Walking the Wall

This single leaf has survived and held on to it’s little branch on my favorite miniature Japanese Maple tree in our front yard. We can see it outside the window of our schoolroom and every morning the kids look to see if it has still held on. It has survived wind, rain, snow, and ice and refuses to let go.

I’ve been thinking a lot about independence lately because the idea of idependence, self-reliance, and the radical individual is the main theme to my American Literature class. Last night I was preparing for an essay exam tonight on the independence of Ishmael/Ahab (Moby Dick), Hester (Scarlet Letter), and Edna (The Awakening). But before I could discuss that, I had to come to a concrete idea of what independence meant to me. There were five things that formed my idea:

1. The definition of independence is "freedom from control or influence of another or others".
2. Emerson wrote in Self Reliance that it is easier to live following the dictates of soceity, and it is easier to live independently in solitude, "But the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude" (123).
3. Epictetus, in his Discourses, wrote that the average man who fits in is a white thread of a toga, "But I wish to be purple, that small part which is bright, and makes all the rest appear graceful and beautiful. Why then do you tell me to make myself like the many? And if I do, how shall I still be purple?"
4. Melville wrote in Moby Dick, "As a carpenter’s nails are divided into wrought nails [hand forged] and cut nails [cut out like cookies by a machine]; so mankind may be similarly divided" (105).
5. Chopin, in The Awakening, writes, "The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth" (83)

Using these ideas of independence I was easily able to see Ishmael and Hester as independent, fully realized radical individuals, it was a process, but in the end they got there. Ahab and Edna were much more ambiguous, both had levels of independence, but both (especially Ahab) were also living very reactionary lives, they weren’t living independently so much as they were reacting to society and events. Ahab was rather insane and while you can appreciate his focus and his placing himself entirely out of the realm of society and even God/gods–he is a larger than life kind of man. Edna was a much sadder, much more human case. She had gone through so many levels of transformation, become self-realized, struggled to become an individual, but in the end she  didn’t have the strength or wisdom to sustain it. She worked hard to see herself apart from being defined by society, her family, or her husband–but in the end she couldn’t live content within herself and she, like Ahab, sunk under the waves. It could be argued that her final act was an act of independence, but I have a difficult time agreeing with that–she had the means to live independently, she only lacked the strength to really see herself as complete on her own. I have a great respect for her struggle and her voice, and a great sadness that she was never able to really soar above it all.

I listened to a lot of class discussion that was frustrating to say the least, people who had no concept of Edna’s struggle, only seeing polar opposites, hero or failure, Holy Mother or whore. Black and white and neatly labeled–that seems to be the only way many people can think. Living Emerson’s independent life in a crowd is not an easy thing, to go against the grain of society, to stand alone outside of religion or family–it is at times a lonely place to be. Being Black History Month, the kids and I have been reading a lot about the struggles of the African American community, and I can’t help but think of Rosa Parks–we look back at her and see a hero, but on that day, on that bus, in that seat–it must have been a lonely place in a crowd. She had the strength to ask, "How then shall I be purple?"