Time for another blog post? (If you can't tell, I haven't quite figured out how to start these posts yet. Maybe I'll get it eventually)
Today in class, someone said something in class that I would like to explore more. I can't remember who it was because I have terrible memory and also 9 am is very early, but it had to do with the blindness of the narrator, and kind of went something like this:
During chapter 1, the narrator had on a blindfold and was participating in this battle royal and not once questioning the morality of what was happening, and was blind in the sense that he both had on a blindfold and also in general was not seeing what was wrong with what was happening and blindly accepting the events that were occurring. (Sorry that wasn't as good of an explanation as I expected, but hopefully it kind of made sense) At the end of the chapter, when he received his scholarship, he had his blindfold off and saw what was happening, but then seemed to happily put on another blindfold and go to college.
This got me thinking. Is this blindness more because of ignorance or just following the words of his grandfather? I think throughout the book it's both, but in chapter 1 maybe more ignorance (especially because these battle royals weren't atypical) and more following his grandfather in chapter 2. I found that I was extremely frustrated with the narrator in chapter 1. Seriously, he didn't react at all to being thrown in a ring and made to beat up other people when he was supposed to be giving a speech. I understand that a battle royal was likely not a new thing that the narrator encountered, but I don't think he was so blind as to not even acknowledge this blatant racial divide.
In chapter 2, I wasn't quite as frustrated with him. The narrator was less blind (?) but it seemed to me that he wanted to be blind as a way to fulfill his grandfather's wishes. Was that paradoxical? I got the impression that he would rather be blind so he could please Mr. Norton and as a result in a way do what his grandfather wanted and please white people and fight oppression by being subservient. But then again, maybe being blind would be a way to forget his grandfather's last words that have haunted him for so long? I guess what I'm trying to figure out is if in these beginning chapters (before the sarcastic, light bulb hoarding "version" of the narrator from the prologue) blindness is necessarily a negative thing?
Just some thoughts.
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I think that your point at the end about whether or not he is trying to be blind to please Mr. Norton or to forget his grandfather's words is really interesting. I think that it's true that being "blind" makes his relations with Mr. Norton easier and simpler and may help him forget about his grandfather's words, but at the same time being "blind" might be perceived as what the white people would want him to do or expect of him, at which point he is following his grandfather's words by doing what they tell him to do/expect him to do. This goes along with the moral dilemma he faces of whether or not to do what's expected of him by the white people because he is afraid he might be undermining them like his grandfather said.
ReplyDeleteYou seem surprised and upset that the narrator does not acknowledge how wrong the events in the first chapter are. I think that it is not that he fails to notice a problem, but more that he sees himself as powerless to fix it. There is really nothing that he can do during the battle royal to get out of the situation, because to argue would offend and disturb the white people in charge, and bring their powerful wrath upon him. We can see that the whites present are ready to be offended and to keep the narrator humble and subservient by the way they all perk up and pay attention when he mentions racial equality. I think that his blindness in the first chapters is there out of a perceived necessity. The fact that he thinks this necessary may be a sort of blindness, but I do not think he had many options at that time other than humble subservience.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 1, it didn't seem to me like the narrator noticed a problem. So when I was reading, especially the first time, I was definitely surprised at how he reacted because I saw it as simply accepting what was going on without any understanding. Yeah, either way he wouldn't have been able to do anything about the battle royal, but when I read I didn't get the impression that he knew of any problems. I agree with your idea of blindness as a necessity, but I also disagree because I don't think this blindness was a conscious decision (?)
DeleteI feel like the narrator, as we see him in Chapters 1 and 2, is so determined to please the whites that its hard not to get frustrated with him. To me, it seemed like the narrator was trying to avoid following his grandfather's advice of having a 'secret war' with the whites. His whole focus and being at this point is just to serve white people (his grandfather's advice haunting him because he wants to serve the whites, but doing that follows his grandfather's advice which he doesn't want to do if it hurts the whites...). The narrator doesn't seem to be fighting oppression at all, instead just blindly following it. The narrator doesn't think this blindness is a bad thing but other characters in later chapters, such as the vet and Dr. Bledsoe, try to explain that being blind is the same as being a fool.
ReplyDeleteYeah, definitely. And it's weird because it's not even completely conscious on his part. I think we're giving him too much credit by saying he's trying to avoid his grandfather's advice or trying to please white people explicitly. He really doesn't give any of it much thought- he's just doing what's done. It's for himself on some level- he wants to get a good education and job- but the game that one must supposedly play to achieve these things is so corrupted and the rules are so twisted that even if he thinks he's doing what's morally right or right for himself, it ends up looking like a service to white people. I guess because it kind of is, even though that's not explicitly his goal. And I don't even think he has any opinions about blindness. He's just utterly blind to it (funnily enough).
DeleteI think that the narrator wasn't fighting oppression at this point in the novel because he didn't recognize the way he has been treated his whole life as oppression, more just as the way things are. I also think that at this point the narrator is a very raw character who isn't necessarily developed yet, so blindness and racial equality aren't things that he is focused on at this point in his life (which is odd, since clearly he subconsciously is thinking about racial equality at this point when he accidentally says it in his speech). I think that the narrator sees white people as some kind of ideal that he wants to model himself after and has a loyalty to them that one would have towards a mentor, which is why he doesn't know what to do when he sincerely wants to do the actions his grandfather tells him to.
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