Chapter 10 Presentations on Thursday

CURRENT EVENTS:  Entertainment Division
Sometimes I wonder why authors choose the references they do.  With respect to the real-life film stars that Milkman equates Pilate's "Aunt Jemima"-like behavior, Morrison chose Louise Beavers and Butterfly McQueen.  Personally, I recognized McQueen's name in my first reading of SofS because I was an inveterate Gone with the Wind fan; she played the part of Scarlett O'Hara's young maid in Atlanta.  But I did not know Louise Beavers, and to this day I'm not sure I've ever seen her in an actual role.  However, Morrison left OUT the most recognizable figure of all, the one most associated (in appearance and mannerisms) with Aunt Jemima--the actress who played Mammy (Scarlett's personal maid as she was growing up at Tara). The following excerpt from the Beavers bio shows the connection with McDaniels, and the next article is from today's Washington Post--and it's about the third McDaniels article I've seen this week.

From Wikipedia (article on Louise Beavers):
The vast majority of Beavers' other film roles, however, were not as prestigious. Along with Hattie McDaniel, she became the on-screen personification of the "mammy" stereotype: a large, matronly black woman with a quick temper, a large laugh, and a subservient manner. Beavers' employers had her overeat so that she could maintain her "mammy"-like figure.[2] Although Beavers did not approve of how her characters were scripted, she nonetheless continued appearing in films, because, as her contemporary McDaniel once stated, "it's better to play a maid than be a maid."[3]


The more famous Hattie McDaniels in the news this week:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/25/AR2010052501844.html?hpid=moreheadlines

TODAY IN CLASS
1) Yes, a quiz.  Yes, some people needed the wake-up call.
2) The paper hand-out for the last essay (identical to what was online yesterday).
3) Third period finished up the technologically-delayed presentation from yesterday.

FOR TOMORROW
There will be no quiz on Thursday, so "worst case"--if you are current on 10 you will live through tomorrow without incident. But the idea was to give you over a week to write a good comparative/contrast paper:  for that you must finish the book ASAP. 

(That was why the "Countdown to Graduation" schedule listed May 25--yesterday--for finishing the book, and though I apologize for not handing you the hand-out in class yesterday as well, it was online as late afternoon.)