Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
The President's DAUGHTER
Are you the type of person who cannot resist a good historical Novel ? Well, the president's daughter is everything you could wish for . Now that i am done reading " Beloved", I started to read The PD( for President's daughter ).There is no world that can describe what I felt , After I finished reading the first chapter. Excitement, Contentment, curiosity , are one of the several feelings I felt. In overall readers, I can't wait to continue reading the PD.
First of all, let me enlighten you on this extremely powerful book.
Have you ever wished you could witness the lives of one of the united states' president ? Those people fascinate us afar , but we wish we could really observe the way they are in their daily life. we want to know their secrets , their stories , their friends, their faults, their qualities , everything that may help us determine if those people are worth of our appreciation and estimation, everything that can prove them human and not that special . Well, if that was your long lost dreamed, The PD can realize this dream. The PD is the story of Thomas Jefferson's daughter , Harriet Hemings. As it is noted in History , Thomas Jefferson, former America'president , possesed slaves. That was the customs in the 17th century . Moreover , like many other white people , especially men, Thomas Jefferson had a concubine, a mistress, a negro , a woman slave , Sally Hemings. As I mentionned in the early posts, Women slaves where considered as an accessory for their master . The masters used those women mostly for their physiological needs. Actually, it was a big mistake to be a slave , a woman , and beautiful. Therefore , Jefferson considered Sally as his property. From them , 7 sons and daughters were borned. In their progeny , there was a girl , one of the most beautiful girl in the country . Her name was Harriet Hemings. Harriet was a different kind of slaves , if you were not familiar with her story, you would have never thought she was a slave . She had a beautiful skin complexion. She was not Black . She was identical to Jefferson. She had a white skin, green eyes and red Hair .She was Physically a white woman. However, that was her biggest problem, she was a White nigger , a mulatto, one of the most hated race by the white people. Because of her father , Harriet and her siblings were not treated like other slaves. However, they were still slaves because Thomas Jefferson owned them . Sally Hemings , Harriet mother, has been Thomas Jefferson' slave wife. She is a weak person or she became one. She fell in love with her master. Harriet , is a headstrong woman. She is unable to understand the reason her mother does not wish her to go away. Harriet believes in freedom ,and as a child she discovered she was a slave ,because her own father refused to accept her as his daughter. The day of her twenty-first birthday , she decided to leave forever Monticello , and begin a new life as a white woman. On her route to freedom, she will encounter many difficulties.
This is only the beginning of an exciting and interesting story. This story contains everything that can captivate a reader's attention.
Some quotes:
1- " You're worth a pile of money, sweetheart!You don't know it, but you're a fancy. Fancy that! My sister is a fancy !"(9)
2- " If you spoke like a nigger, I wouldn't have mistaken myself, ain't that so ?"(10)
3- " And from now on, talk like a nigger ."(10)
4- " Goddamn it, snow White, When i catch you, I'm going to ram your A.., you W.."(11)
5- " Come down from there you little white nigger !I'll show you how to obey an order!"(12)
First of all, let me enlighten you on this extremely powerful book.
Have you ever wished you could witness the lives of one of the united states' president ? Those people fascinate us afar , but we wish we could really observe the way they are in their daily life. we want to know their secrets , their stories , their friends, their faults, their qualities , everything that may help us determine if those people are worth of our appreciation and estimation, everything that can prove them human and not that special . Well, if that was your long lost dreamed, The PD can realize this dream. The PD is the story of Thomas Jefferson's daughter , Harriet Hemings. As it is noted in History , Thomas Jefferson, former America'president , possesed slaves. That was the customs in the 17th century . Moreover , like many other white people , especially men, Thomas Jefferson had a concubine, a mistress, a negro , a woman slave , Sally Hemings. As I mentionned in the early posts, Women slaves where considered as an accessory for their master . The masters used those women mostly for their physiological needs. Actually, it was a big mistake to be a slave , a woman , and beautiful. Therefore , Jefferson considered Sally as his property. From them , 7 sons and daughters were borned. In their progeny , there was a girl , one of the most beautiful girl in the country . Her name was Harriet Hemings. Harriet was a different kind of slaves , if you were not familiar with her story, you would have never thought she was a slave . She had a beautiful skin complexion. She was not Black . She was identical to Jefferson. She had a white skin, green eyes and red Hair .She was Physically a white woman. However, that was her biggest problem, she was a White nigger , a mulatto, one of the most hated race by the white people. Because of her father , Harriet and her siblings were not treated like other slaves. However, they were still slaves because Thomas Jefferson owned them . Sally Hemings , Harriet mother, has been Thomas Jefferson' slave wife. She is a weak person or she became one. She fell in love with her master. Harriet , is a headstrong woman. She is unable to understand the reason her mother does not wish her to go away. Harriet believes in freedom ,and as a child she discovered she was a slave ,because her own father refused to accept her as his daughter. The day of her twenty-first birthday , she decided to leave forever Monticello , and begin a new life as a white woman. On her route to freedom, she will encounter many difficulties.
