Category Archives: Homework Responses

Midterm exam preparation

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1) Quicksand

2) By: Nella Larsen

“Helga’s essentially likable and charming personality was smudged out. She had felt this for a long time. Now she faced with determination that other truth which she had refused to formulate in her thoughts, the fact that she was utterly unfitted for teaching, even for mere existence, in Naxos.”

3) In this passage, I believe Helga was going through many emotions and feelings at this very moment. Helga first went into Naxos with the ambition and determination to help teach and motivate the younger generation but did not accomplish anything she had originally set out to do. She had finally felt like a complete failure, that there was no point of her existence anymore. Helga was completely disappointed in herself and even felt that she was not fit for teaching anymore. All the joy and life in her personality was entirely gone, like a person left with no soul. She no longer had the ambition or want to teach anymore, especially in Naxos. Helga felt that the excellent community and school she was thought she was teaching at was no longer a school. She felt like the life had died out everything as well as her own self. The school and community had basically become a machine with no individualism or innovations left.

4) I believe this passage has a lot to do with the theme of the book, because I feel like this was the start of Helga’s want and need to her moving out of that area. I believe this is where she began to start doing her own soul searching trying to find herself. I think Helga was confused and wasn’t sure of what she wanted to do with herself anymore which led to her moving to many different locations with the same outcome and no further progress.

Esther’s Voice: Feminist Manifesto

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Women are brave. Women are visceral. Women now support families on their own. Gone is the time when men were a necessity in a household—they may be desired, but they are not fundamental. Not anymore.

Women out there: be independent. It’s not easy, it’s true; but that cannot keep you from trying. It should be natural, the daily struggle. Both proving to yourself you can have control over your finances, and going after your dreams should happen seamlessly. What other option do you have? Depending on them? Men? No.

Be patient.

Women don’t have quite the same social rights as men. Women don’t make the same money as men. Women don’t receive the same praise as men.

But be patient.

Don’t forget: women should have control over their lives. No one’s to say what they should or shouldn’t do, or how they should behave. Women have to be ladylike? Veto.

Yes, people want love. A woman may want to find a man to call her own. She should not trust him blindly, though. She can’t give him all she’s got—don’t be a fool. She should find someone who treasures her. She should pursue love with a person who sees who she is and appreciates her for that.

Be careful. Women of this world, chances are: the right sweetheart for you is not the first one who crosses your way—possibly not even the second one. Take your time to analyze the situation. Get to know the other person, but—most importantly—get to know YOURSELF. Don’t give your heart away just so you’re not alone anymore: it’s not worth it. Trust me; it is not worth it.

Work. Work hard. Have a life plan. Have dreams—they will keep you going when things get rough. Things will eventually get out of hand, but don’t forget:

You, woman, are brave. You, woman, are visceral. You, woman, can do it—all of it.

——

Manifesto Justification

The manifesto was written with the imagined voice Esther, from Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage, would have after the story was finished being told. In the play, the main character went through some life-changing episodes that made her revise previous decisions in her journey. The story starts out with Esther being a 35-year-old African American woman who is single and sews undergarments for other women for a living. It takes place in 1905 New York City, where race is a bigger segregation factor than nowadays.

Just for the fact that she is a woman of color supporting herself in the big city, it is possible to see that Esther is a strong person. After a while, she is contemplated with a man sending letters to her—he is a stranger. Even being illiterate, Esther finds a way of communicating with that man for months, until she decides to marry him. She first meets her soon-to-be husband on the day they get married. From that moment on, she is faced with regrets.

The letters’ cursive led Esther into thinking he would be something he wasn’t, while he didn’t even write them—he was also illiterate. After that, she discovers he cheated on her. He also deceives her into giving him all the money she had saved throughout almost two decades. Here’s a part of the manifesto that is inspired on this Esther’s experience: “Be careful. Women of this world, chances are: the right sweetheart for you is not the first one who crosses your way—possibly not even the second one. Take your time to analyze the situation. Get to know the other person, but—most importantly—get to know YOURSELF. Don’t give your heart away just so you’re not alone anymore: it’s not worth it. Trust me; it is not worth it.” This may sound jaded, and maybe it is, but Esther had to create an armor around her heart to protect her.

