Tower Academic: Honorable Mention Kathryn Wittmeier (Junior)

Things Are Not So Black and White

The United States is a country with a very racially charged history, beginning with the genocide of Native Americans upon its founding and continuing with the owning and trading of slaves up until the nineteenth century. Though the slave industry was, at least initially, not racially­based, the overwhelming disproportionate enslavement of Africans to other races and ethnicities began to create a racial binary in the United States. However, on November 4th 2008 Barack Obama became the first non­white man elected as president, leading many Americans to believe that this binary and the conflicts surrounding it were laid to rest and race ceased to be an issue of importance in this country. Though this was not the case, Obama’s election did in fact serve as a symbol of changing race relations in the United States as well as the dawn of a new age of American culture that has been dubbed the Age of Obama. Ultimately, the Age of Obama is a cultural period in which black Americans have gained status in terms of white people’s opinions of them but not in terms of overall social and economic opportunities. It has also strengthened the belief in America as a post­racial society, or one in which negative race relations are no longer a significant problem. This popular ideology has sparked a new trend in American literature from satires such as Baratunde Thurston’s How to be Black to coming of age stories such as Colson Whitehead’s Sag Harbor.

Although many place the beginning of this cultural period known as the Age of Obama in November of 2008, some scholars argue that Obama’s election did not influence this cultural shift so much as it was influenced by it. Obama was born at the beginning of the civil rights movement, growing up amidst an array of black empowerment movements and during a time when the opportunities available for black Americans were beginning to expand. By the 1990s, when Obama first entered politics, there began emerge this perception that race issues were essentially “over” in the United States. Amina Gautier comments in “On Post­Racial America in the Age of Obama” how, unlike her grandmother, Gautier “grew up with the understanding that a black American, male or female, could indeed become the president of the United States” (Gautier 91). Just a little over fifty years ago the question of whether or not black people would be allowed to vote was under much debate. The idea that one could become president was almost laughable. However, the generations born post­civil rights were introduced to and comfortable with this possibility for most of their lives. In fact, it was often seen as an inevitability. This fosters an argument that the Age of Obama began, not with Obama’s election, but in the cultural shifts that began to take place in the years preceding it. Kurt Anderson argues in “Pop Culture in the Age of Obama” that “what’s most pop culturally interesting about him is not so much Obama as cause but Obama as effect. He strategically harnessed pop culture, he produced it with two best­selling books, he avidly consumes it” (Anderson 2). Obama’s election created a shifting viewpoint and continued discussion of changing race relations in the United States, however, his influence on American culture cannot be examined without considering the influence that his culture initially had on him.

Anderson goes on to suggest, like many other Americans have, that Obama’s integration into popular American culture that earned him popularity and eventually contributed to his position as a presidential candidate is, in itself, proof of the recline of race and racism as prevalent political and social issues. He asks readers “didn’t Obama’s election prove that people will respond to vision and intelligence, that familiar binary pigeonholes no longer necessarily apply…?” (Anderson 4). Anderson is essentially alluding to the idea of post­racialism, suggesting that Obama won because of his personality, his race being an insignificant issue. Gautier, however, strongly disagrees with this idea of a post racial America. She attacks the mere linguistics of the phrase emphasizing that “to affix the prefix post to a word implies a completion...the term post­racial seems an errant phrase…there must previously have been a ‘racial America.’” (Gautier 93). She argues that, because race relations have never truly been dealt with but rather swept under the rug and discussed “through monologue and soliloquy rather than dialogue, through allegory, metaphor, and figurative language rather than direct speech” it is irrational that one could conclude that this conversation is somehow over (Gautier 93). Despite the incredible steps African Americans have made in gaining rights, race remains an integral aspect of American identity, specifically in terms of black and white.

It has been agreed upon by most of dark and light skin tone that the Age of Obama does in fact, signify changing race relations in the United States, however just what do those changing relations look like? Americans have loved to throw around this term post­racial but from a larger cultural standpoint what exactly does it mean? In “The Two Worlds of Race Revisited” Gerald Early discusses the inherent flaw in the American belief that “race relations are somehow reflected as progress...then some millennial aim or goal emerges: a moment to be reached when race relations or race itself shall be no more” (Early 12). Americans want to see race as a social issue that is on its way out, comparable to something like child labor that was once a huge concern for American workers and is now no longer discussed. If the civil rights was the first step, Obama’s election must certainly be the last, the ultimate sign that racial conflicts have been overcome. However, Early points out that “the difficult craft of post­racial racialism requires buying into a belief that everything has changed in modern attitudes about race...while at the same time recognizing that the problems that stigmatize black people...are as intractable now as ever (Early 15). Through this term “post­racial” Americans are essentially asserting that black people are now well­liked but will remain being treated unequally. This ideology is similar to the “separate but equal” slogan that segregationists used during the civil rights movement. In fact, Orlando Patterson in “Race and Diversity in the Age of Obama” points out that other ethnic groups, particularly Hispanics, have been assimilated into white culture in a way that African Americans have largely still not managed to do. He asserts that the cause of this is the disturbing fact that “in private life blacks are almost as isolated from whites today as they were under Jim Crow...their isolation means that the problem of ethno­racial relations in America remains, at heart, a black­white issue” (Patterson 11). It is illogical to look at the extreme discrepancies between black and white income, education levels, health, and others and claim that America is now “colorblind.” Even considering the wide variety of races and ethnicities that live in the United States, the black­white racial binary is still very much present today.

Although black Americans continue to face substantial social and economic disadvantages, many white Americans fail to see this. This is largely a result of increased black exposure in the media and in popular culture. With the general white public now more convinced, through characters such as Bill Cosby and actors such as Will Smith, that the black population might be just be “alright after all,” Americans can now compliment themselves on their anti­racist views while continuing to believe that government “hand­outs” or affirmative action programs are inessential and unfair. This is a very prominent characteristic of the Age of Obama known as enlightened exceptionalism, in which white people can now deem certain black people as worthy or acceptable while still shaming and discriminating against smaller and often times poorer sections of the black population. In Between Barack and a Hard Place Tim Wise terms this phenomena “racism 2.0” which, as opposed to the harsh and blatant racism of the past, “manages to accommodate individual people of color, even as it continues to look down upon the larger mass of black and brown America with suspicion, fear, and contempt” (Wise 23).

Although it is assumed that Obama’s election has altered the perception and treatment of black people in America, he has in many ways simply raised the standards even further for what black people must accomplish in order to be considered successful. However, how is it that white Americans choose which black artists and actors will become stars and what is it that makes us more comfortable with them over a black person we may pass on the street?

For a black American to be accepted by the larger white population, they must, in essence, be white. In other words, they must be assimilated into white culture. David Roane discusses this in his article “The New Racial Dialogue” in which he examines the role of white culture in the Age of Obama. He claims that “highlighting Obama’s white aspects at the expense of his black ones might make more palatable justification for having selected him as our president” (Roane 3). In other words, Obama “is a black who did not, through his habits or inclinations, overly remind that he is black” (Early 18). As a black man running for president, Obama had to be very aware of the racial stereotypes that would be pushed on him and therefore had to, essentially, choose how black he was to present himself to the American public. The white populations acceptance of Obama due to his white characteristics is further proof of this phenomena of enlightened exceptionalism and how it has extended further into our culture during the Age of Obama. Baratunde Thurston’s satirical novel How To Be Black is all about this phenomena and how it has affected him throughout his life.

How To Be Black is part satirical self­help and part autobiographical as Thurston takes readers through his long struggle of being one of the only black kids at Sidwell, his private high school, and eventually at Harvard. Growing up in a lower class, minority­filled neighborhood and traveling to an all white private school in which he stood out, to say the least, among his sea of white classmates makes Thurston a perfect example of someone who has been considered exceptionally enlightened by his teachers and peers. Not only are these enlightened black people positioned as examples to follow, they also serve as a sort of spokesperson for the entire race. In his chapter entitled “How to Speak for All Black People,” Thurston documents the tendency of most white people to go running to their token black friend with questions concerning the opinion of all African Americans in the United States. Thurston warns black people to be prepared for questions such as: “why do black people riot? Is it true you all hate homosexuals?” and so on (Thurston 91). Thurston proclaims that, in order to be taken seriously, one must be male, wear a suit, not be too young or too old, and speak clearly, though be wary as “perfect diction may undermine your black cred. The media will only accept a handful of black spokespeople who sound like they went to the same school as them” (Thurston 92). America has some pretty high standards of what it takes to be black and fully accepted in society. However, though the white­approved black person must have adopted white culture, they must still possess a certain amount of “black cred” as Thurston puts it. In other words, America wants to show the world that black people are educated and successful, just not quite as educated and successful as white people.

