Idols continued...

Just because the father was caught up in his old ways does not make him any less of a person. Just because Julian could not give up his old days does not make him any less of a character. Sure he was a stubborn character and he lost a lot, and even though he could not show his love and appreciation for other people does not make him any less of a person. I can bet the entire class knows a grandpa or great grand pa that acts the exact same way. Maybe it’s something as simple as using a land line instead of a cell phone or still writing letters to people instead of emailing them. You would never think of your great grandparent any less if they lived in a house with no insulation, no running water or heat would you? That would be where they lived and there would be nothing you could do about it.

So what if Julien wanted to repair type writers for a living. At least he enjoyed what he did. In class we tried to attack Julien for the way he acted and for his lack of appreciation for his wife and odie but I disagree. There were no true details that specifically said he and his wife separated because of the job. I am sure it was a contributing factor but who is to say she didn’t run off with an I.T. expert causing a divorce. Granted I do not think Julien should have invested all of his saved money into fixing up an old house, especially on a low income salary.

 In the narration the readers could see Julien’s relief for having Odie in his life it was just hard for him to express. Which brings me back to nature versus nurture. Julien was obviously raised in a time or home that did not teach or require him to share his feelings with anyone. This too could be a reason why his marriage failed.

I just think even judging a character unfairly is equally as bad as judging a person we do not know.

My Idols Story...

There was a man, he was a great man. He was a tall and slender country man with blonde hair and blue eyes. He grew up in his mom and dad’s house, and raised his kids in that same house. Even after his parents passed away he remained living in the house. All the kids had grown up and moved away and the marriage ended. Years later he met another love and started a new family in the same house. Unfortunately, his charming ways got in the way of this relationship too. His new wife and new family moved out of the house and left him and the house on their own.

Eventually, he and his wife came to terms but realized they could not remain together. He would continue his charming ways and she would raise her two children on her own the best that she could. Protective of her children the mother could not stand the thought of a divorce and sharing every other weekend with her separated husband. The father was invited to any and everything that involved the kids, and would help as best he could when the mother would ask.

Years passed, the children kept growing, the father got older and so did the mother. Though the father could never give into his steady ways he realized that there would only be one person that would truly care for him and that was the woman he kept doing wrong to. The mother to his last two children was strong and independent and was always there for him no matter what. The mother always loved him too even though he had broken her heart. They could never come to terms with getting back together though because the father refused to move out of his house and the mother refused to move into the house. The house that had once been a home to so many, including her and her children, had grown old and tattered. There were holes that exposed the attic and roofing while similar holes exposed the ground beneath it. It had collected so many spare items and dust that it was hard to maneuver throughout. The cooling was applied by the windows and the heating was resorted to an old furnace at the side of the father’s bed. The mother wanted the father to live with her in her newly built and updated home, but the father could not bring himself to leave the house.

As the father kept growing older, the mother would have sudden sick spells that required surgeries and long hospital stays. There were two sick spells in which the mother could not provide and that took the family by surprise. The father took care of the children the best he could while his love was sick, and with help from the mother’s family members.

The mother would get well and they would continue to raise their children until the father had soon become too old and too sick to carry on any further. The children were old enough to take care of their mother now. On one of the fathers last days he requested the one thing that had made him the most sick and the mother told him no because what she had every really wanted most was him.

The house now sits alone, on the corner of a busy street. Wisped with the delightful thought that someone, some day may enter it again.

                                                                                The House

likes & confusion

I like the way Dorothy Allison and Tim Gautreaux write their stories. There is detail enough to paint a detailed picture and almost feel yourself in the setting. I enjoyed reading Kate Chopin and even Flannery O’Conner too, but their writings were not quite as detailed and Allison and Gautreaux.

The way Gautreaux writes reminds me slightly like Edgar Allen Poe, but not quite as extensively detailed. Allison also gives detailed descriptions too, but what I like is her ability to incorporate senses into the story. She very distinctively pin points every smell the character can sense from the heat outside, to the many smells of her family members.

