In the “road to hell chapters” that we read for class, it seemed like it was more of a personalized experience and a detailed extension of what we read for last class) The reason why is because it follows the lives of two people, one black and the other white and even though their livelihoods were very different they were actually very similar and passionate about the same things. They had the same communist world view (3) and trying to gain the approval of their fathers. I found this interesting since in order to gain their approval they are basically confining themselves to those set of values and standards set by family. They were brothers in a movement that believed they could change the world through violent revolution (3) and it was their generation that was going to do that. This reminded me of the other reading we did for last class on the black student movement where that generation was going to start the revolution and do the things that their fathers could not. For George in particular, his mother was confining him because she worried about his safety so in this way she is so scared to step outside of her comfort zone and will do anything to protect her kid (even moving him to a new school and not letting him play outside in the street).
The way that Steve and others idolized George reminded me of the reading from week 6 by Hollander. We talked a lot in class about idolizing ones heroes when we were discussing the soviet union and communism.
There were lots of instances in this reading where i had to stop and consider a bigger picture point of view such as what is really going on here socially? In general, it was interesting to see the roles reverses in that Steve gets peat up as a privileged white man but its because he is working with black individuals as a civil rights worker a part of a movement, a movement that not everyone is happy about.
Another part that I thought was interesting was when steve was thinking about how whites would choose to follow the black movement and if they would do it without questioning what was going on. “In the whites attempt to belong” this part connects to the intellectuals who would align themselves to the working class since they did not like their own class or associated negative connotations with it, particularly, the french intellectuals. The working class was considered by french intellectuals to be a whole working community and therefore they had a pure idealization of the working class. which is connected to what I was talking about earlier with idealizing one’s heroes.
One reply on “Blog post week 8”
I agree that this reading was an extension of the previous reading. I think that it is interesting that both Steve and George wanted to conform to a particular set of values held by their families. This seems slightly ironic, when discussing intellectuals as their purpose is to find the truth. If you are limiting yourself, it can be difficult to know the truth. However, this connects to your last point that you brought up. Some white people would join the Civil Rights Movement, in an attempt to fit in. These examples are not so much as intellectuals finding the truth, but wanting a sense of belonging and community. I find it interesting that sometimes people support a movement that they might not fully understand in order to be a part of something bigger than themselves. I think that examples like these happen more often than not as individuals like to idealize aspects of their life. I think that this happens even more now with social media because individuals want to give off a particular image of themselves, even if they are not fully aware of what is happening around them.