Author Archives: Charlie Caron

Oblivion

Oblivion, noun: the condition or state of being forgotten or unknown; the state of being destroyed.

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oblivion

We encountered this word in the story The Shawl by Louise Erdrich. It’s used when the narrator talks about the challenges and hardships his people have endured, both from previous generations and from the current ones, and how the struggle of dealing with those pains can drive a person to ruin.

“Now, gradually, that term of despair has lifted somewhat and yielded up its survivors. But we still have sorrows that are passed to us from early generations, sorrows to handle in addition to our own, and cruelties lodged where we cannot forget them. We have the need to forget. We are always walking on oblivion’s edge.”

Lure

Lure, verb: to draw with a hint of pleasure or gain.

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lure

We came across this word in the beginning of chapter 18 of Quicksand. It’s used to describe Helga’s new found ability to attract attention using her beauty. The context of the sentence describes it as a “deliberate lure,” which could be read as a flirty demeanor.

“And Helga, since her return, was more than ever popular at parties. Her courageous clothes attracted attention, and her deliberate lure—as Olsen had called it—held it. Her life in Copenhagen had taught her to expect and accept admiration as her due.”

Charlie Caron – Project 2 Letter

Mike Furlough

Hathi Trust

 

Dear Mike Furlough,

For our Intro to Literature class we read Nella Larsen’s Quicksand, a version of which you host in your online collection. Many of my classmates used your particular version from the Hathi Trust website to follow along with the story and complete their work. One thing that occurred to me was that since they were using your website to read the story, they were missing some important features that are available to students that had hardcopy versions and downloaded ebooks. The physical copies allow students to highlight passages and make notes in the margins in case a student finds something of note or wants to return to a passage. The ebook versions typically allow a reader to digitally highlight pieces of the story, place bookmarks to easily return to a passage, and sometimes even allow the reader to select and search for interesting things directly from the reading client.

Your hosted pdf version of the book does not allow any of this. The closest thing would be for the reader to manually type out bits from the story and search for the terms in another tab. A solution that we’ve been discussing in my class would be an annotated version hosted on your website. Having the story pre-annotated would enhance and enrich a reader’s understanding of the story, especially during passages that are difficult for them to understand. What’s more, having the story annotated and those annotations edited would ensure that when a reader is being challenged by a passage they can be sure that the information provided to them is correct.

Two different annotation categories were suggested in my class: Research annotations and Glossary annotations. Each one would provide context within the annotated passage that would help the reader understand the story better in different ways.

Research annotations are used for the more involved topics that a reader might require a bit more background on. They can be used to provide information on historical or cultural events/practices that the reader might not be too well-versed in. For instance, an American high school student reading Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls likely isn’t familiar with some of the contemporary context of the world the story takes place in. They might not know much about the Spanish Civil War, or the social hierarchy of rural Spain in the 1930s that influences how the characters treat and react to each other.

To help illustrate the need for these notes I’ve prepared some samples of both Research and Glossary annotation types. For a research annotation I wrote about Naxos, the school Helga is teaching at during the beginning of the book:

Back in the 1920s, especially in the south, there was a strong sentiment against the mixing of races. This sentiment lead to institutionalized segregation in the form of Jim Crow laws. Basically, the laws allowed individuals and organizations to discriminate against minorities by keeping them separated from white southerners, and thus prevented them from receiving the same benefits available to whites. Sometimes the laws mandated this segregation, such as in the case of public transportation and public schools.

Here, I gave a short bit of context for the rest of the annotation. This paragraph leads into the next, which provides a bit more in depth info:

Jim Crow laws have been on the books since shortly after the end of the Reconstruction era (1863-1877). They not only sought to separate white and black southerners, but to hobble any possible government funding of black public facilities like libraries and schools. As a result, black southerners were not permitted to attend most schools and the ones that were available to them were woefully underfunded, and so the average education level of the population was quite a bit lower compared to the whites of the time. This lack of education was part of a vicious cycle in some states: black schools were underfunded, so black southerners were less educated, so very few blacks were able to pass mandatory tests for voter eligibility, so very few blacks could vote in local and state elections, and so black schools continued to be underfunded.

The final paragraph ties it all together and provides context and analysis to the story:

As a response to the chronic underfunding of public schools for black southerners and the resulting lack of education and disenfranchisement, wealthy donors began to fund private, all black schools. Naxos is an example of one of these private schools. “On her side of the door, Helga was wondering if it had ever occurred to the lean and desiccated Miss MacGooden that most of her charges had actually come from the backwoods.” This passage suggests that a majority of the children attending Naxos are from less privileged homes and are there on charity scholarships, providing further evidence that Naxos is one of these schools.