Though the title How To Be Black may send the message that this is a book for black people, in actuality it is much more useful to whites. By confessing his own experiences as a black boy in a private school and eventually an ivy league university, Thurston illustrates to white people that this tendency to accept and befriend black people as long as they are in a white setting is not much of an improvement over discriminating against them all. Wise makes this point too when he asks “isn’t the entire concept of ‘transcending blackness’ in and of itself racist, insofar as it presumes, if only by implication, that there is something negative about blackness­­something to be avoided or...worked around or smoothed over?” (Wise 24). Enlightened exceptionalism is essentially the idea that blackness can be overcome. It praises people for being successful despite their blackness, rather than acknowledging that blackness and successfulness can exist alongside each other. Wise goes on to say that enlightened exceptionalism, or racism 2.0, is “the political equivalent of a white person telling their black friend or colleague ‘I don’t even think of you as black’ and not understanding why [they are] offended” (Wise 24). America believes that going “colorblind” or becoming post­racial in the sense that race is no longer a factor in everyday social and political life is a sign of success in this country, however, in actuality it is racist and ignorant in that it implies any race other than white is negative. Instead of being more tolerant and accepting of other races, ethnicities, and cultures, white Americans would rather pretend that they do not exist.

White Americans want so badly for racial discussions to be over. They see Obama as a symbol of blackness, successful blackness, that has overcome years of struggle and disadvantagement to be put in one of the most powerful positions in the world. However, Roane argues that it is the, often overlooked, fact that Obama is biracial that is a true inspiration. He states that “Obama’s biracial heritage represents the genetic complexity potentially lying in every American. The beauty about Obama is that we can each identify with him according to our own race and ethnicity while still acknowledging the presence of other backgrounds” (Roane 4). Rather than exclaiming “we elected a black guy, racism is over!” the American people should see Obama’s mixed heritage for what it is, a blending of black and white in which both cultures are acknowledged and exist together equally. This should be the goal of future race relations in our country rather than this push towards a post­racial future in which race bares no importance at all.

The Age of Obama has certainly led to a cultural shift on how black people are viewed in the United States, most notably through this concept of enlightened exceptionalism. Furthermore, it has influenced the way in which Americans consume media, particularly media created and produced by black people. in “Reading African American Classics in the Age of Obama,” Michael Antonucci discusses Obama alongside Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Toni Morrison, identifying the Presidents own contributions to African American literature and the evolution that this genre has undergone. The first notable contribution of African Americans to the literary world were slave narratives which gained popularity during the abolition movement as a way for former slaves to share their stories. Both Douglass’s Narrative and Obama’s Dreams are attempts by black males to establish an identity in America (Antonucci 544). The story of one black man’s journey through enslavement compared to another black man’s journey through school systems in contemporary America illustrates the shifting struggles of black people in the United States. Antonucci argues that the manner in which we consume black media, particularly literature, should involve attentiveness to the stunning reality that “an African American writer is our president” (Antonucci 544). Black people have struggled for decades to gain recognition for their discoveries, inventions, artwork, and literature as black accomplishments are often overshadowed in media. However, not only do American’s now have a non­white man as president, he is a non­white author and contributor to popular culture. This is significant to consider when looking at other black Americans who have made significant contributions to popular culture and when reading African American literature.

Colson Whitehead’s coming­of­age novel titled Sag Harbor is a wonderful example of black literature in the Age of Obama. While the term post­racial is ineffective in describing our nation as a whole, it can more accurately be used when studying black literature. Post­racialism or, what Toure in his article “Visible Young Man” terms “post­blackness,” in literature is essentially the idea that stories featuring black characters do not have to be centered on the struggle of overcoming racial disadvantages. Whitehead tells the story of young Benji Cooper who comes from a privileged and wealthy household. The novel centers around his and his brothers time spent in the Hamptons during the summer. While racial tensions certainly exist in the novel with the boys staying on the “black side” of the beach, making acknowledging comments throughout the novel of negative white perceptions of them, Benji’s main adolescent struggle is not with his skin color. It is, like most teenage boys, with finding a girlfriend, holding a summer job, and fitting in with his friends. Benji comments that “according to the world, we were the definition of paradox: black boys with beach houses. A paradox to the outside, but it never occurred to us that there was anything strange about it. It was simply who we were” (Whitehead 71). While historically, this stereotypic ideology surrounding black status is integral to discussions of race, for Benji and his friends, there was nothing strange to them about their class. However, Toure points out that, throughout Sag Harbor, “whites are mostly offstage...for these characters, as for many blacks in the upper middle class, there’s a constant worry about the white gaze” (Toure 2). White perception is still integral to the Sag Harbor kids’ thought process as Benji points out “you didn’t, for example, walk down Main Street with a watermelon under your arm even if you had a pretty good reason….we were on display” (Whitehead 250). While race is not totally absent from these boys minds, it is not a constant struggle they are fighting. While slave narratives and other popular African American literature “document the horror of being black and enslaved or segregated or impoverished or imprisoned...Whitehead’s Benji starts with tremendous class advantages...life doesn’t assault him but rather affords him the time to figure out who he wants to be. Benji may be an outlier, but he is not alone” (Toure 3). Benji is different from the typical black protagonist. He is wealthy, he is privileged, he does not face the same disadvantages that middle and lower class black people face. He is an example of a black protagonist in the Age of Obama, one who has experienced and is the product of black success and hard work and, as a result, is free from the many struggles faced by preceding generations. He is a post­racial character in that his blackness is not the most important thing about him. However, that blackness is still an integral and important part of his identity which he does not wish or try to hide.

The Age of Obama has had a huge impact on American culture. Whether it began in the early 200s or on the exact day of Obama’s election, it has opened the door for more widespread acceptance of black people in America and has made steps to decrease the harsh racial binary that exists in this country. However, the extent to which it has accomplished this has been largely exaggerated by many white Americans. The phenomena of racism 2.0 and enlightened exceptionalism have aided in making white people believe they are more accepting of different races, however, in actuality it has simply allowed them to discriminate in different ways as well as provided them with a way to mask that discrimination. America has certainly come a long way, however, post­racial ideology can shield the long way it still needs to go. Though race should not be thought of as something that must be overcome, race relations and cultural acceptance still need improvement in the United States. Obama’s election was a huge stepping stone but there are many more steps that must be taken such as perhaps the acknowledgement that black Americans remain largely disadvantaged in society and the attempt to integrate black people deeper into popular culture beyond simply in a manner that earns white approval.

Works Cited

Andersen, Kurt. "Pop Culture in the Age of Obama." The New York Times Book Review 9 Aug. 2009: 23(L). Literature Resource Center. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.

Antonucci, Michael. "Robert B. Stepto. A Home Elsewhere: Reading African American Classics in the Age of Obama." African American Review 44.3 (2011): 542+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.

Early, Gerald. "The Two Worlds of Race Revisited: A Meditation on Race in the Age of Obama." Daedalus 140.1 (2011): 11+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. Gautier, Amina. "On Post­Racial America in the Age of Obama." Daedalus 140.1 (2011): 90+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 12 Apr. 2015

Patterson, Orlando. "Race and Diversity in the Age of Obama." The New York Times Book Review 16 Aug. 2009: 23(L). Literature Resource Center. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.

Roane, David H. “The New Racial Dialogue: Arriving at Whiteness in the Age of Obama.” Journal of African American Studies 13 (2008). 184­86. Web.

Toure. "Visible Young Man." The New York Times Book Review 3 May 2009: 1(L). Literature Resource Center. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.

Whitehead, Colson. Sag Harbor. Toronto: Anchor Books, 2009. Print. Wise, Tim. Between Barack and a Hard Place. San Francisco: City Light Books, 2009. Print.

Tower Academic: Honorable Mention Abbey Patton (Senior)

She Bang, She Bang: The Destruction of Masculine Writing and Assigned Roles in Mason & Dixon

    Thomas Pynchon's novel Mason & Dixon takes a turn for the unruly when, in the middle of the novel, the narration breaks from the overarching story and begins a new chronicle in the form of a captivity narrative. This story line introduces new characters and new ideas, some of which are self-contained within this section. Within these pages, Pynchon not only drastically changes his storytelling style a multiple number of times, but also manages to have a character undergo a complete metamorphosis in a matter of roughly thirty pages. This small section of Pynchon's behemoth novel introduces ideas that align with the Feminist theorists Luce Irigaray, and her text "The Power of Discourse and the Subordination of Women," and Sandra Gilbert's and Susan Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic. Throughout his frame narrative, Thomas Pynchon not only erases any ideal of masculine writing within Mason & Dixon, but also creates a female character who holds the power to break through the literary roles assigned to female characters. 

