Topics in African American Literature

[sdassanayake7-blog]

The Sound of Political Change

“‘We make many false starts because we have been programmed to depend on white models or white interpretations of non-white models, so we don’t even ask the correct questions...  Perhaps we need to to face the terrifying and overwhelming possibility that there are no models, that we shall have to create from scratch.” 

~Toni Cade Bambara

http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/stable/pdf/20616429.pdf?_=1460393664839

The quote above is an excerpt taken from Toni Cade Bambara’s essay, “On the Issue of Roles,” used in Carter A. Mathes’ essay,  “Scratching the Threshold: Textual Sound and Political Form in Toni Cade Bambara's ‘The Salt Eaters.’” Throughout “Scratching the Threshold,” Mathes discusses how sound is used as an “organizing principle,” representative of sociopolitical change in the black community in The Salt Eaters (Mathes 364). Mathes argues that Bambara’s experimentation with the notably “non-linear” sense of sound functions as way to move beyond the “paradigms” imposed by America’s white-dominated society (Mathes 365). Therefore, by establishing  sound as the primary sensory vehicle in the narrative, The Salt Eaters permits African Americans to “create from Scratch” (Mathes 365). 

As part of  Mathes’ analysis of sound, he includes the significance of silence in the novel. In Bambara’s “On The Issue of Roles,” she describes how many changes in the “black experience” cannot be effectively communicated in English (Mathes 365). Mathes applies this concept to the silences within The Salt Eaters, recognizing their relevance as marking an absence of adequate language (367). These silences seemed most effective during the internal dialogues between Minnie and Old Wife and later on, Minnie and Velma. Although the reader is able to follow these conversations, the observers within the narrative hear nothing. After reading Mathes’ essay, I noticed that readers’ unique window into the supposed silences not only reflects tensions between the spiritual and the practical, but also illustrates the political struggle to move beyond convention. 

Mathes, Carter A. "Scratching the Threshold: Textual Sound and Political Form in Toni Cade Bambara's "The Salt Eaters""Contemporary Literature 50.2 (2009): 363-96. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

[sdassanayake7-blog]

“A Bunch of Birds Doing What Birds Do.”

http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2014/06/08/lens-on-detroit-controversial-mens-rights-group-draws-protest/

On June 7, 2014, protesters insisted that Detroit’s Hilton Double-Tree Hotel cancel the Voice for Men International Conference on Men’s Issues due to the group’s notoriously “misogynistic” agenda and “dismissive [views regarding] sexual violence” (Neavling). According to Wayne State student of gender and culture, Kelly Jackson, Voice for Men is essentially “a hate group” ( Abbey-Lambertz). However, despite the presence of over 200 protesters and a petition of over 1,000 signatures calling for the cancellation of the conference, Voice for Men founder, Paul Elam, remained calm, encouraging protesters to “‘buy a ticket, come in and have a seat and let [Voice for Men]help you earn your way out of your ignorance’” (Abbey-Lambertz). 

Elam’s condescending attitude towards the feminist cause and the Hilton Double-Tree’s lengthy deliberation on the issue reflect years of failure to take the women’s rights movement seriously. In Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters, we see a similar response to Velma Henry and her fellow activists. Near the start of the novel, we see how the group’s driver, Fred Holt, views their rapid movement from one sociopolitical discussion to next as reason to refer them to a “good psychiatrist” (Bambara 67). Furthermore, when he witnesses the women partaking in traditionally masculine tasks like “[taking] apart machines” and handling cameras, he interprets the activities as implicitly sexual and perverse (Bambara 68). 

Although people have grown increasingly receptive to feminist ideology since the time period during which The Salt Eaters is set, clearly we have a long way to go. 

Abbey-Lambertz, Kate. "Controversial Men's Right's Conference Sparks Backlash." Huffington Post. Huffington Post, 30 May 2014. Web. 4 Apr. 2016.

Bambara, Toni Cade. The Salt Eaters. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1980. Print.

Neavling, Steve. "Lens on Detroit: Controversial Men’s Rights Group Draws Protest." Motor City Muckracker. Motor City Muckracker, 8 June 2014. Web. 4 Apr. 2016.

