AFRICAN AM AND REACTIONS IN JEAN TOOMER’S CA RITA GOLDEN’S LONG DISTAN LIFE

AFRICAN AM AND REACTIONS IN JEAN TOOMER’S CA RITA GOLDEN’S LONG DISTAN LIFE

The hardships in southern areas 

The southern areas in the United States have always been considered as detached parts of Africa set in America since slavery. In fact this land of plantation was chosen to be the reception place for the slaves who didn’t forget to bring their traditional beliefs on. From then on, the African American culture has become the basis of life for people of African descent. Also known as black culture, referring to the cultural 10 contributions of the Blacks to the rites of the United States, this African American culture is seen either as part of or distinct from the American’s because of their difference in practice. This African heritage is rooted in beliefs which have different perceptions of people, especially women, but also of things. Tradition becomes an inevitable rule mainly in concern with the female group. It is established with bans and duties which must be commonly respected. In the U.S. southern communities, beliefs and myths are used as means of weakening and preventing them from acting and reacting. This kind of practice is considered as a form of misogyny2 since it, inescapably, demands women’s obedience and silence, a situation which puts them in more uncomfortable surroundings. These misogynist practices are very relevant in Cane precisely in stories setting in the rural Georgia. “Esther”, a story which bears upon the protagonist’s name, is one among the obvious examples. This story shows the lack of credibility of the female group in a society unjustly run by female-hatred men. Esther, like all the female characters in Jean TOOMER’s book, worries about the cultural restriction which she considers too severe, and she vainly wails against the norms. The ways of oppressing women in this small town are numerous and different, that is why it is harder for the suitors to find solutions to these problems. After being diverted by a so-called religious man, King BARLO whom she finally falls in love with, Esther decides to revolt against the cultural norms. The revelation of her sentimental feeling has awful consequences since the man whom she declares falling in love with is the first person who backs her. The girl feels ridiculous and 2 The dislike or hatred of women or girls 11 conditioned to endure her social isolation by her neighbors, though her beauty is undeniably praiseful. This story teaches us that in the southern environments the social beliefs may bring discredit upon women whenever they think about developing a personality of their own. However, it is wholly known that in so hard a condition it is hardly possible for the very group to find a solution to survive it, unless to accept the situation and conform to it. In the southern cultural heritage, a woman is not supposed to control her fate on her hand. The conformity to the cultural laws is, at the least, the resort for certain female characters to find happiness within the misogynist society. Aware of the power of the practices which the small town believes in and their misfortune of belonging to it, some adopt passivity, ignorance and naivety in order to survive this cultural hardship. Such scenario appears in “Box Seat”, a story which depicts submission as a means of coping with the hardships. Curiously, in “Box Seat”, it is Dan MOORE, one of the very few men supporting women in the novel who pledges for his opposite sex’s causes. Yet, his rising against the demands can be understandable in so far as it is, in truth, motivated by his love for Muriel. According to him, the girl’s natural passivity and his insignificance in her eyes are only the results of the pressure that the society puts on her. Dan’s fighting against the girl’s social relegation contrasts with Muriel decision to conform to the cultural recommendations instead of expressing her disapproval. She considers Dan’s action as selfish because a woman or lady is never endowed with the necessary power and strength for a suitable live in a society based on such cultural laws, and the boy is supposed to know it. However, this  disagreement is only superficial since she inwardly revolts against the cause of her deep sufferings. In the southern areas, tradition is not practiced by men only. Conservative women are also committed to support the beliefs. Still in “Box Seat”, Muriel calls the name of Mrs. Pribby, her landlady, to personify the society with its strict norms. The girl admits that it is Mrs. Pribby, or the society, who prevents her to develop her sentimental feeling. In her discussion with Dan Moore she assumes: “She