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Nicholas Branch and the Futility of Evidence

     In Libra ’s plot, Nicholas Branch takes the role of a parallel character, who looks back on the main storyline we live through with Oswald and Everett, except he does it through artifacts and evidence. When we first meet him, Branch has been trying to write a secret history of JFK’s assassination for the CIA for over 15 years. As the reader moves through Lee Harvey Oswald’s life and Win Everett’s plan with the CIA, they watch the events leading up to the assassination unfold to create a narrative explanation for Oswald’s involvement in President Kennedy’s death. While the reader goes through these plots, they also get flashes of Nicholas Branch’s current state as he tries to understand the events by working backwards through evidence. However, at the end of the book, while the reader finally comes to understand the story behind the assassination, Branch descends further into a hole of confusion, surrounded by piles upon piles of evidence, none of which reveals the truth to him. Fr
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Rufus: "Her Little Jackass"

  The main focus of Kindred is Dana and Rufus, and the evolving yet also stagnant relationship they share throughout the novel. The story is told through Dana’s first person perspective, so as readers, we get to hear her inner monologue. However, we do not get the same viewpoint with Rufus, and we only see him through Dana’s eyes. While Rufus’s personality is objectively different from other white characters in the 18th century setting such as his father Tom Weylin, Dana’s characterization of Rufus is heavily affected by her unique familial ties with him, and it blurs the lines of Rufus’s true motivations and limits.   At the beginning of Kindred when Rufus is still a child, he’s a generally sympathetic character. The racist standards of the time are made apparent by his usage of the n word, however, he also listens to Dana when she tells him not to use it, shows interest and excitement towards Dana’s relationship with Kevin, and seems to have respect for her. With the added knowledge
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Afrofuturism in Mumbo Jumbo

Though I enjoyed reading Mumbo Jumbo, I think every member of our class can agree that the narrative was confusing at times. The inclusion of graphs, spontaneous lists of words, and lack of upfront exposition threw me for a bit of a loop when I first began reading it, and though I eventually got more used to the style of the book, it still was unlike any other novel I’ve ever read. However, the element of Mumbo Jumbo that was the most bewildering for me was its usage of time. The plot of Mumbo Jumbo doesn’t exactly progress linearly, instead, it swings back and forth between the main storyline of Jes Grew in the 1920s and other points in history, such as the 1970s,  though the time spent in these different time periods is usually brief, and provides context or some connection to the 1920s story. The 52 chapters are the culmination of these time period switches, where Papa Le Bas spends two chapters recounting the history of Jes Grew and the Atonists, starting with Ancient Egyptian myth
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The New Era of Ragtime

  As I discussed in my previous blog post, a continuing theme in Ragtime is reinvention among the characters. However, this idea isn’t limited to character development in the novel. The period Doctorow writes about, the “Ragtime Era,” is known for its ushering of the world into a new, modern age. In the years before the First World War, America’s melting pot rose to a boil, with its new ideas, inventions and movements. Ragtime shows these developments by recounting events of the time period, as well as describing its characters’ experiences relating to them.  Some of the major early 1900 occurrences included in Ragtime are the growth of socialism, communism and anarchy ideas, as well as the pushback against them. Through Evelyn Nesbit and Tateh, Ragtime lets us listen in on Emma Goldman, where she expresses many of the revolutionary ideas of the period. This advancement connects to the growing number of immigrants coming to America, who are represented in Ragtime by Tateh and his daugh
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Reinvention in Ragtime

In Ragtime, historical and fictional characters alike exist within its plot, interacting and affecting each other through unique means. Often, the collection of characters seem so different from one another that the idea of them associating or being a part of the same book makes no feasible sense. However, one connecting thread between many of the character arcs is the idea of reinvention. Despite their differences, most of Ragtime’s cast tries or wishes to start a new life or remake themselves in some way, which makes the idea of reinvention a central theme in Ragtime. One of the first examples of this theme is Evelyn Nesbit’s character. In the public eye, Evelyn is known as a sex icon, and as the central figure in the love triangle between her husband, Harry K. Thaw, and Stanford White, which results in the murder of White. While in court, Evelyn presents herself as a doting wife to Harry K. Thaw, in her interactions with Tateh and Emma Goldman, it becomes clear that her public perso
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All posts from now on are for history as fiction

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The "Freedom" of Sweet Home

In the story of Beloved, Sweet Home plays a central role in the “rememory” of the characters. Though at first only alluded to, the story of the Sweet Home plantation and how it relates to the current situations and behaviors of the main characters slowly unfolds throughout the book. Before the arrival of schoolteacher, Sweet Home and its owners, Mr. and Mrs. Garner, seem to have been “compassionate” towards the enslaved people that worked there. The Sweet Home men: Paul A, Paul D, Paul F, Sixo, and Halle, were known throughout the area as unique in their position as slaves because they were treated like men by Mr. Garner. He gave them a certain level of respect, and he even allowed the men to have guns, which was unheard of at the time. However, how much autonomy did the Sweet Home men truly have? Though the Sweet Home men had independence and dignity under their original owner, that does not change the fact that they were “owned.” The only reason Paul D. and his brothers had these pri
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