[ravenannalove-blog]

In reading Trudier Harris’s “This Disease Called Strength: Some Observations on the Compensating Construction of Black Female Characters,” one must consider the plight of the African American author to write at all. Toni Morrison, who Harris mentions within the essay, is well known for her dynamic black female characters and for her novels that push the boundaries of racial tension in surreal realities. In this interview, Morrison discusses the pressure imposed upon her to make what she refers to as “the white gaze” the dominant presence in her novels. Within the short clip, Morrison brought up several points that tie in directly to what Harris was getting at, and even expands upon the issue a bit. Toni Morrison was once asked when she’ll stop writing about race and why she excludes white characters from her novels. Looking deeper into that question, it would appear that the suggestion is that a “white voice” within the novel would somehow legitimize the work. That without such a presence, it can’t be taken seriously and won’t be palatable for the masses. Having as much credibility in the field as she does, it’s telling that even a writer of Morrison’s esteem would face such criticism and be subjected to that kind of pressure. Yet such is the dilemma of the African American writer in general. To put marginalized people at the forefront and to write about the things that impact them is being too exclusionary. However, the white gaze would make it universal? No matter what road the African American writer chooses to trot down, there will inevitably be some burden to bear. They simply cannot win.          

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[sdassanayake7-blog]

Morrison’s description of the “white gaze” reminded me of W.E.B Du Bois’ idea of double consciousness. According to Du Bois, white dominance has given white people privileged subjectivity so culturally ingrained, that black people see the world through the “veil” of traditionally white attitudes. Although Du Bois discussed this during the early 1900s, the issue clearly persists today in almost all non-white populations in the U.S.

[dddubose]

Depression, Black Superwoman Syndrome, and Suicide

She was the founder of For Brown Girls and, later, the #DarkSkinRedLip Project, as well as several online movements celebrating…

                                     Suffering Alone

She Tried to withdraw as she’d been doing for weeks and weeks. Withdraw the self to a safe place where husband, lover, teacher, workers, no one could follow, probe.

All Velma could summon now before her eyes were the things of her kitchen, those things she’d sought while hunting for the end. Leaves, grasses, buds dry but alive and still in jars stuffed with cork, alive but inert on the shelf of oak, alive but arrested over the stove next to the match box she’s reached toward out of habit, forgetting she did not want the fire, she only wanted the gas.

In The Salt Eaters Velma seems to be a women of great strength. She’s a community activist, has a wonderful career, a husband and son who she loves and who loves her right? So in some peoples eyes she had a great life.  However, Velma’s life was not all what it seemed. She was suffering from severe depression but no one noticed until it was too late and she ended up in an infirmary after trying to take her own life. Often in the African American Community things such as depression and mental illness go unnoticed until it is to late. For African American women who are supposed to be the pillar of strength, the mother figure, the one every body can depend on it can become too much. However, the African American women often have no help coping because if depression is mentioned they are told to pray and let God handle it. They are often discouraged from seeking the medical treatment they need.  African American women are treated like superwomen and the article that I am sharing tells the sad story of how two African American women that everyone assumed had everything going right killed themselves. It it like when a black woman is depressed she has to find some type of way to deal with the problem as often she doesn’t want to be shunned by the people in her own community. I plan to obtain my PhD in Psychology and I have often had people in my family question my decision to become a psychologist, insisting that black people don’t believe in that mess. It is a sad shame that so many African American women have had to suffer alone and have even taken their own lives because they never sought help. I feel that African Americans really need to become aware that mental illness is real and that it is okay to seek help if they are suffering. But if they never seek the help we will continue to see suicide rates increase in the African American community. 

[zestyzeinabeng5480-blog]

It’s definitely a problem that often times in African American communities women are told that mental illness is not real. I have found that in my own life as an Arab American, I am often fed the same false beliefs and negative attitudes towards mental illnesses. It is a shame that mental illness is so often ignored and that people are reluctant to acknowledge it as an illness as real and destructive as any other illness potentially could be.

[sdassanayake7-blog]

While attitudes on mental illness are definitely changing, it’s surprising to think about the number of people in this country who “don’t believe in therapy,” or refuse “to see a shrink.” Do you think that African Americans have been treated poorly by the psychological community in this country? I ask this because of our class discussion about the history of abuse of African Americans in healthcare system. 

