Omnino - Volume 9

VOLUME 9

VOLUME 9

Copyright © 2019 by Valdosta State University

FACULTY ADVISOR

Dr. Anne Greenfield MANAGING EDITORS

Livi Côté Ben Elliot STUDENT EDITORS

Hanna Berryhill Taylor Collins Leah Morton Asia White COPY EDITOR

Jason A. Smith GRAPHIC DESIGNER Bethany Davis

Contents Introduction

6

Predictors of Incarceration Rates in the United States

7

Dr. Anne Greenfield FACULTY ADVISOR TO OMNINO

By Madison Everett FACULTY MENTOR // Dr. James T. LaPlant, Department of Political Science

Avian Imagery in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and a Selection of Poems by Emily Dickinson

20

By Sarah Farmer FACULTY MENTOR // Dr. Rachele Dini, Department of English and Creative Writing, Roehampton University

Sterilization & the Black Community: The Neo-Eugenics Movement 1945-1981

26

The Effects of Paper Color and Word Type on Memory and Recall

49

By Dillon Bell FACULTY MENTOR // Dr. Thomas Aiello, Department of History

By Tiffany R. Tilaka FACULTY MENTOR //Dr. Blaine Browne, Department of Psychology, Counseling, and Family Therapy

An Analysis of Women Characters in Cir cus in the Attic

57

The Conscious and Unconscious: A Psychoanalytic Critique of Ian McEwan’s Atonement

67

By Livi Côté FACULTY MENTOR // Dr. Kendric Coleman, Department of English

By Asia White FACULTY MENTOR // Dr. Ubaraj Katawal, Department of English

Introduction

by Dr. Anne Greenfield Faculty Advisor

VSU’s undergraduate students have once again conducted a great deal of research this year, and the Omnino student editors and I are pleased to showcase six articles representing the very best of this work. In volume 9, Omnino features articles from various departments at VSU, including Psychology, Political Science, English, and History. And, for the first time ever, we feature an article written by a VSU student during a study abroad semester, at Roehampton University in England.

As we congratulate our student authors and their faculty mentors for their impressive research and writing, we also wish to thank all of the VSU faculty members who donated their time and expertise while serving as referees for our submissions this year.

Omnino prides itself on its high standards for publication, and this rigor is ensured by the careful vetting of each submission in a double-blind review process, conducted by VSU’s own faculty. So, a special thanks is owed to all of our faculty mentors and referees.

Thank you!

I also wish to call attention to the astute work of the VSU students who comprise Omnino editing team and staff. This year’s editors, as ever, showed true dedication and conscientiousness in making certain that each submitted paper was vetted thoroughly and anonymously, and that each accepted article received topnotch editing.

The Omnino student editors and I continue to welcome submissions from all departments and disciplines for our next volume.

The submission deadline for volume 10 is January 20th, 2020. We invite undergraduate students to refer to our submission guidelines at https://www.valdosta.edu/colleges/arts-sciences/english/student-resources/student-publications/omnino/submit. php.

Predictors of Incarceration Rates in the United States

By Madison Everett Faculty Mentor: Dr. James T. LaPlant Department of Political Science

Article Abstract This study examines the incarceration rate across the 50 states, with a focus on the factors that predict a high incarceration rate. The increase of incarceration rates has captured the attention of the public, as well as politicians. Given the cost to society and taxpayers, states are considering a variety of prison reform proposals to alleviate high incarceration rates.

However, despite the reform proposals and movements, prisons are still overpopulated. This study analyzes six independent variables: region, percentage of the state’s population that has attained a bachelor’s degree, per capita income, unemployment rates, support for President Trump, and violent crime rate. The relationship between these variables and incarceration rates in each state is analyzed through scatterplots and an analysis of variance (ANOVA). All of the six independent variables proved to be statistically significant. Percentage with bachelor’s degree and per capita income had a negative relationship with incarceration rates, while unemployment rates, support for President Trump, and the violent crime rate all had a positive relationship. The ANOVA of region reveals that the South has a much higher incarceration rate and the Northeast has the lowest. The results of this study highlight the key demographic, economic, and political predictors of mass incarceration rates.

Predictors of Incarceration in the United States Despite some attempts for reform, prison overpopulation remains a growing social issue to which the government has brought attention. It negatively impacts the inmates’ daily living conditions, the staff ’s ability to effectively communicate with the inmates, and the facility’s infrastructure, as the Bureau of Prisons is the largest energy and water consumer in the Department of Justice (“Bureau of Prisons,” 2012). Additionally, prison overcrowding can ultimately have an influence on every citizen. A portion of the taxpayer’s money goes to prisons to keep them running and updated (Schmitt, Warner, & Gupta, 2010).

While incarceration rates continue to grow, and though it does not affect the public directly, it does have a hidden cost and effect. Identifying the factors that contribute to the growing incarceration rate can help decrease it. Given the growing concern of prison overcrowding, the research question at the heart of this study is, “what factors predict the incarceration rate across the 50 states?”

This article consists of four sections: a literature review, a data and methods section, the findings or analysis of the situation, and the conclusion. This article will begin with the literature review. Then, the data and methods section will present the unit of analysis, explain the dependent variable with connection to the independent variables, and state concrete hypotheses. The next section will be the findings or analysis, which will use scatterplots to determine whether there is a clear relationship between the dependent and independent variable or the relationship is absent. Each independent variable will have its own scatterplot and will be discussed. At the end of the findings section, there will be an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), presented in the form of a box-and-whisker plot. In this section, all the hypotheses will either be supported or rejected based on the relationship shown in all the graphs. Then, the conclusion will state the key findings and which factors truly correlate to the inclining incarceration rate.

Literature Review In the United States, incarceration rates have grown to the point where they need reform imposed by the government. On January 11, 2018, President Trump called a press conference to address this issue (“Remarks by President,” 2018).

In this press conference, President Trump, alongside Governor Bevin, Governor Brownback, Attorney General Sessions, Matt Schlapp, and Brooke Rollins, answered questions from the press about how they feel about opportunities to improve the United States prison system. There are two main problems when considering prison reform, and both deal with problems after the person leaves prison. Two thirds of the people released from prison each year will be arrested again within three years (“Remarks by President,” 2018.) In addition, other former inmates may find themselves unemployed. Once inmates are released from prison, they often struggle to reintegrate into their normal lives and find jobs, a problem that may evolve into unemployment and become a social and governmental challenge, which has been confronted by President Trump (“Remarks by President,” 2018). As unemployment rates increase, the incarceration rates will increase.

One more issue that needs to be investigated is how President Trump is taking the necessary steps to decrease incarceration rates. This raises the question of the

8

Madison Everett relationship between President Trump’s supporters and incarceration rates. Kelly O’Donnell wrote an article on this subject, titled, “GOP leaders stall Trump push for prison, sentencing reform” (O’Donnell, 2018). The article shows that while President Trump is for prison reform, his supporting party and party members are not. There have long been tensions between the Republican party, which does not want prison reform, and the Democratic party, which does. However, in December of 2018, the legislation became bipartisan. Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, introduced the First Step Act, which addresses the fact that rehabilitation for previous inmates has not been working. This piece of legislation would help improve the future success of previous inmates and help them adjust upon leaving prison (“First Step Act,” 2018). The act passed through the House in May of 2018 with a 360-59 vote (“First Step Act,” 2018) and was then sent to the Senate, where it received a bipartisan vote. President Trump announced his endorsement of the First Step Act on November 15, 2018 and signed it into law on December 21, 2018. As support for President Trump decreases, incarceration rates decrease.

Through reform, there has been a reduction from 219,300 to 188,800 inmates between the years 2013-2017 (“Policy Shifts,” 2017). Despite a reduction of about 14 percent, the inmate population remains at 13 percent overcapacity (“Policy Shifts,” 2017). As of November 29, 2018, a total of 180,975 inmates had been put in federal prisons (“Statistics,” 2018). This number does not account for state prisons or any local jails. The higher the incarceration rate for the United States, the more the public must pay in taxes to maintain prisons.

In 2008, the federal, state, and local governments had to pay around $75 billion on corrections, mostly focusing on incarceration (Schmitt, et al., 2010).

Since taxes fund the highly expensive criminal justice system, these deductions are unable to go toward healthcare, police, or financial aid (Forman, 2009).

In a research project conducted by Wagner and Sawyer, they found that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. The project compared states (as if the states were a country) to other parts of the world. The five places with the highest incarceration rates were Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama (Wagner and Sawyer, 2018). Not only were these states above any other country, but they are Southern states. This suggests that region also plays a part in the levels of incarceration, concluding that the South has a higher incarceration rate than the Northeast, North Central region, and West.

Rabuy and Kopf (2015) draw attention to two possible explanations for the upward trajectory in incarceration rates: people who have been incarcerated had previously earned a low salary and had little education. In 2014, incarcerated people made on average $19,185 annually, which is 41 percent lower than non-incarcerated people of similar age (Rabuy and Kopf, 2015). If people did not earn enough before they went to prison, this becomes a powerful variable. As per capita income increases, incarceration rates will decrease. Education levels are something to explore when examining the incarceration rate. The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) did a study involving incarcerated adults. This research provides information for the public on the edu-

9

Predictors of Incarceration in the United States cation and training that is received in prison. The PIAAC emphasizes that out of those incarcerated that took this survey, over half of them (54%) were scheduled to be released and sent back into the workforce within two years (Tofig, 2017).

This survey’s sample was 1,300 prisoners, and it highlighted problems in literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving techniques. At the end of the survey, the prisoners were asked to fill out questions about their demographics and educational attainment (Tofig, 2017). The findings of this research reinforced their hypothesis.

Thirty percent of incarcerated adults had attained less than a high school diploma (twice the percentage for U.S. households, which is 14 percent), and the incarcerated adults scored the lowest in literacy and numeracy categories (Tofig, 2017). As the percentage of bachelor’s degrees increases, incarceration rates will decrease.

Data and Methods In light of the research, findings, and theories on incarceration rates, this study is designed to focus on the 50 states, excluding the District of Columbia. Incarceration rates in each state will be the dependent variable. Six independent variables (region, per capita income, unemployment rates, violent crime rates, percentage of the population with a bachelor’s degree, and percentage of the population that supports President Trump) will be used to try to explain the variations within the dependent variable. The data for per capita income by state comes from the Census Bureau. The data for the violent crime rate comes from The Department of Justice: Federal Bureau of Investigation. The data for the unemployment rate comes from the United States Department of Labor. The data for percentage of support for President Trump comes from The New York Times. The data for percentage of the population with a bachelor’s degree comes from the National Center for Education Statistics. All variables and brief descriptions are provided in Table 1.

Table 1: Variables, Characteristics, and Sources Variables Incarceration rate by state Percentage of the state with a bachelor’s degree Per capita income Percentage of the state that is unemployed Percentage of the support for Trump by state Violent crime rate Region

Min. 340

Max. 1310

Mean 758.660

S.D. 250.735

17.5

39.0

27.490

4.816

41,754 2.2

78,953 6.5

58,000 3.748

9597.945 0.800

30

68

48.780

10.298

158

804

377.828

145.547

1

4

2.660

1.062

The unit of analysis for this study is the 50 states. The dependent variable, incarceration rates by state, was taken from 2016. This was the most recent year the Bureau of Justice Statistics updated all of its prison population counts. The incar-

10

Madison Everett ceration rates ranged from 340 (Vermont) to 1,310 (Oklahoma), with a mean of 758.660. This means that throughout the states there was an average of 758 people incarcerated per 100,000 inhabitants in 2016. The first independent variable, percentage of the state with a bachelor’s degree, ranges from 17.5% to 39.0%, with a mean of 27.490. These counts were taken and recorded in 2017. The second independent variable, per capita income, ranges from $41,754 to $78,953, with a mean of $58,000. These counts were taken in 2016. The third independent variable is the percentage of the state that is unemployed. The range is 2.2% to 6.5%, with a mean of 3.748%. These counts were taken in 2018. The fourth independent variable is the percentage of the vote for Trump within each state in the last presidential election in 2017. The range is 30% to 68%, with a mean of 48.780%. The fifth independent variable is the violent crime rate. The rate is 158 (Vermont) to 804 (Alaska), with a mean of 376 per 100,000 inhabitants. These statistics were taken in 2018. The last independent variable is region, which is coded as 1-4. Region is coded as follows: 1 is Northeast, 2 is North Central, 3 is South, and 4 is West.

