Bone vs. Raisin

Per Ryan B.

Today in lecture, I began to subconsciously compare the family situation between Leila and the rest of the Leong family in Bone, and the Younger family from Raisin in the Sun. Both seem to be struggling with the ideas of assimilationism and with remaining tied closely to their cultural traditions. Beneatha Younger engages in African dance and explores that culture, while Mah cooks authentic Chinese cuisine and always speaks with a respect for ancient traditions. Are there any other parallels?

Leila's marriage

Per Cathy T:

In lecture, Professor Schaub posed a question regarding the recent marriage of Leila and Mason. Leila is hesitant to tell her mother about quickly getting married in New York City instead of not having a formal ceremony with friends and family. Why do you think Leila doesn't tell her mother about her marriage? Is she afraid of how her mother would have responded? Is it possible that Leila is trying to move away from her Chinese culture and live in the modern American culture?

Time and Chinatown

Ng uses time to tell the story differently than the novels that we've read so far in Professor Schaub's class. The novel starts off in the present and goes back in the past in an orderly fashion, much like how we would evaluate our past because of difficult events or situations. This is very different than how time was used in novels we've read such as The Sound and the Fury and In Our Time. Do you think that the way time is used in this novel is efficient at getting across Ng's story?

Also, Ng writes about Chinatown and how tourists come to see the bright lights and colors. Have you ever been to Chinatown and how does her representation of it change your views about it? What were your opinions towards Chinatown before reading about why it is the way it is today and the hardships the Chinese have faced?

Ona and Abel

Ona is a part of the Western world in a way that Abel was not. In fact, on page 26, Ona talks about how depressing it can be to go into Chinatown and see the "hard life." Chinatown can be comparable to Abel's village. However, though Ona's environment is different from Abel's, they seem to be facing the same tensions between generation and identity. I think that Ona will become a "hybrid," like Professor Schaub talked about in lecture, a combination of both identites, like Abel. Do you disagree or agree with this? This could also be related to Raisin in the Sun with the generation gap.

Bone and History

In the same way that Momaday incorporates Native American tradition and history into House Made of Dawn, how does Ng incorporate Chinese tradition and history into Bone?

Symbols and Relationships

Per Sona:

In House made of dawn, there are many similarities between Francisco, Abel's grandfather, and
Ben shows a paralleism between Abel's life in L.A. and Walatowa. There are always dual characteristic in this novel like Ben and franciso, Milly and Angela, and Pries of sun and Father Olguin.
What does this dualism represent?

From Prof. Shaubb's lecture, he talked about Eagle as a symbol, and i think it represent freedom.
what other symbolic figures are in this novel other than eagle?
why do you think Momaday choose that specific figures?

Running Circles

Per Ryan B:

The theme of running goes full circle in the book, as Abel participates in a running race in the beginning and the end of the novel. Running also is significant in the maturation process of two of the characters, Franciscoc and Abel. Also, Abel assumes the role of the leader of the family traditions during the race. Running symbolizes so many things in the book. Can anybody think of other things that running is meant to symbolize?

Chasing Evil

Per Dan Rosewall:

In House Made of Dawn there is a lot of focus on chasing evil. Abel killing the white man was regarded as nothing more than getting rid of an evil spirit and accepted in their community. Also with the men running after evil when Abel was laying on the shore. What do you think this evil they're chasing after? Is it possible to define it?

Importance of the Priests

We see in The House Made of Dawn the representations of two forms of priests one in Father Olguin and the other in the form of Tosamah, the priest of the sun. I would argue that both are ways to remember the past. They each tell stories from the past and try to be a central uniting force. In a way I would say it is bringing two separate beliefs systems and molding into one??? Thoughts? What implications or importance might this have in Abel's life? Can he be at home in both of these preachers ways?

Questions for Monday's lecture

It's imperative for you to examine these questions this weekend. Wednesday's lecture was a disappointment for Prof. Schaub because he expected more participation from the class. His expectation is that you will be able to respond to these questions in writing during Monday's lecture:

1. Is Abel healed? What the signs of this healing? What does it mean
in his culture to be healed?

2. What is a Night Chanter? Google "Night Chant" to see what you can
find out. Why does Momaday title this subsection "The Night Chanter"?

3. The book is full of races and running. What is the significance of
running in this novel?

4. What does it mean, in this novel, to be "beautiful"?

And while you are reading, don't forget to enjoy the sentences
themselves. The novel is lyrical, poetic.

Emotion

In House Made of Dawn there are a lot of emotions thrown about throughout the story. Every character, whether minor or not, has some sort of emotion that is brought out during the story. Why is this? Why are emotions such a large part of the book?

Sound

Per Sona:

In House Made of Dawn, Francisco hears different sound in different time and place, and it reveal other character's characteristic. For example, we can suspect that Abel is from different place, modern place, because Francisco hears very unique and distinct sound which is very new from him. This cause me to think that why Momaday choose sound to show difference between Francisco and Abel. I also want to know how and why Abel and Francisco's worldviews differ.

Juan Reyes the Albino

In the July 25th chapter in House Made of Dawn, at the feast of Santiago, Juan Reyes the Albino man is introduced. On page 39 in the yellow book he is described: " Then he faced her, and Angela saw that under his hat the pale and yellow hair was cut close to the scalp; the tight skin of the head was visible and pale and pink. The face was huge and mottled pink and white, and the thick open lips were blue and violet." Angela seems to be describing Juan as a type of beast or monster. Later on in this chapter as Father Olguin reads from an old journal, the priest who wrote in the journal reports he was at Juan's birth and he describes him in almost the way Angela described him and then orders Juan to be baptised right away as if he was some sort of devil figure who immediately needed to be purified.

