The Beat Generation

The Beat Generation was one that made waves and broke boundaries; taking a stab at anything and everything they deemed contrary to their beliefs (for example: politics, established religion, consumerism). The Beat Generation had a profound effect on it’s culture- from art to music to freedom of choice. This generation was groundbreaking in so many ways, and it’s leaders were literary geniuses that include Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.

According to a site all about the Beat Generation, it is a: “…movement that began in the early 1950's with a small and tightly connected group of young writers who demonstrated a care-free, often reckless and unquestionably fresh approach to literature as well as a demonstrative social stance toward what was sometimes referred to as ‘The Establishment’” (rooknet.net). Among this group was Jack Kerouac, who this same site goes on to say coined the term “beat”, “… in the late 1940's, but became more common at about the time that writers like himself, Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti were beginning to get noticed. It was quickly becoming a slang term in America after World War II, meaning ‘exhausted’ or ‘beat down’ and provided this generation with a definitive label for their personal and social positions and perspectives” (rooknet.net). If the Lost Generation was wandering aimlessly because of the war, then the Beat Generation had a purpose and was fighting back with words.

The influence of the Beats was vast and varied. Some may not have liked what they had to say, which is evident in a quote by Kerouac that says: “But yet, but yet, woe, woe unto those who think that the Beat Generation means crime, delinquency, immorality, amorality ... woe unto those who attack it on the grounds that they simply don’t understand history and the yearning of human souls ... woe in fact unto those who those who make evil movies about the Beat Generation where innocent housewives are raped by beatniks! ... woe unto those who spit on the Beat Generation, the wind’ll blow it back” (home.clara.net).

Allen Ginsburg was a member of this generation and he dedicated his life to serving it’s ideals. One site listed Ginsberg’s own words on some of the essential effects of the Beat Generation. These effects include: “Spiritual liberation, sexual ‘revolution’ or ‘liberation’, i.e. gay liberation, somewhat catalyzing women’s liberation, black liberation, Gray panther activism” (home.clara.net). In his extensive poem, “Howl”, Allen Ginsberg reveals his own homosexuality, overtly declaring his loyalty and love to Carl Solomon. “Carl Solomon! I’m with you in Rockland” is a common occurrence in the poem (24). Another effect that Ginsberg states is: “Liberation of the world from censorship” (home.clara.net); this is evident in his many curse words and non-PC references in “Howl”. Issues that dealt with religion are another effect listed by Ginsberg with: “Attention to what Kerouac called (after Spengler) a ‘second religiousness’ developing within an advanced civilization” (home.clara.net). This is referenced in “Howl” as: “Dreams! Adorations! Illuminations! Religions! The whole / boatload of sensitive bullshit / Breakthroughs! Over the river! Flips and crucifixions! / gone down the flood! Highs! Epiphanies! Despairs!” (22-23).

The Beat Generation was made up of literary figures who thrived from what they believed to be corrupt and immoral. They fought for the ideals they believed in with their works, creating a powerful legacy that follows them to this day. It is an important movement whose effects are evident in the literature we read and study today. Without this movement, certain speech freedoms would not be as advanced as they are today and certain concepts would not be so freely discussed. This movement was one that truly broke the mold and provided us with challenges to institutions and authority that were the first of its kind for American Literature.

Works Cited

"Beat Generation." Index of claranet's users' home pages. Web. 7 Dec. 2009. http://home.clara.net/heureka/art/beat-generation.htm.

Ginsberg, Allen. Howl and Other Poems (City Lights Pocket Poets Series). San Francisco: City Lights Publishers, 1956. Print.

"The Beat Page - Info." RookNet - Beat Generation Writers. Web. 7 Dec. 2009. http://www.rooknet.net/beatpage/info/index.html.

White Noise Defined in White Noise

White Noise, the novel by Don DeLillo, deals with a couple definitions of the actual term. It is a frequent aspect of the novel, the background noise to the Gladney’s hectic life, constantly referred to by DeLillo after family interactions. Despite being significant because it is the title DeLillo chose, it is also significant for the ways in which he chooses to define it and display it throughout the novel.

