Talk Story in "No Name Woman"

Megan Callaway


The talk story refers to the mother's cautionary tale to Maxine about her "no name aunt". It is an abrupt story only told out of necessity to prevent Maxine from bestowing the same shame her aunt brought upon the family. The overall purpose is to prevent pregnancy out of a scare tactic, not to repeat a history of lineage. The talk story doesnt explore motives like Maxine's more literary interpretation of the tale. The mother's story is apathetic in tone and indifferent to the character she is addressing. It is emotionless because it is being told to fullfil a purpose.

How To Tame A Wild Tongue

How to Tame a Wild Tongue is the title to an essay in Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldua. In this essay the wild tongue is literally the narrator's uncontrollable tongue as it wiggles around while the narrator is at the dentist's office. The idea of a wild tongue may also represent a foreign language or a non-standardized language. In this essay, Chicano Spanish is an example of one such non-standardized language. The narrator states that Chicano Spanish, which is neither Spanish nor English, is considered by many to be "a mutilation of Spanish" (Anzaldua 55). Those who speak Chicano Spanish have a wild tongue and this tongue supposedly must be tamed. This title is ironic because it sounds like an instruction manual, as though the narrator is planning on relaying different ways in which a wild tongue can be tamed. On the contrary, the narrator rejects the idea of taming a wild tongue. She believes that if a wild tongue is tamed, then identity and culture are likewise tamed and suppressed. The narrator explicitly states, "Wild tongues can't be tamed, they can only be cut out" (Anzaldua 54).

Samantha Sears

17 Syllables

The idea of seventeen syllables comes from Hisaye Yamamoto's essay "Seventeen Syllables." In this essay, Mrs. Hayashi writes haikus, which are composed of seventeen syllables (five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables). Seventeen syllables are representative of more than simply the literal number of syllables in every haiku. Seventeen syllables also represent the secrets from Mrs. Hayashi's past. Mrs. Hayashi had a secret lover with whom she had a child, a baby boy. The boy was a premature stillborn, but if he had lived he would have been seventeen years old. This suggests that the seventeen syllables in Mrs. Hayashi's haikus are indicative of her past life and her stillborn son. Her haikus serve to memorialize her past and her son.

Samantha Sears

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

“The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God.”

Here Shug is telling Celie what she believes about God and religion. Shug is a big part of Celies life. She is the one that helped Celie grow and mature into a strong woman that has control over her life. Throughout the novel Celie writes her journals to God. Celie’s image of this God is the typical white, male God created by the church. In this passage Shug challenges this image of God. She rejects God as being a white, male and gives Celie a different view on God and religion. Shug believes God is inside people therefore God becomes more human and closer to them rather than the distant God religion preaches to people. This lesson of spirituality is important for Celie to learn because it changes her view on what God really is. It brings God closer to her because now she knows she doesn’t have to think of God as a male, God becomes an “it”. A sort of energy or force that exists inside everyone and everything.

Magda Pena

The moths by Helena Maria Viramontes

“I went to the linen closet and took out some modest bleached white towels. With the sacredness of a priest preparing his vestments”


Here the grandmother has died and the girl is preparing to clean her. Throughout the story there is a juxtaposition between religion and curanderismo. The girl thinks that chapels are cold lonely places to which she doesn’t connect. In her grandmothers house she finds a connection to nature and the wisdom her grandmother is imparting to her. In this quote there are some strange words. When she says “modest” bleached towels it is suggesting that even this can be sacred enough to be involved in a ritual between the girl and her now dead grandmother. The comparison of the girl to a priest is almost heretic because the girl doesn’t believe in religion or what it represents. This simple act of preparing towels is likened to a religious ritual meaning that there is a sort of sacredness in everything the girl does. Even she can be compared to a priest which is the connection between God and the masses.

Magda Pena

You have to git man off your eyeball, before you can see anything a’tall

This is an excerpt from a discussion between Shug and Celie in Alice Walker’s novel “The Color Purple”. The discussion is on the concept of God and men. Shug who thought these issues through is sharing her views with Celie who through her life experiences game to resent God and men. As Celie contemplates what Shug said, she is starting to realize that in order to see things clearly she would have to disregard men she had known in her life and men in general. When Celie compares “a little scrub of a bush” against Mr.______’s evil, the evil shrinks. This is a representation of what is natural or in nature against man’s constructs. “Man corrupt everything. He try to make you think he everywhere…you think he god”. Men interpret religion, create social structures and norms, and impose their views on women. Shug urges Celie to push all of these away by looking to nature, “Conjure up flowers, wind, water, a big rock”, and create her own ideology.

Inna

Lebert Joseph

Lebert Joseph serves as a catalyst to Avey’s growth and understanding of herself. He guides her to her roots through interesting tactics. He floods her with information of his geneology and with the connections that he has accumulated over many generations. He begins questioning her culture and roots, forcing her to try understanding her lineage--begining the idea of tracing back oneself to blood belonging. The encounter provides Avey with valuable life-changing questions and slowly allows Avey to vent from the pressures of her society that she has suppressed--racism and assimilation. When she begins talking of her dreams, Lebert Joseph is able to look into her soul, metaphorically, and transmit her culture back into her. By continously jarring up her memory and conscience state he finds her past and her link to Juba dancing. Because Lebert Joseph initiates a dialogue of history, Avey is able to free herself of the present and look into the past for expression, appreciation of herself and to release the horrid tension she succumbs to in the United States. The evolution of the woman, as we see in many different novels, need a strong and captivating presence that forces the woman out of their comfort zone and into a vulnerable, yet safe enviroment that compells them to re-evaluate themselves. Lebert does this for Avey, and, thus, changes her forever.

