Please answer a minimum of SIX of the following questions on Danzy Senna's novel Caucasia. Use specific examples from the novel to support your answers. For the sake of clarity please post your responses as a comment to this post. Your responses will be due by this Sunday (April 24th) at midnight. Please let me know if you have any questions.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Caucasia begins with Birdie's recollection: "A long time ago I disappeared. One day I was here, the next I was gone." Why does Birdie come to think of herself as having "disappeared" when living as Jesse Goldman? Is her ability to disappear a blessing or a curse? Is Birdie "passing" when she calls herself black, or when she calls herself white? When is she not passing?
2. Cole and Birdie speak Elemeno, a language named after their favorite letters in the alphabet, "with no verb tenses, no pronouns, just words floating outside time and space, without owner or direction" (p. 6). How does Elemeno reflect the sisters' positions in their family and in the world? Why does Elemeno continue to be so important to Birdie throughout the novel?
3. In what ways is the tension between Sandy and Cole typical of that between any mother and daughter, and in what ways is it specific to an interracial family? Do you agree with Cole's statement: "Mum doesn't know anything about raising a black child" (p. 44)? Does Sandy treat her two daughters differently based on their appearances?
4. Why do you think Deck treats Birdie with a "cheerful disinterest-never hostility or ill will, but with a kind of impatient amusement" (p. 47)? Do you think he loves Birdie? How do Birdie and Cole respond differently to Deck's teachings on race? Who internalizes his vision of America more? By the end of the novel, have Cole and Birdie embraced or rejected their parents' philosophies about the world? Which sister seems to have become more like Deck, and which more like Sandy?
5. Officially, Birdie has no name. Her birth certificate "still reads 'Baby Lee,' like the gravestone of some stillborn child" (p. 17). Her sister's name, meanwhile, was originally Colette after the French novelist, but was later shortened to Cole. Discuss the significance of the sisters' names.
6. Sandy and Deck are initially drawn together by a quote by the French existentialist writer, Camus, who wrote: "Do you drink coffee at night?" What does this initial encounter tell you about their compatibility, or incompatibility? Why does their relationship eventually sour? Do you believe they were torn apart because of external pressures, or internal ones? Do you think they would have stayed together had they lived in a less racially divided city or in another country altogether? By the end of the novel, does Birdie believe that her parents really loved each other? Do you believe that they did?
7. Birdie refers to the time she spends on the run with Sandy, while "the lie of our false identities seemed irrelevant" (p. 116), as "dreamlike." Despite a sense of loneliness, Birdie says she felt "comfort in that state of incompletion" (p. 116). Do you feel that this experience weighed more positively or negatively in Birdie's development? By the end of the novel, has she found "completion"-or will she continue to live in this state of incompletion?
8. How did Sandy and Birdie's stay at Aurora affect Birdie's emerging sexual identity? How do her sexual experiences with Alexis compare to her later sexual experiences with Nicholas in New Hampshire? Does Birdie's emerging sexuality in any way parallel her search for racial identity?
9. Redbone lurks in the background of the novel as a sinister figure. Why does he initially take such an interest in Birdie? Why does he take her photograph in the playground? Do you believe he is in part responsible for the troubles that befall the family? Ultimately, who or what do you feel is to blame for Cole and Birdie's separation?
10. Birdie often seeks her reflection in other women's faces. What parts of herself does she see mirrored in Cole? Sandy? Maria? Samantha? Dot? Penelope? Mona? Others? What are the potential advantages and disadvantages to being a chameleon?
11. Birdie holds on to a fantasy of helping Deck's research by spying on white people while "passing." How does she fail or succeed in her study? What does she find out? Does she become Jesse Goldman, or is she able to remain Birdie in disguise? Are her fantasies about Deck shattered or fulfilled when she encounters him at the novel's conclusion?
12. At some point in New Hampshire, Birdie starts to add items to her box of "negrobilia." Discuss the significance of the various "artifacts" Birdie keeps in her box. Do they succeed in helping her remember Cole and Deck?
13. In the woods one night in New Hampshire, Samantha says to Birdie: " 'I'm black. Like you' " (p. 242). Do you think Samantha has been aware of Birdie's racial heritage all along, or is Birdie mishearing her? What or who gives Birdie the courage to finally leave New Hampshire?
14. Birdie sees her mother as "a long-lost daughter of Mayflower histories, forever in motion, running from or toward an utterable hideaway" (p. 286). In your opinion, is Sandy more "a hero, a madwoman, or a fool" (p. 332)? What motivated her to take up a life of political activism? What has she sacrificed in the process?
15. Do you agree with Deck that race is "a complete illusion... a costume" (p. 334)? Does Birdie and Cole's experience prove that racial identity is simply a costume, or something deeper?
16. In the novel's conclusion, Birdie says to her sister: " 'They say you don't have to choose. But... there are consequences if you don't.'" Cole replies: " 'Yeah, and there are consequences if you do.'" What are the consequences of choosing and not choosing? Have Birdie and Cole chosen one part of their racial heritage over the other by the novel's conclusion?
17. Birdie writes, "While there seemed to be remnants of my mother's family everywhere-history books, PBS specials, plaques in Harvard Square-my father's family was a mystery. It was as if my father and Dot had arisen out of thin air." Does her mother's white family's written history shape her identity more than her black imagined one? How does knowing or not knowing one's history contribute to one's sense of identity? Does what we learn about ourselves through oral or written histories give us a different understanding of ourselves?
18. Do you agree with Deck's theory about mulattos in America functioning as canaries in the coal mine? Is Birdie a canary in the coal mine? What do you imagine her fate will be?
3. In some ways the tension between Sandy and Cole are typically of any mother and daughter. They begin to bicker. Cole becomes more interested in boys and friends at school then staying at home and her mother and her begin to drift apart. But in someways it is specific to an interracial family. Cole is constantly getting upset with her mother because she feels like her mother cannot relate to her. Sandy cannot to Cole's hair and she doesn't understand why Cole gets upset when she does her hair wrong. I agree in some ways that Sandy did not know how to raise a black child because some issues like doing Cole's hair was foreign to Sandy. I think that Sandy does treat Birdie better because 1: she sees how much attention Deck gives Cole and 2: because she can relate to Birdie better.
ReplyDelete5. I think the names of Cole and Birdie show just what they are going through with racial identity. The girls have names that are very different from their birth certificates, and the girls identities are changing depending on where they are in life. In the novel it states that birdie was called several different names when she was a baby. This is just like how Birdie is constantly trying to figure out what racial identity she is.
8. Sandy and Birdie's stay at Aurora had a huge impact on Birdie's emerging sexuality because her sexual experiences with Alexis was the first time she ever engaged in any behavior like that. In the text it seemed as though Birdie enjoyed her experiences with Alexis more then she did with Nicholas. It seemed too forced with Nicholas. It also seemed that Birdie felt she needed to like Nicholas because all the girls in her school thought he was cute. I believe Birdies sexuality is parallel to her search for her racial identity. She seems to be looking for both of them. But in the end I don't think Birdie ever really finds her sexuality.