Kate Chopin and Flannery O’Conner focus more so on the actual story. The main event or line. They do not particularly focus on getting the reader to be one with the characters or feel the way they feel. Still the stories are great and have great plots, but speaking strictly about detailing they seem to lack in that department.

Switching over to Allison’s story, I did not quite understand the plot from only reading the first two chapters. I could not really understand the characters really. Red and blonde headed Indians with blue eyes and black eyes. I understand there is a deeper plot behind the father and the mother’s history though.

I cannot really see how it is classified as southern gothic. Yes the Carolinas are considered the south and yes it was deep summer. I do not really see how it was gothic in any way either. If it is because it is placed in the south, the daughter does not know her dad, and she has a huge family living in the hot summer then I suppose. Like I said though I probably should have read the whole novel to get the full essence, and maybe I will.

I can almost imagine the rest of the story though. Ann will grow up to be this beautiful young lady. She will look nothing like her other family members and seek out her father.

She will finally get the true story of her mother and father from

-her grandmother because of some event like a sickness or some stressful even

-her mother when something stressful happens

-the guy who is gaga eyes over her mother tries something with her (Ann) and the story takes a nose diving twist…

I just do not feel like the south and north are really that different. No it does not snow here but snows in higher up states. Sure we make gumbo and have boiled seafood, but everyone can experience food almost anywhere because traveling has been made so easily, especially with franchises. We talked in class, a lot, about other cultures and being raised in the north and south and how manners are different and colloquialisms are different. I like to think it is more of a nature verses nurture type of thing as to how a person grows up…of course there are chemical reactions to consider too. An argument against myself could be made that people are raised differently because of where they come from. Not because they live in the north or south but because of where their original origins are from and have settled.

The little train that almost could but couldnt

Richard Wrights, a man who was almost a man was, to me, just displeasing. First off the title the man who was almost a man it is basically contradicting it’s self…like the little train who thought he could but could not. I suppose one of the reasons why I did not care too much for this story was because I grew up being taught ‘not to write how you speak’. I get the purpose of him writing the story this way though. His dialect. Placing the reader in the narrator and characters mind. Showing their lack of education. Another minor issue I have been having with Richard Wright since the midterm is that I forget which right is right…write/wright. It gets confusing.

I have read other stories by Richard Wright that I did enjoy more than a man who was almost a man. Though Native Son is not exactly southern gothic. It’s more of a suburban thug/ caught in the wrong place at the wrong time type of story.

Richard Wright and Ernest Gains are similar writers. Activists of a sort for African Americans. Telling their stories, their purpose, showing their liveliness in the world. Ernest Gains grew up in Louisiana, got an education, moved away to further his education, and then moved back to Louisiana to try to preserve the land he was raised on. He believed that everyone had a story and he was going to tell it.

A man who was almost a man was kind of like desiree’s baby in a short, cut off, lengthy way. Both stories set up the plot and then it ends without any explanation. I can understand needing a stopping point in the story but what exactly made him a man and what did not? He thought he was old enough to be a man. In class we pointed out that he was well old enough to be considered a man. So he killed a donkey on accident, was humiliated in front of everyone by his boss and parents, and ran away. Left to question if he really did jump on a train or not. Where will he end up and what will happen for him in the future. Or is the train a metaphor for suicide, as suggested by a classmate. I do not think it is. I feel like if he killed himself Wright would have been a little more forth putting.

Call me a softy but for a southern gothic story it kind of jerks my heart in a sad and pitied way. I feel sorry for the character and want to know what happened to him after he jumped on the train. Clearly he is a softy like I am, and all he has is a gun. Will he be able to find a home and create a new life or has the author created a future felon, forced to steal to survive.

