Philip Roth

Philip Milton Roth was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1933. He is the son of American born parents and the grandson of European Jews. It is apparent in his writing that he is Jewish.  In our literature class we read Philip Roth‘s “Defender of the Faith“.  Although  I have said many times that I do not normally read fiction, except for what we read in my literature class, I would read Roth’s writings.

This story is about Jewish Army Sergeant Nathan Marx, who in 1945 came back to America after fighting in WWII. Sergeant Marx began working with trainees at a camp in Missouri to prepare them for possible deployment against the Japanese in the Pacific.

During his time there, he encounters a 19 year old trainee named Sheldon Grossbart. Sheldon assumes that Marx is Jewish as he is and through the course of events, Grossbart will become real trouble for Sergeant Marx. He starts by complaining that he and the other trainees don’t like it when Marx and his Jewish friends Larry Fishbein and Mickey Halpern are allowed to go to the Jewish synagogue on Friday nights when the trainees were left behind to clean. Marx thinks about it and gives them permission to go. He decides that he will follow behind them to make sure they observe the Jewish way.

Later, Sergeant Marx receives a letter from his superior concerning Grossbart. The letter is written by his Grossbart’s father and sent to a Congressman Franconi who forwarded it on to the Army . The letter was about Grossbart’s inability to eat the food the Army was serving him. He claimed that the people preparing the food were not aware of the Jewish dietary practices.  Marx asks Grossbart about this and he at first says that it’s because it makes him vomit. Then he changes his story and says that the letter was for one of his Jewish friends. He finally is feels forced to admit that not only did he write the letter but his father and mother speak or write in English

By this point, Marx is getting very irritated. Grossbart is of these people you run across in life that never could take a hint about their annoyance to others.  Grossbart asks Sergeant Marx about letting him visit his Aunt in St. Louis who told him that she was going to fix him a delicious Jewish supper. Tired of constantly being manipulated, Sergeant Marx says no. Grossbart wears Marx down to the point that he said he would sign a pass for him and his friends Fishbein and Halpern to go to St. Louis. Marx tells them to leave and that when they return, to bring him a piece of gefilte fish.

Later when they arrive home, Marx is shocked to find that Grossbart  had actually brought him a Chinese egg roll.  Marx can not believe it! He has been pass the point of being reasonable and he is still being played by Grossbart. Marx decided right then and there that he will never be suckered by Grossbart again. In the meantime behind the Sergeant’s back, Grossbart had been using his manipulative powers on another Jewish officer who helped him to get transferred to Ft. Monmouth in New York.  Roth writes that Marx then decides he’ll play the card he should have played in the first place and uses his influence to have Grossbarts orders to New York change back to the Pacific with the others. When he found out, Grossbart was furious! Although Sergeant Marx wrestled with the idea, he thought Grossbart, Fishbern and Halpern would do well together.

I gave you a little analysis of the story but recommend that everyone read, “Defender of Faith”.

Philip Roth’s first book was  Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories, which won the National Book Award in 1960. He has written so many books and four of them have been made into film,  Goodbye, Columbus; Portnoy’s Complaint; The Human Stain; and The Dying Animal. He still writes today. His latest work is Nemesis (2010). Philip Milton Roth has received every award that a writer can receive and at 80 he still has a passion for writing. I believe that he is one of the few writers that we have read about in American Literature this semester that wasn’t battling alcohol addiction or suicidal thoughts.

Gloria Anzaldua

It really got my blood pumping when I read “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” from Borderland/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldua. It is important to read what she writes for yourself. It’s a true story mixed with poetry of how she felt that she being a Mexican/Indian, had to speak Anglo when she really wanted to speak her native Spanish language instead. I think her attitude is wrong!!! I could point out a lot of things that she said that bugged me but I will speak in English about how her desire to have everyone speak her native Spanish in America is wrong!!! She could have spoken her native language to people who would understand her and she should speak English in America when she was around people who spoke English! I thought for sure at some point that I was going to hear her say that America was a great country! A country where people come from all over the world to live in the land of the free. It thought she might say that although you needed to learn English because you were living in America, you could still enjoy speaking in your native tongue with others in the country that spoke that language. Instead I read the biggest bunch of bull I have ever read!!! I’m sorry that so many defiled her language by speaking it in a different ways depending upon where they lived in America but attitude about it is the problem. English is not the “official” language of the U.S. but it is the language the vast majority of American’s speak and understand. If I moved to another country, I wouldn’t be able to function unless I learned to communicate in that language. In my opinion, Anzaldua’s viewpoint is misinformed, arrogant and offensive to me.