[sdassanayake7-blog]

The Gift of Hearing Voices

"I have a companion to talk to ... I need not go out to speak. I can talk within myself!"

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/07/when-hearing-voices-is-a-good-thing/374863/

The article “When Hearing Voices is a Good Thing” discusses the idea that the way schizophrenics perceive auditory hallucinations may be linked to cultural context. The article focuses on a study led by Stanford anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann, where 60 people diagnosed with schizophrenia from Accra, Ghana, Chennai, India, and San Mateo, California were asked how many voices they heard, how often they heard them, and “what the voices were like” (Khazan). While all of the participants reported hearing both “good” and “bad” voices, the majority of schizophrenics from India and Ghana claimed to have mainly positive experiences with their hallucinations (Khazan). Many even described their voices as “friends” (Khanzan). In contrast, all of the American patients described predominantly negative, “violent” voices (Khazan). After analyzing this divided data, Luhrmann discerned that the polarization between the responses of the Americans and the other participants may be linked to differences in “societal values” (Khazan). According the Luhrmann, it is possible that due to the individualistic culture of the United States, the American schizophrenics may have viewed their hallucinations as “an intrusion into a self-made mind” (Khazan). However, the traditionally collectivist cultures of Ghana and India may have encouraged the participants from the two countries to view the hallucinations as mere additions to an “already extensive social network” (Khazan). 

The interpretation of the study described in “When Hearing Voices is a Good Thing” reminded me of Minnie Ransom’s relationship with Old Wife in Toni Bambara’s The Salt Eaters. Throughout the novel, Minnie maintains a dialogue with her “spirit guide,” Old Wife (Bambara 42). While others view Minnie as  “batty,” she views her connection to Old Wife as part of her “gift” (Bambara 51). This unorthodox perception of what most Americans consider mental illness could be linked to Minnie’s ties to African healing traditions. Although Minnie is American, her attire and healing methods reflect strong ties to her African roots (Bambara 4).  Therefore, perhaps she shares the more positive attitudes regarding auditory hallucinations found in various African cultures. 

Both “When Hearing Voices in a Good Thing” and The Salt Eaters address the question of defining illness. To what extent does the world determine what’s wrong with us? To what extent can we determine this ourselves? 

Bambara, Toni Cade. The Salt Eaters. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1980. Print.

Khazan, Olga. "When Hearing Voices Is a Good Thing." The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group, 23 July 2014. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

[dddubose]

In the beginning of Mama Day we see the family tree of Sapphira Wade a family tree that begins with her name first. The family tree is of great importance especially in the black community where so much of our history, ancestry, and culture was lost during the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Also, during slavery children where often taken away from there mothers and sold so this would be one reason why the family tree would be of great importance. Once slave women gave birth to a child that child was often taken from them and sold. Another issue of the family tree was the fact that only Sapphira’s name was mentioned not her children’s father. Usually a family tree consists of the father, mother, and their children. However, since her children where fathered by her slave master who was also her husband as stated, (Naylor 3) he would never have allowed his name to be listed on the birth record of children mothered by a black slave. So I included an image of a family tree because I feel that a family tree is very important in any family as it gives future generations a glimpse of where they came from, but without the mention of the father part of that persons heritage is lost.

 #Eng5480 #familytree #MamaDay

[nabilahwrites-blog]

I love that Gloria Naylor excludes the father’s name. Sapphira’s presence at the very top is empowering and indicative of the potential for black women to reclaim their names, bodies, and identities, even in the midst of struggle and abuse. I also think that the exclusion hints towards the uncertainty of the fathers. There is no “evidence” that Bascombe is the father of all Sapphira’s seven sons, but this complexity only mirrors the larger theme of the novel: the fluidity of truth. When Sapphira’s name is at the very top of the family tree, we are forced to acknowledge her presence as the matriarch and regard the father’s presence as insignificant - I think this just destabilizes the power structures of the master/slave relationship that seeks to demean black people, and in particular, black women. Naylor’s novel does such a fantastic job at reclaiming/rewriting the painful narratives/documents of the past!

