September 28, 2011

KAYJATTA

THE ATLANTA EXPOSITION ADDRESS; BY BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Booker T. Washington, one of the foremost black leaders in history, from the mid 19^th century to the early 20^th century, believes that the path for African Americans to attain equality with White Americans is through economic self-determination instead of political and civil agitation.  He referred to such agitation as the “extremist folly” (pg. 1741), in his celebrated speech at the historic Atlanta Exposition. Washington advised skills training, hard work, frugality, and strict morality as the path to economic liberation for the 19^th and 20^th century African Americans (Huso, D. 2011. R & L Publishing, Ltd). He insists that economic liberation must precede political and civil rights. Washington posits an integrationist view of history in that he preaches unity and better race relations between blacks and whites based on mutual interests. He captures this idea eloquently in his ‘fingers/hand’ analogy as thus; “In all things that are purely social, we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress” (Washington, B.T. 1901). Mr. Washington laments the untapped vast potential of African Americans-nearly sixteen million in population which if alienated and excluded could remain a huge security and economic burden to both the South and the Northern states, but he also praised the white community for their support and outreach to African Americans to take part in commerce particularly at the business exposition in Atlanta (Lauter, P. 2004; pg. 1740, 1741). He argued that the fates of both races-the oppressor and-the oppressed-are tied to each other by an act of history. Washington often alluded to the Christian values of service to others and the rewards that await those who give service to others (Lauter, P. ; pg. 1744). Booker T. Washington’s apparent centrist views endeared him to both sides of the racial divide. However, his pledge of African American support and advice for African American acceptance of less than equal work and political opportunities, at least for the time being appeared to have eroded his popularity with some black leaders of his time. He came to be considered as too subservient and accommodating to the white community and for not “pushing hard enough for equal rights” (Huso, D. 2011) perhaps partly because of his powerful northern white financiers such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. Carnegie and Rockefeller largely funded Washington’s school, the Tuskegee Institute, a premier black institute for higher learning. Washington’s scathing criticism of the African American clergy at the time also further strained his relationship with prominent black leaders and ministers, although he was later vindicated. Booker T.Washington’s alleged soft stance on equal rights, economic and political integration sharply contrasts other black leaders such as W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the founders of NAACP who issued categorical demands to the white community and laid out his expectations and obligations of White Americans. Washington’s greatest contribution was his services at the Tuskegee Institute and education he provided to the African American community.

REFERENCE:

1.      UP FROM SLAVERY, 1901

2.      R & L Publishing, Ltd. (dba SUCCESS Media)

LITERARY COMMENTARY:

KAYJATTA

THE YELLOW WALL PAPER; BY GILMAN

The Yellow Wall Paper represents the male-dominant society depicted in Gilman’s short story. It is repugnant, just as the society it represented.

Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wall Paper” is written in the first person.  Gilman appears to be the writer as she describes her “nervous depression” (pg. 1598) and her subsequent confinement by her husband, John. The story is about her medical condition- a hysteria characterized by nervous depression, a common diagnosis for women of her time. Gilman sets out to address issues of women’s health, gender and separate spheres of existence. There is a sharp contrast between her more practical, scientifically rational husband, John and her own irrational sensibilities (pg. 1598). She feels helplessness in the face of the male power exhibited by John and her brother both of whom are doctors. The author in the story talked eloquently about the house but couldn’t participate in offering ideas about her own medical condition. This again goes to affirm the separate spheres of gender (pg. 1598-1599). She talked about how to “dress and entertain and order things”, a typical women’s role (pg. 1600). The author mentions her baby that Mary is so good about, and how nervous she gets for being away from. She compares this to the fact that John never gets nervous, again illustrating gender expectations and separate spheres of existence. Gilman’s confinement to the house, nearly barred from all kinds of stimulation-writing, society, etc- while her husband, John works long hours points to the women’s confinement to the domestic sphere. The story is also about powerlessness. The author’s obsession and dislike of the wall paper indicates her feelings towards the gendered stereotypes of her society (pg. 1608).