According to dictionary.com, white noise is: “a steady, unvarying, unobtrusive sound, as an electronically produced drone or the sound of rain, used to mask or obliterate unwanted sounds” (White noise Definition). Now, that definition gives the basic notion that most of us have of white noise. In searching for a more in depth description of what I associate white noise to be, I found an article on it on howstufffworks.com. This article says that white noise: “is a type of noise that is produced by combining sounds of all different frequencies together. If you took all of the imaginable tones that a human can hear and combined them together, you would have white noise” (HowStuffWorks). To me, white noise is the background noise of life. It is radio, television, conversation, etc that we are around, but not currently devoting our attention to. DeLillo supports these notions of white noise and gives it credence throughout the novel with his small mentions of such devices in the background randomly throughout the novel. For example, after a conversation with a family member there will be a brief line about what is being said on the TV in the next room, “The TV said: ‘Now we will put the little feelers on the butterfly” (96). DeLillo does this throughout the novel as a constant reminder of the white noise we all deal with in our daily lives, the background noise that modern day society has brought into every American home.

In direct relation to white noise, DeLillo defines it in as an aspect of death. DeLillo gives this definition in one of the many conversations between Babette and Jack on the subject of death. “ ‘What if death is nothing but sound?’ ‘Electrical noise.’ ‘You hear it forever. Sound all around. How awful.’ ‘Uniform, white.’ ‘Sometimes it sweeps over me,’ she said. ‘Sometimes it insinuates itself into my mind, little by little” (198-199). This is the only direct reference made towards white noise throughout the entire novel, which suggests a weight of importance that DeLillo wants to be made known. This definition expands upon the traditional notion of white noise to further connect it to death and make it relational to what death must be like and what we hear while we are there. To me, it suggests that even in death, the mundane white noise that we associate in life follows us into death; an inescapable noise that even death cannot quiet.

Every association DeLillo makes to white noise in the novel is suggests an inescapable quality it possesses. He does this by repeatedly drawing the reader’s attention to what is in the background of the Gladney’s daily life, as well as describing it as the background noise of death. The special weight given to the term by associating it with death means to suggest that it will follow us into the afterlife, and that it will be a constant in any state of our existence.

Works Cited

Delillo, Don. White Noise Critical: Text and Criticism (Viking Critical Library). Boston: Penguin (Non-Classics), 1998. Print.

"HowStuffWorks "What is white noise?"." HowStuffWorks - Learn How Everything Works!. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2009. http://www.howstuffworks.com/question47.htm.

"White noise Definition | Definition of White noise at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2009. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/white+noise.

The Character of Marie in Love Medicine

To me, Marie is the most interesting and compelling character in these stories. Her image is one that changes constantly throughout the stories; from a kind grandmother, to a devilish teenager, to a distant wife, and ultimately to a desperate wife. The main catalyst for change and cause of obstacle in Marie’s life is her marriage to Nector, but there is also an underlying spirtual/mystical element present throughout Marie’s life that neither presents itself as good nor evil. Nevertheless, Marie is the most challenging and dynamic character to examine throughout these stories; her ups and downs are curious in the way that they are revealed and the way her life ironically intertwines with other characters.

When we first meet Marie in “The World’s Greatest Fisherman”, we only know her as Grandma Kashpaw, but we are immediately introduced to her overbearing and powerful character. The family is very matriarchal, whether it is because of Grandpa’s fading faculties or because of Grandma’s instinct for control is unclear, but I am more inclined to believe the latter. Despite the fact if the reason is clear or not, Grandma is in control of this brood, and it is clear from the get-go. Then, in the next story, “Saint Marie”, we are introduced to Grandma Kashpaw as Marie Lazarre, a girl in her teens who has entered into a convent. In this story, we are introduced to the dark side of Marie’s past, one where a dark force plagued and tried to enter into her life. “She always said the Dark One wanted me most of all, and I believed this. I stood out. Evil was a common thing I trusted” (46). Here she was linked with Sister Leopolda, who we later find out is the driving influence (whether it was positive or negative is unclear) on the person Marie ultimately became. This story sheds a light on the spiritual and religious obstacles Marie had to overcome (including being burned and tortured), the ones that plagued her youth and brought her much pain and despair skirting between the light and darkness, between good and evil. It is also the only story we read that has Marie as the narrator, which suggests that this was the most pivotal time of her life.

