Like Mother Unlike Daughter

The two mother figures in Wide Sargasso Sea hold similarities and differences that add dimension Milkman’s character as well as providing insight into the demeanors of their daughters, who react to Milkman in nearly opposite ways. 

Milkman’s mother is presented first in the novel as a frail, battered woman who is desperate for affection. We see her breastfeeding Milkman far after the age that is seen as socially acceptable in a pathetic attempt at connecting with her son. From the beginning we see that her purpose is defined by Milkman and his wellbeing.  

Her image is frequently tarnished by comments on her prominent sexuality and sexual desire. Her interesting and incredibly vague moment with her dead father and the implications of her relationship with her father before his death gave Macon Jr an incredibly negative opinion of her. Later in milkman’s life, he would pursue a relationship with his cousin, but this relationship would not be as unwelcome as Ruth’s. 

Perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of Ruth’s impact on her children is on Lena. Ruth’s whole life once Milkman is born is to tend to him. She ensures that Lena and First Corinthians tend to him too. Once Milkman begins to seriously abuse his privilege we see Lena lash out at him viciously as not only a way to put Milkman back in his place, but as a sort of defiance of her mother. 

Her mother’s overprotective behavior elicits aggression just as Pilate’s indifference elicits obsession. 

This “role switching” is prevalent in Hagar’s pursuit of Milkman as well. Pilate understands that men in general are going to be unwieldy and difficult. We see her skillfully handle Reba’s boyfriend, however it shows how much she has had to deal with situations like that because of how clean the encounter was. Though Pilate is a caring and protective figure for Milkman, Pilate’s priorities are with her daughters. 

Hagar’s obsession with Milkman defies Pilate’s indifference and potentially drives Hagar further into madness as she knows she is going too far but can’t help it. 

It’s interesting how much all of the characters affect each other in this novel and I wonder what other connections we may be missing, but it was especially interesting to me to see these two demeanors take opposites. It’s a lot like the common trope in TV and movies where the teenager is trying as hard as they can to not be like their parents. 

Antoinette's Claim 2 Fame (Open Genre Project)

Hey guys! Mr. Mitchell advised that we post our open genre projects on our blogs if possible, so that’s what I’m gonna do. I can also talk through my reasoning a little more clearly here, since I got a little hot (those lights man) and nervous in front of the class. 

The first piece I presented should be posted below. 

What I chose to depict is Antoinette’s fight scene with Rochester after she returns home and locks herself in her room after Rochester so scandalously cheated on her, pushing Antoinette into a drunken rage. Woo hoo!

I started this one on Sunday. I intended to be true to the text 100% to make it super authentic. Unfortunately I quickly realized by sketching some poses that Antoinette’s face would not be fully visible if she were to bite his arm in a still image. Rochester would be in front of the “camera” or Antoinette’s body would be in the way. No matter how you sliced it, I wasn’t going to be able to draw her biting his arm if I was going to emphasize her expression & give this piece some much needed emotion. 

So I painted and I painted, settled on the idea of Antoinette biting his ring finger. To bite the finger that holds his wedding ring would symbolize the emotional destruction of the marriage that was solidified in this scene.  

As 10pm on Thursday grew nearer, I decided it would be a pretty good idea to start drawing in the arm Antoinette would be chowing down on. (A very important part of the image!) Unfortunately, I had left too much space between Antoinette and the un-seen Rochester. To have an arm sticking out from the left side of the painting would be super awkward and sad. 

I did not want to draw in rochester because he would not only take way too much time, but he would likely cover a lot of the hard work I did in the previous days. He would also cover the light source and he would probably screw up the color palette I had going for me so I just cropped the image I had and emphasized the most important part of the scene. 

I’m actually pretty satisfied with the final product. It had a lot of room for improvement but it is unsettling and emotional enough for my tastes so I’m happy!

Stop Bullying 2k15

Antoinette’s fall into insanity is a result of her environment imposing insanity upon her before she loses her grip on reality. By being told a lie that can’t be officially disproven by people for so long, the person being lied to will accept it as reality. Though Antoinette wasn’t destined to become insane like her mother, the Jamaican society and her husband pushed her over the edge and caused her to act irrationally. 

Antoinette’s childhood was essentially defined by the abuse she faced by the community and her mothers distanced demeanor. Even those who were supposed to be her friends were cruel to her (thanks, Tia). Mental development is affected heavily by how a person is treated, with childhood and teenage years being the most sensitive to these interactions with other humans. The cold and cruel environment Antoinette was raised in may have predisposed her to the aggressive behavior (or insanity, i guess) she displays later in the novel. 

