The New Negro Woman-Naja Tatum

I found this reading to be very intriguing. It is truly remarkable to read about black women's role in becoming The New Woman. Black women wanted to fight not only for their equality as a woman but their equality as a race. What I found most intriguing about this reading about the Patterson reading is the discussions brought about miscegenation and the mixing of races. Mulatto's were said to be degraded products and this is where the "one drop rule" formulated and the prevention of this was used as a mechanism to keep "Negroes on an evolutionary set back they could never recover."(56) Its just always extremely disappointing to see that a nation that claims it is based on equality was built and based off of inequality.

Voyage in the Dark final-Ali Pepin

Voyage in the Dark proved to be a very interesting read. Our class discussion cleared a lot up for me though. The dream with the baby and priest that had a eerie look on his face was very confusing but upon further analyzing it made sense of the idea of religion against prostitution. As Anna was very promiscuous she definitely had some inner fears of being judged and this fear was illustrated in her dream.
The fact that she was on a boat in water seemed a prominent theme that I've noticed among our books. The Awakening, New England Nun, Voyage, Three Dreams in a Desert-all of these readings talk about water in them as though a form of rebirth. It's as though water is fluid like life and represents how women in particular can be recreated and let their soul be controlled by the water.
 Even babies and children have been prominent in most stories thus far. It's as though these "New Women" are finding that children are detrimental to their life and taking their soul. With Anna, her abortion was for the fact that she couldn't take care of a child, and it was her promiscuous actions had come full circle to their consequences. She was too immature-and almost too much of a drunk to realize what her life was becoming.
The alcohol she used to cover up her feelings to realize what she was doing, and the uncertainty with Walter left her in this downward spiral into prostitution (somewhat). This is similar to The Awakening as well, with how women are controlled by men in a way with how one man breaks their heart, then it's all downhill and their lives "suck" from there. For example, Anna's heart is broken by Walter, then she continues drinking, sleeping with other men, and finally gets pregnant and can't have a child, so she gets an abortion where from the drugs she has hallucinations and the book comes to an end.

This blog is a bit all over, but I had to cover all that I saw when reading this book.

Connecting Patterson to Iron Jawed Angels

All while I was reading, I kept thinking about the scene in “Iron Jawed Angels” when the African American suffragist refused to march in the back of the parade.  However, Alice Paul stated that many of the other African American cohorts had agreed to this condition.  I believe that this shows the great struggles that many African American women were facing.  Not only were they segregated against based on their gender and their race, but there was also a divide among African American suffragists.  This divide among the African American suffragists was just one more struggle that they had to overcome in their fight for equality.  Throughout the film we saw how difficult it was for white women during the times.  But, this scene was one of the only times that African American women were even depicted in the film.  I believe that this shows how much of a struggle African American women faced while trying to gain suffrage, which was carried over in their struggles to be viewed as the New Negro Woman. 

Voyage in the Dark-Naja Tatum

I really enjoyed this book. One part that stuck out to me the most is how Anna deals with depression. It seems that alcohol is a way for her to escape into some sort of fantasy world. She seems to think and and worry about a lot through out her day but once she drinks it is as if all is ok for the moment. She also goes through traumatic events but seems to have no emotional connections to the things she goes through, especially the abortion, did anyone else agree? I also stated in class that I though Anna was an independent women but as the book came to a close, I don't think Anna is very independent, especially in regards to money. Anytime she needs money is at the foot of a man who she usually has to sleep with, this is not the definition of independent to me.

Firstly, I am glad I chose to take French because there is a lot of French in our texts. Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. It was simple to read, yet completely packed with meaning. I feel bad for Anna...I am not sure if we are supposed to feel sympathy for her, or for what reason we may feel sympathy for her, but I do feel bad for her. I don't think that she knows what she wants. She wanted to be independent, but she got mixed up in all of these things that she should not be doing just so she could provide for herself. I am actually shocked that she was pregnant, and a little surprised that she so easily decided to get an abortion. I mean she seemed a little sad, but it wasn't much more than a sort of business choice for her. She inmediately decided that she could not have a baby and must ask walter for the money to have the abortion, which is dumb because she could have had the baby and asked him for support in raising the child. If money is what she is after that makes more sense to me. But I support her right to choose to have the abortion. The other thing that bugged me was the doctor saying "you girls are too naïve to live, aren't you!" He was making a snap judgement and being quite rude I do believe. Why would he say that? isn't he supposed to be a medical professional?