[sdassanayake7-blog]

Being a self-titled “nation of immigrants,” knowing your roots is such an important part of being an American. However, as you mentioned, thanks to slavery in the Americas, many African American families have gaping holes in their family trees. Thus, the issue of how we come to America is just as important as where we come from. For this reason, I think that the completed family tree at the start of Mama Day reflects a degree of wholeness-as if Sapphira’s descendants remain untainted. 

[em-lit-wsu-blog]

It’s ok boy. Let’s just go to your place. You got lard in the house, right?And some baking soda? Well, I can bring down the fever with that.

In this quote Naylor is highlighting the importance of slave history and culture that is carried throughout generations.The use of nature to heal was the only option for many people in the past, and often was more trusted one. The book describes modern medicine as a threat to their culture identity. 

In this case the residents of Willow Springs, in their connection with African roots, were able to preserve many traditional remedies. Mama Day is the head of this community and preforms many functions, from a healer to a community advisor. She is represented as a wise character, her possession of knowledge is transferred from her ancestors and it needs to be passed on to the next generation.  

Naylor, Gloria. Mama Day. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1988.

(via em-lit-wsu)

I really liked this! Tradition is so important to those in Mama Day and it’s brought up often, especially with how they deal with each other or healing. Nature is also very important to the community, as something pure and to be respected with how it heals the community.

(via crystallizedchristelle)

I think it is interesting that in Willow Springs, healer, community advisor, and matriarch are one in the same. I have noticed similar attitudes toward root doctors in other small towns and villages beyond the United States. For example, in many Sri Lankan villages, the most trusted member of the community is the herbal doctor. 

[sdassanayake7-blog]

The Plight and Power of the Conjurer

“JACK PRITCHARD -- The Court, after deliberately considering all the circumstances of you case, are perfectly satisfied of your guilt. In the prosecution of your wicked designs, you were not satisfied with resorting to natural and ordinary means, but endeavored to enlist on your behalf, all the powers of darkness, and employed for that purpose, the most disgusting mummery and superstition.”

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h497t.html

The excerpt above is from a transcript of Jack Pritchard’s (“Gullah Jack”) trial sentence. A notoriously powerful African conjureman, Gullah Jack was charged with helping  Denmark Vesey organize a rebellion of free and enslaved African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina in 1822 (”The Vesey Conspiracy”). As a distinguished priest in Charleston’s African American community, Vesey sought to combat the white authorities’ repression of the black church (”The Vesey Conspiracy”). However, the rebellion was stopped in its tracks and Vesey and Gullah Jack were executed (”The Vesey Conspiracy”). 

While the transcript implicitly claims to condemn Gullah Jack on a legal level, the Presiding Magistrate,  L.H Kennedy, seemed more concerned with Gullah Jack’s use of “all the powers of darkness” in his “wicked designs” (”Sentence of Gullah Jack”). In fact, most of the transcript records Kennedy’s disgust towards Gullah Jack’s “charms,” “altars,” and “gods” (”Sentence of Gullah Jack”). Although Kennedy’s hatred for Gullah Jack is all but palpable in the document, I could not help noticing the traces of fear woven into the magistrate’s self-righteous rhetoric. I felt as if each bold condemnation possessed a degree of uncertainty-as if Kennedy half believed that “the airy spectres, conjured by [Gullah Jack]” could come back if the man remained alive (”Sentence of Gullah Jack”). 

Gullah Jack’s powerful role in the Vesey Conspiracy reminded me of Mama Day’s position in Willow Springs in Gloria Naylor’s novel, Mama Day. Despite Dr. Buzzard and Dr. Smithfield’s medical titles, the residents of Willow Springs place their faith in Mama Day’s healing expertise. Even when Bernice takes pills from Dr. Smithfield’s office, she insists on consulting Mama Day after she experiences side effects (Naylor 72). Ultimately, Mama Day and Gullah Jack’s influence over their communities illustrates racial division based on spiritualism and healing. In both situations, we see a black population gravitating towards non-normative practices that challenge the influence of the dominant ideology. From the obvious friction between the black church and white authorities in Charleston, 1822, to the subtle tension between Willow Springs and the mainland in Mama Day, it is clear that the conjurer was a force to be reckoned with. 

