Caitlin Vogel
Professor Shannon
LITR 319-01
November 18, 2011
Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn Aboard the ‘Slippery Slope’ of Children’s Literature
Children’s literature in the nineteenth century is a fascinating genre because it contains thematic elements fit both for premature and adult minds; the term “children’s literature” as a genre is a very difficult category to define. For some the objective is to protect children and cover their eyes from corrupted society. For others the genre’s goal is to expose young readers to the unjust to ensure children are taught right from wrong. However, both parties can agree that both paths lead to the same outcome: instruction. Mark Twain’s “Boy Books,” The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn expand the boundaries and definition of children’s literature, a type of work that specializes in teaching children good values and morals. Twain’s writing style undergoes major changes; he becomes darker as he continues to write. His books Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn reveal how Twain’s writing grows, changes, and matures in ways that make his books more difficult to place in the hands of children. While Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn portray morals and social values found in children’s literature both past and present, they challenge certain ideologies and highlight their flaws, material many find not suitable for young eyes. This genre is difficult to place books into because what age defines a child? Or how much disclosure of truth or “evil” is too much for children? Tom Sawyer reveals small, tolerable amounts of dark truths while Huckleberry Finn is filled with darkness and societal evils. Comparing both of Twain’s “Boy Books”, this paper will discuss the tone, idea of the “model child,” morality, and the controversial history of the book’s past and present.
The tone of Tom Sawyer is brighter, and happier than the serious tone in Huckleberry Finn, which will later be discussed. Typically, the goal is to cover children’s eyes from the world’s harsh reality while teaching them right from wrong. Tom Sawyer is more successful at this than Huckleberry Finn because it is more innocent uses humor playfully. However, it is difficult to teach lessons and morals when “bad” acts are stripped from texts. Books like Tom Sawyer use “bad” acts such as murder to teach young readers right from wrong; this trend of using “bad” acts for good causes is further emphasized and elaborated in the upcoming discussion of Huckleberry Finn. Another aspect of children’s books in both Twain’s time and in present day is that it should be fairly easy to comprehend and its characters should be relatable in both age and disposition to the reader intended. Tom Sawyer follows this structure because the main character is a young boy and the personality of Tom reflects the mischievous nature of boys growing up in the nineteenth century.
The plot of Tom Sawyer is playful; his psychology and way of perceiving events match that of a young child that would read the book. Jim Hunter writes that Tom Sawyer is a children’s book by stating, “Tom Sawyer is a book showing the mischief, thoughtlessness, ardor, courage, and fear of what boyhood is in general. It is a storybook, fundamentally framed for the entertainment of children, and the tone is light and at times almost cloying” (434). Hunter argues that the “cloying” or overly sweet tone of Twain’s book and its storybook format place it into the canon of Children’s Literature. However, although the tone is light and playful, there are also dark elements, such as Tom’s fascination with death, the association of the boys and witchcraft, the witness of a murder, and encounters with Injun Joe and the devil. Despite the semi-Gothic themes in Tom Sawyer, the book overall is innocent. In Huckleberry Finn, the text as a whole is dark, serious, and lacks the “cloying” tone that Twain’s first text possesses.
The tone in Huckleberry Finn does not have the familiar, playful, feel that is found in Tom Sawyer. This is arguably because as Twain continues to write, his books drift further away from child-appropriate literature: Tom Sawyer was published in 1876 while Huckleberry Finn was published in the United States in 1885. As Mark Twain began to experience deaths in his family and financial difficulty, his books reflect his darkening mood. Unlike Tom, Huck lives in isolation from society, secluded in a symbolically “dark” place: the woods. He is raised without a mother and religion, qualities that further characterize Huck as the “Other”. Many times throughout the story Huckleberry disguises himself with various names and dresses as a female to hide the identity he is ashamed of. Huck is exposed to the flaws of his society, a group of individuals that thrive on the enslavement of African Americans and cheating of others for monetary benefits, themes that if read by children, would teach them the cruel reality of the world they live in. In children’s literature, should books teach about corrupted society such as Twain’s “Boy Books”, or should the literature focus around a “perfect,” idyllic society? Huckleberry Finn also has many of freedoms stolen away from him in his southern town. He is constantly reprimanded and given lessons on how to be a proper boy. He is enslaved with the ideologies surrounding racial inequality and understands that the viewpoints of the community greatly contradict with his own: “if you see any runaway niggers, you get help and nab them, and you can make some money by it” (Freedman 113). Huckleberry is exposed to the corrupt social norms of his community and he knows that by freeing Jim he is disobeying not only his community but God. “Mark Twain and the Negro” argues that “Huck in turn- despite his apparent freedom- is confined by the various white conventions of antebellum life” (29). The theme of theft goes further than the simplistic example of Huck stealing inexpensive items; elements a child would understand. The symbolic stealing of Huck’s freedom, Jim’s freedom as a slave, and the ways that the southern town benefits from one another through stealing are elements that are better understood for an adult audience to understand Twain’s message about southern slaveholding towns.
Although the tone in Huckleberry is extremely serious, a counterargument is that the tone of the story in many sections is meant to be humorous and light-hearted. In Sacvan Bercovitch’s “What’s Funny About Huckleberry Finn” he states, “the novel is a great example of child-like, fun-filled wonder and a great work of social satire whose comedic elements overturns the very tradition of deadpan it builds upon” (9). The comedic elements and the adventure merge together, and humor is a typical attribute in children’s literature. It becomes increasingly difficult to place Twain’s book in children’s literature or adult’s literature because both books balance on a fine line between both genres. In Huckleberry Finn, The Duke and the King are excellent examples about how the “bad” guys are meant to laughed at and provide comedy relief to balance the more serious parts of the text. The Duke and the King are of course robbers that cheat many of the characters out of money, but the acts which they perform and their hilarious portrayal in the book’s pictures are what lighten the tone of Huckleberry Finn. When two perform, “the next minute the King come a-prancing on all fours, naked; and he was painted all over, ring-streaked- and-striped, as splendid as a rain-bow. Well, it could have made a cow laugh, to see the shines that old idiot cut” (166). The imagery evoked in this passage is so exaggerated that it becomes difficult not to laugh at the King, a spectacle meant to be laughed at by the audience in the text and the audience reading Huckleberry Finn. The “old idiot cut” refers to the scene where an unprintable folk story involved lighting a candle and inserting it in the performer’s posterior” (166). The humor of the painted King provides entertainment for a young child and the more bawdy humor will be understood by the mature audiences reading Huckleberry Finn. The heart of the argument of this paper is to convey that when viewing Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn as either children’s literature or adult literature: it is “neither fish nor fowl.”
The focus of the “model child”, a key theme found in children’s books will be discussed next in both Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. After discussing Tom Sawyer, it will reveal how Huckleberry Finn further challenges the concept of the law-abiding, moral child. Tom Sawyer challenges the “model child” found in other books because he does not abides to rules or respects his elders; Tom’s foil Sid is the “perfect” child typically found in the Victorian children’s book. Sid emphatically loves church, tells the truth, and abides to all of the rules. The purpose of this character in literature was to display obedient behavior so that young readers would model it. Some of the fundamental traits that determine a children’s book is “to impart moral guidelines, to reinforce exemplary behavior, and caution against evils of impertinence or profanity” (Lundin 34). Twain criticizes the “model” child through Sid’s actions and behaviors; he tattles on Tom for insignificant things and feels jealous if Tom gets praised. Twain is critical about the law abiding child in Tom Sawyer. The character that earns respect and devotion from the reader is Tom, a boy who does negative things such as lie, smoke, and not wash regularly is a boy that becomes figured as a hero for saving the widow’s life. Contrary to other children’s literature, the character figured to be seen negatively is Sid, the rule-following, best behaved, and impeccably well-mannered character. Sid at every chance he can gets Tom in trouble by Aunt Polly. Sid ruins the surprise party secret for Huck and Tom because of his selfishness. Tom states, “Sid, there’s only one person in this town mean enough to do that, and that’s you. You can’t do any but mean things, and you can’t bear to see anybody praised for good things” (174). The roles are switched in Tom Sawyer: Sid the “model” child is figured to be bad and Tom, the mischievous child, is figured to be the character readers will aspire to become.
Twain reverses the roles of the rebellious child and the law-abiding child in order to argue that a boy like Tom who does not like to attend church, wash frequently, and run away can be a better child than one that conforms to society completely. This can be demonstrated further when Huck, a larger social rebel than Tom, wants to return back to the woods and continue his secluded life free from the flawed society he lives in. Huck realizes how corrupt the society is and explains how money corrupts him: “Tom, being rich ain’t what it’s cracked up to be. It’s just worry and worry, and sweat and sweat, and a-wishing you was dead all the time” (178). Huck reveals how flawed his society is because being wealthy is one of the most important things to a person, which does not bring self-efficacy to Huck. It shows how corrupt money is within the society and how it leads to unhappiness and the desire for death. This is a controversial element to have in a children’s book because it encourages young children to flee from society and seek the positive life with nature and freedom from social constraints. Typical children’s books tend to romanticize the beauty of living in a house, the importance of family, and to feel guarded by the laws put into place. Twain challenges this notion by placing Huck in with the widow, who gives Huck a “better” life. Instead, Huck feels trapped about having to attend school and living in a controlled atmosphere. He immediately goes back to live into the woods because it is a better life free from inhibition and corruption. However, Tom convinces Huck to come back to society, which teaches children “good” morals about the importance of living in a family. Tom does this by stating Huck could then aspire to be a robber if he chooses to live within society. Mark Twain cleverly “tricks” Huck to be good by letting him be bad. These elements are extremely steep for a children’s book, but many of these complex ideas will not be comprehended by younger readers.
Just like in Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn also reverses the roles in the literature. Tom is the “good” boy in Twain’s first book, but in Huckleberry Finn it is Huck that becomes “good” for doing something “bad” in his community, which is emancipating Jim. In Huckleberry Finn Tom knows that it is not correct to steal Jim because it goes against his community’s moral values; it is Huckleberry that chooses saving Jim over damnation from both God and his society to do the “correct” thing. Huckleberry says, “Tom Sawyer was actually going to help me steal that nigger out of slavery. That thing was too much for me. Here was a boy that was respectable, and well bring up; and yet here he was, without any more pride, or rightness, or feeling, than to stoop to this business, and make himself a shame” (242). Tom becomes the moral literary figure in this book even though his character is in many ways flawed. Although Tom assists Huck, it is because he knows that Jim was set free. Huckleberry frees Jim out of righteousness. Huckleberry is faced with having to compare his own moralities and ideologies against the entire community. To Huck, Jim is running way and does not accept the ideology of returning to slavery. Even though the town Huck lives in is racist, Huck challenges the town’s belief system and pays close attention at how Jim and all African Americans are identical to whites: “and behind the woman comes a little nigger girl and two little nigger boys, and they hung onto their mother’s gown. And here comes the white woman running from the house; her little white children acting the same way the little niggers was doing” (229). As the book progresses, Huckleberry begins to observe and challenge the beliefs and attitudes of the southern slave town he lives in and sees how Jim deserves to be free by the end of the book.
The dark thematic elements and the corrupt ideologies of the town are kept hidden from children’s eyes in literature because parents try to protect their children as long as possible from the existing evil in society. However, Huckleberry Finn can be beneficial to children because it helps them distinguish right from wrong. Parents can try to veil their children from evils, and give them literature that gives them a false notion of a perfect world. However, no parent can protect children from the world: the very air the child breaths and ground the children stands upon is that of a corrupted world. Perhaps if children were given literature like Huckleberry Finn they would not feel betrayed by their parents when they grow up enough to realize that the “perfect world” stories they were forced to read were lies. The morality that Huck gains that eventually lead to the “liberating” of Jim shows that Huckleberry Finn could be placed into children’s literature because it is teaching children to do the right thing even if it means going against other people’s word. The term “nigger” and the theme of slavery are difficult topics to disclose to children, but it is crucial to understand that Mark Twain wrote to a specific audience, “Mark Twain’s intended audience was united in their reaction of slavery, racism, and even the term “nigger” (80). Like in Victorian children’s literature, Huckleberry learns an important lesson in the text and he realizes to treat Jim respectfully. This lesson is given by Jim when Huck plays a trick on Jim that greatly disturbs Jim. Huck’s lesson is learned when the greatly upset Jim states, “dat truck is trash; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en makes ‘em ashamed” (95). Huckleberry replies that the act he committed was so “low” that it put Jim up higher in rank than Huck despite his race. Jim becomes a “teacher” to Huck and he begins to understand and follow morals by the former slave readier than from Miss Watson or the widow.
