THEME 2--Your Blues Ain't Like Mine: ABUSE
How is ABUSE explored in the work? Consider the following elements for possible discussion:
- Physical Abuse
- Emotional Abuse
- Sexual Abuse
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Abuse in “Your Blues Aint Like Mine” is prevalent through most of the excerpts read. This abuse is not only emotional but also physical. The first instance that we see abuse in is when Floyd slaps Lily in the face. He slaps her because she disobeyed him by going in to the pool hall. This is both physical and emotional to Lily. Her place as a woman has been clearly set, and because she oversteps those boundaries she is punished by her husband. “[Lily]…whimpering a little and rubbing her face so he’d feel sorry for her and not hit her again” (pg 23). This quotation from Blues suggests that Lily was afraid. She had been hit before by Floyd, but was desperate to not be hit again. The ultimate example of physical abuse in Blues is the death of Armstrong. Murdered for talking to Lily, Armstrong tried to escape from the pain and constant blows to the head, but after the gunshot it was too late. I believe the most compelling aspect of the Armstrong abuse was the last thought that Armstrong had: “my daddy could whip all of you” (pg. 39). This is very intense to be stated – a black man beating on white men would be generally unheard of when this book’s setting is. I suppose I would argue that any physical abuse in Blues is also emotional as well. In fact, I believe that could be related to real life too. But in Blues, everything is sensitive. The sensitivity comes with the time period and the community perils attributed to it. It was an act of physical abuse to hit Lily, and also the most profound act of physical abuse to kill Armstrong. Both acts of abuse fulfilled by Floyd. But let’s not forget the emotional aspects. Lily now needs to suffer wondering when the next time she will be hit is, and Floyd needs to live with the fact that he killed a man – not because he wanted to, but because of pressure from his father and brother to live up to a ‘white man’s role’. Although he was the actor in both situations, Floyd is now also a sufferer of emotional pain.
ReplyDeleteIn "Your Blues Aint Like Mine" I've noticed that abuse is one of the most common issues seen in the text. In the beginning, I've noticed the power behind the hit of Floyd when the author, Bebe Moore Campbell, describe the slapped as furious and powerful. On page 22, it states, "The slap caught her by surprise; it was heavy-handed and so full of meanness and rage she couldn't even cry." In my point of view, Floyd just slapped her silly.I mean he hit her so hard she had seen the light. A hit so powerful would mean she did something really wrong, when actually she did. But to smack her so powerful is just an embarrassment.In the text, it later describes his reason for hitting her was because he felt like she was out of line for not listening to him when he told her not to go in the pool hall. Through a sociological perspective, I can sense a lot of frustration in his voice when he attempted to justify his reason for hitting her was because of insubordination. From my point of view he's attempting to control her as well which is a sign of emotional abuse.
ReplyDeleteIn "Your Blues Aint Like Mine", I perceived abuse in many area. After reading Floyd’s reaction to the initial situation and the thoughts that passed through his head, I interpreted that he likely struggled with rejection and validation issues with his father. Though his father was not physically in the initial scene, he was still present in Floyd’s mind which played a large role in how Floyd reacted. I assume that Floyd likely suffered verbal abuse and possibly physical abuse which caused a trauma that affected him even while he was tormenting Armstrong. On page 21, he says within himself “I should have hit that boy…Lord I don’t want this getting back to Daddy and them.” This is where Floyd’s father becomes present in the pool hall. From those few lines alone, I assume not only did Floyd in the past receive abuse from his father, but anyone who took on his father’s views. I also observed the physical abuse being inflicted on Armstrong during his last moments alive. If we were to look at this entire situation from a sociological aspect, we see a lot of people dealing with a lot of internal issues whose paths meet unexpectedly. The unfortunate events that occur are simply brought on by someone being in the wrong place the wrong time.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading "Your Blues Aint Like Mine," I was blown away emotionally by all the abuse and violence happening, especially right in the beginning of the excerpts we read. The first thing that I found very striking was when Floyd slaps lily because she got out of the car and stepped foot into the pool hall. This showed us not only abuse but sexism as well. It showed the readers that in this time period women were very much over powered by men and we very easily "put in their place" if they disobeyed. While I read this scene in the novel I started thinking about myself in this position to really get a feel for the emotions displayed and thinking about this happening to myself angered me, this scene is truly heart breaking and degrading for women. The next and most significant piece of abuse displayed in this novel was the killing of Armstrong. Armstrong was killed for talking to Lily. I found this not only to be heartbreaking but also a but ironic, a black man was killing a white man. This is almost unheard of in this time period. It was interesting to read about blacks being violent to whites because almost every other book set in this time period was the other way around. Besides it being interesting if was devastating as a reader to read about all the violence happening, as the person before this commented it all about timing. Being at the wrong place at the wrong time caused many acts of abuse and devastation in this novel.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading "Your Blues Aint Like Mine", I noticed a great deal of Physical, Emotional And Sexual Abuse. From the beggining of the novel you could examine physical abuse when Lily went inside the pool hall and was talking to the colored boy in French. Full of fustration and anger, Floyd kicked Armstrong out of the pool hall for doing so, and then went out to his car to take his anger out on his wife. "The slap caught her by surprise; it was heavy-handed and so full of meanness and rage she couldn't even cry." (Campbell 22) This shows that if a woman does something without her husband permission, that is especially involved with a colored boy, she will be punished with physical abuse. I thought this was emoptional abuse as well for woman, because their rights to choose what they do are very limited and restricted by the men in their family. This could cause some emotional consequences for woman whom have a sense of independence in them. The most powerful physcial abuse is defintely when Armstong is murdered for talking to Lily. After taking numerous blows to the head, the strong Amstrong cannot take much more as he is shot to death by Flloyd. While decribing Flloyds appearence right before the shooting, it says "Floyd's face, the dear and loathing and monstrous rage coagulating around the set of his mouth, the crulty in his stare" (Cambell 39). This shows the cruel enjoyment and excitment Floyd demonstrated before killing Armstrong, and showed the readers how much hate this white man had for colored people. Sexual abuse was also seen in the story, as Lily was sexually abused by Uncle Charlie, and Ida faced much sexual and emotion abuse as well throughout throughout her journey.
