The Fused Role of Voice in Children of Invention

In understanding the documentary movie Children of Invention, I believe that the movie includes two principles of voice from James Phelan article's "The Concept of Voice: Some Rhetorical Principles". I would like to combine the principle (1) "Voice is as much a social phenomenon as it is as individual one" (p.44) with other principles (2) "Voice is the fusion of style, tone, and values" (p.45). Furthermore, I see both principles in the same scene simultaneously. They are shown in the end of story when the family meets again and sees a bunch of advertisements of the pyramid scheme.

Phelan explains that "We recognize that voice not because we recognize the author to us the letter but because as social beings we have heard that voice speaks to us on other occasions" (p.45). That is, even though the letters do not have real voice as a vehicle, they are not "voiceless" by the fact that their voicelessness influences people much more than the voiced sound. For instance, when the family sees the bunch of advertisement, we can see a message through the letters of the advertisement that "the pyramid scheme is vice" because it represents the evil side of money marketing.

Furthermore, Phelan also explains that "There are markets of voice in diction and syntax, but the perception of voice also depends on inferences that we make about a speaker's attitude toward subject matter and audience. . . . and about the speaker's values" (p.45). This would mean that even though the statement which is presented by other people is same, the way to represent is totally different because the representation depends on the speaker's personality, the way to speak, and his then temper. When we encounter the advertisement before the mother's arrest, it would imply the risk and danger of the attempted multilevel marketing. However, after her arrest, the advertisement is implied differently as the symbol which brought ruin on the family.

Therefore, I believe the movie Children of Invention indicated us that voice can play several roles on people.

Witness to Self-Identify or Self-Identify to Witness?

#12 in thriteen questions in Children of Invention

Are we more equipped to self-identify or to witness/observe with narrator/characters?


Children of Invention tried to make audience "witness to self-identify" and "self-identify to witness". First of all, the film starts with a scene in which Elaine’s son, Raymond sneaks into the door and watches how people deceive each other for money and people are blindly agreed to join to the fake company. Just like Raymond we are designed to see the company as questionable and our witness starts without any knowledge. Though Elaine comes back to the place to earn profit, she doesn’t get any profit and even she faces an economic tragedy to sell her house and get out with their children. When she drives her car to home, she seems to know her fault. However, she tries another fake marketing job to overcome the situation. The director of the film, Chun said in his interview that he wrote the scenario based on his actual memory when he was young. Because it is not just dramatized imagination but most parts of the incidents in the film is originated from one’s past experience, was really prevailed in 1990s, the film specifically expose what happened to the people who are involved the notorious organizations and why they had to blindly choose the way. But when the film accuses the society and the people who are involved to illegal history as a particular phenomenon, the director also emphasizes their painful economic situation and desire to easily resolve as soon as possible. In this way, the director underlined people’s common emotions - fear and hope, which we may understand and feel if we assume we were in the same condition Elaine is now struggling. So we witness to self-identify.

However, the film starts to use another way of recognition after the beginning of the film. Because two young characters start to appear as main character, it provides to the audience familiar memory and thought most people used to have when they were around 10. For example, when Tina and Raymond wake up, they always see their mother hurry to go work. And they worry when Elaine doesn’t come early at night with feeling hunger. Though they fully don’t understand what she is doing and what actually it is, they perceive her job is related to the reason why they leave the home with wandering and why have to eat instant food all day, if they are left home. Suddenly, mom doesn’t come back, they are remained alone. In this time, they find out their home is sold and there is no one who can help them. Once we feel empathy to Tina and Raymond with familiar images and common memory, we start to see the world with a mask of two kids. Hence we may get an opportunity to feel how tragic episodes started to come to the member of family and how do they respond to the world which made their father or mother to participate into the pyramid schemes constantly. This approach tries to describe about what it’s like actually to live in a family which is involved into the fake marketing rather than explain or define the trend. So we identify to witness.

Two different viewpoints naturally change their turns and help to deliver the mixed viewpoints, the pyramid scheme threatening the family, and living in the family ruined by pyramid schemes. This composition helped me to think not just about the past social issue, but also individual's life within the issue.

Appearances of Apologia throughout "A Modest Proposal"

From Lyndsay's presentation, we were able to gather a sufficient understanding of the term apologia. Stated generally, apologia means a dramatization, or outstanding exaggeration. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word as, "A written defense or justification of the opinions or conduct of a writer, speaker, etc" (Oxford English Dictionary). Authors are able to utilize this literary technique in their writing in order to make their pieces more interesting, and appeal to a wider audience. 

In A Modest Proposal by Dr. Johnathan Swift, he analyzes the current economic standing of Ireland and offers a solution to help solve the poverty which has struck the country. He briefly describes the struggles that a person might face whilst living in the lower class, these struggles include: homelessness, lack of money, and starvation. Mr. Swift then states in a well-developed proposal, that the best way for Ireland to solve its problems and rise out of poverty would be for children, "at a year old, to be offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune, through the kingdom" (Swift 10). The proposal continues to provide techniques on how to correctly consume children, as well as multiple pieces of support. 

After reading through A Modest Proposal, it is clear that there is a significant amount of dramatization throughout the piece. When read in depth, it is clear that this outlandish statement is meant to serve a greater purpose to the country in general. Swift mentions how his plan would, "greatly lessen the number of Papists, with whom we are yearly over-run, being the principal breeders of the nation" (Swift 21). This draws the attention of the audience to the bigger situation, not so much poverty, but how the country is being ran. 

This piece is a political example of apologia. In a sense, it is ironic, and Johnathan Swift may be trying to point out the failed attempts of the Irish government concerning the country's economic status. Not only does it relate to readers in terms most people can understand, but it makes a clear criticism of Ireland and it's political leaders. 

"Double Voicing" in "Children of Invention"

Tze Chun describes his movie, “Children of Invention,” as largely autobiographical and reflective of his childhood. But, the movie itself is fictional. This creates an interesting dynamic, which I think is best described in Phelan’s essay. “The voice of a narrator can be contained within the voice of an author, creating what Bakhtin calls the situation of “double-voiced” discourse” (Phelan 46). The hope that Elaine feels when she is at the meeting for the pyramid scheme is false. The viewer gets a feeling that something is not right about the scheme and has knowledge that Elaine does not share without “be[ing] signaled by any direct statement.” Instead, the viewer picks up on “nonlinguistic clues as the structure of the action” (Phelan 46). The instance of the meeting characterizes the author because the viewer picks up on his skepticism of the scheme. This “double-voice” mirrors the relationship between the director, Tze Chun, and his childhood self, so that the viewer can learn from his experiences and critique the situations he is depicting.

http://www.childrenofinvention.com/dirstatement.htm

#3 How does Tze Chun “construct” us as an audience?

As Ryosuke demonstrated in class, he showed us a graph illustrating how audience construction occurs. It starts with the sender then the process continues with the receiver, the frame of the genre then how we, as the audience, perceive the information presented. The “sender” is the narrator of the film, Children of Invention, and the immediate relationship is that the media is presented as a film. As the audience watches the film we instantly start thinking about the imagery outside of what we see on the screen. The audience is constructed in such a manner that we can relate and connect with the characters in the film through watching their body language, emotions and their reactions. As we watch the film, we relate their emotions with ours in our own lives. As the audience, we are able to connect with the characters because we see their struggle and relate emotionally. Tze presents his film in such a way that we witness the families’ lives day to day. The audience engages with the characters as if we were living their lives with them. Tze constructs his audience by showing the characters emotions and feelings, because he does this we are able to feel like the characters

Epistolary and Uplift

Pamela as an epistolary novel consists of countless letters written by Pamela and her parents. Once we open the cover, we can clearly assume how long her parents couldn’t see their daughter and how they miss each other borrowing Pamela’s letters. Because direct conversation is impossible that they deliver their regards with paper and we as readers observe it. Therefore, the narration tells her story not to us but her parents that it raises an aesthetic distance between the narrator and the readers. Besides, there are more novels which accepted this narration style. Alice Walker’s novel, the Color Purple, is drawing a girl who extremely abused by her father that she writes letters to the God because what she suffered was beyond her control that she had to find someone to reveal her inner heart and share the truth. From these two examples, I found a common characteristic. They both have special reasons for writing letters to tell the story and actually this does not seem that they have intention of telling the stroy for readers.

Innocence in "Children of Invention"

Innocence plays a large role in the movie "Children of Invention." Elaine is a single mother who is trying her best to raise her children while also supporting all of them financially. As an immigrant to America, she is unaware of the dangers of pyramid schemes and gets involved with them very quickly. It is because of her naivete that Elaine puts her and her family in danger, as the children are often left alone and hungry.