I really am offended by her thoughts and feelings about how Mexican, Spanish, Tex-Mex and others are forced to speak Anglo, the white mans language and that they amounted to a zero because they were forced to speak English and that no one would understand them. My family is roots trace back to Italy and Spain. I know who I am through my family and what I don’t know I can find though my genealogy. My Great-Grandparents Giuseppe and Teresa Stanzione came to the US from Italy and they told their children that they would have to learn English because they were in America now. Thank you Lord that they came to this country. It wasn’t easy but it was worth it to become Americans! America is a democracy and we are free to speak whatever language pleases us but it’s important to learn the English language to communicate and function in this country.

At one point she talks about the different slang in the Spanish and English language like the words Chicano and Vato. When I was in the sixth grade in California, I used to refer to myself a Chicano. San Diego has a large hispanic population and I had heard other kids talking about being a Chicano. I just assumed I was one also. At the time I didn’t know the difference between Mexico and Spain. I didn’t even know what I was talking about when I called myself a Vato. It sounded cool. In reading Gloria Anzaldua’s piece I learned that a Vato is a male. I took Spanish in the 9th grade and dropped out.

I have many friends and several family members who are Mexican. They understand like most of the world that English is the accepted language of the U.S.. I love them and always liked the Mexican culture. Like most languages, Spanish has many different mixes of dialects depending on the region you come from and how you choose to speak it. I think when people started immigrating to America and going through Ellis Island, like my Great Grandparents Giuseppe and Teresa Stanzione did, they were happy to learn English and considered it a privilege to live in America! Unfortunately, to a lot of people, this mindset has changed over the years.

In America, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by over 34 million people aged 5 or older. Also in America, over 80% of the country’s 314 million people, speak English as their primary language.

According to the 2007 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by over 34 million people aged 5 or older. The U.S. is home to more than 45 million Hispanics, making it the world’s second-largest Spanish-speaking community, only after Mexico and ahead of Colombia, Spain, and Argentina. Roughly half of all U.S. Spanish speakers also speak English “very well”, based on the self-assessment Census question respondents.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_in_the_United_States

I am including some footage of what some Mexican’s want America to know about them.

What the Local News Doesn’t Show You

La Raza Mexicans Invade

Illegal Aliens Protest American Workers

Racist Attack: Raza in Action

My husband was touring with his band in Barstow, California when two Mexican gangs had a gun fight right in front of him. This was before cell phones and he was calling me from a pay phone at a convenience store across the street from his hotel. I was talking to him on the phone when I heard loud screaming in Spanish and the gunfire. He hid in some bushes until they pulled away. I was so helpless! The gang members pulled the injured members into their cars and screeched away. My husband spoke to the store manager outside where blood was on the ground and he said it happens all the time. Hispanic gang violence is a big problem in California.

In the film Mexicans in California , this guy tells it like he see’s it and anytime you do that, the predictable cries of prejudice come. I think he says what he feels and I believe it’s not meant to be prejudiced. Political correctness is so out of control in this country. Just as there are nice areas of this country inhabited by White, Black, Mexican and Asian people from all over the world, there are just as many areas that are scary to go into. Every major city in America deals with the issue. Lately, most of the smaller cities have had a rise in gang activity.

 

My good friend is a Mexican who came here legally from Mexico City. She told me about the Mexican American War back in 1846 when America took part of Texas, New Mexico and California. She believes that a majority of Mexican’s still want to get the land back someday and reclaim it for Mexico . California has the largest population of Mexicans according to a Census. That number has increased every year. I use the term “Mexicans” because just about all of the Hispanic people in California, made it there from Mexico and not from other Spanish speaking countries.

Although it’s very subtle, not only do some people want to only speak their native tongue Spanish in America but there are several people from Mexico living in America that want their flag to be flown over the U.S. flag. If you wanted so desperately to get to this country to improve the life of yourself and your children, then your allegiance should be to it and only it.

The Mexican Flag Flying over the American Flag in Texas!