After this turning point, Huckleberry exhibits change in his attitudes and at the end of the book both Tom and Huckleberry devise a plan to set Jim free. Huckleberry is a rebellious moral-less boy in the beginning of the novel and then changes at the end of the book. Carol Freedman declares that “it is Huck’s compassion that enables him to see Jim as a person and so to see treating him as a slave is wrong” (111). It is the proper morals and behavior Huck gains at the end of the novel that could arguably make Huckleberry Finn a piece of children’s literature. Tom says at the end of Huckleberry Finn, “turn him loose! he ain’t no slave, he’s just as free as any cretur that walks this earth” (291). The boys both work together to challenge the ideologies of the town to do what both boys felt was the correct thing to do.
Tom Sawyer may seem like a troublemaker, but he does abide to some morals, which is a main characteristic found in Children’s Literature. Later, it will be mentioned how Huckleberry Finn further violates the Victorian “model child” more significantly than Tom Sawyer. In Tom’s society, the “model” child is supposed to turn away from drink, sex, and vulgarity. He turns away from it because he “joins the New Order of Cadets of Temperance, and promised to abstain from smoking, chewing, and profanity as long as he remained a member” (116). Tom tries to associate himself with good morals, but he realizes that it becomes more tempting to do something when one promises not to. Tom Sawyer honestly depicts the real life of a boy in society instead of other children’s books that create an unrealistic character that abides to every single moral rule. Jim Hunter emphasizes that Tom Sawyer contains a moral: “the implied moral to the reader is that a boy who is bad can actually be a lot better than a boy who is good” (434) Tom can be seen to have good morals because of the way he treats Becky; he can be seen as a heroic figure. When Becky is in danger, Tom puts himself before her so she is saved from anguish: he takes a beating from a bully because he chooses to keep Becky safe even though she is at fault. Later, he saves the life of Becky Thatcher in the cave, which provides a moral for its male readers to become strong, fearless protectors to young girls. This not only acts as a moral, but it explains the adult world through the ideologies of gender roles. Becky Thatcher is an innocent, beautiful young girl that finds herself in danger. Her role is not to worry because she has faith in Tom, a strong leader. In this children’s book, young boys reading Tom Sawyer can relate Becky to the females in the nineteenth century: frail, gentle, beautiful, and needy. They can also relate Tom as the character the young male readers aspire to be: witty, adventurous, masculine, and heroic. Tom Sawyer teaches young boys to protect the women in their lives at an early age, and through observation the boys will see how older men protect their women in their society.
Just as Tom Sawyer has habits that violate the standards of the moral “model child”, Huckleberry shares the same attributions and they are even further elaborated upon. Huck Finn and Tom do not like going to church or having religion. In the southern town in which they both live, “good” boys go to church and attend Sunday school. Huckleberry is very different than Tom because while Tom is a character that tries being rebellious while living in society, Huckleberry was raised outside civilization. This independence of social conform liberates him from God. When Miss Watson tries to turn Huck into a proper boy, she brings the Bible out to teach the rebellious child. Huckleberry struggles greatly to adapt to “sivilized” life (13) and he does not understand why he is forced to accept the ideologies and norms of Miss Watson. Even when she tries to scare him into conforming it does not work: “then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there. She got mad, but I didn’t mean no harm” (15). The improper behavior of Huckleberry and his lack of fear about Hell and the religious “dead people” in the Bible (15) reveals how Huckleberry Finn promotes behaviors for young boys that are not acceptable for the time period. As Mark Twain progresses in writing, he begins to write about death, Hell, and the corrupted nature of human beings. In Huckleberry Finn, these themes begin to become more prevalent and emphasized upon than in his other texts such as The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Tom Sawyer. As death and financial failure began to overpower Twain, his feelings of desperation gravitate his writings further from the genre of children’s literature.
The text Huckleberry Finn like Tom Sawyer also violates and follows the customs of the Victorian time period. Huckleberry Finn is a ruffian character that prefers to live outside in the woods away from civilization. Huck violates the “model” child even more than Tom Sawyer. Huckleberry talks in a vernacular which emphasizes his lower class than Tom; he performs actions that a lower class boy would perform to survive such as stealing: “Pop always said it warn’t no harm to borrow things, if you was meaning to pay them back” (75). Not only does Huckleberry justify his actions for stealing, he also encourages boy readers to talk in the lower vernacular. Later in the book when Tom and Huck need to supplies to liberate Jim, Huck calls the taking of items “borrowing” (250). Huck’s action of stealing is to help free Jim, a good deed, but he also desires to “borrow” items he does not actually need. This is where Jim teaches Huck right from wrong when taking items from others. The young boy steals far more than just supplies from the local neighbors but he performs one of the largest crimes of that time: to steal a slave and try to make him a free man. Huckleberry understands that he is breaking the ideologies of the community he lives in but by doing a deed he knows is wrong to society, he is doing what is morally correct, “even when Huck describes helping Jim as “stealing” and sinful, and the sort of thing for which he will “go to hell,” it is not clear that he thinks it is the wrong thing to do” (Freedman 103). Huckleberry opposes not only his community but also God when he chooses to sin and free Jim from slavery.
Morality is an important concept in both “Boy Books” Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn; they provide morals to children and reveal what the adult world is like in his books. By revealing elements of corrupt society in his texts, he exposes children to material that many parents try to keep secrets to children. It is then easy to understand how Mark Twain is seen as too brutally “honest” when depicting the flaws and corrupt ideologies of society. Children’s books such as those that depict adult themes such as Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, and Alice in Wonderland are books that remain classics. In the nineteenth century, children’s books were extremely popular reads for adults. Leslie Fiedler’s book Love and Death in the American Novel “the great works of [nineteenth century] American fiction were notoriously at home in the children’s section of the library” (24). Children’s books were extremely interesting to both adults and children because they were adventurous. Many of the adults during the time felt that the novels written for them were not nearly as interesting as the books published for kids. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are composed of various adventures that Tom and Huck journey to, which is another reason why they can be classified as children’s books; adventure books were written specifically for children but adults found them compelling. It is important to keep in mind that just because books in the nineteenth century were labeled as literature for children did not mean that the books only catered to juvenile minds. Anne Lundin reveals that “The Art Journal (1881) distinguished between two classes of children’s books: those actually written for children and those catering to the pleasure of grownups as well as infantile minds” (41). One of the main themes that Anne Lundin elaborates on is that the books like Tom Sawyer Huckleberry Finn that catch the attention of both children and adults are not stories that are written directly for children, but stories that are written with children characters. This means that advanced themes for adults are found in this type of literature, and because the characters are children, young readers can relate to the stories and find commonalities. Jim Hunter considers Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn as both books for children and what he calls boy-books, “books that are composed about children for the amusements of adults” (431). Hunter believes that Twain’s boy-books blend both genres of literature together.
Huckleberry Finn, like Tom Sawyer is a book that caters to both children and adults because it reveals that stealing is “wrong” to children but for adults it depicts how the adult world is abundant with cheating and stealing for survival. Recall that in Tom Sawyer both Huck and Tom catch the robber in the cave and bring justice to the town. In Tom Sawyer both boys become heroes; they know how to distinguish “playing” make believe robber from cruel, actual robbery. Readers are able to distinguish right and wrong about the various characters. Readers are supposed to dislike Huckleberry’s Pap because he is a “bad” man that beats Huckleberry and wants to steal his money. Children reading Huckleberry Finn will associate that taking children’s money from them is equated to being “wrong”. Huckleberry states, “well pretty soon the old man was up and around again, and then he went for Judge Thatcher in the courts to make him give up that money” (36). Huckleberry gets beaten and eventually kidnapped by his abusive father over money that rightfully belongs to Huck. The terrifying ways in which Pap gets represented through both the text and the exaggerated visuals are tactics that educate young readers to not act in the manner that Pap does and be a good parent such as Aunt Sally or the Widow. Huckleberry Finn teaches moral lessons to children to not become “bad” like Pap who drinks, beats his son, and wants to steal money that does not belong to him. Although there are cruel, evil characters in Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, they can teach children lessons about how to act and treat others.
The Duke and the King are two characters that are introduced as “bad” characters that teach children not to steal for the “wrong reasons”. Huckleberry finds out that the Duke and King steal the bag of gold from the kind Mary Jane and he risks his own life to bring it back safely to her. Both Huckleberry and Tom also aspired to be thieves and robbers and they even tried raiding on a Sunday school picnic where they tried to steal away goods. The story begins how Huckleberry explains that in Tom Sawyer the two boys found gold that the robbers hid in the cave and this is why they obtained riches early in the book. Both boys aspire to be robbers and even plot places to rob: “we played robber now and then for about a month” (24). The childish play of Huck and Tom make them seem as though they are bad kids, but in every instance where there is an innocent person who has been robbed the boys bring justice. This occurs in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. When Mary Jane gets robbed, Huckleberry does the correct thing for Mary Jane and retrieves her money. The altruism and heroism Huck displays places Huckleberry Finn back into children’s literature in the Victorian time period. In instances where stealing is done for greedy, selfish purposes, Huckleberry Finn teaches against it; the text balances on a fine line between content suitable for children or adults. When Huckleberry “borrows” items in order to free a human being, stealing is then justified in the text. In the article “Thief and Theft in Huckleberry Finn, Robert Vales states, “Twain sees civilization as composed of thief and victim, both operating legalistically when possible” (420). Vale’s reveals that Twain’s books expose truths to children that many parents try to protect them from. If children are protected from all evils, how will they learn how to act properly without learning from failure? The Duke and the King go around selling plays that are not worth the money they charge and represent figures that are not looked up upon highly. However, even though they are villains, they are also seen in a likeable manner because the ways in which they are humorously represented. Mark Twain critiques a society that uses lying as a way to prosper and benefit from others. Robert Vales argues, “Twain sees civilization as composed of thief and victim, both operating legalistically when possible” (420). The King and Duke try to rob Mary Jane of her inheritance and Huckleberry Finn realizes that he has to do the right thing and return her gold. This is coming from a young boy that enjoys playing robber with his best friend Tom and the boy that aspires to become a robber when he “grows up.” However, in a case where evil is being committed such as robbery, Huck’s morality leads him to bring justice to victims.
Huckleberry Finn clearly violates the “ideal” aspect of children’s literature when it was released. Huckleberry Finn is a boy that denounces going to church, living in a house, and wearing clean clothes, “it was rough living in the house all the time, and so when I couldn’t stand it no longer, I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and I was free” (13). The behavior that Huckleberry exhibits is similar to the typical behavior of boy’s during Mark Twain’s times, but children’s literature was supposed to help emphasize the benefits of good behavior. The book’s violations of the ideologies of the time and its promotions of being a mischievous boy are what separate Huckleberry Finn from traditional children’s literature. Since it was a truthful depiction of how young boys were during the nineteenth century, it became a hit for young boys. Brander Mathews states, “The boy-book of to-day is fortunate indeed, of a truth, he is to be congratulated. The boy of to-day may get his fill of fun in romance in Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, and Huckleberry Finn” (330). Huckleberry Finn was a rebel in his society that chose to remain isolated from his community and their ideologies and customs. He did not enjoy living with the widow and desires to live back out in the woods where there are no customs. Huckleberry states, “two months or more run along, and my clothes got to be all rags and dirt, and I didn’t see how I’d ever got to like it so well at the widow’s where you had to wash, and eat on a plate, and comb up, and go to bed regular” (37). Mark Twain writes Huckleberry as the typical young boy figure that emerges during the nineteenth century. Boys just like Huckleberry want to rebel from the society and violate the customs and the traditions so strictly adhered to in their culture.
