Final Paper
America Described Through Words
The English 219 class started the semester with the task of making a list of words that created an image of America. The words were supposed to describe "who we are" and "what we are" as a country or simply just the first word that came to mind when thinking about America. This list included words such as innocent, cowboy, apple pie, rock music, land, rebel, French fries, liberty, assimilation, Wal-Mart, freedom, hypocrisy, quilts, young, new, opportunities, growth, envy, pride, melting pot, honor, education, greed, and eagle. As the semester continued and progressed, the English 219 class examined, read and watched several different pieces of works as a way of learning new ways to describe what America is and means. At the end of the semester, several new insights have been created through the different works. Along with the original list, I have added two new words. These two new words, blindness and invisibility, have continually been revealed to me through the readings. These words are my own interpretation which leads me to keep in mind the phrase "trust the tale and not the teller." Wallace Stevens, in "The House Was Quiet And The World Was Calm," explains how the reader becomes the book. The only way this can happen is if the reader allows themselves to be carried away by the book on their own terms. This paper is about how the following works have revealed themselves to me according to my two new terms. Citizen Kane, Wizard of Oz, Dead Man, Wise Blood, Invisible Man, and Lolita along with the poetry of Wallace Stevens each represents how people are blind and or invisible to others or themselves.
The first film viewed in class was Citizen Kane. The movie was based on the blindness of the society and reporters which caused the invisibility of Charles Foster Kane. The reporters were determined to find out who or what "Rosebud" was, but they wouldn’t allow themselves to see beyond their own beliefs. Rosebud ended up being a sled. The sled was merely an item representing Kane’s past. Charles Foster Kane was seen as what others wanted him to be. He didn’t take much effort in trying to change his image in society, instead he just fell for it. He did a few things he wanted to do, like running a newspaper, but he really just followed the lead of others around him. It wasn’t until the end of his life when he was alone that he went back to recall the time in his life that made him the happiest. The true identity of Charles Foster Kane was invisible to everyone around him because they were all too blind to look within him. The reporters were never going to figure out what Rosebud was because Charles Foster Kane didn’t exist as a little boy playing with a sled.
The Wizard of Oz also shows the effects of being blind. One difference between this film and the previous is that the invisibility and blindness is created within each character in the Wizard of Oz. All of the main characters are searching for something: Dorothy wants to find a way to get home, the Scarecrow wants a brain, the Tin Man wants a heart, and the Lion wants courage. They spend the length of the film on a mission down the Yellow Brick Road to reach Emerald City and have the Wizard of Oz fix their weakness. They are determined to meet the wizard because they don’t believe they have what it takes to get what they want. It isn’t until the end of the film when the true identity of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is revealed that the characters become aware of their blindness. All of the characters were searching for something they held within themselves. Unlike Citizen Kane this movie ends with the characters realizing that their truth lies within themselves. The characters all learned that everything they wanted was within their reach the whole time. All they had to do was open their eyes and realize. After the turning point the characters were no longer blind and the reality of each character became known.
Wallace Stevens guided our class through the semester. It is only fitting that my two new words can also be interpreted through his poetry. The poem that best highlights this idea is "Notes Towards a Supreme Fiction." At first I was preparing to use the line urging us to look again at the sun with an ignorant eye, but then I found a new more fitting stanza . I never understood these lines until I looked at them in the context of this paper. "Not be realized because not to / Be seen, not to be loved or hated because / Not to be realized" (163). When people are blind to who a person is, the individual becomes invisible. A person cannot be truly loved or hated when they are not truly seen. This even holds true for people who believe in something they don’t truly know or understand.
Wallace Stevens guided our class through the semester. It is only fitting that my two new words can also be interpreted through his poetry. The poem that best highlights this idea is "Notes Towards a Supreme Fiction." At first I was preparing to use the line urging us to look again at the sun with an ignorant eye, but then I found a new more fitting stanza . I never understood these lines until I looked at them in the context of this paper. "Not be realized because not to / Be seen, not to be loved or hated because / Not to be realized" (163). When people are blind to who a person is, the individual becomes invisible. A person cannot be truly loved or hated when they are not truly seen. This even holds true for people who believe in something they don’t truly know or understand.
In Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor is suggesting that people are blind to what they believe. People are blind to their faith. Hazel Motes is trying to wake people up and get them to see what they are putting their faith in. Hazel Motes name even suggests blindness. By accident I came across the verse Matthew 7: 3 while writing this paper. "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" (Holy Bible). Mote means speck. This verse is talking about why people worry about the speck in another man’s eye, a speck that makes them unable to see clearly, when they have a beam in their own eye. This verse not only fits the theme of this paper, but it also sheds a new light on the name of the character. People are so worried about how others are looking at the world when they are not seeing the world clearly themselves. Hazel also has a reference of blindness. A haze is something that clouds visibility. The name Hazel Motes means blindness. Unfortunately the novel ends with the same theme. Motes can no longer view the world as it is, so he blinds himself with lemons so the world can become invisible to him. With the world invisible to Hazel Motes he can, like the rest of society, make it what he wants and thinks it should be.
Dead Man is also filled with invisibility and blindness. Bill Blake most commonly is labeled as being innocent or ignorant. However, in the theme of this paper, he is labeled as being blind. Bill Blake does not see the world clearly around him.. He is so absorbed in himself and his own reality that he can’t see. Bill Blake is blind. Blake’s travel companion is not blind but he is invisible. His name, Nobody, represent his reality. Nobody is able to see the world but because of his difference he is not seen. Nobody throughout the movie gives a lot of insight and wisdom, but Bill Blake explains that he hasn’t understood a word he’s said. Nobody talks clearly but because of Bill Blake’s blindness Nobody is invisible. Nobody could also be given the name "Invisible Man."
Ralph Waldo Ellison wrote a book about an invisible man. Invisible Man is about the journey of a man that in the end finds himself to be invisible to society. This book is not only about an invisible man but about a blind society. Ellison portrays the society as not being able or willing to view and accept people as they are. This blindness creates the invisibility. People are not being seen because they are not doing anything to be seen. The society creates new images for people and sees them as they want to see them. So as Wallace Stevens suggests in his poem, if people are not looking at someone’s true identity, then they are not even being seen. Their true self becomes invisible. The "battle royal" also shows the idea of being blind. The young men are ushered into a rink for a fight and then blindfolded. They are fighting blindly, they don’t know who they are fighting. If people are fighting but they aren’t fighting against a true enemy, then the fight can never be worthwhile. People need to open their eyes and clearly see the true identity of people.
Lolita, written en Vladimir Nabokov, was the last novel read for class. In Lolita, we as readers, are not privileged to see the true identity of Lolita. Humbert Humbert blinds us to who Lolita is through his poetic words and his obsession of her. Humbert Humbert has made Lolita invisible, not only to us but also to himself, through his own blindness of her. He gives us her story through his obsession. His view and ideals taint her identity. Her reality is not true because his reality of her is not true.
The list of words that describe America can be endless, but the two terms, blindness and invisibility, can be identified in several of the works examined in English 219. The creators of these works may not have intended for the reader or viewer to see these themes, but I have learned to trust the tale and not the teller. This class has encouraged me to feel comfortable to interpret books, movies, music or anything, in my own way. I am free to put my own emotions and ideas on works that I examine.
posted by Sarah @ 9:31 PM
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