Racial Allegories, Supplementary Reading for The Intuitionist, and Harry Potter

"The freshest racial allegory since Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye."
           -Walter Kirn, Time

Racial allegories are stories with deeper meanings that are directly and sometimes indirectly associated with race. The Intuitionist is a racial allegory along with the texts that Kirn mentions in the above quote. All of these texts focus on the hardships of people that are not of the dominant race. These texts follow the lives of such people and how they overcome prejudice and racism to make their own places in the world. Both of the texts above are great supplementary material to Whitehead’s novel. Unfortunately, I have not read either of the texts, but with the brief summaries of them, I can tell that they truly portray the direct association with race that I mentioned above.

While researching racial allegories for this post I came across an interesting site that considers the Harry Potter series a racial allegory. Being a fan of the serious and having read it several times, I found this label interesting. J.K. Rowling does a good job with creating a world where race has no importance, but this site expressed how Rowling uses blood lineage and species in a similar way that Whitehead, Morrison, and Ellison use race. In the Harry Potter series the main problem is a war for equality among the magical and the non-magical, humans and creatures, and creatures and creatures. Essentially, they are fighting to establish and maintain “world peace.” They want to rid the world of darkness—dark magic and quite possibly the inherent dark side of mankind. The whole series establishes an argument for equality. Half-bloods are just as “good” as pure-bloods. Two of the main characters, Lord Voldemort (the antagonist) and Harry Potter (the protagonist) have muggle blood in their family bloodlines. Women are offered equality in both job opportunities, pay, and respect. Hermione Granger (another main character) is one of the most valued educational minds of her generation. Without her, Harry would not have succeeded in any of his many adventures at Hogwarts. While these books do not directly deal with race, Rowling did not completely leave out the idea of prejudice. She established a sense of equality while simultaneously questioning the equality of impure bloodlines and “lesser” species. I didn’t think Harry Potter was a racial allegory, but it is. It just deals with race in a more indirect and symbolic way.

Can you think of any other novel that may fall into the category of racial allegory? Does  it have a direct or an indirect association with race? What qualifies it as a racial allegory?

Written By: Elizabeth Willbanks

Education Growth

I was actually intrigued by how much I enjoyed reading this novel. I have been worried about this book since the beginning of the semester because I knew that it was dialect heavy, but I was actually impressed with how easily I read this book. While the dialect was heavy and somewhat difficult for me, it was not nearly as problematic as I assumed it would be. Oddly enough, the two books that initially turned me off to reading strong dialects were The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Their Eyes Were Watching God—the latter being the most painful read I have ever experienced in terms of dialect. This semester I am forced to re-read Huck Finn, a book that I completely hated in high school because Jim’s speech made me feel like a slow reader who didn’t belong in an A.P. English class. However, when I started reading it again this semester, it didn’t seem quite as difficult as it did in the past. I wasn’t so overwhelmed with correcting and making sense of comment. It just kind of worked itself out. Between this experience and the amazing intrigue I found in the style of Push, I think I have grown as a reader. I think that I no longer struggle as much with the variations from standard English that most books use in dialogue and style. I didn’t feel like I was reading any slower than I normally do. I will probably always read slowly, but I can actually appreciate this style of writing more and might even try spicing up the dialogue in my own writing with unique dialects.

Have any of you experienced this type of “educational” growth?

What was your opinion of the literacy theme and dialect in this book?

Precious's Coping Mechanism

Push is a novel of a girl who doesn't get the guy, is raped repeatly, gets HIV, and has two children before the age of sixteen, one with Down's syndrome. It is such a sad tale; I admire the strength she had to keep going. I admire anyone who overcomes any situation even remotely similar to Precious's.

I would argue that one of the biggest disappointing factors that could have saved Precious is the New York City public education system. How does such a red flag go unnoticed? While reading this I smiled at the littlest accomplishments that she achienved. "Listen baby, Muver love you," she writes. "Muver not dumb. Listen baby: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ. Thas the alphabet. Twenty-six letters in all. Them letters make up words. Them words everything" (66). I love that she gets how important education is. Even when her mother tells her it is stupid, that she is stupid, she persists. Education is her ticket out.