The hypotheses that will be tested are as follows: H1: As the percentage of bachelor’s degrees increases, incarceration rates will decrease.

H2: As per capita income increases, incarceration rates will decrease.

H3: As unemployment rates increase, incarceration rates will increase.

H4: As support for President Trump decreases, incarceration rates will decrease.

H5: As the violent crime rate increases, incarceration rates will increase.

H6: The Southern states will have a higher incarceration rate than states in the Northeast, North Central, and West.

Microcase was the data analysis system used to help format the fiures of this study. The appendix provides the dataset for the paper.

Findings This study provided intriguing results. All five independent variables listed in Table 2 are statistically significant. The following scatterplots will provide a more detailed analysis of each independent variable. There will also be an analysis of variance (ANOVA) test for region.

Table 2: Correlation Analysis of Incarceration Rates Independent Variable

Correlations

PCT bachelor’s degree

-0.673**

Per capita income

-0.625**

Percentage unemployment

0.312*

Percentage Trump

0.573**

Violent Crime

0.502**

N=50

*p<.05

**p<.01

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Predictors of Incarceration in the United States For the correlations in the table to be significant, they need to have a probability of .05 or less. As shown, the percentage of bachelor’s degrees within a state, per capita income, the percentage of support for President Trump, and the violent crime rate all have a probability of less than .01. All of these variables have a strong correlation to incarceration rates. Percentage of population with bachelor’s degrees within a state and per capita income both have a negative correlation, and both support the hypothesis presented. The percentage of Trump support and violent crime rates have positive correlations, and both support the hypothesis presented. The unemployment rate within a state has a statistical significance of less than .05.

It has a positive correlation and supports the hypothesis presented as well.

The following figures will illustrate the relationship between each independent variable and the dependent variable. After each figure, there will be a brief explanation of the data and whether it provides sufficient evidence to accept or reject the hypotheses.

Figure 1: Incarceration Rate and Percentage with Bachelor’s Degree 1320

I C R a t e

340

17

PCT B.D.

39

Line Equation Y = 1721.219 + -35.015 X r = -0.673** Prob. = 0.000 N = 50 Missing = 0

The correlation between incarceration rates and the percentage of the state that had a bachelor’s degree is r= -0.673**, which is statistically significant at p< .01. The slope of the regression line is -35.015 with an intercept of 1721.219. For every unit increase in the percentage of the population with a bachelor’s degree, the incarceration rate declines by 35 individuals per 100,000 population. The r squared is 0.448** for the regression model. The percentage of the population with a bachelor’s degree accounts for 44.8% of the variance in the incarceration rate. The outlier in this figure is West Virginia, and if it was removed, it would increase to r= -0.718**. Figure 1 demonstrates that as the percentage of the population with a bachelor’s degree goes down, the incarceration rate goes up. As represented above, H1 is accepted.

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Madison Everett Figure

2:

Incarceration

Rate

and

Per

Capita

Income

1320

I C R a t e

340 41750

PC Income

78950

Line Equation Y = 1702.398 + -0.016 X r = -0.625** Prob. = 0.000 N = 50 Missing = 0

Per capita income and incarceration rates have a negative correlation. Figure 2 shows that r= -0.625**. The slope is -0.016 with an intercept of 1702.396.

So, as the per capita income decreases, incarceration rates decrease by 0.016.

The r squared statistic is 0.391**. Per capita income accounts for 39.1% of the variance in the incarceration rate. This is statistically significant at p< .01.

As per capita income decreases, incarceration rates go up. H2 is accepted.

Figure 3: Incarceration Rate and Unemployment Rate 1320

I C R a t e

340

2

PCT U.E.

7

Line Equation Y = 392.279 + 97.754 X r = 0.312* Prob. = 0.015 N = 50 Missing = 0

The relationship between the incarceration rate and the unemployment rate within each state is positive and statistically significant. The slope is 97.754 with an intercept of 392.279. For every percentage increase in the unemployment rate, the incarceration rate increases by 98. If the unemployment rate is zero, the incarceration rate would be 0.392. The r squared statistic is 0.094. The unemployment rate accounts for 9.4% of variance in the incarceration rate. With a probability of p< .05, H3 is accepted.

13

Predictors of Incarceration in the United States Figure 4: Incarceration Rate and Trump Support 1320

I C R a t e

340

30

% Trump

70

Line Equation Y = 77.879 + 13.956 X r = 0.573** Prob. = 0.000 N = 50 Missing = 0

The incarceration rate and the support for President Trump within each state proved to have a positive, significant correlation. The slope is 13.956 with an intercept of 77.879. For every percentage increase in the Trump support, the incarceration rate increases by 13.956 percent. If the Trump vote is zero, the incarceration rate would be 0.78. The r squared is 0.329**. The percentage of support for President Trump accounts for 32.9% of variance in the incarceration rate. At p< .01, H4 is accepted.

Figure 5: Incarceration Rate and Violent Crime Rate 1320

I C R a t e

340 120

Violent CR

810

Line Equation Y = 431.927 + 0.865 X r = 0.502** Prob. = 0.000 N = 50 Missing = 0

The incarceration rate and the violent crime rate within each state had a positive, significant correlation. The slope is 0.865 with an intercept of 431.927.

For every unit increase in the violent crime rate, the incarceration rate increases by 0.865. If a state has a violent crime rate of zero, the incarceration rate would be 0.431. The r squared is 0.252**. The violent crime rate accounts for 25.2% of variance in the incarceration rate. At p<. 01, H5 is accepted.

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Madison Everett Figure 6: Incarceration Rate and Region (ANOVA) 1320

I C Overall Mean 758.660

R a t e

310

North East

North Cent South Region

West

The above ANOVA between incarceration rate and region shows a strong relationship between the two. The Northeast has a mean of 460, which is well below the group mean. The North Central has a mean of 705, which is average.

The West has a mean of 749, which is also average. The South, however, has a mean of 973, which is above average. The South has a higher incarceration rate than all the other three regions. The eta-squared is 0.513. This means that region accounts for 51.3% of the incarceration rate. According to this, H6 is accepted.

Conclusion The relationship between incarceration rates and region, percentage of the population with a bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree, per capita income, percentage of the population that is unemployed, support for President Trump, and the violent crime rate demonstrated statistical significance. The factors that affect incarceration rates as expected include the violent crime rate, percentage of the population with a bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree within a state, the percentage of unemployment, per capita income, and the percentage of Trump support by state. The incarceration rate and the support of President Trump reflect a conservative lawand-order culture. As supported above, the more conservative a state is, the higher the incarceration rate. Also, region accounts for 51.3% of variance in the incarceration rate, reflecting a subculture of violence in the region.

There is other research on the factors that can affect the incarceration rate.

The findings in this study echo those of other studies on this subject. Region, Trump support, unemployment rate, per capita income, the percentage of the population with a bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree, and the violent crime rate have a statistically significant correlation to the incarceration rate. This study is based upon a bivariate analysis of each independent variable in relation to the incarceration rate. A multivariate analysis would provide great clarification of the statistical significance and effect size of each independent variable by controlling for the influence of the other independent variables. In conclusion, with the combination of this research and other studies that have been completed and are yet to be completed, scholarly investigations can help decrease incarceratio

15

Predictors of Incarceration in the United States References “Bureau of Prisons: Growing Inmate Crowding Negatively Affects Inmates, Staff, and Infrastructure.” 2012. United States Government Accountability Office. Retrieved on March 19, 2019 from https://www.gao. gov/assets/650/648123.pdf “Fast Facts: Educational Attainment.” 2017. National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https://nces.ed.gov/ fastfacts/display.asp?id=27 “First Step Act.” 2018. First Step Act. Retrieved on January 27, 2019 from https://www.firststepact.org/ Forman, James. 2009. “Why Care About Mass Incarceration?” Michigan Law Review, vol. 108, no. 6, 2010, pp. 993–1010. JSTOR, JSTOR, Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from www.jstor.org/stable/40645856 Guzman, Gloria G. 2017. “Household Income 2016.” U.S. Census Bureau.

Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2017/acs/acsbr16-02.pdf Hartney, Christopher. 2006. “US Rates of Incarceration: A Global Perspective.” The National Council on Crime and Delinquency. Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https://www.nccdglobal.org/sites/default/ files/publication_pdf/factsheet-us-incarceration.pdf Kaeble, Danielle and Mary Cowhig. 2018. “Correctional Statistics in the United States, 2016.” Bureau of Justice Statistics. Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=6226 “Local Area Unemployment Statistics.” 2018. United States Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm O’Donnell, Kelly. 2018. “GOP leaders stall Trump push for prison, sentencing reform.” NBC News. Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https:// www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/gop-leaders-stall-trump-pushprison-sentencing-reform-n903381 “Policy Shifts Reduce Federal Prison Population.” 2017. United States Courts.

Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from http://www.uscourts.gov/ news/2017/04/25/policy-shifts-reduce-federal-prison-population “Presidential Election Results: Donald J. Trump Wins.” 2017. NY Times.

Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https://www.nytimes.com/ elections/2016/results/president

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“Prison Population Counts.” 2018. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=131 Rabuy, Bernadette and Daniel Kopf. 2015. “Prisons of poverty: Uncovering the pre-incarceration incomes of the imprisoned.” Prison Policy Initiative. Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/income.html “Remarks by President Trump in a Meeting Room on Prison Reform.”

2018. The White House. Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-meeting-prison-reform/ Schmitt, John, Kris Warner, and Sarika Gupta. 2010. “The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration.” Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https://core.ac.uk/download/ pdf/6414678.pdf “Statistics.” 2018. Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/population_statistics.jsp Tofig, Dana. 2017. “Education and Training Opportunities in America’s Prisons.” The National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https://nces.ed.gov/blogs/nces/2017/01/11/ default Wagner, Peter and Wendy Sawyer. 2018. “States of Incarceration: The Global Context 2018.” Prison Policy Initiative. Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2018.html “2016 Crime in the United States.” 2016. Department of Justice: Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https:// ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/tables/ table-3

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Predictors of Incarceration in the United States

Appendix States

Region

PCT B.D.

PC Income

PCT U.E.

