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Did Stamp Paid Do the Right Thing?

     In Toni Morrison’s Beloved , Stamp Paid makes the difficult decision to tell Paul D about what Sethe did to her children when schoolteacher came to take them back to Sweet Home. Was he justified in making this decision?      An argument can be made that Stamp Paid should’ve realized that Sethe should’ve been the one to tell Paul D. The traumatic experiences that she endured at Sweet Home undoubtedly influenced her decision, and she’s the only one who truly understands them. Thus, she’s the only one qualified to talk about the situation she was in, and the reasoning behind her decision.       On the other hand, it’s possible that Paul D wouldn’t have ever found out if it weren’t for Stamp Paid. Sethe openly defends her decision and says that she doesn’t regret it, yet, she purposely hides it from Paul D. I don’t think that this means that she stands by her decision any less than she says she does, but it could suggest that she’s scared of telling Paul D about it. It’s hard to know
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Janie’s Responses to Getting Beat

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, both Jody and Tea Cake beat Janie. However, Janie reacts in very different ways to the two men--she’s heavily affected when Jody beats her, but seems to just brush it off when Tea Cake does it. I think this contrast can be connected to her personal development and empowerment throughout the book. Before Jody beats Janie, and even more so after, Janie is submissive to Jody and she has no power in their marriage. Her life revolves around satisfying Jody’s wishes, and she seems to have accepted it. After Jody beats her, Janie stays with him because she feels that she doesn’t have a choice. Jody’s total control over her has left her powerless, and she doesn’t yet have the strength to do anything about his abuse.   In contrast, Janie’s reaction to Tea Cake beating her could show that she has become much more powerful. I think the fact that it doesn’t have the same destructive psychological effects on her indicates that she has become stronger mentally--she b
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Rinehart's Connection to the Narrator

     In Chapter 23 of Invisible Man , we learn that Rinehart is a lot of different things to a lot of different people. He’s “Rine the runner” and “Rinehart the number man” to one woman, he’s a pimp to another, and a reverend to several other people. Evidently, people have varied ideas about who he is, and I think that the narrator’s involuntary assumption of Rinehart’s identity (or identities, rather) helps him realize how similar he is to Rinehart.      The narrator is presented with the idea of being several different people at once when all these different identities are thrown at him in such a short period of time. I think this experience makes him realize that he, too, has adopted several different identities in his own life. The narrator is a different person to Mr. Norton than he is to Dr. Bledsoe. He’s a different person to the man offering him “the special” at the diner than he is to the man who sold him yams on the street. He’s a different person to the doctors at the factor
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Yams, The Brotherhood, and the Narrator’s Identity

          One of my favorite scenes in Invisible Man so far is the scene in which the narrator enjoys a baked yam from a street vendor. It represents him becoming comfortable with his true self, and no longer being embarrassed of the part of his identity that developed during his childhood in the South. He laughs at the older version of himself who was too ashamed of his Southern roots to enjoy pork chops, grits, eggs, and biscuits at the diner. I felt that this was a big step for the narrator and it showed that he had grown a lot. However, his new attitude was short-lived, and everything started going downhill when he joined the Brotherhood. Immediately, the Brotherhood aims to completely leave the narrator’s identity behind and replace it with an identity that they created to fill a role. They give him a whole new name, and tell him that he’s going to be the new Booker T. Washington. When he starts speaking in a way that doesn’t align with the Brotherhood’s rhetoric well enough, th
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Success and Invisibility

     So far in Invisible Man , the concept of invisibility seems to affect more people than just the narrator, namely Bledsoe and Brockway. Bledsoe’s invisibility can be seen as self-inflicted because he chooses to conceal his true self from white people. However, Brockway’s invisibility is more involuntary, as his invisibility seems to result from other people’s failure to recognize him. Invisibility means different things for these two characters, but both are very successful at what they do. This made me wonder: Is invisibility a requisite for success?      In chapter four, we see how Bledsoe fakes his entire personality around white people. He’s completely subservient and tells them what they want to hear, disregarding his critical consciousness for their approval. He’s invisible because white people don’t see the true Bledsoe who was revealed while he was yelling at the narrator. By figuring out how the White world works and playing by its rules, Bledsoe makes his power and succes
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What is Wright Telling Us Through Max?

  What is Wright Telling Us Through Max? Ian Evensen Max is one of the more likable characters in Native Son. He sympathizes with Bigger, respects him and treats him like a person, and values his thoughts and emotions. Most importantly, Max seems to understand Bigger better than anyone else in the novel, and even articulates the message that Richard Wright is trying to deliver through Bigger’s story. However, I think Wright is also trying to convey a deeper message through Max: no matter how sympathetic a White person is, they will never be able to truly understand a black person’s experience. To begin with, while Bigger is telling his story to Max in the jail cell, there are multiple times when he feels as though Max just can’t understand him. When Max tells Bigger that he should’ve tried to understand Mary better, Bigger “glared about the small room, searching for an answer. He knew that his actions did not seem logical and he gave up trying to explain them logically” (350). Here, Bi
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