Tisk tisk Richard Wright. At least we can assume in Desiree’s baby the mother got depressed and continued to love and raise her son even if her own true love banished her.

imagery continued

Time- time is a good characteristic for southern gothic. The traditional thought for southern gothic and time would be old. A bitter old man or woman with straggly grey hairs, hunched over with fragile bones, pale, weak, sickly. An old shrieking shack with tattered wooden siding, broken windows, and holes in its original wood floors exposing the land beneath it. An old shoe, an old era, an old history. However, if you think about it lack of time can be just as gothic… A baby left in the middle of the night on a door step of an orphanage. A child possessed by their dead parent’s spirit.

Colors- The colors we see as we read a story have a huge impact on how we label it and how gothic we label it. Most dark colors are chosen to describe a setting in a story. Black, grey, brown, dark blue, red, and sometimes white are usually the colors of choice for a gothic setting. Occasionally, the author will allow light or brightness to contrast against these dark colors has a tool. Whether the tool be to discover something that was hidden in the darkness, or simply lighten up the mood of the plot. As it is most plots get their darkest before they get lighter.

Falling- All too often southern gothic stories end with a fall. The sun setting, the house collapsing, a death, love ending.

I suppose I prefer to see southern gothic as dark and horror stricken but the truth is it’s not limited to one such description.

Americans & Horror

Everyone experiences fear at some point in their life. Even if you enjoy horror stories there is a line that separates those who enjoy the feeling of being scared and those who actually just enjoy the horror. So why do we get such a kick out of being terrified? Perhaps Americans can enjoy horror fantasies because we have the freedom to do so. Perhaps we know it is only in our imagination, in our mind, as we read and watch it. Except from my point of view the mind is the most powerful and terrifying place/thing.

Though people are capable of doing horrid things there’s a small separation in our head from that elicits the pleasure seeking part of our brain and from a reality stand point.  An obsessed best friend holds another friend captive until they die, and then keeps the corps to talk to on a daily basis... Makes for a great story which we as Americans love, but as a news headline it’s not pleasurable (to some).

Religion- some of us live by it so perfectly that that is awesome and terrifying at the same time. For example, I follow the guidelines and I do no wrong so to read a story in which someone who does not follow the guidelines is scary/ and adventure. Example number 2, I follow the guidelines but am of a different belief which requires me to make sacrifices, thus creating fear for those around me.

Fiction- The fact that it is labeled fake means that it cannot happen in real life and I can enjoy it without guilt because I have never seen anything of this nature therefore I am safe. This is a small summary for why we might like alien stories, ghost stories, premonitions, and so on.

We start off wanting an adventure, then realize we actually would not mind a bunny popping out of the bush to make things a little interesting. (Suspense) Once we recognize suspense we want more so we add in a scary scenario, then leading to horror, next thing we know were enjoying the gore of something like Saw. It’s like a substance…once the mind and body is comfortable with the amount it’ll want more.

FUN THOUGHT: Do people get their ideas from the stories, or do stories get their ideas from the people?

Imagery

Industrialization- Ernest Gains quick intent to spare his ancestral harvested land from the growing technology (tractors, bush hogs, grinder…). Every year on all saints day he invites people to come to the property and help groom it. Everyone, together, with their bare hands and hand tools, working to clean up the land just like the people who are resting beneath them once did.

Industrialization- the city vs. the country. Buildings built out of steel and metal. Twisting and winding with rotating belts. Gears cranking, nuts and bolts tightening. Pumping black, brown, and grey smoke into the air. There is work to be done within the buildings, to keep the smoke pumping, but less work needed to be done because of the pumping.

                -excitement because of the production rate and value…

                -poverty from the lack of man power needed now because of the advanced technology…

                               -if only they could see the technology we have now…they would really be afraid…

The city and country started with both production buildings. Eventually larger buildings, stores, homes, apartments, were built in the places where shipping and receiving were most abundant and easiest. Thus creating a city and leaving the country to be scarce and sound.

