"Bastard Out of Carolina" #2

This is one of my favorite stories this semester, and one of the easiest to read, not content wise but style wise.
We get to see the relationships grow and change and Allison has a way of fully immersing you in her story so that you keep wanting to know what happens next.
One of the things I have found most interesting is the relationship between Bone and Reese. It is almost non-existent. There are characters that are not present in the story very often, such as Bone's aunts, or uncles, or grandmother but you still understand that Bone has a strong relationship with all of these people and they are influential on who she is. Yet, Bone lives with Reese and there is no relationship explored. The only time Reese is ever mentioned is to say that she was in fact there, as a way to set the scene for the reader.
Another thing I thought was interesting was that Bone being illegitimate is never really mentioned even though this is in the title of the book and a key way that Bone identifies herself because it is so important to society. But, there are points where this is noticeably the underlying issue. For example, when Bone has to return the stolen candy and the man insinuates that Anney is a bad mother or can't control Bone because Bone doesn't have a father, and that he needs to help discipline Bone. Another scene was on the bus when Bone says "I watched her face- impassive, self-sufficient, and stubborn; she reminded me of myself, or at least the way I had come to think of myself." (pg. 154) This is an important key to hoe Bone identifies herself but is so central that it is buried beneath all the more obvious traits and characteristics of who she is, which is exactly how Allison writes it.

Starting "Bastard Out of Carolina"

So far I really enjoy this story. It is much different from what we have been reading lately. The works we have read recently (plays and poems) are short so they get to the point immediately. Its a bit of a change to have a novel where it takes a chapter or two to get the feel of what is happening in the story.
One thing that is very noticeable from the very beginning of the story is the importance of family. Bone's mom and aunts and uncles all have a very close relationship and the aunts and uncles are all very involved in Bone's life. The scene at the hospital where Bone's grandmother and aunts were trying to fill out her birth certificate and didn't know how to spell Ann was quite funny, especially since Ann was Bone's mother's name. Not being able to spell your own daughter or sister's name gives us a pretty good idea of what their social class was and how much education they had.
This is another story that has already established the female characters as strong. Bone's mother continues to fight the "illegitimate" stamp that is on Bone's birth certificate even years after Bone's is born. This is something that is so stigmatized and seen as so wrong by society, she does not want Bone to have to live without that label above her head.
The female characters are also seen as being independent. Their is no mention of the grandfather except in negative terms and the grandmother does not care what anyone else thinks, she does her own thing. Bone's mother is also portrayed as being independent and taking care of her children but their is also the contradiction that she needs a husband especially when she sees Glen and her thought is that she "needs a husband." The men in the family also help take care of everyone and watch out for Bones and her mother and her sister and are given important roles because of that.

Cherrylog Road

For some reason I had a hard time trying to interpret most of James Dickey's poems. This may be just because I was trying to read into them to far, looking for themes we've talked about in class but I'm not sure. I chose to write about "Cherrylog Road" because its theme and imagery seemed a little more obvious to me.
Dickey used a lot of imagery in this poem but most of it was from the main character's imagination, Dickey wasn't explaining events that were really taking place. Dickey did this using similes and metaphors. For example, "I climbed in And out the other side, like An envoy or movie star" and "A radiator cap raised its head, Become a real toad or a kingsnake."
The main theme or issue that this poem is about is social class and inter-racial relationships. The girl and boy are hiding their relationship, she has to sneak out for fear of how her dad would react. From the beginning Dickey gives you the impression that the boy is lower class especially at the end when they go their seperate ways and he leaves on his motorcycle. The social class difference was very evident as was the fact that the girl was white which was stated when Dickey said "Her back's pale skin." But it wasn't until the second time that I read through this poem that I got the impression that the boy was black and this is why their relationship was so thoroughly unexceptable, because this is what society believed and clearly the girl's father did also.
The line that introduced race as an issue was "The glass panel in between Lady and colored driver Not all the way broken out." This means that racism still existed and that the barriers between people are still there. Society's racism and disapproval of inter-racial relationships would explain why he would think he doesn't have a chance with the white girl and why her father's reactions would be so drastic.
In the beginning of the poem the junkyard is compared to death. This is a symbol for the relationship, it has no hope of going anywhere or amounting to anything. Just like if something is dead. At the same time though there is some hope and that is why the relationship continues. We glimpse this hope through the boy's imagination when he enters and exits the cars and sees himself as something better.
The cars themselves also are a symbol of the boy. People have given up on these cars, they will never be anything and are worthless. This same tone is used for the boy. The cars are described as broken and unfixable, this was a lot of the same attitude that society has had towards blacks. Thinking that being black means there is something wrong with that person that can't be fixed. The cars also do not have any wheels which means they are not going anywhere which reemphasized that the boy can not escape his situation. This symbolism is repeated throughout the poem.
At the end of the poem there tone changes slightly so that there is the possibility of hope for the boy when takes off on his motorcycle that is "fleshed with power." That he is not completely hopeless and does have some control and power.

The Displaced Person

I thought this piece was really interesting and it seemed to tie together a lot of the themes that we have talked about throughout the semester. It also encorporated a religious aspect that we had yet to see in our readings. It was really interesting to find out that Flannery O'Connor was a woman because I had assumed the author was a man. In the other pieces that we have read so far that have been written by women, it was much clearer because many of the main characters were women, strong, independent women, who varied from their element and gender roles. It was really the first time that women really had personality. But O'Connor was focused on other themes such as religion. Although I found it hard to decipher the religious symbols that she used. For example, the peacock, O'Connor wrote about it in a way that I knew it was important I just found it hard to figure out what it was supposed to represent. The same was true for Mrs. Shortley's visions, I had a hard time understanding what she was seeing and why it was important. At the end though, it was easy to draw the parallels between the Displaced Person and Jesus. A lot of the time Mrs. Shortley appears to be quite a hypocrite because in one breath she is praising God and in the next she is cursing blacks. This two attitudes do not seem to go hand in hand. Once again it is a view of the life and culture at the time.
In many of the stories that we read at the beginning of the semester that dealt with slavery, the slaves were viewed as being animals. If you were black, you were not considered to be human. This same type of racism was expressed toward to the Displaced Person, not because he was black but because he was foreign. The same root of racism was in both though. Slaves were different because of their skin color and language. Polish immigrants had the same white skin color but they spoke differently and had a culture that was foreign to Americans. Both were not understood.
I found it interesting that in the end Mrs. McIntyre chose to keep the black workers over keeping the Displaced Person despite the drastic difference in the profit she would receive. We see that like adjusting from the Old South life to the New South, people are still afraid of change. Despite seeing blacks as inferior and unequal in all aspects, they were part of Southern life, something Southern whites were used to. Immigrants were different and not part of the life they were used to.
The importance of obeying racial boundary lines was also emphasized, just like it was in "Desiree's Baby." Mixing of races was against all cultural and social rules. Mrs. McIntyre almost has a panic attack when she realizes the Displaced Person wants his white cousin to marry one of the black workers. She can't explain why it is so wrong and not allowed, she is just adamant that it can't be done. Chopin had this same problem with her characters and marry across class lines. There was no real reason why it was so unacceptable or couldn't be done, it just couldn't. These are social rules they were socialized with, not something they ever questioned. They just did it. I think the Displaced Person was the first character we ahve read about that openly questioned this aspect of Southern life.
Once again we also see the importance of home. Mrs. McIntrye does all she can to save her home and her land. The Displaced Person did not have a home. This was just another way to make him different. This was another issue that seemed to be two-sided though. The Shortley's were living on Mrs. McIntyre's land and when they decided to quit, they too were displaced and without a home but this was overlooked.