The book is narrated in a diary style. She writes of horrific events in her life in a blunt, honest way. Each entry of her book shows a small step in her education. Her reading level grows from not knowing all the letters, to reading at a junior high level. As a future education, the self-diligence was astounding to me. To come through so much, and then be so happy at reading a sentence, at writing a sentence. I felt so connected to her.

You can't blame her for not knowing curriculum or for reading on such a low level. Her mind is clearly not on lessons: she is revisting all the abuse and imagining herself in a happier place or circumstance.

In traumatic experiences, I turn to God and pray, but Precious doesn't have that. Precious copes witht elaborate daydreams and a fantasy world. How do you cope?

Do you think this diligence to learn is realistic? Would a girl in this situation normally break down and give up orr fight to survive? What makes Precious continue?

Fiction or Nonfiction

For some reason I always thought this story was nonfiction, meaning it really did happen. Setting down the book, however, I noticed that the back cover stated it as “fiction.” This threw me off. Everyone I’ve ever talked to about this book or the movie that goes with it has been convinced that it’s a true account of some woman’s life. If this is correct, I would like to know because it changes the story. Whatever the story is, I think that it being fiction or nonfiction really matters. It changes the way you will perceive that story and the characters in it. For instance, I just read a play in my Am. Lit. 2 class called Walls by Jeannie Barrago. It was an absolutely wonderful play giving many different sides of the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I thought it was a good play before I went to class and found out that the characters in it were actual people. They actually went through a version of what the play is about. Knowing this simple piece of knowledge changed the play for me. I want to know if Push is actually just a made up story that could have easily been someone’s life or if it really was someone’s life because the difference can make all the difference.

What do you think, does knowing what is real and what isn’t in a novel or other forms of literature change it for you?

Do you feel differently for the characters if you know that they are real people who experienced the situations you are reading about?

Would you prefer to know or be left in the dark?

A Call for Change - African American Male Student Statistics

Earlier this week, Kelly brought up the topic of African American literature and prompted discussions about how often we have been exposed to it during our academic journeys. The majority of us agreed that the exposure was pretty minimal, and on some of the occasions it was taught, it was often snugly sandwiched in a quaint “multicultural unit” that featured snippets of stories and accomplishments of non-Caucasian figures. Since our group consists of four future English teachers, I wanted to explore African American literature in schools a little further.

Langston Hughes predominately wrote about everyday African American life, including (everyday) struggles in society. While thinking about these themes and checking the internet news this week, I came across a really interesting article that released statistics and reports about the academic status of male African American students in this country. The Council of Great City Schools’ startling report includes several statistics—a couple of examples:

- The average ACT scores of AA male students were lower
than those for white male students in English, mathematics,
and reading. In 2009, the gap between [the two groups]
was six points in English, five points in
mathematics, and six points in reading.

- Black males are twice as likely to drop out of high
school as white males.


The authors of the research warn: “The nation's young black males are in a state of crisis. This report is likely to make people angry, and it should. We hope that this is a louder and more jolting wake-up call to the nation than this country is used to hearing." Though these statistics are impacted by a variety of factors, please keep in mind that not every African American male is at risk; additionally, the report does briefly mention the other side of these statistics.

President Obama’s “Stay in School” speech last fall was primarily directed at students, encouraging them to remember that “there is no excuse for not trying.” I can’t help but wonder though, how many teachers are at fault here? Given the fact that we all agreed that little African American culture and literature was taught in high schools, I wonder what would happen if we actually celebrated more African American literature OUTSIDE of Black History Month and the “multicultural units?” Do you all think that giving students more exposure to Langston Hughes and other diverse authors would not only culturally benefit ALL of the students, but maybe even inspire some at risk students? Why do we focus so much on the “dead white guys” when our classrooms are so colorfully full of diversity?

Advancement in Literacy? or Just Politically Correct?

 

"‘They preaches you a pretty sermon and they don't say nothin'. They sings you a song, and they don't say nothin'. But Cora's here, honey, and she's gone tell 'em what they done to you. She's gonna tell 'em why they took you to Kansas City.’”

