Mansbach v Macon

In class we discussed the comparison of Adam Mansbach and Detornay as an interesting way to point out Mansbach's hypocrisy in writing the novel. But I believe because Mansbach was able to disconnect himself from his story and write the novel from a satirical point of view, there is a fine line between them.

One article describes Mansbach as, "a nice Jewish boy from Newton, MA, " and talks about his budding interest in black culture, "Mansbach spoke about his own early attraction to black culture, when he’d ride the bus that brought black kids to his heavily Jewish suburban school back to their African American neighborhoods to hang out and listen to the music that meant more to him than the Hebrew school he was thrown out of. " 

The comparison between Mansbach and Macon is very clear. They are both jewish boys from the suburbs of boston who got into hip-hop and rap. The difference is very clear when it come to their interactions with the culture they so dearly admired. 

In the novel, Macon seems to trample any black people who have an opinion contrary to his and uses hip-hop as an invisible badge of cultural knowledge that gave him the right to say and act as he wants. The first example of this is him not correcting the media when the news of a black cab driver robbing white passengers gets out. Macon does not consider the possibility that he is hurting the black community much more with his actions than the white community. The second and perhaps most obvious example of Macon's righteousness comes when he dismisses all the other voices at the Black Student Union and decides that he knows best for the group.

Mansbach, however, deviates from Macon in this respect. Mansbach recognized that he really wasn't a part of the culture and owes most of his "hip-hop insider knowledge"  to his participation in hanging out with the inner city kids whom he met on the bus. Mansbach spoke about his time with his new friends as, "venturing outside of comfort zones, rendering myself visible as different."

With this history of Mansbach, it seems that the novel could not be anything but a satire of an alternate version of Mansbach himself, but his recognition of the person that he could become is all the difference between clueless hypocrite and a great book writer.

Sources:

http://www.jta.org/2008/05/20/news-opinion/the-telegraph/adam-mansbach-appreciation-or-appropriation

Page 53&54 of:

https://books.google.com/books?id=da5XAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA53&lpg=PA53&dq=venturing+outside+of+comfort+zones,+rendering+myself+as+different.&source=bl&ots=dTL3Zg0Zj3&sig=A7L6XKdvUqBLDg2z01HzYwleQOg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiFrbiYhe3TAhWi2YMKHd44BJoQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=Mansbach%20boston&f=false

Room

Upon finishing Room, I felt a big wave of satisfaction. Donoghue managed to make the book I never wanted to finish, have the most unimaginably poetic ending. So much so that I immediately started re-reading the book after I finished.

I think what made the book so intriguing to me was Donoghue's use of a five year old narrator. This literary choice allowed the book to come off as playful in its introduction and as a result immediately immersing me in the novel.

Donoghue did a really good job at slowly revealing important plot points throughout the beginning, all the while keeping in mind that the reader needs to get used to Jack's interesting dialect. I remember the first strange thing that I picked up on was when Jack, nonchalantly, narrated, "I went to sleep in Wardrobe," but he had woken up in Bed in the novel's introduction.

While most of the beginning of the novel came off as a playful interpretation of a horrific situation, when Ma and Jack started planning the escape, the whole mood of the book changed from a light hearted narration of living in room, to an intense race against the clock.

It was almost like I could hear Jack's heart pumping throughout the entire Dying section, he had just learned that there is a world outside room and now he was expected to execute an escape plan or else risk the death of both himself and Ma. The end of Dying was so intense that in the very end I thought that Jack's reunion with his mother was just his mind trying to cope with a fearful reality.

The chapter After started to kind of lose me as a reader, but the need to see Jack react to all of the new ideas and objects kept me reading. Living however re-grabbed my attention as the new dynamic of Jack without Ma appeared in the book. My favorite section probably being Jack's aloof riddance with his long hair.

Ma and Jack's reunion reins the whole story back in and establishes Jack as a master of both worlds, especially as he exits Room for the final time, remembering its good times (taking Ma's drawing of him) but never looking to go back.

Jack's Journies

By the end of the third chapter (Dying), it seems that Jack has already finished his hero's journey:

THE ORDINARY WORLD: For Jack this is represented by Room and is introduced to the reader throughout the first chapter.

THE CALL TO ADVENTURE: After the 3-day power cut, Ma realizes that Jack and her must act soon to escape Room or they may never get the chance.