is the town and the town wont let me love you, Dan…”3 This personification shows the influences the society exercises over women to force them to respect the cultural laws. “Box Seat” confirms that, though, most common in men, cultural ideals that challenge the significance of the feminine gender also exist. This oppression of women by women doesn’t only exist in Cane or in Jean TOOMER’s list of denouncing the female hardships. Other feminist writers participate to the fight through their masterpiece. Gloria Naylor, in her way of concerning with Black females’ hardships in “Mama Day”, has remarked on misogyny supported by women. In Naylor’s masterpiece, culture means a lot in a family since it comes first. Miranda and Abigail urge Cocoa to get married in order to preserve their family rituals and the Days’ honor. The turning point of the passage is the two sisters’ great efforts to restrict their granddaughter into marriage; so marriage, considered as right and not duty or demand, becomes an obligation when the issue of honor is raised as it is the case in NAYLOR’s novel. So marriage becomes so binding a practice for women in the rural post-slavery African American’s. The lack of freedom begins at home  where they never have break for enjoying good time. Farming, washing clothes, cooking or milking cows denies them the slightest moment for caring for themselves. These females do not know what life means since they are restricted to get caged in their shelters like prisoners after their daily labors. This situation raises most of the time their curiosity to discover how the world really is. As previously announced, Marita GOLDEN deal with the cultural issues in the same way TOOMER does. She even goes as far as showing how a girl or woman can suffer from the restrictive norms in her family. Naomi’s will to go to town and attend the annual carnival contrasts with her parents’ disagreement. They depict the show as a form of perversion. Yet she sneaks off for the show but is severely repressed when she gets back home, which she relates: “Well, naturally, I paid for my fun. Got home that night and got beat from sundown to sunup. Mama and Daddy were so mad they took turns beating me. I couldn’t sit down too good for a coupla days…” 4 Even at home, surrounded with her family, a woman cannot manage in finding happiness. By the way, she takes marriage as a resort to get out of the domestic sufferings. However, this decision has never been a good one since instead of seeing her situation improving; she is forced to experience times which tend to worsen once she gets married. The woman becomes legitimately entitled to be man’s property and benefits from no equitable treatment. Such scenario is not far from being Naomi’s case in Golden’s novel where she sacredly links to Isaiah to get out of the domestic chorus and the toils in the farms. She even admits: “  got married the first time when I was seventeen. And I’m gonna tell you the truth. I got married mostly to get away from home” 5 So, in such a case, a girl or a woman is, generally left frustrated after being aware that the relationship she undertakes with her husband doesn’t put an end to her nightmares. After being sacredly linked to Isaiah, Naomi continues to endure the restless life which was the reason of her marriage. Her remember about her mother’s marriage with “Daddy” shows how a Black woman is entitled to suffer from the domestic chorus. Naomi says: “washing clothes meant boiling them over a fire. Washing clothes meant using lye soap that eat up at up your hands like acid. Sometimes, at the end of the day, my mother would look at her hand and just sit their and cry.”6 This situation must affect everybody either as husband, or member of her family, or someone who is directly or indirectly linked to her. Curiously, Naomi’s Daddy doesn’t worry about his wife’s suffering; instead he starts hollering: “You worried ‘bout your hands, I’m worried about food for y’ all to eat” 7 ; an answer aims at suggesting the woman never to raise this problem again since it is not his concern. The importance of domesticity incites a great debate over the issue of female education. For the most part, it is decided that females must receive some education, but many disagree about the subjects to be included. Some people believe that a finished education can jeopardize the cultural legacy or take away from the practical knowledge required for housewives; in other words, they fear that an emphasis on education will take away from her domesticity and great problems will affect the family. That is why many of them think that the natural order of things is with women cooking and performing other household tasks. 