In the next story, “The Plunge of the Brave” more insight is given to Marie’s character development, and we are also introduced to Lulu Lamartine. Nector Kashpaw is the man of both their fancies; he was originally linked to Lulu, but after a chance encounter at the convent, is sent home with Marie who he ultimately marries. Marie, after loosing two of her children, starts a reservation orphanage of her own, and looks after many children. Nector describes this point in their lives in these lines: “I lost track of which were ours and which Marie had taken in. It had helper her to take them in after our two others were gone. This went on. The youngest slept between us, in the bed of our bliss, so I was crawling over them to make more of them. It seemed like there was no end” (126). This growing problem increases until at his mid-life, Nector creates the obstacle that will haunt Marie for the rest of her middle to old aged life: he starts an affair with Lulu that goes on for five years. “I do not compare her with Marie. I would not do that. But the way I ache for Lulu, suddenly, is terrible and sad” (131). Nector ultimately decides to stay with Marie, but Lulu will remain a constant sore spot and conflict for Marie until late in her life.

In “Love Medicine”, we see a return to Marie in her later years, when she is known only as Grandma Kashpaw, and she is the most important influence in Lipsha’s life, despite there being no blood bond between them. In this story, we see that despite Nector’s ailing memory, he has started things up again with Lulu. The mystical aspect is returned when we are alerted to Lipsha’s healing powers, that Marie is trying to convince him to use on Nector in the hopes of bringing her husband back to her. Here, we see Marie is hardened and darkened by her decades long war over Nector with Lulu, and she is resulting to spells and perversions to get what she wants. “It was Grandma Kashpaw who thought of it in the end. She knows things…Then she’ll say she just had a feeling or ache in the scar of her hand or a creak in her shoulder. She is constantly being told by little aggravations in her joints or by her household appliances” (240). Even though Marie ultimately convinces Lipsha to help her come up with something to eternally bind her to Nector, it fails and ends up in Nector choking and dying. So now Marie is alone because of something of her own doing, and although she feels despair at what her actions caused, she ultimately moves on to a most unlikely friendship: Lulu.

The resulting friendship between Marie and Lulu in the Seniors Center is described in the last story, “Crossing the Water”. After all, there was always something spiritual/mystical about Lulu (that Lipsha refers to as, “insight”), something that even Lipsha could sense from afar, and it could be a contributing factor to why these women became close and ultimately as to why Nector had been attracted to both of them. “Only Grandma Kashpaw wasn’t one trifle out of current at the insight Lulu showed. She and Lulu was thick as thieves now. That was too odd. If you’ll just picture them together knowing everybody’s life, as if they had hotlines to everybody’s private thoughts, you’ll know why people started rushing past their doors. They feared one of them would reach out, grab them into their room, and tell them all the secrets they tried to hide form themselves” (334). The ultimate connection between the two is that Lulu is Lipsha’s actual grandmother, and Marie is his adopted one. The two women will forever be connected to and separated from one another because of one man or another, and they are each other’s source of conflict and growth throughout the stories.

In each story, more and more about Marie is revealed. We see more into her dark inner psyche, we see her role in her family, as well as the struggles she faced in her marriage. Throughout it all, she walks a fine line between good and evil, but she mostly strays towards the good through her positive influences on all the children she took in and raised. Ultimately, Marie’s conflicts are resolved without her control, despite everything she does to exert her control. Her entrance into sainthood by Sister Leopolda began as an exercise in control, but ended without her having any grasp on her situation; her lifelong battle over Nector with Lulu ended abruptly with his death, completely and totally out of Marie’s control. Marie’s life is a series of trying to remain in control in life and spirituality, but it always results in loosing that control and having to deal with the consequences. Marie is the most enigmatic and interesting character in the story, a woman you can’t help but sympathize with, no matter what tactics she uses to get what she wants.