Naylor, Gloria. Mama Day. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1988. Print.

"Sentence of Gullah Jack." Slave Insurrections: Selected Documents. Connecticut: Negro Universities, 1970. 1-114. PBS-Africans in America. PBS. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.

"The Vesey Conspiracy." PBS-Africans in America. PBS. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.

[sdassanayake7-blog]

The Magic of Tradition

“ On Willow Springs, the Day family, a community of women, preserve their cultural memory through the repetition of material practices that include cooking and weaving, and through the transmission of personal and communal stories.” 

In Daphne Lamothe’s essay, “Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day: bridging roots and routes,” Lamothe discusses the relationship between magic, culture, and maintaining tradition. While the novel frequently emphasizes the role of the “true conjure woman,” Sapphira Wade, and her magical descendants, Lamothe suggests that the magic of Willow Springs also presents itself through  daily practices of the female residents  (Naylor 3), (Lamothe 155). The essay discusses how “material practices” like “cooking and weaving... [along with] the transmission of personal and communal stories” serve as means through which the residents of Willow Springs retain cultural identity (Lamothe 155). Thus, Lamothe equates these more mundane activities with magic in terms of cultural relevance. Furthermore, the essay also discusses Willow Springs’ isolation from the mainland, illustrating how geography permits a degree of resistance to "Western” influence on the island (Lamothe 156). The town’s geographic and cultural distance from the rest of the United States implies that Sapphira Wade’s magic can only exist within such a controlled environment. 

Ultimately, Lamothe’s piece made me wonder if the magic in Mama Day should be interpreted literally. Perhaps the magic of Willow Spring’s is not so much about actual supernatural power as it is about the combination of culture and history that thrives in the town. Just as Sapphira Wade’s power was passed down to Mama Day, recipes and stories survive generations in Willow Springs. Perhaps Willow Springs is simply colored by the magic of tradition.

Lamothe, Daphne. "Gloria Naylor's Mama Day: Bridging Roots and Routes." African American Review 39 (2005): 155-69. Biography in Context [Gale]. Web. 29 Feb. 2016. 

Naylor, Gloria. Mama Day. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1988. Print.

[circacarolyn-blog]

Veil

Grey by Edwin Morgan

What is the nub of such a plain grey day? Does it have one? Does it have to have one? If small is beautiful, is grey, is plain? Or rather do we sense withdrawal, veiling, a patch, a membrane, an eyelid hating light? Does weather have some old remit to mock the love of movement, colour, contrast – primitives, all of us, that wilt and die without some gorgeous dance or drizzle-dazzle.

Sit still, and take the stillness into you. Think, if you will, about the absences – sun, moon, stars, rain, wind, fog and snow. Think nothing then, sweep them all away. Look at the grey sky, houses of lead, roads neither dark nor light, cars neither washed nor unwashed, people there, and there, decent, featureless, what an ordinariness of business the world can show, as if some level lever had kept down art and fear and difference and love this while, this moment, this day so grey, so plain, so pleasing in its way!

Let’s leave the window, and write. No need to wait for a fine blue to break through. We must live, make do.

When I read “Grey” by Edwin Morgan, the language, especially the use of metaphors in the poem reminded me of various lines from Breath, Eyes, Memory. One of those lines was “It was gone, the veil that always held my mother’s fingers back every time she “tested” me” (Danticat 88). I thought about the significance of a “veil”. My mind took me back to when ladies wore veils, especially at a funeral to hide their grief. Veil, by its’ very definition, means concealment, protection, a cloistering, something that covers, separates, screens, masks or disguises. In Sophie’s case, when she was “tested”, the veil could also represent withdrawal. Danticat tells us that Sophie “tried to relive all the pleasant memories I remembered from my life. My special moments with Tante Atie and with Joseph and even with my mother” (84). She did this while she was being “tested” to withdraw from what was being done to her. 

