Month: December 2014

Thomas McKellar

American Literary Traditions

12/9/2014

 

 

Literature is a very multi-faceted entity. No one has the same perspective, the same thought process when reading. This held true in our class, American Literary traditions. Whenever we read a book, a poem, or a short story, the perspectives of every person shot off into infinity in a dozen different planes. However, throughout the class, we learned that all perspectives are right, compared to how we were taught in high school that everything is supposed to fit into a cookie cutter form. Especially because of the book choice, research paper, and the evidence of cultural change caused by the literature, I learned how to interpret literature in a more open, worldly fashion.

The book choice in this class was nothing short of fantastic. Compared to what I have read before in other classes, which can be described as nothing less than horrible, this selection was stellar. In my past world literature class, the only books we read were very dark, gloomy affairs that left you feeling slightly crazy or extremely depressed. Books like Dracula, Frankenstein, or Dante’s Inferno are all books of literary merit, but for a high school senior this is very heavy reading to be doing back to back to back. The pace was dogged as well, taking half of a semester to read each book. This is murder when you are trying to keep a perspective for an entire paper on each novel. This leads to very dry, abstract interpretation, to the degree of “the blinds depict the depression the writer felt”. While a bad example, this is what the class degenerated to. The teacher was lazy, more taking the class to fill free time than actually teach. There was no such thing as class discussion, it was summarizing the days reading. A bunch of 18 year olds nodding off in a classroom who were going to write a paper the day before it was due. Here, however, the choice of books was much more expansive. Yes, we read some dark stories, Like Douglass’s narrative or the stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne, but we also read poetry by Dickinson and Whitman, offsetting the gloom with bright imagery and vivid depictions. Then, with all this great literature came a pace to match. We did not have time to create these “paper castles’ of weird analogy that we thought sounded good on paper. We only had our initial impressions. This, combined with the highly involved discussions in class, lead my analysis to be much more to the point, less about author intent and more about what it was designed to do. This led me to actually look for to class, to want to start the next book.

As any high school student does, I had to write many papers over books read for classes. These papers always where over what I felt from the book. Because of the styles of writing we had to utilize, very narrow and focused on what the instructor had told us to interpret the literature as, I was never very successful, grade wise, on these papers. In this class, however, the papers where very open. You pick what you want to write about, whatever aspect of the literature grabbed your attention the most. For example, on my Whitman paper, instead of having to write on what Whitman was trying to covey, I was able to write about what the reading made me realize about myself, how the Song Of Myself was a song of us all (McKellar 2). I, through the effects of this class, actually learned how to feel literature, and enjoy it. With my old literature books, it was not uncommon for me to punt the book outside the school as soon as it was finished with. Now, even with my rented books, I often purchase the book, and have read the books when I have spare time. I always see a different facet when I re read a passage. I actually enjoy the class, look forward to it, rather than dread every step down to it.

Literature can effect nations, define their growth and development. This was made more obvious by this class because before I was focused on the small minutiae of the book, not analyzing why the book was written, when, and who wrote it.  For example, if Hawthorne’s tales had been written by a Mid-Western cowboy, but had been the same, the impact would have been complete different. There would be no connection, actual experience to round out the story telling. The impact of these books is not measured by the impact on dozens of lives, of towns, but on the shaping of nations. The development of an entire modern culture. Whitman changed the face of modern poetry, Douglass helped kick start the abolitionist movement, gave it momentum. Twain wrote a novel so multifaceted that decades later it is still being banned, edited, and debated. After almost 120 years of print, a book is still argued as savagely as any feminist debate today. The impact of this literature is undeniable.

Literature’s impact lasts for centuries. The writing of those before us has shaped our lives, redefined our societies. This impact is best seen by the methods we experimented with this semester. The following of the instructions an author lays out, looking at why would the writer write that forlorn story, rather than what he meant. This class has made my interpretation of literature more to actual application than seeking a high grade or the praise of a instructor.