Mark Twain’s children’s books like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn both are stories that change the boundaries of children’s literature that evolve to cater to the interests of a changing definition of what it means to be a “boy”. According to Andrew Levy, “Mark Twain wrote Huck Finn in the midst of the nineteenth century’s “boy crisis”. It wasn’t just William Berner [a child murderer that represents the bad-boy] it was American boys everywhere” (47). Huckleberry Finn is a character that resembles the “bad boy” in America that rebels against the society. In the end of the book, Huck states how Aunt Sally is going to try to adopt him and “sivilize” him (296). Although he is not too fond of the idea, the rebellious child is once again being placed back into society, which allows it to fall nicely in place in the genre of children’s literature. It is possible to have Huckleberry civilized with Aunt Sally even if Huck constantly tries to rebel. This is the same behavior that the American boy exhibits during Mark Twain’s time: “The bad boy of America,” who they claimed was a peculiarly American creation: a kid who could not be civilized even though he was growing up in the middle of a civilization” (Levy 47). Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn mirrors the life of the typical American boy that although rebellious and mischievous, does the right things.
Focusing on how controversial Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are in the past and present are important areas to study. Both pieces deal with themes and ideas that were extremely sensitive to nineteenth century families; the books continue to cause trouble in the public school systems. Although there are concerns in Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn is clearly the most problematic of the two “Boy Books”. In Tom Sawyer Huckleberry prefers to live outside of civilization rather than to live in society. There are political concerns such as trading possessions inside the church building. Huckleberry Finn also caused a lot of controversy and received negative feedback when it was published. In 1885, when Huckleberry Finn was just published, it immediately caused tremendous controversy. The lower vernacular in which the text was written was considered “trash” in the article “A Banned Book: One Hundred Years of “Trouble for Huck’s Book” (308). The article also states that Twain’s book was banned from The Concord Massachusetts Public Library in 1885 (308). The low- class diction of Huck and Jim made people in 1885 feel that this was not suitable to teach and give upper class children to read because it was not suitable reading material. Words found in the book such as “nigger” and “sweat” are words that were not proper and were not appropriate in children’s literature. James Gellery states that “Huckleberry Finn suffered under the anti-prejudice rubric as well. The public library in Massachusetts banned the book as “unsuitable, only for the slums” (40). The reasons behind the banning of the book vary from past to present. People of the past could see that Huckleberry Finn criticizes slavery and it was banned in order to keep slavery from being banned. The exaggerated ways in which Jim is portrayed in the pictures and the racist remarks about Jim are some of the larger reasons why it is banned in some school systems presently. The upper class and those that supported slavery refused to accept Mark Twain’s book as children’s literature and it was taken off the shelves; the same actions still take place today. Despite the book’s controversy, Huckleberry Finn is a piece of literature that still remains a well-loved classic today.
Presently, Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are once again disputed over whether they belong on the children’s shelves or in the adult section. In Huckleberry Finn, the tone is predominantly extremely negative and at times the characters refer to blacks as not being people. A good example of this is when Aunt Sally meets Huck and asks Huck if anyone gets killed and Huck replies “a nigger” (230). Aunt Sally with relief replies, “well, it’s lucky because sometimes people do get hurt” (230). Even though a person does get killed, Aunt Sally dismisses it because during her time African Americans were equated as animals that helped with farming and were bought and sold during auctions, an act that is also referenced in Huckleberry Finn. Other references such as Huckleberry saying that “I knew he [Jim] was white inside” (279) are extremely racist lines that greatly offend and disturb readers of all races. These particular lines advocate to young readers that there is a social difference between Caucasians and African Americans. The use of the term “nigger” occurs over two hundred times in the novel and some people argue that diction is not correct to give young children. Many of the themes found in Mark Twain’s boy books are political and social critiques of slave-holding society that is meant to be read by the adult audience. Just as African Americans are equated as “Others” in Huckleberry Finn in Tom Sawyer the character Injun Joe reveals how Native Americans are “Others” in the text. In the graveyard at night Tom watch Joe commit the murder, “and in the same instant the half breed saw his chance and drove the knife to the hilt in the young man’s breast” (58). It is not coincidental that the Indian is the murderer and robber in Tom Sawyer; Mark Twain and much of his society did not revere Indians highly and this is why Twain calls him a “half blood”. Twain depicts Injun Joe as a villain and as a barbaric figure; the name “Injun” is another derogatory phrase similar to “nigger” in Huckleberry Finn. It is clear that some parents in present day may want to hide their children from the large failures of our world, such as slavery and the racism to non-whites.
Arguably, the offensive racism and social critiques would be too complex for a child to understand. Just like Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn is written in the perspective of a young boy and the book is comprised of adventures, which is a common theme in children’s literature. Children readers are very engaged in the graphics which tell the story without the need of the controversial words “nigger,” “sweat,” and other terms that arouse concern in the book. Children’s literature often contains visuals to aid with the story’s comprehension; this signifies that many of the concepts in the text will not be understood by young readers. The book when targeted at children is about a young boy that goes on adventures. When the audience is made up of high school and college students, Huckleberry Finn becomes a far more serious book about racial inequality, child abuse, and other heated controversies. Andrew Levy states, “in high schools and colleges it is taught as serious, forward-looking reflection of the conscience of the nation in matters of race and freedom, but in elementary school, in popular culture, and in cartoons and movies, it is recognized as a children-friendly classic” (46). The duality of Huckleberry Finn depends on the level of age and the level of interpretation the text will get. Just like in 1885, the book has been banned from many high schools.
Huckleberry Finn is a book that has “now attained the dubious distinction of having been banned from more libraries than any other book in history. At the same time the book is widely recognized as one of the great masterpieces of world literature” (Puttock 77). The classic children’s literature that remains in the canon throughout generations are stories that both violate and support the structure of children’s literature: “a cusp text, Huckleberry Finn, is on one hand, shackled and diminished by its view of African Americans as Others; on the other hand; the novel does contain an effort, to transcend the limitations of Post-Reconstruction racism and racialism” (Valkeakari 29). Both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn reveal times where they are racist but Twain is very careful that the narrator or “his voice” never utters racist terms such as “nigger”. The positive themes that reveal how racism is wrong are sometimes overlooked in Huckleberry Finn and instead showered with criticism in areas where it can be attacked strongest. Huckleberry Finn is a text that rouses children due to its pictures, adventures, and young boy characters. At the same time the themes of racial inequality, slavery, and use of hurtful words such as “nigger” are strong counterarguments that support that Huckleberry Finn more suitable for an adult audience. Even though Huck is a young child, the themes that he battles in his life are those that are politically-charged and unsuitable for young children. Some argue that Huckleberry has attributes that make him an unsuitable role model for children. Huckleberry smokes, lies, steals, and does not believe in religion: these are key elements that separate him from the many children’s literature figures that believe in the opposite Huck does. Andrew Levy says that “sometimes Huck is the victim, and sometimes he is the criminal, but his life is no mere boy’s adventure, and he is no cherub” (49). Levy is proving that Huckleberry Finn has more depth and substance than just the adventures surrounding the plotline. He clarifies that sometimes Huckleberry plays the role of the victim in the text but he is not an innocent figure.
The genre of children’s literature is a slippery slope because it contains books that are placed by the discretion of parents, individuals that want to protect their beloved ones from the jarring society as long as possible. Other parents understand that preventing children from discovering the harsh truths of their world is impossible, and would rather give their children insight of the flawed world so they can be prepared to tackle reality and become moral individuals by distinguishing right from wrong at an early age. Another problem is the ambiguity of age that children’s literature is to cater to. In Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, the characters are around the age of thirteen. Arguably, during Mark Twain’s time a thirteen year old had more adult responsibilities and childhood was shortened: perhaps books for thirteen year old boys were considered adult literature at the time. Today, childhood is prolonged and young boys and girls at the age of early teens are not quite mature enough to handle the material found in Mark Twain’s books. There is another profound reason of why the books are so controversial: it is because both Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer sit on a wavering line between adult and children literature. Twain began his career as a humorist and wrote material suitable for younger audiences. As he continued to write, his tone drastically becomes grave and serious, material suitable strictly for adults.
Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are powerful books because for young audiences it encourages the use of imagination and be entertained with adventure. It contains didactic elements about what it means to be a boy in the nineteenth century and teaches them proper behavior; however, it also praises them for their energetic and curious nature. The more advanced themes in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn communicate how evil and corruption are ever-present in society. Many of the controversial remarks combined with the structure of children’s literature are fundamental reasons why the genre is loved by people of all ages. The dual natures of these books are why it becomes so difficult to separate the overlapping elements of children’s literature and adult literature. This is the predominant reason why both books makes frequent entrances and exits from the children’s literature canon, but remains a classic for children of all ages.
Works Cited
“A Banned Book: One Hundred Years of ‘Trouble’ for Huck’s Book.” Boston Transcript Mar. 1885: n. pag. Rpt. in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. By Mark Twain. Ed. Thomas Cooley. New York: W.W. Norton, 1991. N. pag. Print.
Bercovitch, Sacvan. “What’s Funny About ‘Huckleberry Finn.’” New England Review 20.1 (1999): 8-28. JSTOR. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.
Fiedler, Leslie A. Love and Death in the American Novel. Normal: Dalkey, 1997. Print.
Freedman, Carol. “The Morality of Huckleberry Finn.” Philosophy and Literature 35.1 (2011): 102-13. JSTOR. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.
Gellert, James. “Shylock, Huckleberry, and Jim: Do They Have a Place in Today’s High Schools?” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 12.1 (1987): 40-43. Project MUSE. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.
Hunter, Jim. “Mark Twain and the Boy-Book in 19th Century America.” English Journal 24.6: 430-8. JSTOR. Web. 6 Oct. 2011.
Levy, Andrew. “The Boy Murderers: What Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn Really Teach.” The Missouri Review 32.2 (2009): 42-58. Project MUSE. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.
Lundin, Anne H. “Victorian Horizons: The Reception of Children’s Books in England and America 1880-1900.” Library Quarterly 64.1: 30-59. JSTOR. Web. 6 Oct. 2011.
Mark Twain. Mark Twain Complete and Unabridged. 1876. New York: Barnes and Noble , 2006. Print.
Matthews, Brander. “Review: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Saturday Review 31 Jan. 1885: 153. Project MUSE. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.
Neville, Emily. “Social Values in Children’s Literature.” Library Quarterly 37.1: 46-52. JSTOR. Web. 6 Oct. 2011.
Puttock, Kay. “Many Responses to the Many Voices of Huckleberry Finn.” The Lion and the Unicorn 16.1 (1992): 77-82. JSTOR. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.
Valeakari, Tuire. “Huck, Twain, and the Freedman’s Shackles: Struggling with Huckleberry Finn Today.” Atlantis 28.2 (2006): 29-43. JSTOR. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.
Vales, Robert L. “Thief and Theft in Huckleberry Finn.” American Literature 37.4 (1966): 420-429. JSTOR. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
L'ecriture au Feminine in Mauve Desert
Caitlin Vogel
Professor Giacoppe
LITR 363
17 November 2011
Distinguishing L’ècriture au Fèminine in Nicole Brossard’s Mauve Desert
In a world where customs, traditions, view points and written language are deemed phallocentric, it is increasingly difficult to identify and support that there is such thing as feminine writing style; so many individuals including women denounce this idea because the female mind has been conditioned to accept and promote the masculine way of living, speaking, and writing. The masculine and feminine writing styles vary significantly in the ways that ideas are structured. Historically, writing is deeply rooted in masculinity and sexuality; writing is a power and a freedom that is fairly new to women. The emergence of female sexuality has led women authors to write about their sexuality and their life experiences from their perspectives. The differences in male and female sexuality and desire are primary reasons why the two writing styles vary. Nicole Brossard’s Mauve Desert is a text that highlights and supports the existence of l’ècriture au fèminine, or “writing in the feminine” because of the differences in language use and structure that represent and promote female sexuality, experience, and freedom.
