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

Desiree's Baby

I really enjoyed reading Desiree's Baby. In class last week I mentioned Poe’s dark humor in which some sadistically, dark, word play and situations actually elicit a small giggle from the readers. I myself enjoy dark humor and can appreciate it and in general I think to enjoy gothic readings everyone does enjoy it a little as well. The next reading after Poe is by Kate Chopin and I find this story syncs beautifully in line to follow Poe. It's not as detailed, mysterious, and psychopathic, to say the least, as Poe’s writings but it definitely has a dark ironic twist.

These two young people are raised together as friends but it is clear that they both know little about their own life history. They get married, move away, have a child, and are both just so peaceful. A little bit of foreshadowing is given when Desiree's mother comes to visit her daughter and notices the baby has changed. Desiree just says yes he's grown and is so much bigger but when the mother moves by the window and starts examining the child the audience knows that there is something more to come. Another hint of foreshadowing that is not as obvious is when Desiree says that Armand's father was never cruel or overly cruel to the workers. Now this could just mean his father was a kind hearted man, but a deeper side of it could be that he loved a black/ mixed/ creole woman and had a son with her, thus changing his actions towards the race.

I loved the near ending passages that had much detailed imagery. "Desiree had not changed the thin white garment nor the slippers which she wore. Her hair was uncovered and the sun's rays brought a golden gleam from its brown meshes." Knowing she has the baby in her arms, defeated, and neglected by her husband, she walks through the field somewhat like an angle and the ray of sun glowing off of her hair as a halo. "She walked across a deserted field, where the stubble bruised her tender feet, so delicately shod, and tore her thin gown to shreds." This sad, but angelic figure walking with a child asleep in her arms and slowly ripping her gown apart as she disappears. Amazing, as her relationship, her family that she finally had, her love and life, is falling apart her character walks and falls apart until she disappears. The ending of the story is about how Desiree's husband has lost his love for Desiree because he believes she is black from the characteristics of how their child is growing. He assumes it is her traits their son is acquiring because she was basically and orphan and neither of them know her family line.

Breaks her heart, she leaves with the child, Armand burns every sight of her being in his life and house. Boom, plot twist he finds a letter from his own mother and learns that she was black making him part black and it is actually his traits the were showing in their child.

I cannot help but to wonder though if he knew all along but could not bear to be embarrassed and so blamed and shunned Desiree?

My boyfriend and I will make five years in March, 2016, but we have been knowing each other since 2007. I had not met his parents until about year after we started dating, however, he had informed me that he was part black. His father’s mom is fully black and his father’s dad is half black making his father 3/4th's black. My boyfriend’s dad and my boyfriend’s mom had him and out popped a 3/8th's black baby.

My boyfriend’s skin is a pale white, but tans well in the summer, he has black hair, and is an average height for a male.*top center photo- my boyfriend, his sister, his brother (all from the same dad but different moms)

*bottom left-his mom

*bottom center-my boyfriend

*bottom right-his father

His sister is the first child for his father and besides the skin tone and oval shaped face she resembles her mother.

His brother is the youngest child for his father. He is 6 foot tall or taller, he has a very light skin tone that can be mistaken for not having any black genes in him, and has an oval face like his father.

My boyfriend is the middle child for his/ their father and without a DNA test no one would ever know he belongs to this family because he has more of his mother’s characteristics.

This relationship relates to Desiree's Baby because he can play both rolls. Especially, living in Louisiana he has gotten called racist because to the naked eye he is "white", yet he is part of a white and a black family. Armand either thought he was white and shunned Desiree because he thought she was black, then reviled that he was the black one. The other scenario is that he knew he was black and still shunned Desiree because he was ashamed and wanted to keep it a secret. Though my boyfriend has no problem accepting either side of his family he could have easily neglected his father’s relationship and denied his other siblings or he could have neglected his mother’s white side of the family. Whether Armand knew about his own mothers ethnicity or not he kept to the fact that he was a white man, because he seen white skin, he was respected as a white man, and in that time abused his slave workers.

I realize that comparing my boyfriend to Armand is a little farfetched, but if there were no time difference and being white or black did not make a socially acceptable difference then my boyfriend’s situation would be similar to Armand.

-Armand was raise with a white father, had white skin, and did not know his mother.

-My boyfriend was raised with a white mother, had white skin, and did not know his father until he was about eleven years old.

WIlliam Byrd

In class we read two excerpts about William Byrd. One being written about his writings by someone else and then the other being written by Byrd himself. The first was an article about how Byrd was this sexual man who woke up, prayed, ate, had sex, and went to sleep. I did not think of him to be a sex craved narcissist, however, I realize that I only read a small selection of Byrd's "The Secret of the Dividing Line". So it is easy to see how that can be misjudged.

I shared with the class on last Thursday what I found interesting about Byrd’s diary entries. I enjoyed reading about how Byrd and his relationships with women are similar to modern relationships.

I noticed that when Byrd and his wife were on good terms she would cook him a good meal for dinner, but when they were not getting along she would cook less appetizing dinners. In a January diary entry Byrd states that he could not look at Mrs. Harrison because he knew she would be able to cry on demand "like most women do". This was so interesting to me because men have always said that women can manipulate anything since they have the ability to cry on demand. It is wild to think that in the early 1700s men and women had the same opinion of one another.

A topic that was brought up in class by someone else was that Byrd liked control and power. I thought about it and this statement is true to my topic too. Though Byrd liked power of the state lines and helped straighten situations in other people's households he also I forced his power over his wife. He liked for his wife to go places with him, but she would only want to go if she felt like it. In another entry she tells Byrd that she will only go out of the house will him if she can "pull her brows". Byrd did refuse for his wife to do this and that is probably because she was trying to modernize herself while Byrd preferred her to be desirable to him and not others. Even in modern day the average man enjoys when his partner is dressed to impress but of too much attention is given then they eventually want to lessen that public attraction.

It is interesting to think about how the public has classified Byrd to be a gentleman farmer and a lady’s man as well. Being known as a gentlemen’s farmer gives the tone that he worked hard, but not too hard, and wanted everyone to know it. In that time it was probably very common for ‘higher society’ men to give and get attention from other women even though they are married. I have no doubt that this story could possibly be Byrd’s secrets coming out to play, however, I like to think that perhaps Byrd’s secrets were not secrets at all but just Byrd holding up his reputation for being a gentleman farmer.
   

First Thoughts

Searched Blogger..
Logged onto my Google account to attempt an easier creation process..


I am still pretty nervous about my settings for this account though I believe I adjusted all of the privacy settings and doubt that anyone will particularly look for my blog account besides Lucy.


I am actually pretty excited about this now that I think about it. I enjoy writing my thoughts and schedules down with pen and paper, but do not usually relieve stress by writing other than the stress that is relieved by writing my schedules down. I find that typing on a key board is actually quite calming and comfortable. It provides a good outlet to focus on, as well as, revisiting computer etiquette. It is also pretty nice not staring at a tiny scream and using only your thumbs to pad around on a phone screen. This might also provide an opportunity for my laptop and I to become better friends.


Now that I have typed up a little nothing I will continue to scope around, however, I may end up choosing to blog on a different site depending on the different sites and the range of creativity. Not that I need anything to be fancy, but why not considering this whole process is to expand throughout the internet and websites.