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.
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7 comments:
I agree that seeing an interracial relationship depicted as a friendship was a nice change of events from what we have read where slaves are being treated brutally by their masters or have no freedom. I thought a true sign of Nannie and Sophia Jane’s friendship was given in The Old Order when it is explained that they have a “mutual hope” to go through “eternity” together in Heaven (11). I think this is a sweet sentiment, since usually lovers intend to do this but neither one of them had a husband whom she particularly liked.
I also like what you said about the two of them protecting their past through their quilting because I had not thought of it like that at first. I thought that they were doing such useless work because they put most of their “handiwork” away (9), but you are right that even if the grandchildren do not see value in their work, the sewing is still valuable to Nannie and Sophia Jane. Keeping the past is so important to them, and this is an outlet for it that allows them to talk and to reminisce. Also when they talk, the two of them seem like typical old women friends, and the color distinction is blurred. They are both kind to each other, and the fact that one is a servant is seemingly irrelevant.
Don't you find this relationships wonderful? I love the fact aht SophieJane and Old Nannie were almost like sisters in their relationship. Even though Nannie was a slave, she did everything with SophieJane and she was her companion. I love the relationship because it was like SophieJane loved her like a sister and very much treated her that way.
I agree that the Grandmother was a very intricate character. she was a dipiction of the old south and the new south in one. I found it intresting that even though Porter wrote about interacial frindships she still depicted everything as being somewhat tainted by race. when the grandmother was trying to do a nice gesture and giver nannie a birthday she still classified her as black in parenthesis. And while they did have a really good relationship with eachother, there was always this space between them signifying sophia jane, white as superior and nannie still as her slave.
I thought it was very interesting that Sophia Jane kept Nannie for her whole life. It was interesting that their interracial friendship was able to grow and stay strong for a long period of time. Even though Nannie was not looked at as an equal, Sophia Jane was able to look at Nannie as a good friend and as close to an equal as societies racial prejudices would allow. If race were not such a major issue in the south during this period it seems like these two characters would have been inseparable friends. Its sad that race was able to separate these friends into a superior/inferior relationship, but both characters did a good job dealing with the issue.
I agree that it was very interesting as well as surprising to read about the friendship between Sophia Jane and Nannie. They did have quite a friendship even though they're differences were often noted and Nannie was still in the servant's role. But I think this is because in such a racist society with slavery still so fresh in most people's minds, you can only push this "boundary" so far. The past that they missed so much raised them to notice the difference in people's skin color and this way of life can not be completely erased, especially by people who are dwelling in the past as much as Sophia Jane and Nannie do.
Sophia Jane's character was refreshing but often contradictory. I think this is because she was raised in a society that clearly dictated men's and women's roles and like her friendship with Nannie, she could only get away with so much, both according to society and to her own conscience.
I agree that the idea of interracial friendships were a theme that we have seen very little of in this class, especially ones that seem nearly equal.
I also liked the image of the two women sitting on the porch and making more patchwork things than anyone could use in a lifetime. I thought that was quite humorous. You could just see all there heirlooms covered in patchwork.
I loved the fact that Porter took the risk and made Sophia Jane as independent as she did. Although she is nowhere as independent as women today it shows a really great separation from her roots of the Old South. Miranda was another really strong female character in Porters stories that I think Porter put in uncommonly written about situations for the time.
I agree with what you say. It's nice to read about a black women and white women having a friendship and looking at eachother as equals. Also i think Sophia Jane is one of the best charachters we've read about. She's this strong hardworking lady and then she's this women stuck in the old time. So it was kind of hard to grasp her charachter sometimes but i think she really was important.
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