The metaphor in the poem “an eyelid hating the light” took me to Breath, Eyes, Memory after Sophie was “tested” for the first time. “She pulled a sheet up over my body and walked out of the room with her face buried in her hands” (Danticat 85). Martine was ashamed of what she had done but was bound by tradition to do it. As I write this, I can hear my mother saying “this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.” However, in the case of Sophie and Martine, that was not true. The “testing” hurt them both. Perhaps she thought that the physical hurt, which would soon be over, was far less painful than the mental hurt she was carrying around…but that was not to be so either.

Then there’s the “absences”. The poem encourages the reader to “think if you will, about the absences” (Morgan 11). I remembered the daffodils that had fallen from the card Sophie made for Tante Antie and when she left for the airport, “No, daffodils” (Danticat 31). So many things were being absented from her life. 

Works Cited

Danticat, E. (1994). Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York: Vintage Books.

“Poem of the Week: Grey by Edwin Morgan.” The Guardian. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

[sdassanayake7-blog]

Your analysis of the veil as a symbol of withdrawal in both the poem and the novel made me think of the way virginity is often glorified as the supreme aspect of female identity. By valuing sexual purity over the other facets of a woman’s personality, many societies ignore a woman’s personality in favor of her hymen. In this way, I think the hymen can “veil” a woman’s true identity, while practices like the “testing” validate such beliefs. 

[ravenannalove-blog]

Virginity testing is a highly debatable practice that has unfortunately stood the test of time all over the world. In 2015, an independent forensic expert group in Copenhagen, Denmark released an official statement on the utility of the practice from a medical standpoint. Unsurprisingly, the results were less than favorable. On the most basic level, a hymen can be ruptured through various means, rendering such testing completely unreliable in determining whether or not a female is still a virgin. Additionally, the psychological scarring inflicted by the invasive “testing” is understood to cause lasting trauma in the female being subjected to it. With no concrete medical benefits to be gained through one’s virginity, one can only assume that the quest for maintaining sexual purity is solely an issue at the core of the individual.

In reading Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat, the dilemma of virginity testing is brought to the forefront; however, this article presents a new angle in examining what statement is made by Sophie’s trauma as the result of her mother’s tests. Despite the fact that Sophie has gone to school and made minimal waves for her mother since arriving in America, she is thrown out of her home when she purposely fails her mother’s test after breaking her hymen with a spice pestle. Though it may not be a conscious consideration, by throwing her out and assuming that she would go to Joseph, Martine shows that she values her daughter’s sexual purity over her general well-being. Sophie’s worth becomes defined by something as trivial as a hymen, which again, the article points out is not a clear indication of chastity. Reveling in the depths of tradition, as opposed to good judgment and a basic understanding of the human body, Martine throws Sophie out. Her mother doesn’t ask questions, and Sophie doesn’t try to explain. They are simply resigned to the further deterioration of their already strained relationship.  

The language used in the article is expectedly clinical. One could not gather from such technical rhetoric that the physical representation of virginity could have so much bearing on the way a young woman fits into society; however, Breath, Eyes, Memory reveals the folly in such an assumption. As important as Sophie’s mother claimed education to be, it reads as slightly ironic that should would subject her to such a medically antiquated practice that reveals little to nothing about her actual chastity. As Martine demonstrates, and the article further acknowledges, virginity testing is abuse shrouded under the veil of concern.

Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York: Vintage Books, 1998.    Print. P

Independent Expert Forensic Group. “A Statement on Virginity Testing.” Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine  33 (2015): 121-124.   Science Direct Freedom Collection. Web. 13 March 2015

[zestyzeinabeng5480-blog]

Raven,

 As you have indicated above, the language in the article you have provided is very clinical. This was interesting to me because one of the things that strikes me in Breath, Eyes, Memory, is the fact that Sophie is the only truly educated women of those in the novel. This was important to me because it indicates that the knowledge of what it really means to be a “non-virgin” is more of a clinical issue, than it is sexual. To know and fully understand this would of course require an extent of education. Sophie understood that by breaking her hymen, she was not stripping herself of her virginity. However, her mother, an uneducated women, and her grandmother, also uneducated, simply based their analysis on a broken or unbroken hymen. 