This is only the beginning of an exciting and interesting story. This story contains everything that can captivate a reader's attention.
Some quotes:
1- " You're worth a pile of money, sweetheart!You don't know it, but you're a fancy. Fancy that! My sister is a fancy !"(9)
2- " If you spoke like a nigger, I wouldn't have mistaken myself, ain't that so ?"(10)
3- " And from now on, talk like a nigger ."(10)
4- " Goddamn it, snow White, When i catch you, I'm going to ram your A.., you W.."(11)
5- " Come down from there you little white nigger !I'll show you how to obey an order!"(12)
Thursday, May 13, 2010
SETHE
Sethe is the protagonist of the story . When she was thirteen ,she was sold to the Garner family. As a slave , sethe had many responsibilities . She was responsible for cooking and cleaning the house . She was not respected by anyone ; especially the other men slaves who would consider her as a meat. She was weak and could not really help herself. However , she had to obey her masters' instructions and rules.For more than five years , she had to bear all the misery she was enduring by simply living in this house. When she was fourteen, she was forced to choose a lover - and by lover I mean someone's needs she had to satisfy- in order to protect herself . In the case she wouldn't choose a lover , the other men in the house would have abused her one by one. How would you describe being forced to choose a lover ? this, readers, is slavery . The person has no freedom . She is under the pressure - not for her benefits , but for someone else's benefits. Later , she married her lover. what marriage , when the conception was simply to satisfy her lover needs? soon after she married , her child was born , then another, then another and another. You would think readers that her masters would get pity on her . However, she still has to do her usual tasks around the house . Mrs Garner , who was also a woman refused to aknowledge her difficulties/ Like many wives of great planters, she was also bound by her husband's rules and by wealth, and by discrimination.
Sethe sufferings would become harder , when Mr Garner 's brother will come live at the plantation. In the beginning , he acts as if he understood sethe and liked her manners. however , as the days passed , he started to whip her - sometimes, for dimple mistakes she would make . after a while, Sethe could not bear no more and came up with a plan . Seee readers , she was being whipped , while she was pregnant . What great moments of sufferings ! One night, she left everything behind and went away . She has nowhere to go , but her main objective was to get as far away possible from this house.
This is her story , but even after she escaped , memories from her most diffult days still haunt her .Thus . she will always be slave of her past.
Sethe sufferings would become harder , when Mr Garner 's brother will come live at the plantation. In the beginning , he acts as if he understood sethe and liked her manners. however , as the days passed , he started to whip her - sometimes, for dimple mistakes she would make . after a while, Sethe could not bear no more and came up with a plan . Seee readers , she was being whipped , while she was pregnant . What great moments of sufferings ! One night, she left everything behind and went away . She has nowhere to go , but her main objective was to get as far away possible from this house.
This is her story , but even after she escaped , memories from her most diffult days still haunt her .Thus . she will always be slave of her past.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Slavery/ no slavery/The author
I have been reading beloved for the past few weeks, and I have to admit that it does not retain my attention, as I expected. I am not that excited by the plot. In addition, I realized that the main focus of the book is not only about slavery, but it is about a Ghost: sethe’s dead daughter. Apparently, she was not yet two years old when she died. From this day, she is haunting sethe house. Through the beginning of the book, she manifests her presence mysteriously. Sometimes, she would move the tables, close the door and hit the men who would come to the house 124.
This is the summary I found from a website:
After Paul D. finds his old slave friend Sethe in Ohio and moves in with her and her daughter Denver, a strange girl comes along by the name of "Beloved". Sethe and Denver take her in and then strange things start to happen
I felt it was necessary to provide a summary of the book, because I don’t want to confuse anyone who read the book. The book is mostly about Sethe’s daughter who will personify herself through another woman’s body. However, I am not focusing on this side of the story because I am analyzing woman slavery. My main interest is the sufferings sethe went through as a slave.
Talking about the book structure:
First of all, the reason I am having some difficulties to really get into this book is because of the author’s style. Toni Morrison’s style is not modern, therefore, I feel like it requires an extra attention, in order to really get into the story. Well, it’s only the beginning so I am certain that by the end of this book I might change my mind.
This book is very descriptive. Morrison provides a lot of details. This I believe helps the readers understanding the plot better. Through the details she provides - step by step – the readers combine them to get a summary of the protagonist’s past life. What I dislike about the book’s structure, is that through the end of the book, the author still provides details about sethe past life. In my opinion, she should have talked about sethe past life only in the beginning of the story, and follow through with the other part of the story. However, it feels like she is going back and forth, creating two stories that is only one. One of these stories is sethe’s slave life and the other part is her daughter’s arrival.
