The Old Order

I really enjoyed reading Anne Porter's "The Old Order." I had thought that Chopin was breaking out through the use of her characters but Porter's writing was entirely centered on the strength of her female characters, Grandmother and Nannie. The only mention of male characters was in tones of disgust. In the comparison between the characters the female came out as the stronger gender while the men were portrayed as weak and lacking focus. Where all of our readings so far have focused on southern culture and the southern belle and southern men needing to protect women, Porter's Grandmother was filling the men's stereotypical role and taking care of and providing for the family. It was also interesting that Grandmother's best friend was a black woman and former slave that she had grown up with.
There was a lot of focus on this being post-Civil War and post-slavery. This in turn centered a lot of focus on the past. On pg. 10 almost the entire page is about how Grandmother is always reminiscing about the past and even goes so far as to relate the future to the past, hoping that things will come full circle and go back to the way they were. But both Grandmother and Nannie were well aware of the faults of the South and even wondered why they missed the past so much when "so much suffering and confusion could have been built up and maintain on such a foundation." (pg. 11) I thought this was interesting. It is understandable though, post-Civil War South underwent a great deal of change in a short period of time. Even just the end of slavery was difficult for everyone. The South had been entirely built on this foundation and whether right or wrong, whether you agreed with it or not, it was the way everyone was raised, the only thing anyone knew. With just the Emancipation it was completely erased. Even Nannie, although she was no longer a slave, was unsure what to do, "she had all her life obeyed the authority nearest to her." (pg. 11) It is hard to just one day completely change your way of life.
It was also interesting when Grandmother was explaining her youngest son's new wife. She was basically explaining women's changing roles in society. Porter really focused on women in this piece. But all the things Grandmother disapproved of in her new daughter-in-law like independence, working on the land, and having authority are all the traits that Grandmother herself is described as having. Maybe the difference is that life events forced Grandmother into these roles where it was her daughter-in-laws choice to undertake them. But I think Grandmother would have stood out in society just as much for running a farm and raising 11 children by herself.

Dry September

When I first saw that our reading assignment was William Faulkner I dreaded it a bit. In high school I had to read the Sound and the Fury and I had a really hard time interpreting Faulkner’s stream of consciousness writing style and figuring out what exactly was happening in the story. I was surprised to see that the stream of consciousness writing style that Faulkner was famous for was not present in “Dry September.”
There were however, several themes that we have seen in our other readings present in this story. Right from the third line of the story when it says “Something about Miss Minnie and a Negro” (439) you know that the class structure dividing whites and blacks is evident. It is not said that Miss Minnie is a white woman but the tone Faulkner uses leads readers immediately to this assumption. This story is not set during the time of slavery; blacks are “free” but are still not considered equal citizens so there is also the theme of racism.
It was also interesting to note that Faulkner packs each sentence with detail, so much that by the time you finish a sentence you have almost forgotten what the beginning of the sentence was. As much detail as Faulkner uses though, as a reader I was still unable to form a picture in my mind either of the characters or of the surrounding area. Faulkner uses detail to convey those points that he feels are most important. In Chapter I, detail is focused on the stale air and odors from sweat and emphasizes that it hasn’t rained in 62 days, all of these detailed elements contribute to the mood and restlessness that the men were feeling. We know all of the men introduced were white but if asked I could not describe them because we only knew enough about each man to understand his opinion. The opinions are what is important. In Chapter II, there is more detail given to Miss Minnie because we need to understand her and what would lead to her lying. The feelings and the type of people each character was emphasizes the themes of racism and society dictating the separation of blacks and whites and white superiority.
It was also interesting to note that for white men, blacks were used as property, to make a profit. Miss Minnie used Willie the same way; she used him in a game where he was merely a disposable piece, so that she could regain her status in society. Also, because Hawk stood up for Willie, he was seen as being just as bad as a black man.
“Dust” was a recurring image throughout the story. “They went on; the dust swallowed them; the glare and the sound died away” (445). The dust was caused by the dry weather that created the tense/on edge mood but it also worked to cover things such as the actions of the white men against Willie. No one questioned what happened to Willie, he just disappeared.

Kate Chopin readings

Kate Chopin introduced a different region of the South that we had yet to see in our readings. This region brings along with it a new and different culture also. In our previous readings the only classes that we had really seen were white plantation owners and black slaves. Chopin focused on the Louisiana bayou area where people came from both Hispanic and French ancestry, greatly influencing the culture.
There was a difference between the classes in "At the Cadian Ball" and "After the Storm" but it did not appear to be as dramatic as the separation between slave owners and slaves in our other readings. Bruce was mentioned as a slave belonging to Alcee but Bruce was described more in terms of being a servant. The slaves that were mentioned in "At the Cadian Ball" and "After the Storm" were not described the way Frederick Douglass described a slave's life. The description of Bruce was similar to the way that John Pendleton Kennedy described his slaves in "Swallow Barn." Kennedy described his slaves in a way that implied that slaves enjoyed their life. Kennedy and Chopin both seemed to imply that slaves were content with their lifestyle, the importance of the story was not placed on the slaves though, it was centered on particular white characters or a white-based theme. Slaves were not the important part of the story, or of the daily lives of white Southerns (or the Cajuns and Creoles), they were necessary to keep life running but were not accredited with this.
In "Desiree's Baby," Chopin place much more emphasis on the slave. This was necessary to explain the social impropriety that surrounded having a child of mixed race. Calixta who was a central character in both other readings by Chopin was also of mixed race which readers were made aware of in her detailed description but she did not have "black blood." Being any part black is where the impropriety and out-right disgrace laid. Armand had several slaves and treated them horribly, he was more like the slave masters that Douglass described, he really emphasized the class difference. So although the first two pages of the story was Chopin described and convincing readers of Armand's love for Desiree, as soon as the baby started to show signs of being of mixed race, it was almost a surprise how fast and completely Armand rejected both the baby and Desiree. Chopin had us, as readers, completely convinced that Armand really loved Desiree. It made you twice as aware of how horrible they considered a child who looked like they are partially black to be there own. This social wrong out-weighed everything else.