Who is Macon Detornay?

   As we read more and more of Angry Black White Boy by Adam Mansbach, I find myself more and more confused about Macon's nature. In the beginning, I was unsympathetic to him--I couldn't understand him because I didn't know his background. What attracted Macon to black culture? Why is he so invested in it? And why, did this Jewish white boy get so offended when his taxi customers talked flippantly about a black woman? When I first started the book, it sounded like Macon was just trying to be somebody special and boost his own ego by being the only white boy willing to go to such lengths for the black community. I didn't see him as a hero.

However, as the book progresses, Macon's personality keeps unfolding. I find myself confused and exasperated with him. For example, when Macon argues with the Black Student Union and slams them for not doing enough, I found myself seriously disliking him. He says he "was on the front lines, way the fuck up in the mix, and they were hibernating in their dorm rooms. Holding meetings. Please." The disdain in his voice for the people who are actually affected every day of their lives by racism and oppression made me think of Macon as an idiot. A pretender who was trying to be real. Perhaps his argument with the African American professor of rap may be more legitimate--I think students should be allowed to raise counterarguments--but here, Macon was belittling everybody else and purporting his own opinions. 

Yet, there is this sense that Macon knows what he's talking about. He says over and over again that he isn't like other white boys who listen to rap--they do it because it's fashionable, he does it because he actually cares about what rap is saying. In the argument with the professor, Macon is depicted as a hero--the first person to question the legitimacy of the professor's statements. The risks that Macon goes to prove himself should also be mentioned: he starts robbing white people, lands in jail for a day, and gets maced. Of course, one could argue that Macon was only in jail for a short period of time and that he might not have robbed whites solely for the sake of the black community...

I was surprised by the skill with which Macon handled many of his interviews--excluding the Rise and Shine New York show. He was always one step ahead of the interviewer and easily countered their statements. Many of the things he mentioned were valid--everyday racism, micro aggression, white privilege--yet it still made me slightly uncomfortable because Macon takes such a radical stance on such a sensitive topic as a white person. 

Angry Black White Boy definitely has me intrigued. I still don't know how to feel about Macon--while he says some things that resonate with me, the way he carries it out is troubling. For example, when Macon starts grilling the host of the Rise and Shine New York show and uses the n-word repeatedly, even Andre felt uncomfortable. I predict that things will get even more uncomfortable  and strange with the creation of Day of Apology. 

The Problems Jack and Ma Will Face

Now that we've finished Room, I can say that Emma Donoghue has left us with the impression that Jack and Ma are in a hopeful, positive place. In the last scene of the book, Jack and Ma revisit Room and Jack realizes how small and insignificant it actually is in the larger scheme of things. After seeing the world and experiencing new things, Jack no longer clings on to Room. The book ends with the sentence: "It's like a crater, a hole where something happened. Then we go out the door." With that last sentence, Donoghue suggests that Jack and Ma have moved on from Room and are now looking towards the future.

However, like we talked about in class, Jack and Ma will face many difficulties and challenges in getting assimilated. For both of them, I foresee problems with the media for a while. The media loves sob stories, daring rescues, and strange situations because it attracts attention from the public and therefore, money. Therefore, I think Ma and Jack will struggle with the presence of the media. However, Jack is already becoming more assimilated (more of a normal boy, I guess) so I predict that the media will eventually lose interest and move on.

For Ma, I think the big struggle will be coming to terms with the fact that she lost seven years to Old Nick. They were also very important years--college years--where people tend to find themselves and what they want to do. Ma was snatched away pretty early in her college career and so I can imagine how bewildering it is for her to be back in the world but with Jack and seven years gone. All her friends have moved on and are probably married or have jobs. A big thing that Ma was worried about was finding her place in the world again. In Room, Ma was solely concerned with being Jack's mother. But outside of Room, she is a daughter, sister, and aunt.

There is also the problem that she and Jack have been confined together for such a long time. She may suffer from PTSD from her traumatic experience. She may also struggle with talking with new people her age. In the last few chapters of the book, Ma told Dr. Clay that she used to crave company in Room but now she doesn't want it. Ma will have to accept the fact that Room drastically changed her from the girl she was before she was abducted.

I think Jack will have an easier time to assimilate into society because he is still a five-year-old. He's at a malleable stage of his life and by the end of the book, has more or else become a normal child. Jack may still have issues socializing with other kids--the incident with Walker showed that he still doesn't understand boundaries--but I think he'll quickly learn.

