Ruiz-Velasco, Chris, “Lost in these Damn White Halls: Power and Masculinity in Walter Mosley’s Fiction”, Literary Criticism, Vol. 78, No. 1, pp. 113-117. 51, Issue 2 (Winter, 2010), p. 135-151. Accessed 16 Feb 2024. In “Lost in these Damn White Halls: Power and Masculinity in Walter Mosley’s Fiction,” Chris Ruiz- Velasco highlights the themes of racism and masculinity in Mosley’s noir novels. Within the Easy Rawlins series set in post-World War II Los Angeles, Mosley portrays a character that embodies issues of racism and masculinity. Ruiz-Velasco argues that Mosley presents masculinity as a concept influenced by factors like power, race, gender, and class. Through Easy Rawlins, Mosley challenges the perceptions of Black masculinity by showcasing …show more content…
Through Ruiz-Velasco’s analysis of Mosley’s work, we can understand how power shapes masculinity, particularly in the context of racism and societal struggles. Ruiz-Velasco’s analysis is particularly effective due to his incorporation of theoretical support to deepen the understanding of themes within Mosley’s novels. By using theories of power, masculinity, and race from sources like Marilyn Wesley, Patricia Hill Collins, and Judith Butler, Ruiz-Velasco improves his interpretation of Mosley’s novels and provides a clearer understanding of how these themes shape the experiences of the characters. He effectively uses these theoretical ideas to dissect power dynamics and show the complexities of racial identities in the novel. Using theoretical ideas allows Ruiz-Velasco to offer interpretations of Mosley’s work in broader social contexts. One aspect that Ruiz-Velasco approaches less effectively in his analysis is the integration of examples from other noir novels to support his …show more content…
The imbalance between these two may leave the reader with a desire for more textual evidence, which affects the ability to fully grasp how Ruiz-Velasco’s theoretical concepts are applied. By including more detailed textual evidence and examples from a wider range of noir novels and films, Ruiz-Velasco could enhance the persuasiveness and clarity of his article, providing readers with a simpler understanding of how power and masculinity cross within the genre. Overall, Ruiz-Velasco’s clear and concise writing style makes the complex theoretical ideas more understandable to readers. With the lack of examples from other noir novels, he makes up for it due to the precision of his writing. He discusses masculinity, race, and power dynamics with clarity, making sure readers can follow along without feeling overwhelmed. This enhances the overall readability of the article, which allows readers to engage more
Many attributes and behaviors that society considers as masculine are typically associated with the idea of power. Overemphasis on power, particularly in the forms of physical and sexual aggression, can be described as hypermasculinity. African-American men have a long history of being subject to emasculation in many aspects, and thus are forced to perform their masculinity in other ways. Overcompensation results from hypermasculinity, and consequently contributes to the perpetuation of black males as more physically and sexually violent than their white male counterparts. In Chester Himes’s novel, If He Hollers, Let Him Go, Himes provides a representation of toxic, internalized masculinity through the main protagonist, Bob Jones. Bob’s experiences
In a more recent politically and culturally diverse world, many contemporary authors take it upon themselves to create novels exploring our diversity. In Paul Beatty’s The White Boy Shuffle, Beatty decides to critique our society’s strict and confining gender stereotypes and standards. Using irony and symbolism, Beatty crafts interesting characters, scenes, and dialogue to suggest that no one person is one-dimensional, and when society attempts to confine our multi-dimensional selves, many times we suffer from negative consequences. Through characters like Gunnar and Scoby, Beatty challenges the stereotypical masculinity expected of black males and what responses may occur as society attempts to box them in.
Mat Johnsons novel, Pym challenges readers not only to view his work with a new set of eyes but also the work of all American literature with the understanding that the idea of Whiteness still has a very strong power over literature today. It is unfortunate that in today’s society, the pathology of Whiteness still holds a very strong presence in literary world. Literature from American authors versus literature from African American authors still continues to be segregated and handled with two different sets of criteria. Johnson’s novel engages in different aspects of the argument presented in Toni Morrison’s work entitled Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. One of the main ideals that Pym engages in is the thought that “…a figuration of impenetrable whiteness … surfaces in American literature whenever Africanist presence is engaged” (29). Through the character Chris Jaynes, Johnson’s novel focuses much attention on the Whiteness seen in the literary world and how it still affects literature today. Mat Johnson’s Pym addresses Morrison’s argument by challenging the reader to identify the pathology of whiteness as well as encourages readers not to only identify the problem but try to find new ways to combat it.
It is often the case that media and more specifically, film, perpetuates the stereotypes of black men. These stereotypes include not showing emotion, being physically aggressive, embrace violence, supposed criminality, associated with drug use, lack a father figure, sexually exploit women, and others. In the film, Boyz n the Hood, Tre’s father, Furious Styles, encourages Tre to demonstrate loyalty to other people in relationships, resist aggressive behavior, and foster and exhibit sexual responsibility. Thus, throughout the film, Tre challenges the society’s stereotyped norms of black masculinity and what it means to be a black man.
