Discuss how family dynamics or alienation affect Clytie’s mental stability and eventual suicide in Clytie. 2. Discuss how isolation affects the characteri

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Toni Morrison

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Toni Morrison (1931-2019) was one of the premier African American writers. Her books were about race, gender, and the history of America. Her best-known book Beloved, which she won the Novel Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize. Toni Morrison was from Lorain, Ohio, so you may wonder why we are studying her in a Southern Gothic class. First, Morrison’s father was from Georgia. Secondly, the text qualifies as Southern Gothic because it is set in the South with Gothic characteristics which enables it to be considered Southern Gothic Literature.

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The following are themes of the story:

African American people in the 50’s

Eugenics Movement

Facing the Truth

Haunted by the past

Isolation

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Themes continued:

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Community

Being saved and saving oneself

Trauma

Violence

War and the veteran

These themes coincide with the Southern Gothic ideology.

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Morrison illustrates the problematic life of blacks in the Deep South from the very beginning of the book, which is set in Georgia in the fifties. She opens the book with a scene that shows Frank and Cee as children. This childhood incident will bookend the beginning and ending of the book. The children watch as a black man is buried by the community. The children do not know what is going on, but they do notice that the community is distressed by the incident.

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Then, the narrative shifts to the present and Frank, who is in a psychiatric ward. Frank was in the Korean War and is now being forced to be in the psychiatric ward of a hospital because of his “mental problems.” Confinement is a major Southern Gothic characteristic. This is clearly what is happening with Frank’s inability to leave the hospital. His connection to Cee makes him realize he must leave and return home even if he has to run away.

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Frank does not know why he is held captive. Captivity is a major symbol of Sothern Gothicism, especially by unnamed people. It helps one see the victim as a true victim. It also may make you distrust the narrator because the author already presents him as possibly having a mental defect. The reader does not know whether to trust him or not. An unreliable narrator is also a characteristic of Gothicism. Through Frank Morrison is dealing with the return of the black soldier.

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Morrison chooses a war that does not get as much attention, and that is the Korean War. Most people have heard about the veterans of the Vietnam War, but the Korean War was not dealt with as much. So, Morrison wants to deal with blacks in the fifties along with the returning veteran and his psychological issues.

The idea of home starts to come into focus with Frank. Frank does not have a home, which is analogous to blacks not having a home.

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We find out from Frank’s childhood that he never had a real home as a child. His family was forced to move by a white mob into his grandparent's home. Frank and his sister were psychologically abused by their grandmother. Frank and Cee had only each other and felt very unloved growing up. So, in many ways, they never had a home. The reader finds out that Frank was arrested for vagrancy and put in the psychiatric ward. We now know that his place in the ward was racially motivated.

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Many times, till the seventies, if black people were walking around and sitting on a bench, they could be arrested for vagrancy. This illustrates the racial victimization of blacks.

Frank manages to escape the ward and is given the address of a reverend who can help him. His escape is premeditated on trying to rescue his sister Cee, whom he feels is endangered. Cee is the only person who connects him to some sense of stability.

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He finds a resting place at the Reverend’s place. As he rests, his mind goes back to Lilly, an ex who constantly stays in his mind. This connects to many soldiers who constantly thought of real women in their lives or had posters of women in their barracks, and these women helped them get through the difficulty.

The other issue with Frank is that he feels something happened in the war that he cannot remember, but it affects him subconsciously.

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As we discuss Frank, we now move to Cee. Cee is even more adrift than Frank. Even though the military has had some issues, it did give Frank stability for a while. She is struggling financially and has been dumped by her no-good husband. She cannot bear to return home and back to the repression of her grandmother. She gets a clerical job with Dr. Bauregard. Cee feels like she can create a life for herself by working for the white doctor.

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Cee is surrounded by books in the doctor’s medical office, but these books are on Eugenics and race. Eugenics was a theory that came to be in the early twentieth century. It basically espoused that women who would give birth to children with undesirable traits should be sterilized. This could be birth defects, mental issues, and physical problems. Some even felt that the process should be used to keep down minority populations.

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Most people link eugenics with a racial superiority ideology, but there were well-known blacks who agreed with the theory, such as W. E. B. Dubois. Dubois did not believe in the racial aspect, but he did believe that certain traits, such as mental and physical disabilities, did bring down the potential of the black race. He did not believe in forced sterilization of black women but felt that if you knew that these issues ran in your family, you, on your own, would choose not to have children.

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Morrison is dealing with the racial aspects of the eugenics movement and its impact on black women. Even though it was not the law of the land, there were many times during this period, early to mid-twentieth century, that black women were sometimes sterilized without their knowledge. Morrison is looking at that aspect of the Eugenics movement in this book. Cee is very naïve because she depends on her brother and then her husband. She has no history of living independently and making her own decisions.