Voyage in the Dark- Emily Armstrong

A character that continuously stood out to me in the last part of this reading was Ethel. She is a woman, who though greedy at times, is striving out to make a living for herself. Considering the time period her independence in starting and maintaining her own business is quite the feat. She often is pestering Anna to provide her with more rent, but I think her reason for doing this is not only because of the pressures of society, but to decipher her own self-worth. On page 157 of the text she makes the comment that “people don’t give you what you’re worth-not in anything they don’t”. This statement seems to be a critique of how women are viewing in this time period. Men deny women the right to their own wealth and power, continuously underpaying them or not giving them enough credit. Ethel is strong in that she realizes the world does not give her what she feels she is worth and demands more.

Voyage in the Dark

I think this was a good book to read after Mrs. Dalloway because it also has modernist techniques like Anna's stream of consciousness dialogue, but it is a bit more hidden. When we started reading Mrs. Dalloway, it was immediately obvious to all of us that this novel was a different style than we had read in class before. With Voyage in the Dark, though, it wasn't as obvious right off the bat for me because it's a very easy read with lots of conversations between characters. It's cool to be able to identify modernist features in this novel too after looking more closely.

Voyage Ending

I just finished up Voyage and I am really perturbed that you never find out what the deal with Walter was. I feel like there is something deeper going on that it seems, that he does love her but has a wife or his friend want her for himself or something. I find it very odd that after they go to the states Walter doesn't want Anna anymore but is willing to provide for her monetarily. And why do they need all the letters that he has written to her? It seems like they are trying to get rid of evidence but why? This book gives me no closure at all especially when it comes to Walter.

Vincent vs The Doctor

It is interesting to contrast Vincent’s and the Doctor’s sentiments about Anna’s future after her abortion.  Vincent, after agreeing to pay for it, says “You’ve only got to make up your mind that things are going to be different, and they will be different.” He’s encouraging Anna to give up her current lifestyle and change.  When the doctor comes to visit Anna he says, “She’ll be alright…Ready to start all over again in no time, I’ve no doubt.” The doctor is assuming that Anna won’t be giving up her current lifestyle.  There is a difference with a perception of reality here.  The doctor appears more worldly whereas Vincent seems naive in assuming that Anna will change.

Voyage in the Dark Part 3

Part of what this novel seemed to be about was expectations and the fact that none of them were really met. Anna seemed to have a lot of expectations for her life in the beginning, dreams of something better. Then she met Walter--who expected her to be experienced and to fall into bed with him--and when she fell in love with him, she wanted him to love her back. She also didn't expect her friend Laurie to be a prostitute, while Ethel expected Anna to prostitute herself. A lot of these things were not explicitly said, but rather became an undercurrent of character interactions. People did not want to say the unpleasant things, but it often came out in the end, in some of the most uncomfortable scenes in the book. Anna could pretend that these unpleasant things were not there otherwise, and often did until she had no other choice. This is what happened with her pregnancy, though she still waited too long and paid the price for it.

The "dark wall" in "Voyage in the Dark"

I was intrigued by the passage on page 149. Anna describes a picture.

"There was a little girl in a pink dress eating a large yellow biscuit studded with currants - what they called a squashed-fly biscuit - and a little boy in a sailor suit, trundling a hoop, looking back over his shoulder at the little girl. There was a tidy green tree and a shiny pale blue sky, so close that if the little girl had stretched her arm up she could have touched it. (God is always near us. So cosy.) And a high, dark wall behind the little girl. 

     Underneath the picture was written:

                               The past is dear,  

                              The future is clear, 

                                  And, best of all, the present.

But it was the wall that mattered.

And that used to be my idea of what England was like. 'And it is like that, too,' I thought." (Rhys 149). 

I found it very existential of Anna to like the "dark wall" rather than all of the pretty colors in the picture (149). She goes out of her way to describe them, but then she likes the background better. I think this signifies how she feels lonely and does not know what to do. She wants to blend into her surroundings and not stand out anymore because she does not get what she wants when people do pay attention to her. I was confused, though, about the last sentence. I did not understand to what she was referring. Is England like the "dark wall" or the colorful scene in the foreground? If so, maybe she has changed as a person and feels differently about the way things are going for her.

