Week 10

Week 10

Eudora Welty

Powerhouse

            Eudora Welty lived from 1909-2001.   She was born and grew up in Jackson, Mississippi.  She graduated from University of Wisconsin in 1929.  She began writing a few years later. She wrote about society news for a Memphis newspaper.   In June of 1936 her first short story, “Death of a Traveling Salesman” was published. She wrote several novels until 1972.  She had a strong sense of the southern ways of life. 

            Powerhouse was a weird story to me and I really didn’t care for it much.  Powerhouse was a black man doing a show on a tour of some kind.  He is described horribly in my opinion.  He is described as Asiatic, monkey, devil.  It sounds like Eurdora Welty is rather racist.   Powerhouse is playing music and he talks an awful lot through out his performance. Half of the time I do not know if he is kidding or not.  In the story segregation was still a big part of the normal things going on.  Powerhouse and his band must play a white dance song, in which only the white people may dance.  This just brings sadness to my eyes.  Everyone should have a right to dance regardless of who is there.  I still do not understand why he is talking about a telegram about his wife being dead.  I am just not sure if he is serious or not, or if it’s just a part of a song.  He sounds like he really enjoys his music and is able to feel the music in his soul. He spends a lot of time talking to his band mates.  It sounds more like a comedic show instead of a music performance.  The songs through out the performance are really appropriate for the time.  I don’t think they enjoyed playing for the white people and in their own way have their own prejudices going on.

John Steinbeck

           

Flight

            John Steinbeck lived from 1902-1968.  He was born in Salina, California and used much his locale in his works.  He often wrote about native migrant workers and their struggles.  He had many different jobs since he was a young boy.  He worked as a newspaper reporter, bricklayer, chemist helper and sometimes a fruit picker.  He earned a Pulitzer Prizes in 1940 and in 1962 he earned a Nobel Prize in Literature. 

            In the story Flight, he was a great story teller who uses great description through out the tale.  Even though the story ends tragically it was a good read and kept me on my toes.  It starts out on a farm near the ocean in California. Pepe is a young boy who is the oldest child in the house of 3 kids.  His father was killed ten years ago from a rattlesnake bike to his chest.  Pepe is no help around the farm at all. While his little brother and sister catch fish for dinner, he simply plays with his father’s old knife. Pepe’s mother needs him to ride a horse into town in order to get medicine and salt.  He feels he is now a man for going on this jouney alone.  But his first  night away from home he gets into trouble.  He is supposed to stay at Mrs. Rodriguez house to rest.  While he was there they are all drinking whine and he gets into a fight with another man/boy and ends up throwing his fathers knife at him, killing him.  He rushes home where his mother packs him some things and sends him on his way in order to escape the men coming after him.  He is in no way ready to be out alone already.  Upon his journey he is cut  on his fingers and its all down hill from then. The men eventually catch up to him and he is shot dead. So sad at such a young age with so much life left to live.  Maybe his mother shouldn't have sent a kid out on a real man's journey.

Richard Wright

Native Son

            Richard Wright had a troubled childhood. His family was abandoned by his father and he was raised by his mother and grandmother. Growing up in the South in the 1920’s and being black he had many obstacles to overcome in school. He graduated as Valedictorian and already had stories published while still in high school.  He fled north up to Chicago where he worked several menial jobs.  He ended up in New York where he wrote Native Son.

            Native son takes place in Chicago where Bigger is a young black man looking for a job to help support his family.  He is hired as a driver for the Dalton family.  One of his first jobs is to take Mary the daughter to her University.  Soon as she is in the car she directs him elsewhere.  All the while he just wants to do the right thing for his job.  While out with Mary and Jan he is very uneasy.  They make him feel as one their own and he hates them for it.  He is not used to being treated equally.  I thought this was a great story with equality instead of the usual slave stories.  They end up drinking too much and he is loosening up.  At the end of the night Mary is too drunk to make it up to her own room and Bigger must help her.  He finally gets her into her room and suddenly Mrs. Dalton who is blind appears.  He is so afraid of being caught and fired he does everything to keep Mary quiet, he ends up pushing the pillow so hard on her mouth that she is suffocated and dies.  Even though what he did was wrong I can see his side of the story.  He of course would be punished and probably hung for murder when he was not intentionally trying to kill her, but he wanted that job so bad he just wanted to keep her quiet in order to get out of her room.  I felt sorry for him and the ending was sad.  But it was much better than reading Powerhouse.