As you finish reading Mary, post your final assessment of the text below. How does Mary compare and contrast with the other autobiographies that we have read so far? How does its treatment of race, gender, and class differ? What do we learn through reading this autobiography? What did you especially enjoy in this final section?
We'll also be discussing again the question of audience. To whom do you think Mebane directs her autobiography?
I think Mary's audience is people like just like her-people who are too afraid to voice their opinions and stand up for what the believe because they became a product of their own environment. Mary grew up learing to repress her feelings and emotions and therefore regretted a lot of things that she never got to say or do. For example, she never got to tell Aunt Jo how much she appreciated her and she never told anyone about the fight between her father and brother because she was afraid of the consequences. But she was always proud of people who stood up against injustice. This is how she differed from the other authors we have read. Wright stood up for what he believed in whole-heartedly while Johnson just put on a mask and pretend his way through problems. Mary was simply brought up to avoid talking about them and thus struggled throughout the book to find the "magic", to go to a far away place in order to escape reality.
I find Mary to be very different than the other autobiographies we've read. Mary was very refreshing once we started because there didn't seem to be underlying political motives like in the beginning of Black Boy, which later turned to overt political ranting. Her food descriptions lighten the narrative and are very enjoyable. She does chronicle her fear and sadness in her relationship with her unloving mother, which we've seen in most autobiographies.
Mebane does deal with complicated issues like class and gender, but often, as we have talked about in class, passively changes her pronouns to gain some distance from readers. She describes North Carolina College through the lens of "most students," whose 'mother and father" have "struggled so hard and sat around the fire at night and planned for so long" about the day their child's frist day of college (206). This seems to enhance the contrast of her mother's antagonistic views about anything Mary likes or aspires to. But the indirect way of describing certain events in her life would not appear in something by Wright.
Overall, Mary has been a great break from the political narratives, but Mebane still deals with heavy and somber issues, only she does it in a more nostalgic and captivating way.
I agree with AE in that the audience for Mary is simply people. For me, it always seems easier to write how you are feeling than express it verbally. And she does grow up during a very turbulent time period that needs to be noted for people to come. I'm glad that as she grew older she stopped letting people walk all over her. Like when she finally fights with Ruf Jr. (218) and when she transfers into the chancellor's wife’s English class. Her upbringing between being quieted for what she notices and seeing people fail and protest seems to have given her an edge for studying people and dealing with them that she uses to her utmost ability.
I wanted to draw our attention to page 241 of the text, where Mary asks, "Could it be that I had miscued, had scrambled the signals and thus was not acting out my mother's hostility and aggression toward society as I should have been?" It is as if Mary cannot decipher the code that everyone else in her community is working from. We saw this earlier in the text when her friend says she talks differently than everyone else. In class we focus on how gifted these writers are and how they can use language, but Mary is concerned with a language she cannot seem to grasp, not only the words her community uses but the social rules to which it adheres. We saw this in Wright's text as well, when his friends tell him he is not acting the way a young black man should act. It is as if he, too, has problems interpreting the code. From a gender perspective, perhaps Mary has trouble understanding the cues because the signals society sends girls are inherently mixed.
Towards the end of Mary, Mary seems to be as fed up with African American’s as she is with the white people. This can be compared to Black Boy when Wright begins to feel alienated from the black communists, as well as from white people. Each of them are outsiders in the white, as well as the black community. However, Mary concludes with more optimism that Black Boy. Mebane ends with, “I didn’t know how I was going to get out, but I was going to try. I had to.” Although her life has been plagued with difficulties, like Wright’s, she is still able to believe she has a more positive future.
It is also interesting in the end that Mary is still trying to figure out her mother’s motives for not being loving and caring throughout her childhood. She says she keeps going back to this idea that somehow she has offended her mother. She points out that her mother wanted to continue with schooling, but could not. It seems obvious that she has accomplished everything her mother wanted, to finish high school and even go to college. Her mother treats her with indifference almost to spite her.
I think Mary is more of an objector than Richard. To be sure, Richard casts his share of aspersions on this lifestyle and that, but he is much more inclined to try things on. Mary, on the other hand, rejects everything that might lead her to her definition of a dead end, from domestic behavior to relationships with the opposite sex (specifically country boys bound for the field or factory, as we are told on 193). In denouncing both the “mind-numbing” factory and the domestic work which has “no semblance of human dignity” (205), Mary metonymically rejects the entire set of livelihoods and lifestyles represented in her community. In anthropological terms, then, while Richard is a participant observer, Mary watches from “the veranda”. But then, there is the sense that these utter diatribes are essential to break out of the mold; if, as we have discussed, she cannot always voice her feelings, at least she can live them to some extent.
