Author: jazzy <3

For my research paper I will be focusing on both the text and film versions of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and the protagonist’s struggles in daily life as a teenage girl in America. I will utilize both texts and focus on specific scenes that stand out to the audience and make a definitive statement about how women and young girls are expected to fit into a predetermined box, especially if their skin is brown. expected of women.

Any and all forms of media and communication add to this supposed normalised version of womanhood/girlhood that depicts what is expected of women.Contemporary media has made strides to diversify the contents of their texts and keep up with the modern age that demands inclusivity, which includes spotlighting stories about Black women. That is what I plan to dig into!

I will read and watch The Hate U Give probably once or twice so that I will be able to analyze the texts with new eyes. I’ll probably take notes while I watch the movie and have tabs for the book so that I can single out sections in the book that I think are important to bring up and focus on.

Specifically in the movie I recall the scene where Starr makes a physical and metaphorical statement in response to her friend’s separation from Starr–who has tailored her words and behavior to the white environment around her–and other people of color in their school. Not only does Angie Thomas spotlight racism, but also colorism and microaggressions that people of color either keep quiet about and let it slide, or respond to it. My paper will be focusing on Starr’s agency as a young Black girl and the stereotypes that have already been stacked against her and individuals like her. As a Black woman myself I’m excited to really dig into the story and I’m curious to know what I’ll be able to put together.

Personally, academic writing is not my favorite. I’m very passionate about creative writing and would much rather do that instead, so research papers, analyses, anything of the sort are my least favorite. One paper that I recall consider to be one of my strongest was my final paper from Shakespeare I that tackled the topic of identity in Shakespeare’s comedic play Twelfth Night. While writing this paper I actually dove into the spiritual representation of identity, using Peter’s denial of Jesus to interpret Viola’s cross-dressing and how she did not feel safe revealing herself until her twin brother was confirmed to be alive and picked her identity out despite no one else knowing who she truly was. I had a lot of fun writing that paper because of the similarities that I saw between the two texts, and I got to write about something that is important to me and my interpretation of the play as a Christian.

Analyses are difficult to write because it is hard to focus on just one part of a text, especially if it is layered, and I think that is my weak point. When I write my mind jumps to points instead of putting the sentences together one at a time, so that might be why I struggle with them. Usually I try to frame my argument in a rough draft and look up pieces of evidence that I might use and go from there. Analyses can be fun when you are analyzing something you find interest in or something that you are curious about, it gives you an excuse to deep dive into a text and share what you’ve found with others.

For this post we had to put two texts in Gen-AI and relay what we’ve found, so I just used ChatGPT since that’s the most common program used. It brought up a point about menopause serving as a loss of femininity, which is something I considered but didn’t expect for it to have considered, so that was interesting. For Broughton’s “Mrs. Smith Longmainis” it mentioned that Mrs. Smith was treated as fragile and unstable which was gradually reducing her sense of self, and I agree with that. If any individual were constantly treated as though they were abnormal it would be isolating. Humans require connection in order to thrive and grow and to have better quality of life, so when you have the opposite going on it’s not strange to have a lapse in judgement or an emotional response. ChatGPT also brought up the psychological elements of the text revolving Mrs. Smith’s mental health and how the expectations of others caused her to feel mentally and physically constrained, but emotionally conflicted.

This is most definitely the case in today’s society. I can’t tell you how many social media posts I’ve seen arguing that humans were never supposed to have this much access to one another, which is a downside to technology. Everyone’s opinion, regardless of if you want it or not, can be expressed through faceless accounts on social media. You could jump down a rabbit hole as to why that’s dangerous and find hundreds of reasons.

If Mrs. Smith had access to social media, I wonder what her feed would look like. It can be a hit or a miss, sometimes, but you’ll always encounter people adamantly pressing their opinion to the forefront of any post. In that same respect some people argue that we should not be able to see our own faces so much because we overanalyze every detail. After analyzing it we reanalyze based on the current trends and beauty standards and still wind up unhappy. So if women in the 1800s felt as though they were no longer valuable after they reached a certain age, it’s not too surprising that we’re still facing that same issue centuries later. As a woman, your own definition of femininity changes as you age. In my opinion you can stretch that word to encompass any number of qualities, but as a person you always have value.

For class we’re staring almost halfway into Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body, and we were given the general background of what is about. I think it’s interesting to have a protagonist whose gender is unknown, but then I also think it was a little difficult to grasp because I kept trying to figure it out. To determine what the narrator was to make better sense of them. And what does that say about me?

We live in an age where you can quite literally present yourself as anything, and people say labels don’t matter until you offend someone whose label is important to them. It’s a constant back and forth of identity, but everyone wants to be something and belong somewhere. Even our narrator admits wanting to belong, but never reaches that point. They’ve always been dissatisfied and not compelled to sustain their love life, saying that “Love is not something you can negotiate” (77), which I find to be both true and false. Communication is arguably the most important part of a relationship, romantic or otherwise, and sometimes that involves adjusting perspectives. If you apply that to people you don’t even know and adjust your perspective a little, would that improve your understanding?