Before delving into Mauve Desert and the parameters of feminine literature, it is important to understand why this argument matters: are there truly female and male styles of writing? Perhaps people refute the existence of “writing in the feminine” because there are so few texts by female authors. Throughout history women were repressed in speech, writing, sexuality, and experience. She was not given the chance to represent her own self. It is only recently that the woman’s unique, individual voice is being inscribed on paper; she is now liberated to write about all she has always known but forbidden to say: her sex drive, her desire, and her experiences. However, many women do not realize that they have the freedoms to write their every passion and desire in texts because the social norm for women is repression. Helen Cixous proves that there are so few texts written by women because “so few women have won back their body” (256). In texts such as Mauve Desert, Brossard’s writing fights against this convention of women self-containing their emotions by writing; she no longer represses her emotions, and writes them down for the world to see. Brossard’s text represents how feminine writing style exists and her text awakens women to realize their own sexual and intellectual power. Just as Brossard freely expresses her femininity through writing, many women such as Cixous wish that other women would experience liberation through writing. She argues, “I wished that women would write and proclaim this unique empire, so that other women, other unacknowledged sovereigns might exclaim: I, too, overflow; my desires have invented new desires, my body knows of un-heard songs” (246). Cixous supports that there is such a style as feminine style but that it is a new, emerging style that authors like Brossard support and strengthen its existence. Perhaps as more women write, the more women readers will be inspired and aware of this unique form of writing. Let’s begin with how Brossard’s Mauve Desert does just that.
Mauve Desert by Nicole Brossard depicts the story as authored by Laure Angestelle, whose text then gets translated by a Maude Laures. This chain or “body” of female writers and translator is not coincidental, but emphasizes the overall “femaleness” of the text and its expansion over the multiple women that join collectively in the text. The main reason women write for others of their sex is greatly explained in “Writing the Body”: “a woman may experience jouissance [sexual pleasure or orgasm] in a private relationship to her own body, but she writes for others” (373). She writes to others so that the text can give the same sexual gratifications and freedoms to explore and write about the body. Roland Barthes emphasizes that a text can arouse its readers just as it has done to the translator in Mauve Desert; Barthes calls this the “erotics of the reading”(75). Susan Holbrook continues that the desire did not come just from the text “it is her [Maude Laure’s] own desire that extends the production of the book” (75). Intellectual knowledge leads Maude Laures to desire, which is the driving force that has her complete the text. Having the freedom to realize how the female body works is difficult; women lost control over their bodies from men, which is one of the reasons that feminine writing styles were not in existence. For generations women were banned from writing or showing any sort of expression. Ideologies placed upon women and constraining social norms put in place and reinforced by the patriarchal society are among one of the main reasons why the feminine style of writing is thought not to exist. It is not because feminine writing does not exist but rather because women are afraid to step out of their boundaries or they are do not realize that they can win their body back and express themselves through art and writing. The original text Mauve Desert is filled with the expression of female desire and sexuality, while the translated version of Mauve the Horizon further delves into expanding the ripeness of lesbian display of sex and pedestals the beauty of the naked female form. This is because the writing of the original Mauve Desert helps Laures delve deeper into understanding her sexuality and she becomes aroused by not only the sexual themes of the text, but also the task of writing itself.
In Mauve Desert, writing about female sexuality is extremely prevalent in the book, but another important theme that Brossard writes about is freedom and experience. In the first section of the text, the main character, Mèlanie, has a deep desire to take her Meteor into the desert and speed down the isolated highways. Her ability to do something, fun, arousing, and yet risky reveals her liberation from society and the ability to make and pursue her nonsexual dreams and desires. The liberating and adrenaline-pumping rides in her Meteor reveal that Mèlanie has much to say and contribute as a woman: she thinks, feels, relates, and expresses through experiences like these, experiences that other women can relate to. Longman, the sole male character, represents masculinity and the theme of ‘danger’ is constantly tied to his character. Longman is referred to as an “explosion,” and the word represents multiple sexual and nonsexual meanings. Longman is releasing atomic bombs, which represent destruction in the desert, a place where Mèlanie goes to isolate herself from society and find the freedom she longs for. Her mother also longs for isolation; she desires freedom so she can be with her female lover, away from the bustling population, a place she will be ridiculed for being homosexual. ‘Longman’s’ name represents the physical phallus, and he symbolically represents violence and destruction, words that are associated to masculinity. Longman brings destruction to the desert where Mèlanie and her mother reside. Longman interferes with the women’s longing for freedom: “the first section of Le Dèsert mauve represents the patriarchal project as in involving violent force. The Mauve Motel is situated in the desert, far from large cities. This suggests that the utopic space exists close to nature, beyond the social” (Wawrzinek 71). The adventures in the desert for Mèlanie and the needed seclusion for the lesbian lovers to feel safe to express their feelings freely are the experiences that the women characters possess and Brossard writes about the beauty of women’s experience. Writing about the sexual experiences of the female characters in Mauve Desert plays a large role in giving females the power to write about their own bodies.
Writing about the female body and sexual experience expands and crosses the boundaries of the phallocentric society and allows women to define and re-define their own life experiences. Language helps to communicate, express, and promote the idea that not only feminine sexuality exists, but that female writers have a unique voice and style of writing all their own when they can write freely without inhibition: “her hands swirl above our heads. The palm of our hands, sometimes her hands slide over my hips” (45). The body parts “hands,” “heads, “and “hips” not only serves for alliteration but it serves to arouse the readers of the text to feel and experience the same sexual arousal found in the text. Women’s writing can be arousing and brings life, passion, and desire, feelings that have been repressed. This answers the question posed in the beginning of the essay about how women’s writing affects other women. Angstelle’s Mauve Desert awakens Maude Laure’s repressed sexual energy and spurs her desire. The desire is not just sexual desire, but the intellectual desire to understand and write the new version of the text. She uses her desire to translate the work which will awaken the sexuality and desire in other women. Angstelle’s desire for translation evolves into a state of delirium, an obsession to forge a relationship with the female author and characters in the text. Women authors write texts with certain themes and formats than male authors.
Mauve Desert’s writing style is very different from the masculine text because of the way the language is written. There are many themes which are repeated in the text and appear in a “cyclical manner”. This is because women do not see the world in a linear, logical way like most men perceive events. In “This Sex Which is Not One,” Luce Irigaray states that “her sexuality, always at least double, goes even further: it is plural” (28). Since the woman has multiple erogenous zones, her writing is more complex and can have more repetitive cyclical themes than found in male writing. The circle is extremely symbolic to the woman because it also represents zero, or the way that her sex has often been referred to by men. The idea that she has “nothing” or “no thing” signifies her lack of a penis, the grandeur organ. Therefore, she gets equated with zero. In “This Sex which is Not Just One,” Irigaray states, “what she says is never identical with anything, moreover; rather, it is contiguous. It touches (upon). And when it strays too far from that proximity, she breaks off and starts over at “zero:” her body sex” (29). When Irigaray says “touches upon” she means how the female sex organs are always in contact, the “lips” which Irigaray states keeps women in touch with herself both in a physical and intellectual way. In Mauve Desert words and phrases are frequently repeated which represents the cyclical nature of female writing style: “mauve,” “desert,” “horizon” and “desire” frequently occur in the original and translated version of the text. The repetitions reveal that the writing style of Nicole Brossard and other woman writers differentiate from the logical, linear, and straight forward writing style of males. Cixous continues and states, “her [women’s] speech, even when “theoretical or political, is never simple or linear” (251). The layout of Mauve Desert is very complex. The first section of the novel is about one story that seems to happen in the perspective of Melanie, which is the novel’s reality. That is until readers find out that “reality” is about a woman who tries to translate the characters from the first book; Melanie in this section is only a character. The last section of the book is the translated tale that is similar to the first book, but extremely different. These two versions of the story are sandwiched between a translator that interrupts the original story and creates a new story. The complex writing style and use of repetition are natural elements of female written expression. The relationship between the translator and the author, both women, reveal the continuity of female writing style.
Just as there is a romantic relationship between Kathy and Lorna filled with desire and passion, there is a romantic and sexual relationship between the translator and the author. Maude Laures becomes completely enthralled in the language of Laure Angestelle and they become doubles since they are forming a sexual relationship with one another around the text. Although both women do not know one another, they become connected sexually through the text and they create the text together through the act of translation, arguably a sexual act. Just as a romantic relationship, the bond between translator and author is an act created by two: a couple. The reproduction of the new translated text, the “new life”, is forged by the interaction and connection between the author and translator. Like a child, a product of love, resembles traits of both parents, the original and translated version of Mauve Desert resembles one another. The similarities of their names Laure and Laures show the plurality of the name, arguably a surname. However, just as a child does not fully replicate a parent, the same is found in a translation, a product of the original. The important themes of the book are kept in the translation, although there are differences. There is a complex relationship that exists between Angstelle and Laures because even though they do not know one another, they put their passions and energies together to create something beautiful: a book and the translated version of the book. The relationships between women in this book are interlinked even if the relationship is not physically known. The book is about the relationship between character and author, translator and character, and translator to author. Finally, the book also creates a relationship between reader to character, reader to translator, and reader to author. This web of social interaction between females reveals the bond created from woman to woman in the l’ècriture au feminine. Charlotte Sturgess supports this claim and argues that this duality has great significance: “for the novel within a novel seems to offer a copy, just as Laure Angstelle, writer, and Maude Laures, translator, provides a kind of double. The “translation” that emerges is part of that fractured mirroring that both creates identifications and defers them” (92). The act of reading and writing forges the female relationship between the translator and the author which creates “identifications;” the two women are “deferred” because the original piece of writing is not copied through translation but is altered by the choice of Maude Laures and her interpretation of the text.
The translator Maude Laures becomes enthralled in the expression of female sexuality that her own sexual and intellectual desire awakens to translate and add her own sexuality to Laure Angstelle’s Mauve Desert: “her [Maude] eyes straining over the slightest detail while afar the most intimate images wavered” (60). Maude’s drive to translate the text becomes obsessive and is deeply rooted in her desire to write in the feminine voice because she becomes excited to read a text written by another woman, a being in which she can relate to. Her sexual arousal caused by the feminine text pushes her to add her own sexuality and desire into the text to satisfy the urges the text awakens in her because she states, “Laure Angstelle’s language had seduced her” (62). Women’s language such as Angstelle’s is clearly a distinguished style of writing that other women like Maude are drawn to like a moth is to light. Monika Giacoppe supports this claim further and states, “the source of the work of translation is desire, the desire is deeply personal and multivalent: physical as well as intellectual and emotional (132). The expression of feminine desire and sexuality are fundamental factors that are responsible for the emergence of female writing.
The male-dominant world controls language and the ways that texts are written and “have produced language, thought, and reality” (Spender 143). The man has silenced the woman in more ways than just her ability to speak or write. He has repressed her desire and her ability to explore and discuss the functions of her body and the multifaceted nature of her erogenous zones and sexual experiences. Hèlène Cixous argues that “to write. An act which will not only “realize” the decensored relation of woman to her sexuality, to her womanly being, giving her access to her native strength; it will give her back her goods, her pleasures, her organs, her immense bodily territories which have been kept under seal” (250). The woman’s ability to write without inhibition allows her to better understand her intellectual and sexual passions, a part of her that has been repressed by male-driven society for many generations.