Works Cited

Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine : A Novel (Perennial Classics). Bob Land: Amazon Remainders Account, 2005. Print.

Sophie's Obstacles

In Edwidge Danticat’s novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, the main character overcomes a lot of obstacles that can be linked directly to her relationship with her mother. Sophie is a Haitian who moves to America to live with her mother, she struggles with the dichotomy of identity she faces in America as well as how to truly become a woman and understand herself. Sophie’s relationships throughout the novel are inherently feminine, and female influence is her only source of knowledge and wisdom for the majority of her life. Perhaps it is her conception by rape, or her mother’s inability to trust men, but men are not positive influences on her life. Joseph is the only positive male in her life, but even as her husband, he is unable to truly reach and connect with Sophie until she is truly comfortable with her self. In the novel, Sophie goes from being in Haiti with her aunt and grandmother as influences, to being in America with only her mother as an influence; even when she is finally free of her mother through her marriage to Joseph, her mother’s influence is still so strong and powerful that it affects her marriage and ultimately makes her uncomfortable when it comes to intimacy, and sends her back to Haiti to seek help from the first female influences in her life. The main thing that is the cause of all of Sophie’s identity and image problems and the main obstacle she has to overcome is the testing that was done to her by her mother to ensure she was still a virgin.

Testing is not an uncommon thing in many African cultures; it is the feeling for a hymen that is usually done by a girl’s mother throughout her life. In the novel, testing is described as a labor of love and a responsibility of the mother. Despite the fact that it is traumatic for the girls who experience, they still do it to their own daughters when they are mothers, because as Sophie’s mother says: “…a mother is supposed to do that to her daughter until the daughter is married. It is her responsibility to keep her pure” (60-61). When Sophie asks her grandmother why testing is done, Ife replies: “from the time a girl begins to menstruate to the time you turn her over to her husband, the mother is responsible for her purity. If I give a soiled daughter to her husband, he can shame my family, speak evil of me, even bring her back to me” (156). When Sophie asks why she kept doing it, even when she knew her daughters hated it, her grandmother simply replies: “I had to keep them clean until they had husbands” (156). In the novel, Sophie is so traumatized by the testing, and ultimately harms herself to make it appear that she is no longer a virgin just to make it stop. According to research done on cultures who still perform testing on their youths, the humiliation and self-loathing Sophie feels as a result of the testing is not uncommon: “…the physical invasiveness of checking a young girl’s hymen may be traumatic for them…Undergoing a test that checks their hymens implies that someone other than themselves- such as the State, their families, or their prospective husbands- is in control of their bodies” (Virginity Testing). This is the obstacle that Sophie must overcome, because she ultimately does not feel confident in herself because her mother’s testing imposes her control over Sophie and dwarfs her personality.

In the novel, Sophie overcomes the testing by what she calls, “doubling”. “I had learned to double while being tested. I would close my eyes and imagine all the pleasant things that I had known. The lukewarm noon breeze through our bougainvilla. Tante Atie’s gentle voice blowing over a field of daffodils” (155). This is how Sophie learns to relate to sex, and she even does it when she has sex with her husband because her experiences with testing have traumatized her so much that she associates making love with pain and horror. “When my husband is with me now, it gives me such nightmares that I have to bite my tongue to do it again” (156). Despite the fact that Joseph is a good man to Sophie and has never given her a negative experience, she is still unable to fully let go of her mother’s influence. Sophie has never had positive influences towards men and sex because her mother never did, and that feeling echoed into Sophie’s thoughts and beliefs, and with the testing, made her incapable of truly loving and giving herself to Joseph.