The social problems in the North 

Certainly, the Great Migration doesn’t only concern women, men are also engaged in this quest for social achievements, but our study will be limited to the life of the feminine group during that period. This displacement is as much important as the life known in the South in so far as it shapes a new day characterized by other forms of hardships. Though some Black women have succeeded in escaping the southern misogynist demands in these States, they unfortunately don’t see their nightmares over since they confront with social difficulties such as lack of connection, color skin complex, and self-dislike. The elaboration of the racial oppression is praiseworthy in the sense that it canalizes the issue by developing, from the beginning, the difference existing between this system and the forms of misunderstanding entailing class system, even if significant overlap exists between them. 26 The problem of class is also a system which does not favor Black women particularly the most destitute. This social problem may be better viewed and understood when the problem is tackled from its historical context. During the early years of the American history, society was divided by class rather than color skin. In fact, the first Africans in North America were not slaves, but indentured servants. At the dawn of colonial time, Black and White laborers worked together, side by side, for a set amount of time before earning their freedom. According to history, the available evidence suggests that most of the first generation of African Americans worked out their terms of servitude and were freed, and in the early settlement of the colonizers, it was question of what can only be called equality of oppression since the colony’s power structure made little or no distinction between black and white servants, who were assigned the same tasks and were held in equal contempt. Placing African-American women and other excluded groups in the center of analysis opens up possibilities for a conceptual stance. In this system, for example, women, in general, are penalized by their gender but privileged by the social class they belong to. Class system is one of the elements which constitute axes of oppressions that characterize both Black and White women’s experiences within a more generalized matrix of domination. Depending on the context, an individual may be an oppressor, a member of an oppressed group, or simultaneously oppressor and oppressed like the scenario in “Box Seat”. In this story of Cane, Muriel is a school teacher, who lives in a boarding house under the supervision of her landlady, Mrs. Pribby. Naturally and culturally restricted by the 27 beliefs of the society she belongs to because of her femininity, Pribby consoles herself by exercising the power of her social status over the girl. Muriel is, then, forced to accept the situation by fear of exclusion or simply by acknowledgment. However, the problems of class can be seen in different fields such as economic, psychological. Traditionally conceptualized as a relationship of individual employees to their employers as it is the case in “Box Seat”, social class may also be structured as a phenomenon causing complex even between people of the same origin. In “Theater”, Dorris is one of the chorus girls who falls in love with John, the brother of the theater manager. The young lady finds herself ridiculous when she realizes that the man with, his “dictie”22 attitude, tries to display his social belonging by showing his indifference to her. This story shows that African Americans are differently identified, though having the same origin. The factors which make this identification possible generally are ancestry, wealth, education or the color of skin. Distinction exists, then, between Blacks. People considering as belonging to the upper class identify by epitomizing their superiority to others. Such conduct is not, however, due to their social status only. Other factors like ancestry or the color of skin encourage the racial distinction between Blacks. The light skinned people tend to assimilate themselves to Whites rather than Blacks suggested belonging to the lower class. The complex of inferiority doesn’t only exist between different races; the phenomenon can also be seen in people having the same color skin. In the African American it will be a question of being dark-skinned or a “dictie”. A black skinned person may believe to be inferior to a “dictie” who has a light skin color, or conversely the latter thinking to be superior to the first. In both scenarios, the blacker has often been wronged, or to some extent, he willingly accepts to lag behind. Discrimination between African Americans has, until now, been maintained in the North. Jobs have often been given to light skinned people than the most black. Some bosses, for example prefer to employ folks according to their color that is the reason why the black-yellowed suffer less from unemployment than the darkest ones. However, the racial distinction between people can sometimes have bitter consequences for the light skinned or whites when they feel the need to get in touch with the dark skinned. For example, “Bona and Paul” provides Cane’s most well-balanced couple, as indicated by their equality on the basketball court. Even their mutual respect shows the equilibrium of their relationship which doesn’t work out because of Paul’s insecurity of his race. Paul is, in fact, a “dictie”, but the lightness of his skin makes people believe that he really is white. For fear of losing Bona, Paul hides his black origin and his behaviors seem to bother his girlfriend. Bona’s decision to leave Paul is not based on his black origin, but on his way of behaving. TOOMER develops the misunderstanding generally occurring between Black skinned and White skinned whose difference in beliefs is the main cause of their lack of connection. Yet, this impossibility for people of African descent to get in touch may be acceptable because of their fair difference of skin. Sometimes Darks-skinned people may have trouble to understand each other. This confusion is the consequence of their difference in their way of thinking, working and enjoying life. African Americans are known as adventurers