"To Honor the Dead, To Warn the Living"

     While I was reading The Shawl, by Cynthia Ozick, I was reminded of my time in Salzburg, Austria this last May Term.  I spent May Term in Salzburg with Chaplain John Walsh where we focused on individuals who made a difference during difficult times in European history, i.e. the Holocaust and Soviet Russia.  During our last full week in Salzburg, we took the train to Dachau to visit the first concentration camp.  When our group was visiting the concentration camp, it was very difficult for me because I knew that if I were alive and in Europe during that period, I would have been sent to a concentration camp for being “Jewish by blood” (my father was born and raised Jewish).  This was truly a surreal experience.

Memorial at Dachau Concentration Camp. May, 2014. Personal Picture.

     While reading The Shawl, I imagined the characters running through Dachau with the barracks still intact. The imagery in the story, though disturbing, was very easy for me to picture in my mind.  When Ozick writes, “her knees were tumors on sticks, her elbows chicken bones”, I referred back to the pictures we saw at Dachau (Ozick, p. 2).  The entire story contained strong imagery that allowed the reader to put themselves in the characters’ shoes and try and understand what they were going through.  Another moment of strong imagery was when the narrator explained the “bad wind with pieces of black in it” (Ozick, p. 6).  The pieces of black in the wind that were causing their eyes to tear up were really pieces of ash that came from the crematorium.  The phrase “tear up” can literally mean that the wind was affecting their eyes and drying them out or it can be interpreted as tears of sorrow for the lost men and women who burned in the crematorium.  This is a very powerful image to think about.  The ashes of the men and women who had suffered through the neglect and torture were now becoming a part of the other victims.

     When I first started reading the story, I was not sure of the direction it was going.  I understood quickly that it was pertaining to the Holocaust, but the suggestions of cannibalism were quite confusing.  I am still not aware of the authors intent with the cannibalism, if she literally meant eating the young girl or referring to the desperation victims of the Holocaust were suffering with.  The narrator proclaims, in regards to Rosa, “she was sure that Stella was waiting for Magda to die so she could put her teeth into the little things” (Ozick, p. 5).  Although it was not related to cannibalism, the story takes a turn of events when it states, “Then Stella took the shawl away and made Magda die” (Ozick, p.6).  There seems to be negative feelings towards Stella throughout the story and how Rosa seems to favor Magda more.  Stella did not physically kill Magda, but she did take the shawl away from her, which led her to her death.  Was this part of Stella’s plan? Kill Magda so that she could eat her?  There is no evidence in the story to support the cannibalistic claims, but it is an example of how desperate some had gotten in concentration camps.  Stella was cold, so she took the shawl.  It was about her survival at that moment and no one else.

     Outside of the crematorium and gas chambers at Dachau, there is a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.  It is a small memorial, but the phrase used is extremely powerful: “to honor the dead to warn the living”.   The concentration camps, including the gas chambers and crematorium, are still standing to honor the millions of lives lost in the Holocaust and to warn us nowadays of the evil in the world.  I believe by writing this book, Cynthia Ozick was honoring the dead and warning the living.  She was honoring them by sharing a story that is very deep and shows images through the language that some may not have seen.  This story can act as a warning by explaining the brutality of the Holocaust without explicitly describing all the terrible things that were done.  The images of skin and bones, the electric fence, the desperation in Stella, the skeptic in Rosa; all of these are direct effects of what was being done in concentration camps.

Memorial outside the gas chamber and crematorium at 

Dachau Concentration Camp. 

May, 2014. Personal picture. 

"To honor the dead, to warn the living"

       This story personally “hit home” for me because of the side of my family who are Jewish.  Thinking about what these people went through is always difficult, but it becomes a little more difficult when you realize that could have been you and your family suffering. While I was reading this story, it helped me go back to Dachau and really develop all the feelings that I had there.  This story, along with millions of other stories about the Holocaust, will remain in my imagination and help me honor those that were lost.  

The Good Man

            In the story called A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor we see a family take a trip to east Tennessee. On this trip the audience can see what the grandma thinks is a “good man”. The first person she references as a good man is Red Sammy from the restaurant that they stopped to eat at. Red Sammy begins to describe a situation where these men drove up and Red Sammy let them charge their gas. Red Sammy says “Said they worked at the mill and you know I let them fellers charge the gas they bought? Now why did I do that?” (O’Connor 122). Then the grandma responds “Because you’re a good man!” (O’Connor 122). Why does the grandma believe he is a good man? Apparently the grandma’s definition of a good man is someone that is easily fooled. Just because a person has bad judgment does not make them a good person. Being gullible and letting people take advantage of you is not being a good person. I believe these qualities make a person weak, but do not necessarily make them a bad man. The only reason I would believe the grandma’s definition of a god man in this situation is if she believed that Red Sammy did this out of the goodness of his heart, but by reading the text I do not come to this conclusion.  