In the end, Sophie overcomes her obstacles and becomes truly free when she learns to forgive and accept her mother and the circumstances of Sophie’s own conception that darkened the majority of Sophie’s life and her mother’s life as well. The testing was a major obstacle, that brought many negative thoughts and feelings for Sophie in regards to her body, her self-image, and men. It took years and a lot of work to reconcile these feelings, but at the end of the novel, we see Sophie moving towards the all-important self-acceptance and freedom that was clearly lacking in her life throughout the novel.

Works Cited

Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory (Oprah's Book Club). New York: Vintage, 1995. Print.

"Virginity Testing: Increasing Health Risks and Violating Human Rights in the Name of HIV-Prevention." SIECUS - Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2009. http://www.siecus.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Feature.showFeature&featureID=1199.

A New Musical? Indeed!

Having seen the musical version and the movie of The Color Purple before reading it, I can now see why it became such a versatile text. Being an epistolary, the novel itself leaves out a lot of action, explanation, and the quotidian- all things that are integral to a movie or musical. This leaves room for a lot of creative license to be taken in the different versions and it is a great basis text to build a movie or musical off of. In a quote found on the musical’s website, Alice Walker said: “The novel is not about fighting or abusing in any way. It’s about helping people see that we are just human beings here. We’re really trying to live lives that are fulfilling and happy” (www.colorpurple.com). The main message of loving yourself is an important one, and it is the main reason so many people have fallen in love with and been touched by The Color Purple, no matter what version they have seen or read, it is powerful in every form.

After reading the novel, I felt like I had a more complete picture of the story itself; I have seen it in every form, so now I really can feel the emotion and expression. One main reason why I think the musical was made was because there is so much emotion and expression that could be turned into really powerful music with great acting to make it all come together. While reading the novel, I could hear the songs in my head or play the movie back in my mind, and I could track where I was according to the movie or musical. This helped me become more connected with the text, and it gave me more insight into just how good each form is on it’s own, and when you put them all together. For instance, while Sofia was spouting off to the mayor’s wife, I heard the song, “Hell No” in my head; whenever I read Shug’s name, I hear the way the choir always sang her name. The musical brings the full circle approach to the novel; the movie took the novel into the acting realm, and the musical propelled it that much further to include song and dance, making The Color Purple become even more creative and powerful. With Oprah Winfrey on to produce with Scott Sanders, the musical was well funded and advertised.

According to the soundtrack’s booklet, the road to creating the musical began in 2004 and was written by, “Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray (music and lyrics), and Marsha Norman (book)” (Norman). The musical began in workshop, like all musicals do, then was first put on in Atlanta, and on December 1, 2005, it made it’s debut on Broadway. According to the booklet, there were many challenges faced in turning the novel into a musical. “Perhaps the biggest challenge…was to tell 40 years of story in two hours, and how to make sure the audience never forgets that Celie had a sister. The team also needed to keep Celie at the front of the story…And then there was the Africa problem- that is, how to get there, find Nettie, and come back in ten minutes without losing tack of Celie at the top of the second act” (Norman). All of this was challenging when putting the book into musical form, but the team overcame every challenge and was able to create a wonderful musical version of The Color Purple.

Powerful and moving in any form, The Color Purple is a truly amazing story that really makes the audience invested in Celie’s life and the lives of every other character. Oprah Winfrey says it so well on the musical’s website: “This is what it feels like to love, I believe. Everything about the Color Purple feels like love to me” (www.colorpurple.com). The musical is a truly wonderful work of art; from the acting, to the music, to the set and costume design, you are transported into The Color Purple and for a magical two hours, you live the story with the characters. There are no words to express the emotion you feel when Celie proclaims, "I'm here" at the end of the book and musical, there are just sobs and tears.

Works Cited

Funderburg, Lise. "The Color Purple - Now on National Tour." Oprah Winfrey Presents The Color Purple, Now on National Tour. 23 Oct. 2009. http://www.colorpurple.com/color_purple_history.php.

Norman, Marsha. Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Color Purple A New Musical Original Broadway Cast Recording. New York: Angel Records, 2006.

Walker, Alice. Color Purple. New York: Pocket, 1987.