REFUSAL OF THE CALL: Jack, while initially enthusiastic about Plan A, starts to reject and postpone; both Plan A and -- especially -- Plan B.

MEETING WITH THE MENTOR: When Ma tells Jack the story of her kidnapping and subsequent escape attempts, the reader is met with a seasoned escape attemptee, whose trials will lead to the formation of a perfect great escape.

CROSSING THE THRESHOLD: As soon as Jack is brought to the outside in the rug, he has entered the unknown.

TESTS:

-Getting out of Rug

-Jumping out of the truck

-Finding someone

-Asking for help

-Talking to the police

ALLIES:

- Ajeet

-Officer Oh

-Raja (in that by biting Jack's finger the dog alerts Ajeet's attention)

-Ma's Tooth

-Ma's voice in his head

ENEMIES:

-Old Nick

-Raja (just because of the physical harm)

-his fear of talking

APPROACH: This could be seen as the two police officers, in particular officer Oh, gently questioning and guiding Jack to reveal Room's characteristics, which eventually lead them to it.

THE ORDEAL: For Jack, this can be seen as talking to the police in order to help them find Ma. Jack mentions that he can talk if he doesn't look at them and pretends he is talking to Ma.

THE ROAD BACK: Jack's whole time in the patrol car is the road back. Jack is brought to a sense of urgency when he thinks of Old Nick going back to Room and killing Ma, as he is brought back home from his Unknown.

RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR: Jack returns home and rescues Ma, completing his physical hero's journey.

At this point it seems that Jack is done being a hero and will spend the rest of the book as a master of two worlds. But, in the last couple pages of the chapter, the reader gets a glimpse of what will begin a new kind of Hero's Journey for Jack, a psychological one. Jack has already faced the world physically and got himself and Ma out of Room, but he is yet to grasp the concept of the Outside and that everything in his life will soon be flipped upside down. I think Donoghue executes the transition between these two journies really well and leaves the reader in suspense by finishing the initial journey just shy of the book's midpoint.

http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm

Jefferson's Fate

Throughout my second reading of this book, I think I am focusing more about the implications of Grant's narration rather than the plot of the book which I was fully entangled in upon my first reading.

This time, I have had one question echoing in my head as I reread the novel:

 'What if he wasn't in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

While the book follows Grant's life and the reader only gets a small glimpse at Jefferson from the few visits at the jail that Grant narrates, I always think about this question. There are three particular times when Jefferson and the life he would have led interrupt my reading with daydreams: Grant teaching at the school, Grant and Vivian at the Rainbow Club, and Grant's interactions with his aunt.

When Grant teaches at the school I can't help but think about Jefferson being right there not too long ago probably longing to fit in with Brother and Bear. I imagine that he was curious and also a little bit oblivious, to the point that he didn't feel that his friends could ever cause real danger. They probably rebelled and played tricks on Grant, resulting in the occasional slap on the head.

When Grant meets Vivian at the Rainbow Club I imagine Jefferson running off to town to meet a city girl who he has fallen madly in love with. She brings out the best in him and they eventually get married and maybe even move to the city where Jefferson works a blue collar job, but has a beautiful family and is happy.

When Grant interacts with his aunt I think about Emma and how much pain she's had throughout the book and how different it would be if Jefferson just wasn't there. Emma and Jefferson would probably have a relationship close to Grant and his aunt. An adventurous kid who dreams of the big city but always comes home because in the end there is no one he loves more than his Aunt (or in this case Miss Emma).

While I realize that if my day dreams were true then the book would lose its point, I think it never hurts to wonder what if Jefferson's life turned out different? Would he still be the man he becomes by the end of the book?

An Outside Look

The thing that I liked most about As I Lay Dying were the changing perspectives from one character to another. I think because every person in the book had an opinion, this approach gave a wholesome insider look at the Bundren story.

While this approach does have a benefit, it also has its downfalls. The most major of these is how connected with the Bundren family and the country life the reader becomes, making it very difficult to gain an outside -- city folk -- perspective. Out of the 59 chapters in the book, only two offer the reader a city perspective on the Bundren family.