In Mauve Desert, Brossard creates lesbian lovers that embrace and become enthralled in their passions and desires and have accepted and promoted their female sexuality openly. Unlike many masculine texts, where there is the adoration of the penis, Mauve Desert celebrates the female anatomical parts such as the labia or “lips” (201). In Mauve Desert, the repetition of female anatomy expresses female desire and also encourages women to break free of the taboo about “writing their bodies”. Other anatomical parts such as the vagina are referenced in Brossard’s text and she even includes segments about female masturbation: “my body still in front of the mirror. My hand would be slow”(38). The depiction of female masturbation reveals the power of the woman promoting her sexuality. This depiction of sexuality and pleasure is heightened further on in the book when lesbian lovers talk about their own physical and emotional desires for one another. Brossard’s freedom to write is responsible for bringing into fruition freedoms that female characters possess such as: female masturbation and lesbian relationships, Mèlanie’s unbridled joy ride in the desert, and the freedom to criticize violent, patriarchal society. Writing about female sexuality, experience, and freedom are extremely important themes in l’ècriture au fèminine.
Writing about desire is extremely fundamental when writing the world in a woman’s perspective. In “Writing the Body”, the main argument is that Brossard’s unbridled sexuality in her novel is derived from her own body: “the female body is seen as a direct source of female writing, a powerful alternative discourse seems possible: to write from the body is to re-create the world” (366). Brossard engages in this type of writing where she unveils passions and desires that illustrate and define female sexuality and supporting its existence in a male-driven world where it for years was unknown. The character Lorna is deeply aware of her sexuality and her attraction with Kathy. While Kathy’s notion of love is much more logical and less physical, Lorna burns with lust and the desire to communicate love though carnal actions. These sexual feelings of both characters are being expressed in the novel and are being communicated by two females to each other. This provides evidence that Nicole Brossard is daringly writing from her own body to convincingly and believably write about the passion shared between two female characters. This bold writing is derived from her understanding and knowledge of her own complex sexuality: “I want traces, marks, blood streaming in our veins. Love needs evidence. Carnal evidence otherwise the body languishes” (125). These words are written from an author that is in sync with her body and its functions. The intensity of the words “traces,” “marks,” and “evidence” help to increase the sexual drive of the female readers of the text so that they begin to feel just as aroused as the female characters in the text. Susan Holbrook states, “Brossard invokes dèlire/de lire in order to convey the momentous stimulation, excitation, and creative response a woman experiences when reading the text of another woman” (72). The word “delire” means to go astray but in French it means ‘passion or frenzy’ (72). The idea that women’s writing can have such an impacting effect on other women reveals that the style of feminine writing will only continue to grow once these feminist texts begin to circulate around women readers.
There is a structural cyclical writing style that Nicole Brossard carefully inserts that directs the form of the novel into a feminine attribution to writing style. Every chapter begins with Longman and then switches off into Melanie’s perspective, which is repeated throughout the first section of Mauve Desert, which occurs throughout the book and performs a cycle of events which lead up to the same point as the text progresses. It becomes expected that every new chapter will undoubtedly begin about Longman and then eventually merge and end in Melanie’s perspective. Although the text Mauve the Horizon is in many ways completely different than the original, the same cyclical format still is carried on into the translation. This “borrowing” of style shows that this is the natural feminine way in which multiple women write. The cyclical nature of beginning the chapter with Longman and O’blongman, which then merges and then ends in the perspective of Melanie argues that multiple women borrow this unique style which reflects the “zero” or “circular” nature of their text and then evolves into a writing style strictly related to their gender.
Repetition is a device that Brossard copiously uses in Mauve Desert. Another interesting quality of her writing style is that themes have symbolic meaning, but it remains vague or unknown what the meaning is. The ‘horizon’ is a motif that recurs in the text along with the color ‘mauve’ and the ‘desert’. The desert could represent freedom, solitude, and release from society, but the exact meaning remains unknown. The color mauve is a feminine version of red, a color generally linked to male passion for a woman. Mauve is a common color found in cosmetics, and when mauve is linked to passion, it represents female passion like red represents male passion. The repeating themes in the novel also have significance but their symbolic meanings are ambiguous. The uncertainties of meanings of themes serve a very important purpose in Mauve Desert; it allows for the exchange and development of thought in the reader. It allows for freedom in deciphering the meaning. One of the main themes in Mauve Desert is about the freedom that the women characters possess: Melanie’s freedom to speed in her Meteor and Kathy and Laure’s freedom to openly express and love one another in the solitude of the desert. The freedom that the characters have speaks to the woman readers of the text, a voice that encourages women to partake in the freedom of expressions both physically and intellectually. Unlike logical straight-forward masculine-style writing, the style of female writing allows for thought and reflection. The vagueness of Brossard’s writing follows the model of feminist writing style. In “This Sex Which is Not One,” the author proclaims, “this is doubtless why she [women writer] is said to be whimsical, incomprehensible, agitated, capricious… not to mention her language, in which “she” sets off in all directions leaving “him” unable to discern the coherence of any meaning” (29). Women’s writing is more ambiguous and more difficult to immediately understand. It does not mean that the writing or the language does not make sense but that there is hidden meaning that lies beneath the text.
Feminine writing shares many of the structural and thematic elements that Nicole Brossard’s Mauve Desert contains. It is extremely important to acknowledge the differences between female and male writing styles so that females can find their own source of independence and liberation in their expression of words. The powerful words from Cixous perfectly explain how important it is to distinguish this distinguishable style of writing: “we must affirm the existence of this writing. It is through ignorance that most readers, critics, and writers of both sexes hesitate to admit or deny outright the possibility or the pertinence of a distinction between masculine and feminine writing” (253). By understanding and acknowledging the ways that females write, both through their sexual bodies, and intellectual minds, texts such as Mauve Desert clarify and highlight l’ècriture au fèminine’s existence and its unique qualities.
Works Cited
Brossard, Nicole. Mauve Desert. Trans. Susanne Lotbiniere-Harwood. 1987. Montreal: Coach , 1990. Print.
Cixous, Helene. “Helene Cixous.” Trans. Keith Cohen and Paula Cohen. New French Feminisms. Ed. Elaine Marks and Isabelle Courtivron. New York: Schocken, 1981. 245-64. Print.
Giacoppe, Monika. “’’The Task of the Translator’ in Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude and Brossard’s Mauve Desert.” Bucknell Review: A Scholarly Journal of Letters, Arts, and Sciences 47.1 (2004): 124-38. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 19 Nov. 2011.
Holbrook, Susan. “Delirium and Desire in Nicole Brossard’s Le Desert Mauve/ Mauve Desert.” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 12.2 (2001): 70-85. JSTOR. Web. 19 Nov. 2011.
Jones, Ann Rosalind. “Writing the Body Toward an Understanding l’Ecriture feminine.” The New Feminist Criticism Essays on Women, Literature Theory. Ed. Elaine Showalter. New York: Pantheon, 1985. 361-75. Print.
Luce Irigaray. This Sex Which Is Not One. Trans. Catherine Porter. New York: Cornell University, 1985. Print.
Wawrzinek, Jennifer. Ambiguous Subjects: Dissolution and Metamorphosis in Postmodern Sublime. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009. Print.
Professor Giacoppe
LITR 363
17 November 2011
Distinguishing L’ècriture au Fèminine in Nicole Brossard’s Mauve Desert
In a world where customs, traditions, view points and written language are deemed phallocentric, it is increasingly difficult to identify and support that there is such thing as feminine writing style; so many individuals including women denounce this idea because the female mind has been conditioned to accept and promote the masculine way of living, speaking, and writing. The masculine and feminine writing styles vary significantly in the ways that ideas are structured. Historically, writing is deeply rooted in masculinity and sexuality; writing is a power and a freedom that is fairly new to women. The emergence of female sexuality has led women authors to write about their sexuality and their life experiences from their perspectives. The differences in male and female sexuality and desire are primary reasons why the two writing styles vary. Nicole Brossard’s Mauve Desert is a text that highlights and supports the existence of l’ècriture au fèminine, or “writing in the feminine” because of the differences in language use and structure that represent and promote female sexuality, experience, and freedom.
Before delving into Mauve Desert and the parameters of feminine literature, it is important to understand why this argument matters: are there truly female and male styles of writing? Perhaps people refute the existence of “writing in the feminine” because there are so few texts by female authors. Throughout history women were repressed in speech, writing, sexuality, and experience. She was not given the chance to represent her own self. It is only recently that the woman’s unique, individual voice is being inscribed on paper; she is now liberated to write about all she has always known but forbidden to say: her sex drive, her desire, and her experiences. However, many women do not realize that they have the freedoms to write their every passion and desire in texts because the social norm for women is repression. Helen Cixous proves that there are so few texts written by women because “so few women have won back their body” (256). In texts such as Mauve Desert, Brossard’s writing fights against this convention of women self-containing their emotions by writing; she no longer represses her emotions, and writes them down for the world to see. Brossard’s text represents how feminine writing style exists and her text awakens women to realize their own sexual and intellectual power. Just as Brossard freely expresses her femininity through writing, many women such as Cixous wish that other women would experience liberation through writing. She argues, “I wished that women would write and proclaim this unique empire, so that other women, other unacknowledged sovereigns might exclaim: I, too, overflow; my desires have invented new desires, my body knows of un-heard songs” (246). Cixous supports that there is such a style as feminine style but that it is a new, emerging style that authors like Brossard support and strengthen its existence. Perhaps as more women write, the more women readers will be inspired and aware of this unique form of writing. Let’s begin with how Brossard’s Mauve Desert does just that.
Mauve Desert by Nicole Brossard depicts the story as authored by Laure Angestelle, whose text then gets translated by a Maude Laures. This chain or “body” of female writers and translator is not coincidental, but emphasizes the overall “femaleness” of the text and its expansion over the multiple women that join collectively in the text. The main reason women write for others of their sex is greatly explained in “Writing the Body”: “a woman may experience jouissance [sexual pleasure or orgasm] in a private relationship to her own body, but she writes for others” (373). She writes to others so that the text can give the same sexual gratifications and freedoms to explore and write about the body. Roland Barthes emphasizes that a text can arouse its readers just as it has done to the translator in Mauve Desert; Barthes calls this the “erotics of the reading”(75). Susan Holbrook continues that the desire did not come just from the text “it is her [Maude Laure’s] own desire that extends the production of the book” (75). Intellectual knowledge leads Maude Laures to desire, which is the driving force that has her complete the text. Having the freedom to realize how the female body works is difficult; women lost control over their bodies from men, which is one of the reasons that feminine writing styles were not in existence. For generations women were banned from writing or showing any sort of expression. Ideologies placed upon women and constraining social norms put in place and reinforced by the patriarchal society are among one of the main reasons why the feminine style of writing is thought not to exist. It is not because feminine writing does not exist but rather because women are afraid to step out of their boundaries or they are do not realize that they can win their body back and express themselves through art and writing. The original text Mauve Desert is filled with the expression of female desire and sexuality, while the translated version of Mauve the Horizon further delves into expanding the ripeness of lesbian display of sex and pedestals the beauty of the naked female form. This is because the writing of the original Mauve Desert helps Laures delve deeper into understanding her sexuality and she becomes aroused by not only the sexual themes of the text, but also the task of writing itself.
In Mauve Desert, writing about female sexuality is extremely prevalent in the book, but another important theme that Brossard writes about is freedom and experience. In the first section of the text, the main character, Mèlanie, has a deep desire to take her Meteor into the desert and speed down the isolated highways. Her ability to do something, fun, arousing, and yet risky reveals her liberation from society and the ability to make and pursue her nonsexual dreams and desires. The liberating and adrenaline-pumping rides in her Meteor reveal that Mèlanie has much to say and contribute as a woman: she thinks, feels, relates, and expresses through experiences like these, experiences that other women can relate to. Longman, the sole male character, represents masculinity and the theme of ‘danger’ is constantly tied to his character. Longman is referred to as an “explosion,” and the word represents multiple sexual and nonsexual meanings. Longman is releasing atomic bombs, which represent destruction in the desert, a place where Mèlanie goes to isolate herself from society and find the freedom she longs for. Her mother also longs for isolation; she desires freedom so she can be with her female lover, away from the bustling population, a place she will be ridiculed for being homosexual. ‘Longman’s’ name represents the physical phallus, and he symbolically represents violence and destruction, words that are associated to masculinity. Longman brings destruction to the desert where Mèlanie and her mother reside. Longman interferes with the women’s longing for freedom: “the first section of Le Dèsert mauve represents the patriarchal project as in involving violent force. The Mauve Motel is situated in the desert, far from large cities. This suggests that the utopic space exists close to nature, beyond the social” (Wawrzinek 71). The adventures in the desert for Mèlanie and the needed seclusion for the lesbian lovers to feel safe to express their feelings freely are the experiences that the women characters possess and Brossard writes about the beauty of women’s experience. Writing about the sexual experiences of the female characters in Mauve Desert plays a large role in giving females the power to write about their own bodies.
