“White Chocolate” by AE Ellis

more feminist themes!

ebb15 — 2015-10-19 01:20:26 UTC

When Clare leaves Paul after they have sex, instead of staying and cuddling or whatever, Paul takes that to mean that she is better than him. I think she might very well, she certainly doesn't really think he's worth her time and I think the text points out that there's nothing wrong with that, there's nothing wrong with female superiority, especially with what Clare has been through.

thick as thieves

ebb15 — 2015-10-19 01:37:49 UTC

While in Jamaica Clare was strongly discouraged from just making friends with a boy her own age (94) but in America a "friendship" between a little girl and a butler is not only accepted but fetishized. (Shirley Temple's movies were all grossly pedophiliac) Which Boy touches on gently in his explanation (also 94).

ebb15 — 2015-10-19 01:40:30 UTC

does this change once he dies? there is little sympathy for paul in either chapter. Interesting

Strict Binary of America

emilyroseb — 2015-10-19 01:41:10 UTC

"no place for in betweens" (99)

people are seen as either white or black, and mixes are either not validated/acknowledged or fetishized
assimilation is the expectation in America where white is the standard
multiple identities are denied and people forced to represent a singular image of oneself

"I'm sorry

ebb15 — 2015-10-19 01:47:04 UTC

"a phrase she had been taught for other people's bereft"

Bereft meaning something they are lacking, more to fill holes in their understanding than to apologize for her own. An important distinction.

beloning

emilyroseb — 2015-10-19 01:47:51 UTC

Clare feels as though "she belongs nowhere" (91) because she doesn't see any space in which she can celebrate and make visible all aspects of her identity

"She is white. Black. Female. Lover. Beloved. Daughter. Traveler. Friend. Scholar. Terrorist. Farmer." (91)

UNAPOLOGETIC

ebb15 — 2015-10-19 01:51:17 UTC

To Be American

emilyroseb — 2015-10-19 01:51:29 UTC

"You are American now. You need to realize what that means." (102)

this is what Boy says to Clare when he catches her reading about the Birmingham church bombing, as she clearly is shocked and disgusted by the event, he takes the paper away from her because he does not want her to mourn for black bodies and thereby identify with her own blackness.

"he counsels his daughter on invisibility and secrets. Self-effacement. Blending in. The uses of camouflage." (100)

being American [as he sees it] is the assimilation to whiteness, of being stripped of individual identity in order to pass or cater to white expectations/standards

Storytelling

nboston1 — 2015-10-19 02:04:13 UTC

The magic of being able to lose oneself in pictures, television and film. Folklore and the allure of gangsters and monsters.

What happens if these are the only depictions viewers are seeing?

"Jamaicans came in droves to see the pictures, to glimpse the world beyond the island, lose themselves, whether in theaters or in country gathering places--the picture goers carried the images away with them, transforming them, eager always for more"

Brer Anansi, Rhyging, Sasabonsam, Wyatt Earp, Legs Diamond, Tarzan the Apeman, King Kong (93)

Albino Gorilla

nboston1 — 2015-10-19 02:17:37 UTC

"The albino gorilla moving through the underbrush. Hiding from the poachers who could claim her and crush her in a packing crate against the darker ones offended by her pelt...She moves. Emigrated, lone travel, the zoologist would have recorded. Time passes. The longing for tribe resurfaces-unmistakable" (91).

-"Tragic Mulatta" trope

-Does not belong, fit in, but longs for connection, community, family?

Wild v. Captivity

nboston1 — 2015-10-19 02:22:12 UTC

"Captive people have a need for song" (87)

-captives, slaves, share through songs, spirituals

"She cannot shake it off. She remembers the jungle. The contours of wilderness. The skills are deep within her...She belongs in these hills" (91).

-what is natural, within her being

Motherless

nboston1 — 2015-10-19 02:27:01 UTC

"In her twenties then--visitor to her homeland. Not answerable to her place of birth. Citizen of another, greater, country. Student of the motherland. Motherless." (87-8).

White Chocolate

nboston1 — 2015-10-19 02:34:10 UTC

"He would call you white chocolate...I mean, have you ever seen a child's expression when he finds a white chocolate bunny in his Easter basket? He simply doesn't understand...he think it's strange...No place for in-betweens" (99).

-Think it's "abnormal"

16th Street Baptist Church Bombing

nboston1 — 2015-10-19 02:41:10 UTC

Hydrogen, 14; Lithium, 11; Sodium, 14; Potassium, 14. She had already forgotten their names, but the ages persist. She is older than them...The class was still in motion. Had they not heard? Passing notes. Copying homework. Aligning their books on their desktops spine to spine" (101).

-Students indifferent to latest act of white supremacist terrorism.

-forgets names of victims, violence against black people occur often enough that they are no longer individuals but numbers.

Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, Carole Denise McNair.

"Nothing held her." (106)

audreycapelo — 2015-10-19 05:42:06 UTC

Clare is introduced held by Paul the night before he is beheaded. Then she is held by her father and the guilt he imposes on her. At the end she is no longer held back/down.

audreycapelo — 2015-10-19 05:45:21 UTC

Also see: "In a few days she bled. She was free of him. Free as a freemartin." (89)

audreycapelo — 2015-10-19 05:48:32 UTC

"Meanwhile, Kitty advised, Clare should take her mother's place - it would be good training for her, she added, without conviction." (97)

Estrangement

audreycapelo — 2015-10-19 05:54:27 UTC

"There was no question that she and her husband should cut the cotta, she wrote. Why should they?" (97)

But when Boy mentions to Kitty that they may visit her response is "Let me know when and I will arrange a place for you to stay." (100)

They are practically strangers and this is highlighted again when Jennie goes to America.

"Jennie came to them as to two strangers." (104)

"She existed in an afterlife where her mother surrounded her..." (105)

Perspective

2015-10-19 12:21:54 UTC

Are we as we see ourselves, or as the world sees us?

mountain view gardens

ebb15 — 2015-10-19 12:53:21 UTC

http://mapcarta.com/19324500

more tragic mulatta trope

ebb15 — 2015-10-19 13:19:38 UTC

http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/mulatto/

ebb15 — 2015-10-19 13:20:49 UTC

ebb15 — 2015-10-19 13:21:13 UTC