The manifesto contains statements and pieces of advice Esther would give to other women. The end of “Intimate Apparel” portrays Esther leaving her husband and moving on with her life. She knows she doesn’t need a man. She may want one, but she doesn’t need one, as exemplified on the manifesto: “Gone is the time when men were a necessity in a household—they may be desired, but they are not fundamental. Not anymore.”

The manifesto ends with a positive tone, reminding other women that they are capable of achieving their goals: “You, woman, are brave. You, woman, are visceral. You, woman, can do it—all of it.” That’s what she gets from her experience of being in an abusing marriage: she’s still strong and capable of going on with her life.

Mina Loy’s Feminist Manifesto Brain storm (Late)

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In Mina Loy’s “Feminist Manifesto”, she rejects the fact that women are equal to men. In her writing she encourages women to basically dehumanize themselves to fit into society and to claim power. “Woman must destroy in herself the desire to be loved” This basically implies that in order to be taken seriously by a man, a woman must not be soft and avoid loving relationships. It also implies that it will rid men of the notion that women are of objects for sex. She continues to state that although women should stay emotionally detached in order to maintain respect, sex isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It should only be used for reproduction purposes. If I was to write a feminist manifesto, I would write about the objectification of women all around the world. Women everywhere are sexually objectified based on their bodies/looks whether it be in the middle east or even in some place like miami. All around us there are billboards, posters, magazines, and movies telling women how they should look, starting from a very early age. It’s very rare to come across such things for men. They are so many unrealistic expectations for women to look a certain way that it can cause a lot of issues within themselves, get in the way of building their characters and confidence. Women are told from a young age that they need to look beautiful or presentable in order to find “Prince Charming.” Society pressures women to act a certain way, in order to satisfy the needs of men, mostly. This often keeps them from being their true selves because a lot of women are afraid of being judged. Mina Loy encourages women to get rid of that fear and embrace themselves by first stripping themselves of emotions towards men, which will lead to them not caring about what other men want or need which is an essential part of being a human being first.

Manifesto ; Sexual Objectification of Women

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 If I was to write a manifesto about the women in our society as Loy did I will most likely write about sexual objectification of women. One main example I will use to back up my manifesto will be in today’s music videos. I took a hip-hop world view class in my previous semester where we learned about misogyny in today’s media. Misogyny is the hatred against females. It could also be define as degrading the female image, sexual objectification of women and discrimination. In the hip-hop culture we see many of the music videos where women have a little to nothing clothing. We see women dancing in a very sexual way and exposing their body parts. Misogyny has become a trend where women are considered to be accessories or sexualized as props in the hip-hop culture. Not only do we see this behavior happening in the videos, but we also hear them in the lyrics in many of these songs. This is something that women have to stop. I will try to answer questions such as why these music videos tend to use women body to get the attention of the audience. Are people buying this type of music also being a part of this sexual objectification of women? I believe that women that are part of this environment are only giving into the stereotype that the society place them in. They shouldn’t feel the need to expose their body to get a job or to any anyone’s attention. Women should be noticed because of their intelligence e and ambition in life.  In today’s society in many situation women are hired or not hired based on their looks. What the looks have to do with how good they are going to get the job done. I agree with Loy Manifesto telling women that they should take charge of their lives and be the individual that they were born to be. To find their true identity as I said in my previous post response on “Feminist Manifesto”, the author is trying to say is that the purpose is not to have the same right men do and be equal to them, but to look deeper within themselves to gain their individual worth not caring the status men are in. A women should take full responsibly in their lives make it their
business to be educated and be respected. I will include these ideas as well in my manifesto.