 

 

                            

Voyage in the Dark Ending

So in someone else blog they talk about the the title of the novel, I thought that was cool because my interpretation were kind of different than there were. I believe this entire novel was a voyage in the dark for Anna, she was simply trying to become a new women, she tried through her little encounter with Walter,and even sex however through her voyage they were all some what in the dark because they were unsolved however at the end she kind of finally determined her voyage because she was some what able to become a new women.

Voyage in the Dark (end section)

As we discussed in class on Monday, we wondered why Anna would resort to alcohol throughout the course of the novel when times were hard. She would rather drink away her problems than face them head on. As a class we discussed the possibility that she is unhappy, that her unhappiness has led her to a depression. This may be because she left her home, is now in an unfamiliar place and has become emotionally attached to a man who does not love her back. Ethel even comments on her surprising change of mood when on pg. 144 she says, "This is a bit of a change--you laughing." And then again further down the page Anna and Ethel are having a conversation and Anna says, "Cheer up," only to get the response from Ethel of, "You're a nice one to tell anybody to cheer up." I feel as though much of Anna's unhappiness was brought on by herself and her outlook on life creating this character that appears to be uphappy and in a hole of despair throughout the majority of the novel.

Voyage in the Dark

What I really like going back to in these blog posts is toying with the idea of what the new woman is and what that means. When thinking of Anna and reflecting from our class discussion of her on Monday I'm pretty torn on whether or not I think she is a new woman. Sure, she is independent in a sense in that she is out on her own, a very young girl and is trying to support herself. But the fact that she then goes and depends on a man for her main source of income is restricting of her freedoms (in my interpretation).

When I think of a new woman she is free from the constraints of having to depend on others to sustain herself. Anna is quite in love and dependent on this man (she sits around waiting for him) so how does that make her any different from a married woman who is subordinate to her husband? We also discussed the use of her sexuality to get what she wanted in some ways, and I'm not sure how I feel about this being an act of empowerment or reclamation (to a certain extent) of one's body. In one sense I understand how it is taking a risk and having sex was seen as more so political of an act than it is now, but submitting and objectifying your body to someone to then receive and income just does not settle with me as being empowering. I'm all for choice, but I find it troubling to label this as a way of empowerment or a way to reclaim your body.

Voyage In the Dark-The Title

Upon finishing the book, I'm intrigued by the significance of the title. To me, it represents everything that is unknown to her and the incredibly long and tumultuous journey she takes through that unknown. I think England also signifies this. She mentions how dark it is, how cold, how all of the towns look the same (therefore she is unable to differentiate one from the other, so they remain mysterious). England is not her home, England is foreign, literally dark. She's making her way through her life and through an unknown place blindly, without guidance, without being able to follow someone's footsteps. She's literally charting her own course. The title is very representative of these things to me.

I know this doesn't count as my blog post...but I thought it was amusing and relevant...

Significance of Water in Voyage in the Dark

One of the interesting things that caught my attention towards the end of Part I was Anna's constant mentioning of water. It reminded me of the final scene in the Awakening when Edna "commits suicide." I believe one of the first mentions of it are on page 90 when Anna takes a bath and reminisces about a pool that she used to go to at Morgan's Reest. Her description of the place was seemed very peaceful and the memory of it seemed to be a good one. However, the next time she mentions water it sounds a little more grotesque in a sense? She describes her feelings in the moment when she is with Walter and that it feels like "letting go and falling back into water...and how do you know what it's like to try to speak from under water when you're drowned?" (98). This is interesting to me because she is loosing Walter and she describes the pain as drowning. In relation to The Awakening it is interesting because Edna sort of found her peace in the water but Anna seems to be afraid of it.

Voyage in the Dark and Promiscuity

What I find most interesting in this novel is the subtle theme of promiscuity. Not only is the protagonist "promiscuous" in the sense that she does not adhere to traditional female norms, but the other females that surround her often exhibit nontraditional lifestyles. I think the entirety of the protagonist as an adventurous female is rooted in the notion of place; the story is preface by the main character being forced to move to England, whereupon we find out that she hates it. As a transient individual, Anna always seems to be longing for something different. She constantly is seeking to recreate herself in a place that does not correspond to her own identity. I also think this connection between the individual and place is a conflict that comes from the inability to relinquish one's original identity; she wants to be a part of English society while, at the same time, she also feels ostracized by society. It was very nontraditional for women to carry out their single-hood in a notorious or deviant manner. Within that context, Rhys' novel may be a "moralizing" story on how young women should not be so promiscuous in terms of their transience and their sexuality. 

