Hate Crimes?

As I am reading further into Fledgling I realize that this story doesn't directly correlate with race but instead with hate crime in general. Hate crime in general terms is targeting a victim because of his or her membership in a certain social group. Within the first 60 pages the reader did not know the identity of the vampire girl that gave the reader a chance to know the girl without an actual connection to who she is; it seems like the reader was able to ease into the novel and understand who she is. But when the reader found out the girls name, Shori, the reader also finds out that her "family" was hurt and killed. And since the families in this community were vampires, people are scared that they die from vampires, instead of understanding them, they want to get rid of them first.

A Small Vampire

“I didn’t care whether I hurt or killed the gunman. I had knocked him unconscious when I hit him. Now I took his blood because he’d spilled mine, and because suddenly, I was in pain. Suddenly, I needed to heal. He was lucky I was aware enough not to take his flesh,” (45).

Octavia Butler certainly has brought an interesting novel into the universe, to say the least. The first 60 pages the young vampire girl whom is in first person narration, does not give us a name of who she is. But instead, she gives a detail description of what she is thinking as a vampire, that is a little creepy to me; diving into a “killers” mind.

One of the most disturbing parts during the first part of the book I think, at least, that she is a small girl that is in her early teens. So when she comes into contact with the first person, a man, and hops into the truck with him was weird at first. With the first instinct as I was taught since I was very little, do not get into cars with strangers—BEWARE! We find out soon that his name is Wright, but he takes her to his place into the woods. The disturbing part comes when Wright and this girl kiss and want to sleep together. But with this comes a bigger relationship connection between Wright and this girl. After the part where the two kiss is followed by the girl getting shot and needing to heal. We also find out that she can heal by herself, but she needs fresh meat to eat. It would be easy for her to find the meat since Wright is there with her, however she becomes too concerned about not hurting him, “He didn’t understand. “I’m serious, Wright, I could hurt you. I might not be thinking clearly when I wake up,” (46). Just a quick prediction for the book is that because the vampire has some feelings I think that she is part human- not full vampire. The full vampire, I believe, would not care about killing a human being and she is now attached to Wright.

Different Heaven

This is an addition from the previous post topic...

As I was finishing the novel I came across another reference to heaven. It is interesting how the different way that heaven is referred to from the start of the book, compared to the ending. This is speaking of when and how a religion is formed, "The elevator world will look like Heaven but not the Heaven you have reckoned," (241).

I want to bring this up in class in about an hour, so hopefully we will have time so I can make something out of this...

Heaven and Elevators... What?!

The Intuitionist is just one of those books. I really don't know how else to describe the book. I was a little confused when I started reading, especially since it is about elevators. Trying to wrap your mind around the idea that this book is talking really about something else, very abstract. Just the thought that it can be describing race, identity, etc... is very hard to figure out. However, once you get going into the novel, it is a mystery (picturing it all in black and white) and because it is a mystery, I want to know what happens.

With that said, I wanted to talk alittle bit about my favorite part of the book. It is the beginning of the novel, however, it is still my favorite, "But who can resist the seductions of elevators these days, those stepping stones to Heaven, which make relentless verticality so alluring? While the architects understand that the future is up, the future is in how high you can go, it is difficult to shake old habits," (16).

You can look at this passage in a couple ways. The first way is giving hope for the future and ambition. The elevator can represent the future with high hopes. Stepping into the elevator, or the alluring aspect of the elevator is that it is the faith and hope for the future that everybody wants. At first, I thought of seduction as a sexual thought, wondering why they are so seducting, but that is not what Whitehead was going for. To shake the old habits is to get rid of the bad thoughts and feelings and worries of the future.

With that said, most of the novel is about finding identity and looking for an answer. And that quote helps summarize that hope. The main character, Lila Mae, needs to find that hope for her future since she is accused of something that she did not do. And as one of the intuitionists, elevator inspector, she is some-what guiding and repairing that hope for others around her. But the one part of the book that is opposing this idea is her personality.

Lila Mae has an invisible personality, or so it seems. She is invisible to others and does not seem to care that she is and her personality is always, "That's the kind of person Lila Mae is," (47) in reference to anything she does. That is the only part of this theory that does not fit. But, I think that the elevator represents life after death: life being suspended in purgatory, up for heaven and decending into hell.