% Trump

State Pop

IC Rate

Violent Rate

Alabama

3

21.9

46257

4.1

62

4747

1080

532.3

Alaska

4

27.9

76440

6.5

51

740

800

804.2

Arizona

4

25.9

53558

4.7

48

7017

1030

470.1

Arkansas

3

19.5

44334

3.5

61

3004

1050

550.9

California

4

30.1

67739

4.1

32

39537

670

445.3

Colorado

4

36.4

65685

3.1

43

5607

740

342.6

Connecticut

1

35.5

73433

4.2

41

3588

530

227.1

Delaware

3

27.8

61757

4.0

42

962

883

508.8

Florida

3

25.8

50860

3.5

49

20948

900

430.3

Georgia

3

27.3

53559

3.7

50

10429

1160

397.6

Hawaii

4

29.5

74511

2.2

30

1428

500

309.2

Idaho

4

24.4

51807

2.7

59

1717

900

230.3

Illinois

2

30.8

60960

4.1

38

12802

620

436.3

Indiana

2

22.7

52314

3.5

37

6667

850

404.7

Iowa

2

24.9

56247

2.5

51

3146

560

290.6

Kansas

2

29.8

54935

3.3

56

2913

780

380.4

Kentucky

3

20.5

46659

4.5

63

4454

1010

232.3

Louisiana

3

21.4

45146

5.0

58

4684

1270

566.1

Maine

1

26.8

53079

3.3

45

1336

380

123.8

Maryland

3

36.1

78945

4.2

34

6052

610

472.0

Massachusetts

1

39.0

75297

3.6

33

6859

360

376.9

Michigan

2

25.2

52492

4.0

47

9962

730

459.0

Minnesota

2

31.8

65599

2.8

45

5577

380

242.6

Mississippi

3

19.5

41754

4.8

58

2984

1260

280.5

Missouri

2

25.6

51746

3.2

56

6114

940

519.4

Montana

4

28.8

50027

3.6

56

1050

700

368.3

Nebraska

2

28.6

56927

2.8

59

1920

610

291.0

Nevada

4

21.7

55180

4.5

46

2998

890

678.1

New Hampshire

1

32.8

70936

2.7

47

1343

410

197.6

New Jersey

1

35.4

76126

4.2

41

9006

460

245.0

New Mexico

4

25.0

46748

4.6

40

2088

930

702.5

New York

1

32.5

62909

4.1

37

19849

480

376.2

18

Madison Everett North Carolina

3

26.5

50584

3.8

50

10273

680

251.1

North Dakota

2

27.6

60656

2.7

63

755

540

300.3

Ohio

2

24.6

52334

4.6

51

11567

790

449.8

Oklahoma

3

22.9

49176

3.5

65

3930

1310

264.6

Oregon

4

28.8

57532

3.8

39

4142

640

Pennsylvania

1

27.1

56907

4.1

48

12805

810

316.4

Rhode Island

1

30.2

60596

3.9

39

1059

370

238.9

South Carolina

3

24.5

49501

3.3

55

5024

820

501.8

South Dakota

2

26.3

54467

3.0

62

869

880

418.4

Tennessee

3

23.1

48547

3.6

61

6715

930

632.9

Texas

3

25.9

56565

3.8

52

28304

1050

434.4

Utah

4

29.3

65977

3.2

45

3101

540

242.8

Vermont

1

33.6

57677

2.9

30

623

340

158.3

Virginia

3

34.2

68114

2.9

44

8470

880

217.6

Washington

4

31.1

67106

4.4

37

7406

530

302.2

West Virginia

3

17.5

43385

5.2

68

1815

690

358.1

19

Avian Imagery in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and a Selection of Poems

by Emily Dickinson

By Sarah Farmer

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rachele Dini, Department of English and Creative Writing, Roehampton University

Article Abstract Nineteenth-century America was a tumultuous place, especially for women. Two female American authors of this time, Kate Chopin and Emily Dickinson, encountered gender bias and injustice, and incorporated it into their works. In Kate Chopin’s renowned American novel, The Awakening, and a variety of Emily Dickinson’s poems, avian imagery is used to represent the societal expectations and stereotypes of the modern American woman. This article identifies and compares each author’s incorporation of the plight of being a woman in a misogynistic society, by likening themselves to a bird to represent female oppression, social captivity and degradation, as well as freedom, liberation, and strength.

Sarah Farmer The nineteenth century was an era of extreme change and discomfort in America, particularly for women. The suffrage movement was building momentum as modern women began to reevaluate their worth and place in society.

By the end of the nineteenth century, slavery had been abolished, but there was still an entire population, an entire gender, suppressed and challenged by society.

However, some brave American women were beginning to allow themselves to hope for a brighter future and began taking steps in that direction. American literature from this time period depicts the unrest of the female population and holds a sense of anticipation about their prospects. Two of the most renowned female writers from the nineteenth century are Emily Dickinson and Kate Chopin. These writers used the world around them, things that were familiar to themselves and their readers, to convey some of their internal debates and queries. Kate Chopin and Emily Dickinson present juxtaposing ideas using nature, specifically the same image of a bird, to portray ideas of freedom and captivity, hope and despair for the nineteenth-century American woman.

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening entered the literary scene in 1899 with mixed reviews from scholars and readers of both genders. Many critics determined it to be an unseemly piece that depicted an unruly woman, particularly in the case of the main character, Edna. According to 1899 reviews, “The Awakening’s Edna Pontellier is a selfish wife and mother who not only does not appreciate her good husband, but she also rebels in the worst possible way—by taking a lover or two” (Toth 209). Edna challenges the socially idealistic loyal, submissive wife.

Kate Chopin allows readers behind the curtain of Edna’s personal life, private thoughts, and conversations. The novel is laced with natural imagery including the ocean, wildlife, and, of course, birds.

The very first sentence of The Awakening dives into the aviary world. A yellow and green parrot sits caged in a parlor, speaking a language that no one around it can understand. This is only the beginning of Chopin’s extensive metaphor of a nineteenth-century American woman as a bird. The caged parrot is seen and admired by those around it, but it is confined to its small cage, only glimpsing the world beyond. Chopin uses the parrot as a symbol of the female character, playing on the stereotypical societal gender expectations of the time. It was considered virtuous for the woman to be seen and not heard, much like the expectations of the parrot in Chopin’s opening scene.

As the parrot continues to speak in this unique mixture of French and English, the book’s first male character is introduced with the following passage, “Mr. Pontellier, unable to read his newspaper with any degree of comfort, arose with an expression and an exclamation of disgust . . . The parrot and the mockingbird were the property of Madame Lebrun, and they had the right to make all the noise they wished” (Chopin 3). In this passage, Mr. Pontellier is beyond annoyed with the noise of the birds, to the point that he collects his things and leaves the building entirely. The birds’ songs and repetitive word choice drive him from the room, filling the space with noise too irksome to remain. However, the birds are allowed to continue their sounds because they are the property of someone else. This idea of being a possession is represented again in Edna’s battle with the idea of belonging to someone else. Barbara Welter comments on the reality of the nineteenth-century American homelife by saying, “The nine-

21

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and a Selection of Poems by Emily Dicksinson teenth-century American man . . . could salve his consciousness by reflecting that he had left behind a hostage . . . Woman . . . was the hostage of the home” (Welter 21). Being the property of any other individual undermines one’s agency and independence, and both Edna and the birds seem unsatisfied with such a fate.

Chopin says the parrot could “. . . speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood, unless it was the mockingbird that hung on the other side of the door . . .” (3). Chopin recognizes the language of the bird as something foreign or other, not belonging to its surroundings or being understood by those around it. The parrot in the text is exotic and foreign, trapped in a cage of domesticity, much like the book’s central character, Edna. Its companion, the mockingbird, is the only other creature that seems to understand its foreign speech, and this is similar to Edna’s female confidant in the novel, Mademoiselle Reisz. The only creature that could understand the parrot was yet another bird even though they were divided. This language barrier also exists between the main female character, Edna Pontellier, and those around her. Even in conversation with the other females of the text, she remains to be heard but never truly understood. In this way, she is like the parrot and the mockingbird is her female compatriots; they understand one another but division remains between them.

Edna is counted off as being too outlandish and therefore becomes isolated, forced to sing her songs in solitude.

As the novel progresses, Chopin continues to include commentary on the parrot, including its opinion on several performances during the summer. The bird “shrieked” from the opposite side of the door, and one of the elderly gentlemen, Monsieur Farival, grew impatient with the interruptions and “. . . insisted upon having the bird removed and consigned to regions of darkness” (Chopin 27). Yet again, Chopin pens a scene in which a male figure is annoyed by a parrot’s speech and determines the best way to resolve the issue is to condemn it to confinement out of sight. Not only was the bird placed in another room, but into a dark place. This can be compared to the lack of educational opportunities for females at the time. Welter suggests anti-intellectualism as one of the vital components of sexism that allowed females to be viewed as man’s lesser (Welter 71). Instead, just like the noisy parrot in The Awakening, they are kept in the dark.

Later, a conversation takes place between Edna and her lover, Arobin, that directly links the women of the text to the avian symbolism. Edna relays a prior encounter with Mademoiselle Reisz by saying, “. . . she put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong, she said. ‘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’” (Chopin 92). This quotation is perhaps the clearest example of Chopin’s link between birds and women, morphing the two together and seemingly giving Edna wings of her own. Mademoiselle Reisz recognizes the oppression of the female sex and determines that it takes a strong individual to stand blatantly against such opposition. Scholar Barbara Welter summarizes these traditions by breaking the definition of ‘woman’ down “. . . into four cardinal virtues—piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. Put them all together and they spelled mother, daughter, sister, wife—woman” (21). Chopin

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Sarah Farmer sets Edna apart from the “weaklings” and traditional women upholding these four mundane virtues. When Arobin questions the sanity of Mademoiselle Reiz, Edna defends her and embraces her new identity as a bird overcoming oppression. “She seems to me wonderfully sane” (Chopin 92). Edna recognizes Mademoiselle Reiz as a fellow “bird,” understanding her actions and response to female plight.

Another nineteenth-century author who employed the imagery of birds was Emily Dickinson. Unlike Kate Chopin, much of Emily Dickinson’s body of work was not released until after her passing. Although Dickinson spent much of her adult life within the walls of her home, she remained informed and in correspondence with the world beyond (Goodman 62). Years of work were discovered on repurposed bits of paper, tucked into crevices and hidden spaces in her home. Much of the inspiration for Dickinson’s poetry revolved around that which she was most familiar with, including religion, business, and nature.

Within nature, birds seemed to be one of Dickinson’s favorite subjects to incorporate into her works, being mentioned in approximately fifteen percent of her collected poems (Skinner 107).

Aaron Shackleford, in his article that looks at Dickinson’s use of birds as a symbol, states, “A straightforward examination of the bird’s body would be futile, Higginson claims, because to truly ‘know’ entails something more than its mere physical body: such knowledge would encompass the bird’s thoughts and mind” (57). Where Kate Chopin uses birds to represent a woman’s subjugation and confinement, Dickinson uses birds to present ideas of hope and freedom, seeing winged creatures as enabled and strong. “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” (Dickinson 140).

“In Winter in my Room” is a poem in which Dickinson speaks in the first person, presenting herself as a bird that is fleeing a worm or snake. She describes the snake as powerful and mean and then escapes by flight: That time I flew Both eyes his way Lest he pursue Nor ever cease to run. (623) In this poem, the image of the worm or snake is used to represent a man.

Dickinson uses pronouns traditionally associated with the male gender to identify the worm as male, “But as he was a worm” (623). She does the same with the snake, saying, “When he was mean and new . . .” (623). However, Dickinson uses her freedom as a bird as a means of escaping man and his oppression, flying incessantly in the opposite direction. Dickinson shows that she, the female, is already equipped and naturally able and prepared to escape her adversaries.

Being a bird and a woman is empowering, allowing her to transcend the obstacles around her.

In another of Dickinson’s poems, “Bring Me the Sunset in a Cup,” she writes in the first person and again presents herself as a bird. This poem shows what Emily’s life is like inside the walls of her home, separated from freedom by

23

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and a Selection of Poems by Emily Dicksinson panes of glass: Who built this Alban House And shut the windows down so close My spirit cannot see?

Who’ll let me out some gala day With implements to fly away, Passing Pomposity? (Dickinson 71) Stanley Plumly comments that Dickinson’s poem gives “instruction that will free the poet of the bird cage of “this little Alban House” and will “let me out some gala day” (169). The term “me” used in the poem helps solidify Dickinson’s synonymous role as the bird in the poem. Although Dickinson had contact with the outside world, she refrained from entering it herself. Although this level of seclusion may not have been typical of the nineteenth-century American woman, the idea of belonging within the home whilst freedom lay outside certainly was. Barbara Welter summarizes American society’s expectations for women when she said, “The true woman’s place was unquestionably by her own fireside” (Welter 31). She goes on to quote an opposing opinion of the time which stated, “There is composure at home; there is something sedative in the duties which home involves. It affords security not only from the world, but from delusions and errors of every kind” (Welter 31). This quote suggests the world beyond the threshold of a woman’s door is dangerous and should be avoided. With this mentality, the home serves as a form of birdcage, keeping the innocent, fragile women safe from the harsh world outside. Dickinson’s final two lines of the poem address this issue, planning to fly away and transcend the “pomposity.” Dickinson understood there were dangers beyond the safety of her home, but she also recognized the joy and freedom that could be attained by pressing into the skies of the unknown.

