yellow. Pour out the contents, and there is discovered a jumble of things priceless and worthless...A bit of colored glass would not matter. Perhaps that is how the Great Stuffer of Bags filled them in the first place--who knows?" (297). When I read How It Feels to Be Colored Me, by Zora Neale Hurston, that was my favorite quote in the entire essay. I feel there's so much truth in those short sentences. What Hurston says is similar to what was carved into our country's building in the Declaration of Independence about how, "All men are created equal". But then there was slavery, then the civil war, then the Civil Rights movement. The idea of different colored bags with the same contents was neglected. No matter how many naive close-minded people believe that skin color can change who a person is, they're all wrong.
When you pour out the feeings, thoughts, emotions of all different types of people, we're all the same. We're all just human beings trying to reach our full potential and fulfill our own version of the American Dream in one way or another. I believe that despite all the differences countries may have together, we feel the same emotions, we strive to be successful, we long to be accepted, we're all the same.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Racial Role Reversal
As we read farther into The Secret Life of Bees more racism plays out. Surprisingly, it's not the typical stereotype people may think when they hear "racism" In the novel, the blacks are mistreated and are dealing with racism, but then the tables slightly turn onto Lily. She is a little shocked that there is some racism against her. She understands that she's white and never thought that she would actually have to deal with something like prejudice, she had always assumed that it was something that only black people had to deal with.
Lily was shocked when she overhead Augest and June talking. June has some problems with Lily and they have to do with her raced. June says ,"But she's white, Augest" (87). Lily didn't understand or accept that people could be rejected for being white. This is like a role reversal in many ways. She then understood what it felt like to be a black person and dealing with the prejudices that they dealt with every day. I believe that if many white people were able to understand what Lily felt, then maybe they'd be more accepting to African Americans instead of just putting them down with cruel segregation laws.
This role reversal is a huge connection in terms of the racism against the African American culture in America. I believe that maybe if whites were able to share the feelings that Lily did, and experience the anger that she felt, that she wasn't accepted, maybe Martin Luther King Jr., wouldn've have been thrown into jail countless times, and James Meredith could've gotten the education that he deservered at the University of Mississippi. The the great figures of the Civil Right's Movement had something called "Rightous indignation" (87) just like Lily had when hearing June, They stood up for the right's they knew they deserved but didn't have. If white's during the Civil Rights Movement took a minute and maybe put theirself in a black person's shoe dealing with racism, it may have been possible that many of the cruel crimes and violations maybe would never of happened, and black's could've segregated and lived a normal life quicker and easier, like they deserved.
Lily was shocked when she overhead Augest and June talking. June has some problems with Lily and they have to do with her raced. June says ,"But she's white, Augest" (87). Lily didn't understand or accept that people could be rejected for being white. This is like a role reversal in many ways. She then understood what it felt like to be a black person and dealing with the prejudices that they dealt with every day. I believe that if many white people were able to understand what Lily felt, then maybe they'd be more accepting to African Americans instead of just putting them down with cruel segregation laws.
This role reversal is a huge connection in terms of the racism against the African American culture in America. I believe that maybe if whites were able to share the feelings that Lily did, and experience the anger that she felt, that she wasn't accepted, maybe Martin Luther King Jr., wouldn've have been thrown into jail countless times, and James Meredith could've gotten the education that he deservered at the University of Mississippi. The the great figures of the Civil Right's Movement had something called "Rightous indignation" (87) just like Lily had when hearing June, They stood up for the right's they knew they deserved but didn't have. If white's during the Civil Rights Movement took a minute and maybe put theirself in a black person's shoe dealing with racism, it may have been possible that many of the cruel crimes and violations maybe would never of happened, and black's could've segregated and lived a normal life quicker and easier, like they deserved.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Standing Up For Your Beliefs
It's Black History Month, and we have begun to read texts that demonstrate the struggles of African Americans in the 1960s. This is when the Civil Rights law was passed by former President Johnson. In Martin Luther King's, Letter From Birmingham Jail, I was shocked to read about how he was thrown in jail for something that he simply believed in, which was ending racial segregation. My favorite part of his entire letter was when King described the American Dream. "They were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence." (1140). Martin Luther King Jr. wanted all African Americans to live the American Dream freely and not be bound down to evil unfair segregation. In the Declaration of Independence, one of the document's on which our country prides itself, states that all men of this country are created equal. All being equal, everyone had a fair shot at the American Dream, the irony is that, during this time many black Americans couldn't reach that because of the horrible, unfair segregation in America.
