Friday, April 2, 2010

Diaz's "How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl and Halfie" & Toomer's "Blood-burning Moon"

**Remember that the final draft of Paper 2 MUST be handed in, IN PERSON, NO LATER than 9 AM, Monday April 5th. Please include all of your rough drafts, free-writes and peer review sheets!****


Diaz's "How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl and Halfie" & Toomer's "Blood-burning Moon"

Think about the ideas of race and identity in the two stories. Please answer the following questions. (the answers should be long enough to fully develop your ideas!)

1.) Skin color is always a crucial element in any story of racial conflict. How does Toomer describe Louisa's skin color? How would we interpret that description?

2.) What are the cultural differences in the expectations of a “Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie?" How do their different expectations cause the narrator to treat them differently on the date?


Have a good weekend!

7 comments:

  1. Aaron Mathieu

    In the story “Blood-Burning Moon” Toomer’s description of Louisa’s skin is compared to the color of oak leaves. “Her skin was the color of oak leaves on young trees in fall”. I think Toomer is giving the reader a good insight to the color and shape of Louisa’s body. Toomer then goes on to compare her body parts to acorns. “Her breasts, firm and up-pointed like ripe acorns”. Readers would interpret this message as wrong and as violating women in a bad manner. Women deserve to be talked to and treated with respect and the way Toomer describes Louisa’s body and skin color is out of line. Nowadays if men were to talk to women in that kind of way they probably wouldn’t get too far. Women now days are much stronger willed unlike the women of Louisa’s day. When this story takes place it seems to be in stride with the days of slavery. In those days women didn’t have much control over what men did and said to them, but as time has passed women have got much stronger and now stick up for their rights, another thing that women like Louisa didn’t have during the time of the story. Overall I thought the way Toomer addressed Louisa was wrong. Even though it was back in the days where women didn’t have as many rights as men and color played a big roll, you get a better insight of what women had to deal with back then.

    In the story “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” there are many different images of the way these kinds of women are. For example if seems like the author tends to make white women somewhat slutty. “If she’s a whitegirl you know you’ll at least get a hand job”. This quote is telling the reader that white women could be easily taken advantage of. When the narrator talks about the other kinds of women he talks about being kind and impressive. “Order everything in your busted-up Spanish. Let her correct you if she’s Latina and amaze her if she’s black”. The narrator seems to treat the women different based on the date they will go on. “If the girls from around the way take her to El Cibao for dinner… if she’s not from around the way Wendy’s will do”. The narrator seems to change the way he treats girls based on the color of their skin and where they come from.

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  2. Heather Feenan

    Junot Diaz , the author of “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie”, he tells the reader what to expect from each type of girl. Diaz is from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and he grew up in a Black and Hispanic neighborhood. At first Diaz sounds like any nice boy before a date. He makes sure everything in his house is clean and ready for the girl, he made sure his hand writing was nice when he gave the girl his address and showered. I feel like everyone is equal at this point in the story. He is just getting ready for a girl. As the story progresses he starts to talk about each race. This starts when the girl shows up, her mom will probably want to meet him, the boy. Then he goes on to say “The white ones are the ones you want the most.” He complains about black girls from out of town and tells the read where to take each girl to eat. If she is from out of town you could just take her to a Wendy’s if she lives take her to a nicer restaurant. So basted on what color she is and where she is from is what you should go by. He explains that you should always be interested in what she is saying, and then goes on to say what each type of girl would say or do. By the end of the night he could probably get a hand job or a kiss from a whitegirl. Where halfi will pull away if you make any moves and become quiet but in school she would never get this quite. By the end of the story Diaz has gone through each type of girl and tells you what to expect. Color is a big part of this story and a big part of how he treats each type of girl. It’s amazing how he just generalizes everyone and stereotypes all the girls.

    I didn’t really understand Jean Toomers short story “Blood- Burning Moon”. The author describes Louisa’s skin as “…color of oak leaves on young trees in fall”. He describes her whole body as a tree. This story also talked a lot about skin color, but it takes place in a very different place and different time. “No nigger had ever been with his girl. He’d like to see one try.” That put Tom in an awkward situation. In the end Tom ended up being burned to death. These stories take place in very different time periods. In the first story mix races could date and in this one it wasn’t acceptable.

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  3. Brendan Wixted

    In “Blood-Burning Moon” Toomer talks a lot about skin color and it has a big effect on the whole story. Toomer describes Louisa’s skin by saying, “Her skin was the color of oak leaves on young trees in fall”. (1274) I interpret that description of imagery by her skin being perfect and precious. The use of the words “young trees in fall” makes it sound like she is innocent. Toomer then describes her body by saying “Her breasts, firm and up pointed like ripe acorns”. Toomer is just using Imagery to get a picture of how perfect Louisa is. I think that Toomer is doing this to show the reason why Bob Stone and Tom Burwell are so crazy about her and why they ended up fighting and both dying cause of her.

