Sunday, April 8, 2012
All Good Things Must Come to an End
Now that we have started our last book as an entire class (have fun on senior projects you guys!), I think it is important to look at the series of books we have read as a whole collection and what they have in common. We stumbled through Faulkner's erratic chronology, found humor in O'Connor's sardonic wit, and found Percy's stream-of-consciousness style endearing in the character of Binx. Now we will study Eudora Welty's style and her perception of the South. So here is my question- why these four (or five for juniors) books? What does Lucas, a slave on a farm, have in common with Binx, the nephew of an extremely entitled family in New Orleans, or with the Guziac family, immigrants from Poland? What connects these books so that they transcend time, race, gender, etc, and how do they embody the list of stereotypes we made at the beginning of the year? Finally, what was your favorite book and why? From what I have read, I think The Optimist's Daughter is going to be my favorite!
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I think the thing that all these books have uncommon is that they examine why people are the way they are and how they evolve. This is seen in the way the family dinamic and black vs. white mindset in Go Down Moses evolves through time. In the way Isaac becomes a man of the woods. In the way Binx's search progresses and ultimately ends. These books seem to look more into what characters are like and how they interact with each other more than looking at situation. I agree that so far The Optimist's Daughter is my favorite.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the setting was truly significant in each story we have read. I guess it is sort of the obvious answer, because we're in Southern lit, meaning the South is a prominent theme, but I really do believe that in each story, the South naturally becomes a character itself. In Go Down Moses, a strong theme of the Really Old South versus the Old South versus the New South comes about; in A Good Man is Hard to Find, a question of what "good country folk" are comes about, and in The Moviegoer, New Orleans shines prominently in the background with its unique culture and traditions. Each setting gives the characters in each story a small piece of their personalities. For example, the South at the time of the three books is extremely racist, more so in the older periods. This influences the character's behavior (Isaac, Mr. Head, etc.). All in all, I think the setting comes through in each book as a character itself.
ReplyDeleteI really like what Katherine with a K said about the South being a character itself, thus influencing the main character. I think another very important aspect that links the books together is how religion becomes a part of life. Whether people are bragging about how they are a "good Christian" or if they are avoiding the subject altogether, religion cannot be ignored. I think this is what really drew my to A Good Man is Hard to Find. It was so interesting to evaluate the way O'Connor used religion to make statements about the South and her own characters. She didn't only consider her "own" people in the South, but really encompassed the country as a whole through changing times. This was also very prevalent in Go Down, Moses where we were able to compare the Old South transition into the New South by influence of the North and their rapidly changing industry. Both stories indirectly delve into the part of humanity that searches for something to hold onto through changing times.
ReplyDeleteI think that one theme that ties these books together is the values of south: particularly racism. What I find so interesting is that racism has not been the main theme of any of the books we read but it has been a subtle theme that comes up in peculiar times. Lots of the traditions and customs of the south come up in these books but they are not used to tell a story; they are used to enhance the characters and the way the characters look at themselves and look at the world around them. When I came into this class, I assumed that all of the books would be based almost solely on racism. This may have been a naive assumption but that is the first idea that comes to my mind when I hear "The Old South". I like how these books have made you search to find the real way white men treated and felt about black men. It is always an underlying theme but it is not overbearing in any of the books we have read so far.
ReplyDeleteWell, first and foremost, I want to agree with all of the above. The point of a class like Southern Lit is not only to further our reading and analytical writing skills, but to teach us about the south. Just as I got more out of Lit of Genocide than the novels (i.e. I learned a lot more about specific genocides), so Southern Lit has given me a comprehensive look at all that is the South. I kind of came into the class with the same assumption as Sadie, that all the books would be centered around racism, but au contraire (lol I take spanish), whie racism has been a subtle theme, the novels we read so far have focused on family, religion, hunting, etc in many, different regions of the South. I think the whole point is that Lucas and Binx do not have a lot in common, except the fact they're both people that live in the south, which is a very eclectic community. As for my favorite book so far, I have to go with Anna and say it's A Good Man is Hard to Find because it is able to show a wide variety of viewpoints because it is a book of short stories. I must say I also admire O'Connor's writing style and humor. And thank you, Mesa, I will have fun on my senior project, but I will miss you dearly.
ReplyDeleteI also think a recurring idea is the conflict between various characters, their surroundings, and their inner beliefs and values. In Faulkner's Go Down Moses, Isaac was torn between the wilderness appreciative aspect of his personality and the industrialist society caving in on him and converting his family and friends. In Flannery's A Good Man Is Hard To Find, because every story was about a different group of characters, we didn't get to see each character evolve over the span of an entire book but within each story, there was racial tension as well as the conflicting opinions on what defined "a good man". In The Moviegoer, Binx shared his inner narrations with the reader but also acted in a way that sometimes conflicted with what he truly believed. I also think that The Optimist's Daughter will be my favorite, but from the ones that we have finished, A Good Man Is Hard To Find is my favorite because, as Peter and Anna said, it has the theme of finding a good man transcend over very different and unique short stories.
ReplyDeleteWhat I saw as common ground in all the books we've read is that each story had the protagonist continue his/her journey through the 'search'. In this search there were obstacles that were pertaining to the classic themes of the south (family, religion, heritage). Issac's search in connection of the wilderness, Binx's search of his meaning in life, and the grandmother's 'Good man is hard to find'. Each search is very important for the character and highlights most of the events that go through their lifetime. In the end they do not end up finding it but gain something all together different. My favorite of the books we've read is also probably going to be The Optimist's Daughter. I guess it may be because it's different from the others in that it kinda takes a new approach on perspective of characters; it seems like 3rd person omniscient in the narration.
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