So far I've really enjoyed reading middle passage. It's a fun book with enough action to keep it interesting but also with enough metaphorical literature-ness that it leads to good, thought provoking class discussions.
The theme of being in the "middle" is really intriguing to me due to the way in which it is explored in every character or object. The idea of dualism vs unity is one I would like to explore a lot more. The characters I have been able to place somewhere along the Unity------>Dualism spectrum are...
Rutherford (who's in the middle)
Falcon (Dualism)
The Republic (Dualism-maybe? well it's all about being a process)
The Allmuseri+The God (VERY much Unity)
Isadora (Unity-well maybe she's a little tricky too)
White people in general (Dualism)
But I want to know more about the representation of
1) Jackson....this character still really confuses me. I'm excited to discuss and understand more about him and why he did what he did. (That was so crazy on his part! Maybe it was the right thing to do, but if I were Rutherford I would be pissed off too)
2) Does Tommy O'Toole represent one?
3) Or what about Cringle?
4) Ngonyama? (he SHOULD represent unity but then he is kind of the contradiction to the rule)
So I'm really excited to hear what happens next and also to see which side Rutherford ends up on when the mutiny occurs. Will he stay loyal to the crew or follow Falcon? Right now I have no idea.
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Nina,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you're enjoying the novel, but I'm even more impressed by your insightful response to it (the first half of this post could serve as a 'prospectus' for an essay on Johnson's book). Good questions, too. I hope you'll understand Jackson's role better after the reading for Monday. Cringle and Tommy seem minor (but important) characters whose roles are 'reactive'--that is, they tend to be representative of certain themes, rather than contributing to the development of those themes. As for N's "contradiction" (there's also one with Diamelo), I guess that Johnson needs an 'individual' Allmuseri to move the story forward.