Juan Contreras

Mr. Hayashi's outburst

"Smashing the picture, glass and all (she heard the explosion faintly), he reached over for the kerosene that was used to encourage the bath fire and poured it over the wrekage."

Towards the end of "Seventeen Syllables," Mr. Hayashi releases his frustration and anger towards his wife on a picture. Calling out for his wife to help him and getting no response made him angry, and possibly jealous. Since Mrs. Hayashi had been entertaining Mr. Kuroda and ignoring Mr. Hayashi, Mr. Hayashi built up a rage of inadequacy and exasperation. Mr. Hayashi obviously could not compete with Mr Kuroda, nor could satisfy Mrs. Hayashi's need for intellectual stimulation. His masculinity as a Japanese man had been obstructed through Mrs. Hayashi's pursuit of haiku and haiku discussion--which deprived him of the power that men in Japanese culture long have owned. His outburst on the picture, smashing and burning it, show us how inadequate he feels to fufill Mrs. Hayashi by releasing a powerful amount of anger. What joy he shares with his wife is not comparable to the joy other people bring Mrs. Hayashi. Her dedication and interest to haiku will never be understood by Mr Hayshi, and we see the consequences of this through his outburst and destruction of the picture.

Juan Contreras

He had thrown a book. Hers. From across the room. A hot welt across the cheek."

In this scene of Sandra Cisneros' "Woman Hollering Creek," Juan Pedro hits Cleofilas with her book--a love story--which truly hurts Clefilas' feelings because the book was the closest thing she had to a telenovela. She forgives his beating, which draws attention to his dominion over her, but also how she remains blatantly ignorant of how abusive he has become and how far away she is of having the telenovela life. She still longs to learn of the betrayal and romance that occurs in the telenovelas; however, even when he smacks her with the love story, a symbolic act of getting slapped in the face with fantasy, she still compares herself to the woman in the telenovelas and bemoans how she doesn't have a name of a jewel like the woman in the telenovela. Since she doesn't accept that her life will never be like a telenovela, Juan Pedro, literally and figuratively, gives her "a hot welt across the cheek" with her fantasy and illustrates how he doesn't care about her dreams. Cisneros shows us how woman become deeply brainwashed with the idea of perfect and fun lives. The implementation of these fantasies cause destruction and oppresion, and, sadly, we see this through Cleofilas beatings.

Juan Contreras

"I always felt her gray eye on me. It made me feel, in a strange way, safe and guarded and not alone. Like God was supposed to make you feel"

In Helena Maria Viramontes' "The Moths," the 14 year old female narrator finds peace and love with her Abuelita. Having been raised in a catholic home by a father who enforced the gender roles and oppressive morals of the religion, she viewed catholicism with sad and cold eyes. When she visits the chapel by Jay's Market, she feels alone and cold, preluding to how dispirited she became with catholicism. Because she finds "God" in her Abuelita--the true benevolent and cultivating figure of the story--the catholic culture that she knows and learned as child dissolves into an idea of oppression, fear, and solitude. Her father's dissapointment in her upbringing and her mother frustration with her lack of assimilation show us how her only real place for growth was with her grandma. She finds what "God was supposed to make you feel" in her grandma, and, ultimately, shows us that a young woman's individuaity prospers when she feels "safe and guarded," and able to be herself.

Juan Contreras

The name "Rosie"

The name Rosie suggests a "budding Rose," this symbolizes exactly what Rosie is. She is a budding rose caught between Red adn White. the red representing passion and womanhod while the white symbolizes innocence and youth. Rosie is torn between the two. Although Rosie is still ayoung girl, she has been forced to grow up fast and act beyond her years due to the fact that her parents put her in the middle of their problems. Rosie is at times the young and innocent girl she should be, like when she retracts from the kiss Jesus tries to give her. However, she is also on the brink of womanhood, feeling passion and emotion that she had never felt before.

Jamie L

"I wanted to go where the moths were"

This statement from "The Moths" represents two conflicting theories associated with the moths' purpose in the story. The first theory is that the moths represent Life and regengeration, the second theory holds that the moths represent death and decay. "I wanted to go where the moths are" suggests that the moths are flying higher to greater things that are are unattainable to the narrator if she is stuck on earth in her present life. The releasing of the moths represent the release of spirit and the life and regenertion associated with it. On the other hand, this statement could also represent the theory of death and decay, the moths being defacted as waste and symbolizing the hopelessness of life on earth.

Jamie L

When I carried her in my arms, her body fell into a V

This item is from “The Moths” by Helena Maria Viramontes. In this passage a young narrator is transporting the body of Abuelita from the bedroom to the bathroom for a ritual of transformation. It is a sacred ritual, “with the sacredness of a priest preparing his vestment”. The towels become vestments. The water symbolizes purification and the medium for transformation. The symbols of Catholicism are mixed with the symbols of the ritualistic indigenous ceremonies. The body as V represents the eternal feminine. For just a short moment Abuelita represents Mary. But Abuelita’s body reveals a map of a life of a different eternal feminine, “the scars on her back’ and “mapped birthmark on the fold of her buttock”. She is a goddess of nature and when lowered into the bath her soul starts preparing for transmutation, “her hair spread across water like eagle’s wings”. Her soul becomes moths and her body dissolves into nature, “the vines would crawl up her fingers and into the clouds”.