Kate Chopin and Emily Dickinson stood at the forefront of nineteenth-century female society, calling attention to the monstrous injustice lurking just beneath the surface. Both authors created works that present two different, yet equally valid, interpretations of the nineteenth-century American woman by presenting her as a bird. These ideas were progressive for anyone of their time but are especially powerful having been voiced by women. Kate Chopin and Emily Dickinson took an animal that is stereotypically identified as meek or innocent and turned it into a multifaceted literary image that depicts the emotional and psychological layers of the nineteenth-century woman. American women took the works of these authors and that of many others and built upon them, continuing to fight for awareness of injustice and complete equality, hoping the new generations of American women could soar on the wings of those before them.

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Sarah Farmer Works Cited Chopin, Kate. The Awakening and Other Stories. Edited by Pamela Knights, Oxford World’s Classics, 2008.

Dickinson, Emily. The Poems of Emily Dickinson. Edited by R. W. Franklin, Reading. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998.

Goodman, Lizbeth, editor. Approaching Literature: Literature and Gender. The Open University, 1996.

Plumly, Stanley. “Wings.” The Kenyon Review, vol. 36, no. 3, 2014, pp. 167–72.

Shackelford, Aaron. “Dickinson’s Animals and Anthropomorphism.” The Emily Dickinson Journal, vol. 19, no. 2, 2010, pp. 47–66.

Skinner, Jonathan. “Birds in Dickinson’s Words.” The Emily Dickinson Journal, vol.

20, no. 2, 2011, pp. 106–10., doi:10.1353/edj.2011.0019.

Toth, Emily. Unveiling Kate Chopin. University Press of Mississippi, 1999.

Welter, Barbara. Dimity Convictions: the American Woman in the Nineteenth-Century.

Ohio University Press, 1976.

25

Sterilization & the Black Community: The Neo-Eugenics Movement 1945-1981

By Dillon Bell

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Thomas Aiello, Department of History

Article Abstract This article discusses, briefly, the origins of the Eugenics Movement in the United States and how it would lead to racially discriminative pieces of legislation being passed over the course of fifty years. This widely accepted phenomenon in the early 20th century did not specifically target minorities in the Southern states, and in actuality did not become a serious racial tool used by Whites until the start of the early Civil Rights Movement. Many states began to use Eugenics as a method of control in the Jim Crow South, and while this hold did affect the African-American community, the full extent of these racist eugenic laws would not be seen until 2002. The Neo-Eugenics Movement, which emerged after World War II, specifically targeted African-Americans in Dixie, and did so with extreme prejudice to Black women.

Over the course of five decades, multiple men and women were forcibly sterilized or coerced into sterilization outside of institutions due to their race. The connection to minorities and poverty, mixed with White assumptions about the Black community, led to these sterilizations being performed systematically through government assistance program lists. Southern African-American women that were enrolled in social welfare programs from 1946-1981 were more in danger of losing their reproductive ability than Whites in general and White women specifically.

Dillon Bell The start of the 20th century brought many things with it, including genocidal ideas born from the science of the time. Societal advances brought technological and medical advances as well. Through medicine, science, and philosophy a movement was formed—The Eugenics Movement—that created a major medium of oppression. The term eugenics at a base level means improving the human population through genetic manipulation and breeding. As time progressed, the movement grew, and supporters lobbied politicians for laws to “purify” society “by improving the genetic quality of a human population by excluding certain genetic groups judged to be less desirable and promoting other genetic groups judged to be superior”.1 During World War II, the U.S. began to slow certain eugenic policies such as institutional sterilization. This was done primarily because there were fewer surgeons to conduct sterilizations, and the revelation of the Holocaust led many to question the authenticity of this pseudo-science. Nevertheless, during the late 1940s and early 1950s the movement was revived and continued where it had left off.

As eugenics became popular once more, there was a shift in ideology. A racial tone that began during the beginning of the movement trickled down to Dixie and began to blossom as years passed. Several famous cases emerged from North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and other states. However, state involvement in places other than North Carolina is lesser known and researched, therefore most of the evidence will come from there. As the movement re-established itself in the South, the ideology became severely warped. The myths of welfare abuse by African Americans mixed with the rising racial tension of the decade led to coerced sterilizations of Black Americans until the 1970s. The laws that had been passed in the early 20th century to control the reproduction of those with disabilities would later be used to directly target female members of the Black population who had received welfare benefits.

Other academics who have researched and written about this terrifying reality include Dr. Johanna Schoen and Dr. Alexandra Stern. Schoen, a tenured professor at Rutgers University who specializes in birth control and reproductive rights, discusses how race and poverty affected individuals during and after the Eugenics Movement. In her book, Choice and Coercion: Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public Health and Welfare, she identifies direct correlations between those sterilized, their race, and their economic status. Stern, who holds a tenured position at the University of Michigan and holds a similar background to Schoen, also shows that links like these are prominent throughout the 20thcentury. While both scholars discuss the Eugenics Movement throughout the United States and its effects on multiple minority groups, the focus here is on African-American women in the South.

The beginnings of the Eugenics Movement stem from Frances Galton, the 1 Francis Galton, “Eugenics: Its Definition, Scope, and Aims.” The American Journal of Sociology. X (1) (July 1904): 82.

27

Sterilization and the Black Community cousin of Charles Darwin. Like Darwin, Galton had an interest in genetics and evolutionary theory. It was from this interest and his cousin’s own theories that he developed the Eugenic Theory. By 1865, this idea had been well developed and “includes the analysis of ‘survival of the fittest’, nature vs. nurture, and both ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ reproduction.”2 Throughout the world this ideology spread, and while initially a fair concept (based on science of the era) it caused nothing but pain, mutilation, and death. During its inception in America, eugenics was more directed at class or immigration status rather than race. It was apparent that the middle class was more susceptible to accepting the idea of a “cleaner” society, and that is where the idea was marketed. The opposition to this naturally came from those less financially stable and those who were “dirty.”

Something strange occurred at this time; progressive reformers began to use eugenics as a method to safeguard the targets of the movement. Some like Margret Sanger violated the Comstock Law, which illegalized spreading knowledge and forms of contraceptives, to deliver taboo information and birth control products to minority neighborhoods.

Sanger is often compared to Hitler in the Black community, and while it is true she harbored eugenic ideas, it is false that she wanted to exterminate the African race. Her ideas leaned to Black reproduction prevention in the slums of New York, especially in areas rampant with poverty, disease, and high infant mortality rates. Sanger’s main concern after all was female over-birthing; this was a heavy issue to resolve and was multi-racial. Much like Sanger, the Eugenics Movement has been painted with a racial brush, and while it is true that eugenics became a medium for racial arguments and agendas, its original concept was neutral. Another example of where this occurred was in the case of Darwinism versus Social Darwinism. The turning of the movement did not truly occur until the late 1920s and early 1930s. Oddly enough, the racial biases washed over the nation rather quickly.

During the 1930s, several key events caused the movement to become racially charged. Jim Crowism, which had been prevalent in every area of the nation, seeped into the scientific community and caused those who studied the subject to look at eugenics with White-colored glasses. As the century progressed, so too did these ideas and points of view. It was also at this time that African American activism began to become more common, and because of this, White backlash began to grow. The Great Depression, which had established the social welfare programs of the New Deal, caused many people of both races to receive government aid. This rise of Black activism and the reality of poverty angered many Whites, and nowhere was this anger felt more strongly than in the South. The region’s suffering, which had been longer and deeper, and the availability of social welfare to Black Southerners threatened Jim Crow. This became the perfect breeding ground for racial eugenic rhetoric.

2 Nicole Rousseau, Black Woman’s Burden: Commodifying Black Reproduction. (New York: New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), p. 95

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Dillon Bell The 1940s exacerbated this tension and anger nationally with the involvement of the United States in World War II. The inadvertent creation of a Black middle class and the rise of patriotism in the community caused increased activism during the war. As the pressure between Whites and Blacks grew, so too did desires of control. African Americans wanted to be autonomous in all aspects of society, economics, and politics. Whites wanted to maintain control over Blacks through segregation and racism, leading to a shift in the South; this eventually led to the start of the early Civil Rights Movement. As it approached, the Neo-Eugenics Movement began to target African Americans, particularly women. Racism was not the only reason for this targeting; however, myths of welfare abuse rose during this era and affected the next two decades heavily.

During the 1950s and 1960s, race and welfare status would be used to target the Black community. In the South, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia have claim to twenty-six percent of all the national sterilizations performed from 1943-1963.3 If North Carolina were to be the state by which scholars’ measure, it is clear that African Americans were intended targets of eugenic sterilization.

Because of limited access to the records, historians can only estimate the total number of victims and what percent were Black. It can be inferred that from the 1940s to the 1960s, roughly fifty to sixty percent of Southern sterilizations were performed primarily on Black women.4 The reason for these large numbers of non-institutional sterilizations5 were due to a “rediscovery” of poverty in Black communities by Whites. When combined with the myths of Black women, Black female sexuality, and welfare abuse, this meant Caucasians could control African Americans by using their lack of resources against them. Essentially, because of their status, poor Blacks in the South could not afford attorneys to fight these injustices, and those who were dependent upon social programs in order to survive could not speak out for fear of losing benefits.

This era of genocide is still largely unknown to this day, and the states involved have sealed the records to keep it that way.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Black population was indifferent to eugenics and ideas of reproductive control. This was not because they saw it as a passing fad or joke science, but because African Americans had been using reproductive control for decades prior to this time. In an article by Loretta Ross, a co-founder for the Foundation of African American Women, an in-depth look into eugenics, fertility control, and reproductive choice in the Black community can be seen.

She writes, “African-Americans used birth control and abortion to resist slav3 Excel spreadsheet, found in the Appendix to this article, provided by Dr. Alexandra Stern via email from Dr. Johanna Schoen.

4 Values derived are from sources in annotated bibliography and averaged; the lowest percentage was 43 and the highest was 65.

5 Non-institutional sterilizations are operations performed on those not in correctional facilities or psychiatric hospitals

29

Sterilization and the Black Community ery” and “the midwifery culture amongst African-American slaves maintained . . . knowledge about contraceptives and abortifacients.”6As Ross can attest, the use of fertility control was fairly common in the community, but not always the first or favored choice of Black women. The beginning of the Eugenics Movement did not concern or merit fear from Black Americans because it was a part of African culture, and at this time did not target them specifically or at all.

The relationship between eugenics and the Black community is fairly complex.

In most cases, African Americans did not formally join the movement because of particular concerns; however, those who did participate did so to promote the race to White Americans. The progression of ideals and eugenics in the Black community did allow for evolutionary thought toward women and sexual control. W. E. B. DuBois was one of the first Black male leaders who believed in a woman’s right to choose.7 While others rallied behind him, some opposed his views due to “fears of depopulation” by those “who were concerned about the long-term survival of the race”8 The worry that many had attained came from viable sources. Poverty was still largely affecting the community, which led to many deaths as a result of little medical care and overwork. Racism, which had been consistent, was amplified during the Jim Crow Era. And finally, lynching had become extremely popular in the U.S., especially in the South.

While these fears were completely valid to have at this time, it is imperative to show that the targeting of African Americans had not yet begun. This was especially true in the South. Using North Carolina as an example, one can see that prior to the late 1940s, eugenics or rather eugenic sterilization, was limited to the White population. This can be corroborated by historians Alexandra Stern and Edward Larson. During the first 25 years of the Eugenics Movement, sterilization in the Black community hovered at 20 percent of the state’s total operations. The other 80 percent were performed on Whites. It is important to note that these statistics are focused only on women; however, that does not distort or dispel the fact that the majority of the operations were performed on Caucasians.

