Hi folks--
I may stay home sick tomorrow (sore throat) :-(. If we don't have class, continue to work on your *Sula* papers; I'll hold J block Wed. for folks who want to conference, and we'll do a (brief) peer review on Thur. during our shortened block.
New revised deadline for essay is Mon. the 23rd. We'll do our Things Fall Apart Socratic Seminar on Tues. Mach 24.
Happy writing--Close Up folks, looking forward to hearing from you!
RB
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8 comments:
During this time most women are dependent on men and I think Eva and Hannah stick out in society because they aren’t. Most women have a man in the house who provides money for them and in return the women take care of the house. Eva and Hannah spend time with men because:
“The Peace women simply loved maleness, for its own sake”(41).
The Peace women love men because they can spend time with them and enjoy their company but they aren’t dependent on them. The men don’t control them or provide for them.
“…because there were no men in the house, no men to run it”(41).
Most of the other women, besides the Peace women are attached to men and much more dependent on them. Because the Peace women show their independence and provide for themselves without relying on men, they standout in the community of dependent women.
While the Peace women are independent in a sense, throughout the community women are looked at as weaker than men. Most of the men work but no women in the story work. Women are definitely not as strong or free as men and the Peace women have to come up with an interesting way to support themselves. It is clear that being afrcian American during that time gives one less freedom but being a woman is also a disadvantage:
“Because each had discovered years before that they were neither white nor male, and that all freedom and triumph was forbidden to them, they had set about creating something else to be”(52).
Eva’s womanhood is most compelling because at a time when women do not have much freedom or power, she makes a life for herself and her children and definitely sets the bar high for the future Peace women. She sets an example of being independent. She also shows the importance of sacrifice in womanhood and how sometimes one has to put others before themselves. She controls the men she spends time with more than they control her. They crave her company and
“somehow, in her presence, it was they who had won something”(41).
Eva along with Hannah and Sula defy the social norm for women by making their own lives that include men but don't revolve around them.
Readers can gather from the book that Morrison does not think very highly of the men in Medallion. All of the men in the story have some flaws that make the readers think less of them.
For example, BoyBoy, Wiley, Ajax, and Plum all leave the women in their lives and, with the exception of Wiley, cause these same women pain. BoyBoy abandons Eva and she is only left with "$1.65, five eggs, three beets and no idea of what or how to feel" (32). Even though she is upset and lost, she still has the responsibility of taking care of her three kids. He has left them to fend for themselves. Wiley leaves Helene because he needs to go out to sea, but she is the only one of the women affected by these men who doesn't seem to mind. Ajax has a little fling with Sula but then leaves her because he fears commitment. Sula usually has only one-time things with men, however, she sees Ajax many times. She thinks about his absence: “An absence so decorative, so ornate, it was difficult for her to understand how she had ever endured, without falling dead or being consumed…” (134). Ajax has managed to cause Sula pain, even though she seems like a strong, tough woman. Obviously what he did to her was awful if he could make her feel this way. Although Plum is not away at sea nor does he abandon his wife/ lover, he still leaves Eva. Most obviously, he leaves her when he goes to war and when he dies. However, he also leaves her in between. Plum leaves Eva when he becomes a different person after the war. He has left the person she knew behind and become a drug addict.
The biggest strengths of the men of Medallion are that they are strong and charming. They are strong enough to have relationships (if you could call them that) with the very powerful women of Medallion. Even though all of these men are flawed, they still manage to draw women in and then marry them or have relationships with them.
All of the men that Morrison creates in Medallion are weak because they are unreliable. The author shows this because all of these men leave the women that love them at some point in the novel. Also, the men, with the exception of Wiley, are immature and cruel. For example, BoyBoy “[does] whatever he [can] that he [likes], and he [likes] womanizing best, drinking second, and abusing Eva third” (32). Because BoyBoy puts himself before others, he is immature and selfish; he is cruel because he does not respect Eva. Ajax is immature and cruel because he only leaves Sula for fear of commitment. Plum is immature and cruel, but not intentionally. Eva does not want him to “crawl back into [her] womb” (71). He was becoming dependent on Eva again, causing her to think it necessary to kill him.
Morrison thinks that being a black man in the 1920s led their lives according to the circumstances that they were facing, rather than determining their own destinies. She does not portray them too harshly. She has to show the reality of the times.
Although most women in Medallion have man who lives at home and takes care of them, the main characters in Sula live otherwise. Instead of living as submissive housewives, the women in bottom like Eva, Helene, and Hannah enjoy being in control of their own lives and their men. Although the men play a part in these women’s lives and “the Peace women loved all men”(41), the women never depended on the men.