Plantation homes/mansions- every family has its secrets…sounds like the start of a southern gothic novel. Plantation homes and antique mansions are some of the most beautiful sites and current homes to some people, even though they can more than likely have a terrifying past. Some people find a non-insulated, ten bed room home, with original hard wood floors, and a servant’s quarter beautifully antique. This person feels the liveliness of the house and enjoys the cohesive history between the workers and the family. Others see cold, over working and underpaid entrapment. They feel pain and sadness over seen by uselessness… Contrary to popular belief not all slaves, plantations, or slave owners were bad or treated others badly. One of the largest slave owners in Louisiana was a black man.

New Orleans- Top destination for tourists for partying, devastation, and historical siting’s such as buildings, lakes, rivers, plazas, and so much more. How about vampire siting’s, ghost tours, haunted houses and ships, gypsies, voodoo, and fortune tellers. New Orleans is a city with tight corners and deep alley ways. People travel far and wide to experience all that it has to offer except few actually know its history. Years of war and refuge. Floods and despair. It seems as if this beloved, fun having city is constantly in a state of hardship and rehabilitation.

Architecture- Let’s see what is considered beautiful and gothic. Stained glass windows which are most commonly seen in churches and funeral homes. Pillars and columns in and around old government buildings, mansions, used as a form of stability but idolizing the importance of the establishment to outsiders. Iron-gate entrances and even wooden fences are usually a creepy source of imagery in a gothic novel. Even a statue of any means can be gothic. A statue of an angle is beautifully innocent until years of neglect has aged it, causing a broken wing, several chips and cracks, covered in grime and moss.

To be continued....

Flannery, Byrd, Gautreaux

A Good Man is Hard to Find is a story that I would not particularly classify as southern gothic though I can see how it could be. If you go a few shades lighter in southern gothics classification binder you will come across religion and morals. As someone who was raised southern you follow the rules, do not make trouble, care for others, worry about yourself, mind your manners. The plot of the story is the grandmother wanted to go someplace else for vacation other than where her family was going. She added a few conniving twists to try to get her way and caused for her and her whole family to get killed.

 It was brought up in class that Flannery is a very religious person but tries to call out flaws in other religions through her stories.

Side line is that the grandmother in the story was oh so holy but was still worried about something she should not have been worried about. Instead of worrying about the killers well-being she should have been worried about the fact that he was about to kill her.

Maybe the author should worry about her own faith instead of worrying about other religions. I doubt her faith tolerates judgment of others.

William Byrd spoke of his religion in the secret of the dividing line. Though he may or may not have been writing every day of his life journey a journal.

Now out of the nine or so authors we read in class Flannery and Byrd were more of the two who were wildly religious in their writing. Now I am sure Gains, Wright, and Poe have added their own religious points of view into their writings, but not so much in the few stories we read.

In a way you could add Gautreaux’s Idols in the mix with Flannery and Byrd. The aspect of religion was not up front in Idols but one could argue there was a certain religious back story. Both men chose selfishness and became unhappy; there was also the tattoo of Jesus as a symbol. Perhaps the story has a religious and moral back splash. Odie and his wife divorced because, of unknown reasons and, because of his tattoos. They were ‘idols’ from his past. Forgive and forget/do not dwell on the past. The narrator (Julien?) and his wife divorced because he refused to change his stubborn ways and refused to get a higher paying job. Odie realized he wanted to be with his wife so he began to change his ways, thus accepting a new beginning with god and his wife. The narrator, on the other hand, chose to be stagnant and thus allowing no room for faith or good praises to go his way.

Flannery

-strongly religious

-views other religions poorly

-Judgmental

-makes money off of writing negatively of others religious flaws

Byrd     

- Strongly religious

                -takes pride in accomplishments

                -accepts flaws, mishaps, tragedies as Gods handy work

Gautreaux

                -possibly judgmental

                -treat others as you want to be treated

                -be grateful for what you have

-put others before you

-accept change; have faith