Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Social norm in Box Seat
Dan Moore is a strong man who knows who he wants to live his life and he is more rural than Muriel, who belongs to the urban world and abides by the rules of society which guide the people's lives. Dan sees this as unnatural and wants to save the woman he loves from becoming a puppet of society. He tries to talk with her and convince her to do something spontaneous.
He follows her to the theater as a way to get her to act. His outburst about Jesus in the end is his last attempt at making her think for herself although she has proven that she has chosen to follow the rules of society by suppressing the revulsion at the soiled gift from the dwarf.
Dan is an example of the natural human who has his own thoughts and ideas, while Muriel is an unnatural product of an artificially created society.
Charlotte Carlsson
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Processing Cane
I stumbled upon an interesting analogy (I'd like to say that I thought of it myself, but it just wouldn't be true) which suggests that the black characters in Toomer's book are "stalks of sugar cane to be cut down by the American society of the early 20th century."
In the rural, natural world of Georgia, the women are "sirens" or "sex-goddesses," desired by men who "are driven by lust or rage, almost stereotypes of the savage African." These characters are raw sugar cane, viewed as unprocessed and unrefined. The characters we meet in Washington do seemed more cultured, more refined, but the refining process, one of pressing and boiling, has been painful, and left our characters "broken by society and warped by their own passions.
In Blood Moon Burning, old David Georgia stirs his cane syrup while Tom Burwell chews on a cane-stalk. Tom's passion for Louisa drives him to murder Bob Stone. Tom is dealt with quickly by a white mob. I guess one could say Tom was processed right there in the old cotton factory. In Box Seat, Dan Moore is rejected by Muriel even though she recognizes the goodness in him. "But, he don't fit in," she laments. Dan is frustrated by Muriel's attitude and then, enraged by the dwarf's presentation to her. Dan would probably like to jump onstage and do a "Tom Burwell number" on that dwarf, but, instead, he lets off some steam by jumping up and shouting "JESUS WAS ONCE A LEPER!" He picks a fight with the "corn-foot man," then stomps away.
The refining process has affected the characters in the Washington section of Cane. They "seem better in some ways, yet not in others." And although, "the exteriors can be made to seem different," the blacks in Washington are "also lonely and impotent in true communication."
Works Cited: http://hackwriters.com/Cane
LouAnne Pillers
In the rural, natural world of Georgia, the women are "sirens" or "sex-goddesses," desired by men who "are driven by lust or rage, almost stereotypes of the savage African." These characters are raw sugar cane, viewed as unprocessed and unrefined. The characters we meet in Washington do seemed more cultured, more refined, but the refining process, one of pressing and boiling, has been painful, and left our characters "broken by society and warped by their own passions.
In Blood Moon Burning, old David Georgia stirs his cane syrup while Tom Burwell chews on a cane-stalk. Tom's passion for Louisa drives him to murder Bob Stone. Tom is dealt with quickly by a white mob. I guess one could say Tom was processed right there in the old cotton factory. In Box Seat, Dan Moore is rejected by Muriel even though she recognizes the goodness in him. "But, he don't fit in," she laments. Dan is frustrated by Muriel's attitude and then, enraged by the dwarf's presentation to her. Dan would probably like to jump onstage and do a "Tom Burwell number" on that dwarf, but, instead, he lets off some steam by jumping up and shouting "JESUS WAS ONCE A LEPER!" He picks a fight with the "corn-foot man," then stomps away.
The refining process has affected the characters in the Washington section of Cane. They "seem better in some ways, yet not in others." And although, "the exteriors can be made to seem different," the blacks in Washington are "also lonely and impotent in true communication."
Works Cited: http://hackwriters.com/Cane
LouAnne Pillers
Saturday, March 1, 2008
South vs. North: A Contrast in Characterization
South vs. North: A Contrast in Characterization
Contrasting the characterizations of the Georgia and Northern sections of Cane, Darwin T. Turner, in "Contrasts and Limitations in Cane," posits that the difference "is between a natural response to sexual drives and a self-conscious, frustrating inability to realize oneself" (209). Generally, the women of Toomer's South are portrayed as sexual beings unrestrained by social conventions, "respond[ing] naturally and instinctively to their urges" (209). However, although these women may be liberated in the expression of their sexualities, that does not imply that Southern society openly embraces their natural behavior. Southern society, in Toomer's conception, compensates for this sexual expression in an act of collective self-delusion: "Townspeople can accept aberrants only by pretending that there has been no deviation from the socially acceptable" (209).
In the Northern section of Cane, Turner posits the existence of frustration and repression in these characters, both male and female, as they fashion for themselves a more self-conscious image that rejects the seeming atavism of Southern sexual behavior (209-10). Ironically, as their moral attitudes become more urbane, Toomer seems to evoke "a yearning for a more primitive existence in which desire, not will, can be the ruling force" (211). For example, in "Theater," John "interpose[s] will between desire and action" (211). Consequently, he is consigned to live in an ascetic dream world where sexual urges are subordinate to his artificial and unnatural philosophy. Insulated by the trappings of his own mind, John risks nothing and protects himself from the harsh realities of the social world.
Work Cited:
Turner, Darwin T. "Contrasts and Limitations in Cane." Cane. Ed. Darwin T. Turner. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988. 207-15.
Michael Chesky
Contrasting the characterizations of the Georgia and Northern sections of Cane, Darwin T. Turner, in "Contrasts and Limitations in Cane," posits that the difference "is between a natural response to sexual drives and a self-conscious, frustrating inability to realize oneself" (209). Generally, the women of Toomer's South are portrayed as sexual beings unrestrained by social conventions, "respond[ing] naturally and instinctively to their urges" (209). However, although these women may be liberated in the expression of their sexualities, that does not imply that Southern society openly embraces their natural behavior. Southern society, in Toomer's conception, compensates for this sexual expression in an act of collective self-delusion: "Townspeople can accept aberrants only by pretending that there has been no deviation from the socially acceptable" (209).
In the Northern section of Cane, Turner posits the existence of frustration and repression in these characters, both male and female, as they fashion for themselves a more self-conscious image that rejects the seeming atavism of Southern sexual behavior (209-10). Ironically, as their moral attitudes become more urbane, Toomer seems to evoke "a yearning for a more primitive existence in which desire, not will, can be the ruling force" (211). For example, in "Theater," John "interpose[s] will between desire and action" (211). Consequently, he is consigned to live in an ascetic dream world where sexual urges are subordinate to his artificial and unnatural philosophy. Insulated by the trappings of his own mind, John risks nothing and protects himself from the harsh realities of the social world.
Work Cited:
Turner, Darwin T. "Contrasts and Limitations in Cane." Cane. Ed. Darwin T. Turner. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988. 207-15.
Michael Chesky
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)