    Pynchon not only refrains from introducing Mason & Dixon's captivity narrative, but also neglects explaining the narrative change until Eliza's story is fifteen pages in. The narrator of this section is unidentifiable as it is not narrated by the primary narrator Reverend Wicks Cherrycoke, nor is this section narrated by Pynchon's third person narrator that communicates the story of Cherrycoke and his relatives. When, halfway through the story, Pynchon reveals this change in narration, informing the reader that he/she is truly reading a story within a story, the reader is left flailing in confusion as to what he/she is reading. This comes about when it is discovered that Tenebrae, Cherrycoke's niece and a peripheral character, has been reading a volume that one of her cousin's brought home from college (Pynchon 526). The narrator is finally revealed to be the unknown narrator of the Ghastly Fop series, a volume of fiction within Pynchon's fictional universe.

 As this discourse unravels, the narration begins to become distanced from masculine writing and to synchronize with Irigaray's ideal of feminine writing (Irigaray 797). Irigaray argues that the only way for women to fight their subjection is by "jamming the theoretical machinery itself" (796). The way to do this, Irigaray claims, is to completely oppose all preset ideas of style and linearity, to destroy the previous ideals of literature, as those belong to the masculine voice, and instead to create an entirely new way of writing. This breaking from the preset ways of writing is exactly what Pynchon exhibits, specifically in his captivity narrative, through his complicated style of narration. When the novel shifts to the first person narration of Eliza, the captivity narrative’s female lead, the female stock characters within captivity narratives are explored with the use of mimesis. By betraying his previous mode of third person narration for a sudden shift to first person, Pynchon is able to disrupt the style of sight by mimicking the masculine form. This is due to the fact that through Pynchon's mimesis of the masculine canonical form of first person narration, the author is actually disrupting the novel’s masculine point of view, thus creating a feminine structure for Mason & Dixon as a whole. However, the narration of Eliza then switches back to Ghastly Fop's original narrator, seemingly reconvening with the systemic masculine form of storytelling once again. This, however, is only a tease.    

       Eliza, upon finally arriving at the Jesuit College, is introduced to the woman who will be her mentor, Blondelle. Eliza is just as clueless as the reader is as to what is expected of her at this cultish joint she has been placed in against her will. Upon being introduced to Blondelle and the other sisters, Eliza is given her first chance to speak in weeks. Within moments of this interaction beginning, the women with Blondelle successfully trick Eliza into divulging the fact that she experienced the one act unforgivable to women: desire, "I star'd often at the many ways they had inscrib'd their own skins, some of the pictures being most beautiful, others arousing in me strange flashes of fear, mix'd with...feelings of desire" ( Pynchon 520). The revealing of this emotion is immediately reprimanded with a torturous device meant to mutilate the female genitalia, in order to make it impossible for the women of the college "to keep thoughts from straying far from God" (520). This idea of women's forced sexual repression strongly mirrors the notion Irigaray conceptualizes in her essay: that female sexual desire "has to remain inarticulate in language" (Irigaray 796). Eliza, by exposing and openly discussing a function that is not meant to be unveiled, "threatens the underpinnings of logical articulation [and thus, masculine writing]" (796). 

Eliza's story comes to a close by Ghastly Fop's narrator and the original narrator reconvening through Pynchon's merging of the small frame narrative into the overarching story. Eliza only has her escape from the Jesuit College finally completed through running into Mason's and Dixon's work force (Pynchon 534). Pynchon by blending the double fiction of Ghastly Fop with the original fictional narration of Mason & Dixon, manages to successfully "put the torch to...well-constructed forms" (Irigaray 797). Pynchon not only produces the unique structure Irigaray is challenging her readers to design, but also explicitly shows the oppression Irigaray asserts womankind are subject to through Eliza's sojourn at the Jesuit College.

    As the captivity narrative, and consequently the novel as a whole, falls farther into entropy, Eliza begins to show signs of breaking out of the patriarchal literary mold set for her. Eliza starts achieving self-definition, as shown through the narrative switching from a third person narrator to first person, with Eliza narrating her own story. Gilbert and Gubar, in The Madwoman in the Attic, posit "For all literary artists...self definition necessarily precedes self-assertion: the creative 'I AM' cannot be uttered if the 'I' knows not what it is. But for the female artist the essential process of self-definition is complicated by all those patriarchal definitions that intervene between herself and herself" (Gilbert & Grubar 812-813). Thus, by having her choose to narrate her own story, Eiza has successfully "escaped the male designs in which she feels herself enmeshed" (813). These designs that Eliza has been able to transcend are the two male-devised images Gilbert and Gubar argue are the only characterizations women are allowed in literature: that of "angel" or "monster," thus granting her the ability to self-define (812). 

    Pynchon further recognizes Eliza's escape from her literary mold through a particular interaction between her and Zhang, her Chinese male traveling companion. Whenever Eliza, a married woman, attempts to initiate sex with Zhang on her own accord, she breaks away from the set image of women as the "angel" as she can no longer be the "ideal of contemplative purity" (Goethe qtd. in Gilbert & Grubar 815). Hence, she should then fall under the role of "monster," as the theorists claim these are the only two roles for women in the patriarchal system of literature. However, whenever Zhang denies Eliza's advance, Eliza assumes he now finds her contemptible, as she is prepared to slide into the only image history says is left for her, to which Zhang qualms this fear by stating, "on the contrary, I adore you" (Pynchon 533-534). Through Zhang openly accepting Eliza's desire, and not acting on it, he gives Eliza control over her own desire, presenting her freedom from the "theatrickal roles assign'd" to her (533). 

    Eliza's transition into a self-defining character is completed towards the end of her narrative, where her growth has become evident when she is departing from Zhang. Whenever Zhang mentions to her that the Wolf of Jesus, the man they have been running from, will continue to chase after them until he finds them, Eliza responds to this instance of fear by saying, "Once I would have sigh'd. Please, one day imagine me as having sigh'd" (535). Eliza's reaction to this fearful prospect is a complete reverse from her previous introductions to frightening encounters. For instance, upon her arrival at the Jesuit College, after weeks of unwilling detainment, Eliza contemplates suicide, as she becomes aware of the fact that death will be her only escape from the cult she has been forced into. Due to this realization, Eliza faints, perfectly embodying the angelic quality of the "'genteel' woman" by expressing her "ladylike fragility" (Gilbert & Grubar 817). For this act she is mocked by the men as a "fainting novice," which frustrates Eliza enough to be more aware of her reactions (Pynchon 517). Thus, the next instance in which she is introduced to a frightful encounter, when she enters a room full of wigs resting on human skulls, she consciously allows her only reaction to be to "let out her breath in a great sigh. And refrain from fainting" (522). In this passage, Eliza has to will herself to fight against the man-made ideal of who, and what, she should be. By the end of her narrative, Eliza merely recognizes the image she once personified, establishing for the reader that she has shed the "male defined-masks and costumes" she was subject to for so long; Eliza has fully become her own independent character (Gilbert & Gubar 814).

    Thomas Pynchon's frame narrative within Mason & Dixon exhibits the author's discarding of the preset ideal of storytelling and narration. Pynchon wanders from the constructed form and linearity that Irigaray posits are the characteristics of masculine writing. By torching this systematicity, the author breaks through the confines of sight and instead creates the feminine style of writing that Irigaray petitioned for. By separating himself from masculine diction, Pynchon is then able to create a female figure that is able to transcend the confines of female gender roles in literature. Due to her transcendence, Eliza's identity is no longer shrouded by restrictive character roles, allowing her to achieve self-definition.  When Eliza sheds the images of both monster and angel, all that is left is human, allowing her to achieve full personhood.

Works Cited

Gilbert, Sandra and Gubar, Suan. The Madwoman in the Attic. Literary Theory: An Anthology.     Ed. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. 812-825. Print.

Irigaray, Luce. ""The Power of Discourse and the Subordination of Women." Literary Theory:     An Anthology. Ed. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.    795-798. Print.