Ultimately, the horrible and harrowing experience that Ma and Jack went through made them stronger. Jack and Ma will definitely face psychological obstacles in the near future but I see hope that they'll find their way.

A Story Made Stronger by a Child's Voice

While there have been many books written from a rare narrator's point of view (e.g. The Book Thief--it is narrated by an entity called Death), I find Room especially strange as we are in the mind of a five-year-old who has a very skewed perspective of reality. As we view the world (Room) through Jack's eyes, we notice things that make the book more poignant and powerful.

Like we talked about in class, Jack, our narrator, is an intelligent child who does not truly understand the world due to his different circumstances. As a five-year old boy, Jack doesn't understand that Ma and him are trapped in the room by Old Nick. He's never known a reality besides Room. He wakes up everyday super happy because he gets to spend time with Room and all its objects (Meltedly Spoon, Rug, Balloon, etc.) and Ma. For him, that is life and it's great.

Due to his innocence and ignorance of the real world, the situation that he and Ma are in becomes much more emotional to the reader. Since he only knows Room, he names all of the objects in there proper nouns. Therefore, we see that Jack only thinks that there are one of those objects in the world and that each one is unique. Through this, Donoghue shows how important Room is to Jack, therefore implying how difficult it will be for him to adjust to the world outside. How will Jack react when he learns that reality is so much bigger than he thought? How will he feel knowing that him and Ma are not the only ones? Perhaps the real struggle for Jack will not be escaping Room but adjusting to life outside of it.

Other events that are made more powerful by Jack's narration is when Ma and Jack play games like Scream. While Jack thinks it's just games that he and Ma play, the reader knows better--they are calling for help. When I realized that Ma is disguising all these ways of alerting attention as games to Jack, it was chilling. It shows what a good and smart mother she is and emphasizes the contrast between Jack's happy voice and the desperate situation they are both in.

I've heard criticisms about this book--namely that such a horrible event in which a woman is kidnapped, raped, and imprisoned for years should not be narrated by a child. People say that Jack's voice doesn't represent it well. I disagree. I think Jack's narration makes this book stronger. Through Jack's eyes, the reader gets a glimpse of what it really means to know an eleven-by-eleven foot space as your own reality and the fierce love Ma has for Jack even in such a dark, terrifying background.

A Lesson Before Dying: Jefferson's Growth

One of the many things that intrigued me in the novel A Lesson Before Dying was Jefferson's change from an angry (and rightfully so) boy to a man who accepts his fate.

In the very beginning of the novel, when the defense attorney calls him a "hog" in an attempt to exonerate him, Jefferson seems to internalize this. Whenever Miss Emma and Grant visits him throughout the novel, he regularly calls himself a "hog" and the visitors "you-mans". The spelling of the word "humans" here emphasizes how different Jefferson feels from the rest, how inhuman he feels. Jefferson constantly acts like a hog in front of Miss Emma and Grant and it seems like much of it is on purpose. For example, during one visit, he looks right at Grant, as if challenging him to say something. Therefore, in the beginning, Jefferson rejects all of Grant's and Miss Emma's attempts to reach him.

However, I think Jefferson really changes after the execution date is set. In the first visit with Grant after they learn when Jefferson will be sent to the chair, Jefferson is calm and child-like. He asks Grant for a "whole gallona ice cream" to be eaten "with a pot spoon". He isn't happy but he is momentarily content when he thinks of all the food he wants. I think it is here that Jefferson gets past the angry/bitter stage and is slowly beginning to accept his fate.

In the next few meetings between Grant and Jefferson, Jefferson seems calmer and more willing to listen. And when Grant gives him the whole spiel on what a hero's all about and why Jefferson is that hero, he seems to understand on some level. Grant notes "he may not have understood, but something was touched, something deep down in him..." Here, we see the image of the mentor teaching the apprentice yet learning from his student as well.

However, it isn't until the last visit with Grant that Jefferson becomes truly a person who accepts his fate. I think of this as the point where the apprentice supersedes the mentor. In this visit, Jefferson calls Grant out on how Grant never saw him as a man. Jefferson is described as standing "big and tall, and not stooped as he had been in chains". He questions Grant about death, God, and duties to the community. I think it's interesting how Grant fails to respond to him many times. At one point, Jefferson even comforts Grant by saying that he is alright. All of this shows huge personal growth in Jefferson and a certain wisdom that wasn't there before. Jefferson's change convinces me that on the day of his execution, he will go like man, not an animal.