The children, too, are very innocent as they are hopeful enough to think that they could earn a million dollars by selling toy inventions that they created. They too put themselves in danger by leaving their apartment and traveling to Boston alone.

Though innocence is portrayed throughout the entire movie, I feel that the author tried to convey the differences between naivete and innocence. Though both the children and Elaine do not know any better when it comes the situations they enter and are dealt with poor living conditions, the audience will likely feel more empathy for the children. I feel that this is because more is expected of an adult, especially when they have the responsibility of raising a family. However, this is why I feel the author showed the scene of Elaine in the jail cell. I feel that much of her innocence was portrayed as we come to realize that she was sincerely fooled. It is this moment, for me, that I felt as much empathy for Elaine as I felt for her children.

In "Narrative as Rhetoric" James Phelan makes four main points, as well as two other statements about the term 'voice'. Of these six ideas, says Phelan, three move the concept of voice "away from style and toward character", while two "move the concept back toward style" (Phelan 48). The left over point states that "voice exists in the space between style and character", putting this point into the middle ground, merely near style (Phelan 47).

Phelan's first three rules set the tone for the rest of the essay. If audience is to take the order of rules to rank significance, then the fact that voice moves toward character would be most important. However, Phelan states that the two points that move voice back towards style are the consequence of all the other points he makes, thus making an interesting claim: In showing the distance between voice and style, Phelan says, one also connects the two back together.

An explanation for this almost paradoxical idea might be made in Phelan's fourth point. Voice "exists as a trait of the speaker". This relates to style in that the style is also a trait of the speaker. Neither is possible without the speaker who is the instigator and maker of both. However the speaker is also what differentiates the style and voice, deciding what is pertinent in each situation.

#4 "Metaphorai" in Children of Invention

# 4) How can we use “metaphorai” (Schirato/Web 82) help explain this film (Children of Invention)?

In “Visual Narratives” by Tony Schirato and Jenn Web, Michel de Certeau defines metaphorai, root word: Metaphor, as “a bus or a train, stories could also take this noble name: everyday, they traverse and organize places; they select and link them together” (Schirato/Web 81). In Children of Invention directed by Tze Chun, metaphorai can help explain this film by allowing us to see the journey the characters are on. In the beginning of the film we see that Elaine, the mother, loses her job with Vitafuture, while losing a lot of money in the process. In result of losing her job, she can no longer pay for her house which leads the mother, Raymond and Tina to live in a vacant apartment complex. This living situation is completely secret because they complex are not open to the public yet. After moving to the apartment we witness the hardships of taking care of children and not having a lot money to take care of them. Elaine calls many companies, in hopes of getting another job to support her family but nothing comes from it. Until Elaine goes to an informational party, with her children, she gets involved with a pyramid scheme job.

Although we have not finished the movie, we see the journey Elaine and her children are on. The process that she goes through, including the emotion and frustration, is obvious for the audience to see and be effected by. Metaphorai can help us explain and understand the film to us because we see where the family has been and how they are dealing with day to day hardships. When a film practices “metaphorai”, the audience is more involved and easily constructed that way.

How the Movie "Children of Invention" Construct us as Audience.

Although we have not finished watching the movie Children of Invention yet, I would like to describe how we are constructed as audience by this movie. Furthermore, I am going to connect my Audience-Construction theory and today's part of the movie which is supported by the director's statement of on-line website.

In this movie, any specific narrator does not exist like as the movie Up the Yangtze. Therefore, it would be able to say that the characters do not send any messages to us observably. In spite of the fact, we are leaded into same field of the genre, namely "poverty" and "loneliness". This movie would be composed that we are easy to be received the impression of the both genres because some scenes are composed to emphasize the genre of poverty and loneliness. For instance, it must be clear that their poverty are shown obviously by these scenes which they do not have a steady and secure housing and which two young children eat a convenience food because of hungry. Furthermore, the loneliness of two young children would be shown by the scene that the children are appeared alone with expressionless, for example the brother is playing video game so long time in a toy's store. While we are watching this movie casually, I believe we are leaded into these genres unconsciously.

The director says that "When I wrote the film, I was writing a personal story about the world I grew up in - a subculture of American trying to get-rich-quick in order to get themselves out of a financial hole" on website. That is, most of the audience of this movie would develop their discussion which is based on the character's financial situation and "moral". For instance, some of the audience may argue for and against the mother's behavior that she takes part in "a pyramid scheme" in spite of the fact that she has precious children, even if she does for unwittingly.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman does NOT want to be a man, actually...

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short narrative “If I Were a Man…” is a perfect example of a few of James Phelan’s rules in “The Concept of Voice”, in that Phelan’s narrative gives structure to the voice of Mollie Mathews through Gerald. Basically, Gilman may offer the audience a beautifully wrapped treat but, when unwrapped, it gives a sharp bite. I would like to look at this narrative’s peculiar voice with only Phelan’s first two rules.

Phelan’s 4 Rules:

1) Voice is as much a social phenomenon as it is an individual one.

2) Voice is the fusion of style, tone, and values.

3) The presence of the author’s voice need not be signaled by any direct statements on his or her part but through some device in the narrator’s language – or indeed through such nonlinguistic clues as the structure of the action – for conveying a discrepancy in values or judgments between author and narrator.

4) Voice exists in the space between style and character.

Rule number 1 states that Voice is prevalent throughout a piece of literature and isn’t always tacked to one phenomenon within the script. Phelan states that “wherever there is discourse there is voice”(44), so what he means is that in any form of communication, whether its between characters or the audience and author, there is always the style and utterance of the author’s influence. In Gilman’s narrative, her voice’s style is acutely charming sarcasm. At first the audience is swayed with the sweetness of it, but as lines reveal themselves, it is harder and harder to consider these statements as valid and innocent. For example, Mollie’s character description, “Little, of course—no true woman may be big. Pretty, of course—no true woman could possibly be plain” (170). What seem like compliments are merely demoralizing degradations of women as a whole. ‘Little’ can mean anything from inferior, weak, and vulnerable, to no-intelligence, powerless, and cowardly. ‘Pretty’ may seem like a legitimate compliment until one sees the pressure and stress presented with the word; you are not a woman unless you are beautiful in the eyes of a man. Her words are manipulative in a half-conscious way, writing in a smooth delightful style but throwing in these contrasting comparisons. In fact, Gilman’s voice likes to curl slyly about her word choices and careful syntax, subtly creating a conflict in ideals. Men are “erect and square-shouldered” with always the “last word” in their ears, and “the right size” with good feet that were “firm and solid on the ground” (170-171) while women are presented in the light above as little, foolish, and silly. This flaunting of masculinity as a form of superiority illustrates the chasm between the ideal man and the ideal woman, where the man is powerful and reasoned and the woman is weak and whimsical. This contrast offers the conflict within the narrative some principle, and through her voice Gilman reveals this depth of interaction.

Rule 2 is closely hand-in-hand with Rule 1, as in the description of voice. Rule 1 focuses on prevalence of the voice, while Rule 2 focuses on the character of the voice. The voice is a fusion of the author’s intent, what does he/she setting out to show or prove? How will he/she pursue that goal? “Style will reveal the register of a voice” (45) and through Gilman’s personal style she charms as well as educates her audience. Tone will sway the audience to her angle, she sets the voice to a specific influx and the audience responds to that stimulus. When Mollie as Gerald begins speaking about the hats of the people on the train, Gilman gets us to see the men’s hats as “sensible” and “dignified”, while the women’s hats are “foolish” and “tipped, twisted, [and] tortured into every crooked shape” (172). What we perhaps would previously have perceived as a ‘boring man hat’ or an ‘extravagant woman hat’ has now been flipped and shaped into a whole new perception due to Gilman’s purpose of literary code switching. The voice persuades our views as the story continues when Gerald is talking to the other men on the train. Each offers their belittling understandings of women, such as “They haven’t much mind to make up, you know”, “The real danger is that they’ll overstep the limits of their God appointed sphere”, “Their natural limits ought to hold ‘em… you can’t get around physiology”, and my personal favorite “[they] brought evil into the world” (174-175). Each of these comments is presented to show the values of men who are blind in superiority, and Mollie/Gerald’s next statements cut them back down to size. Here is where Gilman gives her voice a clear ringing, no longer hiding in the cloud of charming sarcasm. Mollie/Gerald’s statements are Gilman’s entire purpose of writing the narrative, flashing about her feminism and oppression through the mouth of a perceived man. She touches on the smarts of a woman as well as athletic endurance, saying how both have the ability to surpass any man. But here is the overall point she makes, “women are pretty much people,” (175) and she explains that women are trapped in a system that men make and how any form of trying to be sensible has them tabooed and alienated, for as she says, “if a woman is courageous enough to wear common-sense clothes… [what man] wants to dance with her?” (175). In the society presented where all these men have enlarged egotistical superiority complexes, I would imagine none. This inference shows that in order for a woman to be loved, she must become that whimsical, charming fool, and nothing more ambitious. Gilman also retorts to the (not-so-holy-ever-loving) clergyman that even if women brought evil into the world, men are the ones who “keep it going” (175) and therefore are capable of much evil themselves.