Janie's Growth

The growth of Janie in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God can be charted by following the progression of the men in her life, and the effects that each had on her personal growth. Every change in Janie’s character can be attributed to the influence of the opposite sex, which makes the individual she becomes at the end of the novel that much more important. Janie evolves from an innocent child to an experienced woman, from a dependent wife to an independent survivor. In Janie’s character growth, it seems as if the men are catalysts for her to change until she becomes the person she was meant to be, and therefore does not need male companionship any longer.

With the loss of Janie’s innocence and her discovery of her budding sexuality at the age of sixteen, we have the entrance and short stay in the novel of Johnny Taylor and their kissing escapade that started it all. Her Nanny’s reaction to this innocent tryst is what begins Janie’s growth as a woman. “The old woman’s voice was so lacking in command and reproof, so full of crumbling dissolution, -that Janie half believed that Nanny had not seen her. So she extended herself outside of her dream and went inside of the house. That was the end of her childhood” (12). With this kiss, Johnny Taylor is the first man to propel Janie’s venture into womanhood, and he spurs the decision for Janie to be married off sooner rather than later.
With Janie’s first entrance into womanhood, comes Logan Killicks, her much older first husband. Logan and Janie’s relationship is strained, and he plays more of a provider role than the role of a loving husband in Janie’s life. Their marriage puts stress on Janie who was hopeful for love, but is disillusioned with marriage in general now because it did not meet her expectations. With her entrance into a loveless marriage, Janie becomes more realistic and less hopeful of a future filled with love; her adolescence is now completely over, and she has accepted herself as a woman. “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (25). Janie’s marriage to Logan was trial by fire, and it shaped her into a more cynical and accepting person, whether she wanted to be or not. Her marriage to Logan gave her the necessary skills as a wife, now all she needed was a husband to truly match her.

With Janie’s acceptance of womanhood, we now are introduced to Jody Starks (AKA Joe), the man who convinces her that love could still be out there. Jody convinces Janie that she could have a better life with him, so she runs away from her marriage to Logan and goes with Jody to the budding town of Eatonville. Although it seems as if her marriage to Jody should be liberating, it turns out to be a stunt in her growth. Jody is more controlling than Logan, and she eventually begins to fear and despise him. This is signified by the rules that Jody imposes on her that she must submit to in her marriage (wearing the head scarf being the most symbolic to the stunt of her growth). Janie and Jody’s relationship becomes strained, especially when he asks her to work at the store he has built in the town. Janie eventually works in the store, and she actually becomes proficient at it. She starts to see her relationship with Jody crumble: the romance is non-existent, and she begins to see Jody in a more pitiful rather than a fearful light. Janie makes the ultimate transformation when she slips out from Jody’s thumb and asserts her power in their marriage in a public dispute that reveals his inadequacies in the bedroom. Soon after this, Jody becomes ill and eventually dies, which further spurs Janie’s growth into independence. “Years ago, she had told her girl self to wait for her in the looking glass. It had been a long time since she had remembered…The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taker her place. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there” (87). With this, Janie literally lets her hair down and moves into the independent part of her life.

With Janie’s widowhood and independence upon her, we see her being introduced to Tea Cake, a young and handsome man. They begin their May/December romance, and for the first time, Janie feels like an equal in a relationship. Janie is now seen as the provider in the relationship, and she grows into a more confident and commanding person. She and Tea Cake have a cooperative, give-and-take relationship that sometimes causes them to butt heads. When they do fight, we see a new Janie, an independent person who sticks up for herself and fights back rather than be submissive. “She cut him short with a blow and they fought from one room to the other, Janie trying to beat him, and Tea Cake kept holding her wrists and wherever he could to heel her from going too far” (137). Although her relationship with Tea Cake isn’t perfect, it gives her the opportunity to realize her ability to be independent and survive on her own. Tea Cake is the first man that she truly loves, and the first man to accept her as she is and not try to change her. With this acceptance comes Janie’s entrance into the final stage of her growth: a completely independent woman.

