Reflection: Student Research and Writing Conference 2017

           

What is truly writing? The dictionary defines it as an activity or skill of marking coherent words on paper and composing text. In a way it sounds monotonous but at the end it’s what you want it to be. There are two ways you can go with when you are writing. You can open up and go for the jugular or just simply write as if you were a machine. For me, writing goes way beyond. There are not just simply words put together to make sense. 
           When you are writing you tell a story, you try to take everything that is going on in your mind and express it. You lay it all and discuss a certain topic. When it comes to it, you have to always make a small or big research in order to dominate what you’re talking about, write your point of view, and support it with facts. In my case, I have to imagine the work that I’m about to compose. After that, I ask myself in what format am I going to structure it. Finally, after a long time of doing a huge brainstorm, I sit on my computer and let my thoughts be the guide of my fingers moving through the keyboard of my laptop.

            The past Wednesday in the Conference, I truly appreciated the work people just like me did and how fluent and strong they were when they decided to share their work. Also, the beauty of what is writing. It doesn’t matter if it’s personal or just for a class, to read it in front of people who may judge you very harshly is hard. Strength and courage becomes your best supporters.

When it comes to me, I don’t consider myself a writer at all. I hate when I have to share my writings so yes, you can say that I’m very insecure about it. I have grown very fondly of literature. I fell in love with two series of book that made me want to explore classic authors and loose myself in their amazing writing. Right now in the semester I don’t have much time, but when I do, I can easily spend hours reading a book. In the conference a boy named Gilberto who was a student from the second panel, told us a very short story was truly amazing. With just a few words he gave me the “chills” and I immediately thought of what a great writer he’s going to be, although he already is.

            My experience as a moderator was a really good one. I had the opportunity of presenting my classmates who made sure their work was perfect.

 I admire them so much for sharing uncomfortable stories that marked them in life with strangers. If I was nervous, being only the moderator, I can’t imagine how much they were. Not only did they read their story, but also answered questions that made them go deeper and open up in front of the people. They definitely did a fine job.

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman: novel vs. film

            

  Miss Jane Pittman was a woman who lived several important periods of times which are keys to the history of the United States. The story begins at the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the Reconstruction and it ends during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. There were 110 years that Miss Jane lived, and thousands of stories that were not included in the novel for sure. 

  When you are reading a novel you may tend to create a picture of how is everything, as if you were seeing it in person. Authors have the gift of words and they use it so well that the reader is able to transport into that world they portray and be a part of it. I for instance make a picture of the novel I’m reading. I imagine every detail: how are the characters physically, houses, cars, horses, clothing, weather, etc. All of this pictures that comes to my mind are thanks to the authors and how they describe every detail. Their words go one by one creating the picture as if it were a puzzle. After you read the book, you expect the movie to fulfill and complete all of your expectations.

  This film was one of the first films which took seriously the depictions of African Americans in southern plantations. Both, the film and the movie, portrays a comparison between the Civil Rights Movement and the plight of African Americans throughout history. Nevertheless, the film had many differences from the book. I will mention a few differences me that caught my attention the most. It begins with the book's final story, which is when Jimmy comes to Jane and encourages her to participate in the Civil Rights Movement. In contrast, the book opens with the story of when Mr. Brown gives Jane her name, "Jane", since he said that "Ticey" was a slave name. We also see how in the movie the person who interviews Miss Jane is white while in the book it doesn't specify this. The film made flashbacks to the interview which we do not see in the book. Since the ending of the book was portrayed at the beginning of the film, it concludes when Miss Jane is walking towards the "White's Only" water fountain. 


 This scene is one of the most powerful portrayed in the movie but it does not occur in the book. Nevertheless, this ending was stronger and shocked me more than the one that appears in the book. It was very emotional and I felt moved by it. The director made me feel as if I was with her at the scene. She made her final stand against the racism she has lived with throughout her entire life. Also I saw how much she changed and how she was not afraid of anything. Jane walks with so much confidence and drinks from the water fountain and doesn’t gives a f*** what anyone says. She made the audience see that she was as good as anybody else. 

  I saw so many things the same as I imagined it that it made me a happy viewer. In overall, it is truthful to the book. Of course, they always add what I call the “Hollywood” ingredient and some things that were left out. The physical transformation of Jane in the film was one of my favorite things. The performance and makeup of the actress, Cicely Tyson, was simply spectacular. A plus, as I say in my everyday language. If you read it, then you will appreciate the feel and power that the actress portrays as Jane.

  The eyes of the people who saw or will see this movie must’ve been drastically opened just like mine did. I personally read the book before watching the movie and understood the story and I was able to fill the gaps the movie left out. History gives you an overview but it will never tell you how the people were treated or how they felt. To read and see how the African American were treated is something that shocks you and makes you think. Jane Pittman was able to share her story with me, as with thousands of people, and gave us an idea of how they were truly treated and we can compare it to how we also see this behavior today. Not as much as in the past, but it is very sad to see that it is still present today.

           

Reflection Book Four: The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittmann

A lot has changed since Tee Bob’s death. Mr. Samson has leased most of the plantation to the Cajuns. Many adults left. Only the children and elderly stayed. There is no life nor activity as there once was. The elderly know that their time is soon to come.

            The time of civil rights movement arrived around the time that Jimmy left the plantation. It was said that as whites and black started to die, they took their ideals with them. The people would be forced to change in order to become a better society and if they didn’t, they would be left behind. Robert Samson did not agree with the movement. He told every African American who worked in the plantation that if any of them dared to protest and join the movement, he will throw them out of the plantation. He was old but wanted to remind them who was in charge.