    In “How to date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” Junot Diaz talks about the different expectations when going on a date with different girls based on their skin color and culture. The narrator treats them all differently on the date due to what he is expecting to get from them sexually. The narrator goes into the date guessing how they are going to arrive and how much they will hook up with him. He says,” If she is an outsider her father will be bringing her, maybe her mother”. (352) Shortly after he says, “If she’s a whitegirl you know you’ll at least get a hand job”. He talks about a local girl by saying, “ If the girl’s local, don’t sweat it……...you aint getting shit”(352). He talk about the local girls seeing friends along the way and bringing friends over and it will be fun but you won’t get to hook up with her. He talks about how the whitegirls are the best and the black girls (who are usually the rich out of towners) are hard to get. Basically he says “ a whitegirl might give it up right then. Don’t stop her” (354). He is saying the whitegirls are the easiest to have sex with on the first night. The whole story Diaz is trying to show how the narrator stereotypes these girls on everything they do, what family they come from, where to take them to eat, how to talk to them, and bases his picks of girls on how easy it will be to have sex with them.

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  4. In blood burning moon the authors describes Louisa's body as a tree and her skin as the color of oak leaves..."Color of oak leaves on young trees in fall." The author describes her breast as acorns...“Her breasts, firm and up-pointed like ripe acorns." As the reader and being a women my interpretation of this that i would feel degraded by him. If a man described me like that I wouldn't be with him anymore.

    In the story "How to date a browngirl, blackgirl, white girl or halfie." At first when you begin to read the narrator seems like he would be a good date. He cleans himself up and his house. During the story the narrator goes through each race buy where you should take them. Then he goes on about the end of the date where a white girl would kiss you or you could get a hand job, where as with a halfie would pull away. He bases the way he treats a girl by the color of their skin.

    Michele Nemec

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  5. In the short story "Blood Burning Moon" the author Jean Toomer compares Louisa's skin to the color of oak leaves. In todays society this description to some may be considered to be racial. Im not saying this is wrong, but some people view things differently. Personally to me i dont view this description as being a racial comment. To me it is just a description, for example; if someone were to compare my skin to snow, or vanilla ice cream i would not feel offended, or take it as a racial comment.

    In the short story "How to Date a Brown Girl, Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie" the author Junot Diaz talks about these different genre's of women based on skin color. we find out the author basically treats a girl based on the color of their skin. H discusses what one should expect from different girls and what they shouldnt expect in a derogatory way. For example when discussing a white girl the author states “If she’s a whitegirl you know you’ll at least get a hand job”. This is implying that white girls are slutty, or easy to get.

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  6. Linda Palushaj
    "Skin color is always a crucial element in any story of racial conflict." In any story that there is a problem between races skin color is involved. In Toomer's story, "Blood-burning Moon" he describes the skin color of one of the characters, Louisa. Toomer describes her skin color in the very beginning of the story as being "the color of oak leaves on young trees in the fall" (Toomer 1274). This gives a very descriptive picture to the reader about the character's skin color. The reader is able to interpret this by saying that Louisa's skin was a tanish brown. Instead of describing her as black he carefully described her skin color by using a the color of oak trees. The reader is also able to go on and say her skin was young and pure because Toomer simply said "the young trees in the fall". Though this one line in the story, the author was able to create a picture in the readers mind as Louisa being a young, brownish tan girl with pure natural skin.
    In Diaz's story, "Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl or Halfie?", the narrator describes how a man should act to different girls of different races. He explains how a man should treat different women of different races. He discusses how the different girls would act and how he should create different impressions and do different things with each of the different girls. For instance, depending on if the girl is from town or out of town, the guy should take her to different places to eat. The narrator says if she is from town take her to "El Ciabo for dinner"(Diaz 353) This sounds as if the man is trying to impress the girl by taking her to a restaurant that she may not be used to going to or she knows about. But "if she's not from around the way, Wendy's will do". The narrator is saying that if she is not from around the neighborhood then Wendy's is fine for her and you don't need to try and impress her too much. Probably because she doesn't know about the restaurant anyway. The narrator then continues to describe how the man should treat the women differently and how the women would act towards him based on the color of their skin. The author kind of puts the women into different groups depending on their skin color. Skin color is a cultural difference and played a major role in the story. Based on the womens skin color the narrator basically says how to treat them and how they would treat him.

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  7. Anna DeFusco
    In Junot Diaz’s “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie,” the male character describes his romantic and sexual approaches based on her skin color. He also talks about how he should act around them. He says, “The white ones are the ones you want the most, aren’t they, but usually out-of-towners are black, blackgirls who grew up with ballet and Girl Scouts, who have three cars in their driveways. If she’s a halfie don’t be surprised that her mother is white”(Diaz, 353). Status is associated with their skin color. He seems to be experienced in the field of knowing how a girl will act based on her race. It may seem prejudice, but there may be some truth to what he is saying based on the upbringing of the girls, generally speaking. One can tell that he is insecure about what color he is. For example, “Tell her [a white girl] that you love her hair, that you love her skin, her lips, because, in truth, you love them more than you love your own”(Diaz, 354). He also says, “Hide the pictures of yourself with an Afro”(Diaz, 352). He is not only insecure about his Spanish ethnicity, but also his economic status. Before the girl comes over he hides the government cheese from the refrigerator.
    In Jean Toomer’s “Blood-Burning Moon,” the color of the character’s skin is used to describe her in a desirable way. For example, “Louisa sang as she came over the crest of the hill from the white foks’ kitchen. Her skin was the color of oak leaves on young trees in fall”(Toomer, 1274). There are sociological differences among races like in “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie,” and in “Blood-Burning Moon.” “Blood-Burning Moon” occurred long before Diaz’s story because it was not acceptable for different races and ethnicities to be intimate in “Blood-Burning Moon.” Diaz’s story appears to be more contemporary, while Toomer’s is about ex-slaves living among a white community.

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