Blogpost 23: Feisty Mama

While Lola's upbringing was within the same household as Oscar's and they experience similar issues, Lola represents a different perspective and handles her struggles in contrasting ways from Oscar. I admire Lola as a girl who stands up for herself and rebels against the gender and cultural norms that are forced upon her. She is headstrong and often retaliates to issues with her mother in ways that are not always the best, but I respect her for standing up for herself instead of behaving like her brother, who often complains about his problems without taking much initiative to fix them. 

Junot Diaz's decision to switch the narrator perspective gives the reader a glimpse of what it is like to experience traditional gender role issues from the female perspective. A main issue in this novel is the gender roles of traditional Dominican society, and Oscar represents a male who struggles with masculinity through self pity, and Lola represents a female who wrestles with feminine norms through defiance. It is interesting to see the other half of this major topic and how different characters react to conflict.

The mom of Oscar and Lola, Belicia is a multidimensional character. Through her often toxic relationship with Lola, a main issue that comes to focus is the expression of love and what actual love looks like. Often times Lola feels unloved by her mother, and like she is being "crushed under her heel" (Diaz 55). On page 70, when Lola runs away but turns back for her crying mother, she finds out her mother was only faking it to be able to reclaim her daughter. This scene makes the reader question whether Lola's mom really loves her or if she just wants to treat her as a possession and slave that she has full control over. However, later on Belicia says to Lola on the phone, "Just know I would die for you" (Diaz 72). Belicia's willingness to sacrifice her life for Lola is the ultimate act of motherly love, which presents another conflicting side of Belicia. 

When it comes down to it, despite the volatile dynamic between them, Lola and her mother do love each other. It is society's cultural norms that cause them to express themselves in conflicting ways. As a Dominican woman, Belicia has probably had very little control over anything in her life, but having a daughter gave her the opportunity to be able to claim something as entirely hers, especially because she raised her children as a single mom. Because of this, Belicia's tyranny over Lola can be somewhat justified, because her behavior as a mom is just a result of society.

Personally, I can relate to Lola's relationship with her mother because my mom and I used to fight frequently and there is still often tension between us. We love each other, but our different ways of expressing it often lead to conflict. In the end, my mother wants what is best for me, but she does not always handle situations the way I would want to handle them. If I go about achieving my goals in a different way from how she would do it, she often worries and then expels that stress onto me. A similar dynamic is seen between Lola and her mom: they both want the same end result (for Lola to be happy), but they want to go about achieving this goal differently. Belicia wants Lola to conform to society and be like her, but Lola wants to make her own path.

Blogpost 22: Oscar Meyer... Wao?

Junot Diaz often uses footnotes throughout the text as an opportunity to tell backstories about Oscar's life and Dominican culture. Unlike most authors, Diaz's footnotes have just as much, if not more character than the regular text, because they are just as vital to the story as the text itself. These footnotes enhance the story by bringing the reader closer to the author because they are Junot's chance to speak directly to his audience. They also enhance the story primarily through their ability to provide background about Dominican culture and history- key influences on the behavior and gender roles of the society in which Oscar lives.

The reader has a love/hate relationship with the protagonist, Oscar. On one hand he is an endearing young boy who struggles with his abilities to fit into a society with traditional gender roles. Knowing Oscar's struggles and his unfulfilled desire for affection, the reader feels sympathy for him. On the other hand, Oscar has skewed values and judges people in ways that are far from admirable. He places too much importance on his ability to have a relationship, he objectifies women, and he values attractiveness over intelligence regarding his own self worth and the worth he places on girls. His consideration of his own depression and his complete disregard of Olga's following the breakup that ended his "Golden Age" is just one example of the double standards he has for the way people of different genders should behave. However, the way he judges people is only a result of his upbringing. From an early age, he was taught that the ideal man is strong, dominant, non-emotional, and sexually versed and the ideal woman is submissive, beautiful, and only useful for staying home to take care of the family. So on one hand, the reader wants "fuku" to teach the sexist, materialistic, and shallow Oscar a lesson, but on the other hand, the reader just wants Oscar to be able to rise above the norms of Dominican culture so he can express himself and be loved, no matter how he compares to the cookie cutter ideal male.

Blog Post 21: Or Does It...EXPLODE?