Anse: A Despicable Character

So, after finishing the last page of As I Lay Dying, I realized just how despicable I found Anse, the father of the Bundren family. Oh, I didn't like multiple characters in this book--Addie and Cora weren't wonderful in my opinion--but Anse Bundren...he tops the list.

I think my dislike of Anse began right after Peabody's chapter. We had gotten Cora's opinion but she wasn't a trustworthy narrator to me so I gave Anse the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was just Cora. Then, we get Peabody's chapter where we see Anse acting like a child--Peabody describes him as "small, motionless in faded overalls". Yes, we can make the argument that he is swamped with grief and so can't move. However, the fact that his children, people who were also experiencing this tragedy, were still trying to do things--Cash is meticulously making his mother's coffin--Anse seemed kind of useless and I didn't like that. From that point on, my dislike for Anse only grew.

Anse's inability to make decisions and tendency to latch onto a goal that makes trouble for everything really made me mad. Because he was set on taking the Bundrens' wagon, he delayed the trip by a few days. Because of this, the river flooded before they could cross it, causing the Bundren family to have to make the perilous trip across it when it was high water. Anse could have easily saved his family the trouble (and Cash his leg) by agreeing to take Tull's team. Due to his own stubbornness, Anse endangers his family. The fact that he also constantly inconveniences people even while saying that he "won't be beholden to no man" is something that made me hate Anse even more. He doesn't stick to his words and forces friends and neighbors to do favors for him. This is probably why everybody kind of hates him.

In the beginning and the middle of the novel, Anse seemed kind of annoying, dull, and nonsensical. However, it wasn't until we reached the chapter where he took Cash's money and Jewel's horse to trade for two mules from Snopes that he became even more horrible (if that is possible). Yes, to be fair, he does take some money from his own fake teeth fund but he doesn't even tell his children that he's going to take belongings that are rightfully theirs!! Dewey Dell's chapter near the end of the book further shows Anse taking advantage of his children for his own gain.

We talked in class about how this novel can flip both ways: comedic/slapstick or epic. Similarly, Anse's character can be viewed in both ways. Some may argue that Anse is a heroic character like Odysseus who guides his family to Jefferson against tremendous odds but is he truly heroic if he's done all these things? The fact remains that Anse is the one who benefits at all by the end of the book. Much like the crew, the Bundren children's situation is worsened at the end of the journey.

The Portrayal of Penelope

In The Odyssey, Odysseus is the brave, clever hero striving to return to his homeland after twenty, long years. He is the hero we focus on, the one we praise for being cunning, courageous, and strong. Yet at the same time, we, and Homer, it seems, forget about the other heroes in the poem.

The one hero I want to focus on is Penelope, Odysseus' wife. Penelope is extremely loyal to her husband. This faithfulness is emphasized by the juxtaposition of her and Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's traitorous wife. Penelope was able to wait twenty years for Odysseus, all the while holding off a hundred suitors by weaving and unraveling her loom. In this way, Penelope has a lot of power--the suitors are scrambling for her.

Penelope isn't just faithful. She's smart. She's smart enough that she can trick her suitors and hold them back for another three years. In Book 24, the dead suitor says to Agamemnon that the loom that Penelope weaved "was her latest masterpiece of guile" and that "three whole years she deceived us blind, seduced us with this scheme..." This quote shows how deceptive and cunning Penelope is--it shows how much she matches Odysseus. There are many other instances of her guile--for example, when she asks for her suitors for gifts to prolong the time for Odysseus to get ready. She also tests Odysseus in a smart way by asking him about something no one else would know about (the rooted bed).

However, despite her loyalty to her husband and her cleverness, I think there is something problematic with her portrayal in The Odyssey. Penelope's character is defined by her faithfulness so what are the implications of such a character? Is it showing that a woman, in order to be perceived as good, must only wait for her husband? That even if they may be long dead, it is betrayal to move on? One thing that bothered me was in Book 24, when Agamemnon commented to Odysseus about "what a fine, faithful wife you won!...the fame of her great virtue will never die." Yes, I get that Agamemnon is bitter over the betrayal of his own wife and that women were seen mostly as property in ancient times, but the idea that a woman's faithfulness to her husband is her defining trait made me uncomfortable. Further, there is also the double standard that is set for men and women: Odysseus has been fooling around with other women but it's perfectly alright.