The first comes from the perspective of a Mottson drugstore worker, Mosley. Mosley's chapter begins with Dewey Dell standing outside his shop, as she enters, he remarks, "She kind of bumbled at the screen door a minute, like they do, and came in" (198). Here Mosley blatantly shows his opinion on country folk; bumbled, which is synonymous to walking awkwardly or in a confusing manner. This first description of country people by Mosley further alienates his opinion from that which the Bundren family describes.

Next, Mosley describes a story told to him by Albert, his assistant, of a man and his family (the Bundrens) who come through town with an eight-day-old body on a wagon and asks for cement to fix Cash's broken leg. The marshal observes this ordeal and remarks, "You'll cause him to lose a leg...and you get this thing buried as soon as you can, don't you know you're liable for jail for endangering the public health?" (204). Here, the sheriff feels he must explain to Anse that carrying around an old body is a danger to the public, something Anse knows, and as a result, he is trying to bury Addie as quickly as possible.

The third encounter with city folk comes from the perspective of McGowan, the next drugstore worker with which Dewey Dell meets. When he hears from his assistant that she is looking for him, he asks, "What kind of woman is it?" His assistant Jody quickly responds, "Country woman" to which MacGrow finally remarks, "Send her to the courthouse...tell her all the doctors have gone to Memphis on a barber convention" (241-242). Here is the first time in which we see an outsider act on his opinion of country folk and almost refuse Dewey Dell service solely off her description.

I think that it's interesting how little Faulkner shows us an outside perspective on the Bundrens, making the reader almost forget it even exists. In the movie, the final scene shows this phenomenon wonderfully when a car casually passed by the Bundren wagon in the middle of town. The fact that cars were already common but the Bundrens were forced to use a wagon and mules raised on sawdust, brings a whole new dimension to the Bundren journey.

A Man of Constant Sorrow

The biggest thing that struck me while watching O Brother, Where Art Thou? was it's incredible soundtrack. Without the music, the movie would be pretty generic and not as memorable. "A Man of Constant Sorrow" itself was the thing that made the movie great for me.

From the very first time it was played in the movie it caught my attention. Maybe it was George Clooney's amazing voice combined with the awesome harmony by Tim Blake Nelson and John Turturro, but I no longer felt satisfied with any dialogue and just longed to hear the song again.

The first verse reveals Everett's background and gives the audience some insight into his character and puts his character into context without any cheesy dialogue.

I am a man of constant sorrow

I've seen trouble all my days

I bid farewell to ol' Kentucky

The place where I was born and raised

The second verse, though, brings in a deeper meaning which is later confirmed with the plot of the movie.

For six long years I've been in trouble

No pleasure here on earth I've found

For in this world, I'm bound to ramble

I have no friends to help me now

Here the audience learns how long Everett has been in jail and again the idea of a man in constant sorrow is supported. The last line ends up being a major plot point in the movie; when Everett reveals to Pete and Delmar that there is no treasure and in fact, he tricked them because they were chained together. Before Everett revealed his deception, Pete exclaims, “You boys're true friends! … You're m'boon companions!” But as soon as Pete realizes how selfish Everett is, both Pete and Delmar plan to abandon Everett, leaving him friendless.

The next three verses are seemingly addressed at Penny and foreshadow the plot of the movie.

It's fair thee well, my old true lover

I never expect to see you again

For I'm bound to ride that Northern Railroad

Perhaps I'll die upon this train

You can bury me in some deep valley

For many years where I may lay

And you may learn to love another

While I am sleeping in my grave

Maybe your friends think I'm just a stranger

My face you never will see no more

But there is one promise that is given

I'll meet you on Gods golden shore

In these lines, Everett addresses his lover, Penny, and he almost seems to know that she has moved on and told everyone that he has died. The fourth line is quite ironic therefore, because Penny tells everyone Everett was run over by a train. The second of these stanzas describes Penny’s infidelity while Everett “is sleeping in his grave” the “deep valley” being the fake story of his death. The final stanza brings all of the foreshadowing and irony together into one scene when Everett sings the song in the climax of the movie, and gives a quick tug to the fake beard as he sings the word “stranger” making sure that Penny knows that no matter what, he will come through.

“A Man of Constant Sorrow” plays a major role in the plot of O Brother, Where Art Thou? and reveals a lot of the plot in an obvious yet obscure way, and it is also extremely catchy and brings a fun and upbeat tone to the movie.

