Lucas' 20th Century Lit Blog

In Beloved everything seems to come back to one thing: Sethe's time at, and escape from Sweet Home. She doesn't enjoy the memories she has from her time there. She certainly doesn't want them to dictate her life, but her rememory will not let her forget the trauma. Throughout the course of Beloved , characters cannot seem to shake their past, and it all plays into a larger metaphor for the effects of slavery on American society. The most obvious instance of this, besides Sethe's time at sweet home. Is the death and murder of her baby, which has literally manifested itself in her life as a ghost haunting her. Beloved the character is quite probably Sethe's murdered child, an even more glaring instance of the past never truly going away. Sethe buys into the idea that "nothing ever dies" and even though sweet home is long gone, she will never let Denver return, because of the power she believes it holds. Paul D is similarly haunted by his time at Sweet H...

As we progressed throughout TEWWG, the main focus of the novel became the relationship between Janie and Tea Cake. As we explored their connection and interactions deeper I personally felt as though this novel became a tragic love story. Janie and Tea Cake's love is undoubtedly strong and even after his death she feels as though he still lives on within her. So much of this novel is dedicated to their romantic journey that I feel this novel is mainly and most importantly a love story. The narrative of  her other two marriages were not anywhere near as romantic or strikingly powerful as her time with Tea Cake. Logan is decidedly bland in the romance department, and while Jody initially provides some excitement, he is far from the knight in shining armor that he tries to portray himself as.  Both of these relationships mostly just provide context and background for her final and most important marriage to Teak Cake. Janie struggles to find a man who she truly loves and wishe...

It's pretty easy as a reader to group Janie's first two husbands Logan and Joe, but in reality they were very different, and grouping them together gives Logan in particular a bad rap. Let me start by clarifying, I have no sympathy for Logan, it's not Janie's fault she doesn't love him and she is obliged to leave. However, he was not abusive or manipulative as Jody came to be. He was merely a simple farmer, who proved incompatible with his much younger and much more adventurous wife. So while Janie was justified in leaving him, he didn't exactly do much wrong. In the case of Jody, he did a lot of things that were legitimately abusive, so ironically Janie leaves Logan for a worse man. Jody is a minsogynst who believes Janie's only purpose should be to sit still and look pretty. He doesn't really even allow her to work inside her own store. When he claims upon first meeting her, that working the farm is no place for a woman, he didn't mean it in a mi...

       The Brotherhood obviously plays a significant role in the narrator's journey, giving him an opportunity to lead and use his talents for a cause he believes in. This starts all well and dandy, but as we see throughout the progression of the novel, the brotherhood appears more and more problematic with even the narrator coming to question and even directly disagree with them. We start by seeing a few small clues towards the brotherhood's close minded and controlling nature, but eventually Tod Clifton's death broke the camel's back for both me as a reader and the narrator, in terms of perception of the brotherhood.       We first notice the brotherhood's objections to individuality. Even Brother Tarp, who tries to share his impactful story with the narrator, is criticized for highlighting their differences instead of focusing on what makes them the same. This same blindness of the brotherhood, is especially evident after Tod Clifton's death, where...

Throughout I nvisible Man, we get to know the narrator as we read what is basically his entire life story. This character begins as a naive but lovable, however he slowly gains an awareness of what he describes as his invisibility. In the prologue we meet an enlightened, or certainly much developed narrator. He has shed his previous innocence and has fully embraced his "invisibleness." As a reader one is left thinking: "what does this truly mean?" As we progress through Invisible Man  there are various clues as to what his supposed invisibility represents. First and foremost, we never learn the character's name, he never says it himself, however no one around him ever bothers say it either. I believe that his invisibleness is born from how others perceive him as he alludes to in the prologue. Throughout his interactions with various characters in the book, the narrator rarely finds anyone who wishes to get to know him as an individual. For better or for worse...

In Richard Wright's Native Son,  communism plays a central role in the lives of all the characters involved. Either indirectly or directly, characters central to the narrative find their lives shaped by the controversial movement. Bigger Thomas himself, had an encounter with "reds" which became a direct catalyst for the central event of the novel. Throughout all of this, Richard Wright provides a direct commentary on the state of the Communist Party in the 1930s. A known red sympathizer, he obviously had some thoughts and critiques on people within the party. From the introduction of Jan in book 1, to the implicitly socialist character of Max in book 3, Wright begins to create a "handbook" for well intentioned Communists. When the book starts, Jan and Mary intend to help Bigger and befriend him. Jan even makes attempts to lure Bigger into the Communist party. Possibly a nod to people Richard Wright met while involved in the real-life communist party. Jan and Mar...