9. I believe Redbone takes an interest in Birdie because she is just like him a light-skinned biracial. I honestly believe that Redbone just took a picture of Birdie at school because he is a creep. I do not believe that Redbone is the cause of the troubles the family is going through. However, I do believe that e is the reason Sandy is in trouble. Ultimately, I believe that Sandy is the reason for Cole and Birdies separation. I believe that Sandy should have ran off on her own or let the FBI get her. She should never have let Cole and Birdie split up. I think taking Birdie with her when she was so young was a selfish thing for Sandy to do.
ReplyDelete13. Yes, I believe that Samantha has been aware of Birdie's race the entire time. But I have not come up with an explanation on why she has not said anything before. I think fear is what finally gave Birdie the courage to leave New Hampshire. Birdie left because she was afraid that because Samantha knew she was biracial that all the other kids in New Hampshire would find out and that they would make fun of Birdie like they did with Samantha. I think Birdie left because she wanted to be around people who she didn't have to pretend she was someone else.
16. I think the consequences of choosing is that you are limiting yourself to one race. If you decide to be white of black you have to completely eliminate the other part of you. However, if you do not choose you are letting other people make the decision for you. In the black school that Cole and Birdie went to students thought Birdie was white, and because they chose her race for her they make fun of her and almost cut her hair off. By the end of the novel I believe that Cole has chosen her heritage. I think she always has known her heritage. However I do not believe that Birdie has chosen or even will choose her heritage.
2. Cole and Birdie speak Elemeno, a language named after their favorite letters in the alphabet, "with no verb tenses, no pronouns, just words floating outside time and space, without owner or direction" (p. 6). How does Elemeno reflect the sisters' positions in their family and in the world? Elemeno’s was very symbolic of Birdies and Coles Position in their family at the time when they were children and their parents were fighting all the time, Because then at that time although things were far from good they in their family they were all together. Like them the language of Elemeno’s belonged to no one. It wasn’t divided it they were both without ownership or direction. Sandy took care of them as best she could in between her basement activities and visitors. Deck was an intellectual who was always more devoted to his high ideals about race and put all his energies selfishly into his career as a professor and his scholarly writings on race in America. So Elemeno’s was a language that was a symbolic representations of a time in which their relationship as sisters was uninterrupted by school, the “real world”, their parents bickering or theories on race, Nor their activism, Not the revolutions or even Dots leaving could disrupt what Birdie and Cole shared. A time “without verb tenses, no pronounce, just them two floating outside of time and space, without owner or direction.” This language also started while Birdie was in the womb. She herself often describes her unborn self as a floating stranger in the womb of her mother. Elemeno also described Birdies unborn self. Why does Elemeno continue to be so important to Birdie throughout the novel? It was her direct life line to her memories of both her and Cole’s life together. It was the last real shred of proof of a time in which Cole and Deck really existed to her. When they existed with her, He broken home was bearable as long as they were all together. Out of all the paranoia and dreamlike travels she held on to this secret language long after she could no longer understand it because it was her own personal proof of her own secret truth. The truth about who she really is and where she is really from.
ReplyDelete4. Why do you think Deck treats Birdie with a "cheerful disinterest-never hostility or ill will, but with a kind of impatient amusement" (p. 47)? Do you think he loves Birdie? Deck loved Birdie very much. He just allowed her physical appearance of being white, get in the way of him being a good father to her. He felt as if he couldn’t relate to her the same ways as he did with Cole. He felt protective over her but he didn’t feel possessive over her. He lacked ownership and the same type of closeness to her that he had with Cole. How do Birdie and Cole respond differently to Deck's teachings on race? As a child Cole wasn’t too interested, She never really listens to him as much as he wanted her too. Birdie listened in on all his lessons taught Cole. She longed to gain his attention the way Cole did. She wanted to Deck to pay attentions to her as well. She was jealous of Cole and his relationship. With Cole around Birdie disappeared in Deck’s eyes. Who internalizes his vision of America more? Both as a child and as a young adult Birdie did. She also did more due to her experiences while on living in New Hampshire. She often got through the open racism by pretending she was a spy working for her father. Birdie fantasized about her passing being a racial spy mission that was all in the name of her father’s research for his book. By the end of the novel, have Cole and Birdie embraced or rejected their parents' philosophies about the world? I think Birdie had traumatically had enough with both of her parent’s ideals. I think she was just be reunited with Cole and Deck, then once she saw that they had moved on also that neither one of them had been really looking for her she was more at peace with all she had learned and undergone in order to find herself she was more of a blank slate. She was always going to be a nervous, paranoid person but she also realized so was Cole. Birdie just wanted to find them and now that she has Birdie was more so ready to define her own self in this world. She had already begun to gain her own philosophies outside of her parents; she rejected the religious mantra’s her mother did, she also rejected her father’s obsessive ideal about race concerning mullatos especially concerning her and Cole. Which sister seems to have become more like Deck, and which more like Sandy? Birdie is most like Deck. She is very intelligent, she likes to write and she is more concerned with race then Cole ever was, because of her experiences and how race has personally affected her in her life. Cole reminds me of Sandy with the activism rallies in her house and the college groups she was going out of the country with to help others in Guatemala. That is something Sandy would be supportive of Deck was only concerned with race relations and the progress of Black people or the reason for the lack of progress of the Black people in America.