This strong presentation of voice through style, values, tone, and discourse, encompass “If I Were a Man…” quite passionately. Here is where I find the most emotional connection between the audience and the narrative, which just happen to also be Phelan’s first two rules. This glue that holds the story to perception and meaning is critical to Gilman’s (and countless other women’s) purpose between 1900 and 1930, which was women’s suffrage and other equal rights. Emotion triggers a reaction that can lead to a response in the form of action, Phelan helped define these triggers while Gilman pushed for the right reaction.

Naturalism in Lynch Law

Though Ida B. Wells-Barnett writes from the perspective of a woman who is clearly affected disturbed by lynchings, I feel that "Lynch Law" might still be considered a naturalist piece. Wells-Barnett's intentions is to inform while also instilling a sense of logic and patriotism, therefore her mode of presentation seems detached because she is trying to present facts. Her description is also vividly detailed as to persuade her audience.

Though one might say it seems that she is too affected by lynchings to call this a naturalist piece, I feel that it actually is because of the author's intention and use of logic of factual evidence.

Class Discussion about Construction Diagram

Professor Graban asked us if there was any novel or literature piece that doesn’t follow the diagram of audience construction. I think that every literature piece has to follow this diagram. I think that every piece does because, at least for me, I always visualize what I perceive, regardless if I am reading, listening or looking at literature. I found this lecture interesting because in a lot of ways, current media corrupts viewers in such a way of wanting to be just like what they see and read about. Every aspect of what individuals take in as information is processed and is usually acted upon. This can be a good but also a bad thing because it would inflict positive behavior but also maybe negative behavior. Overall, I do not think that there is any type of media such as novels and literature that does not follow Ryosuke’s diagram.

"Our Nig" as an Anti-Sentimentalist Novel

As we discussed in class, "Our Nig" can be considered an Anti-Sentimentalist novel. However, it is important to read the background information provided with the novel as it can play a large role on how one would characterize the genre.

Freeman chooses not to dwell on her short-lived marriage in the story as she focuses on issues that can be considered more difficult, or issues that men could handle. In this sense, we can label the story anti-sentimentalist because she constructs the audience to view her in a more masculine role by leaving minimal room for attachment. To dwell on her emotional ties with her husband would be less convincing to the audience of her tough interior.

The audience could say the same about the death of her son, however, this is why it is important to read the background information that comes with the story. We learn that only a year later her son died and that is why his death is not included in the story. Had we not realized his death came after, we might think she purposely excluded this from the novel.

Metaphorical Identification and Experience as Exigency

When we encounter the description of metaphor, how do we understand the implied meaning as metaphor? When I consider this question, the idea of exigency occurred in my mind because it seems to work like the mental image for understanding an icon. We can understand the meaning of an icon in spite of the fact that the icon is not the meaning itself because we use the mental images which are already present in our way of thinking to figure out the relationships between the icon and the meaning. In other words, the mental images are our exigency.

According to Killingsworth, we also use our experience as exigency to figure out the meaning of metaphor. Killingsworth explains that "Along these lines we can also suggest that appeals to the body, built upon a network of metaphorical identifications, form the foundation for most of the other appeals

• Appeals to time link metaphorically with the experience of the aging body.
• Appeals to place link with the spatial experience of the living body, including the perception of natural phenomena such as gravity, weather, topography, and the seasons. The body is the place of places, where the self resides.
• Appeals to gender link with the bodily experience of maleness or femaleness, including the awareness of bodily features and functions such as hormonal fluctuations as well as societal injunctions and limits on behavior.
. . . . Because of its power to invoke the aid of the body in understanding, metaphor deserves close attention in the crafting and analysis of rhetorical appeals" (p. 126). In terms of the interpretation of the meaning, if we believe the statement as it is, we cannot see the implied meaning because it is hidden on purpose.

Just like we understand the icon, the metaphor would not be present without our experience learned through life. Therefore, we have to use our experience as exigency unconsciously in order to identify the implied meaning in the metaphor as real meaning.

Allegorical impact

After reading Freeman’s short story, the revolt of mother, I felt that the story is not just simply about the new barn but it represents more hidden messages in a certain perspective and draws another story from outside of the novel. The reason is that the narrator excessively focused on an object and its surrounding at many times which provided me additional extended relations with the building.

Hence I came to feel this phenomenon hold a kind of allegorical effect: the “turn of thought” Right away, I tried to analyze the barn as tropes. First, I think Mrs. Penn’s preoccupancy to the barn stands as a metaphor for women’s effort to get back equality over men in patriarchal background. Mrs. Penn wants her husband to build a new house but Mr. Penn turns his back constantly to her wife and rigorously ignores her opinion as he had done for long, long time. This conventional stubborn attitude, I think, may be applied to many women in past days, because it reflects common pain (or anger) and inner responds, though Mrs. Penn is not the one directly related to or represents others. “I’m going to talk real plain to you; I never have sence I married you, but I’m going to now” (Freeman 1349). This dialogue, I thought it provides not just Mr. Penn’s anger but also other women’s emotion (who victimized by the other gender), because it’s so appealing and constructing “common ground”. I would say an image of a woman’s pain and effort to take equality helped me to identify broader images.

However, I think whether accepting metaphor or not depend on the context and personal understanding that it may differ person to person. And also it depends on the specific view point- How the one sees the barn in the novel. Repeatedly, the barn was mentioned, I think it could be regarded as another trope, metonymy. Just like in Moby Dick Ahab associates the whale as his entire problem, Mrs. Penn in the revolt of mother tends to react excessively to an object as if it made her obey to her husband. The barn itself is not the only one crucial factor which made Mrs. Penn serve to her huseband without gaining any response. The barn was an only part of the entire problem. In the revolt of the mother, I tried to think about tropes in the novel. Finding different kinds of tropes at the same time, I found it’s hard to define as one trope because it may differ by the view point of the reader and the context.

Pamelastic Instruction

In introduction of Our Nig, the editor pointed out the novel’s similarity to Pamela in terms of seduction novel. Hence, I decided to look up what kinds of common characteristics are found in the beginning of the two novels.

First of all, in the preface of Pamela, it says that the novel’s purpose is not only to “entertain” but also “instruct” and “improve” young people. In its seduction plot, material and sexual allurement is provided by Mr. B, Pamela’s new master, right after her mother died. As he first approaches to her, he didn’t show his plot to possess her sexually, but with merely mentioning his died mother as an excuse and giving to her a dress, and helping to stay in the house. At this point, the young poor servant girl sees him an angel as if he is giving deliverance. “These good things to us both with such a graciousness, that I thought he looked like an angel.”(Pamela p11) “O this angel of a master! This fine gentleman!”(Pamela p16)

However several days after the day giving her the presents, surprisingly, the gentle master threatens Pamela with sexual approach promising her social elevation. This sudden change in Mr. B not only shocked her but also shocked her readers. And the novel’s fast twist seemed to help readers think about moral values effectively, while watching Pamela who resists very strongly. Even though she was in a desperate situation, she didn’t choose an easy way – she sold herself by giving up her conscience.

Likewise, Our Nig shows that the temptation is too hard to overcome, when it comes, by listening to Mag’s experience, we are taught how difficult it is to notice and practice it. “It seemed like an angel’s alluring her upward and onward. She thought she could ascend to him and become an equal.” (Wilson 5) Though Mag repeatedly violates her moral conscience, it definitely sends a message how hard to resist the temptation to keep social (and self) virtues for keeping herself when she was in hard times. While Pamela, as an epistolary novel, indirectly instruct readers with a voice saying to her parents which includes her strong determination, Our Nig shows a part in which the author directly require readers’ moral decisions directly. “You can philosophize, gentle reader, upon the impropriety of such unions, and preach dozens of sermons on the evils of amalgamation.”(Wilson 9)

Both novels tried to instruct readers with showing the character’s two possible choices which are morally opposed to each other. Living easily with accepting the false love, or living miserable with keeping social and personal norms. However the structure of the novels and the way to tell the story somewhat are different and also the characters’ decision to the trouble were different.