As for the intended audience, the note of admonition in her litany of black female acquaintances in Chapter 23, one of many throughout the novel, serves to confirm the suspicion that she may be writing specifically for black women like herself, women who are disillusioned but struggle to find their voice.
Closing remarks: This is my favorite of the works we have read so far; I love a good, subtle kick in the teeth.
I agree that the audience for Mary was people. Anyone who was willing to pick up the book and read a narrative of a life. I think that the book serves to help all realize that prejudice is alive and well in all walks of life, between family members and also members of one's own race and gender. Absolutely no one was safe in Mary's time of coming of age from the strife and struggles of the segregation of the south.
I liked the book and found it an easy read. It was not hard at all to continue along the story line up until the end. I do however feel a little bit of dissapointment that I do not get to find out how or when Mary finally breaks free like she says in the end, that she would somehow find a way.
I think that the main difference between this text and the other autobiographies we have read lies in her prose style, which through its minimalism reflects the weight of the time. The last pages show how deeply embedded southern ideas of race, sexism and class truly are. They effect all aspects of southern life. The overall theme in this book seems to be outright support for protest, for she mentions time and again that that is the most effective way to get your way. Using the example of her family, and her mother's favoritism, Mary shows how mentally deforming unequal treatment can be. Because of her mother, she is practically incapable of showing affection and doesn't know what to do in situations of intimacy. Mary's audience, to me seems to be somewhat of a younger generation, the way she explains things, things that would have been obvious to someone from her years, but I would agree that the intent is for a generalized audience, a book that practically anyone can pick up and enjoy.
Although I found Mary to be a much lighter read. I think that she still addresses the oppression felt from Jim Crowe segregation. I am mesmerized by her portrayal of black southern women. It is something I think everyone can relate to, victims of circumstance. Even those who try to get out can’t. I love the hopeful way that she end this part of her biography, still looking for someone on the outside to help her. This is such a contrast to the outright anger that Wright showed in his story. Like many women who understand their powers of suggestion, Mary Mebane makes powerful statements cloaked in innocent feminine observation. It’s all about protesting and empowering each other to seek the outside hand to pull you out of the pit.
I agree with the comments acknowledging Mary as a much lighter read. For me this was definitely the most enjoyable thing we have read this semester. I really enjoy the way that she shows setting and emotions in her writing and specific concrete details in her descriptions. Aside form simply enjoying her writing, I enjoyed how she still touched on many of the issues we see in the other narratives but she also leaves a lot of room for the reader to see where she’s coming from and experience the feelings themselves. It was really interesting to read about southern black women in particular in this book. Especially all that came from whether you were a black black woman or a light-skinned black woman. Also, her explanations of the limited options most black women had, to try and go to school and be a teacher/wife, or become promiscuous, or a homemaker. There are many other aspects to this book that were interesting and engaging to me, such as the family dynamics between her and her mother and father. But something that caught my attention the most in this book were the few places where she noted a desire for someone she could love and trust. For example, the fantasy she had (p.193) of just a figure that cared for her, it was in sexual thoughts but also just a fantasy for “someone who was on her side.” Several short and often subtle times in the book there are these hints and sentences referencing her desire for someone, simply just one other human being in her life whom she felt was intelligent and understanding and could love her/take care of her. I felt that desire often in the book and it created a very sad, lonesome, and tired tone to me in her words. But, all in all I really enjoyed reading her work and I feel she said alot by showing things rather than forcing them upon the reader in bold statements.
Whoa, I thought I'd posted this last week, but there it was sitting in my Word document. Sorry about that.
I actually see Mary as being thematically *similar* to, at least, Richard Wright's _Black Boy_, at least in terms of Mebane's treatment of fear, racial tensions, and violence. Though Mebane's work is much more subtle, she still recognizes the way these three concepts play out in her life as an African-American. For example, when an African-American man refuses to move on a bus into Durham, Mary discusses her rage at being forced to the back of the bus as well as her deep-seated fear of white people. She also mentions that the atmosphere in the bus became tense, as if violence could erupt at any moment. This isn't so far removed from the lens factory episode in _Black Boy_: Wright is enraged that he's being treated as less than human, but he also understands the potential violence in his situation and fears the repercussions associated with lashing out against whites.
The reason Mebane's text seems so different from Wright's initially hinges on how accessible these themes are. Where Mary recognizes them, they seem to play out in her life in a more subtle way. WRight's text, of course, was released at a time when racial violence had reached a fevered pitch; his motivations for foregrounding these ideas of racial inequality, fear, and violence rested on social change. Mary's book occupies a temporal space outside of the equality movement. In a way, Mary's text is more powerful because she does not foreground these themes. For Mary, these ideas remain subtly present in her life, which she reflects through her autobiography.