A Bad Hero

Is Odysseus really the hero in the Odyssey? The book is named after him so he must be, right? As the book progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that Odysseus, even though he experiences a Hero’s Journey, is not a good hero. At his best, he cleverly docked his ship separate from his crewmen, but at his worst, he literally made a God vow revenge on him.

One of his most unrevealing traits, is his narcissism, a hero should not be someone who goes around bragging about his achievements, but instead going out and achieving more. In book 8 Odysseus asks the bard to sing him the story of the Trojan horse and sack of Troy, and then once confronted with his own great heroism, Odysseus is moved to tears, “Great Odysseus was moved to tears, running down from his eyes to wet his cheeks” (8.586-587). Not only does he ask bards to sing about him, Odysseus goes on and on about his own life and brags about how great he is, like in book fourteen when Odysseus brags about his journey to the swineherd.

In addition to his narcissism, Odysseus is extremely selfish in his journey. First, he does not really fight to keep his crew alive. Odysseus doesn’t warn them to shore their ships away from the harbor and does not provide them with food when he decides that he wants to sleep with Circe for a year. While he sleeps with Circe he does not think about Penelope and what she must be facing back home, “there is no more hope of my father’s homecoming. I believe no messages any more, even should there be one, nor pay attention to any prophecy, those times my mother calls some diviner into the house and asks him questions” (1.413-416). Odysseus only thinks about the fact that he is having fun and so he delays his trip some more.

Odysseus’ most unheroic, but very characteristic trait, is impulsive. Odysseus seems to never be able to control his emotions or actions. For example, after already outwitting the cyclops and escaping, decides as the ultimate end note that he will reveal his real name to the Cyclops, delaying his trip another seven years. The cyclops, Poseidon's son, angrily tells his father, “Hear me, Poseidon who circle the earth, dark-haired. If truly I am your son, and you acknowledge yourself as my father, grant that Odysseus, sacker of cities, son of Laertes, who makes his home in Ithaka, may never reach that home” (9.528-536).

All in all, Odysseus does not turn out to be the best hero, he has all the outer characteristics of a hero--pretty, strong, brave, clever--but he knows of his greatness and tends to brag about it, he lacks any sort of motivation to make life better for his comrades, and he does not think before acting a lot of the time.

The Writer's Perspective

I was never the kid who confirmed to the norm. I never sought someone that I could relate to in books and TV shows, I sought for exactly the opposite in fact.

I've always been interested in exploring people's minds, inside and out, learning how different people think and why. But as I watch TV shows, I find that I don't worry about why the characters themselves are doing things, I wonder why the writer has written the character to do this. Because part of being a writer, is first creating a character that could be real and then entering their mind and doing everything as they would do. And try as they may, writers always put pieces of themselves in their characters. And finding those pieces that show up time and again in each episode is extremely satisfying, making me want to predict their next move based on what I've learned.

I think because of my view, I tend to connect to characters whose psychology interests me. In series like Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and Divergent, the protagonists' drive is pretty clear, it's the right thing to do and it's for the greater good. And while I'm all for the greater good, when the character is someone I hate, psychoanalyzing them and the writers' choices in writing them becomes all the more interesting.

In Orange is the New Black, for example, I despise Piper, the main character. I find everything she does to be extremely agitating and backwards of what a logical person would do. At the beginning, Piper, we get a glimpse of her normal life and then she heads straight for prison. It is clear that Piper is not going to belong here and she quickly learns that the rules on the inside are very different than out. From Piper's first few lines, she manages to both offend the most powerful woman in the prison and establishes herself as a clueless know-it-all. Piper's psychological journey in the show is an extremely intriguing one; she has been forced into a whole new universe, put in close quarters with people she would have never met on the outside, and the only thing that isn't controlled is her social life. The longer that Piper lives in this new world, the more her oxymoronic characteristics show. Jenji Kohan, the show's creator and writer, has manufacture a gold mine of psychological depth with Piper's character, and so far she has explored many possibilities that lay in Piper's mind as she enters this uncharted territory.

Recently, I've started reading scripts of the shows that I've been watching on repeat. With every read the scripts reveal a sentence that I never thought twice about when I was watching, a character trait that I never noticed, or an action description that transforms a plain filler scene into the backbone of the episode.

I think that viewing things from the writer's perspective has made me think more of why people do the things they do, in real life. A small glance or a certain word said instead of another can tell an entire story that goes on in someone's heads, both in the real world and the fictional one.