Connecting to the novel that we recently started, The Secret Life of Bees, the character of Rosaleen, was unfairly put down by racism and segregation of African Americans. Rosaleen like all African Americans of the time wanted to live their own American Dreams and prosper in the country. But, they couldn't, due to ridiculous laws preventing them from doing many things white's could do. Rosaleen wanted to go into town and register to vote but she was getting harassed by white men, with rude comments. She fought back and poured her tobacco cup on their shoes. While reading, I was shocked when the men literally got up and beat her. She's a woman, and a man should never beat a woman. That just shows the disgusting racial views many white American's had during those times. Just that demonstrates that something needed to be changed in America.
Most importantly, what Martin Luther King Jr. and the character of Rosaleen did is a drive to all people trying to accomplish a goal in life. Rosaleen's story is historically true, she was an African American woman trying to get the American right's that she deserves. Many African American's were trying to do the same thing Rosaleen was. The character of Rosaleen, and then some actual Civil Right's activists, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and many more are extremely inspirational American citizens. When the United States was going through one of the biggest racial segregation battles of its history, these people were brave and powerful enough to stand up and fight for what's right and end the unrighteous barrier between white's and black's. Those people didn't care that they could go to jail for what they were trying to accomplish, they were fighting for what was right and did things that have gone down in history.
I find Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks and the other figures of the Civil Right's Movement great examples of historical Americans. They stood up for what they believe in, ending some as important as racial segregation and accomplishing something great for America and letting all have a fair shot at the American Dream. If those great people could help accomplish something that then seemed such a far shot and sometimes impossible, you should never give up on what you believe in because, it can always be done if you put your heart in it and not let anything get in your way.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Martin Luther King Jr.
-- I Have A Dream
Connecting to the novel that we recently started, The Secret Life of Bees, the character of Rosaleen, was unfairly put down by racism and segregation of African Americans. Rosaleen like all African Americans of the time wanted to live their own American Dreams and prosper in the country. But, they couldn't, due to ridiculous laws preventing them from doing many things white's could do. Rosaleen wanted to go into town and register to vote but she was getting harassed by white men, with rude comments. She fought back and poured her tobacco cup on their shoes. While reading, I was shocked when the men literally got up and beat her. She's a woman, and a man should never beat a woman. That just shows the disgusting racial views many white American's had during those times. Just that demonstrates that something needed to be changed in America.
Most importantly, what Martin Luther King Jr. and the character of Rosaleen did is a drive to all people trying to accomplish a goal in life. Rosaleen's story is historically true, she was an African American woman trying to get the American right's that she deserves. Many African American's were trying to do the same thing Rosaleen was. The character of Rosaleen, and then some actual Civil Right's activists, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and many more are extremely inspirational American citizens. When the United States was going through one of the biggest racial segregation battles of its history, these people were brave and powerful enough to stand up and fight for what's right and end the unrighteous barrier between white's and black's. Those people didn't care that they could go to jail for what they were trying to accomplish, they were fighting for what was right and did things that have gone down in history.
I find Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks and the other figures of the Civil Right's Movement great examples of historical Americans. They stood up for what they believe in, ending some as important as racial segregation and accomplishing something great for America and letting all have a fair shot at the American Dream. If those great people could help accomplish something that then seemed such a far shot and sometimes impossible, you should never give up on what you believe in because, it can always be done if you put your heart in it and not let anything get in your way.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Martin Luther King Jr.
-- I Have A Dream
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