Read all together, the annotation illuminates the nature of the school and its historical purpose. Annotations like this are extremely common in historical texts since most of the modern-day readers aren’t going to be well versed in the relevant time period or setting. The other category of annotations, Glossary annotations, are equally useful. Some of the words used in Quicksand are dated and not used very much anymore. The two examples I use for my Glossary annotations are “jade” and “goose-step.” A jade is a woman who is ill tempered or quick to change emotions, but outside of this book I’d never seen the word used in that way. It’s just not said anymore, outside of student papers and snobbish internet comments. Goose-step is a word I’d heard many times before but had never really looked into the definition for and it was surprising to see it used in reference to the student traditions at Naxos. While looking into these words I began to take on a better understanding of the passages I read.

All the research I did helped me appreciate the setting and the historical context of Quicksand. Being able to simply click on a link within the body of the text and find learn these things without having to sift through 5 different websites and using my school’s library services would have been much quicker and easier for me. Future readers would almost certainly appreciate having the work done for them, as well. I urge you to consider adding annotations to your website in order to enhance the experience of the students who rely on it. Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Charlie Caron

Charlie Caron – Project 2 Annotations

“This was, he had told them with obvious sectional pride, the finest school for Negroes anywhere in the country, north or south; in fact, it was better even than a great many schools for white children. And he had dared any Northerner to come south and after looking upon this great institution to say that the Southerner mistreated the Negro.”

 

Back in the 1920s, especially in the south, there was a strong sentiment against the mixing of races. This sentiment lead to institutionalized segregation in the form of Jim Crow laws. Basically, the laws allowed individuals and organizations to discriminate against minorities by keeping them separated from white southerners, and thus prevented them from receiving the same benefits available to whites. Sometimes the laws mandated this segregation, such as in the case of public transportation and public schools.

Jim Crow laws have been on the books since shortly after the end of the Reconstruction era (1863-1877). They not only sought to separate white and black southerners, but to hobble any possible government funding of black public facilities like libraries and schools. As a result, black southerners were not permitted to attend most schools and the ones that were available to them were woefully underfunded, and so the average education level of the population was quite a bit lower compared to the whites of the time. This lack of education was part of a vicious cycle in some states: black schools were underfunded, so black southerners were less educated, so very few blacks were able to pass mandatory tests for voter eligibility, so very few blacks could vote in local and state elections, and so black schools continued to be underfunded.

As a response to the chronic underfunding of public schools for black southerners and the resulting lack of education and disenfranchisement, wealthy donors began to fund private, all black schools. Naxos is an example of one of these private schools. “On her side of the door, Helga was wondering if it had ever occurred to the lean and desiccated Miss MacGooden that most of her charges had actually come from the backwoods.” This passage suggests that a majority of the children attending Naxos are from less privileged homes and are there on charity scholarships, providing further evidence that Naxos is one of these schools.

 

Works Cited

  1. Reese, W. (2010-01-04). History, Education, and the Schools. Springer. p. 145. ISBN 9780230104822.
  2. http://diverseeducation.com/article/3117/
  3. http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/white-only-1.html

 

“And about it all was a depressing silence, a sullenness almost, until with a horrible abruptness the waiting band blared into “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The goose step began. Left, right. Left, right. Forward! March! The automatons moved.”

Here, the term “goose step” is used to describe a military style march where the legs are kept straight and swung high between steps. The implication for this passage being that Naxos is overly strict to the point of erasing personal identity and enforcing a military like atmosphere between the students and faculty.

Source: “Goose-step.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 13 May 2018

“Having finally turned her attention to Helga Crane, Fortune now seemed determined to smile, to make amends for her shameful neglect. One had, Helga decided, only to touch the right button, to press the right spring, in order to attract the jade’s notice.”

“Jade,” used in this way, refers to a woman who is quick to anger or very picky. It’s an old term and has mostly fallen out of use. The “jade” in this passage is Fortune, who is depicted as a woman which you can see from the way “fortune” is capitalized in the passage. A more common way to refer to the personification of fortune is Lady Luck.

Source: “Jade.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 13 May 2018.