Quicksand: Part 1

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In Quicksand we are introduced to our protagonist Helga Crane, 23 years old biracial teacher that works in a Negro school in Naxos, Georgia.  Helga is having a hard time in accepting her own background. Having a white mother and a black father has brought lots of frustration in her life because being a mulatto; she doesn’t feel like she can identify herself as either white or black.  At some point Helga was pleased to be part of Naxos educational environment until she realized that it was an unpleasant racial place.  After hearing a speech made by one of the professors in her school talking down to the black race disappointed her. “This great community, she thought, was no longer a school. It had grown into a machine. It was now a show place in the black belt, exemplification of the white man’s magnanimity, refutation of the lack man’s inefficiency. Life had died out of it. It was, Helga, decided, now only a big knife with cruelly sharp edges ruthlessly cutting all to a pattern, the white man’s pattern”(page 9). At this point she knows that students won’t be able to be their own individual but what the school is making them to be.  After thinking about it for hours in her room she decided that it was time to leave Naxos. “And again it subsided in amazement at the memory of the consider-able applause which had greeted the speaker just before he had asked his God’s blessing upon them. The South. Naxos.Negro education. Suddenly she hated them all”(page 6-7) Helga didn’t want to be a part of this type of environment where the culture of these students was trying to be changed. Helga was already having a hard time in accepting who she was and staying in this place only will make it worst.  This is the moment where I believe the Helga character started to develop because it was the beginning of her journey. The journey where she will be in search of finding self- happiness, her own identity and to feel comfortable in her own skin.

 

Intimate Apparel : Play

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In “Intimate Apparel”, by Lynn Nottage took place in 1905 where we come across an African American woman named Esther. Esther is something now in days we call as a hopeless romantic, she is 35 years old and one of her most important dreams is to have a good man by her side which she will marry and have a life with. Throughout the play we noticed that her self-esteem as a woman is not very high. Esther suffers from self-confidence were she find herself to be unattractive and old. She believes that this is one of the reasons why she still hasn’t found a good man based on what she thought she looked. We can relate this in today’s world where appearance seem to be more important that the human-being itself. Many women now in days are never satisfied by the way they look based on what society has made them believe what characteristic a “beautiful women” should have , for example; beautiful hair, nice body, perfect skin and so on.

Women are always being in competition with other women in who is looking better, who is wearing the latest fashion and who have a better life etc. When in reality these things shouldn’t really matter everyone is unique in their own way no one should never feel less of a person than anyone else because at the end they are both people. I think many women in today’s world live their life based on what others think of them, just like Esther. Esther believed that because she was in her thirties the chance of her having her own family were very limited and that’s why she only focused so much on her job as a seamstress. Another question I ask myself is why Esther felt as she the urgency to have a man by her side? Did women back them were looked down if they weren’t married by a certain age? I can relate this in today’s world because of course everyone in one point of their life will like to find someone to share their life with, a person that will be there for them when no one is, a person that they call a soul mate but what’s the rush? Now in days many people will decide to be in a relationship with each other for all the wrong reasons without really spending time and effort in to knowing who the person really is. Even worst many enter a relationship without evening knowing who they are THEMSELVES.

One of the major reason why I believe there is a lot of broken homes now in days. In this play we see that Esther meets George through letters. Can we really get to know a person throughout ink and paper? How can we know if they are being sincere or not? When Esther marries George he turns out to be the total opposite of who she “thought” he was. He ended up being a manipulative that took advantage of her wanted to find true love to take her saving and use her hard work in useless things.

Quicksand: Helga’s disapointments

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In Quicksand, Helga Crane who is a 23 year old teacher in school in Naxos, Georgia, is born of a white mother and black father. Deeply lonely as a child, she has not been able to identify herself as either white or black. Helga then leaves Naxos and move to Chicago because she is tired of the racial politics of the school. She announces her resignation to the school’s principal, Dr. Anderson, to whom she becomes attracted to later in the reading. She breaks her engagement to a teacher named James Vayle, and leaves Naxos feeling relieved.

