SOST 101 Notes 2nd half of the semester Reading Menken The Sahara of the Bozart 369 78 says civilization has left the South the Civil War killed off many of the aristocratic or they fell into poverty or moved away old aristocracy gone Reconstruction era puts working class first claims the South is devoid of intellectuality arts produces no worthy writings etc says the gentry were the good people so now they are gone there s nothing good left in the South specifically uses state of Virginia as an example South drained of its best blood more intermarriage between classes calls Southern people ignorant says they are jovial hospitable polite good humored but absurd and pathetic Reading Toomer Cane 425 31 Karintha young beautiful black girl that all men admire want she blooms too soon births a child alone in the woods pine motif sexual compares her to dusk the dark side Becky white woman who has two sons with a black man lives near train tracks no one ever saw her after her 1st son but people would toss papers and food then people began to speculate she had died but no one knew for sure or near her house wanted to check one day a train went by and the brick chimney fell onto Becky s cabin if she wasn t dead before she was now Carma masculine woman wears overalls works hard all day near a dirt road called the Dixie Pike corn stalk theme husband is in the chain gang away most of the time rumors go around town maybe she s pregnant with another man s child Bane accuses her wants to beat her she flees with a gun into the corn shoots herself men carry her in place her on a couch she doesn t look so strong anymore Georgia Dusk poem images of the south Cane poem pine motif again sexual voices of the slaves in the cornfields Reading Toomer Blood Burning Moon BlkBrd red full moon showing through the doorway of a shantie an omen black girl named Louisa has two love interests one white man named Bob Stone works for his family and a black man Tom Burwell Big Boy as she is walking from the kitchen a strange feeling comes over her as she looks at the moon and thinks about the two men supposed to meet Bob in the cane as usual but thinks of how Tom will propose to her soon Old David Georgia has some men sitting around talking one mentions Louisa and Bob Tom gets angry fights and the men flee he sees the moon and feels strange Tom goes to talk with Louisa asks her about Bob she denies anything and Tom says he ll cut Bob just like he cut his fellow blacks if he finds out Bob is doing anything with her they sit together on the porch and watch the red moon Bob thinks about how before the war he could take Louisa whenever he pleased now found out Tom is a threat to him and Louisa was with him when they were supposed after he had to do it in secret to meet in the cane field Bob goes to fight Tom Tom beats him up and cuts his neck Louisa distressed Bob flees to town collapses in the arms of other white people and says Tom s name The townspeople get Tom and burn him alive in front of a huge yelling mob Reading Toomer Portrait in Georgia BlkBrd poem could be about a black woman s burned body and appearance or perhaps a white woman s appearance in relation to a black man getting lynched Class Notes Harlem Renaissance Hurston and Wright both associated with the H R in the 1920 s were opposing pillars of H R movement totally different perspectives both contribute to literary art form H R was first african american movement in US came from mass exodus of black people moving north and away from south partly in response to post WWI industrial needs in part of Crowe ethics reveals failing in the idea that blacks were equal but separate still not treated equal by the 1920 s NY had gained nearly 150 000 blacks within H R had debates including agrarian vs urban and intellectual art vs traditional african art complicated philosophies at warm including those of Hurston and Wright Hurston grew up in a all black community in FL didn t meet whites until teen years at school grew up without obvious racial oppression accomplished folklorist as well more interested in anthropological view Wright had a disjointed fatherless childhood some schooling worked a lot and grew up in obvious oppression inspired by Menken agreed with his attack on the South believed all writing should have a political view goal etc worked in journalism literature as an art of political protest communist saw Hurston as a traitor to the blacks since her characters in stories often aren t shown as being oppressed often fit stereotypes of black culture Reading Hurston Colored Me 416 18 Zora says she learned to be colored used to greet people moving through town would dance and sing for the white people who liked her and they gave her coins her parents would make her stop when they saw her doing this but everyone loved her she was everyone s Zora childhood was in Eatonville FL but when she was old enough she went to Jacksonville for education says she became colored there not in a bad way she felt no misery or sorrow about the past or slavery only sought to move forward says she doesn t feel colored unless she is surrounded by white people goes to the New World Cabaret one night and sits near a white man she feels great waves of emotion listening to the passionate music white man calmly remarks good music they have hear Says she feels on top of the world in Harlem City but among whites she feels like a knick knack in a brown paper bag filled with various trinkets but suggests at the end that the Great Bag Stuffer aka God maybe filled the bag at random Reading Wright Ethics of Living Jim Crow 548 56 autobiographical starts with childhood in black shantie Arkansas gets into a fight with neighboring white boys one of them injures him and he is furious tells his mom and she beats him for it tells him he should stay away and never fight with the white boys grows old enough to work moves to Mississippi and works in optical shop wants to learn new things but the two white men he worked with grew insecure so one day one gets mad Richard narrator doesn t say mr Pease Pease and other man Morris corner Richard and beat him until Richard agrees to resign his position and never come back next incident happens while working at a clothing store sees a black woman get beaten and presumably raped by his white superiors then narrator talks it over with some other black men and they seem used to it say she was then while riding …