Friday, May 14, 2010
we are all the same
From the beginning of the story Lily’s character seems to be almost unaware or at least acts as though she was unaware of the color differences. She was not racist at all and she truly felt that we are all just people, love is love. As the novel progresses she begins to get a better understanding of the different races, I think she is maturing and realizing the differences and that the black and whites were treated differently. I do not think that Lily was ever a racist, however I think she did in some ways have an understanding of what roles each race should play. In her household she knew that the servant was black, and throughout her community this was so. This did not mean she treated the servants badly, however she did feel that was the role they belonged in.. As the novel progresses she finds herself realizing that the world that she knew is not how it is. That the black and the whites, can be whoever they want to be and it is not dependent on there color to make them who they are. The author did a great job portraying Lily’s maturity and growth throughout the story and she grows very close to August, May, and June and she eventually loves them as her own family. Lily goes through what I would like to call an evolution throughout this novel. She goes from merely accepting what she knows, to defying the rules and her customs and stepping outside that box to let love in. She realized that we are all the same, we all love the same, and it didn’t matter the color of your skin, but instead the love you had to give.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with you in some aspects. I can see how you would say that Lily may have been blind to the prejudice in the beginning because she never really treated Rosaleen in a cruel way. However she did experience the cruelty that Rosaleen would experience from others in her community and the prejudice that there was towards blacks in general. I think that Lily was fond of Rosaleen regardless of her color because in the beginning of the novel it mentions that Lily some times wished that Rosaleen was her real mother. As the story progress yes I agree with you that she was more exposed to the racial issues surrounding her life and the Calendar sisters. She began not to see them for the color of their skin but rather for their love and kindness towards her. She was never treated so nicely and loved by any one like that. I think that the love that she received had to do a lot with her becoming more comfortable with those of different color, not that she was not in the beginning. She just became even more vulnerable towards them and the Calendar sisters did the same towards hers. They let their guards down and rather than seeing each other for the color of their skin they began to see each other for the color of their character and hearts You made a good comparison of Lily evolving on her view of prejudice. Good job, you did very well!
ReplyDeletewell, you really answered this question very well and i agree with you. i never ever once thought that lily was racist and when she did grow and mature through out thestaory she did realize the role that skin color did play back in that time periord. and i really like how you said that love was love,like no matter who it is coming from black or white or orange or purple love is love and that doesnt change the meaning behind it. lily did think that the sisters were her family despite their race and she felt accecpted and felt that they were one big happy family that she had always wanted to have. lily found love.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your blog. Lily was like unaware of the color differences at the beginning of the story. However, eventually we notice that her encounter with the police and the white guys cause her notion of attitudes to grasp on to the understanding that Lily’s nanny was a person of color and the level of conscious that was given t o her evolved the knowing that a person of color was never looked upon in the picture where a white person stands. It’s sad to determine that at some point of life, this type of situations were occurring and many people were okay with this idea. Until today we can still see that at times there are people that mistreat others because of racial situations. It makes no sense to me, why would I discriminate because of the color of my skin, the social class I live or even because of the kind of language I speak? Unfortunately life is life, and we cannot do much to stop these actions because racial extremities will be occurring one way or another. The best thing to hope is for the world to be seen through the eyes of Lily and the eyes of the color women whom she lived upon, after all we are all the same.
ReplyDelete