Katherine Anne Porter

While reading "The Old Order" by Katherine Anne Porter I was amazed. I never thought that a writer in this time would write about the friendship between a black women and a white women. The fact that Sophia Jane kept Nannie with her for her whole life, was just great. While we saw when we further examined the piece that Nannie wasn't exactly an equal in the friendship, she was still highly regarded in the eyes of Sophia Jane.
I loved the imagine of Sophia Jane and Nannie sitting on the porch and making a quilt, making coverings for the antiques in the house. It showed how they were protecting their past, even though they were not really sure they loved and missed the past so much.
Sophia Jane was an amazing and confusing character for me, on the one hand she was so independent- farming, taking care of her finances, and things a man would "normally" do. But then on the other hand she did what she was told, or what she thought she was expected to do. For example she was worried that she had not pleased her sons enough, and had not spoiled them enough. Another confusing instances was when she was talking down about her son's wives. She dislike the one because she was out farming her land, and wanted to take a honeymoon chasing the cattle, even though Sophia Jane herself had done these things. She also hated the other for dying during childbirth. I mean, it seems like the latter wife was doing what she was "supposed" to do and staying at home to have children, and she still hated her. It was amusing.
I thought that Chopin was going to be the only female we read that defied gender roles and had the nerve to talk about such things. I was happy to see that Katherine Anne Porter was more of the same.

Kate Chopin

This week, we read three amazing stories by Kate Chopin. These were definitely my favorite assignments thus far in the class. The one story that really struck me was Desiree's Baby. I have found myself telling people who are not in the class about the story, and have been discussing it with other people who are in the class saying how sad it was to me. Perhaps, being half black and half white myself this story hit close to home. I can easily imagine a time where being 1/4 African could be looked down upon so much, partially because it still happens today. I know that I have been discriminated against, and so have my sisters. While, I'm pretty light to be half black, one of my sisters is a lot darker than me- and I know she's had people come up to her when she's been with my mom and ask if she's adopted. People can be so ignorant, and while most are accepting, it seems like not a lot has changed from the time of Chopin's story.

My mom always tells me stories of when she would be in the doctors office with my two younger sisters and I and people who ask her if all her children had the same father. Strangers! They would just come up to my mom and think it was their business to find out if we all had the same father. It was completely inappropriate and quite offending to my mom. It just goes to show that some people are still obsessed with race.

The story to me just was terrible, because I wanted everything to work out for Desiree. It's crazy of how people judged, and jumped to conclusions. I wish there was a sequel to the story so the readers could find out what Armand Augbigny did when he found out HE was actually the one with "tainted" blood, and that it came from his family- one of the oldest and proudest names in Louisiana.

Reading Frederick Douglas was an eye opener. First off, him not knowing his birthday or even how old his was was completely insane to me. I mean, I love my birthday and I would be so upset never knowing when it was. The descriptions of the brutal force used by plantation owners was great was amazing, even though it wasn't anything I didn't know before. But once again, I got the most out of the in class discussion. I really liked how we all talked about the reasons why the masters were the way they were, and the politics behind slaves.

What I got out of this piece was the way we could draw conclusions from Douglas' writings, I found it so interesting that we could see a transformation right in front of our eyes. At first, we saw Douglas with nearly no emotion. He recalls his mother's death, and how he never felt a connection to her, and didn't even seem effected by her death. Then, we see when he moved to Baltimore, he starts realizing that slavery is wrong- that being a slave for life is not something he wants to be. We see him learn about abolitionist, and we know as readers that Fredrick Douglas became one of the most powerful abolitionists in history.

Another thing I found interesting was the language Douglas used, he was straight foward, and not very graphic, but the mental images you got were disturbing enough. I couldn't have imagined if he had used extremely graphic language, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much.

Basically, I really enjoy the class discussions, debating the stereotypes of the south, the unjust treatment of the slave owners, and the reson why slaves were important.