After reading section two, one thing that I have noticed is McCuller's deliberate use of light and dark. For each character, darkness and lightness represents a different feeling-whether it be uneasiness or the fact that they feel most at one with themselves in either the dark or the light. After tracing the use of dark and light in each character's section, ask yourself these questions: How does darkness verse lightness display the characters' feelings of isolation and those of solitude. How does lightness reveal something about the characters? How does darkness? Why does McCuller's purposely use light and dark to reveal certain aspects of her characters? How does this enhance the feeling of isolation?
Feel free to talk about any character, or multiple characters if need be.
Some pages in part two where darkness and lightness come up are:
pg. 101, 111, 119, 138, 143, 178, 181, 203, 213 etc.
There are many other references, seeing as this is quite a long part, however, here are just a few to get you started with the idea.
When darkness is mentioned in the novel, each of the characters is often feeling lonely. Conversely, when McCullers mentions that the setting is lighted, the characters are happy.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most recurring instances of darkness are during the long walks through the town that most of the characters take. These walks most often take place during the evening. On one of Singer's nighttime strolls, he visits the house he and Ant used to live in. The reminder of his loneliness without his friend is described like this: "The street was dark now...The emptiness spread in him" (207).
Loneliness for Singer is torturous and being away from his good friend causes him constant pain. But this is not so for the rest of the four characters. They seem to want to be lonely. When Biff escapes from the cafe and goes into his room to play the mandolin or when he stands observantly behind the counter instead of talking with his customers, he is actively seeking isolation. For some reason, these characters seem to want to be alone. They do not want to be friends, as evidenced by the awkward experience when they were all together in the same room. This is how Mick describes darkness. Note the relationship between the night and her isolation:
"The nights were wonderful, and she didn't have time to think about such things as being scared. Whenever she was in the dark she thought about music. While she walked along the streets she would sing to herself" (102).
It genuinely seems that the nighttime is the natural environment for each of these characters (besides Singer). Something about the restrictions of the lack of vision or the fact that everyone is already asleep, makes them feel more comfortable. It is similar to what Celi and I talked about on my post: these characters want isolation to hide their loneliness. At the beginning of part one, when Mick is describing her new lifestyle, she says, "On the nighttime, as soon as the kids were in bed, she was free. That was the most important time of all. A lot of things happened when she was by herself and it was dark" (98). That idea kind of summarizes my whole argument about darkness.
Throughout reading this entire novel I have been fascinated with Dr. Copeland -- maybe it is because the first time we met him as a character he seemed so peculiar and intruiging in his "dark kitchen alone...although the night was very hot, there was a small fire in the round-bellied wood stove" (McCullers 71). The darkness, in the instance of Dr. Copeland, seems to reveal that he was truly ashamed of his own race and was all too acutely aware of the disadvantages at this time of being black. Ms. Parrish pointed this scene out to me in class and now that I have read this section in context I feel it goes along quite nicely with this idea of light and dark. The scene begins "The morning sun had risen. The day would be bright and cold" (186). This is very different to many of the previous scenes involving Dr. Copeland where he is very much secluded in the dark. In this scene he is to give his speech and "he was dizzy...panic tightened his throat...then suddenly the words came to him" like the darkness of being afraid to be a proud black man, to not "sweat beneath the white man's burden for long" (183-187). He stands on this joyful Christmas day not fearful, happy to preach "But my people! We in this room--we Negroes--have another mission that is for ourselves alone. Within us there is a strong, true purpose, and if we fail in this purpose we will be forever lost" the light of pride that so often is extinguished because of white supremecy (190). Now this scene doesn't explicity mention light and darkness, there is an obvious light and fire in Dr. Copeland as he discusses the black man's duty to their own kind. An incredible line was that "We must sacrifice so that they may earn the dignity of study and wisdom" ... so they would not have to sit alone in their appartments as Dr. Copeland did admiting defeat in the face of the white man.
ReplyDelete***I just posted my response and noticed Mike's point: I completely agree with the idea of darkness being a natural state...although as I said in my response Dr. Copeland used the darkness as an escape, it almost was like a cacoon for him, a place where "he was not disturbed" to just think freely (71).
ReplyDeleteThis does not connect to what I was saying before, but I think it would also be interesting to look at the idea of how fire in this novel may reveal something about the plot and characters? For instance, when Jake is talking passionately to Singer on the idea of hwo he wanted to be an evangelist, and when his arguement heightens McCullers writes "Jacke's forehead swelled angrily. He grasped the scuttle on the hearth and ratlled an avalanche of coal on the fire...He drowsed and saw the colors of the fire, the tints of green and blue and buring yellow" (152).
Maybe color in general, not just light and darkness may be interesting to discuss?
