Danbi's Deliberations

"A glass eye. A buttermilk white eye distorted by the light rays. An eye staring fixedly at me as from the dark waters of a well" (Ellison 466). While first reading this passage, I was taken aback by the sudden popping out of Jack's eyeball. While I found it humorous, more than that, I found it bewildering. During this scene, Jack uses his glass eye to intimidate the narrator. The reader can see that the narrator is visibly uncomfortable and disturbed by the loss of Jack's eye. The most obvious interpretation of Jack's glass eye popping out of its socket is naturally a reference to blindness. Jack, representing the entire Brotherhood, is not only blind physically but also socially blind. This is evident when Jack gets angry with the narrator for supporting Todd Clifton and his funeral. The Brotherhood sees Todd Clifton as a traitor for selling Sambo Dolls, which are a racist and stereotypical depiction of black people, when he was once an active advocate for e...

"I yam what I am" "What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?" (Wright 260).   This passage struck me as particularly interesting just because of how relatable it was to me. As someone who comes from a family of immigrants from Korea, I definitely have had plenty of moments where I felt like I didn't belong or even wanted to hide my culture. Even now, there are moments where I feel that people see me for what I look like on the outside rather than my personality within. They expect me to be a certain way because of the way I look or what ethnicity I am. Although society has definitely improved in the sense of Asian stereotypes, I've definitely had my fair share of fairly racist remarks. I grew up in the small town of Decatur, Illinois. You might know it as that city that smells terribly of soybeans. If you're familiar with it, you'd know that it's a pretty small...