After Rochester begins to realize there are rumors about Antoinette’s family history and past, he begins to despise her for something that isn’t exactly her fault. Though I suppose she could have told him from the start all about her crushing backstory, that doesn’t seem realistic since they probably didn’t trust each other the first time they met each other, and her story was not relevant until it was too late for her to influence his opinion significantly. He takes his anger out on her passively for reasons she clearly does not understand (because she repeatedly asks him why he is ignoring her) and it becomes frustrating and abusive. Imagine having the person you love slowly start to lose interest and ignore you :c 

These actions may have triggered/ supplemented Antoinette’s insecurities from her childhood and caused her to act irrationally, especially under the assumption that the one person who ever made her want to live now despises her. 

The point I’m trying to make here is that although Antoinette may be acting a little crazy, up until she becomes aggressive after her husband transgresses on the purity of their marriage, she hadn’t done anything wrong. It was her reputation that tore her life apart, not her actions. It’s like the very bad version of image over substance. It’s even more disturbing to think that the only person who’s truly been by Antoinette’s side has been Christophine (thanks Christophine we love you), not her mother, or her husband. It’s better than nothing, but really Rochester? 

AND NOW special opinions from Lark (BONUS CONTENT)

The scene where Antoinette tries desperately to tell Rochester about her past was honestly hard to read. He didn’t care at all and you could tell from every response he gave it was emotionless and sassy and disrespectful and I wanted to cry. Here look at this: 

“'…Yes, it was my fault, it was my fault that she started to plan and work in a frenzy, in a fever to change our lives. Then people came to see us again and though I still hated them and was afraid of their cool, teasing eyes, I learned to hide it.'

‘No.’ I [Rochester] said.

‘Why no?’

‘You have never learned to hide it,’ I said.

‘I learned to try,’ said Antoinette. Not very well, I thought.”

Not very well, huh? Well, Rochester, YOU don’t try very WELL at not acting like a tool. Antoinette is telling him about a really emotional and hard time in her life and all he can think to do is contradict her and not consider that she had it rough in comparison to him. 

I understand that it’s hard to overcome the influence of the community (we know Antoinette and Anette couldn’t) but he could have at least tried to get a primary source for his lil insanity & betrayal thesis he had in his head.

I’m grossed out like & comment please. 

The JUSTICE Machine

This novel is a very serious man versus man case that is not necessarily Meursault versus the Arab but Meurault versus the world in a twisted dream in which he is not tried by his crime…. or is he?

His character is put on trial, not the actions that landed him in court. We see that in the eyes of the jury, his personality and demeanor seem to be a crime in itself. They serve looks to him, laugh at him, seem to cringe when he confesses that he smoked at his mothers funeral. The jury in this novel, and the courtroom as a whole may represent society as a whole. Society wants Meursault to act like everyone else, society wants everyone to blend in and be approachable, and nice, and fit this cookie cutter shape of what a man and his feelings should be. But Meursault doesn’t do this,and this makes the jury very uncomfortable. Could his indifference and “defiance” be the crime punishable by death?

Is his unique display of grief and a lack of emotion that makes the jury squirm in their seats something that defines a monster? Maybe it is the advertisement of this man as a monster that convinces the jury of his undeniable guilt of not being just a murderer, but of being cold, and soul-less. Is it that because Meursault does not fit into the cookie cutter of society’s expectation of behavior, he was condemned even before he killed the Arab? 

The death of the Arab, though the catalyst for his confinement, is not what Meursault is being punished for, and he seems to know it. He never considers the family of the Arab, or apologizes, or thinks much of it at all even during the trial. Perhaps if he had committed some other crime, his peers would find him to be unsatisfactory, and punish him severely for his crime against the French people. The crime which is not so much his transgression versus the law, but his transgression versus acceptable behavior. Behavior that is not ridiculously unacceptable in the context it was performed in, however when compiled it creates a person who is so inhuman that the jury feels no empathy for the man who is grieving the most, or perhaps, as some people have argued, not feeling anything at all. 

I find it even more concerning to think that Meursault was in grief while he was free. When someone is grieving, the react uniquely, and no one is supposed to judge how you react because it is so unique and personal, however by judging Meursault’s grief by determining he is emotionless, the strip from him the one thing that made him seem human to the jurors, and drive the verdict towards guilt without even considering the fact that grief can drive people to depression and blackouts and a plethora of other things that are incredibly unique. Unique is what Meursault IS and by stifling him, the jury, and society is stifling the diversity of the population. 