Elaborating on Claire's point with just a nice observation, Copeland isn't the only character that we meet in the dark. In chapter two we are introduced to Biff, Blount, and Mick in the cafe. The setting is at night. It is something like 2:00 AM. A very lonely hour. I would say that nighttime is definitely their natural environment.
ReplyDeleteThere's most likely a contrast between light and dark and artifical and natural but I'm just going to focus on light. I noticed that for a lot of charcters their faces seem to look uglier in the light, artificial or natural.
ReplyDeleteFirst there is Biff whose "face was older in the morning light, with the closed, shrunken eyelids and the heavy, iron-like beard on his cheeks and jaw"(33).
A light shone on Harry's face that was "white and hard"(277).
The light of the fire in front of Copeland gives his lips look "almsot purple against his black skin"(70).
What these have in common, I believe, is all this ugliness reminds me of death, a dead body with a hard expression, purple lips, and shrunken eyelids. There seems to be this notion that light, contrary to normal beliefs, is destructive. This is light that "burned" eyes instead of letting people see more clearly(263).
Jake and Copeland both want to convert the "dont-knows" and show them a figurative light (281). However, there attempts only lead to violance and isolation. This shown especially with Jake who seems to have a connection to Simms, highlighting his radical and perhaps even destructive behavior. Perhaps McCullers is showing how change only comes with time, those who think they have found the light or the truth only destroy what is around them.
There was zero comments before I refreshed my page, so I 'll add that I do agree with Mike that the loneliness of night and darkness seem to be the charcters natural environment. This would make sense with my previous argument about why light is portrayed as something negative around the lonely charcters that come to Singer.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what you two have discussed in your posts. I think that it is extremely evident that darkness serves as the ideal environment for all the characters with the exception of Singer, but I also think that light plays a large role in revealing something negative about a character. For example, something very subtle was on page 181 when Mick and George were celebrating for Christmas: "While it was still dark she and George went out on the sidewalk and cracked nigger-toes and shot firecrackers and ate up the whole two-layer box of cherry candy. And by the time it was daylight they were sick to the stomach and tired out"(181). I thought this was interestig because it revealed the faults in the actions of Mick and George--they are content with eating candy and fooling around during the nighttime, however once daylight comes they feel the repercussions of their actions.
ReplyDeleteTo go along with what Mike was saying about how Singer prefers the light to the dark, there is a quote on page 203 where we learn about Singer and Ant's old friend Carl that illuminates how Singer feels uncomfortable most frequently when he is in the dark: "The big Greek sat up in bed and his round Face was dismal and reproachful. Large tears trickled Slowly down to the neck of his undershirts and he could not be conferred. At last he went to sleep, but Singer was awake in the dark a long time. They never saw Carl again"(203). It is extremely evident in this passage that Singer lay awake in the dark after feeling as if he could do nothing to appease his friend. He lays in the dark not in solitude, but as a place that is representative of the event that had just happened and the negative way in which Ant responded to it.
After reading Celi's last comment, I just picture Hawthorne with a big grin on his face.
ReplyDelete"light plays a large role in revealing something negative about a character." lol. text-to-text connections.
What about Biff's dark beard? And doesn't he have to shave it like twice a day? What is that all about? If my assumptions about the relationship between darkness and loneliness are true, is Biff the loneliest character? And if he is the reader, as Chelsea noted in class, what is McCullers saying about us? I don't think I like where this line of thought is leading me too much. If the beard keeps growing and growing, does that mean that humanities isolation is permanent and inevitable, no matter how many friends we have? Oh, the implications of deep analytical reading!
ReplyDeleteThat comment was a joke, btw. Sometimes, I just feel I am over analyzing things too much... So I like to put it all in perspective.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I think Lights and Darks play huge roles in McCuller's language. I was looking specifically at the part that Claire mentioned about the first time we meet Copeland, and as Highboy, Willie, and Portia begin to leave after their short "chat" with Copleand it is described that "they stood in the darkness before the front door" (89). I saw with this post an extreme connection between darkness and confusion. As Highland has just met Dr. Copeland, and Willie has just "spoken" to his father for the first time in three years, an awful lot of confusion is present between them. I think their literal standing in darkness is a key reference to their confusion and lack of understanding. On the next page when Copeland is alone and Portia and the others have left he reflects on his meeting with Portia. "Each word that Portia had said to him came back in a loud, hard way to his memory. He go up suddenly and turned on the light" (90). The literally reference to "turning on the light" is universally known as being enlightened, having an idea or an understanding. As Copeland turns on the light he gathers a greater understanding of his recent interaction with Portia and of their relationship. McCuller uses darks and lights to portray the characters thoughts of confusion and understanding without actually saying them.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore whenever I think of lights and darks I am automatically drawn to shadows. Last year we discussed shadows and how in order to make darkness (the shadow) you need light. I think this really shows the duality between light and dark, and ultimately their dependance upon one another. Interestingly without light, darkness would not exist. Just like with out goodness, evil would not be bad it would be normal. Earth needs these contradictory forces, these 'Yin' and 'Yang's in order to survive. McCuller uses shadows throughput the novel as she states: "The fire on the hearth burned slowly and the wavering light from the oil lamp made shadows on the wall" (145). The use of "big, black shadow[s]" (356) and fire contradicts all that we have said of lightness and darkness. As universally light is seen as pure and good, and dark is seen as evil, by portraying fire, a thing that is made of light and gives off extreme amounts of light, be viewed as evil, and make "evil" shadows on the wall. For further "bloggers" maybe you could look at not only the role of lights and darks, but the roles of shadows and how these forces and oftentimes be contradictory within the novel.