Operations Performed by Time Period and Racial Group Women 1939-1968 White 1929-1949

Black

Indian

Time Period Total

0

2,027

1631 (80%)

396 (20%)

1950-1964

1683 (50%)

1669 (49%)

35 (1%)

3,387

1929-1949

213 (33%)

414 (65%)

10 (2%)

637

Group Total

3,527

2,479

47

6,053

6 Loretta J. Ross. “African-American Women and Abortion: A Neglected History.” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 3, no. 2 (1992): 274-284. https://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed February 20, 2018).

7 W.E.B. DuBois, Darkwater: Voices from the Veil, (Harcourt, Brace and Company. 1920) See chapter 9.

8 Ross, “African-American Women and Abortion”, p. 278.

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Dillon Bell The American South was an anomaly during the first years of the Eugenics Movement. The start of the century came as a breath of fresh air to the region.

The memories of the Civil War still remained, however, the new generation of Southerners were more detached than during Reconstruction. The era of Jim Crow had arrived during the late 1800s, however the cementing of legal segregation was still fairly new.9 Before 1896, segregation had been a societal concept with no legislation behind it, and as historian C. Vann Woodward has shown, the forming of a segregated South had been awkward at best.10 As for eugenics, the South initially had no need for the scientific “mumbo-jumbo.” As the 1900s progressed, Southern elites learned that it would be useful in keeping gentry families pure. There was no immediate threat to Southern fathers except when confronted with a Yankee’s interest in his daughter. From this and other regional fears, eugenics gained a foothold in Dixie.

As historian Edward Larson points out, “Southern eugenicists were . . . worried more about the deterioration of the Caucasian race than about any threat from the African race.”11 The early twentieth century brought forth the perfect medium for racial control and subjugation to the most racially restrictive region in the U.S., and yet Southerners did not consider using it on minorities at all. Only after other states in the North began to warp eugenics to fit racial arguments did the South finally begin to act. In the late 1910s people in Dixie were concerned more with the “. . . excess reproduction by White ‘degenerates,’” than with Black reproduction or population.12 In fact, “only later, after the Civil Rights Movement began dismantling the machinery by which Southern Whites controlled local Blacks, did regional eugenic practices turn against African Americans.”13 Considering the long Civil Rights Movement began to grow during the 1930s/1940s, it is clear that the South was behind other regions with respect to negative eugenic practices and the treatment of the Southern Black population.14 Eugenic sterilization and control of Black Americans was on the horizon, and it went gingerly hand-in-hand with Jim Crow.

Black fear of eugenics can be correlated to attempts at political expression and economic freedom. The larger the population grew, the more opportunity there was to obtain political power in a region or state. By proxy, the more representation the population had, the more likely economic opportunities would begin to grow. In the South, this would be seen as a challenge to Jim Crow, and any threat to this system was met with White backlash. Because of this, racial rhetoric began to affect the Eugenics Movement and African Americans in Dix9 Plessy V. Ferguson 163 US 537 (1896) formally allowed racial segregation based on the “separate, but equal doctrine.”

10 C. Vann Woodward, “The Strange Career of Jim Crow” Revised Edition. (Oxford University Press.

2002) pp. 3-10.

11 Edward Larson, “Sex, Race, and Science” (Johns Hopkins University Press. 1995) p. 2.

12 Larson. Ibid.

13 Larson. Ibid.

14 Larson, “Sex, Race, and Science”, p. 40.

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Sterilization and the Black Community ie during the 1930s. As the shift from focusing on biological quality and personal health to limiting the reproduction of minorities and “undesirables” occurred, fertility activists took to the frontlines: “Birth control advocates believed it was important to prevent the American people from being replaced by alien or Negro stock.”15

According to the Winston-Salem Journal, “the [eugenics] program had been racially balanced in the early years . . .” However, as the racial tensions built during the 1930s to the 1950s, so too did the targeting of minorities.16 The changes that occurred in the South were a result of several events starting with the Great Depression and the New Deal. The New Deal programs allowed for those who needed assistance to be aided by the U.S. government, these programs were in turn open to all citizens. In the South, these programs were a double-edged sword; they helped poor Whites who were struggling, but they also helped poor Blacks as well. The discriminatory practices within the New Deal programs more than likely saved dozens of African Americans from being targeted in the following twenty years.

During the Great Depression it was harder for many Black Americans to receive benefits from the government, not just through welfare but also through the assistance programs that were designed to keep families afloat. According to the Roosevelt Institute, relatively small percentages of the New Deal Programs hired Black workers. “. . . by 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was employing approximately 350,000 African Americans . . . about 15% of its total workforce” and the Civilian Conservation Corps rose from “. . . 3% at its outset in 1933 to over 11% by the close of 1938 . . .”17 Of those who did receive assistance, there was a mix of the duration of enrollment. Some stayed on welfare for years and some did not; the exact numbers and participants is hard to determine, however, those who had larger families become targets by the 1960s.

As strange as it may sound, African Americans were actually safer from mutilation during the Great Depression. Jim Crowism made most Southerners careless to the needs of the Black population. Having a segregated society meant Black Southerners were not permitted to share the so-called benefits of eugenics, and ironically enough, this saved many from being sterilized. As evidence to this claim, Dr. Cathy Hajo explains that “. . . the racial politics of America made it obvious that White [eugenic] activists were uncomfortable with African Americans . . .” and that the “. . . White women who ran the clinics did not feel 15 Harley Flack and Edmund D. Pellegrino, “African-American Perspectives on Biomedical Ethics.” (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1992) p. 198, cited in context with Ross, “African-American Women and abortion,” p. 279.

16 “Against Their Will,” Winston-Salem Journal, (December 09, 2002): accessed February 25, 2018 http://www.journalnow.com/specialreports/againsttheirwill/.

17 The Roosevelt Institute, “African Americans and the New Deal: A Look Back Into History,” (RooseveltInstitute.org, February 2010) Accessed February 20th, 2018 http://rooseveltinstitute. org/african-americans-and-new-deal-look-back-history/.

32

Dillon Bell responsible for providing charity for [them] . . .”18 Because of this prejudice the numbers of sterilized Blacks presumably decreased; but soon Southerners used segregation, welfare, and the myths of the Black community to pursue and persecute those who would be the frontrunners of activism—women.

The myth of the Jezebel, or the belief that African American women were promiscuous or hyper-active sexually, combined with the New Deal programs, became the cause for targeting non-institutionalized minorities during the 1960s and 1970s. This is “. . . precisely the period when minority women were being targeted.”19 This myth allowed not only for Black women to be institutionalized more often during the 1930s, but also allowed for the increase of sexual violence and assault against them. If women were considered promiscuous, they could be sterilized. This is pointed out succinctly by the Winstom-Salem Journal, “. . . the [eugenics] board almost routinely violated . . . the law by passing judgment on many other things, from promiscuity to homosexuality.”20 Other events, such as the liberation of Black female bodies in the 1940s, led to the early activism of the Civil Rights Movement. These events culminated together and disturbed the hornet’s nest that was the South.

Before the Second World War, the Eugenics Movement in the United States had been largely popular. During the period between 1907 and 1937, over half of the nation had compulsory sterilization laws on the books. Of these states, six were in the South. The number of sterilizations performed annually in these states is unclear. However, total sterilization (by way of petitions) prior to 1943 can be seen in the table below. While these numbers are a bit shocking, they do not compare to those post-WWII. The race of these victims is not known because the involved states limited or withheld the records. However, an estimate can be made for North Carolina from 1933 to 1943 due to the research of Dr. Angela Davis, Dr. Alexandra Stern, and Dr. Johanna Schoen.

State

Number of Sterilizations before 1943

Alabama

224

Georgia

190

Mississippi

542

North Carolina

1346

Virginia

4472

West Virginia

noninsititutional institutional

47

18 Cathy Hajo, Birth Control on Main Street: Organizing Clinics in the United States, 1916-1939. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010), p. 84.

19 Kevin Begos, “The American Eugenics Movement after World War II (Part 1 of 3),” Indy Week (May 18, 2011): accessed February 25 2018 https://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/the-americaneugenics-movement-after-world-war-ii-part-1-of-3/Content?oid=2468789.

20 “Against Their Will,” Winston-Salem Journal, (December 09, 2002): accessed February 25, 2018 http://www.journalnow.com/specialreports/againsttheirwill/.

33

Sterilization and the Black Community The reason for such high numbers, without discussing racial bias, comes from eugenic legislation. During this time, most Southern states had adopted eugenic reforms and placed laws to curb the reproduction of those labeled as feeble-minded. These catch-all terms were initially designed to remove those who did not fit in with society, those who had low IQs, and those who had some form of mental/learning disabilities. These terms remained in use during the evolution of the Eugenics Movement, and they were used later as the excuse needed to sterilize African Americans. The laws were not overturned until the mid-1960s, with the exception of Alabama, which removed its sterilization law in 1935. This allowed the states to increase their targeting of the Black population after World War II. The sterilizations during the war did decrease, primarily because of the conscripting of doctors and the revelation of the Holocaust. From 1941-1945, an estimated 16,000 doctors were drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces.21 The fewer physicians there were at home, the fewer sterilizations there were performed.

While this is significant in understanding the reduction of operations during the war, the reporting of the Holocaust was more momentous and caused the feelings about eugenics to change. But in the end, “the horrors of the Nazi era weren’t enough to overcome an even stronger force: the urge to believe that quick, easy solutions can solve our social ills.”22 After the gruesome discovery of the Holocaust, eugenic science became severely scrutinized and demonized. During this time, the movement was slowed to the point of collapse. However, “After World War II . . . a core group of eugenicists merged their interests in salvaging and retooling eugenics.”23 The movement was saved during a meeting in late 1942, ironically about the same time the U.S. discovered the death of 2 million Jews in Germany. It was here that the Eugenics Movement would be reborn and built, starting with the renaming of the organizations associated with it. Birthright become the new face of eugenic activism and would spawn many other satellites that would provide information to universities all across the nation during the 1940s and 1950s.

“Birthright pushed . . . thousands of copies of pro-eugenics literature, much of it modeled after what had been done in California before the war.”24 As the reimagined Eugenics Movement began to gain an old following, the mission and policies were altered so as to rally more members. Those involved began to look for support from wealthy donors, and one of the first and largest 21 U.S. Army Medical Department: Office of Medical History, Chapter IV: Procurement, 19411945: Medical, Dental, and Veterinary Corps. Accessed April 26, 2018.

22 Kevin Begos, “The American Eugenics Movement after World War II (Part 1 of 3),” Indy Week (May 18, 2011): accessed February 25 2018 https://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/theamerican-eugenics-movement-after-world-war-ii-part-1-of-3/Content?oid=2468789.

23 Alexandra Stern, “Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in America” (University of California Press. Second Edition, 2016) p. 4.

24 Begos, “The American Eugenics Movement.”

34

Dillon Bell contributors was Dr. Clarence Gamble of The Proctor & Gamble Company.

With a small donation of $10,000, the movement began to circulate information about the new organization. The eugenicists behind it were even successful at getting prominent universities such as Vassar, NYU, and Stanford to send requests for information. During this time, many Americans rejoined this scientific ideology, and because of this growing momentum the movement was safe. It is because of these men, and those who supported them, that the United States underwent a genocide in the Black community during the 1960s and 1970s.

At the start of the 20th century, eugenics had primarily been used to sterilize those in institutions such as prisons, mental asylums, and mental health hospitals. Those institutionalized at this time did not have the choice of refusing sterilization as a treatment. If a doctor signed the paperwork provided by the state’s eugenics board, the patient’s operation was a certainty. The methods of invoking sterilization were built in such a way as to curb any attempt to halt them. Those who appealed to the eugenics board were turned down most of the time, regardless of those present: “…hearing cases [against sterilization] . . . have been only a formality.”25 The shift from institutional to non-institutional operations occurred at the same time as the racial shift in the 1950s and 1960s.