Also, interestingly, the article you shared suggests that virginity examinations could be considered a form of rape. This is a bit ironic, since Martine was raped and was trying to protect Sophie of a similar sort of sexual violation.

[sdassanayake7-blog]

Raven, 

It’s interesting that you pointed out Martine’s ironic perpetuation of “medically antiquated practices,” despite her obsession with education. I think this attitude reflects the strange, but pervasive idea that “smart” women don’t engage in premarital sex. My family is originally from Sri Lanka and I’ve been exposed to similar beliefs regarding sexuality and education. Although these values are slowly changing, sexuality typically bears a negative stigma there, reserved for prostitutes and “loose” women. 

 Additionally, you did an excellent job illustrating how the hymen testing in the novel is a form of sexual abuse. For too many years, women have been taught to equate sex with pain, when it can be a healthy, normal part of life. 

[sdassanayake7-blog]

Rape in Haiti

“When I see the child, it brings back those memories. It’s become like a scar for me. People always curse me, they say, ‘there she is with a rapist’s child in her hands.’ ” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwE2fYyaBog

The Channel 4 news story, “Haiti’s Forgotten Rape Victims,” focuses on the rape epidemic in Haiti following the massive earthquake of 2010. After Port-au-Prince was all but destroyed, many former city-dwellers moved into large camps of makeshift tents. Without electricity, locks, and protection, these camps have become breeding grounds for rape ( “Haiti’s Forgotten Rape Victims”). In the piece, three female rape victims were interviewed. Of the three, two were forced to carry their “rapist’s [children],” while the other had been imprisoned for accidentally killing her rapist in self-defense (”Haiti’s Forgotten Rape Victims”). Both women with infants described how their children serve as reminders of their suffering. One woman had seriously considered killing her daughter and then committing suicide as a way to escape psychological hell (”Haiti’s Forgotten Rape Victims”). These consequences of sexual violence reminded me of Martine’s mental health issues in Edwidge Danticat’s novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory. In Breath, Eyes, Memory, Sophie’s grandmother tells her about Martine’s psychotic episode and psychiatric hospitalization after she became pregnant with Sophie. Combined with her nightmares, Martine’s pregnancy reminded of her traumatic rape. Furthermore, since Sophie physically resembles her biological father, looking at her initially reminds Martine of her rapist. 

Interestingly, we see  how Martine’s traumatic past impacts her second pregnancy, even though Marc is the father. Ultimately, Martine stabs her stomach seventeen times, killing herself and her fetus. Martine’s response may be linked to the way rape victims often struggle to maintain healthy, sexual relationships, due to the association between sex and violence. Untreated and afraid, I think that perhaps Martine grew to associate any child of her’s as the product of rape. 

Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1994. Print

Haiti's Forgotten Rape Victims. Youtube. Channel 4 News, 01 June 2011. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

[sdassanayake7-blog]

Erzulie in New York

http://www.stlawu.edu/gallery/exhibitions/f/13vodou.php?keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=500&width=920

The piece above is a Haitian “ritual flag” of the deity Erzulie, made in the mid-20th century (Polk). Unfortunately, the artist remains unknown, but their incorporation of traditional “Voodoo” iconography reveals certain ideals of femininity in Haitian culture present in Edwidge Danticat’s novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory (Polk). The ritual flag depicts the goddess Erzulie as a combination between the Christian Virgin Mary and an Afro-Caribbean goddess of healing (Polk). As a symbol of sexual purity and motherhood, the Virgin Mary represents the ideal woman as a chaste nurturer. However, in Breath, Eyes, Memory, Sophie describes Erzulie as not only the “Virgin Mother,” but also “the healer of women and the desire of all men,” implying a degree of power and sexuality not associated with the Virgin Mary in traditional Christian ideology (Danticat 59). Furthermore, Sophie also refers to Erzulie as “the beautiful mulatresse”  (Danticat 52). In the ritual flag, this racial status is indicated through her veil-framed, white face and her bead-clad brown hands. The artist’s portrayal of Erzulie’s racial ancestry combined with the her heavy jewelry may serve as a glorification of the biracial, Hatian upper class, noting affluence as the final component of ideal Haitian femininity. 