Alice Paul Follow Up+ Voyage in the Dark

I absolutely loved this movie and have reflected on it several times since our class meetings. I decided to do some personal research on the movie. I specifically wanted to find out more about Alice Paul. I was surprised to see how factual the movie really was. I read a few articles and the movie seems to have a great synopsis of key points. I really enjoyed the movie for a variety of reasons. Mostly, because it wasn't the typical Hollywood movie. There was unresolved relationships and not everything was answered. The background knowledge of Alice Paul is that she came from a modest, extremely hard working family. They had some wealth, but she lived a life of simplicity. Paul worked alongside NAWSA where they worked in the suffrage community. I wasn't sure if the National Woman's Party was real, but it definitely was. Since my group presentation was on suffrage we focused mostly on NAWSA, yet Alice Paul had quite the organization. Since we felt left empty handed about her after life as a woman, I looked up if she was married. She indeed did NOT marry and served her life to politics. In fact, there was the Alice Paul Institute named after her. "The Institute works to educate and encourage women and girls to take leadership roles in their communities and to continue the long struggle for women's equality." I cannot express how much this movie struck me and I am really excited for our next class film.

From what I have seen in Voyage in the dark thus far is that Anna is very different than Alice. She sees withdrawn and very subdued. I wonder if we will see Anna develop into the independent individual Alice Paul depicts. She seems rather depressed and her heart is breaking for the loss of Walter. How does this differ from Alice Paul's dedication for politics over a man?

Voyage in the Dark--Kori Cramer

Anna is a compelling character that draws attention to many facets of the mind of a young, yet emerging adult. She not only struggles with Walter's ability to connect to her, but also her inability to learn the manners of an adult. In multiple sections throughout the book, Anna is asked to leave her apartment or residence because of her unmotivated lifestyle. She also fails to take the proper actions toward meeting the accomodations of her landlord. Though I enjoyed Anna's character, I felt as though she seemed young in her actions, though she expected the respect of a mature and wise adult. She fails to recognize that maturity occurs when hard work is performed and effort is put into every facet of life. Instead of exuding herself as a strong character willing to work for success, she becomes a slug, though expecting complete respect.

Voyage in the Dark -parzyck

Like many others I found it the passages interesting that talked about Anna’s hatred of being white and her want to be black. On page 72 I found this passage to be very interesting, “…and that I would never be able to explain to her that I hated being white. Being white and getting like Hester, and all the things you get –old and sad and everything.” This really shows how much Anna really hates being white, but I was confused as to why she could never tell Francine this? I feel like Anna has a real struggle with her identity in this book, she doesn’t know what she sexually wants and what she struggles with her racial identity as well. I am kind of just confused by her confusion of herself.

Voyage in the Dark part 2

Something I noticed throughout the reading was Anna's want to be black rather than white.  Hester says, " I tried to teach you to talk like a lady and behave like a lady and not like a nigger and of course I couldn't do it. Impossible to get you away from the servants. That awful sing-song voice you had! Exactly like a nigger you talked- and still do" (Rhys 65). Later, Anna says, "...I hated being white" (Rhys 72). I wonder the reasoning for why she wants to be black, is it just because she was so fond of Francine?  I am also trying to figure out if this desire has something to do with the way she gives herself away sexually. She has this internal struggle of what she wants and what she doesn't. She gives herself up to a white male dominant figure, similar to a slave owner? At one point while engaging in sexual acts she thinks, "Maillotte Boyd, age 18. Maillotte Boyd, age 18... But I like it like this. I don't want it any other way but this" (Rhys 56). I think Maillotte Boyd is a slave girl, so I find it interesting that this is her thought process through the whole thing. However when she says "I like it like this. I don't want it any other way but this," I think that's her internal struggle becoming present. Again, I'm still trying to figure out Anna's desires and purposes for doing and wanting what she does, but I believe a big influence on her sexual acts has to do with her want of being black, whether it's consciously or subconsciously.

