"A Party Down at the Square"

[Dr. C.]

Ralph Ellison, “A Party Down at the Square” (2382)

Rather than give you discussion points or questions to consider - or a video - I am asking that you read the following article (http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1259&context=facpub or via https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B89nanOeQP8YTkRXNk9wZkduYkU/edit?usp=sharing )  and consider how this article shapes your response to the story.  You do not have to study it carefully, and if you find it difficult to read, just skim it and take in what you can from it.  This is an article written by an academic about the short story and will provide you with an understanding of the story, its origins, its function for Ellison, as well as its publication history.  

Resources:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/ellison_r_homepage.html

http://www.read.gov/fiction/ellison.html

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5053/the-art-of-fiction-no-8-ralph-ellison

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgC0zZ30kh8

[adamsjm6]

The article helped to shape my understanding and give me context behind what and why the author wrote about. Such a violent and horrendous act such as the one depicted represent the highest level of hate and bigotry in society which was made brutally apparent by the tone, actions, and attitude of the crowd and the city at large. Unfortunately, this was the way of many poor southern communities who were bullies and murderers of the African American community in and around their communities. I believe the story and article had a rough but realistic connection between hunger, and racism. A combination of poverty, a lack of education, and twisted traditions and methods of dealing with problems led to violent racial interactions which unfortunately often times ended in the brutal loss of life.

[Olivia Zuba]

I read the short story before reading the essay and I felt that it was pretty easy to grasp the concept. The article provided did add some insight though. I think that the author wrote this short story from a little boy's perspective to bring even more awareness to the issue of lynching in the south. As Jimmy said, this was not uncommon in the south and for African Americans to be tortured this way. Reading the story from a little boys perspective from Cincinnati was really eye opening. Ellison wrote about all the details from the event and it made me feel so bad for the little boy. Little children should not have to see anyone being burned a live or all the chaos in the city. That would scar a child for the rest of its life. The story was difficult for me to read but at the same time I wanted to see how it ended.

 

On Tuesday, June 11, 2013 9:41:53 AM UTC-4, Dr. C. wrote:

[fran...@miamioh.edu]

I read the story "A Party Down at the Square" before reading the article, and upon reading the story, the first thing I thought of was the US Supreme Court case Powell v. Alabama. This is a case that had been discussed in one of my previous classes and I found it relevant to this story because of the nature of the case. The "Scottsboro Boys" being accused of raping two white girls on no evidence whatsoever seemed to have a connection to this poem; it was when I read the article that it noted this as well. The poem really doesn't give any information on what the man is there for and why the town wants to kill him. He is just being persecuted based on his skin color. Unfortunately, this was a common theme to happen during this time, and that is horrible to think about. In writing this poem, Ellison must have had some kind of personal encounter with these kinds of practices, and thats why I think the poem is so detailed in the account.

On Tuesday, June 11, 2013 9:41:53 AM UTC-4, Dr. C. wrote:

[Briana Roesel]

This was a tough story for me to read because of the details put into it. I understood the story quite clearly the first time I read through it. The website mentioned below helped explain the story better to make it more understandable. It helped me picture the scenario better and it was interesting to learn more about Ellison and the lynching. I haven't researched Ellison before nor did I know he was African American which changes my whole outlook on this story. It's interesting that he would tell this story from a White boys perspective. It is crazy to think about things in history, such as lynching, were so common. This story definitely impacted me in a way I didn't think it would. I could picture myself at the "party" in the boys shoes and feel his pain and he was watching a man being burned to death. Although the plane almost crashing didn't seem like a crucial part to the story it was a good example given to show how focused the crowd was on this lynching that not even a woman dying or a plane almost crashing into their town could break their focus.

Resource:

http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1259&context=facpub

[Dr. C.]

Olivia,

I agree: this is not a pleasant story to read.  What about it made you want to read to the end?  I've had students say they found it so disturbing that they didn't want to finish it.  

Also, I think that the reference to Cincinnati might make us as readers respond differently, because I trust that everyone in our course knows Cincinnati! 

[Dr. C.]

Brandon,

Glad you are drawing a connection between this reading and something you learned in another class.  

[Andrew Wilkening]

I felt like I was able understand the main concepts of this piece pretty quickly. I also felt like reading the additional material helped me further understand what was going on. The idea of racism in this piece is emphasized in a very powerful way and is a way to inform others about certain events in the south. I agree with the previous post about how this short story may have been written about a younger boys perspective on the events of the time. Pieces like these can have a huge impact on some readers. The events that occurred were harsh and unbelievable. To read about such events from a new perspective was very interesting. I really liked this piece and felt I was engaged the entire time.