ReplyDelete7. Birdie refers to the time she spends on the run with Sandy, while "the lie of our false identities seemed irrelevant" (p. 116), as "dreamlike." Despite a sense of loneliness, Birdie says she felt "comfort in that state of incompletion" This state of incompletion was comforting in the ideal that as long as they were on the run and not permanently starting a new life without Cole and Her father meant to Birdie that her and her mother were still waiting for them. Waiting to put their family back together , back to what it was. (p. 116). Do you feel that this experience weighed more positively or negatively in Birdie's development? It was both. She was socially awkward living her life in fear of being “found out” on so many levels; her race/her father and sister, her mother’s past/crimes, and her sexuality. So she has developed nervous habits hair twisting, nail biting. Then it affected her positively because as Deck showed her on the chart they are the first surviving generations of biracial people. He was sick. But what I got from this is that both she and Cole are his life’s work and that he split the family up like he did for the sake of ensuring their survival. Birdie was made strong, like her mother even stronger then her mother because of all she had experienced in her young life. By the end of the novel, has she found "completion"-or will she continue to live in this state of incompletion? She found her completions. She had to even remind herself of this at the end as she watched a little bi-racial school girl through a school bus window with an indifferent expression on her face. She reminded her of Cole but before she began to feel sad she had to remind herself of what she had found. “I began to lift my hand, but stopped remembering where I was and what I had already found.” (p.413)
ReplyDelete13. In the woods one night in New Hampshire, Samantha says to Birdie: " 'I'm black. Like you' " (p. 242). Do you think Samantha has been aware of Birdie's racial heritage all along, or is Birdie mishearing her? In my opinion Samantha knew that Birdie was not white, like she said at first “you’re Jewish”, but then that night at the party Birdie had gotten drunk and Samantha too had been drinking. They both knew of each other but weren’t really friends. I think its possible Samantha may have said it in sarcastically because she was in a rush to get back inside to the party and out of the rain. Plus she probably thought it was a very silly question to ask with such an obvious answer. She may have been unaware of how serious Birdie was, how loaded these questions were for her; That she was expecting Samantha as another black girl who was able to survive in New Hampshire (like Cole could have.) to have the secret ability to really see her. She wanted to believe that Samantha’s gaze had enough power to see the real her. Not Jess Goldman BUT Birdie Lee. What or who gives Birdie the courage to finally leave New Hampshire? Samantha. What Samantha told her sarcastically “I’m black. Like you.” Was the defining moment for her. This was the straw that broke the camels back for Birdie. See Birdie saw Samantha as a doomed character. A black girl who would always have one true friend, because she was black, is made into the school slut by the white boys of New Hampshire used for sex then made into a cheap locker room joke. ONLY because she was black. Never have her hair or skin properly attended to. Because she was black and her adoptive parents don’t know about these things to tell it teach it to her. She would always wear makeup and clothing that was unflattering. In an attempt to fit in with the white majority in the small town. Because she was black. And even after all of this she would never be truly accepted in that small town nor treated fairly, because she was black. So those words mad Birdie flee New Hampshire because she didn’t want to live the lie anymore, nor turn into such a tragic character as Samantha was destine to if she stayed there. See her and Samantha’s struggle was only different because of her lie. This along wither visit to New York City made her long to be around other black people. Black people who weren’t doomed by their locations, Yet black people who moved freely like her aunt Dot in India, and her Father and sister in Brazil. The weight of those words made Birdie want find her family, to really live free or die. (She couldn’t do either one in New Hampshire.)
ReplyDelete15. Do you agree with Deck that race is "a complete illusion... a costume" (p. 334)? Does Birdie and Cole's experience prove that racial identity is simply a costume, or something deeper? Yes and No. Race can be both these things but above all it’s a very dangerous notion. Race is constructed but it’s constructed differently depending on who is doing the defining. People live and die over race. Race can be a costume in the since that when you wear a costume you become that thing. But we have all seen some one in a bad costume before, the one in which everyone has a different ideal of who or what that person is suppose to be. People usually ask “what are you suppose to be?” then that person tells you. But with race people particularly one with motives fueled by haltered they don’t bother to ask “what race are you suppose to be?” No they make that assumption first, now a day’s its common for people to ask others what is their race, ethnicity or nationality. (often times not knowing the difference between the three.) then when they have guessed right or wrong they usually respond with; “I kind of thought so” or “oh okay. Cause I couldn’t figure it our but I knew you had to be…/ Or you just couldn’t be ….” But this is the simplistic complexities that make race so hard to even define. And when this notion is so objective it becomes loaded, thus making it always and forever something deeper. Most war, conflict in the world had something to do with race. (The Civil war, The Holocaust, The Middle East particularly Israel, The genocide in Rwanda Africa. ) So if race is something that so simple that a person can simply change theirs by “passing” as another race, But think about it this way If it’s so simple as a “costume” or “illusion” then why would you want to change such a largely significant part of their being too began with? Or why would you ever have to? Why do people die for this construct? Why do people kill over this construct?
ReplyDelete16. In the novel's conclusion, Birdie says to her sister: " 'They say you don't have to choose. But... there are consequences if you don't.'" Cole replies: " 'Yeah, and there are consequences if you do.'" What are the consequences of choosing and not choosing? The Consequences are made clear in this novel; When it comes to biracial persons that if they claim ownership to one race vs. another they will in a sense be denying the other part of them. And If they don’t define or claim their race, that society and every one in it will define their identity for them. (To Nicholas she was “Pocahontas”, (Indian) to Samantha she was “black like her”. To Mona she was Jewish then she became a New Hampshire girl, To her own father she was neither black nor white anymore but a canary. She was a case study, One of his “real projects.”) Her parents chose, they chose to allow the birth of their child (Birdie) of a fairer skin complexion to become an issue in their marriage. They chose to split the children based on their own ideals of race and what would be easier for them instead of what was good for their children. Sandy chose to move to New Hampshire where she knew the racial environment was such that she wouldn’t be able to get by well by making known she was the mother of a black child. She chose to make Birdie have to keep her father and sister a secret. She chose to make Birdie pass as Jewish. She chose Jess Goldman. Have Birdie and Cole chosen one part of their racial heritage over the other by the novel's conclusion? Yeah Birdie is constantly fighting to be seen as black. The side of herself she was forced to denounce, to hide, and to repress along with the memories of Boston, Deck and Cole. Birdie always internalized herself based on how other seen her. People constantly were study her face, each one often amused at what they saw each time. Each person defined her differently, even her own grandmother’s gaze had the power to make her feel ashamed. So she was always searching for herself in the gaze of others. Birdie always saw herself in Cole. I think Cole had long defined who she was, She had no real issues on her racial identity but she had to get from under her father in order to truly define what her perception of herself was going to be as a Black woman. She didn’t really Identify with being whit when She was younger due to her appearance, Also she was still a teen and didn’t realize that by denying her mother and her white heritage that it would result in her being separated from Birdie and her mother. I’m sure if she knew that she wouldn’t have made such a fuss about her hair or Over how great Carmen was.
ReplyDelete18. Do you agree with Deck's theory about mulattos in America functioning as canaries in the coal mine? I agree that this was how he himself in fact saw his daughter’s. I think that during the 1970’s at the height of racial tensions, bad race relations in America that many people were against interracial dating only because they feared what this meant for the children. People in mixed race marriages faced new challenges for building a family; because of the times being so tumultuous they feared what the future would be like. They truly didn’t know what they were embarking on but they took that risk. I believe Deck in particular who was a overly intellectual who felt he had something to prove not to just white people but black people as well that he was going to use his daughters as canaries to test the poisonous fumes of racism in this coal mine called America. (Their parents both felt they had something to prove with the way they groom their children educationally.) In which both he and sandy had been struggling, fighting to survive themselves from opposite sides of the spectrum. Sandy was drowning in stuffy high-class suburbia, Deck too was drowning at the intellectual sphere of Harvard in racist city of Boston during the 1970’s. Is Birdie a canary in the coal mine? Birdie’s whole being was sorrowful from the start, her parents couldn’t agree on her name, their relationship became unhealthy. And fell apart Birdie became the manifestation of both Deck and Sandy’s competing theories, philosophies, lifestyles and hypocrisy. They believed so much in the same things, when Cole was born still; only because her appearance of being black and looking black. This was expected. This was their vision. They even named her after a prominent French Author who they both admired. But once Birdie was born her appearance was disruptive only because she didn’t look black; Due to this Deck in particular felt less ownership towards her. Sandy felt she had to be both more possessive over her, at times more and less protective over her for separate reason then with Cole. What do you imagine her fate will be? I believe that Birdies fate she will decide. She probably will remain living with Cole, get into college. Cole and she will meet up with their mom in New York. Birdie is most definitely going to travel. I know she will because movement was what makes her feel whole plus Cole wanted to go somewhere out of the country with one of her college groups to bring them food and supplies, Birdie scared of losing her asked to come along as well. She has found her family again although they are scattered still, although they have all moved on without her in many ways. I think she has made her peace with everything now that she has found them. She found a little bit of her old self but is also ready to define her own Identity as a whole.
ReplyDelete1. She thinks of herself as disappeared while living as Jesse Goldman for a few reasons. The first being that feels almost completely disconnected from her African heritage, save for the box her sister and father left for her labeled “negrobilia.” Also, she takes on the identity of someone she does not relate to (a half Jewish girl). Her ability to disappear is useful for the purpose of her mother and her being on the run for the FBI, however it constantly makes Birdie question who she is as a person. I think Birdie is constantly having to “pass,” regardless of whether is trying to be white or black, because she is taking on a necessary persona and is never really being herself until the end of the book.
ReplyDelete5. The significance of Birdie having no official name is that she often feels invisible to those around her. She knows that her father prefers her sister and that her sister gets more attention than she does. As the younger, lighter skinned child, Birdie often feels as though she was unwanted or forgot. It’s as if no one cared about her enough to give her a proper name. Cole’s real name being Colette after the French novelist shows how her parents had high expectations of her and how they saw her as beautiful, because her parents were brought together by their mutual love of French writers.
4. Deck treats Birdie the way he does because, as the lighter skinned daughter, he has a harder time connecting with her. Also, he doesn’t view her as being “as black” as Cole. I think he loves Birdie, because she is his daughter, but that he feels no deeper connection with her. When Deck tries to instill his teaching about race to his daughters, Birdie is always eager to please him with a correct response, but it’s Cole’s opinion he is always looking for. However, Cole is not as eager to learn about White-Black race relationships. By the end of the book, both Cole and Birdie seem to reject their parent’s philosophies about the world and race, because they see the flaws in them (Cole from running away to Brazil and Birdie from constantly running from the law). By the end of the book, the girls seem to have the characteristics of the opposite parent with whom they lived for so many years, because they see the flaws in the lifestyles of the parent they did live with.
8. Sandy and Birdie’s stay at the Aurora commune left an interesting impact on Birdie’s sexual identity, because of the relationship she shared with Alexis. Alexis was a girl whose father abuses her mother. As a result, she has a skewed version of what love and relationships should be like. When she and Birdie share a mattress at the commune, she makes Birdie “be the guy” in the game of honeymoon: ultimately just an experience of two children exploring their sexualities. Her relationship with Nicholas in New Hampshire is different because it is consensual and he is considerate of her feelings. She also mentions that she “liked kissing him.” Her emerging sexual identity parallels her search for racial identity, because Birdie is constantly looking to find her place in the world. She is constantly seeking to find her place in a world that is constantly defined by “black” and “white.”
ReplyDelete17. Because Birdie was raised primarily by her mother and because her father excluded her from most of his lessons in African history, Birdie’s white written history shapes her identity far more than her imagined black one. She isn’t able to connect with a history she doesn’t know about and after her father and Cole leave for Brazil, she has no visible roots to her black heritage. When people do not know their family history or heritage, they often find it difficult to connect their identity to it. The things that we are most exposed to tend to form the people we become, and without exposure to elements of our oral and written histories, we will be shaped by other things around us instead of our pasts.
18. Deck’s theory about mulattos in American functioning as canaries in a coal mind is completely valid. Canaries in a coal mine act as a test for toxic gases, so if they survive then humans are safe to enter the mine. Mulatto’s act as a test for the race relation tone in America and they are plausibly able to “pass” in both worlds, however, Cole and Birdie’s existence show that this is often a difficult thing to do. Someone of mixed race may feel more inclined to choose one racial identity over another. I believe that if the story was to continue, Birdie would eventually find herself in a place where she could reconcile her two racial identities and begin to feel more comfortable with identity.
1. Birdie felt as if she was being completely erased when she was Jesse Goldman. She it wasn’t that just half of her was gone but all of her was gone. Birdie and Cole are biracial, meaning they are both black and white. They are not black or white both a combination of both! Therefore, they are passing anytime they claim to be anything other than biracial. Saying this, by passing her off as Jesse Goldman, her mom erased her history and essentially her in the process.
ReplyDelete2. When kids grow into teenagers, they always pull away from their parents. Sometimes it seems as if the parents are doing everything wrong and they never seem to understand you. In many ways Cole and Sandy were just going through normal family conflicts. At the same time, the race issue just added flames to the fire. I do not believe, nor do I think Cole believed, her mother doesn’t know how to raise a black child. I think cole was just repeating things she heard other people say. Although, I do think that sandy began to believe in those comments and it did cause there rift to grow. I do not think that she treated cole and birdie different based on their appearance but more so, on their age.
3. I think sandy and deck formed a relationship out of loneliness. That is the only thing they had in come. The relationship was doomed from the start and it would have end no matter what the circumstances were. They never loved each other they just simply need each other. Once one felt they didn’t need the other, the relationship was over.
4. I think it weighed negatively on birdie. The whole experience cause her to have an identity crisis. It sent in search of something that no longer existed and in the end left her incomplete. She wasn’t Jesse Goldman but at the same time the life she had as birdie was ultimately gone.
5. Whenever someone who is biracial is claiming to be one race, it not only weighs on them but upsets the other race. People feel as if that person is that being their true self or are assumed of their other side. On the other hand, if a person does not identify with either one then they are someone people can’t relate to. As a consequence they are ostracized. I don’t think neither Cole nor birdie picked a side by the end of the book.
6. I think sandy is a fool. She didn’t become an activist because she believed in the cause. She became an activist because it gave her a purpose. She had nothing in her life before deck lee. He gave a purpose and a place where she was accepted. I don’t she sacrificed anything she wasn’t already ready to give up.
2. Elemeno holds such significance to Birdie because it represents a way for Birdie and Cole to belong to something. The quote describes the language as being free and floating and having no particular owner. Birdie and Cole have perpetual struggles with their racial context, neither necessarily belonging to either community, stuck in a bitter battle between their parents.
ReplyDeleteElemeno represents freedom from racial constructs. Birdie doesn't have to worry about what it means to have a white parent and a black parent. She doesn't have to worry about passing. Whenever she and her sister speak Elemeno, they just can be their own beings.
3.) I think that the family tries its hardest to function in the tumultuous times they live in. But at the end of the day, Sandy doesn't know how to have a black daughter and Deck doesn't necessarily know how to have a white daughter. For example, the whole hair situation in the beginning with Cole's hair becoming wild and unruly. Sandy had no idea how to treat Cole's hair, because it was unlike her own. Where as Birdie's hair was like hers and it was something she knew how to handle.
Sandy complete inability to braid Cole's hair and the fact that she HURT her while doing it, is indicative and representative of their inability to function as a full family unit. Mainly because no matter how hard they tried, the family's issue lay in the fact that there are things about each other they just can't understand.
5.)Birdie and Cole represent the existential crisis of the main character. The whole concept of "Baby Lee" and the stillborn imagery associated with it represents Birdie's ability to pass her biracialism, almost as if she is a ghost. "Baby Lee" represents the baby that was never born, the baby the parents would never have. Birdie's identity crisis is reflected in her lack of an actual name.
In contrast to Cole, who was named with great thought and passion based on their parents similiar interests. Cole's name being set in concrete for her entire life represents the fact that even though she has a white mother, she can in no way pass like Birdie can. Cole actually being named means that she identify with some sort of community.
Also, Cole's name, for me, brings up imagery of the physical COAL and its color. Which is yet another sign of the difference in appearance between Birdie and Cole.
6.)I believe that Deck and Sandy were drawn together by mutual intrigues into one another's races. Deck being a highly educated, scholarly and black. Sandy being kind of oblivious, curious and white. They bonded over the Camus quote. It brought them together, both intellectual, both seemingly empty.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately their relationship drives them apart as they find themselves on opposite ends of the activist spectrum. And both of their inabilities to raise the child of the opposite seeming race.
I think that in today's world, racial diversity is more readily accepted. Perhaps if they lived in this time period, things would have been different. We live in a far more progressive era with less emphasis on suffering. I think a lot of what tore them apart was the fundamentalism of racism during time period. Having said that, I just don't think either of them necessarily knew how to be parents in general. Something that makes me think this is the passage where Birdie is talking about old christmases and how their parents would often mix up their favorite things and give the opposite presents to the girls.
9.) Redbone has an obssession with Birdie because he sees a lot of himself in her. In general, I found myself incredibly uneasy about his character. I think that he was just a creep. But, there are multiple moments in the script where he is treated in such a way that doesn't validate his race. People write him off as being "white" and mixed up. He doesn't get to belong to a race that he's a actually a part. And this is what he sees in Birdie. Birdie doesn't get to belong to a race that she's a part of. She doesn't get to keep that. Neither does he, so he's drawn to her in that way.
16.) In an ideal world, we can celebrate all that we are. Unfortunately, when it comes to being biracial, people are called for being either one or the other. There is no inbetween. There are consequences either way. If you choose to exist as simply one race, because you can't get away with it, you're forsaking a whole part of you. Part of what makes you who you are. It's almost like erasing that part of yourself.
By not choosing, a person risks the feeling of not belonging. They don't necessarily get to have a community because of all the critics out there who make sure of that.
I feel as though Birdie is perpetually stuck in the the inbetween. She doesn't want to forsake who she is, but it's so much easier to pass.
#1) I think that she saw herself as having disappeared in more ways than one. First in terms of Cole; from early childhood Birdie's world revolved around Cole. In her fantasy world she was one with Cole. When her father took Cole away; the world as she knew it disappeared. At the same time; her mother thrust her into becoming Jesse Goldman. She found that she could physically disappear (detach), and watch herself interact with others as Jesse. It also strengthened her to not openly react to insults and hurts on behalf of Birdie. Her ability to do that was both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand it served as a buffer protecting Birdie’s true identity. On the other hand it deepened her already negative sense of invisibility developed as a child. She has had to pass as both black and white. When she and Cole finally went to regular public school; to fit in she felt she was passing for black. As Jesse she was passing for white. Once she made the decision to leave her mother she was no longer passing as anything, she was Birdie Lee!
ReplyDelete#2) Cole and Birdie’s existence in their family seems to be the same as Elemeno. Neither of their parents seem to own them together or provide any structured direction. As a result they exist in the world the same way. Elemeno remained the one thing that Cole and Birdie created, owned, and understood just for themselves. It was their special connection. Although during their separation; Birdie experienced a brief period where she thought she had lost its understanding and it didn’t make much sense; she got past it. She was able to recognize the loss had to do with her loss of Cole.
#3) Some of the typical tension has to do with Cole becoming an adolescent and expressing her individuality. That can be a time when a girl wants and needs her mother’s nurturing guidance; while at the same time have a strong desire to pull away, be more private. In terms of an interracial family; that pull away could involve even more confusion. Especially in her family in that neither of her parents have helped to instill a clear and strong sense of self identity. Yes, I agree with Cole’s statement. Sandy hadn’t really been exposed to much diversity. At least not to the point of any meaningful interactions; that could have afforded her some insights. On page 55 Cole pointed this out further when she was talking about getting her hair done at a salon. The texture of Cole’s hair was very different than Birdie’s hair. Sandy knew nothing about caring for Cole’s hair and/or lotions for her skin. I don’t think Sandy was that aware of just how much she treated the girls differently. Which I found interesting because she noticed how Deck treated them differently.
#7) I believe the experience was positive in that it sort of served as a temporary buffer to the harsh reality that was her life. Especially since she didn’t fully know the dangerous activities that her mom had participated in. I also believe it was negative in that it compounded her lack of self-esteem and true self identity. By the end of the novel Birdie has only completed the physical search for Deck and Cole. She is painfully aware of how different they are from what she remembered as a child. At the very end she hints at her current mixed state of mind when she refers to the school bus moving off as just a blur of yellow and black. As for her continuing to live in that state of incompletion depends on her self-growth thereafter.
#13) I believe Birdie misheard Samantha. I think Birdie wanted to believe that someone could actually recognize her for who she really was, Birdie a black girl, and yet keep the secret. I believe what prompted her flight was her mother’s confession to Jim combined with Jim trying to develop a closer relationship with her. Sandy had instilled such a sense of urgent secrecy in her that she wasn’t quite ready to believe that it was safe for anyone to know their real identities. For Birdie, that wasn’t supposed to be okay until they were reunited with Cole and Deck. However, if the game rules were changing, then it was time for her to get moving in the direction that she wished her mom had….and that was to find Cole and Deck.
ReplyDelete#16) If one chooses then they are locked into that identity and all the labels that accompany it. You’re expected to accept the role without question and frowned upon if you dare to stand up and defend your rights and/or dispel any myths. If you don’t choose, others will choose for you and you’re faced with the same stereotypical labels and run the risk of not fitting into or being accepted by any particular group. It appears that Cole and Birdie have chosen their black heritage.
2. In the Book, the sister said that Elemeno is a shifting place where people can change color and theres no hate there. Elemeno is important to Birdie because its the only place she can be herself and alone. A place were she doesn't have to worry anything and where she can be herself and not pretend to be anyone or anything else.
ReplyDelete5. For Birdie, her parents couldn't come up with a name for her because they would argue so much about it. I feel birdie is more ambiguous because of this.
9. I think Redbone takes an interest in Birdie from the very beginning when he picks her up at Dot's house. I think he can see that she can be white if she wants to and hide her black side and I don't he likes that idea. I don't believe he is the one responsible for splitting up Birdies family. I feel the parents should be held responsible for the separation of Cole and Birdie. Both parents couldn't handle being in a mixed relationship during this time.
