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How accountable is Lee

 The question of how responsible is Lee for his own actions is one that plays a pivotal role throughout the story of Libra . Initially posed by his mother, the question of how much of Lee's life he had control of is up in the air. One could argue that Lee eventually joining the marines was inevitable considering he was a lower-class kid with no safety net, and he needed the security that joining the marines could provide for him. But I believe beyond that Lee's life is the result of his own decisions. He gets punished for a crime of provoking a senior officer, which he complains about, but fails to realize that he had to opportunity to back off at any time. I feel like Lee creates certain realities of himself in his mind, and then gets frustrated and commits extreme acts to create these realities. Two examples of this include shooting himself to get out of the marines and slitting his wrists in Russia to gain citizenship there. He is willing to harm himself to get what he wants...
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The racial implications of Writing in Kindred.

 Writing plays a significant role in the story of Kindred. Both Dana and Kevin make their living as being writers and back in 1815, Dana is forced to use her talents as a writer to survive. But Butler also explores the racial elements of the power of writing. Dana's teaching of writing to Rufus as well as other slaves is a central conflict throughout Kindred. The first mention of writing is in the beginning of the Fall, where we are given the backstory of Dana. She is a struggling writer who has to work in a labor agency to survive. She meets Kevin, who is also a struggling writer, albeit with a little more success. When Kevin and her are sent together back into the past, they disguise themselves as a writer and a slave to stay with Tom Weylin. In the past, we are shown the what society thinks of an educated slave. Tom Weylin warns Kevin of the dangers of an educated slave and Magaret doesn't even believe Dana can read. We see time and time again Dana's talents being taken ...
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Biff Musclewhite: the real threat in Mumbo Jumbo

     Reading Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed, It's hard not to think that the villains of the story are a bit incompetent. Hinkle Von Vampton and Herbert "safecracker" Gold spend are introduced as intimidating, immortal knights in charge of what is essentially eradicating a unique cultural phenomenon and eventually orchestrating world war II. And they initially live up to this reputation early on in the story by killing Abdul, an important figure related to the Works and Jes Grew. This event conjoins the actions of the knights templar and the mumbo jumbo kathedral as Papa LaBas investigates the murder of Abdul. But after this, Von Vampton and safecracker spend the rest of the story running around like idiots trying to understand black slang and finding a talking android. Von Vampton embarrasses himself when trying to find any educated African American person to act as the talking android. And when he finally realizes that the talking android has been in front of him the entir...
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What Happened to Evelyn?

 Evelyn Nesbit, who leaves in the middle of the story, leads a very interesting life beyond Ragtime. In the book, she tells Mother's younger brother she is going to run away with a ragtime artist, and that they are putting on an act together. In the real world, this person is Jack Clifford. They performed across the world until their eventual divorce in 1918. Jack Clifford citied his reasons for leaving her as not being able to handle her notoriety.  If Doctorow were to have kept writing beyond the end of Ragtime, I wonder if he would use this event to have Emma Goldman reunite with Evelyn Nesbit as in their first and only meeting, Emma criticized Evelyn as a mere object in the eyes of the capitalist patriarchal mainstream. And having her husband leave her because he was unable to deal with that fact would certainly fall in line with Emma's criticisms. Unfortunately, Evelyn would have financial trouble for the rest of her life. She opened a tea shop called the...
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Father's Paternalism in Ragtime

     Oxford English Dictionary defines paternalism as " The policy or practice of restricting the freedoms and responsibilities of subordinates or dependants in what is considered or claimed to be their best interests." This idea is popular throughout American history, one example is how White southerners used paternalism to defend slaver. Typically, thanks to a Eurocentric society and culture, minorities are treated like children, often portrayed as infantile in their own culture and needing the protection or guidance of white people. Themes of paternalism are shown and explored in ragtime, particularly through the character of Father. The ideas of paternalism in Ragtime are clearly shown in the exploration to the north pole. These ideas are very clearly shown in Father's trip. First, when he remembers his time in service in the Philippines and his observations on the people, he agreed with the comment made by a staff officer, "Our little brown brothers ha...
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