Samsa Inc.

An observation I made at the beginning of the novel was that the first section seems to be a sort of critique on modern corporate employment, and how it brainwashes you into succumbing to the whims of your employer over your own needs and desires. This fits pretty well with the first section, but once the chief clerk leaves Gregor’s home, not much more mention is made of his work, the focus is now on the development of the family, and his family’s work. Could it still be possible that Kafka is trying to make a comment about corporate employment even in the second and third sections? 

Though this idea is a bit of a reach, it seems to come together if you consider the family to be a company. They’ve fired Gregor (somewhat unwillingly) after his transformation into an insect. He can no longer work or provide for the wellbeing of the unit. Not that he was doing excellent work… the chief clerk states himself, “...your work has been most unsatisfactory…” 

Now that I’ve mentioned the chief clerk, let’s talk about the him for a moment here. Let’s take a brief pause. Why does he arrive to his home? Why is he so intimate with him? Without the chief clerk’s presence, Gregor’s anxieties and personality would still show through. I think it is a possibility that the chief clerk is a tool to connect home and business and emphasize more that, by being in the home with Gregor’s family as they see him for the first time after his transformation, he is taking part in a shocking, personal, family event. In that moment, he is a part of the family, and as such the family is a part of the business, and continues to function like a business after that moment. 

Back to the meaty bits of the metaphorical business that is Gregor Samsa’s heartless family :) ! Once the family accepts his insect form, once they accept that he is no longer a functional part of the family, everyone moves on. Although the story progresses over the course of several months, the recovery of the family seems ridiculously fast. His dad gets a job, his mom gets a hobby, his sister essentially replaces him, until she surpasses him. A lot like after a company fires a lousy employee, Samsa Inc. turns over a new leaf and begins to improve by hiring a new, enthusiastic, employee, Grete. As well as fixing a couple of other departments that were neglected while good old Gregor was still at work. (His father especially). 

The family company becomes successful, much more so than when Gregor was the only one working, much more so than when the faulty employee was preventing the progress of the other workers with his incompetence and mischief. 

Even at the end of the novella, the family goes on a trip, and they don’t even think about Gregor once, they’ve forgotten him because he was just another worker in the house they’ve needed to let go. 

I Give You My Love But You Don't Care

Throughout our discussions in class we’ve never really asked if Brett truly loves Jake, we just accept that she does because she says so. Originally, I decided early on that there was no way she loved him because she was so dishonest and manipulative, and Jake seemed to be somewhat irritated by her presence. His devotion to her just wasn’t reciprocated and it made me a lil sad to see Jake put himself through a relationship that was one sided. However, over time, as I saw her interact with other characters I determined that instead of there being an absence of love, the love is simply different than Jakes kind of love, and therefore partially overlooked by the character and perhaps the reader. 

Jake’s definition of love is the “most relatable” in the sense that he wants to please Brett and through her happiness, he is happy (lets put aside his temper tantrums when she’s with a guy she doesn’t think is cool). He actively attempts to set her up with guys and he helps her out of situations that have gotten out of control, which are both enormously supportive actions that set aside his pride for a moment and allow him to show that he is her friend. He wants her to feel like she has someone to lean on, which she may or may not use to her advantage. Some people take this form of taking what Jake is giving and not giving back as manipulation. 

Perhaps Brett expresses love differently than Jake and she has trouble forming the deep emotional connections that Jake craves. We know she was abused by her soon to be former husband. Abuse can lead to psychological developments that prevent an individual from connecting with others as they used to. Could her expression of love to men be based on physical appearance and ability now that her trust for them has been broken by her husband? 

Jake and Brett’s relationship began before the climax of her husband’s aggressive behavior, so they may have developed a close emotional bond. This could explain how Lady Brett and Jake’s relationship has persevered through the dramatic uproars of the novel between other characters who Brett seems to feel are not as important and just used for fun such as Cohn.  Do you think that Brett is incapable of effectively expressing her love for Jake, or is she not in love with him at all? Do you think Jake understands that Brett loves him? Does Jake feel loved? 

(Also I feel like this song really emphasizes the complexity of Jake and Brett's relationship throughout the novel take a listen if you'd like c: )

Clarissa Dalloway is Psychic

As someone who had not read Virginia Woolf before this class, I found the first reading incredibly difficult to follow. I dismissed a lot of the metaphors that she used but one statement struck me as odd: “…standing there at the open window, that something awful was about to happen…” Why would fields of beautiful flowers make Clarissa feel so anxious? It was such a peculiar conclusion to draw from the scene. I can understand a form of melancholy, but feeling like something bad is going to happen is a little more intense. 