 

You In America and the theme of race

“You wished you were light-skinned enough to be mistaken for Puerto-Rican, light-skinned enough so that, in the dim light of the Indian restaurant where you both shared samosas with his parents from a centrally placed tray, you would seem almost like them.
His mother told you she loved your braids, asked if those were real cowries strung through them and what female writers you read. His father asked how similar Indian food was to Nigerian food and teased you about paying when the check came. You looked at them and felt grateful that they did not examine you like an exotic trophy, an ivory tusk. ”

In this paragraph the narrator describes the reader’s discomfort with their own race and the effect the parents has on them. In one sentence, the narrator describes how the protagonist wishes they were not as dark skinned and different from the boyfriend and his family, portraying a desire to “belong” in America. In the others the parents are mentioned as taking a legitimate interest in the protagonist and treating them with respect.

This passage serves to illustrate how no matter how much the boyfriend and his family does to make the protagonist feel included and appreciated, they will still feel like an “other”, as though they don’t belong. Firstly, the narrator describes the characters craving to fit in with the other people at the table to an extreme degree. Secondly, the family is described as being nothing but respectful and treating the protagonist as a human, a person, and not as a “foreigner.” These two parts of the passage paint a picture of desperate insecurity within the protagonist.

Another recent story where we encountered this theme of race and belonging is Quicksand. In it, there are frequent scenes where Helga Crane is painfully aware of how she’s different from the people around her and how badly she wants to be accepted by them, but no matter how they act she cannot let her feeling of “otherness” go long enough to feel as though she belongs.

Tonic

Tonic, noun: one that invigorates, restores, refreshes, or stimulates; medicinal

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tonic

We read this word in chapter 9 of Quicksand. Helga uses it in the context of needing something to cure her malaise with New York and how she begins to hate it.

“As the days multiplied, her need of something, something vaguely familiar, but which she could not put a name to and hold for definite examination, became almost intolerable. She went through moments of overwhelming anguish. She felt shut in, trapped. “Perhaps I’m tired, need a tonic or something,” she reflected. So she consulted a physician, who, after a long, solemn examination, said that there was nothing wrong, nothing at all. “A change of scene, perhaps for a week or so, or a few days away from work,” would put her straight most likely.”

Adroit

Adroit, adjective: having or showing skill, cleverness, or resourcefulness in handling situations.

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adroit

We saw the adverb form of this word (adroitly) about halfway through chapter 7 of Quicksand. It was used to describe how Ms. Hayes-Rore changed subjects during a conversation in a smooth way during their train ride from Chicago to New York.

“The girl wished to hide her turbulent feeling and to appear indifferent to Mrs. Hayes-Rore’s opinion of her story. The woman felt that the story, dealing as it did with race intermingling and possibly adultery, was beyond definite discussion. For among black people, as among white people, it is tacitly understood that these things are not mentioned—and therefore they do not exist. Sliding adroitly out from under the precarious subject to a safer, more decent one, Mrs. Hayes-Rore asked Helga what she was thinking of doing when she got back to Chicago.”

Formality

Formality, noun: an established form or procedure that is required or conventional.

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/formality

We first read this word in The Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka. Its used in reference to an unnecessary action that is performed at each of the artists productions, which in this case was a volunteer making sure that the artist was not sneaking food.

“Apart from the changing groups of spectators there were also constant observers chosen by the public—strangely enough they were usually butchers—who, always three at a time, were given the task of observing the hunger artist day and night, so that he didn’t get something to eat in some secret manner. It was, however, merely a formality, introduced to reassure the masses, for those who understood knew well enough that during the period of fasting the hunger artist would never, under any circumstances, have eaten the slightest thing, not even if compelled by force. The honour of his art forbade it.”

 

Facile

Facile, adjective: without depth; superficial.

Source: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/facile

We encountered at the end of the first paragraph of chapter 3 of Quicksand. The author uses the word to describe how the campus at Naxos was beautiful, but only in appearance.

“On one side of the long, white, hot sand road that split the
flat green, there was a little shade, for it was bordered with
trees. Helga Crane walked there so that the sun could not so
easily get at her. As she went slowly across the empty campus
she was conscious of a vague tenderness for the scene spread
out before her. It was so incredibly lovely, so appealing, and so
facile. The trees in their spring beauty sent through her restive
mind a sharp thrill of pleasure.”

Snatch

Snatch, noun: a brief, fragmentary, or hurried part.

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/snatch

We encountered the plural form of this word in the second chapter of Quicksand. It is used to describe the activity that Helga hears outside her door while she hides in her room.

“In the corridor beyond her door was a medley of noises
incident to the rising and preparing for the day at the same
hour of many schoolgirls—foolish giggling, indistinguishable
snatches of merry conversation, distant gurgle of running water,
patter of slippered feet, low-pitched singing, good-natured
admonitions to hurry, slamming of doors, clatter of various
unnamable articles, and—suddenly—calamitous silence.”