Voyage In The Dark - Part II

I was struck in this section of reading by Walter's comments on Vincent's girlfriend Germaine. On page 87, Walter and Anna are talking about Germaine, and he says, "she's old". When Anna replies, "I bet she isn't any older than Vincent", Walter says, "Well, that is old for a woman. Besides, she'll be blowsy in another year; she's that type." I then looked up "blowsy", which is used to refer mostly to women who are "coarse, untidy, and red-faced", I am assuming as they get older in age. Although Germaine seems a relatively unimportant character plot-wise, this part just frustrated me, because even though the two are the same age, Germaine is looked down upon over Vincent. The men of these chapters often refer to women's ages, and it is clear that they like to have a "young lady" around and cast her off when she is not longer as appealing.

Voyage in the Dark

Throughout the novel, there have been quite a few times when Anna speaks of not wanting to be white and how she longs to be black. In this past reading this quote, that takes place when she is sitting with Francine, really echoed her feelings about her race. "But I knew that of course she disliked me too because I was white; and that I would never be able to explain to her that I hated being white. Being white and getting like Hester, and all the things you get old and sad and everything" (72). This quote demonstrates her hatred towards being white. It seems as if being white is an embarrassment because that would mean that she is like Hester. She seems to have idolized Francine more than Hester, so that would explain why she would want to be black so that she could be more like Francine. She tends to question her identity and voice that she does not want to be white throughout the novel. Anna just seems like a young girl who is lost in her identity, not sure of who she is.

Voyage in the Dark- Reading #2

I was intrigued by author Jean Rhys's use of letters to illustrate the lack of respect prevalent in the male-female relationships within Voyage in the Dark. In this particular section of our reading there was two passages that struck me most, the letter that Anna's Uncle Ramsey sent to her step mother, as well as the letter that Vincent wrote to Anna in regards to Walter. Both showed blatant disrespect and lack of sympathy, Uncle Ramsey's letter believed to be "written with one solitary aim and object- it was written to hurt and grieve me" (Pg. 61) and Vincent's letter also containing content even more cruel, saying, "My dear Infant." (Pg. 93) Perhaps this Rhys meant to show the cruelty and insensitivity of men, or perhaps she meant something furthermore, like to show the cowardliness of men. These men had an important message to convey, yet they had to do so over pen and paper, Walter not even being able to do that for himself! What do you think about Rhys's use of letters within the text?

Voyage in the Dark

The way that men categorized women, especially Anna, in this book seemed to bother me. The men did not give women the respect that they deserve, this seemed to be very prevalent the entire time I was reading. Whatever age the women was at they still got treated more poorly than a male would. This was very evident in Vincent's letter to Anna when he addressed her as an Infant. Not only did it bother me that he called her this name and that she was treated as an infant, but also the fact that her feelings were never taken into consideration by the men. With Vincent writing the letter for Walter, shows that he does not have much care for her and that his sincerity isn't true. There seemed to be a repeating theme of lack of respect toward women in this novel.

iron jawed/voyage-ali pepin

i just wanted to make note of some of the things i found interesting about the movie.
one was that i found it very uplifting of how all the women stood together even if it meant many of them landed themselves in jail. this was prevelant in the jail cafeteria when alice paul came back to eat with the other women she did the hunger strike and all the women followed suit and also did the hunger strike. it's interesting how they were all very confident in eachother to hold steady and not give in as a group. also when the woman did not leave with her senator husband, this showed rebellion in her own way.

as for voyage in the dark-i'm still confused as to what Anna wants. She has sex with walter multiple times and is left sitting up waiting afterward and she just sits there thinking. she falls in love with him, but then he doesn't want her, so she's upset. but then she is promiscuous herself and then freaks out when laurie says she's a prostitute. i guess i don't understad what she wants.

she also seems very unwilling to change. the ways in which she tries to resist England in contrast to her 'beautiful Carribean' just shows she's constantly looking at the negative of the town rather than embracing where she is in the present. it's almost as though she's high maintenance, even when she doesn't get her way with Walter-how he leaves her, she's upset (which like i stated before is mostly her loving him). also the part where she tries to get walter to take her home and he won't then she kind of childishly states "oh well i'm leaving you, and i'm not telling you where i'm going." it seems altogether childish and immature.