Writing about the female body and sexual experience expands and crosses the boundaries of the phallocentric society and allows women to define and re-define their own life experiences. Language helps to communicate, express, and promote the idea that not only feminine sexuality exists, but that female writers have a unique voice and style of writing all their own when they can write freely without inhibition: “her hands swirl above our heads. The palm of our hands, sometimes her hands slide over my hips” (45). The body parts “hands,” “heads, “and “hips” not only serves for alliteration but it serves to arouse the readers of the text to feel and experience the same sexual arousal found in the text. Women’s writing can be arousing and brings life, passion, and desire, feelings that have been repressed. This answers the question posed in the beginning of the essay about how women’s writing affects other women. Angstelle’s Mauve Desert awakens Maude Laure’s repressed sexual energy and spurs her desire. The desire is not just sexual desire, but the intellectual desire to understand and write the new version of the text. She uses her desire to translate the work which will awaken the sexuality and desire in other women. Angstelle’s desire for translation evolves into a state of delirium, an obsession to forge a relationship with the female author and characters in the text. Women authors write texts with certain themes and formats than male authors.
Mauve Desert’s writing style is very different from the masculine text because of the way the language is written. There are many themes which are repeated in the text and appear in a “cyclical manner”. This is because women do not see the world in a linear, logical way like most men perceive events. In “This Sex Which is Not One,” Luce Irigaray states that “her sexuality, always at least double, goes even further: it is plural” (28). Since the woman has multiple erogenous zones, her writing is more complex and can have more repetitive cyclical themes than found in male writing. The circle is extremely symbolic to the woman because it also represents zero, or the way that her sex has often been referred to by men. The idea that she has “nothing” or “no thing” signifies her lack of a penis, the grandeur organ. Therefore, she gets equated with zero. In “This Sex which is Not Just One,” Irigaray states, “what she says is never identical with anything, moreover; rather, it is contiguous. It touches (upon). And when it strays too far from that proximity, she breaks off and starts over at “zero:” her body sex” (29). When Irigaray says “touches upon” she means how the female sex organs are always in contact, the “lips” which Irigaray states keeps women in touch with herself both in a physical and intellectual way. In Mauve Desert words and phrases are frequently repeated which represents the cyclical nature of female writing style: “mauve,” “desert,” “horizon” and “desire” frequently occur in the original and translated version of the text. The repetitions reveal that the writing style of Nicole Brossard and other woman writers differentiate from the logical, linear, and straight forward writing style of males. Cixous continues and states, “her [women’s] speech, even when “theoretical or political, is never simple or linear” (251). The layout of Mauve Desert is very complex. The first section of the novel is about one story that seems to happen in the perspective of Melanie, which is the novel’s reality. That is until readers find out that “reality” is about a woman who tries to translate the characters from the first book; Melanie in this section is only a character. The last section of the book is the translated tale that is similar to the first book, but extremely different. These two versions of the story are sandwiched between a translator that interrupts the original story and creates a new story. The complex writing style and use of repetition are natural elements of female written expression. The relationship between the translator and the author, both women, reveal the continuity of female writing style.
Just as there is a romantic relationship between Kathy and Lorna filled with desire and passion, there is a romantic and sexual relationship between the translator and the author. Maude Laures becomes completely enthralled in the language of Laure Angestelle and they become doubles since they are forming a sexual relationship with one another around the text. Although both women do not know one another, they become connected sexually through the text and they create the text together through the act of translation, arguably a sexual act. Just as a romantic relationship, the bond between translator and author is an act created by two: a couple. The reproduction of the new translated text, the “new life”, is forged by the interaction and connection between the author and translator. Like a child, a product of love, resembles traits of both parents, the original and translated version of Mauve Desert resembles one another. The similarities of their names Laure and Laures show the plurality of the name, arguably a surname. However, just as a child does not fully replicate a parent, the same is found in a translation, a product of the original. The important themes of the book are kept in the translation, although there are differences. There is a complex relationship that exists between Angstelle and Laures because even though they do not know one another, they put their passions and energies together to create something beautiful: a book and the translated version of the book. The relationships between women in this book are interlinked even if the relationship is not physically known. The book is about the relationship between character and author, translator and character, and translator to author. Finally, the book also creates a relationship between reader to character, reader to translator, and reader to author. This web of social interaction between females reveals the bond created from woman to woman in the l’ècriture au feminine. Charlotte Sturgess supports this claim and argues that this duality has great significance: “for the novel within a novel seems to offer a copy, just as Laure Angstelle, writer, and Maude Laures, translator, provides a kind of double. The “translation” that emerges is part of that fractured mirroring that both creates identifications and defers them” (92). The act of reading and writing forges the female relationship between the translator and the author which creates “identifications;” the two women are “deferred” because the original piece of writing is not copied through translation but is altered by the choice of Maude Laures and her interpretation of the text.
The translator Maude Laures becomes enthralled in the expression of female sexuality that her own sexual and intellectual desire awakens to translate and add her own sexuality to Laure Angstelle’s Mauve Desert: “her [Maude] eyes straining over the slightest detail while afar the most intimate images wavered” (60). Maude’s drive to translate the text becomes obsessive and is deeply rooted in her desire to write in the feminine voice because she becomes excited to read a text written by another woman, a being in which she can relate to. Her sexual arousal caused by the feminine text pushes her to add her own sexuality and desire into the text to satisfy the urges the text awakens in her because she states, “Laure Angstelle’s language had seduced her” (62). Women’s language such as Angstelle’s is clearly a distinguished style of writing that other women like Maude are drawn to like a moth is to light. Monika Giacoppe supports this claim further and states, “the source of the work of translation is desire, the desire is deeply personal and multivalent: physical as well as intellectual and emotional (132). The expression of feminine desire and sexuality are fundamental factors that are responsible for the emergence of female writing.
The male-dominant world controls language and the ways that texts are written and “have produced language, thought, and reality” (Spender 143). The man has silenced the woman in more ways than just her ability to speak or write. He has repressed her desire and her ability to explore and discuss the functions of her body and the multifaceted nature of her erogenous zones and sexual experiences. Hèlène Cixous argues that “to write. An act which will not only “realize” the decensored relation of woman to her sexuality, to her womanly being, giving her access to her native strength; it will give her back her goods, her pleasures, her organs, her immense bodily territories which have been kept under seal” (250). The woman’s ability to write without inhibition allows her to better understand her intellectual and sexual passions, a part of her that has been repressed by male-driven society for many generations.
In Mauve Desert, Brossard creates lesbian lovers that embrace and become enthralled in their passions and desires and have accepted and promoted their female sexuality openly. Unlike many masculine texts, where there is the adoration of the penis, Mauve Desert celebrates the female anatomical parts such as the labia or “lips” (201). In Mauve Desert, the repetition of female anatomy expresses female desire and also encourages women to break free of the taboo about “writing their bodies”. Other anatomical parts such as the vagina are referenced in Brossard’s text and she even includes segments about female masturbation: “my body still in front of the mirror. My hand would be slow”(38). The depiction of female masturbation reveals the power of the woman promoting her sexuality. This depiction of sexuality and pleasure is heightened further on in the book when lesbian lovers talk about their own physical and emotional desires for one another. Brossard’s freedom to write is responsible for bringing into fruition freedoms that female characters possess such as: female masturbation and lesbian relationships, Mèlanie’s unbridled joy ride in the desert, and the freedom to criticize violent, patriarchal society. Writing about female sexuality, experience, and freedom are extremely important themes in l’ècriture au fèminine.
Writing about desire is extremely fundamental when writing the world in a woman’s perspective. In “Writing the Body”, the main argument is that Brossard’s unbridled sexuality in her novel is derived from her own body: “the female body is seen as a direct source of female writing, a powerful alternative discourse seems possible: to write from the body is to re-create the world” (366). Brossard engages in this type of writing where she unveils passions and desires that illustrate and define female sexuality and supporting its existence in a male-driven world where it for years was unknown. The character Lorna is deeply aware of her sexuality and her attraction with Kathy. While Kathy’s notion of love is much more logical and less physical, Lorna burns with lust and the desire to communicate love though carnal actions. These sexual feelings of both characters are being expressed in the novel and are being communicated by two females to each other. This provides evidence that Nicole Brossard is daringly writing from her own body to convincingly and believably write about the passion shared between two female characters. This bold writing is derived from her understanding and knowledge of her own complex sexuality: “I want traces, marks, blood streaming in our veins. Love needs evidence. Carnal evidence otherwise the body languishes” (125). These words are written from an author that is in sync with her body and its functions. The intensity of the words “traces,” “marks,” and “evidence” help to increase the sexual drive of the female readers of the text so that they begin to feel just as aroused as the female characters in the text. Susan Holbrook states, “Brossard invokes dèlire/de lire in order to convey the momentous stimulation, excitation, and creative response a woman experiences when reading the text of another woman” (72). The word “delire” means to go astray but in French it means ‘passion or frenzy’ (72). The idea that women’s writing can have such an impacting effect on other women reveals that the style of feminine writing will only continue to grow once these feminist texts begin to circulate around women readers.
There is a structural cyclical writing style that Nicole Brossard carefully inserts that directs the form of the novel into a feminine attribution to writing style. Every chapter begins with Longman and then switches off into Melanie’s perspective, which is repeated throughout the first section of Mauve Desert, which occurs throughout the book and performs a cycle of events which lead up to the same point as the text progresses. It becomes expected that every new chapter will undoubtedly begin about Longman and then eventually merge and end in Melanie’s perspective. Although the text Mauve the Horizon is in many ways completely different than the original, the same cyclical format still is carried on into the translation. This “borrowing” of style shows that this is the natural feminine way in which multiple women write. The cyclical nature of beginning the chapter with Longman and O’blongman, which then merges and then ends in the perspective of Melanie argues that multiple women borrow this unique style which reflects the “zero” or “circular” nature of their text and then evolves into a writing style strictly related to their gender.
Repetition is a device that Brossard copiously uses in Mauve Desert. Another interesting quality of her writing style is that themes have symbolic meaning, but it remains vague or unknown what the meaning is. The ‘horizon’ is a motif that recurs in the text along with the color ‘mauve’ and the ‘desert’. The desert could represent freedom, solitude, and release from society, but the exact meaning remains unknown. The color mauve is a feminine version of red, a color generally linked to male passion for a woman. Mauve is a common color found in cosmetics, and when mauve is linked to passion, it represents female passion like red represents male passion. The repeating themes in the novel also have significance but their symbolic meanings are ambiguous. The uncertainties of meanings of themes serve a very important purpose in Mauve Desert; it allows for the exchange and development of thought in the reader. It allows for freedom in deciphering the meaning. One of the main themes in Mauve Desert is about the freedom that the women characters possess: Melanie’s freedom to speed in her Meteor and Kathy and Laure’s freedom to openly express and love one another in the solitude of the desert. The freedom that the characters have speaks to the woman readers of the text, a voice that encourages women to partake in the freedom of expressions both physically and intellectually. Unlike logical straight-forward masculine-style writing, the style of female writing allows for thought and reflection. The vagueness of Brossard’s writing follows the model of feminist writing style. In “This Sex Which is Not One,” the author proclaims, “this is doubtless why she [women writer] is said to be whimsical, incomprehensible, agitated, capricious… not to mention her language, in which “she” sets off in all directions leaving “him” unable to discern the coherence of any meaning” (29). Women’s writing is more ambiguous and more difficult to immediately understand. It does not mean that the writing or the language does not make sense but that there is hidden meaning that lies beneath the text.