Inna

When do you stop giving when do you start giving when do you…

Young narrator from a short story “The Moths” by Helena Maria Viramontes is asking these questions of herself. She is fourteen years old and stands at the crossroads. At this juncture, she is on the verge of becoming a woman and she has many questions. Should she give in to physically abusive father and inept mother and take on the norms of the family and accept the catholic faith. Should she give up her distinct personality and become like her sisters, “do the girl things” and maybe acquire through practice a “cute waterlike voice”. In other words, should she comform? At this point in the text as the question repeats itself over and over again, she is confused. But “the sun is defiant” and she is defiant. She wants to give to herself, to self formation and determination.

Inna

Eruptions/Implosions in Praisesong for the Widow

Bonnie Park

In Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow, Avey Johnson embarks on an exploration of her suppressed and forgotten memories and cultural roots. In order to do so, however, she experiences emotional and physical 'eruptions'-- violent bodily and mental reactions to the turbulent emotional experience of revisiting her past. Essentially, 2/3rds of the novel builds up to this cathartic purging of suppressed and festering emotions and memories within Avey. To advance the metaphor of 'indigestion', Avey's upset stomach does not arise from only her 'over-gorging' of materialism and richness. The unresolved aspects of her life-- namely, her complete detachment and alienation from herself sits in her stomach like milk gone bad. The milk, her past and her identity, festers and rots within her until finally, in Ch. 6 of the third part of the book, Avey, on the schooner on the Carriacou Excursion, explodes the contents of her stomach out through her mouth-- words and ideas she has suppressed all her life, and through her bowels-- all of the undigested ideas of self-identity which she has failed to confront, explode and erupt out simultaneously, "gushing from her with such violence she might have fallen overboard." (205) This purging of her mind and body is significant because it provides a denouement to the conflicts Avey explores throughout this novel. She purges not only her physical being, but her spiritual and emotional being as well, allowing her to proceed refreshed, renewed, and cleansed of all of the self denial and the pain she has withheld inside her body and mind, leaving both open and receptive, like an empty stomach, to the new food she will encounter-- the Carriacou islands and finally, her reencounter with her Afro-Caribbean cultural roots.

"Feeding girls is feeding cowbirds"

Bonnie Park

In the chapter titled "White Tigers" in Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior, Kingston explores the traditional misogynistic tendencies of the Chinese culture. Maxims like "Feeding girls is feeding cowbirds," (46) and "There is no profit in raising girls. Better to raise geese than girls," (46) hint not only at a strong cultural distrust of women, but also at the idea that bearing children and raising them is an investment-- investment of time, money, pain, and effort in exchange for the hopes of vicarious fulfillment and profit through the offspring when the 'stock' has fully matured. Kingston portrays her own rejection of such ideas by refusing to get straight A's, refusing to marry to show her, "father and mother and the nosy emigrant villagers that girls have no outward tendency," (47).

Yet Kingston can not help but wish that she could return from Berkeley as a boy so that she too, and not only her brothers could have her "parents welcome her with chickens and pigs". (47) The inability to prove herself just as worthy of love and affection and trust as her brothers is an overarching theme in the chapter. Kingston yearns to belong in her family and in the culture of her parents, yet can not find reconciliation with the misogyny and the double standards which are exhibited in every aspect of the Chinese culture. She points out that, "There is a Chinese word for 'I', which means 'slave'". (47) While her soul struggles to find peace with her ethnic and cultural roots, she finds it impossible to embrace a culture which can not embrace her gender.

This theme of the suppression and insignificance of women in the traditions of the author's ancestors is significant to the novel, as it is an overarching one, and one which recurs throughout the memoir. Kingston explores the difficulty of becoming a "woman warrior" or a "female avenger" in her own ethnic culture as well as in her environmental culture and raises the question of the probability of overcoming the difficulties faced by her existence as a female, as an ethnically Chinese individual, and as an American.

Moths

The concept of the moths in Helena Maria Viramontes’ short story The Moths has several meanings. Viramontes first mentions moths when she is describing the ointment that Abuelita uses to shape the narrator’s hands back to size. The ointment is a “balm out of dried moth wings and Vicks.” Initially is seems Abuelita is representative of the past and everything that is traditional. However, in this instance she uses both traditional (moth wings) and modern (Vicks) elements to turn the hands. This demonstrates integration between modern and traditional society, the old and the new. On the other hand, moths also represent a conflict with modern technology. Viramontes writes that transitions are “necessary for rebirths, and when the time came, just when I switched on the light in the kitchen to open Abuelita’s can of soup, it was probably then that she died (27).” Moths are attracted to light; they circle artificial lights and human light sources affect their navigation. As moths are led by the light, the narrator is being led by Abuelita. When the narrator is holding her grandmother in the tub she describes, “Then the moths came. Small, gray ones that came from her soul and out through her mouth fluttering to light, circling the single dull light bulb of the bathroom (28).” The moths also represent decay and therefore death: “Moths that lay within the soul and slowly eat the spirit (28).” The moths can also be seen as a release of Abuelita’s soul and moving towards the light. Abuelita is also called Mama Luna. Luna is another word for the moon, which guides moths. In this sense, the moths may be following Mama Luna / Abuelita’s soul; or rather the concept of transmogrification. Transmogrification would be the idea that the soul turns into the moths and are therefore heading towards the light. Transmigration is the belief in the soul passing from one to another. This image is symbolic of the moths carrying the grandmother’s soul to the girl. If this is the case, then this image can also be interpreted as the narrator’s rebirth. Furthermore, they are in the bath tub which is symbolic of a baptism. If Abuelita’s soul has been carried to her, then the narrator is a “half-born” who has passed through one stage of initiation into becoming a Curandera. This tradition is passed down to her from her grandmother.

