American Lit II: Today I’d like to ask you to focus on Chapter XVIII of Pudd’nhead Wilson. In this chapter the novel’s light tone turns deadly serious, as Roxana tells Tom of the abuse she suffers “down the river” (and reminds us that slavery is no laughing matter). There’s much to marvel at here, including Roxana’s incredible resourcefulness and courage, Tom’s utter depravity, and Twain’s skillful development of these two characters through the use of plotting and dialect.
For now I’d like you to reduce this chapter to three of its key structural elements — White Man, Black Woman, and Mississippi River — and then analyze this video of Beyonce performing John Fogerty’s brilliant song Proud Mary. Your job is to compare and contrast the video to Chapter XVIII of Pudd’nhead Wilson. (If you wish you may wait until after Friday’s class to respond.)
Wednesday, January 21
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
At first glance I could find no elements of the video to be related to Pudd'nhead Wilson. Then in class I found the biggest factor that they share is their intensity within each of their performances. Beyonce does the classic Tina Turner move of taking things slowly and then reving things up by making it rough. The same could be said for Roxana in chapter xviii. Roxana starts out as a confused and sad woman who holds back in reacting to the actions of her son. Roxana is provoked and her intensity begins to build. Her bitterness and anger get the best of her as she airs her diatribe against her pety son. Both women Roxana and Beyonce perforom a slow burn that builds to an impecaable climax of hardship. Other similarities I saw were the obvious physical features, but other than that I could not find any more similarities.
In regards to differences, there is one factor that takes the cake and that is the message that both women are conveying. Roxana tells of the hard ships that she endured on the river and the incredible lengths she went through to get away from that life. Roxana is a bitter and angry woman from her experience. The song Proud Mary seems like a song of empowerment where this person endured hardships but has a positive attitude and is saying I did all these hard things and I survived. Another difference is the times depicted. I don't believe they are talking about the same time period.
montoyajd
Roxanna and Beyonce have more similarities than one would believe at first glance. When comparing a text written in the 1800's to an R&B singer today, one can assume that there will not be many similarities. With Beyonce's video and Roxanna's attitude, the two have much in common. As mentioned in class, both women are commanding the attention of the white men in the audience. Another similarity between the two forms of media is the admiration that both pieces speak of life on the river.
Even though both ladies have a few similarities, these similarities are vastly outweighed by their differences. Most of the differences lie in their cultural and economic statuses. Besides those differences, the two women have very different energies. Roxy's energy, even though she is commanding over Tom, is aggressive with it's threat of blackmail. Beyonce's energy, while still commanding a predominantly white audience, is solely for the purpose of entertainment.
Jonathan Andujar
Both Beyonce and Roxanna have similarities that you have to study deep to see what they are. First, as we discussed during class is that both of them have a way of getting people's attention with their courage. For example when Beyonce tells everyone in the audience to stand up, she used courage and determination to do so. While Roxanna uses courage as a way to live.
Some differences that they have include the different times that the novel was written and when Beyonce sang the song. While they both had the common ground of singing about the river, Roxanna talked about how hard her life was during these times on the river
When I first read this blog, I had no idea even what to look for in similarities for Beyonce and Roxana. After discussing in class I began to realize they are alike in many ways. One way is Beyonce starts the song out slow and then ends with a bam. This is the same with Roxana she just seems like a sweet innocent lady and then began to come out of her shell. In chapter xviii, Roxana is described with long brown wavy hair and Beyonce's hair is the exact same. Twain also describes Roxana in the beginning to have a womanly body, which Beyonce also has. There are many physical ways that Beyonce and Roxana are alike.
The biggest thing that I noticed was how much passion both Beyonce and this chapter of "Pudd'nhead Wilson" is the passion with which both works are deleivered. This passion, it can be argued, is partially due to their race. Black people tend to have more passion about their lives and the events of their lives than white people do. This is because they have been through so many struggles throughout the history of their people. This passion defines them as a people, and is in no means a negative thing. It gave them the drive to make changes during the time in which Twain wrote his novel, and, in today's society, it gives them the drive to run for executive positions, and even to run for president. :)
I think one of the most prevalent similarities between Beyonce and Roxana is their level of power. Beyonce controls the whole audience, makes them stand up and dance. Roxanna has the power to control almost every aspect of "Tom's" life. Once Tom finds out that Roxanna is his mother, he obeys almost everything that she asks him to do. The two powerful black women control white or almost white people.
Post a Comment