Feminine writing shares many of the structural and thematic elements that Nicole Brossard’s Mauve Desert contains. It is extremely important to acknowledge the differences between female and male writing styles so that females can find their own source of independence and liberation in their expression of words. The powerful words from Cixous perfectly explain how important it is to distinguish this distinguishable style of writing: “we must affirm the existence of this writing. It is through ignorance that most readers, critics, and writers of both sexes hesitate to admit or deny outright the possibility or the pertinence of a distinction between masculine and feminine writing” (253). By understanding and acknowledging the ways that females write, both through their sexual bodies, and intellectual minds, texts such as Mauve Desert clarify and highlight l’ècriture au fèminine’s existence and its unique qualities.
Works Cited
Brossard, Nicole. Mauve Desert. Trans. Susanne Lotbiniere-Harwood. 1987. Montreal: Coach , 1990. Print.
Cixous, Helene. “Helene Cixous.” Trans. Keith Cohen and Paula Cohen. New French Feminisms. Ed. Elaine Marks and Isabelle Courtivron. New York: Schocken, 1981. 245-64. Print.
Giacoppe, Monika. “’’The Task of the Translator’ in Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude and Brossard’s Mauve Desert.” Bucknell Review: A Scholarly Journal of Letters, Arts, and Sciences 47.1 (2004): 124-38. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 19 Nov. 2011.
Holbrook, Susan. “Delirium and Desire in Nicole Brossard’s Le Desert Mauve/ Mauve Desert.” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 12.2 (2001): 70-85. JSTOR. Web. 19 Nov. 2011.
Jones, Ann Rosalind. “Writing the Body Toward an Understanding l’Ecriture feminine.” The New Feminist Criticism Essays on Women, Literature Theory. Ed. Elaine Showalter. New York: Pantheon, 1985. 361-75. Print.
Luce Irigaray. This Sex Which Is Not One. Trans. Catherine Porter. New York: Cornell University, 1985. Print.
Wawrzinek, Jennifer. Ambiguous Subjects: Dissolution and Metamorphosis in Postmodern Sublime. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009. Print.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Two Hearts Tough To Break
On Christmas day when you arrived
Red bows wrapped tight in your ebony mane
The whites of your eyes and the sound of your whinny
Santa had brought me the gift too big for the chimney
Boy did you charge me and snort at my face
I thought Santa was crazy
For bringing this gift that wanted much slack
More than anything else wanted me off of her back
Then did I realize I was just like her
Two stubborn souls with no room for change
We were so similar that our match was arranged
God has his ways to blend animal with a certain human companion
Even when one may be lost you will forever still have him
That horse dressed in her pajamas of bay
Galloped me around like a racehorse all day
She never gave in or let me down
For my heart was hers and she knew with her it would stay.
Two spirits blended to one and our stubborn combined
We were the friends that raced with the sky
She whinnied and nickered to show that she loved
And never have I felt that kind of love.
Even the day I had to let you go
We never lost anything instead our love has grown.
I gave you to God to lead you along
The springs and pastures when the guide was just me.
We all have to lose in order to gain
My love will stand strong
Like your proud steed leg and hoof
That carried me swiftly through storm or terrain.
Remember that Santa gave you to me
A present that made the bond that can't leave
I love you Sweetness; the gift that completed my childhood. 7/20/2010
Red bows wrapped tight in your ebony mane
The whites of your eyes and the sound of your whinny
Santa had brought me the gift too big for the chimney
Boy did you charge me and snort at my face
I thought Santa was crazy
For bringing this gift that wanted much slack
More than anything else wanted me off of her back
Then did I realize I was just like her
Two stubborn souls with no room for change
We were so similar that our match was arranged
God has his ways to blend animal with a certain human companion
Even when one may be lost you will forever still have him
That horse dressed in her pajamas of bay
Galloped me around like a racehorse all day
She never gave in or let me down
For my heart was hers and she knew with her it would stay.
Two spirits blended to one and our stubborn combined
We were the friends that raced with the sky
She whinnied and nickered to show that she loved
And never have I felt that kind of love.
Even the day I had to let you go
We never lost anything instead our love has grown.
I gave you to God to lead you along
The springs and pastures when the guide was just me.
We all have to lose in order to gain
My love will stand strong
Like your proud steed leg and hoof
That carried me swiftly through storm or terrain.
Remember that Santa gave you to me
A present that made the bond that can't leave
I love you Sweetness; the gift that completed my childhood. 7/20/2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
The Freshman Dorms Floor 3
The term Freshman certainly has it irony
Especially in Mackin Hall floor 3
The smell of puke sifts through the halls,
While singed popcorn, hair, and alcohol combine in a stenched symphony.
The carpet looms with history
of spilled beer and crack cocaine
It reeks of un- cleansed heads and filthy laundy.
Your stains are there on the floor as a reminder of your marked claim.
Oh Freshman students, you think your new freedom rules all
But really all your power is the stench you produce in that hall!
Especially in Mackin Hall floor 3
The smell of puke sifts through the halls,
While singed popcorn, hair, and alcohol combine in a stenched symphony.
The carpet looms with history
of spilled beer and crack cocaine
It reeks of un- cleansed heads and filthy laundy.
Your stains are there on the floor as a reminder of your marked claim.
Oh Freshman students, you think your new freedom rules all
But really all your power is the stench you produce in that hall!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Freedom for "The Lady of Shalott"
The Victorian era was a very stifling time period for women because they lacked rights and power. Ladies were regarded by society as holy creatures that had to be kept pure at all times. Women were inferior to men and both belonged to two separate spheres in the Victorian era. A woman was the property of her husband and she performed household duties while he had the freedom to work anywhere he chose. The oppressed Victorian women had no other choice but to follow the stigmas and ideologies set in place by men. If she became rebellious or disobedient she was considered an outcast and quickly booted onto the cold streets. Tennyson’s “Lady of Shalott” is a mythical poem that depicts women’s suffrage during the Victorian time and her desire to experience freedom from confinement.
“The Lady of Shalott” opens with beautiful natural imagery that eloquently describes the pristine beauty of the island of Shalott. Then Tennyson elaborates on the contrast of the quiet landscapes and the energetic city of Camelot, “And up and down the people go, / Gazing where the lilies blow/ Round and island here below,” (Tennyson lines 6-8). The island of Shalott is a secluded untouched island where as the city of Camelot is teeming with life and action. The gorgeous imagery of flowing grain fields and beautiful rivers halts during the introduction on line fifteen of the “four gray walls, and four gray towers” that imprison the Lady of Shallott. A woman in a castle depicts a typical damsel in distress found in a Camelot tale, but Tennyson uses the castle as a symbol of the imprisonment of women who are confined in the household. The people around her move freely and busily in the city. The Lady of Shalott is guarded by stone walls to protect her from the outside world, which is no place for a woman. The castle prevents her to experience freedom and go in the outside world, a desire she holds close to her. The poem in part one continues and states that although the young lady sees people in Camelot, only the reapers in the field hear her jubilant singing. Her life is exceptionally lonely but she abides to the restrictions that have been placed upon her throughout the poem.
The poem in part two continues on about how the damsel weaves her web, an example of a domestic chore performed by women during the Victorian era. The Lady of Shalott is more than just a typical depiction of a beautiful woman; she is a perfect example of a holy woman, a characteristic found in women during that era. Tennyson describes her as a virginal, proper, and obedient woman who performs her duties without a complaint:
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott (41-45).
The young woman obediently continues her duties assigned to her and never looks down at Camelot for the fear of disobeying her orders. If she is disobedient she will face a curse that will be fatal. Tennyson blends into his mythical poem the attitudes of women during his own time period to portray how submissive and passive women were. Women during the Victorian time were considered as nurturing figures and had to be respectful and loyal to men. Women lacked a voice because they had no rights and no property. If the ladies argued about their dissatisfaction of their roles they would be thrown out or divorced. Tennyson reveals through his writing that women during the 1800’s lived lonely lives full of suppression and deprivation. Their lack of rights, respect, and opinions made them powerless to the rules and ideologies made by man that governed them. He places this material in his writing to highlight the poor treatment of women with hopes that they will have more freedom.
The damsel is constantly tempted of the outside world by mirrors she has mounted for her weaving. The damsel is reminded of the joy of freedom the outside people experience, “Sometimes a troop of damsels glad, / An abbot on an ambling pad, / Sometimes a curly shepherd-lad,” (55-57). The variety of people and culture in Camelot are only shadows in her world and she desperately wants to make them her reality, ‘I am half sick of shadows,’ said / The Lady of Shalott” (70-71). Tennyson makes a connection with the suffering damsel in Shalott to the women in the Victorian era. He relates how the women in the 1800’s want to escape their roles as submissive housewives and take on a freer and limitless life. Unfortunately, the young mistress in Shalott must face a deadly curse if she rebels against her orders.
Part three of “The Lady of Shalott” is about the charming heart throb Sir Lancelot who rides on his elegant steed to Camelot. The knight is eloquently described as fearless, bold, and incredibly courageous as he rides his horse at a wild gallop to Camelot. The third part of the “Lady of Shalott” illustrates the typical Camelot chivalry tale with strong fearless knights and gorgeous damsels. It sounds like it comes right out of a fairytale, “On burnished hooves his war-horse trode; / From underneath his helmet flowed /His coal-black curls as on he rode,” (101-103). The gorgeous lady in the castle is greatly excited about the commotion and abandons her chores and orders to look out to Camelot. She then lays eyes on the handsome Sir Lancelot and sees how charming and wonderful he is. During this moment, she is rebelling against her powerlessness and takes a stand of rebellion. However, just as a woman during the Victorian ages would be exiled from the act of rebellion, the Lady of Shalott’s punishment comes in the form of a curse, a more mystical form of punishment. Tennyson’s mystical tale is meant more than to be entertaining. Instead he disguises the controversial issue of women’s inequality in a fairytale so it is less obtrusive. His purpose of incorporating these issues in a mythical tale is to expose the readers of his work with the struggles of women without his content being too problematic in society.
The fourth part of “The Lady of Shalott” is about her preparation to go into the town of Camelot to experience the freedom she desperately craves. She realizes that the curse is upon her and that she only has minutes of freedom before she faces her death. She gets into a boat and prepares to float down to Camelot and signs her name:
She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her sing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott (140-144).
The young lady’s blood freezes over and she dies just when she gets into the heart of Camelot where the townspeople and Sir Lancelot reside. Although in death, the young lady is no longer lonely or imprisoned like in her past. She is greeted by knights, burghers, and lords and they all read her unfamiliar name. She is for once noticed and finally is given the social interaction she has forever dreamed of. At last, the heart-stopping Sir Lancelot is close to her,
“He said, ‘she has a lovely face; / God in his mercy lend her grace, / The Lady of Shalott’ (169-170). The young woman is remembered by all as a beautiful and mysterious woman and she will no longer go on unnoticed. Tennyson creates a beautiful virginal character and then brings her to her death. He does not kill her to be cruel but to bring forth change in the future of how women are treated. In his story, a woman who wanted freedom and change was punished for her rebellion and died, but in Tennyson’s reality, he wants women to experience change and equality without the threat of danger or death.
Alfred Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” perfectly depicts the roles of women during the Victorian Era. Women of the Victorian time are similar to the Lady of Shalott because they also could not freely experience the freedom they desire. In his beautifully woven fairytale he is able to incorporate his society’s treatment of women and his feelings about it. The power of his writing and the fate of the mistress are solid reasons of why his work leaves an astound impact on his readers. As attitudes changed about the treatment of women, it is people like Tennyson that are responsible for creating the changes that we see today.