Jessica von Fremd

Folded in lip

In Paule Marchall's Praisesong for the Widow, the main character Avey is constantly tucking in her lower lip. This physical characteristic of Avey is mentioned several times throughout the novel. This lower lip is the physical symbol of Avey's conformity into white society. As she becomes higher in status and more assimilated into white society Avey begins to fold in her lower lip in an attempt to hide her Afro-Caribeean background. This lower lip not only represents Avey's conformity into white society but a denial of herself as an Afro-Caribean woman. As Avey moves through her journey through the island she begins to reject the white society she has conformed to and embrace her background. As this shift in cultural acceptance happens Avey's bottom lip begins to protrude, no longer held in as a result of conformity. By the end of her journey to Carriacou and the end of the excursion Avey as fully rejected white society, and embraced not only her cultural background but herself. With this her lip is no longer held back and is able to reveal to the world Avey's background as an Afro-Carabeian woman.

Pamela Legge

"...yes and no and oh..."

This phrase is from Rosie the heroine in Hisaye Yamamoto's short story Seventeen Syllables. This phrase represents Rosie's thought process as she has her first intimate encounter with Jesus. These three words represent Rosie's transition from girlhood to woman through her first act of intimacy. The "yes" that Rosie first thinks of represents her desire for the knowledge of sexuality and sensuality that Jesus is presenting to her. It may also be Rosie's acknowledgement of her own desires as a maturing girl on the brink of womanhood. This acknowledgement may lead to the power in which Rosie mentions during the kiss, the powers of seduction and beauty that she is now just being introduced to. The fact that yes is Rosie's first reaction is very interesting, it could be a sign that she is ready to enter womanhood and wants these new experiences and powers that she is learning about. However, immediately after the "yes" Rosie thinks "no". This sudden change in Rosie's thought process could represent the part of her that is still embedded in her childhood. The "no" shows Rosie's desire to remain innocent and virginal, and may incorporate a bit of fear about the knowledge she is obtaining and the new powers of seduction that she is learning. Along with the fear of this new knowledge is the possible fear of cultural judgment. It is possible that coming from a traditional Chinese family Rosie fears her parents judgement and rejection from this possibly immoral act. Along with Rosie's "yes and no" she ends this quick thought with "oh" suggesting her pleasure in this embrace and kiss as well as her acceptance of the coming knowledge and a release of any fears she may have. The order of the words also gives some hint at Rosie's final decision. she begins with initial excitement and joy, followed by her fear of judgment and the unknown, and then she relinquishes all of her fears and decides to make that transition into womanhood. This layout of Rosie's decision making process foreshadows for the reader Rosie's eventual choice she has to make with her mother. To remain an innocent child forever, or to go against her mother's wishes and become a woman.

Pamela Legge

Looking into her gray eye, then into her brown eye, the doctor said it was a matter of days.


This sentence is from Helena Maria Viramontes short story “The Moths”. These are the eyes of Abuelita. The two different colors point to the complexity of her personality. Aubeluta is a representation of many spiritual and ritualistic traditions fused together. The gray eye can be a depiction of goddess Athena, the goddess of wisdom, justice, industry, and skill. Abuelita’s home was a safe heaven for her daughter from the abuse of the father. Abuelita was a skilled gardener and healer. The brown eye can be seen as a representation of the Aztec goddess of corn, Chicomecoatl, the goddess of sustenance. The eyes of Abuelita are set against the blank eyes of the marble statues in the chapel. The reference to Abuelita’s eyes and the eyes of the statues is a description of the conflict between Aztec/indigenous traditions and the imposed Catholic norms.

Inna

Hall of Mirrors

In Paule Marshall novel, Praisesong for the Widow, Avey Johnson sits at dinner, looks up to a huge mirror on the wall in the Versailles Room, and does not recognize her own reflection (48). At first she just sees an older woman and notices the clothes of that woman and the two sitting next to her. She admits that this is not the first time that such a thing has happened. More than likely, she and her friends are the only African American women in the dining room. Avey has not integrated into the passengers on the ship; she has assimilated and therefore does not recognize herself. There is a Hall of Mirrors in Versailles which is referenced a page earlier as the place where the treaties were signed that divvied up India. This mirror and the Hall of Mirrors are connected through Avey. Avey is looking into a hall of mirrors. When a person stands in the middle of a hall of mirrors there are multiple images reflected which show a regression. Avey has to trace back her reflection in order to recognize herself. This shows how detached she is from herself and her heritage. The mirror can also be seen as a mirror to reality which causes Avey to be jolted out of her detachment. Avey cannot begin true introspection until she has shattered the former image in the mirrors.

Jessica von Fremd

Hands

The concept of hands in the short story “The Moths” by Helena Maria Viramontes is shown in many different forms. The narrator addresses her hands on the first page calling them “too big to handle.” Her sisters call her “bull hands.” Her hands cannot do girl things and she admits that she spends a great deal of her time beating up her sisters for making fun of her hands. In contrast, her older sisters are pretty and nice and they have hands that can do the girlie things like embroider. The narrator says that she owes a lot to Abuelita for all Abuelita has done. One of which is making a balm which supposedly transforms the narrators hands and shapes them back to size. The reader is not sure how much of this is literal, but what is important is that the narrator’s hands are transformed from manly and hurtful hands into helping hands. Apa’s hands stand out in the story. His hands are described as pounding the table and the narrator says, “He would grab my arm and dig his nail into me,” while he is describing the importance of the catechism. The fists, hands, and nails are all allusions to the crucifixion. Apa is a supporter of the Catholic faith and uses his hands to enforce their teachings on his family. In contrast to this, is the visual of Abuelita’s hands as she is holding the “hammer and nail.” These are tools in the crucifixion, but Abuelita uses these tools in a different way. She is the earth mother. She is building, growind, and, in her own way, Abuelita is reworking the Christian makeup.