Pynchon, Thomas. Mason & Dixon. New York: Picador, 1997. Print

Tower Academic: Honorable Mention Sara Perry (Sophomore)

Agency within Medievalism

    Society has long since existed in a relentless loop of shaping and being shaped by human interaction.  The products of human interaction ̶ culture, social organization, and social structure ̶ heavily influence the way normal society is structured and have the power to act against those living within it to restrict or constrain action.  This constricting nature set forth by societal norms directly decreases the amount of human agency one can experience while within society and worsens quality of life.  In The Hobbit, Tolkien uses Bilbo’s hybrid nature as both a hobbit and an adventurer and subsequent distancing from the rest of hobbit society to reject medieval ideals of acting strictly within societal constraints, exploring the constricting nature of human society and the changes in agency and identity that occur when one steps out of that bubble.

    Bilbo undergoes a hybridization throughout The Hobbit that is crucial to his ostracization from hobbit culture, morphing from a simple hobbit into one that is an experienced adventurer.  He no longer leads the simple, adventure-free life that is valued by hobbits and this poses the question of where in society Bilbo really fits in.  By combining both hobbit and adventurer he becomes fully neither, effectively turning him into the middle section of society’s Venn diagram, bordered off from both worlds he was once a part of.  Despite being sectioned off from both societal worlds, labeled as “queer” by the rest of the hobbits and never truly an inhabitant of the world of elves, dwarves, and wizards, Bilbo instead chooses to embrace his new connections to other cultures and coexist with their societies rather than try to forcefully graft himself back into them (Tolkien 275).  This is Tolkien’s first show of modernity in that there is no intrinsic, personal pressure to be a part of the established society.

    This is in direct contrast with the example set by the faeries in Sir Orfeo.  The faeries are hybrids by nature, a supernatural blend of both nature and humanity, grasping at society in the hopes of collecting any residual humanity it might exude.  This attempt at self-humanization is shown through the image of the “impe tre” and its connection to the abduction and imprisonment of Orfeo’s queen (“Sir Orfeo” 443).  The queen is abducted while she is sleeping in the shade of the impe tre, a tree artificially made through grafting, and is still under it when Orfeo arrives to rescue her.  The queen, the epitome of human beauty, refinement, and royalty, is directly attached to this tree in every instance it makes an appearance, perfectly reflecting the nature of the relationship between faeries and human society.  Faeries, similar to the tree in its artificial, hybrid nature, grasp at human society through the abduction and hoarding of an incredible amount of humans and objects, directly parallel to the image of the impe tre and its connection to the queen.  Faerie society refuses to exist outside the realms of human society, focusing on forcefully grafting onto and imitating it instead through embracing human concepts such as honor, kingliness, and human beauty.

    The hybrid nature of the faeries is used to explore the relationship between society and what isn’t human, approaching it with the idea that the faeries are just perversions of the good and civilized and are wrong because they have not accepted that they exist under the rule of society.  This is paralleled through Bilbo’s existence as the perversion of the good and civilized hobbit, although Bilbo is used as an example of someone who is not wrong for living outside of the rule of society.  Bilbo is treated with a societal distaste similar to that experienced by the faeries, with even his family “not encouraged in their friendship by their elders” (Tolkien 275).  He is viewed as wrong by the society surrounding him and, unlike the faeries, he “[does] not mind” (Tolkien 275).  Tolkien uses Bilbo’s acceptance of his situation and his disinterest in forcing his way back into societal approval as a means of exploring the idea that one can exist outside of societal barriers and still remain a good and right individual, rejecting the medieval idea of striving to exist and act within the barriers in order to lead the correct type of life.

    Changes, of course, come with ostracizing one’s self from society and the major change occurs in the nature of the relationships between those within and those outside of the societal barriers.  This change is manifested in Bilbo through the disconnect between his old identity and his new one and the effect that has on the rest of hobbit society.  Before he set out in search of adventure, Bilbo had everything that hobbits use to establish status: a cozy, widely envied hobbit-hole, a decent amount of money, beautiful, antique possessions, and a respected reputation.  When he returns from his adventure, he still has almost all of the same material possessions, resides in the same hobbit-hole, and looks like the Bilbo everyone knew, but his personality and reputation have evolved so much that a disconnect now exists between the hobbit he was and the hobbit he became.  “[H]e had lost his reputation” and “was no longer quite respectable” to the extent that the hobbit elders were even discouraging his own family members from being involved with him (Tolkien 275).  This disconnect and loss of respectability creates a conflicting view of Bilbo as both a hobbit and as a member of society, as he exists in the same right, respectable environment, but with an entirely changed attitude and perceived identity, utterly rocking society’s perception of him.  He becomes something “queer” and alien and, as a result, loses his connection with the rest of hobbit society and his old self through the loss of his old reputation (Tolkien 275).    

    Reputation and the respectability that accompanies it is a concept that exists purely to establish societal norms and govern how someone acts within those constraints.  Its importance is incredibly medieval, as reputation was essentially one’s résumé and served as a means of distinguishing the respectable from the delinquent.  This heavy importance on reputation is echoed throughout Sir Orfeo, specifically in the deal Orfeo makes with the faerie king to reclaim his wife.  Orfeo asks for his wife as his prize for his beautiful harping and, when the faerie king initially refuses, Orfeo reminds him “That thou me seyst nowghe / That I schuld have what I wold. / Bot nedys a kyngys word mot hold” (“Sir Orfeo” 453).  With his kingly reputation at stake, the faerie king has no choice but to relent in order to preserve his respectability according to himself and the human society he is attempting to imitate.  He does not want to give up Orfeo’s queen, even remarking that it would be “[a] foule thing” for her to pass in Orfeo’s company, and his acting in accordance with how reputation and respectability command him to act, even in defiance of personal desire, embodies a medieval submission to reputation that Tolkien refuses to accept (“Sir Orfeo” 448).

    While Tolkien acknowledges the extreme importance placed on status and reputation by society, he challenges its intrinsic importance by having Bilbo embody the extremely modern concept of being content with one’s self and not being heavily influenced by other people’s opinions and viewpoints.  The elder hobbits’ reaction to Bilbo and his tarnished reputation offer the same societal prompt that Orfeo’s response to the faerie king does, calling for a conformity to societal standards and emphasizing just how vital that conformity is to the societal machine.  Tolkien, however, challenges the validity of this statement by showing that conformity is not quite as important to happiness and societal function as it is presented.  Bilbo “was quite content” and “did not mind” existing outside of societal barriers, his disconnect offering only happiness and freedom instead of loneliness and inconvenience (Tolkien 275).  Bilbo’s existence outside of societal barriers offers a type of human agency and the opportunity to follow personal desire through the removal of reputational constraints and understood societal rules that the faerie king was not able to take advantage of.  

    This opportunity to follow personal desire allows for the exploration of one’s identity, emphasized by the need to adapt to the new social atmosphere.  Even if it is not a conscious act of changing and adapting, the adaptation still occurs, brought on by the question of ‘I was this before and I changed, so what am I now?’.  Bilbo experiences this change throughout The Hobbit, drastically changing between his crisis over forgetting his pocket handkerchief when he set out on his quest and his taking his stand on Ravenhill among the elves to defend the Elvenking during the Battle of the Five Armies.  He adapts to his new environment, drastically different from the warm hobbit-hole and peaceful garden he had grown accustomed to, gradually becoming a melting pot of hobbit, dwarf, elf, and wizard.  This change and acceptance of his new role as a hybrid hobbit/adventurer is embodied by his placing his sword above his mantelpiece.  That mantelpiece was the first change in his hobbit nature that was brought upon by the dwarves descending upon him with a quest.  In all his excitement and anxiousness over the unexpected visitors he had forgotten to dust the mantelpiece, Gandalf later remarking that he was not at all himself because of it.  This was the first void created in Bilbo’s identity by the dwarf quest and it is finally, fittingly filled at the end by Bilbo’s placing his sword above the mantelpiece, effectively morphing his two identities.  This physical combination of his hobbit and adventurer lives parallels his inner hybridization and, more importantly, the acceptance of himself that Bilbo experiences through it.  Bilbo’s ability to accept his hybrid nature and new self creates his own mixture of understood cultural rules, freeing him from the rigid parameters of hobbit culture that he no longer fits within and giving him the agency to choose what he wants to do and how he wants to live, a path that would not have been available had he rejected his new nature.

    Faeries, however, are bound by human laws because of their relentless craving for human nature and, therefore, have significantly less agency and power.  Their refusal to embrace their own hybrid nature leads to an innate dissatisfaction, exemplified by the faerie king’s relent of Orfeo’s wife and adherence to kingly honor.  The king does not want to give up Orfeo’s wife and has no reason to do so besides adherence to the human principle of honor and the constraint of a king’s word.  He had already stolen the queen, why should he not keep her?  He binds himself to human society through the acceptance and embracement of the role of a human king and his denying his dual nature, effectively stripping him of any agency to choose to follow the faerie rules.  