I used Pamela by Richardson, the revised text of 1801

Garland Publishing, Inc., New york & London

Audience Construction- Our Nig

As we just learn from Ryosuke, an audience is being constructed with any type of media that we are exposed to. After reading “Our Nig” and learning about audience construction, I think that anyone that reads “Our Nig” will be constructed in some way. As Harriet Wilson tells her story, the reader begins to feel sad or angry for Frado. With all of the detail that Wilson includes in her book, she connects with her readers on an emotional level. Wilson’s main goal was not to make you feel bad for her but to pass on her story and make it known. Although her main goal was for people to buy her book, she also achieved the control of the reader’s reaction. I think that Wilson does this through her words and how she arranges them. As Ryosuke was saying on Tuesday, regardless the time that the piece of literature was written, that the author and the reader are not in the same century, we can still receive our reaction by reading the book. Therefore, Wilson did well at constructing the reader to feel that way she wanted in this book to be portrayed. The agency of the book would be the genre section, which is that “Our Nig” is about a free black being treated let she was never free and the exigency was how we connected with the author and whether or not we related to the book.

Gender and Metonymy

In Charlotte Gilman's "If I Were a Man" we can see the sort of environment that could bring about the use of metonymy, as described in Jimmie Killingsworth's "Appeal Through Tropes". Killingsworth says that metonymy "works by substituting a thing for a closely associated... thing" (Killingsworth 127). Several displayed attitudes in "If I Were a Man" demonstrate the "tendency of metonymy to objectify and depersonalize people" (Killingsworth 128).

Mollie as Gerald focuses on the frivolous hats of the women that she passes but she does not give them any more concern than Gerald might. She notices women's hats, "on that hair...at every angle, in all colors, tipped, twisted, tortured" (Gilman 172). It is apparent that she and the men that she associates with feel that the ridiculousness of the hats characterize the actions of women, in general.

One many that Gerald rides with mentions the limits that physiology naturally puts on women. However another man disputes this, saying that women are not hampered when it comes to "what they want" (Gilman 174). It seems that men characterize the women that they know based on one attribute; the female focus on what is desirable. The men believe that this feature is innate in every woman. This is similar to the idea of metonymy and easily brings to light the idea of substituting one associated thing for the entirety.

It is important to note that Gilman's writing also shows the ease with which metonymy is applied to men by women. Through Gerald's eyes, Mollie notes that she had always distinguished men by one certain fact, such as who they were married to or how wealthy they were. As Mollie talks to the men though, she is surprised by the amount knowledge that it take to "[know] men" (173). It seems that through her flip-flop of bodies, Mollie is able to break down a bit of her own metonymy, as well as work on that of the men she meets.

Irony as a Trope in Our Nig

In class we discussed the relationship between Our Nig and our unit of “Uplift” and the and Wilson’s moralistic message. The situational irony of the entire novel, acts as a trope to show the reader the moral of the novel.
Killingsworth describes several steps that novelists use with irony to bring moralistic messages to light. The first step is “creating an inner circle of a first and second persona --”I” and “you” (Killingsworth 132). This happens in Our Nig as Frado and her past are introduced. There is distance in time between Frado and the modern reader and distance in class between Frado and the original reader. These are the personas, “I” and “you.”
The second step is “to bring “I” and “you” into alignment under the banner of a shared values --or in the case of the appeal to gender, a shared situation of struggle or oppression -- to create a plural first persona, a “we” --and then to designate a third persona, “them” (Killingsworth 132). This “struggle” takes place in a northern house, the ironic aspect. The reader comes to sympathize with Frado, and they are set against her oppressors, including those that let it happen.
The third step is to “stand against “them,” the oppressors or their accomplices” (Killingsworth 132). This is the moral in Our Nig. Not only is the reader supposed to support Wilson by buying the book, he or she is supposed to take action to fix the oppression.
So, based on Killingsworth’s steps, Our Nig is an example of the use of irony as a trope.

The Skeptical Attitude for Understanding

I think the readers tend to easily believe that statement of any literature works directly. In other words, they do not doubt the author's point of view, in spite of the fact that it is possible that the text has many other points of view. Although it is natural that people consider the interpretation from what is intended by the author, the way to read any text would take away the opportunity that the reader can obtain other information in same time. Therefore, I agree with Killingsworth in his article Appeal Through Tropes when he mentions about the skeptical attitude.

Killingworth says that "The skeptical attitude suggested in the practice of irony hints toward a critical method that goes back to Plato and that took on new force in the early modern treatment of wit and judgment. In the tradition of the English philosopher John Locke, wit involves the recognition of similarities, sometimes surprising similarities, judgment involves the recognition of difference. . . . We can expand this skeptical practice into a simple critical method for testing the robustness of tropes. Apply this general rule: If someone says that two things are similar to one another, try thinking of their difference. If someone says that two things are different, try thinking of them as similar" (p. 134). That is, when the reader uses this method to read any text, they might be able to obtain other interpretations of the text. For instance, when we read the novel Our Nig by Harriet E. Wilson, it seems to be clear that Frado's nature and character is totally different from Mrs.Bellmont's because the relationship is also really clear that Mrs. Bellmont rules everything. However, when the readers use the skeptical attitude, they would be able to see that Frado is in loneliness and a tragic state because of the discrimination and the prejudice. She is really afraid of being a minority in this story.

However, I think Mrs. Bellmont would be also afraid to be the minority. Of course, one of the reasons why she attacks Frado cruelly is based on the idea of discord. Furthermore, I believe that other reason is based on her human nature. Generally speaking, people are afraid of being minority in terms of the power of number. Then this information can be evidence of her fear that when the members of her family treat Frado kindly, she is angry and tries to make an ally of Mary in her side. Even though the relationship between both of them is really separate, I believe that their nature as human is similar.

I could only discover this idea after reading with a "skeptical attitude". Using the attitude would mean that the readers can see the works objectively.

If I Were a Man related to She’s the Man, the movie

When I started reading If I Were a Man, I instantly thought about one of my favorite movies, She’s the Man. She’s the Man is about a girl’s soccer team that is cut for the season due to financial issues within the school; since she, Viola, has such a passion for soccer she searches many avenues to play soccer that school year. Viola proves that girls can do anything guys can do by disguising herself as her twin brother to play soccer. She goes on to making the boys teams and winning against their biggest rival. When reading If I Were a Man, about Mollie Mathew turning into Gerald Mathewson, I think about what such a passion she must have had about being a woman and making it known. In the beginning of the article, we experience this transition with Mollie as she is understanding the norms for being a male (p 171). One day Mollie, Gerald at the moment, starts talking to her neighbors. A discussion about women verses men begins and Gerald states the question, “Haven’t we known girls in school and college just as smart as we were?” (p 175). As the conversation starts to heat up, the debate goes back and forth between whether or not women can play football or not and as well as what the woman’s role is. Gerald says, “Women are pretty much people, seems to me?” meaning that there is no difference between men and women and who they are in general (p 175).

After reviewing both, the article and the movie, it is true that when people, women for example, what to make a point, they go after their intentions. The intentions of these two women were to prove a point to the men that they are worthy of being equal to men. They had such a passion of defending their beliefs and they went to great heights in defending themselves and proving to others that women are not inferior but an equal to men.

Persepolis the Autobiography?

I wanted to pose the question of whether or not Persepolis would be considered an autobiography. There are many things throughout Satrapi's story that indicate that it could be considered an autobiography.We can obviously see how Persepolis might be considered an autobiography. First of all Satrapi is recalling events in her life in chronological order. She also characterizes her childhood memories in Marji. Pascal says that it's important to do this in trying to seperate an autobiography from a diary entry. Further more Satrapi recites historical facts, giving her memories more credit. Finally, autobiographies "offer an unparalleled insight into the mode of consciousness of other men." Satrapi's narrative style helps us connect her childhood memories (Marji) with her personality. All these things help the arguement for Persepolis being an autobigoraphy.

A Difference in Purpose

I feel that the author's purpose in "Our Nig" and "Lynch Laws" differ greatly.

In my opinion, Ida B. Wells-Barnett wrote "Lynch Laws" with a purpose of informing as well as driving people to action in order to stop lynching. She uses words such as "uncontrolled" and "uncivilized" as to appeal to people's emotions so that they can understand the barbaric ways of lynching. She also instructs her audience on how they can take action by speaking to large groups. She advocates by using statements such as "for the betterment of the country." Though she uses many stories of African Americans being lynch as to appeal to a sense of empathy, she also uses facts and logics so that all audiences could understand the depth of the tragedy.

