Hospital Day

I spent about three hours with my father in the hospital today.
He seemed pretty rested
not so bad
maybe better
than he has for a while.

He won't be home for christmas
but sadly
probably won't even realize

I am baking cookies
and made fish for dinner
and started cleaning the kitchen

it feels good to do some normal things

Its so strange to feel good at a time when my father is in the hospital...

Mom and I had an interesting conversation about
well...
his funeral

I won't go into that
but we did
I think it's a good thing...
I have almost nothing more to write at the moment.
Perhaps I will redeem myself
or at least try to
Ill give you another paper that was due on Sunday
try to guess what my grade will be (if you can stomach reading the whole thing that is)
and we shall see if you are correct when I get the grade
It is graded in %
so 100% is the best I could do...

I think this one is more interesting
and written well
what I thought was cool is that some of the material we had to read in my ethnic class
Id already red in my lit to 1860 class!
(I really like studying this... just as much as I liked theatre)


Comparing and Contrasting Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Satchmo, and Girl
Kevin Smith
ENG/301
December 18, 2010
Professor April Rivers



Comparing and Contrasting Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Satchmo, and Girl
Harriet Jacobs wrote Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in 1861, after successfully escaping from slavery. Louis Armstrong published his biography Satchmo, in the 1950s, at the height of his famous career in music. In 1983, Jamaica Kincaid authored her short story Girl. These authors wrote their works at diverse periods during the African American experience. These three stories display both differences in areas specific to their time periods and timeless similarities, within the choice of genre as well as the themes of motherhood, suffocation, and fighting back.
In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs returns to her days as a slave in the south, in a time following the implementation of the Dread Scott Act. This act would enable slave owners to follow refugee slaves into the northern abolitionist states, and retrieve them. It also stated that any person who helped or sheltered these fugitives would be breaking the law. Instead of fleeing north, Jacobs chose to hide at her grandmother’s house, in the same town where her master lived. She explains that, ”Had the least suspicion rested on my grandmother’s house, it would have been burned to the ground. But it was the last place they thought of” (Jacobs, 1996, p. 20). Jacobs used the genre of biography to tell her story. It adds truth to the horrors of what Jacobs faced during her seclusion. This convention adds to the tension of her situation and causes feelings of empathy and suspense in the reader.
Louis Armstrong experienced childhood at the turn of the century. After slavery had been abolished and eradicated at the end of the Civil War, racism, segregation, and poverty took its place. The beginning of Armstrong’s tale occurs in New Orleans, once an important slave-trading city. It the first chapter of Satchmo, Armstrong faced danger almost every time he left his home. While describing many dangers inherent in his section of the city, Armstrong wrote, “Maryann told me that the night I was born there was a big shooting scrape in the Alley and the two guys killed each other” (1996, p. 39). Armstrong chose to relate his history through biography. Although danger loomed around him, Armstrong’s boisterous personality and positive attitude transcend the danger and racism with which he lived. Louis Armstrong became one of the biggest stars of his time. His public personality, experienced through his written biographical voice, is warm and endearing.
Jamaica Kincaid wrote Girl in 1983, long after the civil rights movements of the 50s and 60s. This allowed Kincaid to focus almost solely on the familiar relationship between a mother and her daughter. However, racism still exists in pockets of society. When the mother tells her daughter to check the bread before buying it, the daughter replies, “but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?” (Kincaid, 1996, p. 311) Kincaid wrote her short story in 3rd person, although most of the story is a nonstop monologue in which a mother speaks to her daughter. This helps to place the reader in the shoes of the “girl”, who must also listen to her mother’s non-stop tirade.
The themes these three works use are often similar. Maternal love is intrinsic to all three pieces. Each of the stories contains a strong mothering character, but the manifestation of that strength varies. In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs herself portrays the mother who yearns to interact with her children. Thinking of them, she wrote, ”How I longed to speak to them!” (Jacobs, 1996, p. 18) In Satchmo, Armstrong’s grandmother and mother play a defining role in his childhood by teaching and loving him. He writes, “Ever since I was a baby I have had great love for my grandmother” (Armstrong, 1996, p. 40). In Girl a mother attempts to influence her daughter by offering her important life lessons such as, “this is how you smile to someone you don’t like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like at all” (Kincaid, 1996, p. 311). Powerful mother figures inhabit these three works. Each wishes, in some way, to love and aid their children. The time in which they live, and the situation that they live in, affects the way their love is shown.
Another theme found within the literary pieces is a feeling of crowdedness or suffocation. In the pre Civil War era of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs lives within a suffocating prison-like garret to remain unseen, “The garret was only nine feet long and seven wide. The highest part was three feet high, and sloped down abruptly to the loose board floor” (Jacobs, 1996, p. 17). Armstrong’s depiction of his street in a turn of the century section of New Orleans resembles Jacobs’ garret. However, poverty and crime create his suffocation. He writes, “In that one block between Gravier and Perdido Streets more people were crowded than you ever saw in your life. There were churchpeople, gamblers, hustlers, cheap pimps, thieves, prostitutes, and lots of children” (Armstrong, 1996, p. 39). In the more modern world of Girl suffocation comes in the form of a domineering dictatorial mother. The mother smothers her daughter under an unrelenting offering of advice (Kincaid, 1996). In the first two stories the physical world around the characters produces a stifling atmosphere. In Girl, the oppressive feeling comes from an overbearing mother.
Throughout African American history the theme of fighting back played an important role in shaping the literature of this ethnic group. Jacobs fights her master by hiding from him (Jacobs, 1996). Armstrong must fight his oppressor, a street bully, by punching him in the face (Armstrong, 1996). The daughter in Girl fights back by talking back to her mother, “but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school” (Kincaid, 1996, p. 310). Although the three works share the theme of fighting back, the times in which they lived changed what they fought against.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Satchmo, and Girl fall in different points along the timeline of African American Literature. Although each author wrote their work during very different political and social manifestations, all three works connect with each other through their themes. Together they tell part of the story of African America. If works like these go on to shape future African American literature, then certainly this ethnic genre will continue to add to the quality and importance of American literature in general.















References

Armstrong, L. (1996). Satchmo. In A. Young, African American literature a brief introduction and anthology (pp. 39-46). New York, NY: Addison Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc.

Jacobs, H. (1996). Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. A. Young, African American literature a brief introduction and anthology (pp. 17-20). New York, NY: Addison Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc.

Kincaid, J. (1996). Girl. In A. Young, African American literature a brief introduction and anthology (pp. 310-311). New York, NY: Addison Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc.