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A Reference to Capitalism

Recently, I was thinking about all the different themes, references, and general interesting facts about Sorry to Bother You . But one of the things I was thinking about throughout the entire film were references to the title. The first time we encounter the phrase “sorry to bother you” is when Cassius calls his first client at Regal View. The last time is when Cassius is an Equisapien and bursts into Steve Lift’s house (his last customer). When he says it the first time, he is very timid and shy. He is genuinely sorry that he is bothering them and has to continue with his message. The second time, he says it sarcastically and mockingly. How Cassius says this phrase shows his progression as a character throughout the movie. He goes from just trying to get through life one day at a time to having opinions on issues and wanting to make an impact. I also did a little research on why Boots Riley chose this title. According to Riley, it has a double meaning. The first is referencing h
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The White? Boy Shuffle

As we reach the halfway point in our latest novel, I wanted to ask, what is the significance of the white boy shuffle? That is obviously the title of the book, but it was mentioned for the first time in chapter 6 during the dance: “After a few moments I’d relax and settle into a barely acceptable, simple side-to-side step, dubbed by the locals the white boy shuffle” (page 123). In class, we have been talking about Gunner’s transition from white culture to black culture. In the white culture, he was known as the “funny cool black kid” who was smart but got into occasional minor trouble. Then (initially) in black culture, he was known as a “white” nerd, based on the way he speaks, acts, and looks. In the latest couple chapters however, we saw him move out of the nerd crowd and into the gangster one. He is still smart (we can tell from his sophisticated use of language), but he has a new group of friends and a different look (he talks about how people know from his look that he play
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To be Casper or not to be

Ok, so I have some very mixed feelings on the character Beloved. I sort of feel we have evidence for her being the baby in a human form. With Denver’s comments and when she started “falling apart.” But the question I have is “Is Beloved a good ghost?” I feel like she has good intentions but the little things she says sets me on edge. First, her extreme intense loyalty to Sethe. Every day, she goes to meet Sethe on her way home from work. Each day she walks out even further to meet her (by further I mean a few more miles). She has also continuously made it clear (to Denver) that she is there for only Sethe. Denver is occasionally hurt by this but forgets it and moves on as if nothing happened. This is (I believe) the main reason why she dislikes Paul D. She looks at him as a competitor for Sethe’s attention. Paul D. also thinks that she is the reason he can’t be in the house (although he hasn’t recognized why). A theory for this could be that she is still a baby and needs/wants this
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Is the Tea really that sweet?

Ok, I’m going to be honest, I was skeptic of Tea Cake from the beginning. When he first walks into the store, I was nervous. Simply because of the fact that Janie thinks he looks familiar, and he knows her, but she doesn’t know him. Then, the way he talks is extremely flirty. My first impression was that Tea Cake is just a player. A sweet talker who goes out with many women. Given Janie’s previous romances, I thought that Tea Cake was the last thing she needed. He would have a good time, and then dump her. She would then have a third failed attempt at true love. As we move beyond the store scene, I started to like Tea Cake more and more. I realized that Janie was happy for one of the very few times in her life. In class, someone brought up the fact that Janie is getting to experience the life of a teenage girl, a life that she was cheated out of. They would go off, have fun, and get into “trouble” (if you count fishing at night trouble). Then, come page 103, my skepticism w
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Invisible Ellison?

For my blog post, I wanted to compare Ellison’s life (based on the video documentary shown in class), to the life of our narrator. When we first started reading this book (like all the way back in the prologue), I envisioned Ellison sitting at his desk thinking about how he could make this novel funny, ironic, symbolic, and confusing, yet serious, straightforward, and clear. I didn’t think he had very much connection with the narrator except for the fact that they both joined communist-like parties. I also know that when reading a book, the author doesn’t always identify with the narrator. As we continued reading, I envisioned less of Ellison and more of the story and meanings behind everything. Then when we watched the documentary, I realized how similar the narrator’s and Ellison’s lives were. Ellison and the narrator both received scholarships to attend college. Both left college (one by choice, the other by force), to go to New York. They both became involved in the “Brot
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Feminist?

After our recent class discussion, I wanted to highlight some of the women we have seen in the book and share my thoughts on Ellison’s potential feelings on feminism. The first named woman we see in the novel is Mary. Her name first appears on page 252, yes Ellison writes a little less than half the novel before formally introducing a female character. Mary’s role is to care for the narrator in a motherly sort of way. She is constantly trying to lift his spirits and encourages him to get a good job. She wants him to make something of himself, not to have him move out and free up a room but just out of the sheer kindness in her heart. Sadly, our narrator responds with rejection. He is annoyed with her pushiness and complains about the cabbage she serves him. Toward the end of his time with her, he starts to feel bad and indebted to her. When reflecting on her contributions to the book and her role as a whole, she plays the stereotypical motherly role. Granted she runs her own busin
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Masked Stories

During our discussion of Invisible Man , we have run into the recurring theme of a mask. In the beginning, our narrator is in a battle arena where his eyes are covered with a white blind fold. The blind fold represents how our narrator believes that what the white man says or does is the righteous path. However, we see in the prologue that this “mask” is removed to reveal a character that is strikingly different from the one presented in the beginning of the book. We again see the mask in a more obvious way when the narrator’s grandfather is on his deathbed. He advises to have a mask when dealing with white folk but always have your own intensions.             Towards our more recent reading, we notice the Dr. Bledsoe has this same attitude. Our narrator is startled by this after believing in a certain white-people-pleasing persona. Dr. Bledsoe makes a point to say that he secretly controls white people, they just don’t know it. We may believe that this is the unmasked Dr. Bledsoe
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