Jessica von Fremd

"Too much"

In Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall, Avey keeps muttering the phrase “Too much” on page 145. There are many possible meanings for her constant refrain of this phrase. “Too much” could be referring to the amount of work it would have taken to maintain her relationship, culture, and sense of self with Jay while also moving upwards economically. At first she believes that the effort would have been “too much,” but then she realizes that with vigilance, strength, and distance of her mind and heart from the society she and Jay move into she could have been like Aunt Cuney’s grandmother: “Her body she always usta say might be in Tatem but her mind, her mind was long gone with the Ibos…(39)” Avey and Jay could have maintained their culture in their mind while living in safer circumstances. “Too much” can also mean excesses in the form of money, success, and quantity (as opposed to quality). “Too much” struggle to resist the temptations of a material society and “too much” strength require. The phrase can also mean “too much” want; they wanted too much and therefore they gave up too much. They also could have had “too much” in the form of expectations for their future.

Jessica von Fremd

Telenovelas

Cleofilas loves to watch telenovelas. They fill her mind with the hope and belief in a Cinderella Story and escapist fantasy. She is looking for love in a pure crystalline essence. In her fantasy, which is derived from these telenovelas, everything is new. With her marriage she is under the impression that she will be in a new town, with a new car, and a newly painted house. She also believes that like the characters in the shows she will have money. But the engagement is quick and she is married before the reality sets in. Additionally, telenovelas are surrounded by commercials and Cleofilas is caught in a commercial idea of beauty. Her life has no commercials; it just goes on becoming sadder and sadder. The essential element of the telenovela that her life lacks is the happily ever after. One of the ways she accounts for this is her lack of a beautiful name that sounds like a jewel and lighter skin like the heroines in the show. One thing that her life does have in common with the telenovelas is the impression that one has to suffer for love. This sentiment conditions her for the abuse.

Jessica von Fremd

Peach Parfait

The peach parfait that Avey has for dessert on pages 49-50 signifies over consumption. Avey has literally made herself sick by over consuming. The construction of the parfait signifies Avey. The layers of peaches and cream are a beige color and there are only a few dark sprinkles at the top. The chocolate sprinkles are the “token blackness,” and this little bit of black is smothered by everything else. This is like Avey, who has smothered herself in whiteness leaving only a few bits of her black heritage sprinkled about. Avey tries to giver herself a peaches and cream appearance. She is a southern black woman literally drowning herself in whiteness and homogeneity. Peaches are also the official fruit of Georgia, which is in the South, while the whipped cream is a dairy which comes from Wisconsin, which is in the North. By the white cream covering the peaches it is symbolic of the North culture taking over her southern culture. During this meal Avey cannot eat her dessert. She realizes she has over saturated herself and the thought makes her sick in side.
Jessica von Fremd

Ume Hanazono

Ume Hanazono is Tome Hayashi’s alter ego in Yamamoto’s “Seventeen Syllables.” Mrs. Hayashi dons this penname once she begins writing and publishing her haikus in the local newspaper. Ume, who takes over Tome’s body after dinner, is a “muttering stranger who often neglected speaking when spoken to and stayed busy at the parlor table as late as midnight scribbling with pencil on scratch paper”. Through Ume and her haiku prowess, Tome is able to win relative notoriety for the haikus she publishes in the newspaper. Ume is significant in this short story because Ume is free in ways Mrs. Hayashi is not. Ume did not go through the embarrassment of having a lover whom she could never marry, the stillbirth of a baby boy, and a rushed and unfulfilling marriage to a man she does not really love. Ume is free from these misfortunes, and her separation from those tragedies allows Tome to harvest her creative energy. By creating some distance from the harshness of her own life, the creation of Ume allows Tome “a room of her own” (or at least a “mental frame of mind of her own”) in which she is free to create.

Rebecca Cuffley

Bianca Pride

The Bianca Pride is the cruise ship on which Avey Johnson sail at the beginning of Praisesong for the Widow. “Bianca Pride,” loosely translated from Italian, means “White Pride,” which reflects the whitewashing Avey endures since moving to North White Plains. Avey’s conformity to white, upper-middle class America and her neglect of her African-American roots are the causes of her sick and unsettled feelings throughout the novel. She suffers from a mysterious “gorging” feeling, implying an over-indulgence of excesses (i.e. clothes, jewelry). Not until going with Lebert does she purge the excesses out of her life and gets back in touch with her African heritage. Marshall uses subtle hints, like naming a boat “Bianca Pride” and a neighborhood “North White Plains,” in this novel to advocate the embracing of one’s cultural heritage.

Rebecca Cuffley

Haiku

In Yamamoto's "Seventeen Syllables," the haiku represents a three lined poem consisting of the pattern 5,7, and 5 syllables in each line. As a haiku represents the constraint of maintaining the poets' thoughts and number of word use with a certain criteria, the constraints of such pattern represents Mrs. Hayashi and her life with her husband. As Mrs. Hayashi is an aspiring haiku poet, she often endures several impediments from her husband as his beliefs of values are placed on physical labor as working on the fields picking tomatoes as opposed to mental labor. Thus, Mrs. Hayashi often finds herself in situations during social gatherings where her husbands interrupting violent storms in and out of rooms causes her to render her conversations and intellectual creativity short in order to please her husband. As Mr. Hayashi destroys the painting given to his wife by the editor of a newspaper, the act of cremation was simultaneously an act of killing and burying his wife's creative character as a poet. Thus, "Ume Hanazono's life span, even for a poet's, was very brief-perhaps three months at most."

