Arya on Literature Things

Janie has always viewed love as a natural element in life. She first seems to idealize marriage and love in Chapter 2, imagining the passionate bond between husband and wife as a natural relationship between bee and flower. The natural state of the world mimics common gender roles in her view. The male bee stumbles upon the female tree where there is a reciprocal act of love. The male and female complement each other and create the perfect union that Janie assumes to be marriage. By looking outwards at what marriage must look like, she develops her own fantastical idea of what love must be. She applies this idea to every relationship she will be in, constantly searching for the perfect partner to complement herself.  Furthermore, Janie not only seems to view love and marriage as a natural element, but she also seems to look at her entire life and future life to live as an extension of the natural world. Hurston states, "Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things

At the end of chapter 25 of Invisible Man , we find the narrator trapped in a coal cellar with only his briefcase to keep him company. During this time, the narrator starts to burn the items in the briefcase to create light in the darkness beneath the manhole cover. Throughout this novel, Ellison has used the items in this briefcase as a symbol of the ongoing manipulative environment that surrounds the narrator. Only at the bottom of the cellar, in the absence of everything and everyone, does he seem to be truly free from manipulation. In this environment, he can have some clarity of mind and time to reflect. By burning these items, the narrator is metaphorically freeing himself of the strings that have been controlling his life for so long. By liberating himself and placing himself in an isolated situation, he creates the ideal environment for a rebirth, much like the rebirth in the hospital chapter where he was seemingly erased, emerging from this birth as a blank slate. In the same

One of the most important times we see the narrator speak out against racism is in chapter 16, where he gives a motivational and rather radical speech. This speech rouses the crowd while angering the Brotherhood for its unscientific and emotional delivery. The narrator, with his newfound passion, goes on to give more speeches and attend more rallies, advocating for African-American rights. This style of combating stereotypes opposes that of his grandfather, Bledsoe, and even Ras the Exhorter, who all aim to empower themselves, although achieving these goals through different methods.  In the first few chapters of the book, the narrator's grandfather gives the narrator advice to submit to white society, acting docile and serving them as they expect him to. In chapter 1, the grandfather specifically states that he wants the narrator "overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, [and] let 'em swoller you till they vomit or

Richard Wright's Invisible Man entails overcoming illusions to reach the truth and at times, hiding behind your own illusion to deceive the world and further your own agenda. The first example of the narrator (the Invisible Man) using this "invisible power" is in the prologue, which is set in the future of the actual novel. The words of the prologue even start off with the words "I am an invisible man" (Wright 3). He goes on to explain how he is invisible in the sense that society refuses to see him and on the very next page, he employs this invisibility to beat up a random man on the street. He bumps into this man accidentally and the man proceeds to call him an insulting name, possibly a slur (it's not specified). Out of anger, the narrator beats the man. After almost killing him, he runs off into the dark of night, "laughing so hard [he] feared [he] might rupture [himself]" (Wright 5). This laughter may be a satirical way to undermine authority

Richard Wright's Native Son envelops us in an intense narrative of Bigger Thomas, a scared, angered, and often violent African-American man. His motivations and impulses stem from his fear of the white world around him, leading him onto a dark and desperate path, one that is seemingly predetermined by his native environment.  Richard Wright immediately gives us a front seat view of this environment in the first few pages in the "rat chase" scene. While changing with his family in the same cramped room, Bigger chases and tries to kill a rat that starts to terrorize his mother and sister. Though the rat puts up somewhat of a fight, Bigger eventually manages to kill it. While this scene gives us an idea of the living conditions that Bigger has grown up in, it also provides us with a symbolic representation of Bigger's future struggles. Wright states, "The rat's belly pulsed with fear. Bigger advanced a step and the rat emitted a long thin song of defiance, its