In many cases, those who had never actually been admitted to the sterilization program were picked for a myriad of arbitrary reasons. For example, an un-institutionalized woman by the name of Sally was taken to a hospital in North Carolina for exhaustion in 1945. While there, it was determined that she needed sterilization because of a slight intellectual disability. Even after her parents intervened by saying that their daughter was not promiscuous and a respectable woman, Sally was still sterilized.26 These situations were common to find in the Eugenics Movement, and according to Dr. Schoen, “Patients in state institutions were told that they had to agree to sterilization as a condition of release, and in many cases people on welfare were threatened with loss of benefits . .

As time passed, the shift from non-racial to racial eugenics would cause those outside of institutions to be targeted more vigorously. In Figure 3, one could get a sense of what is being discussed. This chart shows the number of sterilization petitions filed from 1933 to 1949. It was clear that the operations performed in the first half of the century were in institutions such as hospitals and mental asylums. In Figure 4, which is composed of the same type of petitions, one can see that the number of non-institutional sterilizations rose sharply from 1950 to 1963. In North Carolina, “. . . patients who were African American rose from 23 percent in the 1930s and 1940s to 59 percent between 1958 and 1960 and finally to 64 percent between 1964 and 1966.”27 While it is hard to pinpoint what things 25 “Against Their Will,” Winston-Salem Journal, (December 09, 2002).

26 Ibid.

27 Johanna Schoen, “Choice and Coercion, Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public Health and Welfare,” (University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill & London. 2005), p. 156.

35

Sterilization and the Black Community did or did not inspire this growth, one can assume that its rise is connected to Black female resistance to sexual violence and Black male resistance to physical violence during and after World War II. During the postwar years, the rise of sterilization in the United States became more frequent and evident. The only exception to this rise in the South was in West Virginia and Mississippi. Due to the repeal of the Alabama law, no operations were undertaken during this time. The reasons for this rise are a mixture of concern that welfare abuse by the Black community was becoming rampant, and the increasing racial tension brought on by the start of the Civil Rights Movement. “By the 1950s, social policy had refashioned the theoretical foundations of eugenic sterilization to meet its purposes. Fears about the rising cost of the ADC [welfare] program led to a significant shift in the racial composition of those targeted for eugenic sterilization.”28 As this mixing occurred, the number of operations performed on poor Black women increased.

State

Number of Sterilizations: 1950-1963

Alabama

244

Georgia

2481

Mississippi

87

North Carolina

3896

Virginia

1581

West Virginia

institutional noninstitutional

50

The resistance of Black women in the 1940s came in the form of court cases and charges filed against White Southern rapists. Women such as Recy Taylor, Joan Little, and Fannie Lou Hamer began to fight back against White supremacy and White male control over their bodies. “Between 1940 and 1975, sexual violence and interracial rape became one crucial battleground upon which African Americans sought to destroy white supremacy…”29 This first major form of Black uprising in the South encouraged eugenics boards to control the Black population by any means necessary. Another part of this resistance comes from Black military service, increased job availability, better pay, and Executive Order 8802 (which allowed for African Americans to enter specific government jobs during the second world war). Black soldiers returning home from World War II brought with them the idea of “Double V” or “Double Victory.”30 The end 28 Schoen. Choice and Coercion, p. 156.

29 Daniel McGuire, At the Dark End of the Street, (New York: Vintage Books. 2010), p. XX. 30 This term references the idea of victory abroad during WWII by defeating Hitler and the Axis Powers, and victory at home by defeating the “Hitlers” of the United States, or white supremacists/racists.

36

Dillon Bell of violence in the Black community by Whites would now be a more acceptable and more used idea. This is the era of great tension as attempts to break free from Jim Crow became more common.

These forms of resistance combined with the rise of people on the welfare rolls culminated in the increased sterilizations of African Americans, mainly women. “Nationwide, the percentage of welfare recipients who were African American rose from 31 percent in 1950 to 48 percent in 1961.”31 With this rise in Black participation on government assistance programs, Whites across the South began to exaggerate myths about welfare abuse in the Black community.

In turn, the local Eugenics Board would send social workers out to target women of color in order to reduce the strain on programs such as the ADC. While not all social workers specifically went after Black women, most in the South did. Their reason for visiting these women fell under the social ideals of proper sexual activity.

Victims of racially biased eugenic sterilizations were harassed under the guise of protection. Social workers who visited minority women during the 1950s and 1960s usually came around the time of hearing that a member of the household was pregnant or had just given birth. The reason this occurred was because of various bills that had been passed stating that those who had an excess number of children, or those who had illegitimate children needed to be sterilized for the good of society.32 The unnecessary birthing of Black babies meant that more benefits of welfare programs went to African American families and mothers. In Mississippi, the feelings were made clear about this situation, “We have a welfare problem that is hurting our state . . . we do not approve, and we are not going to continue to pay for it.”33 This sentiment was felt throughout the South, and with this came the fighting back of White Southerners. The first victim focused on here is Fannie Lou Hamer, a survivor of mutilation and a Civil Rights activist. Hamer had gone to the Sunflower City Hospital in Mississippi to have a procedure performed on a uterine tumor in 1961. During the surgery, the doctor decided to sterilize the forty-four-year-old without her knowledge or consent. This procedure was often performed and became known as the “Mississippi Appendectomy.” Hamer was one of many women in the state of Mississippi to receive this operation, and she voiced her concern that this treatment was occurring outside her home.

In a speech at the Nation’s Capital in 1965, Hamer shocked many by claiming that “. . . about six out of every ten Negro women that go to the hospital are sterilized with the tubes tied.”34 31 Schoen. Choice and Coercion, p. 156.

32 Begos, “The American Eugenics Movement after World War II (Part 3 of 3).”

33 Ibid.

34 Fannie Lou Hamer, “The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To Tell It Like It Is” (University Press of Mississippi, 2011), p. 41

37

Sterilization and the Black Community Hamer is only one of thousands of Black women who were sterilized in the 1960s. After her realization of what had taken place, she began to work with the Student Non-violent Coordination Committee to educate the United States on what was happening in Dixie. Through SNCC and her actions, a pamphlet was produced in 1964 called Genocide in Mississippi. It focused on exposing the treatment of minority women in the South and included everything from a list of participating counties to the representatives who had voted for various sterilization legislation.35 Her and SNCC’s activism helped inform those in the South, and specifically in Mississippi, about the dangers Black women who visited the hospital could face. Sadly, this would not be enough to stop sterilizations, yet the operations did begin to slow after 1964.

The second victim, Nial Cox Ramirez is a prime example of the thousands of young, poor, and unwed African Americans who suffered. Ramirez had been sterilized in 1965 after giving birth to an illegitimate child at 18. After learning of her pregnancy, the Eugenics Board of North Carolina gave her two choices, either give birth to the child and be sterilized after, “or have welfare payments for her mother and six brothers and sisters cut off.”36 The heart-wrenching decision to be sterilized was made after the gravity of the situation set in. Ramirez and hundreds more like her would become the targets of the racial rhetoric that had warped the movement. The reason for this comes from people such as Sue Casebolt, the former executive secretary of the Eugenics Board. She and others had created an agenda to target minority neighborhoods by insisting that “. . . poor Blacks had more mental problems than other groups.”37 The clear biased attack on young African Americans can be corroborated by Alexandra Stern. “An uninterrupted line can be drawn from the sterilization laws passed . . . in the 1910s that targeted ‘morons’ and the ‘feebleminded’ to the . . . surgeries performed by federal agencies on poor female welfare recipients during the 1960s.”38 The methods of how this community had been besieged are finally starting to come to light. The state Eugenics Boards were coercing the Southern Black population into mutilation through legal means and there was little opposition to these laws outside of the Black community. As more of these victims began to speak out, there would finally be attempts to correct the wrongs that had been made, but this would not be fully recognized until three decades later.

The final victim, Elaine Riddick Jessie, was maimed in 1968. She and Ramirez both have similar stories of sterilization, however hers is more unique. Jessie had been younger than both Hamer and Ramirez at the time of her operation.

At age 13, she had been sexually accosted by a man in his late 20s. The incident 35 Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee, “Genocide in Mississippi” (SNCC Atlanta Office, 1964): accessed February 25, 2018 https://www.crmvet.org/docs/sncc_gen.pdf.

36 “Against Their Will,” Winston-Salem Journal, (December 09, 2002).

37 Ibid.

38 Stern. Eugenic Nation. P. 7

38

Dillon Bell resulted in the pregnancy of the young lady. Because of her race and young age, the Eugenics Board denied any appeal made due to the myth of the Jezebel.

“Officials also justified their actions by terming Jessie promiscuous.”39 This treatment is a key reminder of the bias held by the White eugenics board members. The board also had standards concerning sterilization that had been established years prior. If a patient were to take an IQ test and score above a 70, they could exempt sterilization. Jessie’s test, which was taken as part of her appeal, came back with a 75 and yet she was still operated on.40 Another thing that sets her case and Ramirez’s case apart is the fact that Jessie’s grandmother, Maggie Woodard, had unknowingly signed the paperwork for her to be sterilized. This occurred after “The white social worker . . . pressed Woodard to consent to have Jessie sterilized.”41 This is the most blatant evidence that White social workers, who worked through the Eugenics Board, were hellbent on sterilizing African Americans who were on welfare. The desire of these people was so strong that they violated the law multiple times to obtain what they saw as necessary. Jessie is a perfect example; she was a minor at this time and could not sign her petition, so “. . . Woodard, who is illiterate, signed her ‘X’ on a consent form.”42 This was in no way a legal consent from either party, and yet it was upheld.

These three brave women, and many others, continued through a life of pain and misery that no one can possibly imagine. The reasons for their violation stem from racial ideology and myth, there was and is no concrete science behind what was done to them. There are other women in the South such as the Relf sisters who were sterilized in the 1970s. The culmination of voices finally opened “. . . the Pandora’s Box of sterilization abuse . . . [but] it was practically too late to influence the politics of the abortion rights movement . . .” and the legislation created by eugenics.43 The stories of these violations in the Black community have only been explored in minute volumes since the 1980s. The biggest break has come from the works of scholars in the last decade and the reporting of this mass mutilation through various newspapers.

The 20th century is known for its wars, death, and movements among other things. The activism of the last one hundred years is by far the reason that we have so much equality and fair treatment today. Yet, there are still obstacles to overcome and issues that need facing. For Black women the socio-economic segregation and demands are what have caused slow progress in their communities. The existence of such blatant abuse by those in the South show that Jim Crow, bias, and total disregard for law were still prevalent after the Civil Rights 39 “Against Their Will,” Winston-Salem Journal, (December 09, 2002): 40 Ibid.

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid.

43 Angela Davis, “Women, Race, and Class”, (New York: Vintage Books. 1983). P. 215-216

39

Sterilization and the Black Community Movement reached its apex. The treatment of these women, and the Black community as a whole, cannot be questioned as being factual or counterfeit. There is no agenda in this article, the only goal that has been set forth is to report the truth.

This Eugenics Movement was not racially biased at its core and the racial rhetoric that infested it did not occur until Civil Rights activism changed the thinking of Southern Eugenicists. Before World War II the facts are clear, racism prevented most African Americans from receiving sterilizations and birth control. Only after WWII, with the rebuilding of this ideology which created the Neo-Eugenics Movement, did Black Americans become targets of racial eugenic sterilization. This was caused by the rising “percentage of welfare recipients who were African American [which] rose from 31 percent in 1950 to 48 percent in 1961”, “. . .emphasis on illegitimacy in the Black community” and the “racist stereotypes about the hypersexual Black woman.”44After 1945, the “new” movement supported racism fully, publicly, and little was done to help those being attacked.