The money the family is expecting to receive carries large significance because it plays an important role in the family's past, present, and future. In terms of the past, the family has never had much money, so they have not had very many opportunities to make their dreams reality. For the future, the family wants this money in order to open up more opportunities to make their dreams come true, whether it be Walter's dreams of a successful career or the next generations dreams for the life ahead of them. The money is also important for their current situation, because at this point, many of the families' interactions are arguments, many of which involving money. They all experience frustration with their current financial standing and it sparks many debates, whether it be over marriage, Walter's career, Beneatha's education, Beneatha's boyfriend, or Travis's school project. Money constantly places limitations on their way of life, which results in a broken family dynamic.

Walter's life centers around the concept of money. In the end, his desire for wealth only hurts him because he cannot see the positives in his life and does not draw attention to what really matters, such as his family. His preoccupation with financial status will only steer him towards quick fixes rather than lasting solutions for the family.

Blog Post 20: The Evolution of D

Throughout the text, Paul D struggles with his sense of identity and manhood. His decisions are often guided by his avoidance of the past and his yearning to feel like a man.

Paul D's past scarred him because his experiences as a slave taught him he was no better than an animal. Mr.Garner always said he treated his slaves like real men, but when the school teacher came, Paul D felt like he was being treated no better than a rooster. The brutality Paul D experienced taught him that to survive, he would have to lock away all of his memories and feelings in a "tobacco tin buried in his chest where his red heart used to be" (Morrison 86).

Once Paul D escaped slavery, he was known to be a wanderer, never settling down anywhere for too long. Because of his tobacco tin, he did not want to feel attached to anything or anyone for too long, so he found it easier to cope wandering around on his own. However, when Paul D came to 124 and found Sethe, he finally found a place he could not leave. Sethe reminded him of his past and gave him the strength to face it, and her home and family provided him the opportunity to assert dominance and claim his manhood. Even though he had no business taking the role as head of the household, he immediately started trying to take over because he had a necessity to prove to himself that he was a man.

A key turning point for Paul D was when he had sex with Beloved. Beloved is representative of all the pain harnessed in the past, and him having sex with her was a demonstration of him confronting all of his repressed memories. After the sexual act, Paul D's "tobacco tin" is again replaced with his "red heart" because he is now vulnerable and ready to have all the emotions his past and current life entails (Morrison 138).

Chapter 19 represents another key turning point for Paul D because in this chapter, Stamp Paid tells him about the murder of Sethe's first daughter and Paul D decides to leave 124. His discovery of Sethe's crime alters his perception of Sethe and her household, and he is too afraid to remain there with her. Before given this insight, he had imagined a future with Sethe in which he could build a family and claim his manhood, but now that dream is tarnished and he feels the need to remove himself. This leaves him questioning his future, his past, and his identity as a man and human being. This is clearly seen by the disheveled state he is found in: "on the steps of Holy Redeemer, holding his wrists between his knees and looking red-eyed" (Morrison 222).

Blog Post 19: HoneySUCKLE Rooooose....

One could argue that Baby Suggs' treatment at the hands of her masters in slavery was better than the treatment she received from her community as a free woman. When describing her time as a slave at Sweet Home, she continually repeats that "nobody knocked her down...even when she slipped on cow dung and broke every egg in her apron" (Morrison 164). No matter how badly she messed up, she was always respected and listened to, and never criticized. However, as a free woman, she was constantly knocked down by her community and continually experienced "the scent of disapproval" (Morrison 162-163). Instead of interpreting Baby Suggs' acts of generosity as true benevolence, they took it as "uncalled for pride," "overstepping, giving too much, and offending them by excess" (Morrison 163).

Denver's suckling her sister's blood along with her mother's milk accounts for both her acceptance of the non-material spirit in the house and her acceptance of Beloved as the material re-embodiment of her sister's spirit. When Sethe nursed Denver, she refused to clean herself,despite Baby Suggs' discontent, because she still felt the pain of what she had done and was clinging onto the past. When Denver suckled both her mother's milk and her sister's blood, she became connected to Sethe's painful past. The non-material spirit of Beloved often represents Sethe's guilt, which was represented by the baby's blood. The milk represents the nourishing side of Sethe's motherhood, which is what allows Sethe a second chance when Beloved comes back as a material re-embodiment of her spirit. Denver connects to Beloved in both of these ways because they both have a distrust for Sethe yet are reliant on her for nourishment to live. 

Blog Post 18: FREEDOM...FREEDOM...