We've all been concentrating on how the dark seems to be a "natural enviroment" for characters (other than Singer). However, I would just like to point out that the darkness that is initially "natural" becomes a reminder of their desires of who they wanted to be by the end of the novel. For example, Mick, as Mike had mentioned, during the "nighttime...was free" (98). However, as she matures and becomes "older", "the dark late afternoon made the sadness heavy inside her" (249). The darkness is associated with her all her attempts at creating music, been "free" etc, but she can not possibly achieve her dream. The darkness represents what she wants to be and while she is still young, the dark is "natural" because she still believes her dream to be possible. however, as she grows up, the darkness is only a reminder of her innermost desires that she never succeeded, and it reminds her of her failures.
ReplyDeleteI just had another idea though, I think that the reason Singer dislikes the dark is because it leaves him truely helpless and lost. Think about it, Singer cannot speak, or hear. in the dark, he cannot see either. I don't really know where this thought is going but I think its interesting because without his sight, his eyes that had "no horror or pity or hate", what is left of Singer (257)?
As mostly everyone else has said I think that the dark is the comfortable isolation for the characters ecxept for Singer. The light is the reality of life that all of the characters do not want to face.
ReplyDeleteIn the dark Mick can be nyone she wants to be, especially at night when she is aloneand thinking about her music. "In the dark she walked by herself and it was like she was the only person in the town" (101). She does not have to encounter anyone but herself. Most people are afraid of this lonlieness/alone time but Mick and many of the other characters find this to be the most comforting. She also has many of her encounters with Harry in the dark and when she first gets that funny feeling;"As they walked across the dark back yard for some reason she felt funny" (250). They also walk around the block in the dark and this is when Mick feels most comfortable with herself and everyone else.
Dr. Copeland receives news that is far from good about his son Willie. "The sun came out and brigtened the clean saucepans hanging on the wall above the stove...Doctor Copeland still held his head in his hands" (138). He is hiding from the sun even though it is supposedly brightening the day. It sheds light upon the things that he does not want to see. In the dark he is able to hide from all his true unhappiness and isolation.
Biff enjoys his resteraunt at night because he is able to watch all his customers. When he loks at Blount in the light of day "he saw Blount burned a rich, red brown by the sun,his face smooth and hairless, with a bracelet of gold and precious stones on his forearm. When he closed his eyes the man was a good Inca. But when he looked at him again the picture fell away" (228). Even when looking at other characters, the light does not suit them Biff has to close his eyes inorder to see good. For Biff,"the sun shone bright and clear, without wramth" (232). It's there, but it isn't providing anything. It made everything "too bright and sharp" (2320). The characters do not want to see the reality of who they ruly are, so they live in the darkness.
Singer is different. He wants to be a real person, and he doesn't have that ability considering he cannot talk or hear. The reason he likes the light is because he wants things to be "too bright and sharp" because that is what he relys on for his senses: observation (232). He sees that "those words in their heart do not let them rest, so they are always very busy" (216). He is able to see in the light that these people are afraid of who they truly are and that is why they stay in the dark. He is the only one to realize this and therefore he is able to face the sun.
Mike I really think your onto something with Biff's black beard that he has to shave twice haha.
Chealsea, I really like your concluding idea how its interesting because without his sight, his eyes that had "no horror or pity or hate", what is left of Singer (257)? Even when Singer is next mentioned when he is talking to Mick, "a big, black shadow of his head was on the wall behind him" (307). I think the idea that his eyes are blank and that the shape of his head casts a black shadow larger than his head itself suggests that Singer's darkness and depression is increasing. Then, just before he puts a bullet to his chest, Singer has "swollen eyes and an aching head" almost as if both were near explosion from his inability to express his own feelings (326). These emotions and his feelings have built up and when Ant is the only one he can release them to, and when Ant is dead, Singer has no hope. There is no one else he could ever have such a bond with that his problems can be addressed to. And, like Chelsea mentioned, what is left of Singer? Nothing. He can no longer use his body as only an outlet for others' problems. For that reason, he abandoned his life.
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