14. I believe Sandy is a fool and a madwomen. I believe she took up political activism because she loved Deck and after Deck and her separated she began to go crazy and make stupid life decisions. She sacrificed Cole and by doing that I believe she sacrificed Birdie too. By separating the two sisters she lost both of her daughters. She sacrificed Birdie also by bringing her along with her to go into hiding with her away from her father and sister.
15. I disagree with Deck about race being an illusion or a costume. I believe in Birdie's case it can be a costume for her on the outside but she will always know who she really is and race can't cover up what she knows about her family history.
17. I believe by knowing her mother's family history and not knowing her father's family history that it does shape her differently. I believe that it made her more white and less black. Knowing your family's history does have an effect on your identity because without your ancestors who are you? I don't think it matters if we learn through oral history or written history as long as you know about your family history.
2. Elemeno was an escape from the world that Cole and Birdie were a part of. It was a part of them, and specific to their situation, a place to escape to where they were always accepted. But it was also a conflict piece between Deck and Sandy. “My father also blamed my mother for raising us in that kind of chaos. He said we were suffering from a “profound indifference” to the world around us”. Maybe they were. Elemeno allowed them to be in a world of their own that was uninfluenced by their parent’s arguments or the judgments of the outside world. It continues to be of great importance because it’s a reminder. It means no worrying about race, a time and place that acceptance exists.
ReplyDelete3. Mother and daughters tend to go through their fair share of problems, I assume mostly all of them do. I know my mother and I didn’t always see eye to eye on things. But it does seem to be, at least partially, racially specific. I do wonder if Sandy was suited to take care of a black child, but that isn’t necessarily her fault. And you can’t make complete judgments based on Sandy’s inability to do her hair. Sandy does seem to feel closer to Birdie, just like Deck and Cole seem to be closer to each other.
5. Birdies lack of a name sometimes understandably led to feelings of being misplaced. Besides Cole receiving more attention on a regular basis, this lack of a name leaves Birdie feeling “invisible”. Aside from a racial identity confusion, Birdie also deals with an identity confusion with the lack of a name. It’s a reflection of the difference in treatment of the two girls. Cole’s name was well thought out and gave her a sense of attachment and uniqueness that she could hold on to, Birdie had none.
9. Redbone feels drawn to Birdie because he can familiarize himself with her. People sometimes don’t exactly know what category to put him in either. Some consider him white, confused, mixed up. He, like Birdie, loses a part of himself along the way. They are unable to hold onto a part of their history, their race. Though Redbones character is an uncomforting one in my opinion, he does identify with Birdies situation closely.
13. I do think Samantha knew that Birdie was racially mixed but I don’t find much proof of it in the text, it’s more of a feeling. I think if it was a detail we were meant to be certain of that Senna would have made certain we knew. I think Birdie realized that if she left New Hampshire she could identify with what she wanted, she wouldn’t have to pretend or put on a show in order to fit in. Samantha knowing meant the possibility of others finding out and I think that didn’t settle well with Birdie.
17. I think it is very clear that, especially for Birdie, white history was more prevalent in her self identity than her black, imagined, background. You need to be educated by your family about where you came from, what struggles you’ve gone through, in order to really get a sense of dedication to that aspect of your personal history. Birdie lacked that. On top of not understanding her history on the inside, she didn’t look historically black on the outside either. She lost her connection to it. I believe that we must educate ourselves in order to educate others and unfortunately Birdie lost some details about herself along the way.
1. Birdie sees herself as having disappeared as Jesse for several reasons. First, she has identified herself with Cole for her entire life, and literally overnight, that identification is gone. Second, Jesse is an identity given to her, one she has not chosen, and one that is outside of the life she has grown into. Third, Jesse is the daughter of Sheila, the woman her mother has become. An angry, cynical, suspicious woman whom Birdie has to complement as they lie their way from place to place.
ReplyDelete2. Elemeno is something the girls define and create themselves. It is something they can speak openly in front of their parents without them understanding or hearing what they are saying. While the outside world sees Cole as a dark-skinned girl and Birdie as a light-skinned girl, and while outsiders define them as separate, the sisters see themselves as only sisters. Elemeno allows them something they alone create without restriction or questioning. As Birdie gets deeper into the lives of Sheila and Jesse, she begins to forget the meanings of the Elemeno words she and Cole had created, but she can still remember the feeling of the words as they roll off her tongue. I think this mirrors the way her old life falls away, but she can still remember specific aspects of it.
3. I think the tension between Cole and Sandy is normal in that mothers and daughters always experience a sort of disconnect at certain ages. Birdie, being the younger daughter and the narrator, might not understand this kind of tension because she is younger. On the other hand, Cole has been molded to see herself as strictly a Black child by her father. In that way, she is hearing things that make her feel as if there should be a certain alienation between her and her mother. I don't think Sandy treats her daughters differently, but I do think she recognizes that Cole and her father see her differently and perhaps she reacts to that.
4. I think Deck sees Birdie in the same way he sees Sandy. He sees them as White people who can't understand his struggle, despite their strong desire to understand and fight oppression. I think perhaps Birdie understands more than Cole at the end how things are. She is able to see how race has created such an extreme barrier and how these struggles and the racially transient nature of her skin color have made her able to travel within different circles.
5. I think the significance of Birdie's lack of an official and legal name reflects the fact that her parents see her with a flimsy racial identity. She is light-skinned, but she is still half African-American. I think that their parents had definite goals of what they wanted for Cole. They wanted her to be a confident, aware, and strong dark-skinned child. Her father wants her to identify as strictly African-American, while he sees Birdie as lacking the capacity to understand because of her light skin.
15. I agree that race is a complete illusion in the sense that is a societal construction with no biological proof behind it. However it is an illusion that people choose to see as a concrete truth. The sisters' experience proves that it is something deeper. In Cole's experience, she was pressured to only accept one side of her racial makeup. Race was not an illusion in her life as it was visible and it made her father see her more as an ally. For Birdie, race is something that she is able to travel through. Her lighter skin allowed her to claim her Whiteness, while her paternal race allowed her to also claim her Blackness. To her, race was more of a transient concept.
1) I think she thinks that she's disappeared only because the name Jesse is only part of her, her mother's part of her. Having that name that her mother picked out without any trance of her father in it could come across as having a glass filled only half way. Making it seem like the part of her that is of her father has disappeared when she uses the name. I think the ability to "disappear" is both a blessing and a curse because in one way, you can save yourself from gettin hurt and in another, you're just looked at as another person. I would say she would be considered white if she was around darker skinned black people and could be black when she's around white people.
ReplyDelete2) I can relate to the creation of Elemeno between the two girl because I did the same thing. I had a best friend that I would always talk "double talk" with. Only us two and a few other understood what we were saying, but that was the point. In a way it was something that the both of us could confide in. And with that created a bond between us, which is why I believe Elemeno was mentioned often and was important.