From the beginning, Robert Cohn’s name defines himself－he is essentially a conehead in a society where concealing insecurities and projecting masculinity is paramount. Although he tries in vain to act stereotypically male, Cohn’s submissive attitude and romantic beliefs ultimately do little to cover up the pitiful truth; he is nothing more than a degenerate shadow of masculinity, doomed for isolation by society. In the incriminating eyes of people around him, Cohn is a picture-perfect representation of a failure as a man. Through Cohn, Hemingway delineates not only the complications of attaining virility, but also the reveal of another “lost” generation within the Lost Generation: those living without masculinity and the consequences they thus face.
Compare and contrast the relationship of the detective to his or her community in Devil in a Blue Dress and Corollary In Walter Mosley’s “devil in a blue dress”, there is a clear cut distinction between the white and black man, this distinction is portrayed as something that is somewhat negative and looks at the situation from the eyes of a black man named Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins and how he is changed from a simple day to day laborer into an effective detective.
In the classical Western and Noir films, narrative is driven by the action of a male protagonist towards a clearly defined, relatable goal. Any lack of motivation or action on the part of the protagonist problematizes the classical association between masculinity and action. Due to inherent genre expectations, this crisis of action is equivalent to a crisis of masculinity. Because these genres are structured around male action, the crises of action and masculinity impose a crisis of genre. In the absence of traditional narrative elements and character tropes, these films can only identify as members of their genres through saturation with otherwise empty genre symbols. The equivalency between the crises of genre and masculinity frames this symbol saturation as a sort of compensatory masculine posturing.
Considering the circumstance of racial inequality during the time of this novel many blacks were the target of crime and hatred. Aside from an incident in his youth, The Ex-Colored Man avoids coming in contact with “brutality and savagery” inflicted on the black race (Johnson 101). Perhaps this is a result of his superficial white appearance as a mulatto. During one of his travels, the narrator observes a Southern lynching in which he describes the sight of “slowly burning t...
Richardson, Riche. Black Masculinity and the U.S. South: From Uncle Tom to Gangsta. University of Georgia Press, 2010. Print.
Summers, Martin. The Black Middle Class and the Transformation of Masculinity. Chapel Hill: University of Carolina Press, 2004.
While watching movies, have you ever noticed that the villains in almost every single Hollywood film are of Middle Eastern or European descent? In a reoccurring theme of Hollywood, the villains in these films are almost always foreigners or people of color. This is a stereotype. On the other side of the spectrum, we often see that the heroes of these films are most often than not white males. This is another stereotype. Within the last few years, we’ve seen actors such as Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, and Zoe Saldana take the lead roles, so it can’t be said that there are no non-white heroes, but there certainly isn’t many. Hollywood action movies, moreover than other genres, are typically loaded with an abundance of stereotypes. The way these movies are composed and structured can tell us a great deal about the views held within the American psyche and who holds the social power. The harsh reality is that the media ultimately sets the tone for societal standards, moralities, and images of our culture. Many consumers of media have never encountered some of the minorities or people of color shown on screen, so they subsequently depend on the media and wholeheartedly believe that the degrading stereotypes represented on the big screen are based on fact and not fiction. Mary Beltran said it best when she stated in her “Fast and Bilingual: Fast & Furious and the Latinization of Racelessness” article, “ultimately, Fast & Furious mobilizes notions of race in contradictory ways. It reinforces Hollywood traditions of white centrism, reinforcing notions of white male master while also dramatizing the figurative borders crossed daily by culturally competent global youth – both Latino and non-Latino” (77). This paper will specifically look...
“Knives Out” by Rian Johnson is a riveting movie that follows a famous private investigator who is hired anonymously to solve the murder of Harlan Thrombey, a mystery novel writer. The mystery film perfectly encapsulates the elements of detective fiction, immersing viewers in a tantalizing mystery film. Beyond the entertainment and comedic values, the film incorporates elements of detective fiction, particularly the whodunit structure, offers a diverse perspective while addressing social issues concerning Latinos, and explores trauma in crime fiction. A major characteristic of detective fiction highlighted in “Knives Out” is the whodunit structure. As discussed by Maida and Spornick, “the heart of the classical detective story is the puzzle—that
He wishes that readers will notice his characters are no better or no worse than who they are as a person and that the reader can relate to identity struggles and the racial oppression that makes finding an identity so hard. Gaines continued his response to the same question of who he hopes reads his novels with “I wish the white youth of the South to read my book. To let him know that unless he knows his neighbor of the past 300 years, he knows only half of his own history. ”(NEA, 2011). Gaines is able to shed light on the impact of a racial hierarchy in the United States’s history and the effects it has had on the black community and black culture overall.
The term ‘Film Noir’ is often used to describe films that reflect cynicism towards certain aspects of the society. The definition of the term is predicated on the cinematic belief, that style provides the major feature of films. Thus, film noir is an “invention of movie critics who hold the opinion that style is the sole vicinity in which meaning can be found in the cinema” (Ewing Jr. 61). Film noirs employ several elements of modern art to convey relevant messages. The majority of film noirs borrow their scripts from existing novels.
Such contemporary color films cast in the classical noir mode are termed “neo noir.” Those who ascribe to this belief of noir as a movement, negate narrowing “descriptors” of noir as only characterized by black and white movies rife with crime plots and femme fatale cast in urban settings. Thus we can venture to conclude that cinematographic Noir, black and white film or in color, is more reflective of a mood, a dark mood that symbolizes themes of moral degradation rather than a specific set of descriptors.