When I read "Our Nig", I felt that Harriet Wilson did have the intentions of informing, but that was not her sole purpose. Wilson pleads for the support of her story simply by asking them to read it and pass along her story. I think the reason why she is so effective in doing so is because after dealing with several abandonments and tremendous torture, it is difficult for the audience to feel untouched by her story. However, there I do not sense that she writes with as much exigency as Wells- Barnett does. When reading "Our Nig", I did not sense what I could do as a reader that would benefit her cause. Though I was still deeply empathetic as a reader, I was left unsure of how I should have been meant to feel other than that.

Lynch Laws Resisting Progress

"Lynch Laws", by Ida B. Wells, is enhanced when applied to description of one of Jimmie Killingsworth's "Appeals to Time", the theory of resisting progress. When discussing the injustice of racial prejudice, Wells states "Our country should be speedily above the plane of confessing herself a failure at self-government" (16). Because the United States took part in such biased and prejudiced actions, a "reactive rhetoric has evolved in competition with the progressive trend of democratic politics and culture' (Killingsworth 48). However, the American society can never truly move forward with their political standing if they do not develop and grant equal rights to all of its' citizens. In essence, the American "self government" fails because it neglects equality to the people, and can therefore never truly get ahead in the progress of the world. 

The Difference Between a Diary and an Autobiography

"What is an Autobiography" by Roy Pascal highlights the differences between an autobiography and a diary. I had never thought of the differences before, but I think that it is important to understand when reading the stories that we have in class. "Persepolis", "Lynch Laws", "Letters to John Adams, and "Our Nig" all are written from a narrative that can be seen as similar to a diary or autobiography because the narrative is very personal and true to the author's life.

According to Pascal, the difference between an autobiography and a diary is that "The latter is a reivew of life from a particular moment in time, while the diary, however reflective it may be, moves through a series of moments in time." I think this helps us understand the difference in exigency between Wilson and Adams when reading their two stories. Wells has had time to reflect on the adversity in her life and has thoughtfully decided how to approach and construct her audience. Adams, however, had no idea that her letters to John would make history. She is writing in a state of urgency with raw emotions. Not to mention, she is describing to John what is happening nearly as it is happening.

It makes me wonder which is more powerful... To write in the moment, or to reflect on how the audience should be constructed. I feel that both ways of writing have their benefits. Writing in the moment can be much more real and simple, stating only what is happening and what is being felt while also showing growth. To write in form of a reflection such as in "Persepolis" or "Our Nig" can show us a greater depth to the story as it can construct the audience to see from several different perspectives.

I found, especially in "Persepolis" that I was able to understand more about the story when I was shown a narrative from her childhood paralleled with her current perspective. Likewise in "Our Nig" I feel that the author chose to show a growing intensity and state of exigency in the story.

Chronology I (pp. vii-xvii)

I noted eighteen moves and abandonments made between the years of 1830-1900. If we make the connection, Harriet was born in 1825; therefore she has been abandoned and has moved most of her life. We may be able to make the connection that she is never in one area too long. Harriet moved a lot within Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In 1851, Harriet married Thomas Wilson and in 1851 their son, George Wilson is born. Within one year, the family moves twice. The second move was because Thomas made them move and then he quickly returned to his duties out at sea. Because Thomas left George and Harriet, Harriet was abandoned by her own husband. In his absence, Thomas died at sea, permanently leaving Harriet to take care of her son by herself. In result, Harriet did not have enough money to take care of George, so George was placed in foster care as a pauper. During this time, George had to stay six weeks at Hillsborough County Poor Farm in New Hampshire, while Harriet was ill in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1860, George dies; he was only seven years and eight months old. Again, Harriet lost another person dear to her heart, which may have felt like being abandoned. In 1870, ten years after George died; Harriet married her second husband John Robinson. In 1900, Harriet died of inanition, which, according to dictionary.com, is that state of being empty or the absence having social, moral or intellectual connections with people.
Evaluating Harriet’s life, it seems like she moved a lot and never settled for long. As we know, through the book, “Our Nig” we know that Harriet or Frado was beaten and abused often. We could make an analysis of the connection between abuse and the absence of settling down. Because Harriet was abandoned by her mother as a child then treated so badly, it is plausible to consider the reasons why she acts the way she does. It is possible that Harriet did not want to be treated unfairly anymore, yet there were always disappointments, such as, deaths of her husband and son. It seems to me that once Harriet was settled, something would happen, making her life turn upside down. Harriet has had a hard life and some may explain her life as sad, but most importantly, it is important to note that depending on how you are constructed as a child, it will hinder or help your lifestyle as you grow older. Harriet or Frado was corrupted as a child by the Bellmont family; they would beat her and treat her differently because she was black. Therefore, Harriet’s life reflects what type of life she lived: lonely and empty.

Mental Images of Word as Exigency

I believe we use the mental images of words as exigency when we read novels because we interpret the story and imagine the world view of the book with our unconscious intention. Although we can easily interpret the world view of comics because of the imagery and background scenes, novels represent reality differently from the way of comics. In reading novels, we assume and imagine the world view in our mind unconsciously because novels are composed by the enumeration of letters. In other words, we have to use the mental images as exigency to interpret and imagine the development of the story. However, why can we imagine the story in our mind in spite of the fact that novels are composed by only the enumeration of letters?

In the article Understanding Comics, McCloud explains that "Now, the word Icon means many things. . . . The sorts of images we usually call symbols are one category of icon, however. These are images we use to represent concepts, ideas and philosophies. Then there are the icons of Language Science and Communication icons of the practical realm" (p. 27). That is, according to McCloud, the letters which we usually see in our daily life and in any literature works is merely an icon because the word itself is not the meaning itself. For instance, although the word of "novel" provides us the impression of any literature works and any stories into our mind, the word "novel" itself is not a novel. That is, even the word which provides us the meaning, the word cannot be an object itself. Because we understand the meaning of the word in advance, the image and meaning of the word is floated through our mind. Because of this process, we can read novels in spite of the fact that novels are lacking of image such as comics.

However, we do not use the process as the conscious method. When we encounter the letters and the sentences, these icons of word are transformed into the meaning of the word in our mind unconsciously. That is, our consciousness understands to transform automatically because the instant transformation from icons to mental images is required for interpretation as exigency. Therefore, we can read novels with imagination of the world view of the story.

The Narration in "Lynch Law" and Our Nig

In order to compare “Lynch Law” and Our Nig, I would like to use Booth’s idea of “variations of distance” (Booth 155). Both “Lynch Law” and Our Nig have an author and a narrator that are essentially the same. But the “implied dialogue among author, narrator, the other characters, and the reader” is different (Booth 155).
Ida Wells-Barnett of “Lynch Law” is distant from the characters and close to the reader. Wells-Barnett is distant from the characters because she is reporting on activities and commenting on their implication. The majority of her rhetoric is synthesis of what she sees and what is in the past and her opinion on it. She uses her writing to sway the reader. She is not directly interacting with the people that she is discussing, those that lynch or are lynched. But, she is directly interacting with her audience, such as when she says “our watchword has been “the land of the free and the home of the brave” (Wells-Barnett Paragraph 13). She includes the audience in “our.” The only separation Wells-Barnett has from the audience is the boundary of time. Lynchings are uncommon in the lives of the current reader.
Wilson uses a different rhetorical situation in Our Nig. She has a close relationship with the characters in the story because of her direct interaction with them. The chapter titles, such as “Mag Smith, My Mother” (Wilson 1) and “My Father’s Death” (Wilson 14), reveal this closeness with the characters. Wilson shares the separation with the audience that Wells-Barnett has because of time. But, she has an additional level of separation because of what Booth calls “differences of social class or conventions of speech or dress” (Booth 156). She is in a lower social class than the reader because ideally in the modern world the social class that she was a part of doesn’t exist anymore. Also, the patois that she uses separates her from the audience.
These differences in rhetorical situation are interesting because they are applied to two pieces of documentary literature that are from a similar time period with similar purposes. They are also both written by women, in a time where female writers were more uncommon, but they have different effects. In “Lynch Law,” the tone is very harsh at times. Wells-Barnett reprimands the reader almost for not acting and for allowing such things to happen. She is very critical of America’s inability to control its own people. Our Nig is more subtly critical, though. It starts from the perspective of a child, and it certainly doesn’t fail to illustrate the unfairness of the servitude that Frado experiences, but it allows the reader to come to their own conclusion.
So, based on these two peices, a close relationship with the reader forces the author to directly appeal to the reader for her purpose, while a close relationship with the characters may cause a more varied response from the readers because they come to their own conclusions.

The Third-Person Narration in "Our Nig".