As far as the narrator’s identity, Winterson includes references and pieces of speech that can technically be interpreted as male or female, but I think those instances are also a reflection of the reader and what they’re used to seeing. Many people view individuals who are emotionally expressive as more feminine, and even though we see this protagonist cry we also see them be violent towards a woman–violence is often portrayed as a masculine trait/quality. This novel seems to probe at your biases by not giving you enough information to deduce gender, and that’s frustrating because who wants to read something that constantly causes you to reflect when literature is mainly consumed as entertainment? If all books denied you the possibility to escape from reality would you still love them? Exactly.

Oh boy! I’m upset with the ending.

Realistically I guess Edna couldn’t have ended up with Robert unless they were always hiding their affair, and we know she’s not happy with her marriage, but suicide?? Oh Edna :(( I think what drove her to it the most was because of what Madame Ratignolle said to her, “remember the children,” and since we already know Edna would not give herself for them, she must have felt utterly trapped by her position–and Robert’s disappearance worsened her condition. I wonder if before she went on that swim Edna considered pressing for a divorce, but then again that would have caused more issues to arise in the future regarding her social standing and her children, so I can see how claustrophobic she must have felt.

Edna’s suicide is reminiscent of the beginning of the book where she does not know how to swim, except we know that she learned–and for a while, she enjoyed it–so that implies that at some point in the last few pages where she went farther than necessary, she stopped and willingly drowned. All of her worries regarding her relationships with her family, friends, and the man she loves must have felt overwhelming and added a strain on her mental health to the point where she just wanted to let them all go in a manner of her own choosing. At least her passing was through her own decision, which is all she wanted anyway: Control over her own life.

Side note, out of curiosity I watched the film Grand Isle (1991) directed by Mary Lambert which is an adaptation of the novel and although it didn’t give off the same “coming of age/mid-life crisis” vibe on its own like the narration and prose in the novel did, it was cool to see the characters moving and speaking and interacting with each other. They really nailed Mademoiselle Reisz and Robert, but I wanted to see more of Edna second guessing herself and her behavior. I also don’t think there was a scene of her crying on Grand Isle at midnight, which was pivotal to her awakening, so there was already something missing from the production. Some of the cutscenes were abrupt but the soundtrack was absolutely beautiful. Overall, I enjoyed experiencing both texts!

The prose of this story is very interesting and I enjoy how easy it is to get through the pages. They aren’t piled up with so much information that it’s unbearable to read or difficult to keep track of characters.

I love that the story is mostly revolving around Edna and her self-actualization. She seems to be confused with why she suddenly values herself as an individual—her own thoughts and feelings and talents are suddenly more appealing because she enjoys them—but I’m loving it for her. I Especially the line where she Edna is “resolved never never again to belong to another than herself” (208), there’s so much power in line like that. There was a change I noticed as well with the narration, that we were first introduced to Edna as Mrs. Pontellier, but now she’s mostly called Edna, while her husband is still referred to as Mr. Pontellier.

It might be a stretch but I think the intricate details described when Edna is going somewhere or with people seems like a nod to her artistry. She focuses on the build of people, the sharp edges and curves of their bones and muscles, the way color changes on their faces, etc. She’s very observant. It’s a shame that her husband notices that Edna’s become different, but he seems to despite her having her own thoughts or opinions. He’s not very understanding and is only focused on his view of things, while Edna is coming into herself. I’m wondering how she will dig further into these personal feelings and discoveries.

My initial reaction to The Awakening by Kate Chopin while I was reading was layered. The line “looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage” (Chopin 6) caused several thoughts to run through my brain. Starting with: “women = property? Not okay,” and second “Oh, they’re white” which isn’t much of a surprise, but the tone that I perceived when reading the word “burnt” made me cock my head to the side a little bit before moving on. I think it’s interesting that we’re reading a text that has French in it, and that we’ve started off with at least one married couple.

Mr. Pontellier is okayish? I guess. But his view on how his marriage should be going is a little strange. I can see how he would be upset that his kid is sick, but to say that his wife is failing them is a bit much. And also, he’s clearly comparing her to Mrs. Ratignolle who he describes as basically having everything his wife doesn’t. Being unhappy is not an excuse to accuse his wife of not caring about their children. He also thinks of her as property and doesn’t appreciate her so…nah.

Mrs. Pontellier crying on the porch immediately made me sympathetic to her, especially since she’s described as being “handsome” instead of beautiful, which I think she is insecure about. I really love her narrative and how she is slowly becoming a new version of herself that was somehow buried. Her and Robert’s dynamic was very interesting to read, and him deciding to leave after kind of making some headway with Edna (spending more time with her) felt abrupt, which I’m sure was on purpose. I think Robert is pretty chill. It’s lovely that he knows multiple languages. I’m actually really curious to know where this story is going.