Why is slavery, still slavery?

The comparison between Beloved by Toni Morrison and “Oh Freedom” by Aaron Neville by Erinn Green

    My comparison pieces are Beloved and a song called “Oh Freedom” by Aaron Neville. The song is a simple one that expresses the will of the writer not to be a slave anymore. The simplicity of the writing is overcome by the extremely obvious correlation between it and Sethe. The song only changes lyrics twice. It goes from “oh freedom,” leading the verse to” no more weeping”, and from there to “no more worry”. Then finishes with, the statement that “before I’ll be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave.” Sethe was the embodiment of this song as her will to fight against having her children suffer the perils of slavery.

    The second verse begins with the command not to weep over anymore. This is not the first verse so it kind of shifts the mood away from a gallant song about obtaining freedom to a more serious song about choices. To stop crying is a request made, in a lot of obituaries and by the person doing the eulogy, of those who attend the funeral and mourn over loved ones, and is meant for comfort. It is usually accompanied with the statement “they’re in a better place now.” This is why it seems more about choices than just a proud song about being willing to die for freedom. The actual mention of the being a slave is miniscule in comparison to all the other lines which are soothing, and seems to be a simple declaration rather than a threat. The request to stop crying also reverts back to Baby Sugg’s advice. Baby, having a hard life of continually having her kids stripped from her until she eventually wouldn’t care about them anymore. When Sethe lost her boys and would go to Baby she’d tell her that that is just how life goes in their world. This was even after Sethe made her big decision. The third verse has that same vibe of being resolved rather than a rash uprising. As if a common decision was made that death was the only option if freedom wasn’t one.

    The first and last verses simply start with oh freedom. In theatre, we use the consonants in our words to achieve goals. The hard consonant bounces off of the tongue allowing the actor to energetically jump into the next thought. The vowels; however, carry emotion. If we were to apply that same theory here that would mean “Oh” was something like an emotional wail. It could be lamentation, frustration, or weariness, or usually a combination. This tells us that the people who became so inspired by the song were really feeling what they went through. Most articles that discuss this song talk about the impact it had on the Civil Rights movement when injustice was at an all-time high; however, they don’t talk about the impact of the actual injustice. Specifically in an article on http://folkmusic.about.com/od/folksongs/qt/OhFreedom.htm, by Kim Ruehl, where she states that the song became an anthem for the movement. Which it did, but she highlighted the wrong reason. The song itself is just a vehicle for emotional release, but the decisions behind the song, and the heinous behind those decisions were the real anthem. The cries for help during huge police beatings were the real anthem. As for Sethe, the baby’s death was not what she was after, but she was very much resolved to the killing. At first it is easy to believe that her trust that the baby will make it somewhere safe in its afterlife, but because Sethe and all the people of this book are so used to bad spirits even before the spite of 124 she might not have been so sure about the baby spirit’s path. What she was sure about, though, was that no one would list her best thing’s characteristics on the animal side of the paper. She was sure that no one would violate her daughter and soil her thighs., and she was damn sure she didn’t have any other choices but death. In the movement, embodied by this song, the people felt the same way. They did not trust those telling them to wait until a brighter day came, all they had was what they knew (oppression), what they wanted (to be treated like humans), and the one thing they knew they could always escape to (God and death given by way of the predictable actions of a white person who feels threatened by a black one).

Thank you.

Her Soul Has Got To Move. -Erinn Green

There is a woman who's lost in her way. Searching for guidance and wishing for better days. She's African American....Female....and trying to find her place. Not knowing where to go she turned to the only person in her life that she knew could help her, guide her and help her spiritual. GOD who lived within her soul......

Laughing Soul

Bria Williams

He was the only man in her life that always stayed true to her and always wanted nothing butt the best for her. From early ages her relationships with men. She was always treated dirty and forever placed on the back burner... Her dad was in and out of her life and it made hard to have a sense of stability and growth...for her soul. So yes, it's safe to say that growing up for her was rough: rougher than it should have been. Her main problem was herself. She was always one to stand in the middle of her own happiness. Still staying in-tune with her soul...She found problems with everything, every person, and every situation. Day in and day out her lifer was everything but perfect. Never understanding why things continued to happen to her. She'd did everything that society said that she couldn't and everything that they said she needed to do in order to be happy and successful in life. Both a high school and college graduate. Well rounded socially and spiritually. Why did her soul hurt so bad? why wasn't her life going according to plan? what was she doing wrong in her life? and why couldn't she get it back on track??  Making a decent salary. Living in a great house in a beautiful community yet living alone. No husband and/or kids to a company her. She was a lone and once again all she had was her soul...  From her early stages of life she had her her entire life planned out. marriage kids, family and most importantly love. Still her soul has difficulty. One day she got a visit, not from a person but from herself . The real her... she needed to start with loving herself  first before anyone else. Not being able to deal with her own insecurities she continued to smile and try to be strong from everyone else. Finally realizing that she needed to get herself herself together she took some time to just work on her. Do what she had to do and become a better person. She was able to develop a stronger relationship with everyone around her and more importantly her soul. Everything still was never prefect...but things were finally starting to look up for her and she was feeling it. Bigger, bolder, and stronger than ever. 