    Bilbo’s acceptance, however, grants him plenty of agency.  By refusing to view his new lifestyle as “queer” or unrespectable, he frees himself to make choices that he would have not been able to comfortably make before (Tolkien 275).  He is able to freely visit the elves, maintain his friendships with his companions from the Misty Mountain, proudly display his sword over his mantelpiece, and, most importantly, use his ring to escape unwanted visitors (Tolkien 275).  The ease and comfort with which Bilbo uses the ring to escape unwanted visitors is the most prominent example of his newfound agency because of its massive contradiction with how a respectable hobbit should act.  Hobbits love having guests and being hosts, even if they do not unconditionally favor their visitors, and Bilbo’s active choice to avoid following that role because he knows it will be unpleasant perfectly embodies the change he has experienced since he accepted his new identity as an adventurer hobbit.  Unlike the faerie king, Bilbo is able to utilize his hybrid nature and distance from societal norms in order to benefit his happiness and his own identity.

    Bilbo had always had an adventurous side emanating from his Took heritage and own personality, visible in his childhood, but he never quite embraced it in his adult life and, therefore, was never quite content with how he was and the life that he was living.  He was anxious to go on the dwarf quest, although he was very nervous, but he did ultimately enjoy himself and reach the conclusion of who he really is.  Through the constant adaptation he experienced during his time with the dwarves he was ostracized from his old, false identity, allowing him the chance to search himself and find the hobbit he really wished to be.  By accepting each part of himself and the duality of his nature he is able to be “quite content” and his life became more enjoyable “than it had been even in the quiet days before the Unexpected Party” (Tolkien 275).  Through this statement, Tolkien takes a more modern approach to the ideas of agency and identity and embraces the idea that accepting yourself as you are and not how your role or culture dictates you be can give you substantially more power in choosing how to live your life and the level of happiness you experience while doing so.

    By following medieval cultural restraints set forth by society, the faeries doom themselves to be stuck in a world of cultural stasis.  By binding themselves to human law and principle and rejecting the duality of their nature they forfeit their agency and opportunity to grow or proceed, as they are stuck in the same, never-evolving laws and traditions of human society.  In contrast, Bilbo was able to change and grow to be a new person with a new, happier future and opportunities through the acceptance of his hybrid nature.  Tolkien uses Bilbo to challenge the validity of societal norms by presenting him as an example of the opportunities that can be taken advantage of and the happiness that can be gained when one breaks away from the stasis of societal constraints and forges their own path through the acceptance of their identity and true nature.

Works Cited

"Sir Orfeo." Codex Ashmole 61: A Compilation of Popular Middle English Verse. Ed. George 

Shuffelton. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2008. Print.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit. London: HarperCollins, 2012. Print.

Tower Academic: 3rd Place Abigail Betts (Junior)

Marriage or Psychology, Two Sides of the Eyes Wide Shut Debate

    The M.P.A.A had a difficult task ahead of them when it was time to assign a film rating to Stanley Kubrick’s highly controversial last film, Eyes Wide Shut. The film follows the dissolution of the marriage between Alice and Bill Harford, who are portrayed by Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise. The fact that the two actors were romantically involved while filming did nothing to provide their characters’ relationship onscreen with any sense of comforting marital intimacy. The film is imbued with paranoid feelings of conspiracy and sexual intrigue as Bill explores a world of drug abuse, prostitutes, sexual rituals, and potential murder. Many critics have found Kubrick’s final work to be severely faulted due to its depiction of explicit sexuality, and due to its discordant method of storytelling. However, the debate over the quality of Kubrick’s final work cannot be condensed to a simple decision of complete effectiveness. The dominant theme that one takes from the film significantly alters the perception of the film’s overall quality. If the dominant theme to be taken away from the film is the complications of modern marriage, the film becomes fairly ineffectual in its storytelling. However, if the main theme that one takes from the film is the psychology behind Bill’s character, the film becomes incredibly effectual in its method of storytelling.

    The controversial material in Eyes Wide Shut is often a source of condemnation for critics of the film. The scene that most often bears the brunt of these critiques is a sequence of ritualistic sexuality. Even though these scenes are arguably more immoral in their depiction of sexuality, the sexuality depicted as a result of Alice’s extramarital thoughts,  or the sexuality depicted through the actions of an underage girl, is less often critiqued than the infamous orgy sequence. Some critics condemn the ritualistic orgy sequence on the basis of its ineffectiveness, rather than solely on its explicit nature. Jane Alison presents complaints based in the “staginess” of how the scene was portrayed, “This staginess was seen by harsher critics to plague the entire film- in its mannered dialogue, the artificiality of the New York set, the implausibility of Cruise in his role, the sheer ludicrousness of the plot.” (Alison). This ineffectual “staginess” is present in many other scenes in the film. At the beginning of the film, while Cruise and Kidman are dancing, his hand is not fully touching her back. Whether this particular instance of physical detachment was a conscious choice made by Kubrick to address marital separation, or an example of the ineffectual “staginess” of the film, the stiff tone present in this scene and throughout the remainder of the film can create a very jarring and ultimately ineffectual tone.

    Kubrick often translates print mediums for his films, and when he makes alterations between these mediums, they can be understood as deliberate and significant choices credited to his notoriously methodical approach to filmmaking. Alison notes that a subtle yet significant change made between the medium of Schnitzler’s novella, Traumnovelle and Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut is the alteration of the password for entry to the pivotal mansion party. The password changes from the location of Alice’s sexual fantasies to Beethoven’s opera, Fidelio. In addition to shifting focus from the central conflict of the marriage of Bill and Alice, Kubrick’s subtle inclusion of operatic material reflects the over-the-top presentation of sexual fantasy in the film. While over-the-top cinema is a hallmark of Kubrick’s work, the overstated drama of Eyes Wide Shut can be seen as less effective in its usage than in some of Kubrick’s other works due to the way that the overstated drama creates additional “staginess”.

     The mistakes made in Kubrick’s method of storytelling in Eyes Wide Shut may have been made in deference to the technical aspects of production: “...considerations of plot were never uppermost in this director’s mind; for him, all was subordinate to the camera.” (Decter 52). One of the most noticeable techniques Kubrick uses for the benefit of the technical aspects of the film’s production is the manipulation of color and lighting. These lighting choices establish essential characterization for Bill and Alice. Harsh blue lights and soft yellow, orange, and red lights rotate throughout the film. In the context of Kubrick’s work, this rotation is anything but arbitrary. Bill is often surrounded by the warmer lighting tones, while Alice is often framed by the harsher blue lights. Janet Maslin suggests that, “The conjugal life is bathed in red, at first, and danger in blue.” (Maslin). While the warmer tones of lights do seem to be indicative of conjugal action, the blue lighting also accompanies conjugal action, rather than Maslin’s exclusive suggestion of danger. The entrance to the room where an underage girl is engaged in conjugal action with two men is lit with harsh blue fluorescents. Bill’s visualizations of Alice engaged in conjugal action with the naval officer are also lit with the harsh blue light. The pairing of this sexually active young girl and Alice’s extramarital sexual fantasies through lighting choices suggests that the blue lighting is indicative of women’s sexuality rather than of danger, and that the warmer colors of lighting are indicative of Bill’s expressions of male sexuality. This skillful manipulation of technical elements in the film works to redeem its perceived deficiencies.

    While Bill and Alice struggle with infidelity and lust throughout the film, the resolution of Eyes Wide Shut depicts hope for their marriage. Richard Brody compares and contrasts Kubrick’s depiction of marital discord to David Fincher’s film, Gone Girl. While both films depict the dissolution of a marriage, there is a stark difference made between the two directors’  depictions of marriage at the conclusion of their films: “Fincher appears to be more pessimistic about love than Kubrick was. Eyes Wide Shut, a post-Freudian work, takes sexual desire very seriously as a realm where the revelation of inner monsters makes it possible to live with them, with ourselves, and with each other.” (Brody). While Kubrick’s relatively more positive depiction of the future of Bill and Alice’s marriage may seem to be a source of redemption for the concept of marriage in Eyes Wide Shut, the final scene between Bill and Alice ultimately compromises the film’s effectiveness. In other films, Kubrick refuses to provide a satisfying resolution of the action of his films in order to maintain the integrity of his storytelling. This ambiguity is one of the most intriguing qualities of Kubrick’s brand of filmmaking, but it is lost in the attempt of Eyes Wide Shut to resolve itself, “The reconciliation at the end of the film is the one scene that doesn’t work; a film that intrigues us because of its loose ends shouldn’t try to tidy up.” (Ebert). A “happy ending” simply isn’t congruent with Kubrick’s style, and it makes the entire film less effective in its analysis of marriage.

