Response to Well Intentioned Mothers by Marina
Meghan, This is a great layout for your paper with your strong examples and the highlighting the aspect of dehumanization which we have seen throughout this semester. If it helps your argument in any way, I suggest looking at Billie Holiday's "My Man." Her lyrics really examine the idea of female agency that we have seen through the books we have read this semester.
Here they are: It cost me a lot But there's one thing that I've got It's my man It's my man Cold or wet Tired, you bet All of this I'll soon forget With my man He's not much on looks He's no hero out of books But I love him Yes, I love him Two or three girls Has he That he likes as well as me But I love him I don't know why I should He isn't true He beats me, too What can I do? Oh, my man, I love him so He'll never know All my life is just a spare But I don't care When he takes me in his arms The world is bright All right What's the difference if I say I'll go away When I know I'll come back On my knees someday For whatever my man is I'm his forevermore
I know we had only looked at her song, "Strange Fruit," but I feel this may be of use to you!
Also, on a broader platform, I wonder why (from the authors that we have read) they have focused so heavily on female agency (or the lack thereof) and the outcomes of dehumanization on individuals such as Bigger Thomas. Looking back at all of our readings, I actually appreciate the fact that we read Native Son last. At first I was annoyed that Wright fed us so obviously by his writing and implying stereotypes that could already be deduced by readers. However, writing the book in the 1940s and reading it today generates two different readerships. Where the author's weren't straightforward and explicit, thus forcing readers to make their own claims on the text, Wright made it simple in order to lay out the atrocities that were happening to all African Americans and how they had to live in order to survive. Hence, Wright's character Bigger and the realization Bigger has at the end of the novel by accepting the fact that he killed the women and claiming power over himself. Wright's ability to then take the reader through "How Bigger was Born" solidifies his argument to his 20th century readers instead of thinking about a "post-racial society." I say post racial facetiously.