I think Mary's audience is people like just like her-people who are too afraid to voice their opinions and stand up for what the believe because they became a product of their own environment. Mary grew up learing to repress her feelings and emotions and therefore regretted a lot of things that she never got to say or do. For example, she never got to tell Aunt Jo how much she appreciated her and she never told anyone about the fight between her father and brother because she was afraid of the consequences. But she was always proud of people who stood up against injustice. This is how she differed from the other authors we have read. Wright stood up for what he believed in whole-heartedly while Johnson just put on a mask and pretend his way through problems. Mary was simply brought up to avoid talking about them and thus struggled throughout the book to find the "magic", to go to a far away place in order to escape reality.
ReplyDelete(Aaron Nugent)
ReplyDeleteI find Mary to be very different than the other autobiographies we've read. Mary was very refreshing once we started because there didn't seem to be underlying political motives like in the beginning of Black Boy, which later turned to overt political ranting. Her food descriptions lighten the narrative and are very enjoyable. She does chronicle her fear and sadness in her relationship with her unloving mother, which we've seen in most autobiographies.
Mebane does deal with complicated issues like class and gender, but often, as we have talked about in class, passively changes her pronouns to gain some distance from readers. She describes North Carolina College through the lens of "most students," whose 'mother and father" have "struggled so hard and sat around the fire at night and planned for so long" about the day their child's frist day of college (206). This seems to enhance the contrast of her mother's antagonistic views about anything Mary likes or aspires to. But the indirect way of describing certain events in her life would not appear in something by Wright.
Overall, Mary has been a great break from the political narratives, but Mebane still deals with heavy and somber issues, only she does it in a more nostalgic and captivating way.
I agree with AE in that the audience for Mary is simply people. For me, it always seems easier to write how you are feeling than express it verbally. And she does grow up during a very turbulent time period that needs to be noted for people to come.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that as she grew older she stopped letting people walk all over her. Like when she finally fights with Ruf Jr. (218) and when she transfers into the chancellor's wife’s English class. Her upbringing between being quieted for what she notices and seeing people fail and protest seems to have given her an edge for studying people and dealing with them that she uses to her utmost ability.
I wanted to draw our attention to page 241 of the text, where Mary asks, "Could it be that I had miscued, had scrambled the signals and thus was not acting out my mother's hostility and aggression toward society as I should have been?" It is as if Mary cannot decipher the code that everyone else in her community is working from. We saw this earlier in the text when her friend says she talks differently than everyone else. In class we focus on how gifted these writers are and how they can use language, but Mary is concerned with a language she cannot seem to grasp, not only the words her community uses but the social rules to which it adheres.
ReplyDeleteWe saw this in Wright's text as well, when his friends tell him he is not acting the way a young black man should act. It is as if he, too, has problems interpreting the code.
From a gender perspective, perhaps Mary has trouble understanding the cues because the signals society sends girls are inherently mixed.
Towards the end of Mary, Mary seems to be as fed up with African American’s as she is with the white people. This can be compared to Black Boy when Wright begins to feel alienated from the black communists, as well as from white people. Each of them are outsiders in the white, as well as the black community. However, Mary concludes with more optimism that Black Boy. Mebane ends with, “I didn’t know how I was going to get out, but I was going to try. I had to.” Although her life has been plagued with difficulties, like Wright’s, she is still able to believe she has a more positive future.
ReplyDeleteIt is also interesting in the end that Mary is still trying to figure out her mother’s motives for not being loving and caring throughout her childhood. She says she keeps going back to this idea that somehow she has offended her mother. She points out that her mother wanted to continue with schooling, but could not. It seems obvious that she has accomplished everything her mother wanted, to finish high school and even go to college. Her mother treats her with indifference almost to spite her.
(Monica)
ReplyDeleteI think Mary is more of an objector than Richard. To be sure, Richard casts his share of aspersions on this lifestyle and that, but he is much more inclined to try things on. Mary, on the other hand, rejects everything that might lead her to her definition of a dead end, from domestic behavior to relationships with the opposite sex (specifically country boys bound for the field or factory, as we are told on 193). In denouncing both the “mind-numbing” factory and the domestic work which has “no semblance of human dignity” (205), Mary metonymically rejects the entire set of livelihoods and lifestyles represented in her community. In anthropological terms, then, while Richard is a participant observer, Mary watches from “the veranda”. But then, there is the sense that these utter diatribes are essential to break out of the mold; if, as we have discussed, she cannot always voice her feelings, at least she can live them to some extent.