 

Whitman and His Witticism

 

 

Thomas McKellar

October 5, 2014

American Literary Traditions

 

Most individuals would say that most advice from prose or poetry is more around life lessons, or human emotions. Whitman, however, gives physical challenges, to go out and experience the world. In “Song of Myself”, Whitman glorifies the outdoors, and the true essence of humanity, the act of creation. Throughout the poem, Whitman uses vivid descriptions of life and all that it encompasses to bring the poem to life for the reader. This life giving vivacity is magnified ten-fold when the advice of Whitman is followed.

I took my book to the benches around the parade ground, I “loafed and invted y soul” (Whitman I). As a rat, I am fairly restricted in my movements. I sat for two hours, reading a stanza, then contemplating the message of the poem, and rereading it with that thought in mind. On a beautiful, cool Thursday, I sat, and was absolutely blown away. When a book is read indoors, in the fluorescent glare of modern life and conveniences, reading a line such as “the bright suns I see and the dark ones I cannot see are in their place, the palpable is in its place and the impalpable in its place.” The significance is lost indoors. Looking up at your roommate shining brass, compared to sitting in the sunshine and feeling the unseen wind on your face, the warmth of the sun on your back, there is no contest. Song of Myself has a beautiful fractal to it, while it has no meter or rhyme, as nature does not, the fractured surface leads to a eloquence like that of a mountain cliff.

While not what I originally saw as a poem, which in my head was a sonnet about a pretty lady, and other frivolous topics, Whitman actually embraces what I see as a man in beauty. All men are driven by the carnal urges of humanity, and Whitman saw that these urges, if controlled and shaped, are just as beautiful as any mountain lake. So as I sat and looked up at the mountains, and relaxed, I truly identified with Whitman. While not wanting to strip and run nude through a field, I was in awe of nature, and one with it. Breathing the air, watching the birds, and looking at what Mother Nature has wrought, I was “mad for it to be in contact with me”. I noticed the little things that I usually missed when I was outside.

Things like the way a sun beam played on a leaf, or the quiet rustle of trees in the breeze, other minutiae that as a rat contemplating is taboo. We cannot look around, or do anything really. We must obey. When I read this poem, I was not a rat anymore, I “was enamored of growing outdoors” (Whitman 14) I was just Thomas, enjoying a day in the sunshine. The ratline gave me an appreciation for the small details however, because when working on a uniform that your cadre will run over with a fine tooth comb, you must be exacting in detail, and I was finally able to put this newfound attention to use on the natural world. Finally, while sitting on my bench, I began to see that Whitman’s world is an eerie parallel for ours.

In today’s world, sex is an oftentimes taboo subject, with many cultural faux pais caused by mentioning it, or even thinking about it. We are in a modern day Victorian era, with books being banned for “dirty” language and many people subject to rise hell if their children are taught how to protect themselves from life threatening diseases. Whitman was a visionary, and I was privileged to be able to read and identify with him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Song of Myself

Listen closely, lend me your ears, for I have a tale to tell,

About a trial of life, and true burden for young people,

Of angry cadre and screaming sergeants, of early mornings and late nights,

Of blood sweat and tears, sacrifice and self-doubt,

This trial is the Ratline, of The Institute, The mother at whose breast we are nurtured,

We are taken from our families, the loving ones back home,

And taught a new love, that of discipline and respect, a mountain to be climbed,

With gritted teeth and bunched muscles we push up the hill, straining every fiber of our being

To accomplish one goal, and become the cadets we dream of, these shining will o’ wisps

In our minds, which we dare not raise hope for

Lest we get cut down at the knees.

We live day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute, standing shoulder to shoulder

Fighting for each other, bonding as brothers and sister to defeat the boulder

That is cadre

The scourge of the existence of so many young lives, the killers of hopes and dreams

And yet they build us

In our weakest moments they push us, show us that our limits are higher than we ever dreamed

That the man I want to be is inside, that I must be broken down to free him

 

 

 

Reflective Tab

Reading Whitman was an extreme change of pace for our class. Moving from the tradgey and success of Douglass to the whimsical meandering of Whitman was a bit of culture shock. However, I really enjoyed Whitman, I find I can really immerse myself into the reading, especially the love of nature. I love being outside, and this poem really helped put into words many of my feelings about the great outdoors.

