gettin' grown
Dear Prof. Greer:
I loved both
Color Blind and
Gettin' Grown! Thank you so much for bringing your work to Alabama A&M University and for spending so much time discussing your ideas and experience.
OK, why did I like
Gettin' Grown? Very sensitive character portrayal. That is, even for the characters who appeared on the screen for a short period of time (the gangly kid who says he can't go to the drugstore with Eric, the neighbor who asks Eric to fill her prescription -- which ended up being birth control pills? a diaphragm?, the male owner of the drugstore), I had an instantaneous sense of who they were. I'm not articulating this well. That is, each character seemed full, even when we only saw him/her for a short bit, and even if s/he presented a short part of the narrative.
The main characters were only more so deeply and complexly portrayed. The sick grandmother who fights for control overtly (contradicting daughter's methods of childraising) and covertly (getting Eric to buy her candy); the mom who wants to help her boy grow up and protect him at the same time; the father who wakes his son in the middle of the night and then commiserates over the conniving uncle.
I love this later scene with the father, who is so dedicated to his kid that he takes him in the middle of the night to Walgreen's so the son can successfully complete his task -- both parents teach Eric about consequences and accountability with a huge amount of love. I loved the ending, too, when Eric's mom says, "Now make a big wish and blow out the candles," and Eric does just that. I'm left with a sense of expectancy, wondering what Eric has wished for and knowing somehow that his future challenges may be equally difficult, equally dangerous, but also fully supported through his family. I want to know Eric when he gets older, want to know how he turns out.
And that's one reason I'm happy about your revision and eager to see what you've done with the addition of a present frame for the current film, which becomes a flashback. I'm also curious about the choice of snow for the frame of the revision. I'm already seeing a huge visual contrast between frame/present and flashback. And I wondered about Eric's name, too. He chooses to give up the remote-contolled car and claims the 76ers jersey with his name, "Snow," written on the back. His uncle mentions something about "snow" as Eric approaches him outside the bar.
I also loved the portrayal of extended loving family in Eric's home. That kitchen was a powerful place.
Sincerely,
Sandra Shattuck
douglass research
I'm going to gloat a bit about finishing my blog assignment the same day I assigned it. Here's my question: Who was Douglass' second wife, who was white?
Answer: Helen Pitts
Research path: google - typed in "frederick douglass" and "second wife" -- perhaps the most informative link was the one from the
Mt. Hope cemetery in Rochester NY, where Douglass and his first wife, Anna Murray, and his second wife, Helen Pitts, are buried. Then I typed in "helen pitts," and wow, did I find out a lot of stuff. Let's see if I can summarize.
Turns out Douglass had several affairs. The first was with Julia Griffith, a British abolitionist who lived in the Douglass household in Rochester tutoring the children and acting as Douglass' manager and secretary for work on the newspaper, the
Northern Star. Griffith eventually moves out to decrease negative publicity for Douglass. A lot of the information on Griffith I got from this
Timeline of Frederick Douglass and Family.
Then, Douglass has this 28-yr. affair with a German-Jewish journalist, Ottilie Assing, who was from Hamburg and visited Douglass to interview him. She translated some of his work and spent each summer for 22 years at the Douglass' household. She also tutored Douglass' children, taught Douglass German, and got him to read Feuerbach so that Douglass would become more of an atheist. Much of the material about Ottilie Assing came out in 1999 with Maria Diedrich's publication of her book,
Love Across Color Lines: Ottilie Assing and Frederick Douglass. I like this
review of the book by Christopher Irmscher. Assing wrote the introduction to her German translation of the
Narrative, and I would love to be able to read that but am having a hard time finding it. At any rate, Ottilie belittled Anna Murray Douglass, who remained illiterate all her life in spite of reading lessons. As Douglass became more famous and more educated, Anna seems to have faded more and more into the background. She and Douglass had five children. I keep wanting to hear Anna's story, but she hasn't left us a written record of her experiences. Someone I read suggested (I think it's in the review above), that Anna's illiteracy was a conscious choice on her part, perhaps partially because Douglass' increasing knowledge seemed to take him closer to white western culture and farther from southern African(American) culture.
