Parallellallellagram

As I mentioned in class today what I found most interesting about the end is how often it made me think of the end of several of the other stories that we’ve read for the class.

Notably The Blithdale Romance and Transcendental Wild Oats.

In my mind there were a lot of different character parallels, and different ending parallels, and parallels that of course are more reminders and not exact replicas of the scenarios we’ve read.

I was very reminded of The Blithdale Romance when Zenobia and Pricilla and their man friend go to town at the same time as Coverdale, specifically when Coverdale is observing their secret group through the window and speculating their purposes, much like Theron as he follows Father Forbes and Celia go to New York together. And of course to further parallel this scene both Coverdale and Theron confront the secretive party, and both with very ill reception, as they have both becomes outsiders to these intimate groups.

Also, not only this scenario I see parallels between Zenobia and Celia, they both are intelligent, exotic: Celia with her flowers in her hat, and Zenobia with the flowers in her hair, and of course beyond the flowers their looks are very unique. Though in the end it seems parallels can be draw between Zenobia and Theron, when they both go quite crazy, and obviously would have been an even further parallel had the author ended with Theron’s suicide— but still, for both these characters to reach almost the same point in “betrayal” and then out casting from the party they admired most!

Also, as I mentioned I saw a lot of parallels to the end of the Transcendental Wild Oats, to the end of Theron Ware. Abel and Theron both reach this pathetic state, which as the reader we imagine no return from, but in actuality are then pushed on their way by the two strong women in their lives. Of course Abel does come to his “finding Jesus” moment, but we never actually see the recovery of Theron, so I can’t make any parallels there.   

But an even cuter Parallelism 

Did he pull a Michael Jackson?!

Whenever people saw the title of the book that I was reading they all asked me the same question, “how can he be an EX-colored man—did he pull a Michael Jackson?”. And of course, until this morning when I finished the book, I couldn’t answer the question, because throughout the book (with the exception of the beginning) he does identify and is identified as black. So when I finally did find out how he can be “ex-colored” man I was surprised, but not in a bad way.

Michael Jackson literally peaced his black folks... the narrator just never corrected people's assumptions. Really it looks like the only thing MJ didn't change was his eyes, UM also, who adds a butt-chin? I mean they are lovely natural, but I didn't think it was a trait people sought. 

I really enjoyed the reality of his story. The narrator definitely didn’t end heroically, but he admits to the shame that pushed him to creating his white façade: “I knew that it was shame, unbearable shame. Shame at being identified with people that could with impunity be treated worse than animals” (90). I liked that it was a story about a normal quasi black man trying to survive in his world, where a black man could be burned at the stake if a group of white men decided it. We know about the few individuals that stood up for the African-Americans when they had no one. But if someone had a chance to leave, to not be forever condemned by a label, wouldn’t we all choose it?

It seems easier for him as well, because it’s not as if he grew up in a huge black community. Of course he had “Shiny”, but really it seems there are not other African-Americans in his childhood. He is surrounded by his mother’s clients who I perceived were well off white women, and his mother too never identifies in a black culture.

James Weldon Johnson. He's pretty light, and mustachie

He doesn’t face the moral dilemma of leaving his friends and family for a white culture, since it seems his whole life he was never part of one culture, and never united with one color.