We all have our idols. They influence our lives, writing, thinking, and acts in ways we can't even comprehend. Their ideas bring people together and sometimes drive them apart. Jodi Picoult, J.K. Rowling, and Diana Gabaldon are just a few of the authors who changed my life. J.K. Rowling introduced me to higher thinking. She showed me, through Harry Potter, that it was okay to be a nerd and also okay to speculate about things that may not happen. I spent a good portion of my middle school years dreaming about what would happen in the end, if Harry would marry Hermione, etc. Diana Gabaldon writes about my country, about Scotland, and showed me that my destiny lies in the pages of Scottish history. Through her series, she managed to link Scotland and the U.S., proving that history is intertwined in ways we can't even imagine. Most recently, Jodi Picoult has shed light on me. She toured my high school and I had the privileged to show her around. Nine months later, in my favorite book of all time, a character emerged with my name. This really drove the nail into the proverbial coffin for me being a writer. I have been so positively (and occasionally negatively) influenced through writing that I feel it to be my duty to pay it forward. Thus, I completely understand Alice Walker's need to find out more about Zora Neale Hurston.
When Alice started her journey, Hurston was "one of the most significant unread authors in America" (Walker, 93). Hurston's book, Their Eyes Were Watching God was so influential in Walker's life that she wanted to learn more about the woman who wrote it. Walker traveled to Florida to try and find more details about this mysterious woman but found only more dead ends once arrived. "Most people [don't] know anything about Zora Neale Hurston" or "any of the great things she did," (Walker, pg 95) one school teacher told Walker. Not many of the town folk even knew Hurston wrote about them as well (pg 99).
Reading the article, Looking for Zora was almost depressing. Walker sets out on a journey of her idol's history and comes up short at almost every turn. She doesn't even know for sure where Hurston was buried. Walker feels a sadness beyond anything she can describe when she found the area where Hurston most likely lays to this day. It was nothing more than a "field full of weeds" (Walker, pg 115). While Zora never mentioned fear of death in her writings, she surely deserved better than what she got. This was only 35 years ago yet it seems impossible that someone so influential could receive such an unjust end. Hurston influenced more than just Walker but Alice was the only one to do something about her unknown influence. She made an effort to get to know the past of the woman who made such a difference in her life. Honestly, if I wondered onto Jodi Picoult's grave some day and found it overgrown and unmarked, I would feel just as unjust as Walker must have.
Works Cited
Looking For Zora by Alice Walker
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Colorblind
I have a confession to make. I am an addict. Not to drugs or drinking. I am addicted to LOST.
In the LOST Season 5 finale, The Incident, two men are sitting on a beach. One, named Jacob, is wearing a white shirt. The other, who's name we aren't given, is wearing black. The Man In Black, as he is known to fans, and Jacob talk for a few minutes when the Man In Black says, "Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you?" We instantly assume that he, therefore, is the evil one and Jacob, in all white, is good. Since we did not know the name of the Man In Black, some people turned to the Bible and assumed it was the story of Jacob and Esau. The writers of the show are tricker than that, however. They told us not to assume that white represents good. This holds true for The Great Gatsby as well. White is used several times through the novel but whether or not it represents good is left for the reader to determine.
The first mention of white is not actually outright but a subtle reoccurrence throughout the novel. The two areas where the inhabitants of the novel dwell are known as West Egg and East Egg. There are some pink eggs, but the majority are white. To say that they live in Insert-Direction-Here Egg implies that their homes are located on delicate, innocent plots. An egg is an object that is both fragile and pure, capable of both producing new life or sustaining that which is already alive. This does not reflect correctly upon the actuality of the neighborhoods. The Eggs are places of controversy where nothing pure goes on. Lavish parties, affairs, laziness, and even death occur in the neighborhoods in the span of two hundred pages. The Eggs are anything but fragile and pure.
The next big white reference is another that is not outright...Daisy. Daisy's name implies purity, innocence,and delicacy. The flower was something on which to dote, a gift to a loved one. Daisy the character is nothing of the sort. She left Gatsby for Tom because Tom had more money and security. When Gatsby comes back around, she flitters back to him. Daisy values security more than love, as she proved throughout the novel. The first time we meet Daisy, she is wearing white but she is already guilty.
