Alystory as Fiction

  For my blog post I wanted to focus on a moment in Kindred that really stuck with me through its many ways of symbolism. Dana losing her arm at the end of the book left a powerful and unsettling impression and I was curious about it’s ties to a broader understanding of the effects of trauma. Octavia Butler uses this physical loss to show the marks of history that can't simply be ignored or shaken off. Dana returns to her own time, but she doesn’t return completely untouched by her experience. The violence of the past has fused with her and has manifested itself into an injury. It shows a deeper meaning that Dana’s emotional and psychological scars that slavery leaves an impression, even generations later. Dana’s arm being trapped in the wall of her home also symbolizes the connection she has between past and present. She is pulled (metaphorically and quite literally) between two worlds, and her arm is cut off at the exact point when those two worlds collide. I think this is trying...

       I loved reading Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo for its unique novel style that mixes myths, history, and satire that blurs the line between what's real and what is made up. The story takes place in the 1920s but discusses centuries of cultural tension, and treats history like its a living puzzle. Reed combines different types of media, such as newspaper clippings and photographs, along with conspiracy theories to create a version of history that feels both insane and strangely familiar. From even the first few pages, those reading Mumbo Jumbo realize they are not just reading a story. They are navigating a version of American history where truth and fiction are constantly overlapping.      The way that Ishmael Reed blends real historical figures with fictional ones makes Mumbo Jumbo feel chaotic on purpose. That chaos sheds light on how history itself is often told from only one perspective. And typically, told from the perspective of the person wit...

       In E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, Mother’s Younger Brother begins the novel as a lost and lonely character, unsure about where he fits in the world. He’s very disconnected from his family and uninterested, except when it comes to his passion for fireworks. His obsession with Evelyn Nesbit and his eventual heartbreak after she rejected him left him feeling emotionally astray. Mother’s Younger Brother even describes wanting to “pack his heart with gunpowder and blow it up"(Doctorow 114), a line that foreshadows his later transformation into someone willing to use violence to get a message across.      Younger Brother’s identity begins to shift when he meets the political activist Emma Goldman and, more importantly, when he witnesses the insane injustice faced by Coalhouse Walker Jr. Coalhouse’s struggle against racism and police brutality brews something in Younger Brother’s heart. For the first time, Younger Brother experiences a powerful sense of rage...