The US flag flying upside down below the Mexican flag in America!

There are a lot more things I can talk about but I will stop. You see that every American needs to speak ENGLISH as their first language. If you want to speak a second language that is up to you, but in the case of Anzaldua, she needed to accept that, thank God above that she had the blessing of living here. We have to adopt the language we speak in this beautiful country called America.

Anne Sexton

Anne Sexton was a beautiful woman on the exterior but a hurting and tortured woman on the inside. I believe the postpartum depression she developed had a big part to play in what became a constant battle with depression but it went even further than that. One of the ways it would manifest itself is in the unusual poetry she wrote. One poem she wrote was to one of her two daughters Linda who had just turned twelve. She called it, Little Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely Woman. I didn’t really understand it except to say that she knew that her daughter was growing up and it was a way for her to express her feelings about it. Her little girl, her little string bean was becoming a lovely women and Sexton was trying her best to come to terms with it.  She also wrote a letter to Linda when she was forty years old. Five years later, Sexton’s depression led her to kill herself. I don’t pretend to read very much poetry or to understand it. I know that she communicated much of her thoughts through her poetry.

Sexton met another poet in her writing class named Sylvia Plath. She was a very intelligent women who wrote really unusual poetry.  Sylvia was dealing with depression also and took her life about a year after her husband had left her for another women.

Linda Gray and Joyce were Anne Sexton’s two daughters. Although I could not find anything on Joyce whose last name is Ladd, I did find a lot on her first daughter Linda Gray Sexton. Linda seems to have learned a great deal about writing from her mother Anne. In Linda’s most recent memoir, Half in Love: Surviving the Legacy of Suicide, she writes about her struggle with her own mental illness and the legacy of suicide left to her by her mother and her mother’s family.  Through the help of family, therapy and medicine, Linda confronted deep-seated issues and outlived her mother by curbing the haunting cycle of suicide she once seemed destined to inherit. (on her bio page) 

Anne and her daughters Joyce & Linda Gray

It always seems so wrong to me that so many writers are drinkers, drug takers, sexually deprived or the other way around. Many of them intentionally kill themselves or allow the drugs and alcohol to eventually do it. I wish that I was able to help them but only God can. I want everyone to know that Jesus laid down His life for our sin so we could live for Him in his righteousness. We have to be bold and spread His word.

                                                                                          

Linda Gray Sexton January 15, 1994

 

 

John Cheever

John Cheever was born in 1921 and was a different sort of fellow. We read a short story he had written called, The Swimmer. It is about a slender, older man who had a serious drinking problem and had basically lost everything. He set out one day to travel to his house which was eight miles away by swimming in people’s backyard pools and drinking along the way. He met various people, some who were kind to him and others who did not want him in their pool or even around them at all but none of that mattered to him. He was determined to get home to his wife and daughters. When he finally did arrive at the house, he found that it was abandoned and up for sale. He had lost everything including his family because alcohol had taken over his life.

Mr. Cheever had a long career in which he wrote numerous short stories and novels such as The Wapshot Chronicle, Bullet Park and Falconer.

I believe that a lot of the writers of fiction that we have read about in American Literature, based a lot of their stories in truth from their own lives. Cheever came from what seemed a normal family. A Mother, Father and a brother. His father Frederick lost his shoe business when the Great Depression began in the early 1930’s and later lost their family home. His mother Mary owned a gift shop and supported the family financially. She also became an alcoholic and ended up dying as a result of her alcoholism. I think that a young boy such as John saw a whole lot of depression by the time he was a teenager that affected him until his death. John nearly died from his drinking several times before conquering it a few years before his death. In keeping with the family pattern, his older brother Fred also had battles with alcohol.

 

John was married to Mary Winternitz in 1941 and two of his three children Susan Cheever and Benjamin H. Cheever became writers. I couldn’t find the name of the third child. His son Benjamin published The Journal of John Cheever in 1991. It chronicled his life from the late 1940’s to just before his death of cancer in 1982. In the book, Benjamin published notes from his father about the love that he had for his children, his alcoholism and the fact that he wrestled with bisexuality.