In Chicago, her mother’s brother Uncle Peter has a new wife, who rejects Helga due to her mixed race. Helga, alone and broke, finds work with an educated and wealthy woman named Mrs. Hayes-Rore, who asks Helga to edit her speeches on racial equality. After taking the job, Helga decides that she will relocate to New York and start a new life. Helga feels empowered by her decision and feels as if she had been “reborn”. She has a need to be in control of her own destiny and to feel like she is in control of the situations she finds herself in. Freedom was happiness for Helga and in Harlem she had a place to live, a stable job and good friends where she felt free.   But it didn’t last, this happiness of Helga Crane’s. We can see this change in the following passage.

“Little by little the signs of spring appeared, but strangely the enchantment of the season, so enthusiastically, so lavishly greeted by the gay dwellers of Harlem, filled her only with restlessness.  Somewhere, within her, in a deep recess, crouched discontent. She began to lose confidence in the fullness of her life, the glow began to fade from her conception of 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, become almost intolerable. She went through moments of overwhelming anguish. She felt shut in, trapped. (390).”

By reading the above passage we can see how “old” Helga resurfaced and she was plaqued with feelings of doubt, insecurity and alienation. Where once felt connected to the heart of Harlem, Helga soon became disconnected. After receiving a note from her Uncle Peter urging her to reconnect with her Aunt Katrina who “always wanted” her in Denmark, Helga begins to look at Harlem differently. She says that “She didn’t, in spite of her racial markings, belong to these dark segregated people. She was different. She felt it. It wasn’t merely a matter of color. It was something broader, deeper, that made folk kin. (395). Then she felt free once again.

I also want to include that the epigram at the beginning of the novel by Langston Hughes seems like an appropriate introduction to Helga’s struggle to find her place in the world where she is questioning her own identity and her connections to the community around her.

Loy

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Lynn Cottage wrote a play called Intimate Apparel. The story takes place in 1905. The main character is an African American seamstress her name is Esther. Esther lives in a boarding house for females. She usually sews intimate apparel for her female clients. Her clients range from wealthy white patrons to prostitutes. Esther didn’t want to be a seamstress her whole life she wanted to open up a beauty parlor. The specify catered to African- American women. Esther wanted African –American women to just as special as her wealthily clients. Like all women Esther wanted to find Mr. Right. There was a man named George how began to send her letters. Esther couldn’t read because she was illiterate. In 1905 this was very common problem for African American women, this proves that Esther had to work at a very yung age and didn’t have opportunity to go to school. So to respond too the letters she had Mayne and Mrs.Van Buren respond to the letters. After many letters Esther agreed to marry George. Esther lived in New York, when he arrived Esther noticed that he wasn’t the man he as in the letters. He sent all her money on alcohol and whores.  Personally this was a very easy play to read the reason for that is because  the author explained everything in great detail. Even though thi story took place in 1905 this troy can relate to women today.

Manifesto, late assignment from 2/25 !

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In Loy’s “Feminist Manifesto” she wants women to take charge of their and stop living in the shadows of men. Women fight for equal rights everyday .Back in the 1900s women were fighting for the rights more than they are today and Loy expresses that in her “Feminist Manifesto”. Loy expresses her feeling a towards the subject. Loy states “the desire for comfortable protection instead of and intelligent curiosity and courage in meeting”. Loy wants women to strive for what they want in life. Loy wants women to feel comfortable with their choices in life and not settle for anything or anyone.

If I were to write a manifesto on women in today’s society, I would probably write about the way society views  women and their bodies. The reason I would choose this topic is because in today’s society people will look down on women covering their bodies, I.e. Muslim women, and praise women that show their bodies to the world. Most women believe that in order to attention form men they need to show them their bodies instead of their minds. This is a very weird situation women should approach the world with their intelligence not their bodies. I do have to say that it’s not completely our fault, the men are at fault as well, but as powerful and intelligent women we need to change this issue. Â