    While there is a sense of “otherness” in Bill and Alice’s marriage, the concept of the “other” is posed repeatedly in Eyes Wide Shut, but is never fully embraced by the characters. While Bill and Alice express their desires to venture into a world of the unfamiliar, neither fully embraces the concept of the “other”. This idea of the “other” is essential to the artistic interpretation of Kubrick’s final film: “Much talk- some of it real, a lot of it fake- has been in the air over the last decade about empathy for the ‘other,’ for people different from us. But no one has dwelled on the essential otherness of a work of art.” (Siegel). The strongest defense of this film’s effectiveness is the strong reaction that it has elicited from a wide range of critics, both positively and negatively. These strong reactions make Eyes Wide Shut effective in its storytelling because its “otherness” is actually a keenly intuitive expression of the audience’s own darker nature. This is an innate human truth that viewers would like to ignore and repress in the way that the film’s characters repress their darkest natures. Bill’s abandonment of the unknown world of sexual intrigue that he has discovered creates a larger commentary for the role of male psychology in the process of interpretation for this film.

     The fairly episodic method of storytelling used in Eyes Wide Shut beautifully reflects the inner workings of Bill’s mind. This is done through reflecting the way that his mind is quickly jumping from one train of thought to the next as he tries to riddle his way out of the deviant world he finds himself immersed in. This methodical approach of jumping from scene to scene inversely creates a commentary on female figures in the film through the reflection of Bill’s mind, in the way that scenes involving women do not shift focus as quickly as the scenes involving Bill. The extended close-ups of Kidman during Alice’s confessions of sexual fantasies reflect the mystery that Bill has found in the wife who was initially introduced as a mundane figure while the couple got dressed for the Ziegler’s Christmas party. The sudden shift from Bill’s confusion through disjointed shots to the intensely focused shots depicting women suggests a mystery between the genders at play in Bill’s mind.

    The manipulation of the inner workings of the male mind is the most defendable aspect of Tom Cruise’s heavily criticized performance in Eyes Wide Shut. Amy Taubin thoroughly explores the male psychology at play in the film in her essay, “Imperfect Love: Stanley Kubrick’s Last Film”. The scene in which Bill views the naked corpse of a woman in the morgue; whose identity is uncertain to him, reflects the uncertainty of his own identity after the chaotic events of the film (Taubin). Emasculation plays heavily into this interpretation of male behavior through the character of Bill. This idea of emasculation enhances the tone of constant threat in the film that weighs heavily on the audience through the innate male fear of emasculation. The psychological concepts of Eros and Thanatos, the instincts of sex and death, are used by Taubin as a defense of the film’s commentary on mortality through the fear presented in these characters. Kubrick’s depiction of mortality, which is so tangible in this film, upsets the distanced relationship between audience and filmmaker by presenting a harsh reality involving man’s innate fear of his own mortality.

     The relatively crass presentation of the gritty nature of human life makes Eyes Wide Shut both critically controversial and psychologically manipulative in a way that is ultimately effective as a method of storytelling. The presentation of marriage is flawed and uneven, but the psychological themes at play make the film an effective and brutally honest commentary on the animalistic nature of human life. True to the style of Kubrick’s other work, there is no sugar coating in his presentation of these ideas, but instead this film presents large ideas about society through skillfully covert manipulations of the art of filmmaking.

 Works Cited

Alison, Jane. "Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut: A Masque in Disguise." Post Script Fall 2003:     3+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.

Brody, Richard. "David Fincher's Portrait of a Marriage." The New Yorker.com. The New     Yorker, 03 Oct. 2014. Web. 08 Apr. 2015.

Decter, Midge. "The Kubrick Mystique." Commentary 108.2 (1999): 52. Literature Resource     Center. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.

Ebert, Roger. "Eyes Wide Shut Movie Review & Film Summary." All Content. Ebert Digital     LLC, 16 July 1999. Web. 08 Apr. 2015.

Maslin, Janet. "Eyes Wide Shut (1999) FILM REVIEW; Bedroom Odyssey." www.nytimes.com.     The New York Times, 16 July 1999. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.

Siegel, Lee. "Eyes Wide Shut: What the Critics Failed to See in Kubrick's Last Film." Harper's     Magazine 299 (Oct. 1999): 76-82. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed.     Linda Pavlovski and Scott T. Darga. Vol. 112. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Literature Resources     from Gale. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.

Taubin, Amy. "Imperfect Love: Stanley Kubrick's Last Film." Film Comment 35.5 (Sept.-Oct.     1999): 25-33. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski and     Scott T. Darga. Vol. 112. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 8     Apr. 2015.

Tower Academic: 2nd Place Ryan Covington (Senior)

The Star and His Shadow: Examining the Opposing Trajectories of Olaudah Equiano and Ukawsaw Gronniosaw

    In The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano and the Narrative of Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, we witness the maturation of two African children as they are taken from noble families, sold into bondage, and finally freed.  It is at this point of freedom that their experiences diverge drastically, Equiano receiving many accolades and accruing wealth, Gronniosaw descending into destitution and becoming a burden upon the community.  Because their lives are so similar up until their respective manumissions, luck initially seems to play a key role in the fate of each.  But when their narratives are compared closely, it becomes evident that the choices Equiano and Gronniosaw make determine their fortunes.  Equiano resists inculcation from pervasive white supremacist values, maintaining pride in his African heritage; Gronniosaw embraces these white supremacist values, internalizing notions of African inferiority.  We are introduced to their differing ideologies as early as their recollections of their origins in Africa.

Many facts of Equiano and Gronniosaw’s beginnings match to an uncanny degree, but their descriptions are often diametrically opposed: Equiano’s appear to be faithful recollections of his early life, while Gronniosaw’s act as placeholders for the white supremacist perspective.  We see a key example of this dichotomy when the two characters describe their encounters with albino Africans.  Gronniosaw speaks of his “beloved sister,” saying, “she was quite white, and fair, with fine light hair though my father and mother were black” (5), depicting her as the European ideal of an angel.  In contrast, Equiano says that such albinos “were universally regarded by myself, and the natives in general, as far as related to their complexions, as deformed” (25), further asserting that “in regard to complexion, ideas of beauty are wholly relative” (25).  Here, we see Equiano anticipating the white supremacist perspective and thwarting its pretensions to objective truth.  But why is Equiano capable of resisting white supremacist indoctrination while Gronniosaw falls victim? There are two answers to this question, to be addressed in tandem.  The first is that Equiano learns to read.

Both Equiano and Gronniosaw are thrown into consternation when they first see their masters “talk” to books and later try speaking to them themselves (Equiano 48; Gronniosaw 10), but only Equiano pursues reading diligently when given the opportunity to learn (56).  Conversely, Gronniosaw blames the color of his skin for the book’s silence, saying “when I found it would not speak, this thought immediately presented itself to me, that every body and every thing despis’d me because I was black” (10).   Gronniosaw loses the desire to read as he loses his sense of personal value in association with his color.  The ironic effect of his apathy toward learning to read based on the color of his skin is that he becomes even more susceptible to white supremacist indoctrination.  This susceptibility stems from him being incapable of interpreting ideological doctrine for himself, namely the Bible, instead relying upon the Eurocentric received interpretation.  Frank Lambert discusses the ideological threat that this received interpretation of the Bible posed to black Christians in his essay “‘I Saw the Book Talk’: Slave Readings of the First Great Awakening.”

In “I Saw the Book Talk,” Lambert explains that eighteenth-Century Christian evangelists undertook an initiative to convert slaves to Christianity by encouraging them to attend church and teaching them to read the Bible.  But the movement soon met with resistance: slaveholders, apprehensive of their slaves organizing socially and wary of the raised consciousness learning to read would foment, began protesting the evangelists’ initiative.  To appease these slaveholders, evangelists took subsequent measures intended to reduce the threat conversion and education represented.  According to Lambert, evangelists “attempted to guide [slaves’] interpretation of the new birth, emphasizing especially the biblical injunction for servants to obey their masters” (189).  Preachers induced guilt and encouraged docility, scaring slaves with myths like Jesus feeling the pain of crucifixion anew when they disobeyed (189).  Through these measures, the religion that promised salvation became another tool of oppression.  But not all slaves fell victim to the deceit.