who engage to the lust for a promise land to better their prospect. Once in the coveted place, many become conditioned to follow the locals’ way of living in order not to feel isolated and disorientated. Cora and Blue are female migrants in Long Distance Life who espouse the northern culture to earn their life. The two women spend their time organizing parties for the aim of earning money, a way which Naomi, does not follow. Her refuse to abandon her southern habits brings about the lack of connection between her and others. Naomi forgets that the realities are different. She comes in North with the idea that only starving out like she was accustomed to doing it in her homeland is the ladies’ secret. The woman is not aware that her references have not built their house from daily hard works. She finally realizes that all the time spent in the Whites’ area for cleaning up their houses was just a waste. In Cane and Long Distance Life, there are events which seem to be accentuated by something as relevant as the problem of social class; they also tackle the color skin complex that appears as another serious problem for Black women. Being black skinned means holding a heavy burden for most of African American women. Many see the darkness of their color as a God punishment because, referring to the Whites’ assessment, all that seem to be black is attributed to negative things. Some, believing this idea, go as far as looking down in face with white people. The belief in their racial inferiority leads some to use chemical products in order to feel less upset whenever it happens to raise this issue. Naomi feels confused as she sees Cora rubbing a cream in her skin. She tells: I noticed Cora putting this cream all over herself. I asked her what is was and she showed it to me. It was bleaching cream. Now Cora’s about the color of half-done toast, so I was confused Naomi tries vainly to convince her cousin because of whom she comes up to North. Cora is obsessed by the will to become a yellow skinned woman. This complex of inferiority of Blacks towards White people can be noticed in many places. Despite their significance in terms of physical, economic and intellectual values, Black women have always seen themselves as belonging to the inferior race. Esther is a Black who has the privilege to be employed in the Patent Office; yet, her racial color makes her in uneasiness and she looks embarrassed whenever she sees her fellows come and pay her a visit. Her behavior when Randolph enters the Office is one of the obvious examples. Her reaction illustrates her state since she even does not take the time for granting; instead she asks him why he didn’t call before coming. Dr. GLENN, president of the American Sociological Association gives the excuse that it is not as if dark-skinned women are imagining a bias, he said: “Sociological studies have shown among AfricanAmericans and also Latinos, there’s a clear connection between skin color and socioeconomic status. It’s not some fantasy. There is prejudice against dark-skinned people, especially women in the so-called marriage market.” This assessment is enough to make Black people, particularly women, believe that their racial group is chosen to lag behind the others. Dr. GLENN comes and asserts again that the use of skin-light creams   doesn’t only exist in the United States. The phenomenon is also common in developing countries as disparate as Senegal, India and the Philippines, where many seek to lighten their entire face or large swatches of their body simply because it is promoted as a way to elevate one’s social standing. A small percentage of men in such countries also use the creams.

Women’s weaknesses 

According to what happens in most books that develop African American beliefs, women’s nature is mainly due to cultural and social issues. Women of African descent were seen as sexual objects, but unable to contribute to the development of their society. They were caged in this reserved cramped life to such an extent that they became low-minded, destitute people whose weaknesses in terms of mental, physical, and economic deficiency become another group of hardships. 35 Most of observers think that African American women’s weaknesses are most of the time characterized by the mental destruction of the cultural and social victims. According to them, it is their harsh situation which condemns them to act like no reasonable people. Jean TOOMER doesn’t say the contrary in Cane with the two different attitudes developed by Karintha. At the first description, she is shaped as a girl exceptionally beautiful, exempt from any blame but she embodies at the end violence, adapting a behavior like animal. She doesn’t hesitate to have sex with young boys as well as men in her early life, and sometimes ends up having merciless fights with them. Her passion on sex is, in fact, a natural desire she takes from her parents who exposed her to their sexual parties, whereas her cruelty is due to the cultural and social assault that the feminine gender suffers from. The nature of a woman in the southern society can be better viewed in “Box Seat” where Muriel is naturally changed by the codes which strictly demand the confinement of her gender group. The young lady’s indifference to men has become her nature after being accustomed to such way of living. She is conditioned by the social restrictions to what extent that she finds herself compelled to be passive and ignorance. Dan Moore’s awareness of her cramped life against which he ends up crying proves how she is repressed, despite his belonging to the group suggested being superior. Muriel’s passive nature also reinforces the fact that society is holding her back. This nature is also visible in “Avey” with a main character having the same name as the story. Avey’s lack of experience in life is the effects of men’s domination, men who come and dislike her passive nature, subsequently. Her disinterest in men is, in fact, the consequence of the social assaults in this small town. Consequently, Avey’s laziness becomes 36 an obstacle for the males who attempt to seduct her. Even the narrator of the story tries to draw her attention through his games, but in vain. As for weakness in terms of physic, Black women’s are