Susan Tran

Chapel

In Viramontes' The Moths,the feelings and relationship the narrator has with the chapel correlates to the narrator's relationship and experience with her Apa. The chapel's representation of constraint, emptiness/loneliness, the cold, entombment, inertness, blindness and the loss of a connection to life signifies the affect the church and her Apa had on her childhood. "I had forgotten the vastness of these places, the coolness of the marble pillars and the frozen statues with blank eyes. I was alone. I knew why I had never returned." As a child, the speaker endured much violence from her Apa. He was violent, as "he would grab my arm and dig his nails into me to make sure I understood the importance of catechism." She also underwent moments of profanity and whippings. As her Apa emphasized the church, he represented Catholicism and one of the fathers of the church. As Apa constantly stressed the importance of church and religion, his tactics in getting his family to attend Sunday church and follow in his beliefs had a negative affect on the rest of his family. As a young woman not quite understanding religion, being forced to attend church through violent acts and in threats from siblings and towards her own mother resulted in her leaving and refusing to enter into a church as a young woman. As a result, the speaker maintains such attitude and perspective about the chapel.

Susan Tran

Epistolary

An Epistolary is literature in the form of a series of letters. This structure can be observed in Alice Walker's The Color Purple. The novel begins with Celie's letters to God. Later, her letters are to her sister, Nettie. Because Celie's father warned her that she can only talk to God about her rape and other fears, Celie uses the letters as a means of confession and catharsis. The letters are Celie's way of writing for survival, as Fanny Fern recommends in "Folly As It Flies." The letters provide Celie with a way to channel her pain and fear into writing. By writing letters to God, Celie is seeking comfort, and asking for his judgement.
The letters are also Celie's motivation to learn how to read and write. Before Nettie leaves, they promise to keep in touch with eachother by writing letters. Nettie is able to teach Celie some of what she has learned through her formal education. After Nettie leaves, Celie continues to educate herself in preparation of Nettie's correspondence. In this way, the letters inspire Celie's continuous education and development.
The letters are made up of parables. Celie's stories include religious and moral lessons, which include forgiveness and grace. The letters also document Celie's religious conversion from Christianity to a new sort of Pagan ideology.

-Elyse Rogers

The Queen Honeybee

The Queen Honeybee

"The Queen Honeybee" is a nickname for Shug Avery in Alice Walker's The Color Purple. The nickname shows up on an advetisement for her performance at the Lucky Star. The name is a sign of affection, and the word honey suggests that she is sweet. However, honeybees are known to have a stinger. The honeybee is a metaphor for duality of Shug's personality. She acts sweet, but Shug is shown to have bite to her personality. The queen bee's function in the hive is to reproduce. This is a comparison between the queen bee's association with fertility and Shug's stong sex drive. The honeybee is also a symbol of nature, and this supports Shug's religious ideology. Shug finds god in nature, rather than church. If god is considered "King," then Shug being called "Queen" suggests the goddess of nature.

-Elyse Rogers

cacoethes scribiendi

- "manic writing" was the topic of Catharine Sedgwick's essay
in 1835. It is also a state that Jo gets in when she is in her garret. While writing she
wears a pennefore and hat with a red bow. the bows location on the hat indicates her
writing mode and mood, one of which is a fury of idea and creativity or "cacoethes
scribiendi". the garret is a place where her ideas are free to manicly escape onto paper
without interruption.

Layla Bozek

Feminine power is not coercive, but persuasive.

This passage is found in Sarah Josepha Hale’s book of Manners. It represents Hale’s opinion that women should not participate directly in voting or the administrative qualities of government. Hale determines that this responsibility is to be taken up by men only. She defends this position, saying that it is inappropriate for a woman to compete with her husband or son in a public sphere. Rather, in pursuing her duty in the home, in her marriage, and in her responsibility in child rearing she will have a persuasive influence on the masculine duties of law and government. Hale advises women to cultivate virtue, knowledge, and accomplishments. This will influence and aid men in their work, as they align themselves with God’s virtues, and in so doing she will be the “glory of the man.”

Pickwick Club

A secret society that the March sisters create and name after a Charles Dicken's novel. The girls meet in the garret to contribute short stories, articles and poetry to their newspaper, the "The Pickwick Portfolio." At one of the meetings after the sisters agree to invite Laurie to be a member of their club he bursts out of his hiding spot in the closet, but promises to be a good member. The P.C. becomes a manifestation of the girl's immense creativity and imagination. It also showcases Jo's literary aspirations as the P.C.'s editor, but she is not oppressed by society's gender expectations in the club because she is able to play the role of Augustus Snodgrass. Much like the domestic space of the Marches' home, the P.C. opens its doors to Laurie and he is invited into the secret space of the sisters.

Jennifer Truong

Bildungsroman

Bildungsroman is a novelistic coming of age story that follows the psychological, spiritual, and social growth of a protagonist from his/her childhood to adulthood. The main premise of such a story is to illustrate one's journey towards maturity and then to emphasize the moment of maturity itself. In this sense, Little Women is thus a bildungsroman, particularly as it traces Jo's psychological, spiritual, and social development throughout the novel from a tomboyish girl to a new age woman who embodies both conservative and progressive ideals of womanhood. As Jo's bildungsroman unfolds, she faces battles between herself and society to arrive at a point of definition by the end of the novel. Seen as both a progressive woman through her redefinition of marriage in the choice of marrying Professor Bhaer instead of prince charming Laurie and as an eventual conformist who annihilates her individuality by marrying at all, Jo's bildungsroman emphasizes a hybrid of conservative and progressive womanhood to put forth a more practical view of transcendentalism.