According to Angela Davis, in North Carolina “7,686 sterilizations had been carried out since 1933 . . . about 5,000 of the sterilized persons had been Black.”45 If this state’s record were to be the rule by which we measured Southern sterilizations, the bias becomes clear. At an average of 134 annual operations performed during this timeframe, approximately 95 were performed on African Americans.46 This equals seventy-one percent of all sterilizations being performed on Black citizens of North Carolina. If this state’s actions are similar to the other Southern states, it is possible that a grand total of the sterilizations on African Americans before 1963 in the region could be as high as 12,798.47 Even if North Carolina were treated as an outlier, the fact remains that even at fifty percent the number of Blacks sterilized in the South is around 10,000.

While the numbers are still being tallied and accounted for, the horrible reality has already been revealed: “. . . the forced sterilization of women in the United States was interwoven with the enlargement of the welfare state . . .” and because of this association with race and welfare abuse, thousands of people suffered horrible mutilations.48 The states involved have not publicly spoken up about this chapter in their history, or at least not loudly. For some there has been closure thanks to formal apologies made within the last decade, but for those who still live, the suffering is something carried with them. The persecution of African Americans did not stop after 1964, in truth it has never stopped, but 44 Schoen. Choice and Coercion, p. 138.

45 Davis, Women, Race, and Class, p. 217.

46 This number derived from averaging the total sterilizations of North Carolina from 1933-1963 (7,686) and the total number of African Americans sterilized in the state (approximately 5,000) minus the average of sterilizations recorded prior to 1943.

47 This number derived from adding all Southern state sterilization totals before 1964 and taking 71% of that number.

48 Stern, Eugenic Nation, p. 7

40

Dillon Bell with each revelation of past wrongs the community heals those open wounds.

Sterilization was performed on many, but those who really suffered committed no crime except for being poor and existing while being Black.

41

Sterilization and the Black Community Acknowledgements: I want to take a moment to thank those individuals who have helped me along in my endeavors with this paper. First and foremost, I want to thank Dr. Thomas Aiello for allowing me the opportunity to find out about these travesties through his senior seminar course at VSU and for his guidance throughout the term. Secondly, I would like to show my appreciation to my fellow students/coworkers at the Academic Support Center for reading and discussing this subject at length on multiple occasions. Next, I want to give thanks to my girlfriend who kept encouraging me to continue through the tough times. Finally, I must say a skyward thank you to my family members who inspired me to get an education and who did not make it to graduation. Mom, Dad, Gran, I love you all and thank you so much for believing in me and I look forward to the day we meet again.

42

Dillon Bell Appendix: Sterilizations Performed in the United States Credit â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Drs. Alexandra Stern and Johanna Schoen

Alabama

Arizona

California

Connecticut

Delaware

Georgia

Idaho

Indiana

224

20

16553

457

641

190

14

1231

1943

459

31

17

97

55

1944

387

2

27

73

74

1945

436

1

20

90

122

1946

480

29

68

192

1947

401

6

15

24

89

1948

326

8

34

94

77

381

10

19

167

49

1950

275

2

13

226

71

1951

150

3

7

200

60

1952

39

5

33

279

5

37

1953

23

5

4

246

8

55

1954

27

2

207

4

85

261

2

94

Totals prior to 1943

1949

1

1955

1

25

3

1956

8

23

7

12

268

34

1957

13

2

8

268

29

1958

13

2

1

142

17

1959

12

1

0

112

7

1960

18

2

9

148

1

14

1961

24

9

60

2

9

1962

26

5

22

57

1963

17

3

25

7

2

12

20108

557

945

3284

38

2424

Totals up to 1964

224

30

43

11

Sterilization and the Black Community

Iowa

Kansas

Maine

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Montana

Nebraska

New Hampshire

493

2706

217

2388

2111

542

208

530

468

58

88

1

78

46

4

5

79

24

46

57

107

34

8

23

19

52

32

2

86

13

9

2

16

20

45

71

9

75

2

19

15

13

9

70

29

3

117

1

11

6

7

6

127

18

3

131

4

3

5

20

11

3

88

8

8

16

14

6

72

12

19

17

178

4

65

15

3

19

23

70

5

81

16

2

37

18

85

8

103

13

27

21

72

17

71

10

23

8

47

26

61

9

15

4

69

1

27

19

6

8

8

48

5

47

12

13

5

8

21

4

39

8

22

4

14

4

27

6

15

10

28

2

18

5

13

6

3

46

5

3

10

28

2

26

1

8

5

30

1

33

7

10

326

3786

165 113

51

1910

24

7

3032

2350

44

2

683

256

902

1

679

Dillon Bell

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

Oklahoma

Oregon

South Carolina

South Dakota

Utah

Vermont

42

1346

628

553

1597

57

643

310

225

152

43

57

17

3

69

3

107

13

24

3

7

16

4

117

21

21

10

22

8

105

29

49

24

56

10

139

17

30

46

58

186

33

43

4

12

16

249

23

32

7

3

14

295

23

60

12

5

34

375

42

42

10

4

30

326

22

72

3

4

46

270

37

59

7

8

16

25

8

6

13

28

30

2

9

2

300 289

16

1

216

14

38

43

2

15

305

14

23

34

4

12

318

9

14

11

3

5

260

22

40

6

1

7

234

12

19

7

1

16

248

16

24

3

220

15

21

6

23

9

1

2341

277

789

240 42

6297

1049

556

45

764

1

1

1

253

Sterilization and the Black Community

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

GRAND TOTAL

4472

685

47

1372

40970

1

48

1638

105

47

1183

178

58

1336

152

24

1476

122

35

1232

134

46

1336

215

28

1500

204

42

1526

207

22

1459

153

12

1267

169

16

1180

14

1079

203

171

14

111

33

87

3

128

1067 1

909

7

986

114

747

69

614

61

8

622

39

2

561

29

6

488

39

8

467

1796

63643

7162

685

98

46

Dillon Bell Annotated Bibliography: Primary Sources: Du Bois, W. E. B. Darkwater; Voices from within the Veil. New York: New York, Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920.

Hamer, Fannie Lou., Maegan Parker. Brooks, and Davis W. Houck. The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer to Tell It like It Is. Margaret Walker Alexander Series in African American Studies. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2011.

Student Non-Violent Coordination Committee, “Genocide in Mississippi.”

Omeka RSS. 1964. (Accessed February 25, 2018) http://civilrights. woodson.virginia.edu/items/show/9 Woodward, C. Vann. The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Third Revised ed. 1974.

Secondary Sources: “African Americans and the New Deal: A Look Back in History.” Roosevelt Institute. (September 01, 2016) Accessed April 25, 2018 http://rooseveltinstitute.org/african-americans-and-new-deal-look-back-history/ Begos, Kevin. “The American eugenics movement after World War II (part 1/2/3 of 3).” Indy Week. May 18, 2011. Accessed February 25, 2018. https://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/the-american-eugenics-movement-after-world-war-ii-part-1-of-3/Content?oid=2468789.

Davis, Angela Y. Women, Race & Class. Women, Race and Class. New York: New York: Vintage Books, 1983.

Flack, Harley, and Edmund D. Pellegrino. African-American Perspectives on Biomedical Ethics. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1992.

Hajo, Cathy Moran. Birth Control on Main Street: Organizing Clinics in the United States, 1916-1939. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010.

Kluchin, Rebecca. “Fit to Be Tied?: Sterilization and Reproductive Rights in America, 1960-1984.” Carnegie Mellon University, 2004 Larson, Edward J. Sex, Race, and Science: Eugenics in the Deep South. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.

47

Sterilization and the Black Community McGuire, Danielle L. At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance- a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. 1st ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010.

Office of Medical History. U.S. Army Medical Department. (June 18, 2009) Accessed April 25, 2018 http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/ wwii/personnel/chapter6.htm Ross, L.J 1992. “African-American women and abortion: a neglected history.”

Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, no. 2:274-284. Social Work Abstracts. EBSCOhost (accessed February 25, 2018).

Rousseau, Nicole. Black Woman’s Burden: Commodifying Black Reproduction. 1st ed.

New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Schoen, Johanna. Choice and Coercion Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public Health and Welfare. Gender and American Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.

Stern, Alexandra. Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America. Second ed. American Crossroads Eugenic Nation. 2016.

“Against Their Will.” Winston-Salem Journal. (December 09, 2002): Accessed February 25, 2018 http://www.journalnow.com/specialreports/againsttheirwill/. *Other sources researched that aided in the development of this paper: Bashford, Alison, and Philippa Levine. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics. Oxford Handbooks. 2010.

Galton, Francis (July 1904). “Eugenics: Its Definition, Scope, and Aims.” The American Journal of Sociology. X (1): 82.

Lewis, George. “”Scientific Certainty”: Wesley Critz George, Racial Science and Organised White Resistance in North Carolina, 1954-1962.” Journal of American Studies 38, no. 2 (2004): 227-47. (accessed February 25, 2018) http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.valdosta.edu:2048/stable/27557515.

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Dillon Bell Lombardo, Paul A. A Century of Eugenics in America: From the Indiana Experiment to the Human Genome Era. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed February 25, 2018).

Paul, Julius. “Population `Quality’ and `Fitness for Parenthood’ in the Light of State Eugenic Sterilization Experience, 1907-1966.” Population Studies 21, no. 3 (1967): 295-99. doi:10.2307/2173148 (Accessed February 25, 2018).

Power, Garrett. “Eugenics, Jim Crow, & Baltimore’s Best.” Maryland State Bar Association, Inc. November 2016. (Accessed February 25, 2018) http://www.msba.org/publications/barjournal/nov-dec-2016.aspx?terms=eugenics%2c+jim+crow%2c+and+baltimore%27s+best.

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The Effects of Paper Color and Word Type on Memory and Recall

By Tiffany R. Tilaka

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Blaine Browne, Department of Psychology, Counseling, and Family Therapy

Article Abstract This study examined the effects of paper color and word type on memory and recall. Fifty-two participants completed the experiment, which involved them being assigned to either red, blue, or white paper that contained a list or words. Each word list consisted of an equal number of positive, negative, and neutral words. Each participant was asked to study each list for one minute. The participants were then asked to recall as many words as they could from the list. Results showed that there was no significant main effect for paper color as well as no significant interaction between paper color and word type. However, there was a significant main effect for word type. Both positive and negative words were recalled significantly more than neutral words.

We concluded that paper color does not have a significant effect on memory but type of word does. Future research may examine whether using different colors may produce an effect on memory. The results suggest that color of paper itself does not affect memory.

Tiffany R. Tilaka When discussing the human brain, we sometimes do not realize how complex this organ actually is. Every little movement and decision is processed in this organ, and the majority of us are unaware of how much our brain actually controls. One brain process that has been thoroughly examined is memory. Memory is one of the most important cognitive processes within our brains and has led to a wide variety of research into its various processes (Klein, 2018). One aspect of memory that is often examined are variables that work best for remembering something, such as repetition. But, how well are we actually retaining what we are studying? Further, what are some other factors that may influence memory?

Curiosity led researchers to conduct studies on how memory can be affected by environmental, cultural, and biological influences. For example, Fordham and Hayes (2009) conducted an experiment based on paper color, testing performance, and mechanisms to eliminate cheating. The colors they used for their experiment included four pastel colors, which were yellow, green, blue and pink, and white. Students who were administered white and yellow colored paper performed significantly better than those who were given blue and pink colored paper, with green ranging in the middle of the four colors on performance.

They concluded that the instructors administering the tests should not use blue and pink colored paper for exams and that further research should be conducted. Additionally, Fordham and Hayes (2009) suggested factors that may also be affected by paper color.

These included emotions, attitudes, and behaviors. Similar to Fordham and Hayes, others had the same idea of how color affects everyday cognitive processes. Soldat, Sinclair, and Mark (1997) found that colors serve as affective cues, thereby signaling the degree of processing required in a particular situation.

It was also mentioned that individualsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; moods can be affected by how certain colors make them feel, especially when it ranges from light to dark hues. For example, the color red produces a positive mood, while the color blue produces a negative mood. They stated that even though colors used did not affect current mood, other researchers have found small colorâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;related mood effects. Jacob and Blandino (1992) demonstrated that red led to less reported fatigue than the colors yellow, blue, green, and white. Additionally, Jacob and Suess (1975) revealed that red and yellow led to greater anxiety than blue or green, and Wilson (1996) showed that red was more arousing than green.