This book is very descriptive. Morrison provides a lot of details. This I believe helps the readers understanding the plot better. Through the details she provides - step by step – the readers combine them to get a summary of the protagonist’s past life. What I dislike about the book’s structure, is that through the end of the book, the author still provides details about sethe past life. In my opinion, she should have talked about sethe past life only in the beginning of the story, and follow through with the other part of the story. However, it feels like she is going back and forth, creating two stories that is only one. One of these stories is sethe’s slave life and the other part is her daughter’s arrival.
Biography (quoted from another website)
Born Chloe Anthony Wofford, in 1931 in Lorain (Ohio), the second of four children in a black working-class family. Displayed an early interest in literature. Studied humanities at Howard and Cornell Universities, followed by an academic career at Texas Southern University, Howard University, Yale, and since 1989, a chair at Princeton University. She has also worked as an editor for Random House, a critic, and given numerous public lectures, specializing in African-American literature. She made her debut as a novelist in 1970, soon gaining the attention of both critics and a wider audience for her epic power, unerring ear for dialogue, and her poetically-charged and richly-expressive depictions of Black America. A member since 1981 of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she has been awarded a number of literary distinctions, among them the Pulitzer Prize in 1988.
Next Chapter will only focus on Sethe. We will definitely witness her suffering, and how she escaped slavery.
Next Chapter will only focus on Sethe. We will definitely witness her suffering, and how she escaped slavery.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Beloved: someone's property
Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be someone else's property? Have you ever wished you could vanish and escape the cruel sufferings women endured? Have you ever been in a hopeless situation? Well, if you are able to answer at least one of these questions, then you can understand the women from Beloved. If you got spared from being in any of these situations above, well you can only be thankful of this opportunity and tried to comprehend Sethe, one of the protagonists of the book. This book is the story of a woman who escaped slavery. Obtaining her freedom was not an easy accomplishment. In her route to liberty, she suffered many consequences. Through the book, she discovered that she will never obtain any freedom because she will always be haunted by her past.
Her name is Sethe, at thirteen years old; she was sold to the Gardner family as a replacement girl. The woman, who preceded her, Baby Suggs, was bought by his son, who was also a slave “nigger”. Coming into this house, she was already in a dangerous situation. See readers, in this house, there were already six slaves. Each one of them were young men of twenty years old, full of needs, needs that could be considered dangerous for a young-flesh woman. Sethe was not a beauty, but she had those flamboyant eyes that could pierce right through your soul, and this readers, was exciting for the young men. Luckily, she escaped being deflowered her first day in this house, because these “ niggers” were raised as men – something their owner would say and be proud of – Instead of violating her , they gave her the power to choose whoever she wanted. Your first thoughts readers would be that was not the worst situation. But, is being forced to choose a mate the definition of freedom? Everyday, she would be raped by these young men’ eyes, who would decipher her from head to toe if only they could. To me readers, it sounds as fearing for your body every hour of the day. Fortunately she was never raped by any of them as they were able to control themselves. However, she had to choose one of them. Being charmed by the nicest among them, she chose him and end up marrying him. During that period, marrying signified: being available whenever the men needed to satisfy his physiological needs.
Readers, this is only the commencement of Sethe’s misery. Her freedom and her body were stolen from her. I am mostly outraged by the way the six men expected to use her for their own benefits from the beginning. If she was a young man, none of that would have happened. The men would adopt her into their own misery life. However, because she was a girl, she had a duty; to satisfy the men need. They were all in their twenties “dreaming of rape and waiting for the new girl” (Morrison 11). From the beginning she was supposed to be someone’s property if not everyone. Slave she will ever be.
Her name is Sethe, at thirteen years old; she was sold to the Gardner family as a replacement girl. The woman, who preceded her, Baby Suggs, was bought by his son, who was also a slave “nigger”. Coming into this house, she was already in a dangerous situation. See readers, in this house, there were already six slaves. Each one of them were young men of twenty years old, full of needs, needs that could be considered dangerous for a young-flesh woman. Sethe was not a beauty, but she had those flamboyant eyes that could pierce right through your soul, and this readers, was exciting for the young men. Luckily, she escaped being deflowered her first day in this house, because these “ niggers” were raised as men – something their owner would say and be proud of – Instead of violating her , they gave her the power to choose whoever she wanted. Your first thoughts readers would be that was not the worst situation. But, is being forced to choose a mate the definition of freedom? Everyday, she would be raped by these young men’ eyes, who would decipher her from head to toe if only they could. To me readers, it sounds as fearing for your body every hour of the day. Fortunately she was never raped by any of them as they were able to control themselves. However, she had to choose one of them. Being charmed by the nicest among them, she chose him and end up marrying him. During that period, marrying signified: being available whenever the men needed to satisfy his physiological needs.