As for the intended audience, the note of admonition in her litany of black female acquaintances in Chapter 23, one of many throughout the novel, serves to confirm the suspicion that she may be writing specifically for black women like herself, women who are disillusioned but struggle to find their voice.
Closing remarks: This is my favorite of the works we have read so far; I love a good, subtle kick in the teeth.
I agree that the audience for Mary was people. Anyone who was willing to pick up the book and read a narrative of a life. I think that the book serves to help all realize that prejudice is alive and well in all walks of life, between family members and also members of one's own race and gender. Absolutely no one was safe in Mary's time of coming of age from the strife and struggles of the segregation of the south.
ReplyDeleteI liked the book and found it an easy read. It was not hard at all to continue along the story line up until the end. I do however feel a little bit of dissapointment that I do not get to find out how or when Mary finally breaks free like she says in the end, that she would somehow find a way.
I think that the main difference between this text and the other autobiographies we have read lies in her prose style, which through its minimalism reflects the weight of the time. The last pages show how deeply embedded southern ideas of race, sexism and class truly are. They effect all aspects of southern life. The overall theme in this book seems to be outright support for protest, for she mentions time and again that that is the most effective way to get your way. Using the example of her family, and her mother's favoritism, Mary shows how mentally deforming unequal treatment can be. Because of her mother, she is practically incapable of showing affection and doesn't know what to do in situations of intimacy. Mary's audience, to me seems to be somewhat of a younger generation, the way she explains things, things that would have been obvious to someone from her years, but I would agree that the intent is for a generalized audience, a book that practically anyone can pick up and enjoy.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I found Mary to be a much lighter read. I think that she still addresses the oppression felt from Jim Crowe segregation. I am mesmerized by her portrayal of black southern women. It is something I think everyone can relate to, victims of circumstance. Even those who try to get out can’t. I love the hopeful way that she end this part of her biography, still looking for someone on the outside to help her. This is such a contrast to the outright anger that Wright showed in his story. Like many women who understand their powers of suggestion, Mary Mebane makes powerful statements cloaked in innocent feminine observation. It’s all about protesting and empowering each other to seek the outside hand to pull you out of the pit.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the comments acknowledging Mary as a much lighter read. For me this was definitely the most enjoyable thing we have read this semester. I really enjoy the way that she shows setting and emotions in her writing and specific concrete details in her descriptions. Aside form simply enjoying her writing, I enjoyed how she still touched on many of the issues we see in the other narratives but she also leaves a lot of room for the reader to see where she’s coming from and experience the feelings themselves. It was really interesting to read about southern black women in particular in this book. Especially all that came from whether you were a black black woman or a light-skinned black woman. Also, her explanations of the limited options most black women had, to try and go to school and be a teacher/wife, or become promiscuous, or a homemaker. There are many other aspects to this book that were interesting and engaging to me, such as the family dynamics between her and her mother and father. But something that caught my attention the most in this book were the few places where she noted a desire for someone she could love and trust. For example, the fantasy she had (p.193) of just a figure that cared for her, it was in sexual thoughts but also just a fantasy for “someone who was on her side.” Several short and often subtle times in the book there are these hints and sentences referencing her desire for someone, simply just one other human being in her life whom she felt was intelligent and understanding and could love her/take care of her. I felt that desire often in the book and it created a very sad, lonesome, and tired tone to me in her words. But, all in all I really enjoyed reading her work and I feel she said alot by showing things rather than forcing them upon the reader in bold statements.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, I thought I'd posted this last week, but there it was sitting in my Word document. Sorry about that.
ReplyDeleteI actually see Mary as being thematically *similar* to, at least, Richard Wright's _Black Boy_, at least in terms of Mebane's treatment of fear, racial tensions, and violence. Though Mebane's work is much more subtle, she still recognizes the way these three concepts play out in her life as an African-American. For example, when an African-American man refuses to move on a bus into Durham, Mary discusses her rage at being forced to the back of the bus as well as her deep-seated fear of white people. She also mentions that the atmosphere in the bus became tense, as if violence could erupt at any moment. This isn't so far removed from the lens factory episode in _Black Boy_: Wright is enraged that he's being treated as less than human, but he also understands the potential violence in his situation and fears the repercussions associated with lashing out against whites.
The reason Mebane's text seems so different from Wright's initially hinges on how accessible these themes are. Where Mary recognizes them, they seem to play out in her life in a more subtle way. WRight's text, of course, was released at a time when racial violence had reached a fevered pitch; his motivations for foregrounding these ideas of racial inequality, fear, and violence rested on social change. Mary's book occupies a temporal space outside of the equality movement. In a way, Mary's text is more powerful because she does not foreground these themes. For Mary, these ideas remain subtly present in her life, which she reflects through her autobiography.