Work Cited
Tennyson, Alfred. “The Lady of Shalott.” The Norton Anthology of Poetry. By Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy. 5th ed. New York: W.W Norton, 2004. 621. Print.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Explication of Frost at Midnight
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Romantic poem “Frost at Midnight” opens on a peculiar placid night inside a sleepy cottage. All occupants of the town seem to be in a deep slumber except a Father perplexed by the stillness of the night. Enveloped by the overwhelming silence, the Father recalls his unhappy childhood in industrious London and recently finds his niche in the heart of the country. “Frost at Midnight” is about a Father’s journey to live a natural life in order to give his son a beauteous childhood.
The poem begins in present time on a silent night which is elaborately illustrated through natural imagery, “The Frost performs its secret ministry, / Unhelped by any wind. The owlett’s cry/ Came loud- and hark, again! Loud as before” (Coleridge lines 1-3). The absence of the wind, the secretive etching of the frost, and the alarming screech of an owl complete the mood of an almost eerie night. The Father’s submersion with nature in this poem is a very common theme in romantic poetry, but in this case the silence is almost overwhelming.
The poem has a very appropriate mood to match the calm sleepy night Coleridge depicts. The dream-like tone is seen throughout the poem’s entirety during the current night, in the father’s past, and the future for his son. The dreamy tone is highly effective because the duration of the poem is about recalling his past and planning his child’s future, which all is created and recreated in the mind through images or dreams. As the poem continues the Father watches over his sleeping infant and notices movement in the house besides his own, “Only that film, which fluttered on the grate, / Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing” (15-16). He calls the fluttering pieces of ash strangers because they are wandering far away from the stove from which they came. He personifies the piece of ash as a type of companion since it is the only moving object in the quiet of the night. “By its own moods interprets, everywhere, / Echo or mirror seeking of itself, / And makes a toy of thought” (21-23).The film or ash fluttering from the dying fire is the vehicle which trigger’s his thoughts and memories and brings him to the past of his childhood.
The new setting takes place in an urban schoolhouse in London where the Father, now a young, boy is a pupil. He has been taken away from his family in the countryside for schooling in the crowded city. He feels imprisoned in school and by his “stern preceptor.” The young boy uses daydreaming as a way to escape his confinement and relive his freedom, “With unclosed lids, already had I dreamt/ Of my sweet birth place, and the old church- tower, / Whose bells, the poor man’s only music” (27-29). The absence of his natural lifestyle and freedom as a child helps shape his lifestyle choices for his son. He becomes so desperate for his freedom that he relives his memories of his birth-place. Daydreaming keeps his thoughts strong that someone is his family will come to his rescue and bring him back to the country. “For still I hoped to see the stranger’s face, / Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved, / My playmate when we both were clothed alike! (41-43).The stranger in this context refers to someone who would bring him away from school. The word “still” communicates that to this day he wishes he could be back with his family in the country. However, he realizes this is not possible and returns to the present again.
The Father directs his attention to the sleeping infant and tenderly speaks about how lovely of a life his child will live so different from the life he had, “And think that thou shalt learn far other lore, / And in far other scenes! For I was reared/ In the great city, pent ‘mid cloisters dim,” (50-52). The Father realizes the importance of a happy child hood and he makes sure that his child will live a happier life than he did. He hopes to raise his child away from the constraints of the city and in the open countryside. He states that his child will not learn the same knowledge found in textbooks because nature will be the teacher of his child. He wants his son to grow from the land itself and be free from the inhibitions of man and city. The Father predicts that living through nature is a more wholesome type of life that yields many benefits like a happiness and fulfillment. Coleridge glorifies the concept of country living which is a very common theme in romantic poetry. The picturesque imagery Coleridge describes in nature reveals how his son and the natural world will work in tandem:
But thou, my babe! Shalt wonder like a breeze
By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags
Of ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds,
Which image in their bulk both lake and shores (54-57).
Coleridge provides beautiful natural imagery that in fuller context describes the life of the Father’s child and describes how nature and the child will be one. To illustrate unity he uses a simile to describe the child as a breeze which also represents freedom. The comparison of the child and the wind signifies that his child has no limitations and can freely explore all the untold beauties of the world. During the process where the Father will give his son a natural life and freedom, he will also attain this happiness and freedom. The Father is reliving the missing parts of his childhood he once day dreamed in school, but now his country dream is a reality. Later, the poem continues with the Father stating that the education his child derives from nature will allow him to understand and appreciate the seasons, “Therefore, all seasons will be sweet to thee, / Whether the summer clothe the general earth/ With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing” (65-67). All seasons have an importance and a purpose, a natural lesson that the young child will learn from his learning sessions from Mother Nature.
Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight” illustrates the Romantic Movement accurately because it places a high emphasis on the importance of childhood and the proper raising of children. The opposite childhoods of the father and the child reveal the poem’s central idea that a childhood immersed in nature is the idealistic and happy lifestyle. Coleridge glorifies country living through the abundant use of sublime natural imagery and the unison between man and nature. Happiness to the Romantic is a life isolated from industry and enlightenment, in a land still untouched by the destructive hand of man.
Work Cited
Coleridge, Samuel. “Frost at Midnight.” The Norton Anthology of Poetry. By Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy. 5th ed. New York: W.W Norton, 2004. 325. Print.
The poem begins in present time on a silent night which is elaborately illustrated through natural imagery, “The Frost performs its secret ministry, / Unhelped by any wind. The owlett’s cry/ Came loud- and hark, again! Loud as before” (Coleridge lines 1-3). The absence of the wind, the secretive etching of the frost, and the alarming screech of an owl complete the mood of an almost eerie night. The Father’s submersion with nature in this poem is a very common theme in romantic poetry, but in this case the silence is almost overwhelming.
The poem has a very appropriate mood to match the calm sleepy night Coleridge depicts. The dream-like tone is seen throughout the poem’s entirety during the current night, in the father’s past, and the future for his son. The dreamy tone is highly effective because the duration of the poem is about recalling his past and planning his child’s future, which all is created and recreated in the mind through images or dreams. As the poem continues the Father watches over his sleeping infant and notices movement in the house besides his own, “Only that film, which fluttered on the grate, / Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing” (15-16). He calls the fluttering pieces of ash strangers because they are wandering far away from the stove from which they came. He personifies the piece of ash as a type of companion since it is the only moving object in the quiet of the night. “By its own moods interprets, everywhere, / Echo or mirror seeking of itself, / And makes a toy of thought” (21-23).The film or ash fluttering from the dying fire is the vehicle which trigger’s his thoughts and memories and brings him to the past of his childhood.
The new setting takes place in an urban schoolhouse in London where the Father, now a young, boy is a pupil. He has been taken away from his family in the countryside for schooling in the crowded city. He feels imprisoned in school and by his “stern preceptor.” The young boy uses daydreaming as a way to escape his confinement and relive his freedom, “With unclosed lids, already had I dreamt/ Of my sweet birth place, and the old church- tower, / Whose bells, the poor man’s only music” (27-29). The absence of his natural lifestyle and freedom as a child helps shape his lifestyle choices for his son. He becomes so desperate for his freedom that he relives his memories of his birth-place. Daydreaming keeps his thoughts strong that someone is his family will come to his rescue and bring him back to the country. “For still I hoped to see the stranger’s face, / Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved, / My playmate when we both were clothed alike! (41-43).The stranger in this context refers to someone who would bring him away from school. The word “still” communicates that to this day he wishes he could be back with his family in the country. However, he realizes this is not possible and returns to the present again.
The Father directs his attention to the sleeping infant and tenderly speaks about how lovely of a life his child will live so different from the life he had, “And think that thou shalt learn far other lore, / And in far other scenes! For I was reared/ In the great city, pent ‘mid cloisters dim,” (50-52). The Father realizes the importance of a happy child hood and he makes sure that his child will live a happier life than he did. He hopes to raise his child away from the constraints of the city and in the open countryside. He states that his child will not learn the same knowledge found in textbooks because nature will be the teacher of his child. He wants his son to grow from the land itself and be free from the inhibitions of man and city. The Father predicts that living through nature is a more wholesome type of life that yields many benefits like a happiness and fulfillment. Coleridge glorifies the concept of country living which is a very common theme in romantic poetry. The picturesque imagery Coleridge describes in nature reveals how his son and the natural world will work in tandem:
But thou, my babe! Shalt wonder like a breeze
By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags
Of ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds,
Which image in their bulk both lake and shores (54-57).
Coleridge provides beautiful natural imagery that in fuller context describes the life of the Father’s child and describes how nature and the child will be one. To illustrate unity he uses a simile to describe the child as a breeze which also represents freedom. The comparison of the child and the wind signifies that his child has no limitations and can freely explore all the untold beauties of the world. During the process where the Father will give his son a natural life and freedom, he will also attain this happiness and freedom. The Father is reliving the missing parts of his childhood he once day dreamed in school, but now his country dream is a reality. Later, the poem continues with the Father stating that the education his child derives from nature will allow him to understand and appreciate the seasons, “Therefore, all seasons will be sweet to thee, / Whether the summer clothe the general earth/ With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing” (65-67). All seasons have an importance and a purpose, a natural lesson that the young child will learn from his learning sessions from Mother Nature.
Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight” illustrates the Romantic Movement accurately because it places a high emphasis on the importance of childhood and the proper raising of children. The opposite childhoods of the father and the child reveal the poem’s central idea that a childhood immersed in nature is the idealistic and happy lifestyle. Coleridge glorifies country living through the abundant use of sublime natural imagery and the unison between man and nature. Happiness to the Romantic is a life isolated from industry and enlightenment, in a land still untouched by the destructive hand of man.
Work Cited
Coleridge, Samuel. “Frost at Midnight.” The Norton Anthology of Poetry. By Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy. 5th ed. New York: W.W Norton, 2004. 325. Print.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Literature In My Eyes
I feel that becoming a lover of Literature has shaped me into a lucid human being. My Professors seem to love my ideas, as convoluted and extremist they may be. I have heart. Any piece of literature I pick up in my hands is open for my very interpretation. Unlike history, mathematics, or science ,literature offers multiple interpretations instead of one definite answer. For me, I do not like to be told "how it is" or to be told "sorry, wrong answer." As a Literature major, I feel like the gag is out of my mouth and I can explore my own answers and theories. The freedom of a Literature major is incomprehensible since so many people are used to adhering to one "final and correct answer". Ehk.
I can delve page after page in any book and my own mind can paint a picture of its very own. An escape to the lush words of the text is far more exciting than the sterile stale world we live in. In a book, I can leap without ever falling and never grow tired. A book has no limits, and therefore, a book is paradise. A book can make a reader travel for miles in a vast sand-spun desert or up in the mammoth ice-hugged hills. Words so vivid that they allow the human mind to experience the lands far far from home.
As a lover of Literature I aspire to fulfill my duties of reading and writing in order to show that my mind's harvest will be a good and fruitful season. My mind is like a trough filled with the sweetest grain. My heart is full of energy and my mind is overflowing with the juices of potential novels and success. I promise to never let any potential readers down because I want them to explore places they have never seen before. I want them to experience every little dream they have ever had and sighed off as never to come true. It is my job to inspire these people. As a writer, and a lover of language, there is no way I could let my readers down.
I can delve page after page in any book and my own mind can paint a picture of its very own. An escape to the lush words of the text is far more exciting than the sterile stale world we live in. In a book, I can leap without ever falling and never grow tired. A book has no limits, and therefore, a book is paradise. A book can make a reader travel for miles in a vast sand-spun desert or up in the mammoth ice-hugged hills. Words so vivid that they allow the human mind to experience the lands far far from home.
As a lover of Literature I aspire to fulfill my duties of reading and writing in order to show that my mind's harvest will be a good and fruitful season. My mind is like a trough filled with the sweetest grain. My heart is full of energy and my mind is overflowing with the juices of potential novels and success. I promise to never let any potential readers down because I want them to explore places they have never seen before. I want them to experience every little dream they have ever had and sighed off as never to come true. It is my job to inspire these people. As a writer, and a lover of language, there is no way I could let my readers down.
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