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Cee’s dependence on Frank was established when they were children. Frank was always there for his sister and ensured she had what she needed until he went to the military. Then she was left on her own. Cee never developed her own self-confidence and is just starting to have autonomy over her own life.

Morrison brings in the characters Lily and Lenore to help understand the characters of Frank and Cee.

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Lily is a woman with whom Frank was involved at one time. She and frank had problems in their relationship because he would rely on her to run the household. He seemed not to want to build a future with her. Lily wanted a stable job, a house, and a family life. Lily understood that the War haunted him, but his lack of enthusiasm for life was still getting to her, even though she loved him. Lily’s dressmaking business started to really pick up and she wanted her own shop. As her ambitions grew, she realized that Frank was lacking ambition.

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She felt he had a combination of need and lack of responsibility. End of notes for the first half of novel. Continue to the next half on the second PowerPoint.

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Rose for Emily William FAulkner

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Rose for Emily

William Faulkner lived from 1897-1952 in Mississippi. Faulkner is considered one of the most prestigious Southern writers of the early twentieth century. Faulkner is also very controversial, especially in light of racial and gender issues. Some of Faulkner’s language has been negatively critiqued, but he has also been praised for dealing with racial issues of the South. He recognizes problems with the South and knows that the South cannot stay immersed in the past but must move forward to survive.

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Rose for Emily

“Rose for Emily” was written in 1930 and is considered a short story that discusses the theme of being trapped by nostalgia, not only with Emily but also with the South. Emily represents how gender stereotypes can trap women, and she is symbolic of the turmoil within the South in the early twentieth century. As Emily was trapped by the constraints of being a woman in the early twentieth century, so was the South. The tragedy of Emily is that she cannot move from her past.

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The following are the major themes of the story:

Nostalgia

Gap between generations

Gap between the rich and the poor

Old maid

Tradition vs. Change

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The power of death

Patriarchy

The story is told by a third-person narrator who is also supposed to speak for the town. Emily Grierson comes from a wealthy family in a small town. Emily lives on a vast estate, mostly seen as a curiosity rather than a natural person. The town considers her an eccentric old woman.

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She is gossiped about by the town, and there may be a degree of jealousy among them. The story opens with Emily’s funeral, which the city’s residents have attended. She had lived in isolation; only her black servant, Tobe, had been in the house for over a decade. Emily’s house is decaying and has not been kept up. Emily lost her money after the war. The South, after the war, was devastated. They lost their slaves and their money, and the run-down plantation houses were symbols of the resounding defeat.

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Emily’s house is representative of the decay of the South. For the town, she symbolizes the last vestiges of the Confederate era. Emily’s death was meant to be the last of their obligations to a bygone era. The town considered Emily a “heredity oblivion,” but now the town can move past a period that is holding them back. An example of this is the tax situation. The dead mayor of the city told Emily she did not have to pay taxes regarding her father’s death.

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But the town tax officials confront her and tell her she has to pay taxes like everyone else. She refused and felt that she did not have to because of her position. She told them to take it up with the mayor. The mayor felt that since her father had lent the town money, Emily did not have to pay taxes, which was payment for what her father had done for the town. The town officials represent the modern world, and Emily reflects the old world.

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Emily got rid of these town officials just as she had gotten rid of others. Emily had gotten rid of the officials who came to investigate the smell coming from her house. Grierson saw the men checking out her house and then the smell vanished. The smell came after Emily’s supposed male suitor left. She always got her way in terms of keeping people away from her house and life. The Grierson family was the richest in the town and the town felt that they saw themselves as better than anyone else.

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Emily, as a young woman, was a very desired woman for marriage. But her father wanted control over his daughter and ensured no one dated her. At this time in the nation, women went from their father’s house to their husband’s house. Control from the father went to the husband. The daughter never had time to learn about herself. Emily’s father wanted to ensure he never lost control over his daughter. Faulkner never tells us why the father does not want any man near his daughter.

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This story was written in 1930 and discussions about incest were not really discussed. There is no proof that this is the reason but more than likely if this had been written later that might would have been discussed. Normally a father irrational control over a daughter signals some kind of abuse if not sexual then at the very least emotional. So, Emily grew up in a house that became her prison, and her father was the only person in her life.

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Emily was still single by the time she was thirty. At this time if a woman was not married by 30, she was seen as an old man. The town sympathized with her when her father died and left her broke with just the house. The average person loves to see the rich fall. They sympathy for Emily went to thinking she was mentally unbalanced. As women came to her house as is custom to see if she needed anything, she informed them that he was not dead.

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Emily finally had to give up her father's body. Faulkner, like O’Connor, is a writer of what is called the Southern Gothic, where the eerie and the realistic live side by side. They use these genres to discuss things that are uniquely Southern. As Faulkner once said, “In the South, the past is not dead; it is not even past.” What Faulkner meant is that the past lives with the present in the South and is never put to rest. Living with the past can prevent the South from moving forward and can also be where one can get strength.