In "Our Nig", we can consider Frado different character from the author Harriet Wilson in spite of the fact that it is mentioned that "In writing Frado's heartbreaking story, Harriet Wilson recounts her own experiences while combing and subverting multiple literary styles" in the back of this novel. Why can we consider that Frado is independent character who differs from the author? I believe the reason why is based on that Wilson uses the third person as a narrator in this story.

It is true that Wilson reflects her own experience and the circumstance at that time into the figure of Frado. In the introduction of this book, we can see the fact that "Sleeping in alternately stifling and freezing quarters, being overworked to the point of exhaustion, and enduring depressing isolation were the norms in service. As a young black child indentured to a white family in a town that only a handful of blacks called home, Wilson experienced a fate even worse than the typical northern indenture" (p. xxvii). Like these statements, Wilson reflects her own experience exactly in this book's world view and into the figure of Frado. However, even after we read these statements, we can consider that Frado is separate from Wilson in terms of the view of independence as a character, and a woman.

The way to narrate in this book is clearly by the third person. Furthermore, it cannot be considered by Wilson herself such as Marji in Persepolis. That is, although it is the fact that she reflects her own experience in the story, nobody in the book cannot be identified as Wilson even the narrator of third person and Frado. Then we can use the interpretation of "Variations of Distance" by Wayne C. Booth. In Types of Narration, Booth explains that "The narrator may be more or less distant from the implied author" and "most authors are distant from even the most knowing narrator in that they presumably know how "everything turns out in the end" (p. 156). That is, the method of narration by the third person causes a distance from Wilson to Frado, and the narrator. The narrator in this story is also written as if the third person knows every development of the story. However, although the development of the story is similar to Wilson's experience, the entire story is different exactly from the Wilson's life, especially the end of main character, Frado. Then, the difference would cause the distance between the author and the character. Because of the distance, I believe that we can consider Frado is independent character from the author, Wilson.

Harriet Wilson, a Memoirist

The autobiography, says Roy Pascal, author of the article "What Is an Autobiography?", evokes the "realisation that that the individual is 'ineffabile'... and yet may be grasped in his successive collisions with circumstance" (Pascal 2). It seems that the subject of the autobiography is like an difficult idea; one that can be just grasped, but not thoroughly understood. The writing of Harriet E. Wilson, "Our Nig" seems to fit this description. Wilson talks of her troubles and successes but the sum of chapters in no way sum Wilson. This is made doubly clear upon examination of the appendix in "Our Nig" which allows insight into the character and further history of Frado or, perhaps Wilson (Wilson 73-80).

As Pascal states, an autobiography "is a review of a life from a particular moment in time" (Pascal 3). However, Wilson's writing begins not within her own life, but in the young adulthood of her presumed mother's. Wilson becomes Mag Smith's biographer for those pages, introducing readers to the character pf Frado and that of the influential Bellmonts. What could be Wilson's autobiography seems to begin upon her entry into the Bellmont house which is also her introduction to true conflict. It continues until Wilson's career of selling hair tonic is under way (Wilson 14). However, Wilson includes dramatically less detail upon leaving the Bellmont house. It seems that her writing truly only examines this part of her life. For example, of her marriage and child, she says little, but on the subject of her beatings by Mrs. B, she recounts several tales. It seems impossible that Wilson wants to give a composite expression of her life story.

Debunking the idea of "Our Nig" as a true autobiography may be in order. I feel that Wilson's writing belongs in the category of memoir. The protagonist, Frado is very aware of her social class, and that of those around her. She therefore has her own "personal slant" (Pascal 7). Frado is no better off than a slave living in the South during her time with the Bellmonts. In Pascal's writing he quotes a reviewer of Yeats' "Autobiographies", saying they are "a record of the people and things he thought important". Surely in the life of Frado, what seems most important is the injustice done to her, early on in her life.

The Revolt of a Genre

After reading What is Autobiography? I sighed deeply, half with satisfaction to the understanding of one genre, and half with anger to a bunch of options and factors that determine whether it is autobiography or not. In Visual Narratives, Schirato and Web tell us that the role of genre is “interaction” between the medium and readers to make sense of it and enjoy it (Schirato and Web 92). However, the notion contains so many features in its definition as varieties of the people that individual readers may not agree with each other when they read the same pieces, just like I do.

While I was reading the article, I couldn’t erase a masterpiece from one of my favorite lists, that is Robinson Crusoe. I can’t remember exactly who it was, but I remember one critic pointed out Robinson Crusoe’s autobiographical features. He (or she--not sure) explained its beneficial effect to make readers grab the book and cry. I agree that it effectively helped us believe. The reason is simple. It sounds so real, though originally Defoe heard it from a prisoner when he was jailed. Even if the motive of the story was not from the prisoner or not 100% real, it to a certain degree reflects story teller’s judgment to his or someone’s life. From this point of view, to me Robinson Crusoe appealed its reality and true personality so strongly that I thought it was autobiographical rather than fictional.

Of course, it doesn’t fit well with all the factors mentioned in "What is Autobiography"? But it describes external life as much, makes readers think about deliverance, and moreover, possesses outstanding viewpoint related to the problem of religious conversion. It may not be an autobiographical novel, but to me it is more than autobiographical. (I don’t know why I adhere to this novel so much. Because I love travel so much and read Robinson Crusoe recently?) Even if someone argues that Robinson Crusoe is not autobiographical at last, in multiple choices, someone’s mind may think Robinson is the prototypical of autobiography.

Is She a Boss or Novelist?

We were not sure about the author, Harriet E. Wilson that American literature readers were delayed to catch the precious meaning of the first African-American novel and the autobiography of the antebellum era’s freewoman in North, Forman and Pitts point out in the Introduction. Because she partly selected her life moments as writing and hints that may reveal her identity were not fully exposed, I think we couldn’t say who she was 100%.

To her identity and prestige in 1850s, Foreman (the editor of Our Nig, Penguin Classics) and Flynn suggest one debatable issue in an article on a website. Their new research revealed Hattie was “surprisingly successful entrepreneur”. She became a boss with selling hair-care products which restore and recover hair’s quality. According to the survey 1,500 advertisements were appeared in a score of News papers from New England to New Jersey. This fact made me much harder to follow Hattie’s picture with the novel as an autobiography which should reflect part of her true past and deliver a message for us politically or socially. Whatever it is, I thought the author should be on the same line with the narrator or the character in the autobiographical novel.

To me, Hattie was an image of indentured servant, abandoned human, and a woman couldn’t look the world same as her neighbors in the north and east of the U.S. But it is hard to take she changed her life hugely from the girl depicted in the novel (whipped and starved) to the first generation, black American businessman. She sold the products right after her work about writing the novel and the success at the time was not the literature but the commercial. But If I consider one of the themes in Our Nig, I think I can understand how she wrote before expanding the national level business. The severely damaged and ignored protagonist, Frado didn’t have any basic rights other close characters all had. It had to be same agony on the field of the business at that time as both critics assume in the article. She as an interracial must be hard to overcome the unfair barriers to sell the hair-care to white people.

I venture to guess partly, as an autobiographic novelist, she wrote the novel out of her exigency that could be black people’s limited life which is determined even before they were born, and the clear ceiling rigorously had blocked and distinguished freemen in North and South.

I gained some sources from this web site
www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/02/15/mrs_he_wilson_mogul/

Wilson as a Narrator as Defined by Booth

Harriet E. Wilson has been one of the more emotive and complex narrators I have encountered in literature. Her style, in many ways, reminded me of C.S. Lewis in terms of voice and integration within the story. Classifying her, according to Booth’s “Types of Narration” however, has proved tricky and tedious with the various parts that apply to “Our Nig”.

Wilson’s voice is clear but her directive is spun like a tale, she creates a second persona or “second self” (Booth 151) through Frado and masks her own life story by making it Frado’s. There is a distinct difference however between the two ‘selves’ and this is what led to the conclusion of Wilson being part “Undramaticized Narrator”. She’s within the scenes of her pages, both telling and showing the story. She is not officially a character herself but is passing along the novel to us “gentle readers” (Wilson 72) via her consciousness. “…we are often as much interested in the effect on the narrator’s own mind and heart as we are in learning what else the author has to tell us.” (Booth 151) This excerpt straight from Booth is a prime explanation of Wilson as an author as defined by her personal tones as well as the characters in the story. There are many times when we can hear her own voice within the lines of text; for example the second paragraph on page 52 where there is evident sorrow and hopelessness, or the last few sentences in the last paragraph on page 14 where we find clear anger and regret. Another curious thing is how every chapter title is written in 1st person but the actual story is relatively 3rd person, this also shows her personal influence and masking as an "Undramaticized Narrator".