- Langston Hughes “Cora Unashamed” –

I have said this many times to many people. I do not like reading heavy dialect, but Langston Hughes’s “Cora Unashamed” did not bother me like other examples of dialect have in the past. I realize that the dialect in this story is not quite as thick and heavy as the dialect in books like Their Eyes Were Watching God or Huck Finn. The dialect in this short story was wonderful. It added such an amazing element to the story. The theme of this blog is language and literacy. I think that this story is a great example of how literacy has advanced. Cora’s speech was intended to sound uneducated, but many people today still talk with similar slurs and blends. Words like “gonna” instead of “going to” and “yous” instead of “you” are still popular. The difference today is that this type of language is no longer stereotyped as uneducated. Many people may believe that it sounds uneducated, but this idea does not often extend to the person. I think much of this has to do with the importance society places on what is “fair” and “politically correct.” It is no longer widely accepted to judge a person’s intelligence level by their dialect. It is still done, but not so much in the public eye. In the past, a person like Cora would have been uneducated and would have sounded uneducated. Today, Cora could walk on this campus and speak in the same manner, but very few people would point out how uneducated she sounds to her face. Another reason for the new found politeness is the fact that there now exists an “educated” dialect. People can speak a certain way to make themselves sound educated even if they are not. Educated people can “sound” stupid. I think the fact that we have learned how to play with, manipulate and accept the wide varieties of speech and dialect really shows far we have come in this field.

Discussion Questions: 

1. There is a difference is teasing about an accent and truly getting ridiculed for a dialect, have you experienced either of these? How did it make you feel? What did you do about it?

2. Much of dialect is considered an African American difference. What experiences have you had with an unfamiliar dialect that does not involve the African American race? What does this say about the misconception of dialect and its association with labels like stupid, uneducated, etc.

3. Do you think that the new found acceptance of dialect is evidence of advancement in literacy or is it just society's worry over what is and is not politically correct?

                                               Written By: Elizabeth Willbanks

Play Productions

In the last post, Kelly briefly talked about the production of Alice Walker's The Color Purple as a musical in her post introducing African American literature. In the last several weeks, several works of literature have been produced in our area- Death of a Salesman, Midsummer Night's Dream- and more are to come - Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet. Since all four group members are future educators, I wanted to ask about your thoughts about teaching plays. Will you take your classes on trips to see plays whenever there is one you may utlitlize? Will you reowrk your curriculum to follow the productions? Or do youu think a video or class rendition can capture the true workings of a play?

In my high school, we did a humanities rotation class that switched subjects every nine weeks: music, drama, and art. In drama class, everyday we watched movies of plays and I grew to hate them. In ENG 476 (Literature for Secondary Curriculum) Dr. Lenoir showed a movie dramatization of Julius Caesar. It wasn't a play, but the acotrs said most of the lnes verbatim. It was like watching a regular movie, albeit Shakespeare. I liked it.

What do you think is the most effective way to introduce theater to your students? Do you think you have gained benefical knowledge for teaching plays while studying at WKU?

The Influences of African American Literature

Throughout the history of America, those who have been oppressed have been contributing to the literature of this country. Like every other minority group in the United States, some of the literature is good and some is not. Thankfully there is a plethora of good literature which teaches us more about African American culture. The most influential African American literature has been brought to the masses since the mid 1800s. In 1845, Fredrick Douglass published his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave which opened the public’s eyes the dealings of slavery. He gave an inside look at the tool that slavery takes on the body and the mind. In the 1920s, a new movement began which reinvented African American Literature. The Harlem Renaissance was a movement encouraging and “celebrating black voices in the arts” according to enotes.com. Out of this movement came Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen whose “strongest poems question the benevolence of a Creator who has bestowed a race with such mixed blessings.” (poets.org) Throughout the rest of the century, African American Literature blossomed and contributed to the performing arts and even mainstream television. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple was transformed into an award winning Broadway musical while Oprah Winfrey was taking over day time television with her talk show and soon developed a book club.

Sources:

http://www.enotes.com/topics/african-american-literature
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5657

Discussion Questions:

1. What were you taught about African American Lit. in high school?
2. Did you read any? If so, what did you read?
3. Have you taken any African American Lit. classes outside of high school?