Douglass' and Assing's relationship started to cool off, at least on Douglass' part. After Anna Murray died, Douglass married Helen Pitts, an abolitionist and suffragist twenty years younger than Douglass (Helen was also his secretary). Ottilie Assing was convinced that Douglass would eventually marry her. A few months after finding out about Douglass' marriage to Helen Pitts, Assing committed suicide. She had also found out she had breast cancer. Apparently she left her $13,000 estate to Douglass, and the money was to be paid out over many years. Hmmm.
Pitts parents, who were both abolitionists, were not pleased with her daughter's marriage, just as Douglass' children were upset. On Douglass' death in 1895, Helen Pitts wanted their home in Washington D.C. to be declared an historical monument, but Douglass' heirs wanted the home sold and the proceeds divided up. Helen Pitts worked hard to ensure the house remained a public site and the home is now maintained as part of the National Parks system.
Finally, I found out that Jewell Parker Rhodes has written a novel called
Douglass' Women, published in 2003, which is about Anna Murray Douglass and Ottilie Assing. Guess I've got another novel to read soon!
I have to admit that my admiration of Douglass has been roughed up a bit. I want to say, "Typical man!" And I really want Anna's story.
such writing!
I kept writing "Wow!" at the start of a lot of my commments, because I kept reading really creative pieces of writing. I wish Baldwin were still alive so we could send these pieces to him. I bet he would love it! In her
What I Learned posting, Traci said that most of the stories provided some kind of closure, which everybody seemed to want. I agree. And although the happy endings probably outnumbered the disastrous endings, most of the pieces were equally believable. Thanks to all the writers who created more poetic blues!
a younger brother's journal
Today my Uncle Sonny probably saved my life. I've been off drugs for two weeks after overdosing and almost killing myself. I'm eighteen years old and living back at home after getting out of the hospital. And today my dad just drove me crazy. He keeps asking me where I've been, if I'm clean. And even though he doesn't say it directly, I know he compares me to my older brother, Keith, because Keith is in college and has never had any drugs that I know of. I know Dad and Mom are worried about me, but Mom talks to me. Dad just gives me his evil eye and I don't feel I can tell him anything.
Then Sonny came over for dinner with Aunt Faye and my little cousins, DeAndra and Charlie. I guess Sonny knew I was having a rough time, because all through dinner he kept looking at me. After dinner, he just said, real casual like, "Bobby and me, we're just gonna take a little walk. Faye, baby, you go on home. I'll be there soon."
Uncle Sonny just put on his coat and acted like I had agreed all along to this walk. So I put on my coat and we got outside. It was cold! Just breathing hurt my throat, but Uncle Sonny said, "We'll walk a bit brisk now, and you'll warm up quick."
The next thing I know, Uncle Sonny's telling me about my grandpa and my grandpa's brother. He tells me how his dad tried to take care of his little brother, but the brother was murdered one night when they were out drinking. Uncle Sonny said his dad was never right after that, and he drank a lot. Just to try and forget. Sonny said he only learned about his uncle after my dad told him when Sonny got out of jail. He said that my grandma told my dad this story so he would take care of Sonny. Sonny said my dad felt responsible for Sonny getting into trouble with drugs. But my uncle looked me straight in the eye holding onto my shoulders and said, "We both know that no one pours that alcohol down our throats or shoots that junk in our veins. We do that all ourselves." He also said that no amount of any kind of drugs can ever make us forget. Just like even when I got high, I'd still think of my baby sister Gracie and how she shouldn't have died like that. I still miss her funny squeaky laugh.
That night I had it all planned out how I was going over to one of my old connection's place. I was so mad at my father and his high and mighty ways and how he compares me to Keith, even when he doesn't mean to. I just wish he'd listen to me sometime. So I guess Uncle Sonny saved my life tonight. If I had got ahold of some stuff, no telling if I'd be alive to write this. My Uncle Sonny has been clean and sober for eleven years and he was on heroin. He's been going to these group meetings and he says it's what saved him. I'm going tomorrow night with him. I'm scared. But Uncle Sonny will be with me.
more "Sonny's Blues"
Tuesday we had a fantastic discussion using the agenda method originated by my undergraduate literature professor. It's pretty simple but effective...if folks read. Everyone comes in and makes comments, offers questions on the reading and I write all the stuff like a fiend on the board. Then the readers choose which items to discuss and we're off.