THE WHITE HERON; BY JEWETT:

Sylvia’s rejection of the hunter’s money in defense of the environment and nature as represented by the White Heron illustrates her innocence and maturity, her humanity and sense of selflessness (pg 1642). This defense of nature can perhaps be explained by Sylvia’s relationship with the cow, Mistress Molly and her aging grandmother. Mistress Molly and the surrounding wilderness and its wildlife are an important part of Sylvia’s life, devoid largely of any other human interaction. This short story by Sarah Orne Jewett addresses a conflict between nature and human influences or nature and society.

The story parallels the simple natural purity of rural life represented by Sylvia and the White Heron against the corrupted artificial urban life that the hunter represents. It is a conflict of two value systems, one of spirituality and private appreciation of nature and the other of materialistic and public utility of wealth. Sylvia’s love of nature trumps her love of money and the manufacturing town she came from (pg. 1630). This is a superior state of knowledge and maturity.

Literary sources:

1.      Sarah Orne Jewett’s White Heron: An imported metaphor, Sheri Joseph Vol.27 No. 3 (Spring 1995)

2.      Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, Karen Ford Vol 4, Issue 2 (1985).

BURDEN OF PROOF:

KAYJATTA

And then I sat there
And they talked in the dingy office
Saying an alleged father
For a burden of proof
I 'm sure imprinted
On a July night in The Gambia
I have the genes

That my words fail
For a burden of proof
Obvious on a July night
Shining the foggy  mind
Of an alleged father
For a burden of proof
That drilled my core

 Time fossilized
Racked my genes for a descendant
All of evolutionary epoch fixated in West Africa.

LITERARY COMMENTARY:

KAYJATTA

LAY DIS BODY DOWN: A FOLK SONG

This is a song from the “Songs of the Slaves” collection. It is a song about reunion, a longing for peace. It expresses a hope for salvation and a respite from suffering. The repetition of the phrase “I lay dis body down” indicates a resting period or state after a period of suffering or difficulty. It is a moment of peace, according to Col. James Wentworth Higginson (Phylon, 1953). There are several expressions in the song that symbolize a period of tribulation, for example in the first line (I know moon -rise, I know star-rise), third line (I walk in de moon light, I walk in de starlight), fifth line (I walk in de graveyard, I walk troo de graveyard), and the seventh line (I lie in de grave an’ stretch my arms). These expressions represent a period of collective difficulty that a group of people, the slaves perhaps have to endure. Their lives were suffering just like the depressed light characteristic of moonlight and starlight which are both far less than the perfect daylight that a normal or an ideal life would be.

And when they go to the judgment, it was still in the evening of the day, as stated in line nine. The only time day breaks and their souls meet, and suffering ends perhaps; is when they lay their bodies down. Therefore, the refrain “When I lay dis body down” might mean death. Here death is the only event that will bring peace, rest and reunion.

I’M NOBODY! WHO ARE YOU? EMILY DICKINSON

This poem by Emily Dickinson is about acceptance or unacceptance, intimacy and a fear of being discovered. Dickinson, although from a privileged upbringing, considers herself an outsider in a tightly conservative society centered around church and the family with clear-cut gender roles. Hence, “I’m Nobody…”. Dickinson appears to have found a pair in someone and told her not to tell anyone because they would be banished, in the third and fourth lines. In the last stanza, Emily Dickinson expresses her fear of being public, to be “somebody”. He compared this to a frog that screams all summer “to an admiring bog”. This perhaps refers to the reproductive behavior of frogs and toads in the wetlands during the summer months of June through august. But the “admiring bog” could also be referring to the public whose approval Dickinson no longer seeks partly because she is certain of disapproval. Dickinson appears to be comfortable in her existence as a “nobody” and in the company of fellow nobodies. She has no aspiration to be “somebody” which she views as “dreary”.

This poem, in many respects, is also a celebration of individuality-as a physical, spiritual, and intellectual being. Emily Dickinson, in this poem, has also created and addressed a conflict between the individual (a woman) and the Judeo-Christian God of her time as characteristic of her disruptive unusually long dashes; as in “How dreary ---- to be---somebody!" (American National Biography online, February 2000). It is a rejection of a society that had rejected her- a society that demanded a standardization of human thought and behavior.