Just as the slaveholders feared, learning to read opened up new ways of thinking to slaves.  In particular, they developed new interpretations of the Bible that encouraged notions of spiritual equality with whites rather than inferiority.  Equiano establishes himself as one of these critical-minded Africans when he says of the Bible, “I prized it much, with many thanks to God that I could read it for myself, and was not left to be tossed about or led by man’s devices and notions.  The worth of a soul cannot be told” (145).  Therefore, because Equiano can read, he is able to resist the influence of white supremacist preachers to whom Gronniosaw is powerless.

Moving on to the second answer to the question asked above, Equiano not only learns to read but becomes financially independent.  Gronniosaw, conversely, survives by “the boundless mercies of my God!” (34), which is to say the charity of others.  Both Equiano and Gronniosaw mention coming from backgrounds that teach them little use for currency (Eq. 24; Gr. 23), but Equiano learns to practice fiscal responsibility while Gronniosaw flounders.  It is not a matter of luck: each of them experiences numerous swindles (Eq. 122, 129, 130; Gr. 21-2, 24-5), and Gronniosaw, in particular, receives several boons (19, 31).  But where Equiano fights for restitution, Gronniosaw invariably forgives debts in favor of piety.  Piety also encourages Gronniosaw to give his money away, which he boasts he would do endlessly if not for a need to feed his wife and children (23).  Thus, in affecting excessive generosity, Gronniosaw becomes a drain on his neighbors.  His narrative itself is a ploy for money to relieve his destitute family, written by a friend with all proceeds going to Gronniosaw (iii).  Because Gronniosaw puts himself at the economic mercy of Europeans, it behooves him to adopt their viewpoint to encourage pity for himself, thereby devaluing himself further.  Equiano, on the other hand, because he is fiscally responsible, does not want pity, so he does not tailor his words to his audience and thereby gains their respect.  The difference in Equiano and Gronniosaw’s conceptions of self-worth, therefore, are inextricably linked to their economic destinies, which we find the best predictions for in their respective manumissions.

Gronniosaw is given his freedom and ten pounds sterling by his dying master, but the master’s wife and children are good to him, so he continues to serve them until they all die, and he is left with nothing (19).  In contrast, Equiano’s master tells him that for forty pounds sterling he may purchase his freedom (104).  Earning this money through trade and industry teaches Equiano the value of money, a value Gronniosaw never grasps.  Sumner Eliot Matison analyzes the psychological effect of purchasing one’s own freedom compared to being granted it by one’s master in the essay “Manumission by Purchase.”  Matison argues that self-purchase “helped refute the argument that slavery was justifiable and necessary because Negroes were inferior beings…  [It] demonstrated that Negroes could not only maintain themselves as freemen but could attain their freedom in the face of overwhelming obstacles” (167).  Because no slave could attain freedom without the consent of his or her master, self-purchase encouraged a business-like cooperation between the perceived inferior and superior that resembled equality (161).  We see this cooperation taking place between Equiano and his master as he negotiates for his freedom (104).  Equiano gains his master’s respect in attaining liberty, and the two remain friends and business partners throughout the narrative.  In contrast, Gronniosaw is abruptly given his freedom by his dying master, denying him the opportunity for self-purchase that would fuse the desire for freedom to the need for fiscal responsibility.  Thus, it is only much later in life when he has a family to feed that he begins to understand the necessity of proper money management.

Comparing the narratives of Olaudah Equiano and Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, we observe one of the clearest representations of the insidious psychological effects of white supremacist indoctrination on African slaves.  It becomes evident through their stories that the ability to read and thus interpret ideological doctrine for oneself and the ability to provide for oneself financially are critical skills that allow one to resist dependency and inculcation.  Equiano’s story is one of rousing success in these fields; Gronniosaw’s, unfortunately, is one of disheartening failure.  Though both slaves accept European Christianity, Equiano develops his own Biblical interpretation that does not make him feel inferior for the color of his skin, while Gronniosaw resorts to considering himself lesser, evidenced in beliefs like his that the Devil is a black man (11).  But it is perhaps the sentiments they express about waiting for heaven that are most telling of their differing situations by the ends of their narratives.

Equiano, during an ecstatic espousal of faith says, “I rejoiced in spirit, making melody in my heart to the God of all my mercies.  Now my whole wish was to be dissolved, and to be with Christ—but, alas! I must wait mine appointed time” (146), revealing a joy in life eclipsed only by anticipation of the afterlife.  In contrast, Gronniosaw concludes his narrative dismally, saying of he and his family, “As Pilgrims, and very poor Pilgrims, we are travelling through many difficulties toward our heavenly home, and waiting patiently for his gracious call, when the Lord shall deliver us out of the evils of this present world and bring us to the everlasting glories of the world to come [text normalization mine]” (39), revealing a sadness in life that he hopes will be alleviated by death.  Where Equiano’s optimistic language intimates the pride of overcoming adversity, Gronniosaw’s denotes the poignant resignation of a defeated man.  Though both characters adopt the religion of their captors, one is liberated by his equality in the eyes of God, the other is enslaved by debt and sentiments of inferiority even after his manumission.  It is a harrowing testament to the pervasive influence of white supremacy that Ukawsaw Gronniosaw is unmade so completely, and it is a testament to the faculties of the mind and human spirit that Olaudah Equiano resists.

Works Cited

Shirley, Walter. A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African Prince as Related by Himself. University of North Carolina. Docsouth.unc.edu, 2001. Web. 25 September 2015.

Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself. Ed. Werner Sollors. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001. Print.

Matison, Eliot Sumner.  “Manumission by Purchase.”  The Journal of Negro History.  33.2 (1948): 146-67. JSTOR. Web. 21 October 2015.

Lambert, Frank. “‘I Saw the Book Talk’: Slave Readings of the First Great Awakening.” The Journal of Negro History. 77.4 (1992): 185-98. JSTOR. Web. 25 September 2015.

Tower Academic: 1st Place Winner Rebecca Davis (Senior)

Self-Efficacy and the Apprehensive Writer: A Look into What Shapes the Confidence of a Writer

    For any and all writers, the amount of confidence maintained throughout the writing process can both benefit and harm the writer. For the apprehensive writer, especially, this element, nested in each stage of the writing process, can seriously hinder his or her ability to perform well and accomplish the task he or she set out to achieve. The idea of self-efficacy in the writing process is prominent in many settings, but also develops from many sources. Many writers’ transformations from being apprehensive to being healthily confident writers can be sparked by several sources, including the writing instructor, peers, the writing environment and circumstances, and most importantly by the writers themselves.

    First, it is important to understand the concept of self-efficacy as it relates to both creative and academic writers. Self-efficacy is a concept first discussed by Albert Bandura, a psychologist of human social behaviors, who defines the term in his abstract to a study in Self-Efficacy as 

“people’s beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives. Self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves, and behave. Such beliefs produce these diverse effects through four major processes. They include cognitive, motivational, affective and selection processes” (Bandura 8).

In the case of the writer, these beliefs about their capabilities are very impressionable by both internal and external factors and appraisals of their work, and for the apprehensive writer, these appraisals must be nurtured and developed into positive opportunities for growth.

    One of the most prominent sources of encouragement and development of self-efficacy in the writing process is the instructor or mentor assisting the writer throughout the process. As a figure of influence respected by the writer, especially in an academic setting, the instructor has ample opportunity to develop writers from apprehensive ones to ones who are confident about their work. Frank Pajares, Margaret Johnson, and Ellen Usher, in their article entitled Sources of Writing Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Elementary, Middle, and High School Students, assert that

“for teachers to foster and nurture their students’ self-efficacy—and through these beliefs raise their academic competence across subjects—they must first attend to the sources underlying them… only by understanding the genesis of self-beliefs can educators engage in practices… aimed at nurturing adaptive self-conceptions or eradicating maladaptive ones” (Pajares, Johnson, and Usher 106).

These researchers go on to discuss the reasons a student writer, at any level, might be apprehensive, noting that “mastery experience,” one of four sources of self-efficacy delineated by Bandura, is the most influential contributor to a student’s sense of self-efficacy as a measurement or appraisal of the writer’s own previous work (106). Within an instructional setting, this means that the nature of an instructor’s response to assignments can either nurture the apprehensive writer’s confidence or severely impede their growth in confidence. If an instructor is harshly and unnecessarily critical of a student’s writing, that negative feedback from a respected figure of knowledge and experience could potentially cause the writer to feel inadequate, and therefore apprehensive, about their writing.