What do you think the significance of Juan is in this chapter? Does he represent the inability of the whites and the Christian faith to except differences? Do you think Juan will be present in the rest of the story?

FLASHBACKS

Professor Schaube gave the position today that there are various aspects of modern writing in The House Made of Dawn. I would also support this, citing Momaday's use of flashbacks as a way of showing some relation in time. Francisco passes certain natural places and it triggers a memory of the races from his youth. Abel's viewing of the eagle also takes him back to another time. I believe these uses of time distinction provide for a modern device. Do you believe Momaday's novel has aspects of modern writing? If not why? What other aspects of the novel show modern writing or disprove it?

Second Paper Assignment

Due in section on Friday, April 27th

Answers must be:

§ Between 1250-1750 words (5-7 pages)

§ Typed in 12pt, double-spaced, Times New Roman font, and in paragraph form.

§ No generalizations about the novel in the first paragraph (as in, “The novel was a literary work that had an enormous impact on people.”)

§ A minimum of 2 close readings are required.

Choose one of the following topics for your essay. Answer most, but not all, questions posed in the topic. You will need to take an argumentative stance and close read at least two passage as supporting evidence for your view. Although you may apply what you have learned from section and from lectures, do NOT choose a phrase, passage, or image that Prof. Schaub or I have addressed extensively:

1. Using Native Son, A Raisin in the Sun, Goodbye, Columbus, or House Made of Dawn choose a pairing or pattern of interesting details and make a case for its importance, in terms of the text. Why is this pairing or pattern significant? Beyond being cool or notable, how does it help us understand the underlying meanings of the text? To answer these questions – and to complete your analysis – you should explore what ideas the author conveys through this particular pairing or pattern. What argument seems to lie behind it? What point does the author use it to make? You cannot address any of the imagery from the midterm exam or Prof. Schaub’s lectures.

2. “It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,--an American, a Negro; two warring souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”-W.E.B. DuBois The Souls of Black Folk (1903)

   Discuss DuBois’s theory of double-consciousness (as articulated in this quote. No outside research is necessary) in relation to either Bigger from Native Son or a character of your choice from A Raisin in the Sun. Your paper should include close readings of both the above quote and scenes from your chosen text.
3. Choose a relationship among two or more characters within the same novel and discuss how their relationship provides significance to the themes of the home, class consciousness, gender difference, or personal development (choose only one of these themes). Write an analysis of this theme and its differences, changes and/or developments in A Raisin in the Sun, Goodbye, Columbus, or House Made of Dawn (choose only one of these texts).

Syllabus Revision

Hi all,
I felt that you needed a break, so I decided to delay assigning the second paper topics until this Friday. This also means that you have until April 27th to write your papers.

As always, with any papers, please feel free to come to my office hours. In fact, if you feel nervous, you can also email me with a preliminary draft. I will provide some general feedback for you.

Paper topics coming soon.

Opposites Attract

In this book both Brenda and Neil take pot shots at each others social class. She constantly calls things he says nasty and he makes fun of the stuff she does like wanting a nose job and wanting him to do what she wants. It seems that each was trying to change the other into there ideal mate. Do you think that either one of them would be ever to see the others point of view and except each other for who they are and were they came from or would they self destruct themselves by constantly picking out the others differences?

Appearances

Per Jana C.:

When Neil first called Brenda to ask her out on a date, on page 7 she asked how he looks and she found out that he is dark but not a Negro. I thought it was weird that she was concerned about what he looks like, but it never comes up later in the chapter. I was just wondering what are your thoughts about Brenda's feelings towards appereances because she feels so strongly about looking beautiful.

Physical Social Movement

There's a lot to be made from Neil's comments on page 90 about physical social movement. Neil remarks, "The neighborhood had changed: the old Jews like my grandparents had struggled and died, and their offspring had struggled and prospered, and moved further and further west, towards the edge of Newark, then out of it, and up the slope of the Orange Mountains, until they had reached the crest and started down the other side, pouring into the Gentile terriotry as the Scotch-Irish had poured through the Cumberland Gap." This physical movement of people on the basis of wealth sets up a decisive barrior between Neil, who lives with his Aunt and Uncle in Newark, and Brenda, who lives with her family outside of Newark. Brenda's parents go a long way to make this barrior even more real with their letters to Brenda after Mrs. Patimkin's discovery of the diaphragm; those letters clearly outline that their is a social gap between Neil and the Patimkin family. Neil goes on to say, "Now, in fact, the Negroes were making the same migration, following the steps of the Jews..." Neil is put in an awkward place because of the physical movements on the basis of wealth; Brenda has already been put on the other side of a stiff border, and even the little boy who comes to the library to admire Gauguin is leaving him behind. What is it that doesn't allow Neil to make the same social migration that the rest of Newark is making?

Teasing

In Goodbye, Columbus Neil and Brenda have an interesting relationship. Roth makes the hints that they both need each other, but at the same time, they put each other down a lot. The constant teasing but also them valuing their relationship, leads some to wonder why they tease so much if they love each other like they say they do. So what do you think is the reason for them teasing as much as they do if they are actually in love?