 

Thomas Mckellar                                           Help received: Microsoft Word, Spell check, Satires and evasions, Johnathan Collings critical review

 

American Literary Traditions

 

11/25/2014

 

Research Paper FINAL

 

 

 

Huckleberry Finn is one of the most controversial novels in history, being constantly banned since its release in the 1880s. The sharp satire and criticism of the culture of racism and slavery made many people in the late 1800s want the book banned, while in modern day it is criticized for using language that many people find offensive or crass. This is debated by many authors over the decades. Was the novel Huckleberry Finn a satirical criticism, or an evasion of the topic of slavery?

 

Richard K. Barksdale is an illustrious author and teacher, having taught at many historically black universities. His paper History, Slavery, and thematic Irony in Huckleberry Finn takes the history of the culture of slavery in the Southern U.S. adapting it to show how it fit into Huck Finn and how Twain twisted it to politically satirize the entire institute of slavery. According to Barksdale, “By virtue of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, that state had joined the union as a slave state. Accordingly, any story taking place in Missouri before 1865 was set in a slave state.”(Barksdale 1). Because Huck Finn is set in a state with deep roots in slavery, where the institution is considered normal, when Huck attempts to escape the civilization, he is attempting to break free from the society with slavery. Because of this, this attempted escape from slavery gives “a deeper understanding of the meaning of life in a slave society such as the one Huck and his peers lived in. The actions of those who live there are conditioned by a principle of slavery since the very beginning.”(Barksdale 2). This setting of slavery sets the stage for Jim. The treatment of slaves in the mid-1800s would leave Jim exactly as portrayed in the novel, ignorant of the outside world. However, Twain depicts slaves as “willing to blot the memory of centuries of servitude.” (Barksdale 4). He depicts the salves as a decent, moral people. Guided by a sense of right and wrong. Barksdale postulates that Twain is using ironic fiction to show how in our sharply divided nation, “least of us, in the worst of circumstances, could forge a friendship between blacks and whites” (Barksdale 5). Therefore, why can society not forge these friendships among the upper echelons?

 

Carmen Subryan, however, takes a different approach in her discourse, Mark Twain and the Black Challenge. She starts with the ever hot issue of Twain’s use of the “n-word” throughout the novel, how “many people dismiss Twain as a racist and protest the use in Huckleberry Finn.” (Subryan 1). She argues that Twain, through satire, is attempting to heal the wrongs done to the blacks of the new world. According to Subryan, Twain did not always hold this sentiment of healing rifts. “As a young southerner Mark twain clearly did not feel positively towards blacks . . . as he matured as a writer, however, he began to display an ambivalence with Tom Sawyer, which then became a full outgrowing of racial attitudes with Huckleberry Finn.” (Subryan 2). This “coming over to the dark side” had a very young beginning for Twain, starting with watching his father whip a house slave as a young child, then a man kill his slave with a lump of iron (Subryan 3). This casual brutality begins Twain’s conversion to equality. His change, in full flower, utilizes the causal cruelty he experienced as a child to enforce the evil that is slavery. He uses Huck’s treatment of Jim, despite Jim’s whole heartedness and understandable logic, such as in the case of the language debate. “Jim reasons that if two animals speak different languages, and not understand each other, how could humans? Huck, at a loss, dismisses Jim as a dumb nigger, who cannot be taught to argue.” (Subryan 8). Because Huck assumes that Jim is dumb, yet the reader can see that Jim is right, the idea of slavery begins to implode upon its principle that blacks are sub human. Subryan, through her analysis of Twain’s past, and his referencing this past in his novels, argues that Twain was trying to undermine the lasting thoughts of slavery in the Old South, and the continuing mistreatment of black men and women.

 

James Leonard argues that Twain, at best, is ambivalent on slavery and racism, leaning toward the side of the whites. His paper, Blackface and White Inside, debates the fact that Jim is not portrayed as a black man should have been. Twain depicts Jim as he envisioned one of his favorite entertainments, a black face minstrel. Blackface minstrelsy involved a white man painting his face black, then acting in an embarrassing fashion, as a debase and unintelligent black man. According to Leonard, “Twain characterized Jim as a fool to be put upon, duped, and abused. He may be nobly innocent, but as a child is. He is shown as undeveloped to the world” (Leonard 2). While this is not putting down upon the black race, it was not designed to help them, to be a force for their cause. Twain maintains a forced ambivalence throughout the noel, according to Leonard. Twain “creates a false dilemma, by which no middle ground exist. That there will always be black “subhumaness” (and white supremacy), because Twain chose to use the white’s double consciousness.”(Leonard 3). Twain had the chance to write an “apologia” for racism, but because he maintained his neutral ground, keeping racism so firm in his story as a needed virtue, the novel is a “lesson in Twain’s betrayal” (Leonard 4).

