Dream Dog

The page previous to the poem by Langston Hues being introduced to A Raisin in the Sun, contained a dedication "to mama: in gratitude for the dream." The following page then contains the poem in which I, at first thought, just thought was placed there because it contained the the title of the play. Although now, after a few more looks, I realized the poem is representative of the mood created by the play as a whole. The poem although it is talking about a dream, usually something that has a positive connotation, uses words such as "sore, "sags," and "rotten," to give it a negative connotation. 

I think this goes back to how Hansberry portrays "the dream" throughout the book. The dream many times brought more hardship than gratitude. Even though the dream was somewhat different for each character, it brought many hardships. For Walter it brought into appearance his inner selfishness, for Ruth it revealed her longing for a wholesome family, for Mama it made it harder for her to pick wether to buy her dream house or fulfill her children's dreams, for Beneatha it made it harder for her family to accept her, and for Travis his family's dreams restricted his own. Although the dream is written about unfavorably throughout the book and the poem, Hansberry expresses gratitude for it. I suspect that this is because the dream brought the family together through their differences and as far as the play goes it ends with all of them achieving some part of their dream. 

Diamond Pups

While reading The Diamond as Big as the Ritz when Kismine was introduced I often compared her to Daisy. She came from a well off family who was concerned with nothing but their own wealth. Furthermore, when she and John fell in love, it led to even more comparisons to The Great Gatsby. Daisy just as Kismine fell in love with men who were not born into the same lavish ways as they were. Although while reading further into the story, one major difference stood out to me. Kismine although just as caught up in her riches as Daisy did not leave the man she claimed to love just because he was not born rich. Daisy, on the other hand, did. Once she found out Gatsby had to work for his lavish ways she quickly left him and ran away with Tom.

Although they were mostly similar, they both relied on the riches of other people to make their way through life. Kismine at the end of DBR asks John, "'will father be there?" (DBR, 113) This illustrates that even though she is still faithful to John, she can't imagine a life without her father being there spoiling her with an unimaginable amount of jewels. In a similar way Daisy relied on the riches of her husband, and at one point Gatsby, to provide her with everything she would ever want. Both characters in The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and The Great Gatsby take advantage of the riches that surround them to create a lavish lifestyle for themselves.

Gatsby's Dog

Throughout reading The Great Gatsby there were many times where I was left to simply just wonder about Jay Gatsby, but my favorite part was when he was first introduced in the novel. To expose Gatsby Nick describes him in the following way, "he smiled understandingly--much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey" (Fitzgerald, 52-53). I feel that this passage, although it is only the introduction of Gatsby, shows his true character behind his purpose before you even know his purpose. I think that by describing Gatsby as having a smile that you only encounter a few times in your life represents his dedication to Daisy. It is only but a few times in ones lifetime that you come across a man who will spend his every penny and dedicate his whole life in hope of obtaining his dream girl. Furthermore, when Nick illustrates Gatsby as looking out into the external world but then solely focusing on one thing this represents the location of his house. His house is located on the opposite side of the lake from Daisy and Tom's house, but for Gatsby he did not choose this location for the pretty view of its surroundings. Gatsby chose this location for one reason, the green light on the other side that represented his hope that he would one day end up with Daisy. 

Shy Dog

Before Jay Gatsby was even introduced, the environment that he created for himself was exposed. The parties, the girls, everything you would associate with a confident young man ready to live in the now. Although Nick later confesses that he could not "see nothing sinister about him" (54). Nick continued to wonder if by Gatsby "not drinking helped to set him off from his guests" (54).

While I was reading this part of the book I wondered to myself why Gatsby would waste his money on these parties every weekend if he wasn't even going to take part in them himself, or simply converse with people. As I continued reading the book I started to realize that this environment surrounding him was not representative of his personality at all, it was more of a romantic gesture. Jay is shy, so shy that he wasted his time on all these parties in hope of one single person coming, one single woman. Daisy. To his disappointment however it didn't work, he had to go one step further. He had to have Jordan Baker talk to Nick to set up a meet up between Daisy and himself. Although even in these desperate measures he was taking to see his lover he could not directly take action himself proving his truly shy nature. I think that Fitzgerald tried to somehow mask Gatsby's character at the beginning of the book to amplify the love Gatsby had for Daisy and to make his actions more romantic.

Dog Bone

A lot of The Bluest Eye focuses on just that, THE bluest eye. Although another metaphor that astounded me was the case in which Toni Morrison uses a different metaphor of a decaying tooth to emphasize the constant pressure the black race faces to motivate themselves to conform to white culture. The author references "the poison" (Morrison, 60) that is the cause of the damaged tooth to represent the white race, the reason for the damaged inferior blacks. On top of using poorly connotared words Morrison uses colors to make it obvious what she is referencing. For example the superficial "enamal" (Morrison, 60) is making it apparent that this shiny white exterior is the characteristic that all African Americans are yearning for will always be exposed by the "brown putty underneath" (Morrison, 60). In that time, it did not matter how hard the black race tried to mask themselves as white the standard the white race kept feeding them were impossible to reach without the African American being damaged first. I think Morrison used the metaphor of a tooth on an African American because it is one of the only places in which a white color is exposed. This furthermore expands Morrison's purpose in proving that no matter how hard one may try, the true culture with in will never be escaped by soely consuming the culture of another. The feeling of being supierior leads the white race to continue discriminating against people different than them because they are the ones controlling the social norms that are being consumed by the rest.

The Dog with Two Different Colored Eyes

In the novel The Bluest Eye a lot of it has to do with the black children and even adults trying to conform to the ways of the racist whites. A lot of this desire is represented in Pecola's constant obsession with all things with blue eyes. When she is exposed to the cat its "blue eyes in the black face held her" (Morrison, 90). In that moment Pecola was reminded of herself, her dream self. Once the cat died and it was framed as her fault, it led her once again to believe it was because of her physical appearance. If only she had those blue eyes people "mustn't do bad things in front of those pretty eyes" (Morrison, 46), she wouldn't have been framed for its death. Pecola thinks that if she looked more like the people who are harming her emotionally, she would be superior to where she is now. What Pecola is asking for is the ability to be able to cause others to have the close to the same about of emotional and physical insecurity as she has. Her wish to have the blonde hair and blue eyes of white people really illustrates her wish of obtaining the same power they have, over words, and over people. As of now Pecola has no strength, not against other people, and not against herself. If Pecola can't even fight against the words of her own brain, how can she fight against the words others superior to her?

The Blue Eyed Husky

This week we started reading The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and I was and still am shocked at the accuracy of her writing. Even though the book was written in a different time period where there was more racism against blacks and whites, a lot of the ideas still apply today. Society constructs a deffiniton for beauty where you have to have a certain skin tone, hair color, eye color, sense of style, etc.

To be beautiful in The Bluest Eye you had to have "sole green eyes, something summery in [your] complexion, and a rich autumn ripeness in [your] walk" (62). Today, some of the same rules apply. I remember when I was younger I was talking to my friend about our eyes. He began to tell me about a new surgery in which a layer of your eye could be take off so that the result would be blue eyes. Not going to lie, I was fascinated. When I was little I always saw these beautiful celebrities with bright blue eyes and new hip clothes and I always wanted to be like them. I think that for little kids especially it is easier to succumb to views of society due to the constant exposure to "beauty." Although for those kids who do not have the recourses to mimic their role models they are left thinking that they are nowhere near beautiful, which I think is the biggest problem in society.