Red, White, and Purple

Identity, patriotism to womanism


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For a great American novel there is a lack of any feeling of patriotism, or at least patriotic feelings toward America. Despite the fact that some of the children (generation following Celie) joined the army it was never mentioned that it was for a noble cause, for America. The only strong representation of government in the novel was from the mayor's family. Sophia was greatly oppressed by this family. Her rights were denied her and she was treated unfairly. This incident is a symbol for how the larger government mistreated African Americans at this time. Instead of glorifying America at all Walker praises the nation of Woman. Her patriotism is moved to what she calls "womanisn". The woman nation has some infrastructure of support. Sophia is able to move in with her sister when she is first pregnant, and took that opportunity later. Squeak and Celie have their woman alliances and are able eventually to get out of their oppressed situations. Shug in a way is their leader, the liaison between the woman nation and the men. She is also an enforcer of policy (ending mr.'s beating Celie). Even still she can be considered a traitor for men being her weakness. The flag of the woman nation is purple and their anthem is "Hey Sister".

Invisible Woman

Woman as objects/concepts


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Thus far in The Invisible Man I've noticed that women in the novel are surprisingly invisible themselves. Their roles in Ellison's world are limited to being objects or concepts, but never characters. At the very beginning of the novel women are completely absent and the narrator is limited to his mind space where he contemplates his own invisibility. As the story progresses the first female introduced is the nude dancer previous to the "battle royal". The men see her as an object, a source of their amusement and sick pleasure. As any other object they try to control her, fighting for her as small children fight over their favorite toy, the same toy that they immediately forget when the next exciting thing is introduced.

In the novel the next amusement was the "battle royal" where the black men are treated in the same objective manor as they are to fight each other blindly. I'm not sure Ellison could get more obvious with a metaphor, not to say it was not well done. The black men fight blind folded each being seriously damaged in the process. They do not know who is punching them so they punch the airspace in front of them as a defense. Groups of the men form, then the victim changes. This is a direct metaphor for how the black community makes enemies of themselves without seeing the consequences of their trivial fighting and all the damage they cause each other.

Later the founder of the college was introduced and with him the concept of his daughter. His daughter was ill, but her complaints were ignored and she died. Perhaps this too is a metaphor for women who were fighting for their rights, but were getting nowhere and the feminist movement was dying down. The Invisible Man was first published in 1947 as American culture was approaching the extreme suppression of the woman and the enforcement of the perfect image of the subservient housewife. Nevertheless this girl was an inspiration for starting the college. She was merely an elevated concept, not a memory of a multidimensional person.

More Metamorphosis

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The Metamorphosis was not just about Gregor Samsa's transformation into a giant insect, but about how a whole family was transformed. Once Gregor was incapacitated we see how what really seemed like the only option at the time before for Gregor to be the provider for the family, was only one route. When he could no longer work, there was as afore mentioned role reversal. Yet the role reversal was not just limited to the parent/child relationship, but to the balance of male/female dominance in the household. The sister who was first introduced as being absent was arguably the most present character in the novel. In the beginning she was simply the knock from the next room asking about her brother's condition, then she was off to call a doctor and a locksmith. She became the source of hope and redemption for Gregor. His mental state greatly depended on her kindness.

Although she was the least "able" of their family, being a teenage girl, she was the one who took it upon herself to look after her brother in his new form and be a sort of mediator between he and their parents. Unfortunately this kindness did not last and after much abuse Gregor died; but because of his metamorphosis Grete was allotted some power in the family and his survival was in her hands. This is the reversal of how he previously monetarily provided for her and hoped for her future as a violinist. His future came to her hands. I believe the major difference in outcome was not necessarily her shallowness or evil, but their lack of communication cause their relationship to dwindle. Without relationship their bond became a two way burden (p.103).

Invisible Man

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Ralph Ellison's writing in The Invisible Man reminds me in a way of Oscar Wilde's writing. He writes some very philosophically packed passages as well as pithy statements about life. In the beginning of the novel the narrator speaks in somewhat abstract stream of consciousness style about light and power.

"That is why I fight my battle with Monopolated Light & Power. The deeper reason, I mean: It allows me to feel my vital aliveness. I also fight them for taking so much of my money...In my hole in the basement there are exactly 1,369 lights...Nothing, storm or flood, must get in the way of our need for light and ever more and brighter light. The truth is the light and light is the truth."

Ellison uses the symbolism of light to take the manic man's literal need for light to show a deeper search for truth. The double entendre of the "storm or flood" sentence shows that he is not only showing how desperately he and the "junk man" want to create a most lit space, but that one should not let anything stand in the way of you and the truth. The narrator experiences this lesson later as his becomes a story of overcoming the half-truths that he has been told all his life. It also shows existential ideas that occur in this novel. Light is action and light is the truth; thus light is the truth. The narrator's action is putting the light space together, his existence is literally that action. If he is the summation of his actions then he is truly a "light seeker".

ahem *Kafka

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The role reversal in The Metamorphosis is what stuck out to me the most. Two years ago C.J. Vana and I preformed an eight minute cut from the screenplay Proof by David Auburn. The Metamorphosis has a lot of parallels to it. Proof is told with many flashbacks and even an actor plays the father in the present as he is the hallucination of the daughter after he died. Through this more complicated way of story telling you see the story of Katherine and her father. When she was a child her father raised her, however once her father's mental illness took over she had to move back in with him and be his caretaker. Later, at least in Katherine's mind, her father guides her after his death and it seems the roles reverse once again.

Similarly Gregor Samsa was cared for by his parents as a child. Then once his parents were unable to care for he and his sister the roles reversed and he took care of them. Because of their debt he took responsibility for the family' s finances. Not only that, but Kafka hints at that he took care of them physically too, as it is mentioned that he would help support his father as he walked (p112) and he was sensitive to his mother's asthma. This is parallel to Katherine's taking responsibility for her father. Gregor had the role reversal once more when he transformed into the large insect and his parents had to take charge of him once again. In both instances being reclaimed by their parental figures was not good news. For Katherine it meant she was probably afflicted with the same mental illness that her father died from; for Gregor it meant the complete end to his freedom and obviously it was no good being a bug!

Purple

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I'm feeling quite purple at the moment. Currently I'm wearing purple pants, drinking a purple berry soy shake, and meditating on The Color Purple. The pants don't fit, the drink is kind of gross, but the book is just right. I was just thinking about how Celie becomes the maker and deliverer of pants. "Wearing the pants" is supposed to show who has the power in a relationship/ who has masculine or independent qualities. These are the qualities the Celie has always lacked, and are a direct contrast to her position at the beginning of the novel when she was a subservient, used and abused woman.

The Invisible Man is such a contrast to The Color Purple. It is amazing the difference of reading a man's writing versus a woman's. Although both Walker and Ellison have similar themes of oppression and being the "mule of the world" Ellison's work is more descriptive of a brutal violence. There are fights and mugging and sick pure hatred described in vivid detail. The Color Purple is violent, yes, but I think it comes off less violent based on the speaker of the novel being pure hearted and the language being conversational. Ellison writes without a limit to the mental and physical range of the human experience. He takes you from an indifferent violent mugging, to philosophical ponderings, to a lust-filled nude dace scene, to animalistic fighting, back to a dignified speech. The violence in The Color Purple is fairly consistent throughout. The woman's writing style is more characterized by pain that sinks in, but is not said; the man's is characterized by pain that is felt and said, but does not sink in.