While I read further through the book, I forgot about Clarissa's statement. I didn’t think to draw the conclusion between Septimus and Clarissa’s window scenes. When my group was reading articles for our panel presentation, one of them emphasized the similarities between the first page of the book and Septimus’ suicide. (This was the article we presented btw)

How could Clarissa, at age 18, not yet in London, empathize with an action that has not yet transpired, but will effect her to an enormous degree once she hears that it has happened? It’s been stated in class that mysticism is a possible explanation for Clarissa’s profound reaction to hearing Lady Bradshaw’s mention of suicide. Is it possible that Clarissa is psychic?

I found other evidence throughout Mrs. Dalloway that could support this claim, but while gathering quotes and page numbers, my argument went from psychic ability (though I still see it as a possibility and maybe after reading this so will you) to investigating her talent of knowing people by instinct. A much more likely, though still a somewhat mystical, unexplained ability.

Why mention knowing people by instinct in the novel if it wasn’t going to hold some kind of significance? Could this instinct be how she was able to draw out Septimus’ death from just hearing of his passing? Her ability to see other’s personalities without spending a lot of time with them could be another symptom of her possible psychic talent. 

Her knowledge of others may explain the quirky indirect exchange between Clarissa and Peter in which on page 35 Clarissa asks herself, “What would he think, she wondered, when he came back? That she had grown older? Would he say that, or would she see him thinking when he came back, that she had grown older?” Then, in almost an echo of her own thoughts, the first thing Peter thinks to himself when he sees her 4 pages later after years of being apart is, “She’s grown older, he thought, sitting down. I shan’t tell her anything about it, he thought, for she’s grown older. She’s looking at me, he thought, a sudden embarrassment coming over him…” The thought of age, the decision to not mention it, and then Clarissa’s ability to notice he’s thinking of her age and make him feel embarrassed is either a symbol of their closeness if youth or her ability to know people by instinct. 

This of course could be a stylistic choice of Woolf, as a form of her humor, but it could also be a potential explanation to why Clarissa was able to be so shocked after hearing of Septimus’ suicide. 

Her instinct still does not explain why she felt so dreadful in front of her window in Bourton so many years before Septimus fell to his death. Maybe calling it an instinct is the only way she knows how to describe her peeks into the future?

Conspiracy Theory: Virginia Woolf's Mind is Septimus and Mrs. Dalloway

Through looking up articles about Virginia Woolf and her relationship with PTSD (because she portrays it so realistically she must have known someone with it), I found that she had a mental illness that resembled bipolar disorder. 

Immediately I thought of the two main characters of Mrs. Dalloway: Clarissa and Septimus. The way they see the world had so much contrast there must be some kind of reason why she has decided to write a novel centered around characters so different both in body and mind (other than Septimus is intriguing compared to Mrs. Dalloway). Could their contrast, especially in their mental state, be commentary on her disorder?

I read further into Woolf's biography and discovered an interesting series of facts: Her sister died when she was 15, around the same time in Mrs. Dalloway’s life when her sister was crushed by a tree. She also had a poor relationship with her father, also like Mrs. Dalloway. She was admitted into a home for women with nervous disorder after having a nervous breakdown over the death of her father, though she had episodes before. This is similar to the plot of Septimus’ story of mental illness. And even though we know he has PTSD, his symptoms (hallucinations and depression) are similar to Woolf's.

Biographical evidence is not all that’s this theory together. In Mrs. Dalloway itself, we see her opinions on the institutionalization of the mentally ill and of the doctors treating these people through the voice of the narrator as well as Septimus. He also pursues the thought of suicide incessantly as she may have done until she drowned herself in 1941. Since we see her thoughts reflected through Septimus, is it unlikely that her worldview be featured in Mrs. Dalloway as well? Virginia Woolf’s feminist views seem to more or less be brought out by Mrs. Dalloway (though more in Sally) with her atheism and her decision to go buy the flowers herself.

Though this is a stretch, there are some interesting coincidences popping up between Woolf’s life and the lives of Septimus and Mrs. Dalloway’s. There is still a lot to read, and so a lot more character to see from Clarissa and her costar, but so far from what has presented itself in the text, it may be possible that Mrs. Dalloway and Septimus are stylized representations of different aspects of Virginia Woolf’s psyche.

Here's a link to the main article I referenced for her biography.

Welcome to my flea market.