 

Betty H. Jones dislikes Huckleberry Finn. Because modern society has begun to recognize the novel as a stanchion for the equality of man, despite the debates over the use of derogatory terms, the fatal flaws for the black man are overlooked. According to Jones, “Jim is a problematic character for black American’s as well as white readers. He possesses undeniable traits for nobility, but whatever progress he makes for the equality movement is tempered, and set back, by his constant acknowledgement that his is the nobility of the primitives. He does not command respect but pity and humor.” (Jones 1).  This constant fouling of progress mires the novel, making it contradictory. Yes, Jim may be a noble, sweet hearted man but he is also a dramatic backdrop for the novel, used by Twain to give is noel panache, making it a more piquant novel rather than a dry discourse. Jim has multiple roles, “a minstrel show buffoon, a role that in today’s society would be burned in effigy, however this impression is lasting, making Twain’s novel more likely to ignite the very debates that rage around it.” (Jones 4). Jones, in her discourse, says that Twain was not trying to crusade for the blacks, rather profit off of their stance in society and further his own reputation.

 

Mark Twain’s piece Huckleberry Finn holds true to its reputation of starting debates, even today. The wide range of opinions and passions it inspires shows just how well Twain developed his literature. The most multifaceted and twisted book have the most lasting effects on the society they address. Twain had an effect upon the civil rights movement and the attitudes toward slavery everywhere. It showed a people so numbed to cruelty that they could not recognize it just how debase they had become. Twain was using satire to defend the civil rights of the black people, and argue for their equality in society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

Barksdale, Richard. History, Slavery, and Thematic Irony in Huckleberry Finn. 1923. Print.

 

Barksdale speaks of the culture surrounding Huck Finn, and how that effected the story itself. He also goes into the way Twain throws this culture to look horrible to those within it

 

Jones, Betty H. Huck and Jim: A Reconsideration. 1965. Print.

 

Jones crituiqes what she sees as the major fallacies of Huck Finn, and how Jim, left undeveloped, truly subtracted from the cause of the black man

 

Leonard, James. Blackface and White Inside.  1932Print.

 

Leonard, while not enamoured with Huck Finn, sees the intentions within it, and shows how it could have been developed to strike a full blow against racism instead of grazing it.

 

Subryan, Carmen. Mark Twain and the Black Challenge. 1973 Print.

 

 

 

Subryan speaks of how Twain uses his own personal experiences to add to the realism of the story of Huck Finn.

 

Fredrick Douglass’s Portrayal of Slavery

Thomas McKellar

 

This project was odd for me. Seeing images of scar tissue that covers someone’s back, and the torture devices used on another human being was a part of slavery I have never seen. As a southerner, and a descendant of slave owners, slavery has always been a minor subject to me. It was a half paragraph before the real meat of the class, the Civil War. Now, after reading Douglass’s memoirs, I see just how base and cruel the institution of slavery in America was. The recent blockbuster, Django Unchained, showed slavery as this. At the time of seeing the movie, I didn’t believe that that sort of treatment was widespread, maybe in the deep south like Alabama, but Douglass shows that it was prevalent everywhere. While there were decent owners, they did nothing to stop the absolute sadism among their peers. That cut deeply, at least to me. While Texas was not known for slavery, I still have that stigma upon my family. I know very little of that part of our family, but it still exists. It also shows how racism was such a vicious fight to me. As a Generation Y man, I did not grow up when the civil rights movement was happening. To me, before, it seemed like a fairly minor movement, trying to just get equal society for both races, which I of course thought was a noble cause. Now, I can see that that was not a minor fight, that it was every bit as hard as I had always been taught. I have a much more even keeled  view of that part of America’s history because of this project.

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