-Jennifer Ngoc-Minh Pham aka JUST JENNY! =)

Voyeurism in "Incidents"

Both Mr. and Mrs. Flint take on voyeuristic rols in their treatment of Linda. Mr. Flint harrasses and spies on Linda constantly as she says "his footsteps dogged" her and he engages in a visual and verbal rape of her as he spies on her and also repeats that she is his property. His goal is to eliminate any innocence she may have, and make her his sexual slave, a victim of his lust. He threatens her with violence against her and her children just to satisfy his sexual lust. Mrs. Flint is odd in her behavior. She is threated by Linda's sexuality and fears her husband's wandering eye. Yet instead of watching him, she watches Linda, even whispering in her ear, as Linda sleeps,strange, inappropriate intimacies. She takes on the role of her lacivious husband to catch Linda in a lie, but becomes a voyeur herself.

Amber Bissell

The Female Body in "Incidents"

Dr. Flint lusts over his slave, Linda, and repeatedly attempts to coerce her into a sexual relationship. The control of her body is used as a threat against her, as she fears a rape, fears that her only control over Flint, her body, will be taken away. Dr. Flint verbally rapes her by saying he has control over her as he is her master and that he will sell her children and kill her if she does not submit, if she does not become his sexual slave. Linda then uses her own womb as a weapon or a defense mechanism as she engages in sexual relationship with Mr. Sands and becomes pregnant. She takes control of her body and denies Dr. Flint her virginity and sexuality. She uses her pregnancy as a method of escape, and frees herself from sexual slavery by using her sexual wiles.

Amber Bissell

Objective Correlative

In regards to "incidents in the life of a slave girl," the objective correlative for the situation of slavery is Linda Brent's imprisonment in her grandmother's attic. The restriction to her physical body reflects her emotional state of being in being trapped in the physical and mental oppression of slavery. Her seven years in the attic was a physically and mentally damaging situation, in which her escape from slavery actually in a sense crippled her. She was entrapped, enslaved, concealed, and degraded. The darkness of slavery was actually reflected in the physical domain of her attic prison. The oppression thar Linda suffered at the hands of Dr. Flint was only furthered in 3x7x9 space that she barely survived. The attic provided only subhuman conditions, just as slavery treated her as a subhuman.

Amber Bissell

christmas festivities

In the chapter "christmas festivities," jacobs states that christmas is a holidy for "both with white and colored people" (119). It seems to suggest that christianity is universal, not separated or segregated based on color of skin, and it also seems that religion plays a central role in the lives of white and colored people, which religion is one connection that ties them together regardless of material or realistic differences. Also in one passage when Benny argues that Santa Claus was the one that bought him the new clothes, not his mother, Linda's reaction shows her yearning to reunite to her children, desperation of her current condition, and her sense of the result for the absence of motherhood.

Maggie Liu.

Trip to England

In the trip to England, Linda was exposed to an environment that she had never experienced before. There was significantly less racism there than even in the North. When she returned home she realized that the North wasn't exactly the place she has expected it to be. It still was harboring racist sentiments. England showed Linda a different type of person and a different way to live. It made her life in the North not seem like the best thing that she ever could've had. At the same time, Linda was blessed because she was able to see that there are places in the world that are free of racism and where color doesn't matter. It was important for her to see that and to experience that world.


Rebecca Flick

True Christianity

A recurring theme in Incidents of a Slave Girl is Christianity. We see many incidents throughout the book where Whites proclaim themselves Supreme Christians. In chapter 13 The Rev.(a white man) states, "Hearken, ye servants! Give strict heed unto my words. You are rebellious sinners. Your hearts are filled with all manner evil"(68-69). The ultimate Master, in the eyes of whites, is Christ. Their attendance in the house of the Lord rids their sins and justifies their acts of cruelty; a slaveholder who buys and sells slaves and flogs them to death is forgiven for it is the will of God that places slavery in the world and it is the will of God that places the responsibility of slaves' lives in the hands of Whites. If it were not for the good-hearted white man and his reasoning that slaves need religious instructions their evil and wicked ways would never be forgiven. It is evident that those who exercise true Christianity, true common sense, and true courage are the slaves. A symbol of true Christianity is Aunt Marthy, Linda's grandmother. It is her good-willed natured, her faithful service to both her Masters and friends and family and perseverance that characterizes her as an individual who sacrifices herself for those she loves.

Super Mom

In the reading “Folly as it flies” Fanny Fern expresses her worry about women’s health issues because of their selfish dedication to work “The more she can’t work, the more she will try to, till she drops in her tracks, unless, catching sight of her prospective coffin, she stops in time”(73). Ignoring their health state women tend to keep on with their daily complex routine of life because their only job is to keep the house and everyone in it in order. They need to keep living up to the typical image of an ideal woman that can handle the duties of a mother and a wife and a respectable in society in order to feel that they are doing their role in life properly. Because of this mentality they tend to keep on working disregarding any inconvenient health state and if not careful, end up harming themselves greatly to the point of death.

Zamara Jimenez

Dr. Flint - The Terminator?

This might sound a little goofy but did the character of Dr. Flint in Incidents of the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet S. Jacobs remind anyone else of the Terminator?

I guess it was his relentless pursuit of Linda that really brought the connection home to me. He just would not stop going after her no matter how long it took. His search dragged on for years with him acting as an even more insane version of Capt. Ahab.

