The Golden Gazette

Let me just start this post by saying this: even though Song of Solomon is an extremely tough read, it captivates my interest with every page. While reading this, I became aware of the truly brilliant mind that Toni Morrison had. Lately I’ve been falling down rabbit holes on Youtube, and my most recent types of videos have been Toni Morrison interviews. One of which I found very interesting. All are short videos, around 6-7 minutes, but each hold insight into the novel that I would never know unless told so by the author herself. (A few videos will be linked at the bottom of this post (: ).  In the video, Toni Morrison explained one of the reasons behind choosing the name of the book. A central theme and reason for writing this book was to show the true roots and different types of African American culture. Growing up, almost everyone in Morrison’s community included bible verses and phrases commonly within everyday speech and conversations. This sparked the idea to include ...

When thinking about what I wanted to write this blog post about, I kept going back to the prompt, “is there a single American culture?”. I feel like being from such a diverse area as Troy has given such a different insight into how much of a “melting pot” America actually is. Of course there are the classic American stereotypes of hamburgers, freedom, patriotism, and etc., but the “American culture” has no defined definition. To be American does not mean to be white and of western European descent. Anyone from any cultural background can be American!! Due to the vast mix of cultures in America, there is no single “American culture”. The American culture is all the different cultures of the citizens of the country. Reading Song of Solomon, I noticed a lot of cultural differences within races, and between races in the same area. Whether it was comparing black housing to “white people’s houses” (Morrison 33), or comparing “colored people” to “ nice colored people” (Morrison 32),...

Let me just start with the statement that I really liked the Maus books. I dread reading most books that we have to read in English class, but I enjoyed this required read. Being Jewish, I feel like I read Maus with a different perspective; I read it through another lens. Not only did knowing the Yiddish in the novel cause for some giggles from the adjectives I commonly use, but being Jewish connected me to Spiegelman. Even though I am young, I have been told just as detailed of stories from Holocaust survivors I personally know and love, with just as many pictures and gory details entering my mind. Whenever I read Maus , I just thought of a woman I know and love, Morah Schreiber. She is an amazing woman who courageously told me her entire Holocaust experience story, and showed me what she referred to as her “Terezin artifacts” (Terezin was the camp that she was in, and was primarily a children’s camp). Reading about Vladek "Work sets you free" -- Entrance to Terezin ...

One of the most recurring motifs in both volumes of MAUS is the motif of masks and animals. Spiegelman uses this motif to illustrate the fluid definition of one’s personal identity. An example of this motif is greatly shown on page 50 of MAUS VII . In the second and third panel on this page, a soldier in Auschwitz is pleading that he is a German like the Nazis. However, in the novel Spiegelman still draws the man as a mouse (Jewish person). Spiegelman further shows his view on the superficiality of identity by changing the man from a mouse to a cat in panel 4. Even though the man is now depicted as a cat, like the Nazis, he still had the previous mask of being a mouse so he was still killed. Art Spiegelman used  this quick change from mouse to cat to represent how identity is portrayed as all exterior, and you can’t simply know one’s true ethnicity and religion by just their superficial features. By having different nationalities and religions drawn as different animals, ...