Readers, this is only the commencement of Sethe’s misery. Her freedom and her body were stolen from her. I am mostly outraged by the way the six men expected to use her for their own benefits from the beginning. If she was a young man, none of that would have happened. The men would adopt her into their own misery life. However, because she was a girl, she had a duty; to satisfy the men need. They were all in their twenties “dreaming of rape and waiting for the new girl” (Morrison 11). From the beginning she was supposed to be someone’s property if not everyone. Slave she will ever be.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Introduction: Women Slavery
Slavery
No human being desires to be held and serves others against their will. Everyone is born freely, and to take their freedom away can never be justified – whether is upon race, sex, personal values ect. Since the beginning of time, slaves have always suffered. They were force to hard labors, to different religions and to others values. They are expected to please others and to do so without complaining, arguing and replying back. Although slavery is difficult for any man being subtracted into this situation, it is much harder when the person – who has to be submissive to another – is a woman.
Long before our modern world, the woman was always expected to serve the man. This was the main duty: taking care of the man’s needs. She was expected to provide him a strong progeny, to cook for him, to clean his house, to assure that his life would be easy. Generally, since it was their main duty, many women exercise their task with pride, because they consider the men as their governors. Although these women were in perfect accord with this life, they were considered like any women slaves. This is where my main title comes in question. Is being woman synonym for slave? Being a slave is to act for the well-being of another. Therefore, these women were living for others and not for themselves. These women were not able to express themselves freely. They were always over-shadowed by the men’power. Therefore, was this slavery or not? In our modern society, we are still expected to fulfill the main duty that still hasn’t been changed over the years. We are blinded by the changes for woman freedom and we are unable to notice that from generation to generation, we are still going the same path as our ancestors. What does our title – woman – means? From experiences, over times, being a woman signifies to facilitate the lives of others especially “men “.
In order to analyze woman slavery in a general light, I decided to read two books that are based on that matter. The first book is Beloved, written by Toni Morrison. This book deeply provides many details about the lives of some African-American women who endured and escaped the slavery. Through the lives of these women, Sethe and Denver, the readers truly experience the difficulty of being a woman and a slave. They will also experience the feeling of feeling violated physically and mentally as a woman. Through this book, I will be able to compare the slaved woman and the free woman. The second book is The President’s Daughter written by Barbara Chase- Ribound. This book has more historical contents in it because the main characters are the daughters – not legal – of the former president of America, Thomas Jefferson. Through this book, the readers will realized what it really means to be a woman. Through the evaluation of these books, I will analyze the slavery women endured and hopefully find an answer to my question.
No human being desires to be held and serves others against their will. Everyone is born freely, and to take their freedom away can never be justified – whether is upon race, sex, personal values ect. Since the beginning of time, slaves have always suffered. They were force to hard labors, to different religions and to others values. They are expected to please others and to do so without complaining, arguing and replying back. Although slavery is difficult for any man being subtracted into this situation, it is much harder when the person – who has to be submissive to another – is a woman.
Long before our modern world, the woman was always expected to serve the man. This was the main duty: taking care of the man’s needs. She was expected to provide him a strong progeny, to cook for him, to clean his house, to assure that his life would be easy. Generally, since it was their main duty, many women exercise their task with pride, because they consider the men as their governors. Although these women were in perfect accord with this life, they were considered like any women slaves. This is where my main title comes in question. Is being woman synonym for slave? Being a slave is to act for the well-being of another. Therefore, these women were living for others and not for themselves. These women were not able to express themselves freely. They were always over-shadowed by the men’power. Therefore, was this slavery or not? In our modern society, we are still expected to fulfill the main duty that still hasn’t been changed over the years. We are blinded by the changes for woman freedom and we are unable to notice that from generation to generation, we are still going the same path as our ancestors. What does our title – woman – means? From experiences, over times, being a woman signifies to facilitate the lives of others especially “men “.
In order to analyze woman slavery in a general light, I decided to read two books that are based on that matter. The first book is Beloved, written by Toni Morrison. This book deeply provides many details about the lives of some African-American women who endured and escaped the slavery. Through the lives of these women, Sethe and Denver, the readers truly experience the difficulty of being a woman and a slave. They will also experience the feeling of feeling violated physically and mentally as a woman. Through this book, I will be able to compare the slaved woman and the free woman. The second book is The President’s Daughter written by Barbara Chase- Ribound. This book has more historical contents in it because the main characters are the daughters – not legal – of the former president of America, Thomas Jefferson. Through this book, the readers will realized what it really means to be a woman. Through the evaluation of these books, I will analyze the slavery women endured and hopefully find an answer to my question.
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