Ernest Hemingway

I’m sure a lot people have written about Ernest Hemingway. I think he was a very interesting man and also a good-looking man. He was a mans man. I remember I said that one day in class and I was accused of being biased towards mens men. He was a man who knew he had something special. A man who is well-kept.  A man who enjoys hunting and fishing. A man who writes his thoughts on paper and produces great stories such as A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls & The Old Man and the Sea. A man who knows he is a real mans man. I think that type of man has always been attractive to me. He loved to travel and he loved cats too. But, as much as I think he was attractive, I really do not believe Mr. Hemingway even came close to the being the perfect human being, none of us are.

He was married four times. First to Elizabeth Richardson, second to Pauline Pfeiffer, third to Martha Gellhorn and the fourth time he married Mary Welch. He was the most popular writer of his time. I have learned that a writer often means a drinker. I think of writers such F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Cheever among many others they drank beyond what is considered normal.  People take up drinking for various reasons. Their parent or parents drink, they learn to drink because of peer pressure, some people just love the way it makes them feel. It is a big problem is this country and I believe it was a big problem for Ernest Hemingway.

I was looking on youtube.com and I found a young man who has made a video entitled, “Ernest Hemingway Got Me Drunk. “ The young man says that Ernest Hemingway said, “Write drunk; edit sober.” It’s a cute video but is that really the way you want to be remembered. I found another video with Andy Rooney on Ernest Hemingway and he didn’t think very much of him. I know that it’s hard for people who have a drinking problem to face up to it but if they only would they could be released from unwanted trouble and pain. Perhaps a program such as Alcoholics Anonymous would have been good for him. I don’t know if that would have keep him from killing himself. He thought he was suffering from hypertension, for which he had eletroconvulsive therapy. He was also taking various medicines. His father killed himself and he was said to have hemochromatosis a iron overload. Both his sister Ursula and his brother Leicester committed suicide too. Perhaps they all had hemochromatosis. I wish they would have received the help that they needed in time.

Susan Glaspell

I’ve always been a person who knew that the theatre is in my blood. I have felt this way since seeing a play in the seventh grade. I don’t recall the name of the play but I do remember it was about seven brothers that had to dress themselves properly and go out and make something of themselves. I remember being so enthralled with every thing that they did. From that afternoon on, I was bitten by the acting bug. I have done so many plays over the years. I really feel that have found the perfect fit for me. It is so much fun to develop a character. You know that several Hollywood stars, not all but a lot, love acting for the notoriety. I have a passion for the art! It is so much fun watching a character come to life and being spellbound by the actor’s performance. In theatre, it’s happening live and it takes you to another world.

When I read Susan Glaspell‘s play, “Trifles” I was reminded that theatre is truly one of the greatest ways to tell a story. Glaspell was born in 1876 when women didn’t have many rights. I believe she was an early feminist. It definitely show’s in her first play, “Trifles.” It’s the story of the death of John Wright who is supposedly killed by his wife Mrs Wright aka Minnie Foster. Lewis Hale a neighboring farmer discovers his dead body when he goes over to his home to see if John will go in with him on a party telephone. Mrs Wright claims that John must have been killed by a stranger but that seems strange because he has a rope around his neck. So, Sheriff Henry Peterson ends up coming over and arresting Mrs. Wright. and puts her in jail.

The next day the Sheriff and his wife Mrs. Peters, Mr & Mrs Hale and George Henderson the County Attorney all end up at the Wright’s home. They are there to figure out what happened. The male characters are very arrogant. It is apparent in the way that they talk about Mrs Wright and the way that they treat women in general. The female characters realize that they are not going to understand why Mrs. Wright would do such a thing. So while the men are looking at the Wright’s bedroom the women discover a dead bird in Mrs Wright sewing basket. They choose to hide the bird and in talking amongst themselves they realize that John Wright must have strangled Mrs Wrights bird and Mrs Wright had finally had enough of his cruelty so she strangled him in his sleep. They could not bear to see Mrs Wright imprisoned for such a thing after all she had to endure. She had put up with John Wright’s mean ways so long, she had  gone from being the happy-go-lucky Minnie Foster to the tortured Mrs. Wright.

It’s a fascinating look at the way that women were treated in the late 1800’s thought the 1900’s. They were second class citizens. A trifle means of little importance. Although Mrs. Wright should have found a way to leave her husband without killing him, I guess in the year 1900 it was literally impossible because you could have been left begging on the street or prostituting to survive.