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Emily does not want to let her father go because he is all she has in her life. Emily is positioned as a tragic figure because of her life and inability to move from the present. Emily meets a construction worker later because of work at her house. She was seen taking buggy rides with Homer, a construction worker. The town started talking about Emily and her new beau. But the city suspected Homer was not what he appeared to be.

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At this time, when Faulkner wrote this story in 1930, homosexuality was not discussed the way it is now. So, Faulkner hints at another life for Homer that Emily more than likely did not know. According to the text, the town said, “When had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron, we had said ‘She will marry him.’ Then we said, ‘she will persuade him yet,’ because Homer himself had remarked—-he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger in the Elks’ Club—-that he was not the marrying man” (218).

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This quote from the text illustrates that Emily will not have her ever after with Homer. Homer, to some degree, is playing with her. Going out on dates with Emily makes it clear that she sees a new life for herself. She cannot see that the town considers this man as living a double life. But Emily does at least figure out that he wants to leave her.

The story's ending is truly tragic. Emily cannot face another man leaving her. Even if dead, in her mind, she is never alone.

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Emily’s final decision to kill Homer and sleep with his dead body every night can be seen as a desperate cry for help. As a woman, Emily has been controlled by the patriarch to the point that it has driven her crazy.

If you see Emily as a symbol of the South, she represents a region that is living with its dead and in conflict with other Southern forces that want to move forward.

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Home Toni Morrison

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Lily was Frank’s way to find a home but, of course, it does not work.

The second woman instrumental in Frank’s backstory is his grandmother Lenore. When the children come live with her, they hope to find a home but instead find hostility. Morrison gives us a chance to see her Lenore’s backstory in this chapter.

Lenore’s first husband is shot and killed after a white man is jealous of the gas station that he owns. This happened quite a lot in this time period. Blacks would become successful as entrepreneurs and sometimes whites would get jealous and commit violent acts against them. Violence is another characteristic of the Southern Gothic.

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She does marry again but she is haunted by the death of the first husband. Also, her marriage is not legal because she does not have a birth certificate, so it prevents her from getting a marriage certificate. This happened to many black people born at the turn of the century because most births at that time were home births.

When the children move in, it is if her peace has been destroyed, and she has to deal with children again. When Cee ran off with a boyfriend that she disapproved her, the marriage ends just the way Lenore felt like it would. Both Frank and Cee leave Lenore to find a home but never truly having one. Morrison does give us the story of Lenore to illustrate how her backstory influenced who she is.

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Korea is a major part of Frank’s story. He left an emotional part of himself in Korea that he has to piece together. Korea is introduced as a brutal cold and unfeeling place. From the beginning of the narrative, he keeps remembering seeing a young Korean child coming up to soldier looking for food. The soldier shoots the young girl. For most of the narrative, he thinks it is an anonymous soldier. He also thinks the soldier was tempted from the young and that is why he shoots her.

He is also remembering the death of his friends. They have a violent death. What Morrison is illustrating is the horror of war on the soldier.

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Morrison illustrates how the soldier never can let go of what has happened.

In his journey home to get to Cee, he is constantly being bombarded with memories, but he is determined to get to Cee. Trauma is a major part of Frank’s story.

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Frank lives with the trauma he suffered during the war. He has blackouts and is haunted by awful memories. He does not just want to rescue Cee, but he hopes that he can heal himself through healing her. Frank has not done well in dealing with his trauma. He has used drink and repressed his memories and nightmares.

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Korea has a lot of the core trauma of the traumatized, but he has been traumatized since his family was forced to move by a white mob.

Cee has also been traumatized, and it comes to a head in the doctor’s office. We are not given a reason but the doctor plans on sterilizing Cee to solve a health problem,

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Again, this is connected to our discussion concerning eugenics. Many black women were forcibly sterilized. Cee is almost dead by the time Frank rescues her. He wrestles with himself about what would happen if he lost Cee. In some way, Frank needs to find redemption by rescuing Cee.

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Cee’s trauma is different than Frank’s because it is to the body and keeps her from permanently having children. Cee has the scars on her very body of her trauma. Cee begins to heal through the community of women.

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Frank’s trauma gets worse when he goes back to the memory of the Korean Girl. All of a sudden, he realizes very clearly the memory. During the Korean and Vietnam War many children were left looking around for food. Because they were exposed to all kinds of behavior, they would approach soldiers.

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This young girl was a toddler and went up to Frank and touched his private parts so Frank would give her food. This seems to have happened more than once. It is shocking to the reader first that the young girl has learned to sexualize herself and refer to his private parts as yum yum in order to survive.

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Secondly, a character we have connected to could have abused a young girl. Frank clearly was not in his right mind and maybe did not know what he was doing. When Frank finally gets to a sense of himself, he instantly shoots the young girl.

Frank realizes that he is the shooter.

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