Lilia Mae: The Intuitionist

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into the next novel: The Intuitionist. Knowing the history of the United States during this time seems to be crucial, especially the first interaction of Lilia Mae Watson. Characters are defined by and relate to one another through their differences more than their similarities. Gender, race, and philosophical positions (i.e. empiricism versus intuition) are all causes for difference. The time is set at the point when Civil Rights movement is beginning and women still are not in the work-force. As the reader looks at Lilia Mae, she is a “colored” woman and an intuitionist. The reaction she receives is expected for that time, “the man’s lips arch up toward his nose and Lilia Mae understands that he’s never seen an elevator inspector like her before,” (4). Since times were changing the man had a hard time taking Lilia Mae seriously, especially after the inspection. He did not really believe her and gave her a hard time about her finalized inspection. I think the first chapter is a preview for the rest of the book.

Marriage Turmoil

In an interview that I came across on the internet with Edward P. Jones I noticed that his mother was divorced when he was a small child. Then, I started thinking about a couple of his stories, more specifically, In the Blink of God's Eyes and Tapestry. In these two stories, the main characters are married, but in the end are disappointed and upset at the end. Although Jones said, in the interview, that he does not like creating characters relating to real life situations or people in his life, it seems that there was a correlation. Perhaps because Jones did not see a happy marriage when he was smaller, he did not bring the marriage issue in his book to be left in a happy light.

Religious Connections with Short Stories

Throughout All Aunt Hagar’s Children I noticed that there were endless Biblical references, whether if it to the Devil, God, Jesus, the Spirit, so on and so forth there are one in just about every short story Edward P. Jones wrote. These Biblical references come in many different forms in the stories.

In The Devil Swims Across the Anacostia River, it is one of the easier short stories to breakdown the religious aspect since it revolves around the conversation between the Devil and Laverne in Safeway. In this conversation, it explains that, “the body will say it and you will take it as gospel. But they had not told her what to say, what do, whether to run or go forward and attack him with the fury of an angel doing God’s work,” (272). Okay, in other words this is what it means… the body will rewrite the truth from what actually happened in a situation. For this particular instance, Laverne’s grandmother died and she believes that her grandmother tried to walk on water and the Devil made her die. However, is that the truth? Or did Laverne rewrite a new gospel, or book to what happened. In this situation, Laverne did not know whether to be upset that the Devil was at Safeway, with her, or whether the Devil was doing God’s work; cleaning up behind God. In this setting, “the Devil was telling the truth, and she knew this, though just an hour ago it would not have mattered one way or another,” (289) and it was up to Laverne to take it to re-write a new version of the truth for herself. If there is trouble in one’s life, those who are religious take this time to turn to their faith, to hope for the future so that it will be better than the past—to rewrite the Devil out of it.

In A Poor Guatemalan Dreams of a Downtown in Peru, there were a few Biblical references throughout the story; however, the ending of the book is the reason as to why this story stood out. In the end when Arlene and her husband are headed on another “journey.” In these references, Jones refers to going to heaven (or so it seems), “she could see the eternal road emerge almost miraculously from the valley, still crooked, still shimmering, still full of humanity,” (161). In this passage from the story it is full of hope because of the word choices: miraculously, shimmering, full of humanity. First of all, miraculously is a law of nature and is held to a supernatural in origin or an act of God, which in itself seems for something for people to be hopeful for. Shimmering is not necessarily hopeful, however, it is still something to bring happiness. To shimmer can be related to heaven by the reference of angels that are shown as bright and shimmering in society. Which turns around to bring hope to people. Last, “full of humanity” seems to be self explanatory; full referring to the entire part and humanity as to people. It is hopeful for the entire world of people. In the beginning of the story it talks about miracles as well, “there had been miracles after miracles, each one reaching down and snatching her back from death while forsaking all the souls- loved and unloved by her…” (133). This short story is to give hope to the readers.

In the other short stories in this novel by Jones, as a single reader, I found a lot of hope for the future when there was Biblical discussions. This is the main theme which flowed through all of the stories was hope that God will guide no matter the situation, “ But our all-seeing God is a money God and knows money backwards and forwards. He will guide you,” (309). Since the world seems mean and unforgiving in all of these stories, there is a place which the people need to look to relieve the stress and to wish that something else, something better will become of their situations. In these stories, the main characters need help and need guidance in their lives, but the one thing about this novel is that each of the stories has different characters that make the stories different for people to relate to the unique situations.