            Another person the grandma calls a “good man” is the Misfit, the man who escaped jail and is on the run. To me this is ironic because this is a man who has committed a crime and wanted is what the grandma calls a good man. In context I understand why the grandma calls the Misfit a good man. She does so by saying “I know you’re a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people,” (O’Connor 127). The Misfit responds to this by acknowledging he did come from “nice people”, but does not agree right away that he is a good man. The Misfit states that “Nome I ain’t a good man, but I ain’t the worst in the world either,” (O’Connor 128). Even the Misfit does not believe he is a good man. If this is so then it proves that the grandma’s belief on what a good man is not right. In the end the grandma’s definition of a good man is changed. She believes that a criminal who is about to kill her family is a good man. The grandma even tries to persuade the Misfit that he should not have this name because he is a good person and she can tell by just looking at him. Faced with death the grandma changes her definition of a good man to try to charm her way out of this situation by complementing the Misfit. The grandma feels the pressure under the gun to try to complement her way out of death, but the Misfit realizes the truth behind her comments. The Misfit states “She would have been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life,” (O’Connor 133). Not only is the grandma’s view on what a good man wrong, but is also proven to be a bad woman based on the observation by the Misfit. He realized that without the pressure of death she wouldn’t be handing out compliments so easily. In the end of this story we see how conflicted and wrong the grandma’s view on what a makes a good man.

Excellent Use of Foreshadowing

In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” we witness a family get murdered by an escaped convict and his men. The convict, referred to as The Misfit, is a troubled man who may just be misunderstood. When he and the men kill he family it comes as a shock because it was not something that was expected. Burt was it supposed to be a shock? After reading the short story again as well as consulting sources online, I seems that the deaths should not have been as surprising as they were.

The author, Flannery O’Conner, provides very minute and subtle details that predict the deaths to come. The first is not very subtle, but could have been overseen by the casual reader. This is that the short story mentions The Misfit twice before we actually meet him. Once in the beginning as the grandmother warns her son (117) and another when the grandmother discusses The Misfit to the owner of The Tower (122). The ironic thing is that the person that bring him up The Misfit the most (the grandmother) is the one who is ultimately murdered by him. Another small detail that may have been missed was the name of the town the family passes while driving. The story explains that the grandmother woke up from her nap and recalled an old plantation she used to know as they drove by a town named Toombsboro (123). I looked up Toombsboro to see if it was real and there is indeed a town that goes by that name. However, the real named is spelled TOOMSBORO not TOOMBSBORO. O’Conner added the ‘b’ to make the name of the city sound and look more like the word “tomb”. This is great foreshadowing to the fact that the family is going to die. And will be buried. Perhaps in a tomb. The final great foreshadowed detail is the vehicle that The Misfit drives. He shows up to the crash site in a “hearse-like automobile” (126). This could have been noticed by some, but not everyone knows the purpose of a hearse. A hearse is a long car that carries caskets. Caskets for dead people. Like the family who was shot in the story.

A second or third reading of a story really helps a reader understand a story better. It takes more reading to find those little charms that stories contain. Once they’re found it makes a reader appreciate stories much more.

 

1. O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." A Good Man Is Hard to Find, and Other Stories. New York: Image, 1970. 117-33. Print.

Orange is the New Black: My Year In A Women's Prison

     The University of Redlands was lucky enough to have Piper Kerman speak on February 19^th,  2015.  Piper Kerman is the author of Orange is the New Black: My Year In A Women’s Prison; the memoir that the hit Netflix series Orange is the New Black is based off.  She was sentenced to 15 months in a women’s prison in Danbury, Connecticut for money-laundering charges.  Her experiences in prison made her the woman she is today and inspired her to dedicate her life’s work to prison reform. 

     The United States is the most incarcerated country in the world.  The sentence for drug offenses is the sole purpose that there has been a 300% increase in prison population since 1980.  This is an example of how our prison system is flawed in the United States.  Prison reform has become a very important topic and Piper Kerman has contributed to the discussion by publishing her book and sharing her experience and what needs to be done at universities like ours. 

     I was lucky enough to have dinner with Ms. Kerman before her lecture as a member of the Convocations & Lectures committee.  She mostly spoke with the faculty, who were also at the dinner, but she shared with us what she is doing nowadays and how she really feels about the Orange is the New Black series on Netflix (She loves the portrayal of the friendships she gained in prison, by the way).  It was an amazing experience being able to sit with her and hear about how much she has done for prison reform, including her current career as an English teacher in a men’s prison in Ohio.

          Piper’s story is not as relatable to the stories we have read in class, but her experience in prison can be related to Sui Sin Far’s, “In The Land of the Free” and how it questions authority in the United States.  In “In The Land of the Free”, Hom Hing and Lae Choo’s son is taken by the governmental authority because of missing documents, aka their son was not an American citizen.  Although Piper’s experience has nothing to do with citizenship, it does question the government and it’s role in incarceration.  Like citizenship, prison reform is a long process. It is not something that is in the news constantly like other policy issues are, but they remain a prominent issue in our day. The issues with the long citizenship process and the issues with prison reform are issues that cannot be solved over night by ordinary people; it takes policy makers and government authority to improve these areas.  Both Piper Kerman and the couple in “In The Land of the Free” had life changing experiences because of the governments’ policies.  Piper became a new woman after her time in prison and Hom Hing and Lae Choo struggled for 10 months to gain possession of their child. 

     Piper Kerman and Hom Hing and Lae Choo had two very different lives, but the experiences with the government, good and bad, affected how they live their life.  It was amazing meeting and hearing Piper Kerman talk about her experiences and the University of Redlands was so lucky to have her!