Chapters nine through twelve examine Beloved’s role in each character’s life and how they deal with the past. In chapter nine, Sethe has decided to go to the Clearing, a place Baby Suggs used to preach, because in recent days she has found herself at unease with how to deal with her burdensome past. At one moment, she is letting the ghost of Baby Suggs rub her neck, but shortly she finds herself being strangled (113). When she is saved by Beloved and Denver, bruises appear on her neck. These physical marks are made to show that even though one’s past cannot be seen, it has a lasting and visible impact on the future. The way Denver and Beloved react to the bruises represent different ways of dealing with a harsh past: Beloved’s choice to nurture and touch them represents her advocacy for confronting the past, while Denver’s choice to ignore them shows that she would rather avoid the past and try to focus on the present (114).

In Chapter 10, the reader learns about Paul D’s experience in a prison where he was chained to forty-six other prisoners, sexually abused, forced to work, and confined to living in a wooden box in the ground. After Paul D escapes from this low point in his life, he learns to deal with the past by repressing it and putting it into a “tobacco tin lodged in his chest” (133). In Chapter 11, when Beloved and Paul D have sex, Beloved demands that she will not leave until he calls her by name (137). When the sexual encounter is complete, Paul D repeats the phrase “Red Heart” over and over (138). Because Beloved is used as a representation of the past, her insistence on him calling her by name shows that the past must be confronted before one can move on. Paul D’s repetition of “Red Heart”  symbolizes that he is finally confronting his past and letting his memories out of “the tobacco tin lodged into his chest” and into his heart.

Blog Post 16: Dearly BELOVED...We is Typing Here Today...

When Paul D comes to 124, he immediately rearranges the prior familial structure and assumes the typical male role as the head of the household: “There was no room for any other thing or body until Paul D arrived and broke up the place, making room, shifting it, moving it to someplace else, then standing in the place he had made" (47). One might find it peculiar that Sethe allowed him to take this role so promptly considering all the men in her life have left her, but this male absence is actually the very reason she enables him to assume the head position of the family. On page 47, Sethe reminisces on when her two sons left her: "There was a time when she scanned the fields every morning and every evening for her boys." Ever since her sons left her, she has been yearning for a male presence to come back to her, which is why she is so eager to accepts Paul D when he comes from her past and into her present life. She believes that if she is able to move forward and create a family with him, she will be able to move on from the past. On page 51, Morrison writes, "To Sethe, the future was a matter of keeping the past at bay. The "better life" she believed she and Denver were living was simply not that other one. The fact that Paul D had come out of "that other one" into her bed was better too; and the notion of a future with him was beginning to stroke her mind." Throughout the next chapter Sethe continues to think of Paul D as part of the family as she watches their shadows "hold hands". Paul D being part of the family is not only beneficial to Sethe because it is a way to escape the past, but she also sees it as a way to help Denver: "Soothed by sugar, surrounded by a crowd of people who did not find [Denver] the main attraction, who, in fact, said, "Hey, Denver," every now and then, pleased her enough to consider that Paul D wasn't all that bad." As Denver warms up to Paul D at the carnival, Sethe continues to entertain the idea of Paul D being the head of the family because she sees him as a way to bring her family back to normalcy and therefore give Denver more companionship as part of society.

In chapter 5, a strange woman named Beloved comes out of the water and eventually makes it to 124. There is obviously something extremely peculiar about Beloved, but Sethe, Denver, and Paul D do not even make an effort to ask her questions about her background. On page 62, Paul D identifies with Beloved's slow and difficult pronunciation of the letters of her name and relates it to a part of his past, when many people from all different backgrounds would walk together, all with different destinations and issues. On page 63 he describes these crowds as "silent, except for social courtesies, when they met one another they neither described nor asked about the sorrow that drove them from one place to another." Because Paul D understands that everyone deals with different struggles, he decides not to ask Beloved about her past. Sethe's lack of inquiry is for other reasons, however. Sethe does not ask Beloved any questions about her background because she is preoccupied with reminiscing over her daughter: "Sethe was deeply touched by her sweet name; the remembrance of glittering headstone made her feel especially kindly toward her." Because Sethe feels called to be a motherly figure to Beloved, Sethe does not care where Beloved came from, she only cares about nurturing her. Denver does not question Beloved's identity either, and her reasoning varies from Paul D's and Sethe's as well. Denver's upbringing has been very isolated, so she sees Beloved as an opportunity for companionship. Denver immediately takes on the role of Beloved's caretaker because she is desperate to have someone there for her to keep her from being lonely. So even though their reasoning is all different, Paul D's, Sethe's, and Denver's decisions not to question Beloved leaves her identity up in the air.