Life and Death

I think my favorite short story in All Aunt Hagar’s Children has to be, thus far, is The Devil Swims Across the Anacostia River. First off, probably because Jones used Safeway, specifically, in his story creating this question throughout the story as to why is he using this store? And even at the end of the story, the reader is left hanging, wondering and questioning many different aspects of the story. But even with those characteristics, the thing which tops the list is the passage on 288. This specific passage seems to describe the entire book and even life in general.

"Himself lets no one die. Himself doesn’t have the power of life and death. You die cause you wanna die. You live cause you wanna live. The Devil closed the imaginary book."

It is interesting that the Devil said this to her because the Devil is telling her that she has the option whether to listen to him or to run in the other direction. Which tells Laverene that her grandmother had the choice of sinking to the bottom or living. Only you, yourself have the real power of your mind; if you let somebody talk you into doing something then you can only blame yourself. For example, who do you blame if you are addicted to drugs—the drugs themselves or you. Since you may have tried the drug once, created an addiction and your body cannot live without it, is it your mind or the drug making you keep this addiction. Because your body without the drug is not “normal” since it does not feel or react the same without it.

With that, Laverene does not want to know the truth that the Devil is telling her. The Devil, out of this story seems to be the one who is giving the truth, “The Devil was telling the truth, and she knew this, though just an hour ago it would not have mattered one way or another,” (289) even if it is hard to learn. And since she seems like she wants to give up, he is giving her flat out, the options. In the end, she was truly alone; she did not go back to her husband and her son. And it was her choice and it was the way she wanted to live.

A Poor Guatemalan Dreams of a Downown in Peru

In A Poor Guatemalan Dreams of a Downtown in Peru there are a couple of interesting aspects of this short story. The first theme that I would like to talk about is forming a family that is through situation and condition. In a sense, college students can relate to this situation. When students come to college, for the first time they are truly away from their parents and family. Who is their family? Each of the students have to create families of their own, to turn to in good times and in bad; somebody that feels like home. It seems threw the circumstances and situations, it can bond you to a person or people even more, thus creating another family.
But with that sense of family and being connected there can be this mystical, spiritual link. It can be served as a religious purpose or just a “kooky” feeling. However, in this book of A Poor Guatemalan Dreams of a Downtown in Peru it serves as a goodbye for family. And I have had this feeling before as well, with my great-aunt when she passed away about 4 years ago. I was at a high school production and I remember looking at the clock because it was the sword fight scene and I just had this sense of urgency to go home to be with my family. And with that, I thought of my aunt at that moment. However, when I arrived home later that night, my mom or dad didn’t say anything to me. The next morning I went and baby sat for a family, after I was finished and as I drove into the driveway, I knew what my parents were going to tell me; that my aunt had passed. So instead of the reality hitting me, I decided to sit in the car for a while. Nevertheless, I was correct. I walked inside, mom was crying and then I was told. I was close to my aunt, family and family friends told me that I was like her in many aspects. With that, my grandma was in Boston at the time with my aunt and they were also at a production, and around that time that the sword scene was on, about 7 in the evening (when she passed), in the other production, there were angels coming down. And both my aunt and grandma felt the same thing. Kooky, perhaps. Connection, perhaps. Spiritual, perhaps. Nobody will truly know. It is all perspective and what one believes in.
At the end of the short story, there were numerous connotations, referring to spiritual and religious ideals and beliefs. The Holy Cross was said numerous times, saying that she missed the Holy Cross, which can mean different things spiritually; not feeling as if one is connected to God not spiritually sound. Or, even, truly is missing the Holy Cross and needs to find it, in heaven. Also looking down at the “dusty sandals” which can refer to Jesus. But the interesting thing is that, if it does refer to the Christian belief and Bible, instead of it being a man, known as Jesus, it is referring to these aspects in a woman. Each of the parts at the end of the story remind, at least reminds me, of Jesus and heaven, “she could see the eternal road emerge almost miraculously from the valley, still cooked, still shimmering, still full of humanity…” (161). This could be them leaving, going to a new life or going to heaven to be with the Holy Cross.