Tom is the next to be obsessed with the color white. When Nick, Daisy, Jordan, and Tom are all talking, Tom becomes obsessed with telling all about a book he read. It "talked about the Nordic race" (pg 19). No matter how desperately Daisy tries to steer the conversation away, Tom brings it back to his racist agenda.
There were many more blatant references to the color white in this novel. I chose to take a road less travelled and explore the whites right in front of our eyes that are often overlooked. When we look too far into certain details, we forget to see the forest. This is what the writers of LOST have been telling all the avid fans. I, unfortunately, am in too deep to start looking at the bigger picture. I can't just sit back and enjoy...I have to know what the Man In Black's name really is.
Referrences
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Jacob's_nemesis
http://www.lesekost.de/amlit/HHL252C.htm
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
In the LOST Season 5 finale, The Incident, two men are sitting on a beach. One, named Jacob, is wearing a white shirt. The other, who's name we aren't given, is wearing black. The Man In Black, as he is known to fans, and Jacob talk for a few minutes when the Man In Black says, "Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you?" We instantly assume that he, therefore, is the evil one and Jacob, in all white, is good. Since we did not know the name of the Man In Black, some people turned to the Bible and assumed it was the story of Jacob and Esau. The writers of the show are tricker than that, however. They told us not to assume that white represents good. This holds true for The Great Gatsby as well. White is used several times through the novel but whether or not it represents good is left for the reader to determine.
The first mention of white is not actually outright but a subtle reoccurrence throughout the novel. The two areas where the inhabitants of the novel dwell are known as West Egg and East Egg. There are some pink eggs, but the majority are white. To say that they live in Insert-Direction-Here Egg implies that their homes are located on delicate, innocent plots. An egg is an object that is both fragile and pure, capable of both producing new life or sustaining that which is already alive. This does not reflect correctly upon the actuality of the neighborhoods. The Eggs are places of controversy where nothing pure goes on. Lavish parties, affairs, laziness, and even death occur in the neighborhoods in the span of two hundred pages. The Eggs are anything but fragile and pure.
The next big white reference is another that is not outright...Daisy. Daisy's name implies purity, innocence,and delicacy. The flower was something on which to dote, a gift to a loved one. Daisy the character is nothing of the sort. She left Gatsby for Tom because Tom had more money and security. When Gatsby comes back around, she flitters back to him. Daisy values security more than love, as she proved throughout the novel. The first time we meet Daisy, she is wearing white but she is already guilty.
Tom is the next to be obsessed with the color white. When Nick, Daisy, Jordan, and Tom are all talking, Tom becomes obsessed with telling all about a book he read. It "talked about the Nordic race" (pg 19). No matter how desperately Daisy tries to steer the conversation away, Tom brings it back to his racist agenda.
There were many more blatant references to the color white in this novel. I chose to take a road less travelled and explore the whites right in front of our eyes that are often overlooked. When we look too far into certain details, we forget to see the forest. This is what the writers of LOST have been telling all the avid fans. I, unfortunately, am in too deep to start looking at the bigger picture. I can't just sit back and enjoy...I have to know what the Man In Black's name really is.
Referrences
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Jacob's_nemesis
http://www.lesekost.de/amlit/HHL252C.htm
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Blog Review
I think my blog is off to a strong start. True, the first blog on Age of Innocence was kind of weak but it was the creative movie review. I really enjoyed writing both the Hemingway and poem blogs. It was fun to get a chance to explain the meaning behind what I wrote versus the meaning other people got from it. For example, someone told me they pictured a dead body when I really meant for there to be someone going to jail. The O' Pioneers blog was less fun and more forced. It was more of a struggle to write since I felt I had less of a grasp on that book's meanings. So far, I think my blogs deserve B-, B, A, A. I surpassed the requirements for word count and wrote sufficient articles proving my point as well as adding information from outside sources. Since this does not count as a blog as far as I know, it will not meet the word count!
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