[Jeremy Newport]

The titles use of "Party" to me epitomizes the entire narration. This tale is told through the eyes of an onlooker in the violence of a lynch mob. I felt the story used some historical references to Great Britain somewhat to show the irony in these brutal events. It was fairly common in Great Britain during public executions for things to go wrong. Sometimes executioners would miss there mark or in one famous case an entire stadium bleacher collapsed killed all onlookers in that section of the park. I find the chaotic scene during the story is a great symbolism in what lynching really was. Most of these killings were never very thought out and what happened was a true escalation of anger. The psychological term escapes me but it is not far different from the idea of certain modern day murders. A few years ago at University of North Carolina, a student went missing and was found dead a few days later. The killers had mugged the girl but in the heat of the moment fired a gun and they proceeded to go on a shopping spree with her credit cards around the area. Many lynch mobs began as confrontations with white individuals over simple acts like arguing and would end up sometimes with many African Americans being killed publically. I felt what Ellison was trying to accomplish with this story by narrating through an individual in the mob is show the shear stupidity behind the mob mentality. Even one character states that killing African Americans wouldn't help the economy and that character was silenced. While many people tried to rationalize these activities, it was simply cold blooded murder with no provocation other than racial stereotyping and I feel Ellison conveyed this.

[David A. Riley]

I think everyone is pretty much in agreement about this story. The fact that the boy is not full of hate like all the adults in the mob could be symbolic of change to come with generations. This piece was a protest, and Ellison wrote it with a white narrator for effect. Most, if not all, of his other works have a black narrator. I would hope that this story had some effect somewhere. Also, I see parallels between the helplessness of the little boy narrator, and the feeling of helplessness that Ellison (or any black living in the south at that time) might have felt. The boy could not get away from the mob anymore than the victim could. Trapped, as it were.

The article mentions a Billie Holiday song, "Strange Fruit." For those of you who haven't heard it (and I am assuming that is most of you) here is a link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZc3rvfIZA8

It is a very powerful song, and goes along with this story, and the "Bronzeville Mother" poem. This video does not mention the first public performance of the song, and fails to mention that while Billie was not scared of singing the song, or at least not scared enough not to sing, the club's owner and her band were fearful of the crowds reaction. They had a car waiting behind the club to drive her to safety. After she concluded the song, there was a long silent pause... and then the crowd erupted with applause.  (If you want to know more, I suggest you watch Ken Burn's: Jazz. I think this song is in part 6. The documentary is available on Hulu.)

On Tuesday, June 11, 2013 9:41:53 AM UTC-4, Dr. C. wrote:

[Dr. C.]

David,

Good point/observation here about the fact that the boy might represent the possibility of change.  Your parallel, too, between the boy's helplessness and the helplessness felt by Ellison (or others) is astute as well.  

Thanks for sharing the reference to the BH song.

[Caitlin Lamb]

The essay revealed to me several things that I did not pick up on when I read the text before.  In my reading journal, I commended the author on choosing to write the text from the perspective of a child, because a child would be more apt to notice small details that could be missed by an adult, and could be less biased than other, adult viewers of the crime.  I did not pick up on the fact that the child was also from Cincinnati, OH, a northern state that I would have thought would be more apt to condone such an extreme act of violence against African Americans.  I definitely agree that the author used this to make a statement that while the north considered themselves above the violence of the south against African Americans at this time (despite the fact that both exhibited extreme segregation), when actually viewing the violence, they would make no argument or attempt to stop it.

I also did not give much thought to the fact that the airline was searching for the maker of the fire, because it caused the airplane to almost crash until after I read the essay.  The key word in this being "almost."  I think that the author painted a very vivid picture of the mindset in the south during this time by including this detail.  Th fact that the mob that burned the African American will be punished because an airplane "almost" crashed, and not because they burned a man alive, is a very hard idea to grasp to me.  We do not often see that kind of cruelty in the United States today, and for that we are very lucky.  I think that it is very important to read texts like this, because these kind of horrible crimes do still occur today in many places in the world, and though it may be hard to read such vivid imagery, by reading it we are aware of it, and aware that someone in history had to begin to act in order to stop it, just as we must today.

[Jacqueline Oligee]

This story really made me almost sick to my stomach. To know that humans could do that to another human is just horrific. It was a struggle for me to keep reading it because it was so gruesome, I did read to the end in hopes that there would be some sort of relief but I didn't really feel "good" after reading it. I was only grateful that it is not like this anymore. When I read this story I thought of the book "To Kill A Mocking Bird." I think this is because I had the same feelings when I read this as I did when I read that book. I think both pieces of literature also deal greatly with the issues and effects of racism. Reading the article helped me get a little bit better of an understanding of what Ellison was trying to do and accomplish. I also leaned that Ellison has many other works that are similar to this that have not been published about the protests that happened in the thirties and forties. Another thing this article helped me with was understanding that there is a enlightening side to the story and that it can be read with an optimistic viewpoint. I think it was hard for me to look at it as optimistic because it was so awful in the beginning.