Discussion Madness

To prepare for our small-group discussion I first read through the questions and circled the ones I was most interested in thinking about as I read the story. Then I made sure to read the story really carefully. Normally I don't have the time to reread things I need to read for school, but I realized the importance of this assignment so I carved out more time for it. I spent more time than I usually do reading “Notes of a Native Son” in order to make sure that I knew what was going on. Along the way I underlined or circled parts of the essay that would help me answer the questions I had selected.

I learned how more I can glean from a story or essay when I read it carefully. This exercise helped me to gain a greater appreciation for reading things thoroughly. I was surprised with the things I had learned. During the discussion things that had been percolating inside my mind came forward, and it turned out that I knew more than I thought I did about the various questions, even the ones I hadn't focused on.

I was also really impressed with the thoughts of my fellow classmates. I'm afraid I didn't take notes on the conversation, but I feel pretty lucky to be in a class full of brilliant people with deep ideas. I was really impressed with everybody's ability to share the discussion.

I really enjoyed the process of preparing for the discussion. I learned a lot from it. The type of preparation I did really helped me dive into the text on my own. However, I think I prefer the regular class style. I really like how we are divided into different groups regularly. Because of that process I've been able to get to know, on some level, everyone in the class. Since I know everyone a little bit I feel really comfortable most of the time speaking up when something comes to mind, even if I don't know if it is right, or even a great idea. This created a weird conflict in me during our small-group discussion because I felt like I had to hold myself back from speaking often once I had run out of responses. I'm not usually a big talker, so it was cool feeling so comfortable with the folks around me that I had to restrain the ideas in my head.  

Responding to Invisibility

Bree talks about a part of "The Invisible Man" that made her uncomfortable,

One part I particularly didn't like was the part on page 1139 when the boys are forced to watch the blonde woman dance. I understand it's purpose in the novel as being just another situation where the narrator has to endure a humiliating experience for the entertainment of his white oppressors but I feel like that could have been conveyed in a different way without having to be so graphic and demeaning...but perhaps that's the point right? To emphasize White America’s greed, lust and overall lack of regard for other people’s feelings.

I would agree, that part made me a little uncomfortable too.  I relate it back how the first paragraph struck me though. I feel like the narrator is willing to endure any kind of humiliation the white folks deal out in order to show them that he is the ideal black man. He'll suffer whatever they dish out in order to get some sort of affirmation from them. He wants them to tell him that he is who he is supposed to be.

On Becoming Invisible

 I was immediately drawn into the world Ellison created for “Invisible Man.” Part of the power of this story seems to be its accessibility. The first paragraph is fascinating, it seems vague while at the same time setting up the story to come. Ellison writes, “It goes a long way back, some twenty years.” By starting off his story with “It goes” Ellison is causing us to ask the question “what goes?” and having to ask this question draws us in as readers. We want to know what goes way back, and the story has only just started.

He goes on to say, “All my life I had been looking for something and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was.” Ellison is still being vague, but he is giving us more details. We now know that the character has been looking for something all his life. We still don't know what it is, so that raises the question, “what is he looking for?” Only two sentences in and we're already full of questions. We don't know what he's looking for, and maybe he didn't really know either because everyone else was trying to tell him what he's looking for. In fact in the next sentence he tells us that he “accepted their answers, too, though they were often in contradiction wand even self-contradicting.” He was letting other people tell him what he was looking for, even though they didn't make sense with one another, and sometimes didn't even make sense with themselves. It seems almost like a kind of desperation. He was so eager to find something that he forgot to make sure the things that were offered to him made sense.

The paragraph ends with the idea that the whole time he was just trying to figure out who he really was, and what he found was that you can't ask others to define you, “I am nobody but myself,” he writes, “an invisible man!” The first paragraph seems to tell the whole story.

Waste Land

The "Waste Land" by T.S. Elliot is a broad and meticulous work. It is full of allusions and highbrow references so it’s no wonder that Hannah said this of it:

           Elliot’s “Waste Land” seemed to just run on and on with not definite purpose other than

           just ideas, that I could see. Even after I read some supporting writings on the poem, I just

           didn’t see it.

“Waste Land” is the kind of work that needs to be read again and again before the reader can even begin to grasp what is being said. Even with many hours invested I don’t think a person could ever fully understand what Elliot is really trying to say, but that isn’t to say that it isn’t worth the effort.