ReplyDeleteIn the text “Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine” by Bebe Moore Campbell the theme abuse was demonstrated more often then not. The reoccurring abuse throughout the novel shows the reader how some people were treated without legitimate reason to be treated so poorly.
ReplyDeleteThe first example of abuse was when the character Lily was slapped across the face by Floyd. The colored folk enjoyed hanging out at the pool hall, the pool hall in which Lily had been told to stay out of. She did not follow directions so once she got in the car with Floyd the text says “The slap caught her by surprise, it was heavy handed and so full of meanness and rage she couldn’t even cry (pg.22).” Floyd had slapped Lily across the face simply because she obeyed him.
The second example of abuse would be the scene that Armstrong is killed. Floyd, his brother, and Father went after Armstrong because he spoke to Floyd’s wife Lily at the pool hall. The three men showed up at Odessa’s property to hunt the young boy down and kill him. “Armstrong heard the click of the trigger, and he took a deep breath. He felt his bowels ripping through him…He heard an explosion; fire seared the inside of his chest. His head slammed into the dirt (pg. 39).” That was it, the young boy was physically abused, then shot and killed by three white males.
The third example of abuse occurs between Lily and Floyd again. Floyd’s physical abuse towards Lily happened when Floyd has had a few drinks. Eventually, Lily gathered up the courage to move out of the house and leave Floyd to be angry. Unfortunately, Lily still could not get away from Floyd. He found out Lily was living with her daughter Doreen and came to the house to beg for her back, claiming he would “change.” Floyd eventually left, but not for long. The next time he returned, “Floyd began screaming and pounding on the door (pg. 326)” His actions and verbal abuse further demonstrates the theme of abuse throughout the entire novel.
Physical and emotional abuses are the most demonstrated by the angry character Floyd. He is trying to control those around him through harassment and physical altercations. None of Floyd’s actions would be acceptable here and now.
While reading excerpts from "Your Blues Aint Like Mines" By Moore Campell, I came a cross many occassions of abuse. The physical abuse taking place within the story was something that caught my attention. One example of physical abuse that moved me was when Floyd slapped his wife, Lily in the face. "The slap caught her by surprise; it was heavy-handed and full of meanness and rage she couldn't even cry".(Campbell 22) That expressed the ampunt of frustration within Floyd because of Lily going in to the pool hall without permission. On top of his frustration, he was told that a young colored boy(Armstrong) was "talking french to his wife". So all of those things together was the power behind the slap. The thing that the really grinded my gears was when Floyd said to his wife,"Did you hurt yourself?"(Campbell 23)after he slapped her as if he did not strike her across the cheek. That alone made me strongly dislike Floyd. These acts showed how much control he had over her both physically and mentally.
ReplyDeleteNikki M. Bridges
While reading the excerpts from "Your Blues Aint Like Mines" By Moore Campell the theme that stuck out to me was abuse. It was the physical abuse that caught my attention mostly. For some examples of abuse there was when Lily was slapped in the face by Floyd. The happened because Lily wen to the pool hall without permission. The most ovbious form of abuse is when Armstrong is killed. They went after Armstrong because he talked to Lily at the pool hall.Lily left floyd for this but he found her at her daughter Doreens house. I thought it was a big movement for her to build up enough courage and move out from Floyd.
ReplyDeleteIn the story we are reading "Your Blues Ain't Like Mine" by Bebe Moore Cambpell, there are several examples of blatant abuse throughout her story. It seems that the times were described as difficult for women especially. Women are looked down upon as second class citizens and even though Lily has very few redeeming characteristics, she lies in court to protect her husband from a charge of murder. Her husband is constantly treating her horribly, and even though he verbally and physically abuses her, she defends him as if she has no choice but to stay with him, at least for a while. It appears as though Lily has gone through life dependent upon her beauty, and this is something that is shown to be fleeting, she can't get by on her looks forever. Her husband Floyd actually slaps her very hard, this makes her afraid of him. What I find to be an interesting dynamic between the two of them is she stays with him for a long time, sticking by her man because of her fear of him. This abusive relationship is sustained by fear. When someone has those conflicting feelings, it makes it difficult to leave the relationship. This is one of the reasons why you have sympathy for Lily's character, and are proud of her when she finally leaves Floyd.
ReplyDeleteIn the reading excerpts form the the story" Your Blues Ain't like Mines", the issues of abuse ran deep in every area. Even though there was both physical and mental abuse when dealing with the topic of racism. The most dominant in this particular instance was the mental abuse used to instill fear and feelings of inferioirity. The most evident case of this was during the trial of the white man Floyd Cox for the murder of a black young man Armstrong Todd. From the judge to the defense attorny treatment was different for the different witnesses. While the white woman was handled with care being a witness for the accused, which by the way was her husband, along with all of the other witnesses in Floyd's defense, the 2 black witnesses, who's tesimony should have been critical, were rushed, intimidated and even direspected. This is in itself the perfect example of how once you physically abuse someone or even a a whole race of someones, it really just sets the stage for the mental abuse fueled by fear.
ReplyDeletePaul Chisolm
English 210
Professor Tokeya C. Graham