One thing that I really love is that Glaspell chooses to leave the main character out of her plays. That’s genius! Other brilliant writers that we read about in this section of American Literature have had success on stage or in film such as F.Scott Fitzgerald and William Faulkner. Out of all that we have read I truly enjoyed, “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell.                                                                                                             

Susan Glaspell 1876-1948

P. S. Zora Neale Hurston who wrote,” How It Feels to Be Colored Me” and “The Gilded Six-Bits” among many other things was buried in an unmarked grave in Fort Pierce, Florida in 1960. In 1973 novelist Alice Walker and literary scholar Charlotte Hunt found an unmarked grave in the general area where Hurston had been buried, and decided to mark it as hers. I could not find any record of anyone who has done DNA testing on her body to see if it is really her.

The Language Styles Are Different

The thing that stands out in reading many of the writings in American Literature from 1865 until after the turn of the century is the language. So many of the authors of that time used different words then are used today. For instance in 1898 Steven Crane  a fictional writer writes about three men who follow Pat Scully to “The Blue Hotel.” He describes one of men as a Swede who seemed to make furtive estimates of each man in the room. Furtive is one of those words I had to look up. Later on in the story he comments on the men playing a card game and he writes that the game was formed jocosely. There were many more words in the story of “The Blue Hotel” that I don’t believe would be used in today’s language.

I’ve noticed that many of the writers such as Mark Twain, Kate Chopin and Ambrose Brice often used words that I had to look up. You would think that, that was good. I would have a wonderful vocabulary! But, I’m afraid I wouldn’t remember the words because I don’t use them on regularly basis. Even those who don’t write fiction such as Booker T. Washington (a wondeful man) wrote words in his book, “Up From Slavery”  that I had to look up, such as gewgaws.  Althought nonfictional writers do add a lot less “difficult” words then fictional writers do.

It was a different time and I guess we think differently about the way we write. It is amazing to me to think that I would have had very different verbage in those days. Many people who are writing today could use a little flair to their words. In using such words as those used in the 1800’s and thoughout the turn of the century that could add a lot pizzazz to their stories. But, the problem is that a lot of writers would have to adapt to that form of writing for people to develope that kind of vocabulary. I don’t know if it is worth it.

One thing I do know is that not knowing many of the words makes for a very long read because you are having to look them up all the time!!!

It’s All New To Me

I’m taking my first year of American Literature at UNA. I really don’t know about the writers or the reason they wrote what they wrote but I am beginning to learn. We are studying 1865 to the present. It was a very different and difficult time in American history.  The American Civil War had just ended when are text-book begins. It was a depressing time. The Southern states tried to succeed and take slavery with them. The North beats the South and as many as 600 and 700 thousand people lost their lives.  America would stay together and abolish slavery but it would leave a lot of animosity between the North and the South. I see that sarcasm is widely used in the writings near that time. The type of sarcasm that I believe is used is a  form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language. It is intended to make its victim the butt of the joke.

I’ve read Mark Twain‘s “Jumping Frog” & “Journalism in Tennessee.” I find Mr. Twain, who’s original name is Samuel L. Clemens, to be a very interesting man. So very witty!!! He grew-up in Missouri and it’s was amazing to learn he was self-taught! He wrote such amazing works. He worked as a printer and a Riverboat Pilot. He came up with the name Mark Twain when he was piloting and learned that it ment “safe water.” As he grew as a writer he took to performing on stage by discussing his writings. (That sounds like a very good time for all!!!) I find his sarcasm apparent, especially in his writing of “Journalism in Tennessee.” He writes about becoming a writer in the south at a  Tennessee paper. He says it he is going there for his heath but apparently everything that happens is just the opposite!  He talks about being shot multiple times by his competitors, being scalped, a bomb going of in the building and his teeth being knocked out among other things. In the end he can’t wait to get out of the southern state of Tennessee. He makes fun of the fact that Tennessee is so stiff and they don’t know what they are doing.  It is funny but, it shows that the south is not thought of very well. I’m thankful that it has changed but during that time I can see that how people would not think very well of the south.

My teacher, Mr. Vince seems to a have a bit of a sarcasm (wit)  in his language skills. He uses wit thoughout are class discussions. He is just having fun and he makes the class interesting.