Throughout the first half of the semester, we have explored a number of themes and issues that pertain to literature that can best be described as “queer.” “Queer theory includes both queer readings of texts and the theorisation of 'queerness' itself. Queer theory ‘focuses on mismatches between sex, gender and desire’". Giovanni’s room by James Baldwin, is a great example of sexual orientation, race, sex, heterosexuality, and whiteness. The author goes into great detail to show this. Toni Morrison’s, Recitatif, is another piece of literature that explores race, sex, whiteness ect…
In Giovanni’s room, the author focuses on masculinity, sexual identity, and race, for the most part “whiteness”. One point the author tries to make is that …show more content…
More so here than it was in Giovanni’s Room. The story was about two girls, Twyla and Roberta, who become “friends” during their stay in a shelter . Throughout the reading, the author creates a story without ever explicitly saying which one of the characters is black and which one is white, which makes the story really interesting. But, from context, we come to realize that Twyla is black and Roberta is white through the many clues the author gives us. At the beginning, the mothers of Twyla and Roberta come to the orphanage for lunch. Twyla’s mother didn’t bring anything to eat. "Mary didn't bring anything. So we picked fur and cellophane grass off the mashed Jelly beans and ate them" (Morrison). While Roberta’s mother brought a huge feast for them all to enjoy. This can go to show that Robert’s family is more wealthy because, her mother was able to supply more food for the girls, while Twyla’s mother only brought jelly beans. In another part of the story, Twyla explains that she is okay with kicking a white person, but not a black person. Roberta is morally okay with kicking a black person, but not a white person. As we read, we see the many issues of race that arise for the two girls. In another scene of the story, Twyla is working as a waitress. Roberta is on the road with two men when she runs into Twyla at work. Roberta makes a comment about going to meet Jimi Hendrix. In this …show more content…
Bonny’s orphanage is brought up many different times, the story even ends with her. Her importance in the story is almost strange. Again, the author does not tell us Maggie’s race, we are left to guess. Twyla describes her as old, “sandy colored” and her legs shaped like “parentheses”. It seems like the two girls grew closer from making fun of Maggie, which could be her significance. She also represents the pain that Roberta and Twyla experienced in the orphanage without their mothers. Morrison leaves interesting clues throughout the story that keep you guessing the races of Twyla and Roberta. By doing this, she makes wealth, class and race stereotypes very apparent. Based on these stereotypes, we can come to the conclusion that Roberta is white and Twyla is black.
Over the first half of the semester, the two stories that stuck out to me the most were Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin and Recitatif by Toni Morrison. Both of these examples explore a number of themes and issues that pertain to literature that can best be described as “queer. Things such as sexual orientation, race, sex, heterosexuality, and whiteness are all topics that arise in these two examples. In Giovanni’s Room, the author focuses more on masculinity, sexual orientation, sex and whiteness more so than he does on race. However, in Recitatif, race is a huge
In Giovanni’s room, the author focuses on masculinity, sexual identity, and race, for the most part “whiteness”. One point the author tries to make is that …show more content…
More so here than it was in Giovanni’s Room. The story was about two girls, Twyla and Roberta, who become “friends” during their stay in a shelter . Throughout the reading, the author creates a story without ever explicitly saying which one of the characters is black and which one is white, which makes the story really interesting. But, from context, we come to realize that Twyla is black and Roberta is white through the many clues the author gives us. At the beginning, the mothers of Twyla and Roberta come to the orphanage for lunch. Twyla’s mother didn’t bring anything to eat. "Mary didn't bring anything. So we picked fur and cellophane grass off the mashed Jelly beans and ate them" (Morrison). While Roberta’s mother brought a huge feast for them all to enjoy. This can go to show that Robert’s family is more wealthy because, her mother was able to supply more food for the girls, while Twyla’s mother only brought jelly beans. In another part of the story, Twyla explains that she is okay with kicking a white person, but not a black person. Roberta is morally okay with kicking a black person, but not a white person. As we read, we see the many issues of race that arise for the two girls. In another scene of the story, Twyla is working as a waitress. Roberta is on the road with two men when she runs into Twyla at work. Roberta makes a comment about going to meet Jimi Hendrix. In this …show more content…
Bonny’s orphanage is brought up many different times, the story even ends with her. Her importance in the story is almost strange. Again, the author does not tell us Maggie’s race, we are left to guess. Twyla describes her as old, “sandy colored” and her legs shaped like “parentheses”. It seems like the two girls grew closer from making fun of Maggie, which could be her significance. She also represents the pain that Roberta and Twyla experienced in the orphanage without their mothers. Morrison leaves interesting clues throughout the story that keep you guessing the races of Twyla and Roberta. By doing this, she makes wealth, class and race stereotypes very apparent. Based on these stereotypes, we can come to the conclusion that Roberta is white and Twyla is black.
Over the first half of the semester, the two stories that stuck out to me the most were Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin and Recitatif by Toni Morrison. Both of these examples explore a number of themes and issues that pertain to literature that can best be described as “queer. Things such as sexual orientation, race, sex, heterosexuality, and whiteness are all topics that arise in these two examples. In Giovanni’s Room, the author focuses more on masculinity, sexual orientation, sex and whiteness more so than he does on race. However, in Recitatif, race is a huge