    The same concept of the instructor as a mentor who influences the self-efficacy, or confidence, of the writer is further explored in other articles such as Jason Chen and Ellen Usher’s article Profiles of the sources of science self-efficacy, which analyzes the factors that lead to apprehensiveness and deterrence to the sciences. Using Bandura’s four sources of self-efficacy, the authors also explain another aspect of the instructor’s influence over a student’s sense of confidence in their work, that of “verbal and social persuasions.” Chen and Usher, in a similar analysis to Pajares, Johnson, and Usher’s study, state that “Encouraging feedback and judgments bolster students' self-efficacy to perform a task, whereas deflating messages undermine it… these deflating messages might actually be more effective in lowering self-efficacy than encouraging messages are at raising it” (Chen, Usher 11). The effects the teacher can have in light of verbal and social persuasions, both negative and positive, however, are small compared to the effects of feedback from peers and friends on a writer’s self-efficacy.

    For example, Pajares and Usher, two of the leading researchers in academic self-efficacy and writing, discuss yet another of Bandura’s sources of self-efficacy in Sources of Self-Efficacy in School: Critical Review of the Literature and Future Directions—the influence of “vicarious experience.” The concept of “vicarious experience,” according to Pajares and Usher, is a student’s notion of their own success or failure based on competitive performance and their assessment of the performance of those around them—their classmates and even older siblings. The researchers explore this concept at length, and determine that “In many academic endeavors, there are no absolute measures of proficiency. Hence, students gauge their capabilities in relation to the performance of others,” and proceed to give the example of a student’s reception and interpretation of a quiz score. Without the comparison of her score to those of her classmates, she cannot assess the quality of her score, but if she does know that her score was lower than many of her classmates’ scores, then that knowledge and assessment become detrimental to her sense of self-efficacy because of her comparison to students who may have performed better than she did (Pajares, Usher 753). This element of peer-based influence over a student’s analysis of their own performance is easily translated to any grade level and any assignment, certainly lengthy essays, and can significantly boost that student’s confidence, but can also increase any pre-existing notion of apprehensiveness. The results of this influence can and will, in turn, influence the results of future performance by the student, either with an improvement due to increased self-efficacy, or with regressive implications because of the rise of apprehension.

    This aspect of competitive comparison to peers as a constituent of academic self-efficacy is also very prevalent among writing instructors, and is widely discussed by academics. Since these instructors must also carry a certain amount of confidence when managing a classroom, teaching abstract concepts, and even when assessing student assignments, all while burying any signs of apprehension about their own performance, it is important to understand the ways in which a writing instructor experiences the similar effects of Bandura’s sources of self-efficacy. David Morris and Ellen Usher, in their article Developing teaching self-efficacy in research institutions: A study of award-winning professors, study the development in self-efficacy of twelve professors at research-based institutions, and the researchers use the professors’ statements to better understand and interpret the correlation between the professors’ views of themselves and the ways in which they perform more effectively and efficiently on the job. After performing the case study using a questionnaire, the two researchers found that the resulting sources of self-efficacy, as defined by Bandura, were predominantly either “mastery experience,” “social persuasions,” or some combination of the two factors, based on example the professors provided (Morris, Usher 237). For writing instructors, the self-efficacy acquired from “mastery experience” might cover an array of possibilities, from awarded research grants, publications in literary magazines or scholarly journals, and perhaps even other inspirational comments they received from their own writing instructors in college. Because the recognition they receive for accomplishments such as these is so prestigious in the social world of academia, professors of any subject area are more confident both as instructors in the classroom and as researchers in the field due to the “social persuasion” aspect of peer reviewed articles and the feedback they receive from colleagues. With a healthy amount of self-efficacy, the professor not only becomes more engaging with students in the classroom, but also garners respect; therefore, the student writer is influenced by and strives to follow the professor’s example of self-efficacy and enthusiasm about a topic or assignment. This transaction between the professor and the student easily causes the student’s own apprehension to diminish and leaves only room for improvement in self-efficacy because the professor is more likely to want to develop the student’s potential. Specifically in the realm of writing instruction, a trait like that is invaluable to the instruction of an already apprehensive writer, who might just need the motivation of that “one professor” who genuinely cares about the instruction and success of the writer both in the classroom and outside the classroom.

    The fourth and final source of self-efficacy, a person’s “emotional state,” can also have a significant impact on their abilities, or perceived abilities, as a writer. Bandura’s concept of a person’s “emotional state” becomes an internally reflective source of improvement of the person’s sense of self-efficacy, according to Barry Zimmerman’s article, “Self-Efficacy and Educational Development,” included in Bandura’s Self-efficacy in Changing Societies. He tells the reader that “encouraging students to set their own goals improved not only their efficacy beliefs but their commitment to attaining them as well,” and the improvement of the child’s belief in their self-efficacy comes from the child’s internal emotional response to motivation (Bandura, Zimmerman 209). In effect, if the student writer is motivated to perform a task to the best of their ability, then they will take pride and ownership in their writing, thereby triggering an even stronger emotion of happiness—therefore self-efficacy—when the writing instructor praises them for their hard work, and hopefully, successful writing.

    Additionally, in Frank Pajares and Dale Schunk’s article concerning The Development of Academic Self-Efficacy, the two researchers explore the developmental role of self-appraisal over the course of a student’s education and the way that a student’s perception of themselves can improve self-efficacy and, eventually, future academic performance. They claim that

“In self-efficacy research it is not uncommon for children to feel highly efficacious about accomplishing difficult tasks; even being provided with feedback indicating low performance may not decrease self-efficacy (Schunk, 1995). Less frequently, children underestimate their capabilities and believe that they cannot acquire basic skills” (Schunk, Pajares 8).

As Pajares and Schunk explain in this passage, the internal “emotional state” also becomes a source of self-efficacy with the student’s high self-appraisal upon the completion of a tedious or long-term task. This proves especially true for writing students who, regardless of the feedback they might receive from both peers and professors, feel a high sense of accomplishment and pride in the completion of a long academic essay, or even in writing the long-awaited final page of a personal project such as a novel. This personal pride and joy that comes with positive self-appraisal therefore, of course, boosts the writer’s self-efficacy, inherently making them perform better on their next writing assignment.

    Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy and the four sources of motivation for the improvement of that self-efficacy, as proven by the literature in the field, clearly apply to a broad range of aspects of academia, especially where writing is concerned. The effects of self-efficacy, both on the student writer and on the professor, are innumerable, and can be traced to many sources, including positive feedback, prestigious titles or compliments, the motivation of healthy competition among peers, and principally, the internal sense of self-appraisal and pride in the accomplishment of the completion of a piece of writing. These sources each serve as a motivator to the apprehensive writer, who might be influenced by their own willpower to improve their self-efficacy as a writer, as well as the encouragement of others, especially mentors and writing instructors. For this reason, it is important that the professors also maintain a healthy sense of self-efficacy in order to better engage with students, encourage them in their academic endeavors, and motivate them to seek constant improvement in future writing assignments as well as their own personal writing, therefore leading to the student’s (hopefully) genuine expression of more confidence, pride, and enthusiasm in their work.

Works Cited

Bandura, Albert, and Barry Zimmerman. "Self-efficacy and Educational Development." Self-efficacy in Changing Societies. New York: Cambridge UP, 1995. 202-248. Print.

Bandura, Albert. "Self-Efficacy Defined." Self-efficacy Defined. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Bandura/BanEncy.html>.

Chen, Jason, and Ellen Usher. "Profiles of the Sources of Science Self-efficacy." Learning and Individual Differences 24 (2013): 11-21. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://www.elsevier.com/locate/lindif>.

Kirk, Karin. "Student Motivations and Attitudes: The Role of the Affective Domain in Geoscience Learning." Self-Efficacy. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/efficacy.html>.

Pajares, Frank, Johnson, Margaret J., & Usher, Ellen L. "Sources of Writing Self-efficacy Beliefs of Elementary, Middle, and High School Students." Research in the Teaching of English 42.1 (2007). Print.

Usher, Ellen, and Frank Pajares. "Sources of Self-efficacy in School: Critical Review of the Literature and Future Directions." Review of Educational Research 78 (2008): 751-96. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://rer.sagepub.com/content/78/4/751>. 

Wigfield, A., J. Eccles, and Dale Schunk. "The Development of Academic Self-Efficacy."Development of Achievement Motivation. San Diego: Academic, 2001. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. < http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Pajares/SchunkPajares2001.PDF>.