She also can be classified as a “Self-Conscious Narrator”, according to Booth this is qualified by an author being aware of him/herself as a writer… Wilson fully knows she's thinking, speaking, and reflecting upon her own work. There is even a part where she breaks through and reveals herself in personal 1st person before slipping back into 3rd; “A few years ago, within the compass of my narrative… Such a one appeared in the new home of Frado…” (Wilson 70). She addresses the audience as well in terms of “we”, and often creates a stage for a scene or scenario to take place.

Wilson also employs the concepts of “Privilege” and “Inside View” presented within Booth. As the author and narrator Wilson has much control over how her story is to be presented through the lens of Frado, provoking emotions and reliving experiences that no one else could know of or express. For “Privilege”, the knowledge of the narrator establishes a dynamic roundness to the story, drawing on real life supplements to satiate the hunger of complexity. For “Inside View”, Wilson provides a deep understanding of Frado’s mindset and emotional toil. There is one problem the reader must consider however, with the "Inside View" and "Privilege" concepts… We should remind ourselves that with any privilege of seeing into the mind of a character there is an increase in subjectivity without question, or how Booth puts it, “Generally speaking, the deeper our plunge, the more unreliability we will accept without loss of sympathy” (Booth 164). This basically states that the narrator can become extremely unreliable… and Wilson consequently supports this theory with her ending statements, “Refuse not, because some part of her history is unknown, save by the Omniscient God. Enough has been unrolled to demand your sympathy and aid” (Wilson 72). Simplified she says that she personally has with held some information to better her purposes.

Wilson becomes more and more complex the further we read into her work. At first it does seem like she’s just pleading for mercy and outputting her trials and emotions, but upon these theories above we can see there is a more dynamically equipped author before us. Undramaticized but Self-Conscious, with Privilege and Inside Views, along with this new understanding that she is clearly toeing the line of being unreliable to a fault. How are we to place her now? Throughout “Our Nig” Wilson was on a crusade to dispel the stereotypes and labels of African-Americans, but now as an author she is also refusing the label of a defined narrator… What are we to perceive about this new insight and awareness? Where does she fall into our understandings of narration?

Forms of Appeal in Lynch Law

Ida B. Wells Barnett writes "Lynch Law in America" with a sense of agency and deliberation as she wishes to open the eyes of Americans. As we had discussed in class, she writes this speech with the expectations of having all races and genders hear it as she read this speech for large audiences.

She expresses her sense of agency when she says that it "is not just the creature of the hour." Had she felt it was just a phase in America's progression than she wouldn't have made a comment such as this. She understood that change had to be made in order for America to progress and that people had to realize that lynching had been an "unwritten law" for much too long.

Wells Barnett also writes with a sense of exigency and logos as she tries to appeal to American nationalism with a shared logic in American identity. She uses terms such as "moral and philanthropic forces of the country" as to persuade Americans almost with a sense of guilt. She also uses many facts throughout her speech, such as the fact that 10,000 people were killed in lynches, to appeal to the audience's moral reasoning.

I feel that her purpose for writing this piece was that Americans would no longer stay quiet about the issue that they are all well aware of. As we discussed in class, she felt that a mob mentality was stronger than the government which can create chaos in the country. Most of all, she wanted to inform Americans as to prevent lynching from continuing in the future.

Race In Our Nig

Throughout the first 34 pages of Our Nig, there are many clues the reader can use to assume what role race played in the time of the author. It is clear that African-american people were looked down upon or valued less than white-americans. Because of this distinction most African-americans were poor and hopeless.

African-americans were property. Mrs Bellmost indicates this when she talks about "keep[ing]" a servent on page 16, and again when Jack refers to Mag as "our nig," which is on the same page. Since these people are viewed as property, they are treated like dogs. There are many examples of this idea on page 17. Mag forced to sleep where the hot sun penetrates her room and a cool breeze can blow past. Just as a dog, Mag sleeps outdoors. Mag is also punished with raw-hide and "allowed" to eat her breakfast away from where the family is eating. This view and treatement leads to destitue and hopelessness.

"She had never known plenty." When one is viewed as property and unable to make decisions for one's self, one has only what is given. This obviously leaves African-americans towards poverty. Afterall, children were sometimes given up in order for the parents to get by. Furthermore, when one is used to "the great brotherhood of man" ignoring them, then one loses hope for a change. These people make "no effort to escape." (All quotes can be found on pages six and seven.)

Exercise in Class

By picking apart “Lynch Law” in class, it allowed me to better understand that reading. I was in Professor Graban’s group and we concluded what different parts of the text were. We found that the text was an example of resisting progress because, although the article explains what is currently happening, it does not solve or help the problem. I also learned what the difference between agency and journalistic agency was. Agency, as Lexi explained in class, refers to the one who acts or has the capacity to act, often a representation of someone or something else. Although Wells is trying to make the problem known and wanting to make changes, this article can be explained to have journalistic agency because it is an article with facts. Journalistic agency is the fact that the article is stating cultural trends or facts to show us or the reader where we are headed next. I would define journalistic agency as not only is it when a subject is acting upon the object but the author does so through statistics and trends that the author presents. This is different than agency because journalistic agency persuades the reader through facts rather than how the text is put together.

Our Nig as an Archival Study in Class, gender, and Race

2) Look up 2 unfamiliar terms

On 18p in Our Nig, third paragraph, there is a word, “utility”.

Mrs. Bellmont was in doubt about the utility of attempting to educate people of color, who were incapable of elevation. (Wilson 18)

To this word, Oxford English Dictionary Online provides several definitions. And I picked up some meanings below.

1. a. The fact, character, or quality of being useful or serviceable; fitness for some desirable purpose or valuable end; usefulness, serviceableness.
c. Philos. The ability, capacity, or power of a person, action, or thing to satisfy the needs or gratify the desires of the majority, or of the human race as a whole.
2. The quality of being advantageous or profitable, profit, advantage, use. Freq. const. of (a person, etc.). Obs.
3. a. A useful, advantageous, or profitable thing, feature, etc.; a use. Chiefly in pl.

My definition to the word utility is that the efficiency for life in terms of social elevation. It sounds that Frado is like an object in the narration and deserve to be educated only for elevation in society to overcome her colored skin.

My next word is “kind” on p19 of Our Nig.

“She looks like a good girl; I think I shall love her, so lay aside all prejudice, and vie with each other in shewing kindness and good-will to one who seems different from you,” were the closing remarks of the kind lady. Those kind words! (Wilson 19)

Very familiar word to us, kind is defined in Oxford Dictionary as below.

5. Of persons: Naturally well-disposed; having a gentle, sympathetic, or benevolent nature; ready to assist, or show consideration for, others; generous, liberal, courteous (obs.). Also of disposition. (This (with c and d) is now the main sense.)

One interesting thing in the sentence is that the dialogue doesn’t finish clearly with a period and it was continued to the narration. Narrator defines teacher’s attitude was kind which is usually used for sympathetic nature, but here it includes the ironic, paradoxical and satirical meaning. I would like to define the word as a limit of kind people that is related to the social context 19th century.

3) Study the title page

The subtitle “Sketches from the life of a free black” easily hints to us that it is a story about black people which is described realistically based on one’s picture in the mind and remembrance. But the sentence, “In a Two-Story White House, North” conflicts to the subtitle, because the white color is opposite to the black. In this way, the house could be a place in which the protagonist or the author suffered and took exigency in stark white place in the end. In addition the white directly gives us information about the house hold was occupied by white people and it was an agony for “the free black”.

Discussion Question:

Our Nig, draws a girl who was left into the Bellmont family. She is mulatto and thrown away by her mother, Mag because of her economic and social background. Mag gave up Frado. While she is adopted and then learning how to serve to the household errands, she is regarded as an inferior existence compared to people around her in and out of the white house.

When family member noticed that Frado was dumped into their house, they started arguing whether they should keep her or send her to County House. Mary denies Jack’s suggestion to take her for her safety because [she] [doesn’t] “want to take a nigger around her.” (Wilson 16) Finally, she starts to stay and work with staying in the household. Feeding the hens and washing dishes. And if she looks a trouble to the family, Frado is punished with whipping by Mrs. Bellmont. To Mary and her mother, Frado is not important one, doesn’t have any right to feel delight, but is a servant in order to pay back to the family. This is drawn by Mrs. Bellmont’s thought in which she thinks Frado doesn’t need education because of her inferiority. She defined education’s purpose for social elevation and also thought it’s not a good way for Frado. In this way Our Nig implies that colored people were hard to go to the school, because they couldn’t elevate their standing with black skin.