“Well my niggers know better” (P.231)

“But this I will not let go: there ain’t go’n be no demonstrating on my place. Anybody ‘round here think he needs more freedom than he already got is free to pack up leave now. That go for the oldest one, that go for the youngest one.” (P.232-233)

            In the Big House they were depending too much on Jane, who is now an old lady. This caused her to feel trapped and needed a way out. Her best option, and what she wanted, was to return to the community’s houses. There is a big contrast between Molly and Jane and here is when we see it the most. Molly could not imagine a life outside the house and died soon after she left. For Jane it wasn’t like that. She prefers freedom instead of living in a fancy house with plenty comforts. We do not see any formation of friendship bonds between her and the other servants that worked with her. She has always considered herself to be independent from them and from other things in her life. She becomes more humorous as she ages.

A new character appears, Jimmy Aaron, who is very present in this final book. He was considered the “One”. He was extremely smart. Since they start to go to Church and develop their spirituality, they see him as the one who would save them. To their surprise, he was not that much of a religious man. As a teenager boy, he was experimenting with his sexuality, behavior the elderly despised because of their religious beliefs. They were denying his right to explore sexuality, the way to achieve his “manhood”. The author gave great emphasis to this because we can see again how the men’s masculinity is brought back, since it is an important topic presented throughout the whole book, how men had to prove themselves.

When Jimmy returns, we see how changed he is. Now he’s a leader who is fighting for his and others rights. He uses Jane, one of the most influential people at the community, and without any fear she joins him. Soon after, on the way to Bayonne, they see many people who also gave their support. Jimmy gets killed, but his movement did not die with him. He saved his people by giving them courage and the opportunity to prove themselves and fight for themselves because no one else will. That was the message that was first brought by Ned, but he died and took with him the movement. At the end, it is Jane who leads the crowd to the town and fulfill Jimmy’s wish.

“People’s always looking for somebody to come lead them.” (P.211)

    At the end, she wasn’t afraid of anything or anyone, not even Mr. Samson who she then calls him by his name. This is a symbol of equality, what was the purpose of this book in my opinion. The author guided us through the process that African American had to go through in order to be truly free.

“Me and Robert looked at each other there a long time, when I went by him”. (P.259)

Reflection Book Three: The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

In this book, unlike the others we’ve read, Jane stays in the same place, the Samson’s plantation. She focuses more on describing the social circumstances of her environment, although she also describes some of her personal experiences in the events carried in this book.  One of the things that caught my attention is one of the analysis she made. It doesn’t matter what men are willing to do in order to feel in charge of the world, they will never win a war against nature. Nature always win.

At the beginning, we were presented to Tom Joe. He was one of the men who made sure that the white superiority was established, by beating the blacks when they “deserved it”. Robert Samson, the landowner, let him get away with his behavior because he saw it the correct way to do his job.

Robert Samson is a typical southern plantation owner, who had two sons. One was white and the other black. During that time, it was common to see how the landowners thought that they had some sort of dominion over the women’s bodies. That’s how Timmy arrived to the world. Yes, he had a son with one of the black women but that was it. He did not recognize him by giving him his name nor did he cared for them. He simply gave his seed. We can see how Timmy is very much alike his father. The only thing that was different was their skin color. There was a strict division, because of their races, that made the connection between father and son unimportant and one that couldn’t happen for them. At the end, their races segregated them and kept the brothers and father apart from each other. Tom Joe was the one who said Timmy had to leave the plantation, and there wasn’t any objection coming from the father of the boy.

The relationship that Tee Bob and Timmy had was a very special one. They used to spend all of their time together. They never let race divide them. Tee Bob couldn’t understand why his brother had to leave because a white man beat him with a stick. Jane says:

“Robert thought he didn’t have to tell Tee Bob about these things. They was part of his life, and Tee Bob would learn them for himself when he got older. But Tee Bob never did. He killed himself before he learned how he was supposed to live in this world.” (P.154)

       Another relationship presented in this book is between Tee Bob and Mary Agnes. He is considered pure white while she is still considered black. She was a Creole, an in-between. They had high standards and were also racist, just like the whites. She came to the plantation as a teacher “to make amends” with her family’s slave owning past. Although Tee Bob and Mary fell in love, the races separated them still. The reminder of the rules of society, this time, comes from Jimmy. It is as if his father was talking to his son since he did this with Timmy’s mother. Jimmy says to his friend, after calling Mary a “nigger”:

“Listen Robert… If you want her go to that house and taker her. If you want her at that school, make them children go out in the yard and wait. Take her in that ditch if you can’t wait to get her home. But she’s there for that and nothing else”. (P.183)

      This scene that Tee Bob had, was just like the one with his brother. He just couldn’t understand why society acted the way it did. For him love was the key and it was not right to forget about it in order to follow the hierarchy. In the world he had to live, the race was more important than true emotions. He loved Mary Agnes and wanted to marry her but people warned him, several times, that what he wished to do was unacceptable.

“But somewhere along the way somebody wrote a set of rules condemning all that. I had to live by them, Robert at that house now had to live by them, and Clarence Caya had to live by them. Clarence Caya told Jimmy to live by them, and Jimmy obeyed. But Tee Bob couldn’t obey. That’s why we got rid of him. All us. Me, you, the girl- all us.” (P.204)

This was the drop that filled the cup, the cup being what drove him to his suicide. He did not want to be like his father, he wanted more out of life, to do what was right. It was as if, during that time, the only way to be free from the violence and difficult racist daily life and do as you wished, was through death.

“He had to find peace. He couldn’t find it here.” (P.196)

Robert Samson was childless. He had nobody to take on his “legacy”. He sent away one of his son and he basically killed the other one. The reason behind all of their children’s destiny was because of him and his racist actions and beliefs. He had a need to reinforce social order no matter who he would injure in the way.