The representation of Erzulie in the ritual flag echoes many of the feminine ideals imposed on Sophie in Breath, Eyes, Memory. After Sophie moves in with her mother, Martine, we see evidence of a multi-generational obsession with virginity. While Martine begins innocently enough, asking Sophie if she is a “good girl,” her concern for her daughter eventually mutates into a replication of her own mother’s hymen “testing” (Danticat 60, 61). We also see a value of women as healers through Martine’s insistence that Sophie “[become] a doctor” and “raise [the] heads” of the other women in the family through her own education (Danticat 56, 44). These expectations suggest that by becoming a doctor, Sophie would also provide emotional healing for her mother and aunt. Throughout the novel, the issue of class mobility among women seems linked to the value of affluence. From Martine’s validation of Marc due to his professional status, to Sophie’s rapid socioeconomic analysis of the Leogane Napoleons, it is clear that marrying into a respectable family plays a significant role in Haitian womanhood. 

Ultimately, the representation of the ideal Haitian woman through the goddess Erzulie is just one version of an unrealistic set of standards faced by women all over the world. Whether we’re worshiping deities, adoring celebrities, or trying to develop the hip-to-waist ratio of a doll, women are encouraged to meet ridiculously high expectations. After reading Breath, Eyes, Memory, I had to ask myself: Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we do this to our daughters? 

Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1994. Print.

Ezili (Erzulie) Freda Daroumin. N.d. The Richard F. Brush Art Gallery and Permanent Collection, St. Lawrence University. The Richard F. Brush Art Gallery. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.

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The Emotional Chains of Sexual Slavery

“Antonio’s cousins were pimps, she learned, operating a family ring. Janet still had to sell sex, and a routine developed: Antonio would spend his days playing soccer and billiards, while Janet had to work at brothels in Queens and Boston.” 

http://www.newsweek.com/2015/02/13/sex-slaves-farm-304354.html

Kutner, Max. “Sex Slaves on the Farm.” Newsweek. Feb. 2015. Newsweek Web. 1 Feb. 2016.

The article, “Sex Slaves on the Farm,” by Max Kutner, focuses on the issue of modern sexual slavery in the United States and Mexico. While the piece discusses the various contexts in which sex trafficking and the consequential sexual violence occur, it primarily focuses on the rape of sex slaves in large, remote farms throughout the U.S. The article explains that in farms filled with tired, overworked, and ultimately isolated male workers, sex traffickers and pimps have found promising new clientele. One formerly enslaved sex worker known as “Janet” recalled “as many as 50 men waiting for a woman,” each willing to pay $30 to rape her (Kutner). Although the article addresses sex trafficking from both legal and economic perspectives, Janet’s story serves as the lens through which the issue is examined. This approach to delivery draws attention to the dehumanization faced by sex slaves, as they often become no more than commodities or statistics.

The horrors described in “Sex Slaves on the Farm” echoed the traumatizing past of the Corregidora women in Gayl Jones’ Corregidora. In both situations, we see women and girls dehumanized and commodified in the hands of primarily male captors. However, interestingly, the victims in the article and the novel seem forced to play other non-explicitly sexual roles as well. In Corregidora, we see that while Ursa’s grandmother, “Gram,” was clearly Corregidora’s prostitute, she was also Corregidora’s slave, daughter, and mother to his biological child. Ultimately, Corregidora was more than just Gram’s pimp or master, and her complex emotional ties to him are reflected in her obsessive recounts. Perhaps it is through retelling that Gram and her mother manage to cling to Corregidora, unable to truly remove him from their lives. “Sex Slaves on the Farm” also addresses the issue of the convoluted relationships between sex slaves and their pimps. The article describes how most sex slaves are lured into the trade by friends, boyfriends, and family members and that often times, the hope of sustaining these relationships prevents many enslaved individuals from abandoning their abusers (Kutner).

Although the novel takes place years after Corregidora’s death, his pervasive presence in the minds of the Corregidora women is similar to the way many sex slaves often feel unable to emotionally relinquish their pimps and attempt to escape captivity. Today, the United States Government prosecutes sex traffickers and pimps, but while the laws may have changed since the 1800s, the emotional consequences of the sex trade remain very much the same.