I think, Frado’s miserable condition, looked down severely, represents black people’s hardship in the U.S, partly. In the white house, except Frado, all blood members are white. Some of them help her and some of them disregard. I can’t simplify how Jack and others think equally Frado as a house member and a student, until reading to the last page of the novel, but it seems that there is a limit. Mr. Bellmont who has dignity in the house, tries to protect and respect her, but she is harmed and damaged when he is not around her. Also, the school teacher insists that school mates should compete to be good to her. However it doesn’t seem to come out of her inner truth. The scholar thinks Frado is a good girl and at the same time, she is different and induces prejudices. (Wilson 19) The anecdote in the school and the white house makes readers think about the depth of our sympathy and its sincerity.

The first page of the novel, there is a poem which supports the idea how Frado is sacrificed. It mentions “Calvaries” everywhere. (Wilson 1) Frado as a young girl is a guiltless and pure innocent. However, the world turns back against her. There is no reason but her difference. It is a story which shows about how a society limits to the human’s equality and makes her a tool to serve for others’ benefit.

An Archival Study Leading to the Role of Women in "Our Nig"

Mag says that “she had a feeling of degradation oppressing her; but she resolved to be circumspect, and try to regain in a measure what she had lost” (Wilson 7). Circumspect in this context means that she is trying to be aware of everything that is going on around her. She wants to use that knowledge for her advantage.

Mag “return[s] her work to her employer, and thus provide[s] herself with the means of subsistence. In two years many hands craved the same avocation” (Wilson 8). Avocation means a distraction or the act of being pulled away from something. This is interesting because she describes her job as being an avocation, and an avocation can specifically mean being pulled away from employment. But, instead her employment is pulling her away from something else, probably her pain.

The title page has two different titles. First is “Our Nig,” and the second is “Sketches from the Life of a Free Black.” The fonts for these two titles is different. The first title is written in a fairly standard font, similar to the one used throughout the book. The second title is written in an elaborate font, unlike the font used in the book. This is important because Harriet Wilson, the author, relates more to “Our Nig” which is evidenced by her use of a similar font throughout the book. “Sketches from the Life of a Free Black” is more of a definition that was superimposed upon her book at a later date with an unusual font. This helps the reader to be aware of the possibility of alternative interpretations’ lurking throughout the book that may not be a reflection of the author.
The title page also tells us that the majority of the story is set in a northern house. This is followed by a disclaimer saying the the book is “showing that slaver’s shadows fall even there,” meaning a northern house. This is important to the reader because there is the perception that slavery was incomparable in the North in the south, and this disclaimer prepares the reader to reconsider their assumptions.
There is a poem on the page in very small lettering. It is a statement that the author knows about care and virtue and sorrow and other emotions. They are called “hell’s temptation, clan in heavenly guise. This is a warning to the reader to not get too caught up in the sadness or momentary happiness of the novel, but to stay on the straight and narrow path toward the overall purpose of the work.

Mag is an example of how women are viewed in “Our Nig.” It was said that as “[Mag] merged into womanhood, unprotected, uncherished, uncared for there fell on her ear the music of love, awakening an intensity of emotion long dormant.” This gives the impression of Mag’s needing to be cared for. This is reiterated when she marries Jim because “[he] can give [her] a better home than this, and not let [her] suffer so.” This description is similar to the description of Jane as the “invalid daughter, the eldest of those at home.” Both are described as being helpless.
This description is starkly contrasted though by the description of Mrs. Bellmont as “a whirlwind charged with fire, daggers and spikes” and as “self-willed, haughty, undisciplined, arbitrary and severe.” This description has a much more negative tone though, as if Mrs. Bellmont shouldn’t be that way.
So the tone used to describe Mag and Jane as helpless is pitiful, while the tone used to describe Mrs. Bellmont as strong willed and mean is very negative. This shows that women who cannot take care of themselves are seen as deserving to be pitied when they have no one to care for them, but that a strong-willed woman is absolutely undesirable. This shows the assumption that women are less able than men to take care of themselves.

Class Exercise (#2, #3 & Discussion Question)

2. Succor “assistance and support in times of hardship and distress” Oxford English Dictionary
“The child’s desertion by her mother appealed to his sympathy, and he felt inclined to succor her. To do this in opposition to Mrs. Bellmont’s wishes, would be like encountering a whirlwind charged with fire, daggers’ and spikes.”
Page 15, paragraph 1

Succor is being used to explain how Mr. Bellmont will treat or react to Frado. This is important to note because Frado is not well liked and hated by many, including his wife. By knowing how Mr. Bellmont feels towards Frado, the audience is able to understand his connection with her. I included the second sentence because it is important to note that the word, succor, is going against how Mrs. Bellmont feels towards Frado, but until we understand the definition we do not know how Mr. and Mrs. Bellmont feel towards Frado.

Merriment “gaiety (the state or quality of being light-hearted and cheerful) and fun” Oxford English Dictionary

“Day by day there was a manifest change of deportment towards “Nig.” Her speeches often drew merriment from the children; no one could do more to enliven their favorite pastimes than Frado.”
Page 19, paragraph 2

Merriment describes what feeling or emotion she is causing the other classmate to have. The classmates started to love Frado during their school day. By knowing how the classmates felt towards Frado is important because, like I stated before, most people hated Frado. It is important to know what the term “merriment” means, so that we understand how the classmates feel towards and we, as the audience, connect with Frado and her experience at school.

3. By studying the title page I noticed that there are texts that are bigger than others, bolder than others and different types of fonts. If a reader would skim over this page, “OUR NIG” would be the first and maybe the only gathered information from this page. By only noticing the phrase “Our Nig” the reader may assume the book was about a black slave, by the context, but also disguising whether the character is a male or female. The subtitle is written in a bold but elegant font, “Sketches from the Life of a free Black.” The reader would get another opinion of the book because the first assumed meaning of the subtitle is that the character is not a slave but a free black that contradicts the first initial meaning of the first title. Thus far in analyzing the title page, we have two different assumptions of what this book may be about, a black slave or a free black and not knowing the gender of the character, which it is often assumed that slaves are male. By analyzing the titles alone the audience is already drawn into the book because there are contradicting titles that state two different stories. By assuming two different stories the next line below the subtitle, in even smaller font, it states, “in a two-story white house, north,” which could prove that there are two parts or two perspectives to this story.
These observations are significant to the reader because it allows our mindset to be set back and have our knowledge of slavery be the lens while reading this book. To have our mindset in this position allows us to understand and identify with the characters because, rather than having a mindset of the 21st century, without slavery as a normal behavior, we can understand and relate to the characters better.

Discussion Question:

The evidence of race is a major subject throughout the first thirty-four pages of “Our Nig.” African-American differences are magnified within these pages and we are able to have a perspective of a young girl experiencing these accounts first hand. Frado, a young girl born of a white woman and a black man is abandoned by her mother to be a slave for the Bellmont family. The mother of Frado, Mag, was unable to care for her daughter due to the hardships of a black woman.

The first occurrence witnessed by the audience of the difference between races is shared by Mag. “Folks seem as afraid to come here as if they expected to get some awful disease,” the black race was often perceived as dirty (Wilson 7). The context allows the audience to witness how the blacks viewed themselves and how hard it was to be African-American during these times of segregated feelings towards each other. This passage sets the tone for the audience that blacks were not equal to whites, which may already be assumed by the audience, but this text proves this notion through the explanation of a black woman.

When Frado was abandoned by her mother, Frado was still very young and she was very stubborn. At first Frado did not understand what was happening to her. She did not make the connection that her mother was never coming back. Within moments of Frado’s arrival to the Bellmont residence, Mary, a daughter in the Bellmont family questioned her mother, “I don’t want a nigger ‘round me , do you, mother?” (Wilson 16). The audience, at this point, can be connection with Frado because within moments of being abandoned by her own mother, she realizes that she is hated by “her new family”. Frado is now all alone and has no one because she is black in a racist community. Race is profoundly illustrated because we. The audience, now get a feel from what it is like to be African-American in this time of segregation.

The audience’s critical assumptions of race are going to be expressed through emotion. The audience may be angry or sad for Frado, or depending on the audience, they may agree with the treatment of African-Americans. Regardless the audience, through Frado, we are able to see first-hand how it was like and how the minority race felt about their treatment. The treatment of blacks verses whites are heavily witnessed while reading the text, this is important for the audience so they have the understanding of what it was like, regardless the audience’s background or knowledge of blacks in this time. Using the lens of consideration for this time, is crucial because if we do not allow ourselves at the audience to understand Frado, we may not be able to connect with the main character, which in result would cause misunderstanding and purpose of the text.