There are other incidents, such as when Jacobs writes, "Dr. Flint and his family repeatedly tried to coax and bribe my children to tell something they had heard about me", that really hammer home this notion of him being not just a representation of the callous slaveowner but of the very force of enslavement itself (117). He does not seem to tire of the chase and will resort to any lengths, trickery or bribery for example, to retrieve what he feels is his property and what we all know is the life and liberty of a human being.

So I guess my comparison to the Terminator isn't far off because, to me, Dr. Flint is a figure of cold, almost mechanical cruelty. Sure, he's able to wear the skin of a man in the sense that we often see him act kindly in the story but deep down we can see the gears of corruption and greed clicking away below the surface and we know that all his kind words are only to benefit his own sense of entitlement and self-worth and to allow him to get what he wants.

- Jozef Helms.

Spinster

Spinsters are women who remain unmarried. While some women may choose the life of a spinster, some women are left into this position due to family circumstances and having past the common age of marriage for the time period. Any number of circumstances can be attributed to the status including scandal, inability to produce a dowry, sickness, or devotion to family. Fanny Fern in her writings indicates that remaining a spinster is not a horrid fate, as write Sarah Josepha Hale would believe, and that woman do have the choice to remain unmarried. Famous writer Louisa May Alcott never married and died a spinster. The term is one which is now considered sexist in terms of its negative connotation, especially when compared with its gender counterpart bachelor.

Tyson Ramirez

Farm Horse or a Fancy Horse

This particular line comes from the beginning of Fanny Fern’s, Folly As It Flies. While having a discussion with a man, Fern begins to explain the unreasonable demands that men make of women. She achieves this point by comparing how men select a wife to how they would select a horse. Fern states that a man could choose a farm horse which is less aesthetically pleasing, yet wholly functional, or he could choose an ornamental horse which is beautiful, but ill-conceived for hard labor. This metaphor shows that a man should not expect a picturesque trophy wife to be as able at hard work, just as he would never expect an ornamental horse to serve him by plowing fields. The use of animals is also done to compare how men are more readily able to understand a spouse as property rather than humans, a tone which is found throughout the piece.

Tyson Ramirez

Midterm

I'm going to chose "Incidents in the life of a slave girl" for my essay portion of the
midterm. And take a in depth look @ how sex and freedom are used in the book. I think
there will be an onslaught of Little Woman essays so, I'm going to go against the grain.

Bradlee Rohan

On Being Owned

In Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs describes the horrors that arise when a persons loses their humanity and are treated as nothing more than property. The strife which Jacobs endures does not only exist whilst she is in servitude, but also while she is attempting her escape. Despite the decision to flee from the grasp of Dr. Flint, Jacobs still carries the same fears she did when she served the family. This brings upon the notion that "masters" did not just own a slave physically, but that in many cases the slave was owned mentally as well.

Joel Rodriguez

Female literacy

Female literacy was mentioned as a major historical event on the Chronology of American Literary History handout under the dates for 1820-1850. It was significant because it gave rise to the participation of women in education and the establishment of women’s colleges. The rise of literacy integrated women into the literary field because, literate women were able to write and be educated. It caused them to write educational manuals, housewife manuals, and novels. It also caused women to become teachers and spread their wisdom to the future generation of women. Literacy also meant that women were able to sign their names; this gave them a voice and an identity. The main idea of increasing female literacy was that it established a female audience among readers. The upper class was likely to be consumers of literature; so they would buy and read books.

Alene Tchekmedyian

New Year's Day

“Hiring-day at the south takes place on the 1^st of January. On the 2d, the slaves are expected to go to their new masters” (Jacobs 15). A lot of irony is found in just the title of the shortest chapter of the novel; “The Slaves’ New Year’s Day.” One’s New Year’s Day should be filled with a lot of happiness and contentment, but for the slaves, this supposedly-joyful day would determine their life for the rest of the year. Another subject that Jacobs emphasized in this chapter is the sorrows of slave mothers. She talked about a mother who brought seven of her children to the auction-block, and lost all of them to a slave-trader. At this point, Linda Brent hasn’t got any children yet. The chapter somewhat foreshadows Linda whom later on became a mother. As any mother would, Linda did everything she could to protect her own children.

-Dovieke Angsana

Letters in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

The plethora of letters being sent back and forth in the book represent the importance of written communication. While many times, the letters sent to Linda; either by Dr. Flint or other persons interested in possessing Linda as chattel are viewed as undesirable ones which emphasize Linda's condition as a slave and as a piece of property, in more frequency than the latter, letters represent Linda's power as a literate human being to reject the supremacy of those who would claim it, and outwit the ones who would trick Linda back into the 'jaws of slavery'. Dr. Flint's letters to Linda are used as a means to further his power over her and to "help to advance his favorite scheme," (31) to browbeat Linda into complete mental and physical submission. Linda's rejection of the letters- her refusal to read them, and her conscious decision to reject not only the letters, but with it, its proposals, is symbolic of her refusal to submit to her condition, despite the overwhelming evidence of the futility of her resistance.
Later in the work, numerous letters are written to Linda by those who wish to recapture Linda and to bring her back into the power of Dr. Flint. Her literacy, her ability to read between the lines, and her ability to discern between genuine words of honesty and well crafted phrases designed to confuse and fool her, are what keep Linda from becoming the chattel which she struggles so valiantly to resist becoming. Linda's literacy is essential to her successful rejection of a life of bondage. The letters which appear so frequently in the book serve to emphasize the precipitous dangers which constantly loom over Linda, as a fugitive slave, and consequently serve to emphasize the intelligence, bravery, and courage of the woman who employs these letters to her own advantage in order to escape these very dangers.