I keep saying in class that I've read this story a gazillion times and I still learn something new each time. Tuesday, that happened again when I learned two things I'd never noticed before. Readers said that not only does the narrator remain nameless but all the male characters are unnamed, except for Sonny and Creole. So we made a list. And the only characters who are named are Sonny, Creole, Isabel, and Gracie. Everybody else is nameless. Why?
The other observation was that every time characters in the story are having a deep conversation or revelation, they're looking out the window. And it's true! The narrator is looking out the subway windows when he reads about Sonny at the start; the folks on Sundays look outside at the darkness they see; the narrator and Sonny look out the window when they have their first honest talk about Sonny's drug use...but the huge scene at the end when the narrator listens to Sonny play, there is no looking-out-of-windows. Does that mean we need to look inward...or look AND listen to others for the answers we need?
When we were talking about Baldwin's use of dark and light imagery, someone said, "That's too deep," and it wasn't a good kind of "deep." You know, when someone says, "Wow, that's deep," and you both marvel at the complexity of something. This was more like, "That's just too much thought about all that." And I remember when I was first studying literature, I used to complain in class that analyzing just ripped apart the piece, took away its art, somehow...as if to respect a piece of artwork, one just has to experience it, not analyze it. Something must have changed because today I make my living studying literature. Today, I think that studying literature just means creating new stories. We make up stories about the stories. And we do that so we can make the story we read ours in meaningful ways.
"Sonny's Blues"
I wonder if I'll ever get tired of teaching this story, reading it with others? I'm tired right now cuz I didn't get enough sleep last night, so I'm not thinking too creatively. I think Baldwin was ahead of his time in describing family dynamics of addiction, for instance. "Sonny's Blues" was published in 1957 (just two years after Alcoholics Anonymous started up) when there was so much less known about addiction and significantly fewer treatment options were available. As we say in AA, an addict who keeps on using has one of three places she or he can end up: jail, insane asylum, or grave. Not much of a choice, eh? So it's nothing short of heroic that Sonny shows up every day and doesn't take that hit of heroin. And that's what Sonny himself says when he and his brother have that first honest conversation about drugs, when Sonny gets out of jail and the brother thinks of searching Sonny's room for drugs. Sonny has just come back to the apartment after listening to the street revival, and he tells his brother that listening to the woman's voice on the corner felt something like heroin. Sonny talked about needing to be in control and the brother asked Sonny if that's what Sonny needed...to be in control when he played piano. Sonny replied that "
they think so," that others believed they needed drugs to play the music. The narrator asks Sonny what Sonny believes and Sonny replies, "It's not so much to
play. It's to
stand it, to be able to make it at all. On any level....In order to keep from shaking to pieces" (2007).
I think my favorite part is when the brothers are discussing Sonny's desire to play music and the narrator keeps pushing Sonny to do the supposedly responsible thing and get a real job ("Can you make a living at it?") and Sonny says, "...sure, I can make a living at it. But what I don't seem to be able to make you understand is that it's the only thing I want to do." The narrator replies, "...you know people can't always do what they
want to do --" and Sonny says, "
No, I don't know that...I think people
ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?" (2001) I think the brothers represent the struggle of any artist: how do you pay the bills and still create, still follow your passion if your art isn't what pays the rent and puts food on the table?
Spring 2006-introduction
Hey - my name is Dr. Shattuck, and I'll be your co-pilot for this flight. Since we have approximately forty co-pilots in this class, we should be able to get to wherever we wanna go. English teachers are not supposed to write "wanna," but I like to write that word when I feel like it, because it sounds right. Ya know?
How else should I introduce myself? I'm fifty-one years old. Yup. Got a thirteen-year-old son. I'm a single mom. I love teaching, reading, writing. My son says I'm a geek. In eighth grade, I was voted one of the most popular, so I can't be too much of a geek. Geekiness is good, though. What else? That's enough. I'm looking forward to reading your blogs this semester!