After Tea Cake’s death, Janie moves on hopefully rather than bitterly. She has come full circle in her growth, and has finally realized who she is meant to be. She was always meant to be an independent and self-sufficient person; she just doesn’t realize this until Tea Cake truly showed her how to be a woman who does not need a man to get by. Tea Cake was ultimately, Janie’s salvation and the one to show her the way to true independence. She accepts his death and also accepts that she will never love again, and she is perfectly fine and happy to do so. At the end of the novel, she finally realizes her identity and truly accepts herself. “Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see” (193). These are the last lines in the novel, and they show that Janie has finally grown and become her true self.

Janie’s growth into an independent woman throughout the novel meets many obstacles and benefits. All of it is integral to her human experience, and is ultimately necessary for her final transformation. Each transition in her life is in some way or another, a direct result of her relationship with a man. Janie’s ultimate position of independent and alone, but happy, could never have happened without Johnny, Logan, Jody, or Tea Cake. These men are her demons and her saviors, and they give her the true gift of insight and acceptance of self.

Works Cited

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 1998.

Picasso's Influence on Stein: Cubism in Writing

Gertrude Stein was not only in rank with other artists, she was a patron. Picasso and Stein were close, and they were equally influential on each other’s work. Modern art, cubism in particular, had great effect on Stein and her work. In Tender Buttons, the ideals of cubism and modern art are echoed and recreated throughout. When reading this work, it is clear that the style and message of Tender Buttons is inherently cubist.

With Tender Buttons, there comes a revolutionary way of reading and understanding that makes inferring meaning quite difficult; words are not what they usually are, creating a confrontation with tradition that can be echoed in any form of modern art. This is, in fact, is the whole purpose of Tender Buttons and what Stein was trying to accomplish. This can be seen in the way the work is structured: the titles do not entirely match up with what is being described. In Tender Buttons, there is the message of deconstructing what is seen, and examining every layer; coincidentally, that is how I would describe how to look at a cubist art piece. “Stein wanted to give literature the plastic freedom that painting has, and Tender Buttons was a striking attempt at verbal ‘portraits’ in the manner of the cubist painters. The denotative value of words was almost entirely abandoned; instead, words were used in a connotative, associative, and surrealistic way” (Biography). This quote exemplifies Stein’s efforts to echo cubism in Tender Buttons, and it is the perfect way to examine the correlation between a cubist painting and cubist writing.

The artcyclopedia says that, “the key concept underlying Cubism is that the essence of an object can only be capture by showing it from multiple points of view simultaneously” (Cubism). Reading this, it struck me because that is exactly what I thought the underlying meaning was for Tender Buttons. Looking at the first poem in the collection, “A Carafe, That Is A Blind Glass” there is a purposefully created misunderstanding in that the title does not wholly represent what is being described in the poem. For this reason, the reader must examine the work more fully, looking at it from many different angles in order to infer meaning. The perfect example of using different angles to make meaning can be found in the first line: “A kind in glass and a cousin, a spectacle and nothing strange a single hurt color and an arrangement in a system to pointing” (Stein, 3). At face value, a glass is being described, but when different views are applied, we see words that stick out and alter what the poem is really talking about. In particular, “hurt color”, makes the object have emotion, which distorts any meaning of the word object. In this first poem, we see Stein’s efforts to echo cubism and alter traditional perceptions of reality; objects, food, and rooms are more than what they seem, and it takes different points of view to understand that.

Cubism is the pivotal influence for Tender Buttons. With that, come Picasso and Cezanne and their influences on Stein (and vice versa). The avant-garde is what these artists thrived on; any way to oppose tradition and purport a new approach to looking at things is the essence of modern art. Stein is completely and utterly recreating cubism in her writing, and once that is understood, it makes it easier to deconstruct her writing and understand it.

Works Cited

"Cubism." Art cyclopedia: The Fine Art Search Engine. 2 Oct. 2009 .

"Gertrude Stein: Biography from Answers.com." Answers.com - Online Dictionary, Encyclopedia and much more. 2 Oct. 2009 .

Stein, Gertrude. Tender Buttons. New York: Dover Publications, 1997.