3) I don't think she wants to and I don't think she does on purpose. I stayed with my God mother some of the time growing up and she is white. She didn't understand the "physics" to a little black girl who had kinky hair and had different issues to deal with. So in a way, as I was learning myself, I had to help her too. Which is why "Mum doesn't know anything about raising a black child" was so vivid in my mind. But in some ways she does treat the girls different.
5) I'm still trying to understand the significance of their names. I looked up the French novelist Colette and she is white. I thought it was interesting how they used the white woman's name on the darker girl but the parents couldn't agree on a name for Birdie. Since she can be portrayed as a white girl in this novel, I would think it would be right to use the name the father wanted which was a "black" name. In a way it seemed even to me.
15) I don't agree with Deck that race is "a complete illusion... a costume." Maybe I'm misunderstanding the point he is trying to get across but I feel that saying race is a costume makes it seem like white priveleged, racism, discrimination, prejudice...etc is just mere cat-calling; just words. Costumes can be fun and are used to support the imagination, but at the end of the day, you can take it off and throw it in the corner of a room or give it away. If you define race by skin tone, then costume is not the word. You can't just change DNA structure or skin tone like changing clothes.
16) The consequence of choosing can come across as not being able to define yourself on your own terms. You feel the need to put in a place when really you should just want to be. The consequence of not choosing can be the pressure from others. Others wanting to put you in a place and label you to their standards.
14.) My opinion of Sandy has many different aspects. I think she fits in all parts a hero, a madwoman, and a fool. She definitely has many crazy moments throughout the novel, dragging Birdie around the country and forcing her into a new identity, trying to force her back with her when Birdie leaves. She is a fool for trusting all the wrong people. Sandy drills into Birdie the importance of not trusting anyone and not letting anyone get too close. Yet she brings Jim into their secret, someone who could expose them if anything ever went wrong. However, she is hero in that she does risk herself by playing such an active role in the Civil Rights Movement. Sandy put herself in harm’s way, knowing full well the trouble she’d get into if she got caught. She had to sacrifice life as she knew it in order to fight for what she thought was right. I think her time spent with her father and her father’s students motivated her to join in the Civil Rights Movement. Meeting Deck also contributed to her joining in the fight.
ReplyDelete15.) I think that Deck is both correct and incorrect in saying that race is "a complete illusion... a costume.” It was for Birdie. She was able to choose whatever aspects of her appearance she wished to play up, rather than the world knowing she is half black and half white. Her race was an illusion, most never knowing that she had a black father and a white mother. People thought she was white, or she claimed to be half Jewish. Her race could change to however she saw fit for the situation. For Cole, I feel as though her race was not necessarily an illusion. When she was younger, her race was something that she completely embodied. Cole wanted a mother that could educate her on being a black woman. She taught herself to look, act, and dress as a black woman. Cole couldn’t hide her skin color which fully identified her race. To the world, it defined who she was, so Cole chose to embrace that.
18.) I’m on the fence about Deck’s theory about mulattos functioning as canaries in the coal mine. Slave times came to mind, with white masters sleeping with female slaves and producing mulatto children. Race relations were obviously not good at that point in time, yet mulatto children were not that infrequent. However, his theory does make sense. The presence of mulatto children in society indicates the intermingling between the races at an intimate level. The more that exist, the less of a taboo there is on mixing with others of a different race. I don’t feel like Birdie is a canary since she can hide her race and portray herself as to how she wants the world to see her. Many were unaware of her being half-black, so she would not always outwardly present that she was mulatto. As to her future, it’s tough to say. Although she had a rough start, especially with her identity issues, I feel that things turn out well. Cole will be a good influence on her. I feel Birdie will somehow participate in the fight for equal rights. I don’t think she will have a close relationship with either one of her parents.
1.) When Birdie becomes Jesse Goldman, she comes to think of herself as "disappeared." This is due to her capability to become an entirely different person, letting go of her Birdie aspects. She embodies an entirely different persona. She pretends to be Jewish, goes for a coveted boy, and makes up an entire history about herself. Her past is unable to find her, making her "disappeared." Her ability is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing in that she is capable to blend in with her surroundings as part of a survival mechanism. However, it is a curse in that it leaves her with the issue of not having her own identity. I don't feel that she is "passing" since she is merely choosing to embrace whichever part of her heritage she feels most drawn to at that point in time.
ReplyDelete3.) The relationship between Sandy and Cole contains tension that is both typical of a mother/daughter relationship as well as those due to being a part of a multi-racial family. As Cole begins to grow up, she wants to spend less and less time with her mother. When her mother invites her to skip school to spend the day together, Cole complains and would rather spend the day at school. She also becomes increasingly focused on her appearance and her relationships with her peers. However, it also contains aspects of multi-racial tensions. Cole always complains that Sandy is incapable of raising a black daughter. Sandy is unable to do her hair or help her with her appearance. Because of the skin difference, Sandy is closer to Birdie since Birdie looks like her more.
4.) I think Deck treats Birdie with a "cheerful disinterest-never hostility or ill will, but with a kind of impatient amusement” because of her skin color. I think that because she resembles more of a white child and he is black, he never feels like he could ever connect to her. He seems to feel that his time is better spent with Cole, someone who could better benefit from his teachings and better understand his troubles. However, I do think that he loves her. He may be wrapped up in his own world and more interested in Cole, but if he had no feelings towards her, he would have not included her at all. Cole better embraced his teachings and visions of America more since she could better relate to him because of the similarity in skin color. She could better understand the situations and struggles that people of color were facing, which Birdie more witnessed because she was more fair-skinned. By the end of the story, I think both Cole and Birdie have rejected their parents’ teachings. They’ve both formed their own opinions about the world based on their own experiences. I personally don’t feel like that either of them really resembles their parents by the end. I feel like Cole and Birdie both forged their own paths and broke away from their parents’ ways.
1. I think that Birdie says she disappears because once she leaves Boston she can no longer live the life of Birdie Lee anymore. After pretending to be Jesse Goldman for so long it must have felt as if Birdie was no long Birdie Lee who had a white mother and a black father but rathe was really a jewish girl with a widowed mother. I think being able to disappear is a curse. Birdie is forced to live under a different identity and the life she leads is not her own. This would make it hard for Birdie to identify herself and know who she truly is. I think Birdie passes mainly as white because she does not look black in her appearance.
ReplyDelete2.Elemeno is a language of the sisters' own that is different from the language everyone around them speaks. This is similar to Birdie and Cole's lifestyle because most of the people around them did not have a white mother and a black father. I think this stayed important to Birdie because it was a way for her to remember her sister and still feel close to her eventhough they were so far apart. I think it also reminded her of the life she had before the running had started.
3. I think an example of how Cole and her mother had a typical mother and pre teen daughter relationship was when Cole wanted her hair done and her mother couldn't do it right. I remember many times at that age wanting a certain style of clothes or hair and my mom was just not able to pick out the right thing. This same example can also show the way COle and her mother's relationship is specific to an interracial family because the style of hair Cole wanted was not a part of Sandy's culture so it wasn't something she had practice doing. I am not sure if i agree with Cole. I think the idea of a white woman raising a black daughter is similar to a women raising a son or a man raising a daughter. They know how to parent and try their best, however sometimes parenting can be a struggle when the parent is unable to relate to their child.