Did You Say Quest?????????? -Chapter 1

There were 5 key things that stood out about this chapter. Of course it would be the five things that consists of a quest.

1. A quester

2. A place to go

3. A started reason to go there

4. Challenges & trails in route

5. A real reason to go there

So into further details about the five,  A quester, meaning a person, that special character, the one who needs the lesson about life, the immature one, the young youthful one, the less wise one. In most stories the one person that goes off to do something is a child and/ or needs to learn so responsible of some sort.

 A place to go, well where should they travel too?, what's a good place for them to really experience something. A place line no where that they've been before so they can learn new things and figure it out. Which brings me to my next point...

Why are they going there in the first place? and for what reason are they traveling there alone?...Think about little red riding hood. Why did she go to the woods by herself?....well she was going to her grandma's house.

Challenges and trails that they had to go through to get there....Well,  the wolf stole all the muffins and cookies are whatever was in her basket. She had to do whatever it took to get away from him.

The real reason to go there...Well I always think that up for the reader to decide! I mean I believe that its what you take from it. Who's to determine if your right or wrong?

When you really think about it, it's the same thing that we go through in everyday life....A quester, me , you, a family member...a friend. A place to go....school, work...etc. A stated reason to go there...to get an education...to make money. Challenges, missing test, classwork, etc. equaling not being able to pass. A real reason to go there...to be sociable...meet new people learn life lessons.  

I waited to do chapter one for my last blog post because it was my favorite chapter! I was amazed about how everything in this chapter connected with real life, I thought that it was extremely informative and  a good chapter to read!

Your A Smybol, I'm A Symbol, We're All A Of Something......Well, Maybe!

WHAT IS A SYMBOL?.....The most asked question in high schools in all English classes across the world! I can't tell you how many times I've asked myself what does that one star in the sky mean?, what does the green snail symbolize?, and what does the wooden basket man? And, of course when you ask for assistance, most teachers answer," well, what do you think?, what do you feel like it symbolize?" It could mean anything!


Reading about symbols in this chapter, I learned that even though there are some symbols that'll always been the same things n mater what story, book, letter, o a show they're in....for the most part a symbol can stand for tons of things!


Also the difference between symbolism, the use of symbols to express or represent ideas or qualities in literature, art, etc., and an allegory, a story in which the characters and events are symbols that stand for ideas about human life or for a political or historical situation.


Certain symbols can only be engaged by the individual reader. No one can give a wrong and or write answer to if the item is the symbol to something or not. It's what you take anyway from the story. Every reader takes away personal outlook on everything that they thought.

All in all, symbolic meaning is what you make it. It's all about what you think it means and after reading this chapter I  know that when I read something that says," the kite that the little boy flew was yellow", and I think that the yellow ,meaning happiness, and the kite, meaning childhood, means a great happy and well- lived childhood then I am  not wrong because that what I saw and that's what it is to me!

The Truth About The Existence Of Irony - Chapter 26

After reading chapter 26 of the book "How To Read Literature Like A College Professor" - Thomas C. Foster , I'd say that I have a different view on the true definition of irony. Before reading the chapter I was under the impression that irony is the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect. That's also Webster's definition. With this being true, Foster uses this chapter to elaborate on the meaning of irony in deeper detail. 

 

Now, It's understood that irony is the unexpected!

I read an article that described irony as something that

occurs when something other than what is expected occurs. That's the perfect way to describe what Foster described it as. It isn’t a "surprise" but

a way an author can turn expectations upside down in order to make a point.


Things that I knew about irony before reading :
1. Irony doesn’t work for everyone.
2. It's difficult to recognize it.
3. The concept of irony is often misused
4. Often mistaken for coincidence, which is a sequence of events that, although accidental, seems to have been planned or arranged (defined by Google).


Things that I learned from the chapter:
1. Irony is a deflection from the readers’ expectations and it forces our expectations to work against us
2. There are several different types off irony. In the chapter he mentioned comic, tragic,  wry, and/or perplexing ,which (in his words)  provides additional richness to the literary dish.
3. Nearly all writers employ irony sometimes
4. Verbal irony (character says opposite of what is expected)
Situational irony/Structural irony (situation or event plays out in an opposite or
abnormal way- not like expected)

He made it clear that "irony trumps everything" and the only way to know is to listen.

I like that he used several examples to help better understand. I also admire the cross comparing of the many different analysis and books that he used to prove his point and bring attention to the unnoticed.

The most important thing that I took from the chapter is that irony means many things, but what you take from it and what you want it to mean is the thing that's not. In other word's it's the complete opposite of what you thought it would be.