accustomed to being destroyed by men who challenge such power. A few stories of Cane developing contrasts between the opposite sexes highlight man’s fear of seeing woman embodying physical personality. The relationship between Carma and Bane illustrates males’ ideals of challenging strength in females. Bane cannot abide his wife display such nature as it is related in the story: “He couldn’t see that she was becoming hysterical… strong as a man. Stronger” . The norms in the southern towns expect, then, women to be nonphysical so as to enable the society, men, to have authority over them; otherwise, they will be subjects of severe repressions. So, as the cultural laws in the South require it, women are forced to be inactive whatever the kind of personality they want to display. Still in his aim at physically weakening her, Bane accuses Carma of having committed adultery in his absence, which is but a pretext. The true reason that motivates Bane’s will is his inability to control and make his wife in his possession because of her strength. The man reaches his goal consisting of weakening the woman whom he feared and had trouble to control before. Carma is finally presented in a helpless and pitiful state since “Her eyes were weak and pitiable for so strong a woman.”28 As a matter of fact, Carma is described at the beginning as a woman feared by her husband, but she loses her strength and becomes a suitor because of men’s doing. She finds herself in so complicated a situation   that she chooses to put an end to her life by shooting herself in the canebrake. Though African American women’s physical weakness is due to the society’s pressures, conservative people find another explanation for it. According to them, Carma’s present nature is simply the symbol of God’s punishment. These Custodians, the narrator including, consider the transformation of the woman, from physical force to weakness, as the consequence of her non-conformity to the laws said to be spiritual. The African American community believes that there is another world which transcends nature and controls their deeds according to critical norms and practices dictated by the spirits or God. Then, the nonconformity to those norms is reliable to spiritual punishments. For this reason, some natural events are seen as the consequences of good or bad deed. Such interpretation of the signs of nature brings about superstition and subsequently raises prejudice on Black women. In “Blood-Burning Moon”, Louisa is seen as a “sinner”, a “Blood burning moon”, a “Red nigger moon”. She earns such negative connotations because she is the cause of the fight between two men from different races. The competition is motivated by their eager need to conquer Louisa’s hand, which results to both deaths. The individuals that surround her refuse to think that the two boy’s deaths are natural events and beyond her control. Consequently, she is considered as someone out of the ordinary, who has something not in common with others; in other words she becomes a supernatural being in her neighbors’ eyes. The song of the singers illustrates the consideration that people have towards her:   “Red nigger moon. Sinner! Blood-burning moon. Sinner Come out that factory door”   Thus, codes in the South want African American females to cultivate passivity and idleness so they should be men’s properties. Almost, all the female characters are depicted as being naturally passive. Their passivity, generally caused by the social and cultural pressures, makes the identification of their femininity easier, but also the distinction between the two sexes. Muriel’s passive nature in “Box Seat” shows the ideal woman the society requires. Her conformity to the codes is made possible by her lack of force to rise against the misogynist restrictions. Muriel knows that she cannot live in the small town without respecting the demands, which she admits to Dan Moore who wants her to react against the female-hatred laws by confessing to him: “I’m not strong enough to buck it”30. Then, the girl considers that she had better to conform to the norms since she is not endowed with the necessary force to fight them. The laws supporting Black women’s endless submission and belonging to men have no tolerance towards the embodiment of any female activity. GOLDEN adopts TOOMER’s way of dealing with Black females’ physical issues. Referring to Long Distance Life, the fulfillment of great achievement requires being in full possession of one’s strength. Men’s thought of women’s physical limit does not allow the latter to engage in physical activities. Naomi’s eager of taking profit of the Great  Migration North to better her standard isolates her from her family. Her father and her husband Isaiah welcome the news with disgust and contempt toward her. Naomi’s daddy does not consider her as belonging to the group supposed to have such a privilege. This opposition in wills creates frustration in her father who even “stopped speaking to (her) when he found out that (she) was going North”  . Means to weaken again Black women, particularly Southern are numerous, and prejudice and superstition are some of the most used systems aiming to disrupt their nature. Superstition has, often existed in most rated areas in the U.S. and continue to have an impact in the life of the African descents in America; a fact on which many African American writers base to develop their roots through their works. However, the feminists are not only limited to the description of their roots, they also raise the cultural and social problems that shaped the nature of Black women, subsequently. Men’s superstition and prejudice create in the females a violent and ghostly nature that symbolizes their status of witchlike deeds in case of natural events like death or other signs of disaster. In Toni MORRISON’s Sula, for example, the signs of nature always have meanings that are most often fatal to women. She is first penalized by coincidences because her numerous presences to, practically, all the natural crisis like the accidents with Teapot and Mr. Finley, her mother’s death reinforces what the people of the Bottom thinks about her. In fact, they point out her “because of her wanderings and her estrangement from the usual human ties”