That is why I like Penny, the version of Penelope in the film adaptation O Brother, Where Art Thou? In the movie, Penny is smart like Penelope but isn't waiting for Ulysses like Penelope is for Odysseus. Instead, Penny has moved on and is ready to marry another man. While some say that she is the wrong for moving on from Ulysses so quickly, he was a con-man that got thrown in jail. There's this completely different dynamic between Penny and Ulysses in which Penny calls the shots and is the one in control. She is the one who decides whether or not to take him back. Penny is much more independent and freer than Penelope and I really like that. I hope that future adaptations of The Odyssey will portray Penelope like they did in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

The Odyssey: Is Odysseus a True Hero?

The Odyssey by Homer is one of the most famous books in Western history. I remember learning about the story when I was seven years old. Even at that young age, I marveled at the strength and bravery of the mortal hero Odysseus, who against all odds, was able to return to his homeland after twenty long years. The stories of sirens, Cyclops, and monsters enchanted me and I loved hearing about how the crafty, clever Odysseus overcame all those challenges. In my mind, he was a perfect hero: a moral, ordinary man who used his wits and courage to return to his family and home.

However, after reading The Odyssey carefully in the last few weeks, my perspective on Odysseus has altered. I still see him as a strong, determined man that strove to return to his wife and son but now I see his more negative traits. The arrogance, the cheating, and the brashness. For all his calmness and cleverness, Odysseus is really quite a hothead. We mentioned this in class but the whole thing with Polyphemus that prolonged the journey home by another additional ten years was very much Odysseus' fault. If he hadn't blurted his name to the Cyclops, Polyphemus would have never been able to identify him and subsequently, Poseidon wouldn't know who blinded his son. So, because of his own brashness and arrogance, Odysseus endangered his own crew and himself. 

This arrogance appears throughout the book regularly. When Odysseus is rallying his men to go past Scylla and Charybdis, he says "But even from there my courage, my presence of mind and tactics saved us all." Even in the midst of incoming death, he's going to brag about his tactical skills? This was one instance that caused me to slightly dislike Odysseus. 

There is also the cheating. This is the one thing that I didn't realize as a kid. In my mind, Odysseus was forever faithful to Penelope. I remember watching one film adaptation of The Odyssey in which a tree grows from Odysseus and Penelope's bed. That tree symbolizes their eternal love and faith in one another. In that film, Odysseus was not a questionable hero at all. He didn't cheat on Penelope at all throughout the long journey and when finally reuniting, was overjoyed to see his faithful wife. 

The book itself definitely hints if not outright states Odysseus' many affairs with other women. There is Calypso with whom Odysseus stays with for seven years. Right before he leaves the island, right before announcing his love for Penelope, Odysseus and Calypso "now, withdrawing into the cavern’s deep recesses, long in each other’s arms they lost themselves in love". Although Homer makes it clear throughout the book that everything extramarital that happened on the island is Calypso's fault--she is always called "the lustrous goddess" and is accused of "holding him [Odysseus] there by force"--the language of that sentence makes it ambiguous. Is Odysseus being enchanted by Calypso? Or is it mutual attraction? 

It isn't just Calypso Odysseus has a "spark" with. He stays with Circe for a year, completely forgetting about the journey home. Like we said in class, it is his own crew that has to remind our hero that he has a home to get back to. These little but important interactions alienated me from Odysseus. Homer's inclination to raise Odysseus on a pedestal and to blame those around him--his crew, Calypso, etc--when things go wrong further alienated me from the heroic aspects of Odysseus. 

I don't think that I'll see Odysseus the same way again. When I was little, I painted him as a legend, a mortal god. However, the actual book makes Odysseus seem much more human and flawed. When he isn't clever and shrewd, he can be stupid and foolhardy. His fate is also nearly controlled by the gods and makes me wonder how much agency Odysseus actually has. He's almost a puppet, a plaything that the gods use when they are amused or bored. With not a lot of free will, a few key flaws, is Odysseus a true hero? 

I don't think so. Despite the fact that Homer wants to place him in that heroic role, I don't think that Odysseus is truly heroic. There's just too much he does wrong, too much that he isn't held accountable for. Of course, other people may think differently.