Eva, for example, has been through multiple hardships in her life and she would still much rather suffer and live off of her own hard work, than depend on some man. Eva is really strong-willed and proud. But this pride is also one of her weaknesses. Her son Plum, came crawling back to her when he had nowhere else to go. Although he was a grown man, he still depended on her for everything, upsetting Eva. She confessed, “ I’d done everything I could to make him…go on and live like a man...so I thought of a way for him to die like a man” (72). She ended up setting him on fire because she couldn’t stand the sight of her one and only son being a failure at life.
Morrison makes it very clear that these successful black women in Medallion are like this because they are self-sufficient. These women have all had men leave them or die but they manage to get back on their feet and still provide for themselves and their children. Even though Hannah “simply refused to live without the attentions of a man”(43), she would not any worse off. Most women in Medallion listen to their husbands who work and put the food on the table; Hannah and Eva are two exceptions.
Morrison also portrays the men in Medallion as not important to the overall society. They are weak and do not provide for others. Not only does this force women like Eva to become independent, it also makes it seem as if men are sometimes dependent on women during this time. Boyboy, Tar Baby, and Plum are all full grown men who have no real purpose or goal in life. They aren’t dependable enough for women to just follow them or live with them. Sula “never loved no man because he was worth it. Worth didn’t have nothing to do with it”(144). Sula, like Eva and Hannah, only kept men around for enjoyment and their admiration of these strong women.
These women and men in Medallion are definetly not the norms but it was crucial for Morrision to describe their relationship harshly because it was the truth of the matter. In some cases, women taking care of men was actually how it was.
Annie- I agree with you. I think that the Peace women are very independent and are a few of the only women in Medallion that don't depend on men. I don't think that all of the men are weak or are shown weak. I think the ones Sula, Eva, and Hannah choose happen to be unreliable but most of the men are viewed as strong and secure.
Jen- I agree with the idea that most of the main male characters are weak but I also think that these men don't reflect the rest of the men in society who are strong and who women depend on.
Also I don't think Helene is independent because even though her husband is not around much of the time he still supports the family and provides for Helene and Nel.
Rachel and Annie, I agree with you guys that most of the main women in Sula live outside of the norm. They are forced to because, like I mentioned in my response, the men they are/ were with are clearly flawed. All of the main women are strong and independent because they have to live on their own.
Rachel, although other men are flawed, I see your point that not all of them are. However, because Morrison makes many of the main men flawed, I think she is trying to tell the reader that many of the men of Medallion have at least some flaws.
Annie, I agree with what you said at the end of your response. No matter what is going on, or how Morrison portrays the situation, it is important for her to present the reality.
Rachel- I agree that the Peace women stick out because of their independence. I also agree that the other women in Medallion are not as strong as Eva or Hannah but I think that Morrison made a point to say that being a black women during the time wasn't much of a disadvantage to being a black man.
Jen- I agree that the biggest strengths of the men of Medallion are charming which is how they draw in women. But I think that it's not them who necessarily initiates the relationship. I feel like the Peace women have an openness that makes men attracted to them.
Jen and Rachel-
Although the men have some attractive qualities, they all have a soft side to them, which was why when men saw Hannah, they would wonder about her "without the slightest confusion about work and responsibilities". They are unreliable because just seeing an a beautiful women can make them forget what they were doing. And this goes for all men in Medallion, not just the weak ones that Morrison focused on. I agree with Jen that Morrison tries to make a point of saying most of the men of Medallion are flawed.
Sorry I'm so late to enter the discussion....
To all three of you: I definitely agree that "the main women in Sula live outside of the norm". But I also think that maybe "the norm" ISN'T what is normal, not for anyone in Medallion, and not for any black person during the 1920s-30s. Morrison purposely makes the reader think that Sula and Nel's families are abnormal examples of women of their time. In doing this, first, the story becomes more exciting, and second, she proves that life is hard for everyone, and that the "average" family doesn't exist at all. Every family has flaws and hardships. This links back to what Annie said about portraying a realistic society.
Next, I disagree with Jen (I think) in that Morrison is playing with our own biases and judgments. She makes it SEEM as though the men are the only flawed characters, when, if you look objectively at each character (male and female), you will see that each has his/her own issues and personality faults. We, as readers learning only the women's side of the story, want to blame the men for the women's hardships and their strong personalities. But we must also see that some female characters are seriously messed up, too. For example, as we know, Sula watches her mother burn without doing anything, Eva burns her own son, Nel watches passively as Sula commits manslaughter, and Sula ends up sleeping with Nel's husband...among other things. So, yes, Morrison portrays the men too harshly, but it is only to shed a sort of secret or unseen light on the flaws of the women in Medallion as well.
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