Everything after this post is for African-American Lit

Dr. Nolan's Role in the Bell Jar

Dr. Nolan's empathy, relatability, and supportiveness set her apart from other characters in The Bell Jar , contributing to her role as one of the most influential figures in Esther's recovery. While Esther is drowning in uncertainty and doubt, Dr. Nolan is the only character she completely trusts, acting as a role model and mother figure to her. From the beginning of their relationship, Esther recognizes something unique about Dr. Nolan and values her presence. She notes how Dr. Nolan is "a cross between Myrna Loy and [her] mother". This sense of motherly authority combined with the relatability of a younger person makes Dr. Nolan easier for Esther to respect, understand, and trust. In addition, Dr. Nolan's identity as a professional woman makes her a role model for Esther. In this regard, she's almost the exact opposite of Esther's mother. Mrs. Greenwood reinforces the sexual double standard and encourages her daughter to conform, while Dr. Nolan challen...

Bigger as Evidence

As Bigger Thomas's situation intensifies throughout Native Son , he becomes used as evidence for other characters to promote their perspectives. In particular, Bigger is used by both Buckley and Max in strikingly different ways during the trial to advocate for their contrasting racial and economic opinions. The most clear of these situations is Buckley's use of Bigger to further demean the African American race. Buckley argues for Bigger's death sentence and in doing so, he fails to acknowledge the fact that Bigger's situation (and that of many other African Americans in similar positions) wasn't entirely his fault and rather a product of the racial environment. As a result, nothing gets done about trying to uproot the systemic injustices shaping the racial divide and the black population is further subjugated. In contrast, Max uses Bigger to protest the underlying systemic injustices that put Bigger in the sit...

Rememory

One concept from Beloved that I found particularly intriguing was rememory. Rememory paints the idea of memory as a dynamic, always-changing representation of an event, and in this regard, a central characteristic to an object or memory is the perspective from which you're viewing it. What an object is depends on the person whose perspective you're considering it from, as well as the time—past, present, or future—from which you're considering it. For instance, I initially thought Sweet Home exists in the novel's present just as it's described and remembered by Sethe, but upon further thought, it's probably drastically different from what Sethe remembers now. Yet what matters is how Sethe thinks of and remembers it for what it was in the past, since that's what impacts her present and future most. Paul D remembers Sweet Home in a different way—even though he lived there at the same time as Sethe, he experienced different events and theref...

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