5. Birdie not having an offical name symbolizes her identity. Cole's name was shortened but it seemed to be more of an offical name and never seemed to have trouble being able to identify herself as a young black girl. Birdie on the other hand struggled more with her identity. Although many people probably see her as white, Birdie identifies herself as both black and white. She also goes from being a child in an interracial family to being a young jewish girl with a dead father. Although she knew deep down who she really was, she never really got to stick with one identity that everyone knew.
9. I'm not sure why Redbone took interest in Birdie. I think if he was out to get Sandy he may have took an interest in her since she was the youngest, thinking he could get information from her. If Redbone was the one to go behind Sandy's back I feel he is partly responsible for the family's problems. If he hadn't put Sandy in danger she would not have had to fled and the family could go on leading a normal life rather than seperating and starting new lifes. I feel like there is no one person fully responsible for the sisters' seperation. The parents were partly responsible because it was their decision to make the plans and go ahead with them. However if it was not for society and Sandy could be seen with a white and black child without standing out, they may have not had to seperate in the first place.
10. Throughout the novel Birdie always seems to see herself in other people. From the very beginning when Birdie was young she said that she thought that Cole was what she looked like. The advantage of Birdie being this way would be the ability to blend in and fit in with different groups of people Birdie meets. However this does not outweigh the disadvantage which is Birdie never really knowing who she truly is.
2. They both feel that they are not fully part of their family. Each one is only able to relate and gain the interests of one of the parents. In society they both can't seem to fit in, more specifically Birdie. The language was Birdie's most true connection with Cole in my opinion. Something as strong as that bond can't just go away, it is something that sticks through.
ReplyDelete4. Just like with Sandy, Deck doesn't think Birdie can fully understand his struggles or what it is like to be black. I believe he does still love Biride, he doesn't state anything that points he didn't care about her at all, he just thought they couldn't relate. With Cole though, Deck did see that she could connect, since she did share his skin color. With that concrete connection she could internalize his beliefs, but she didn't fully since her sister was clearly not the exact same as her. In the end, they seem to take a middle road between the parents. They both seem to accept the ideas that race is a social construct, but at the same time, they understand it does exist and it is important in this world, whether it is wrong or right.
5. Well their actual names in my opinion have no actual meaning to them on a standard level, but metaphorically they mean a lot. Cole was given a definite name which reflects how she had a concrete identity from the beginning (i.e. skin color). Birdie on the other hand didn't seem to have a definite identity constructed. She was capable of moving between races because of her hair and skin.
14. Though Sandy meant well, I am certain that she was just a fool. She blew things far out of proportion. I honestly feel she took up the role she did out of the 'fear' of a boring life where she could do anything she wanted because of her background and skin color. Unfortunately in the end she sacraficed not just a large chunk of her life, but also the possibility for Birdie to develop an identity earlier in her life.
15. I do not fully discredit it, but I don't believe it is a complete illusion. Race exists, maybe race isn't really its name, but there are different skin tones, and cultures, hair texture and traditions. All of this does prove we are all different on some level.
17. I don't think Birdie's mother's side fully shapes her identity, but it does play a big part. I believe knowing your families history to some extent, does held build a base to someones identity, and at the same times spurs people on to creating their own identity. This can cause people to build on this history, or instead stray away.
1. I think that Birdie "disappeared" because she had spent her entire life as part of one whole. When she was living as Jesse Goldman she was no longer living in the home that she had shared with Cole. She viewed and even fantasized being whole with Cole. While we've continued to make the argument that race is not a part of a person's character or personality, your name is the ultimate symbol of who you are, and it's identifiable. One could also look at this much more literally. She and her mother were on the lam! When she left, Birdie Lee did technically disappear. Jesse Goldman "appeared." I think that could also be all that is implied here.
ReplyDelete2. Elemeno is the language that Birdie and Cole shared. First, I believe that the structure of the language is indicative of the types of lives that both girls led. When speaking, if you begin a sentence in a specific tense, you know how the sentence will end. Verb tenses and proper nouns indicate an amount of certainty and predictability. There was no certainly or predictability in the lives of these two children. There was little family structure, and both lived lives that children should not be put in. This language, which was structureless, was indicative of their lack of control over their own lives. This language did, however, serve as a focal point for Birdie throughout her life. She had a friend, a companion, and someone to love.
5. "Baby Lee" served as Birdie's official name and I believe that it is meant to symbolize her struggle for identity. She was born, a human girl, and that was it. She wasn't given a name, an identity; this could have been purposeful so as to enable her to shed identities more easily or to distinguish between her various identities. Cole or Collette was given an abbreviated name, which could be symbolic of those around her only issuing her half of an identity due to her race.
8. I believe that Sandy and Birdie's stay in Aurora had a major impact on her budding sexuality. She certainly appeared to enjoy the sexual relationship she had with Alexis far more than the relationship she had with Nicholas. This goes a long way in the sense that she begins to bud as an adult, as we typically assign sexuality to those who are grown.
ReplyDelete10. I have noticed that Birdie appears to associate personality traits of others with personality traits of herself. This could be due to the fact that she views herself as sort of a hybrid of those around her. It's as if she feels that she is a combination of others as opposed to her own person.
14. Birdie, having taken up the cause of Civil Rights due to her experiences in the face of diversity and her observations as a witness, has sacrificed so much in her life as a result. Her inability to trust and her desire to push Birdie to feel the same way. She cannot love. Love is based on trust, and to forgo trust is to forgo love. Period. This was foolish on her part, and relatively selfish on her part.
13. After analyzing the conversation of Birdie and Samantha, I believe that it is possible the Samantha could have known that Birdie was black. I think that it is necessary to reflect back on to the supermarket incident when Birdie and her mother ran into Samantha and her mom. I believe reflecting off of Sandy's reaction, she may have seen Birdie in Samantha. Even thought Birdie told Samantha that she was black when drunk, I believe that Samantha knew before hand that Birdie was not 100% white in my opinion. I believe what threw her over the edge to leave new Hampshire is when Samantha says " I'm black , just like you". Birdie at this point feels that she has to escape because she is labeled with an identity of being black. Her whole life has been a lie for years and now she is seeking that escape.
ReplyDelete8. While in Aurora, Birdie speaks on her sexuality. I believe that this is a big part of the story. In Aurora she is having sexual relations with Alexis who is a girl. When she moves to New Hampshire, her and Nick get into relations and she is hesitant. Birdie, being such at a young age im sure these activities were affecting her mentality. In the book it seems that she is even unaware of what really is happening to herself in these relations, she makes a remark that something was going on between her legs that made her feel dizzy. It seems that Birdie enjoyed the relations with Alexis more than nick in the book. I believe this has a mental impact on how Birdie's sexuality.