Culture & identity

Often times in life one allow their culture/background to either help or hamper the creation of his/her own identity. Likewise, in the novel, Native Son by Richard Wright, we find the protagonist, Bigger, allowing his cutler to hinder and take forth of his identity. Before all else, Bigger constantly repeats throughout the novel on how the Caucasians have the upper hand and he feels an awkward sense of something terrible occurring to him due to his skin color, constantly reminding the reader that "we black and they white". Not to mention, as the novel progresses we find Bigger revealing some shame of his culture and how much of a burden he holds towards it. While being in the car and having Mary and Jan beside him, he was already knowingly "very conscious of his black skin"(84), but just by having Jan and Mary standing there, acting in a friendly manner, they allowed Bigger to feel his skin. Bigger allows his culture to act like a prison, for "he was something to be hated", he wore "the badge of shame" that was "attached to a black skin" (84). To explicate, due to his culture and background, Bigger was born into the inky skin that he is in now and due to the outrageous history colored faced, it was always in the Caucasian's nature to view colored as less than human. With this in mind along with living down South, Bigger had a near good idea about where he fits in this world, crowded in a box full of other colored people, labeled with the same stereotypes. Bigger grew to despise of his dark skin, for it held him back from several obstacles and defined himself before he could even figure out whom he truly was yet. In my opinion, due to society's profile of Bigger being the stereotypical black man during that time, caused him to become the violent and brutal character he is. In the beginning of the novel Bigger holds a great amount of fear, especially towards the white society, hinting why he only wanted to bring his protective gun along with him when going to rob the white corner store and visiting the Daltons for the first time in hope to receive a job. It amazes me that even though Bigger was going to the Daltons home in hope of something positive to better his lifestyle, he still had a heavy urge that he may need protection or that something terrible would happen to him. With this in mind, despite the outrageous stereotypes bought upon colored people of being brutal and thieves, they still hold fear towards the white society. If being told you're so dangerous and out of control, wouldn't you start to believe they may actually fear you since they believe they know what you are capable of? Instead, one must keep in the back of their heads, well "we black and they white." Not too long after into the novel Bigger commits an extremely huge crime: he murders Mary. Before he done so, he mentioned how their catering towards him made him very uncomfortable and felt as if they were only teasing him. It was extremely difficult for Bigger to believe in the idea that Jan and Mary truly wanted to become Bigger's friend and become apart of his life. Bigger never seeing such kindness towards colored from white, he did not know how to react to it and grew angry, believing they were purposely trying to make him feel worthless as well as ashamed of his heritage. After actually committing the crime he explains how he knows what is going to come for him considering the fact that he is a black man whom killed a white women rather than a white man whom killed a white women. With the knowledge of his culture and his inky skin, Bigger already acknowledges that the death penalty will be his punishment. However, if he was white, his life would not be taken from him in the sense of death, but instead, in the sense of isolation. All in all, Bigger's culture identified him as a person before he had the chance to. 

So I believe a "work of literary merit" is a terminology used to describe the value and importance of a work of literature as a whole. For example, Ellison's Invisible Man consist of a greater literary merit than, per say, Gayle Forman's novel, If I Stay. One would conclude that Ellison's novel holds more skill and is more "meaningful". I dislike this. I truly love the novel If I Stay and I wish I could through some similar stories in the amazing "work of literary merit" box. Okay, so clearly I'm sort of iffy on this whole literary merit thing. I mean, every story holds its own importance, value and meaning so why must we pick and remove specific novels and throw them in the category of a literary merit? Also, why does it have to focus so much on the skill of the writing? If its well written? Why can't it just be a good read that keeps us up at night? Some of the books placed in that category are (I'm sorry) *trash emoji*. They make me fall asleep, literally. I have to read a good portion of a work of literary merit about ten times over and over before I could wrap my head around it. Is that why it holds more skill? Or maybe I truly have the wrong view and interpretation of this. A story of literary merit that kept me up at night was Beloved. Its obviously holds a high level of skill in the writing and all this and that, but honestly, the thing that really made me through it in that category is the way she used foreshadowing. It was more complex. Morrison mentions incomplete allusions to events that are later carried on and shown in further chapters in the novel. The novel shows a meaningful representation of time and occurrences in which the story took place. 

I'd like to give a shout out to Mrs. Smith because I can honestly say I am actually enjoying reading Native Son.  The book fell open, and I fell in.

Hey, well, I'm Dany and I am an extremely impatient reader. I expect excitement in the very first chapter and if it does not come quick enough I lose interest. I am not a fan of reading, it gives me a headache. Don't get me wrong, at some point in my life I use to be fond of reading, however, it was mainly children books. Okay, scratch that, get me wrong because, that hardly even counts and reading has left my heart many years ago when my third grade teacher had notified me that Dr. Seuss books were apparently "not in my grade level." I still continued to read them though, she obviously failed to realize my love for Horton Hears a Who! and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Believe me, if I could read Dr. Seuss books and write essays based off of them for AP Literature (Sorry Mrs. Smith), I would in a heart beat. For those wondering, yes, I do wish my love for reading was up there and I do want to become a "D1" reader, hopefully I will find the love of reading through this blog. Let's make it simpler, maybe I will favor "grade level books" over children's book. Ah, who am I kidding? Children books will forever have my heart, but you know, a girls got to grow. So, I guess I'll start by reading Beloved, by Toni Morrison. Wish me luck!

PS, Outside of school reading, reading because I genuinely want to, does not happen at all and that needs to change as well. I honestly need to find joy in reading and maybe use it as an escape, really connect to the authors.