How color can influence performance on tests was examined by Skinner (2004). He found that scores on multiple-choice tests differed dramatically between different colored paper and white paper. The scores for the tests printed on colored papered were uniformly lower than the scores for the tests printed on white paper. This study added more evidence that paper color might impact memory and test performance.

Research has also shown that motivation to learn is an important factor in memory performance. For instance, Schmidt, Ruskell, and Kohl (2013) discussed how different levels of motivation toward paper color can affect processing. For example, if a student is taking a quiz on colored paper, which would only be worth a couple of points, then they will most likely show little-to-no motivation to try and ace the quiz. However, if the same student is taking a final exam on

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The Effects of Paper Color and Word Type on Memory and Recall colored paper, then this individual will more than likely be motivated to study and pass the exam with a good grade. This indicates that motivation could be another factor that results in low-performance scores, as opposed to the paper color as the main reason for poor results.

With paper color being talked about previously, word type also comes into the discussion on how it affects memory. Huff and Hutchison (2011) discussed in their findings that as participants are studying a word list, they not only encode each specific item but also encode the associative semantic network, which includes related concepts. Considering that the researchers used word lists that had no relation to each other, they discovered that mediated associations could create false memory errors even in the absence of a thematic gist, therefore providing evidence for associative activation. Another study that discusses word type and its effect on recall was conducted by Altarriba, Bauer, Landi, and Olheiser (2009). The primary finding of their research was that emotion word critical lures were falsely recalled at a significantly higher rate than both concrete and abstract critical lures. Emotion and its reaction to the presented word lists had a major contribution to their findings. With this information, Storbeck and Clore (2008) also found that positive affect promoted associations across the processing of word stimuli and produced greater affective and categorical word priming, whereas negative items did not.

The focus of this current study is to examine how color and emotional word types influence memory. The independent variables for this current study are the different colors of paper (red, blue, and white) and the different word lists (positive, negative, and neutral). The dependent variable is the number of words that the participants are able to recall. I predict that participants assigned to blue paper will recall more negative words than participants assigned to white and red paper, and participants assigned to red paper will recall more positive words than participants assigned to white and blue paper (Soldat et al., 1997).

Method This design was a 3 (paper color) x 3 (word type) mixed design with the independent variables being paper color (red, blue, and white) and word type (positive, negative, and neutral). The number of words written down on the recall sheet was the dependent variable.

Participants The participants in this study were 14 male and 38 female undergraduate students from Valdosta State University and the surrounding area. These subjects ranged in age from 18 to 50 with a mean age of 20 (SD =1.09). Each participant was given three pieces of paper that were either red (n = 18), blue (n = 17), which were the manipulated variables, or white (n = 17), which was the controlled variable. This was conducted within the research lab of the Psychology Building at Valdosta State University. All participants were treated in accordance to the APA ethical guidelines (American Psychological Association, 2002).

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Tiffany R. Tilaka Materials This experiment was conducted in a research lab at Valdosta State University. Upon their arrival, each participant was given a consent form, demographic form, and a pen. This had to be completed before the materials could be administered to the subject. The demographic form included questions that pertained to the subject, the experiment, and its purpose. The questions for the demographic form included the subject’s age, sex, race, current G.P.A, number of hours spent on electronics, and current undergraduate status. After completing both forms, the participants were then given three sheets of paper that were either red, blue, or white. Each paper included a word list that was typed using 16 point Times New Roman font and the order of the words were counter balanced for each participant. Each paper included 12 positive, 12 negative, or 12 neutral, that were obtained from a word-generating website, www.datavis.ca/ online/paivio/. The participants were also given a math worksheet, which was used as the distractor and delay mechanism in between papers. After the set time was completed for each sheet, the participants were given a recall sheet to list the words that they were able to recall from the previous list. After the subjects completed the study, they were given a recognition form to complete as well as a debriefing statement that explained the purpose of the study.

Procedure The three different paper colors and word lists were considered the independent variables of the study. The number of words recalled from each word list was the dependent variable. Each participant had between 15-20 minutes to complete the entire experiment.

The subjects were given one minute to memorize the first list, which included positive, negative, or neutral words. After the minute was up, the paper was taken from the participant, and they were instructed to fill in a math worksheet that included basic math concepts. Each individual had one minute to complete as many math problems as were on the sheet. The math worksheet was considered to be the delay throughout the experiment. Once the one-minute timer stopped, the participants were asked to recall as many words from the word list that was previously given to them. When they finished writing down the words that they were able to recall, the process was repeated for the remaining two-word lists. As soon as the subjects completed the final list, a recognition sheet was distributed to each individual who participated in the study. The recognition sheet included two lists of words that were either “old” or “new” words. The participants were asked to go through the list of words and circle “old,” if the word was on one of the three sheets of paper that were previously distributed, or “new,” if the word was not on the previous lists. If the participant circled “old,” then they had to complete another section that included “R (remember), K (somewhat remember), G (guessing).” This provided information as to whether the subject recognized the word, thought they recognized the word, or completely guessed.

After the subjects completed the experimental portion, they were read a debriefing form. The debriefing form included the purpose of the study, why it was being conducted, and personal information regarding the researcher. While

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The Effects of Paper Color and Word Type on Memory and Recall the participants were being debriefed, I conducted a manipulation check for the word lists on the blue and red paper. I asked each individual, based on a rating scale from 1-10, whether it was easier to recall positive, negative, or neutral words on their randomly given papers. Once the manipulation check was completed and the participants were debriefed, the study was over. All procedures described were approved by the VSU Institutional Review Board.

Results A 3 (paper color) x 3 (word type) mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to examine the effects of paper color, word type, and delay on memory and recall. An alpha level of .05 was used for all statistical tests, and a partial eta squared was used for effect sizes. There was no significant main effect for paper color, F (2, 49) = .132, p = .890, partial n2 = .055. Across word types, there were no differences among the different color paper. However, there was a significant main effect for word type, F (2, 49) = 15.30, p < .001, partial n2 = .29.

Bonferonni post hocs were performed to examine which word types differed significantly. There was not a significant difference between Positive words (M = 7.10, SD = 1.91) and negative words (M = 6.52, SD = 1.92) recalled across all paper colors, p = .108. However, participants recalled significantly more negative and positive words when compared to neutral words (M = 5.52, SD = 2.29), p < .001. The analysis for the interaction revealed no significant interaction between paper color and word type was obtained, F (2, 49) = 1.27, p = .290, partial n2 = .049.

Recognition Data A 3 (paper color) x 3 (word type) mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to evaluate the recognition data of the experiment. The main effect for word type was not significant, F (2, 98) = 2.56, p = .082, partial n2 = .05. The main effect for paper was also not significant, F (2, 49) = .66, p = .521, partial n2 = .03. In addition, the interaction was not significant, F (4, 98) = .17, p = .953, partial n2 = .01. This suggests recognition memory was not influenced by paper color and type of word.

Discussion We had hypothesized that participants assigned to white paper would recall more positive, negative, and neutral words than those assigned to red and blue paper. In addition, we predicted that participants assigned to the blue paper would recall more negative words than participants assigned to red and white paper, and participants assigned to red paper would recall more positive words than participants assigned to blue and white paper. The results from the recall data suggested that there was no effect for paper color by itself; however, there was a significant effect for word type. This supports previous research that has found that emotional items are more easily recalled than neutral items (Kensinger & Corkin, 2003). Although there was no significant interaction, we found that participants assigned to red paper were able to recall slightly more positive words than those assigned to blue and white paper, and those assigned to blue paper recalled slightly more negative words than those assigned to red and white paper.

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Tiffany R. Tilaka We were surprised to not find any effect on recognition memory. These results may be due to recognition memory being less difficult than free recall since a cue is provided.

Alongside the recognition data, other notable observations were found throughout the experiment. For instance, while counting the words from the recall sheets, there was a noticeable trend; the words on the lists did not match some of the words on their recall sheets. Some participants would write down words related to the word list they received; however, it was not the exact word from the list. Along with this trend, there was also another trend that proved unexpected. After receiving the first and second word lists, the participants were not bothered with the color of the paper; they were bothered with the word lists they received. For instance, one individual had a sad reaction to the negative word list that was printed on red paper while one individual had a happy reaction to the positive word list that was on blue paper.

A possible limitation in this study was that the study had more females than males. I would have liked to see an equal number of men and women in the study. This may also help with generalizability. Future research could examine different colors of paper other than the colors used in this study to see if they produce a significant effect on memory.

In conclusion, this study found that paper color may not be the issue affecting our memory processing; it could be the type of words. My prediction for the study was that participants assigned to blue paper would recall more negative words than participants assigned to white and red paper, and participants assigned to red paper would recall more positive words than participants assigned to white and blue paper. Further, based on these results, the color of paper should not adversely affect memory performance for tests that may use different colors of paper.

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The Effects of Paper Color and Word Type on Memory and Recall References Bauer, L., Olheiser, E., Altarriba, J., & Landi, N. (2009). “Word type effects in false recall: Concrete, abstract, and emotion word critical lures.” The American Journal of Psychology, 122(4), 469-481.

Fordham, D. R., & Hayes, D. C. (2009). “Worth repeating: paper color may have an effect on student performance.” Issues in Accounting Education, 24(2), 187-194.

Huff, M.J., & Hutchison, K. A. (2011). “The effects of mediated word lists on false recall and recognition.” Memory & Cognition, 39(6), 941-953.

Jacobs, K. W., & Blandino, S. E. (1992). “Effects of color of paper on which the profile of mood states is printed on the psychological states it measures.” Perceptual and Motor Skills. 75, 267-271.

Jacobs, K. W., & Suess, J. F. (1975). “Effects of four psychological primary colors on anxiety state.” Perceptual and Motor Skills, 41, 207-210.

Kensinger, E. A., & Corkin, S. (2003). “Memory enhancement for emotional words: Are emotional words more vividly remembered than neutral words?” Memory & Cognition, 31(8), 1169-1180.

Klein, S. B. (2018). “Remembering with and without memory: A theory of memory and aspects of mind that enable its experience.” Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice.

Meyer, M. J., & Bagwell, J. (2012). “The non-impact of paper color on exam performance.” Issues in Accounting Education, 27(3), 691.

Naughton, J. (2011). “Steven Pinker: Fighting talk from the prophet of peace.”

Retrieved April 30th, 2018, from https://www.thegaurdian.com/science/2011/oct/15/steven-pinker-better-angels-violence-interview.

Schmidt, D. R., Ruskell, T. G., & Kohl, P. B. (2013). “Effect of paper color on students’ physics exam performances.” AIP Conference Proceedings, 1513(1), 374.

Skinner, N. F. (2004). “Differential test performance from differently colored paper: white paper works best.” Teaching of Psychology, 31(2), 111-113.

Soldat, A. S., Sinclair, R. C., & Mark, M. M. (1997). “Color as an environmental processing cue: External affective cues can directly affect processing strategy without affecting mood.” Social Cognition, 15(1), 55–71.

Storbeck, J., & Clore, G.L. (2008). “The affective regulation of cognitive priming.” Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 8(2), 208-215.

Wilson, G. D. (1996). “Arousal properties of red versus green.” Perceptual and Motor Skills, 23, 947-949.

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Tiffany R. Tilaka

Appendix Stimulus Word List Positive

Negative

Neutral

Beauty

Afraid

Activate

Confident

Anguished

Bland

Elegant

Cancer

Clumsy

Friendly

Cruel

Column

Happy

Damage

Detached

Humor

Failure

Errand

Kindness

Gloom

Gender

Lucky

Hostile

Habit

Miracle

Rejected

Indifferent

Paradise

Ugly

Manner

Respectful

Violent

Phase

Romantic

Wicked

Spray

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An Analysis of Women Characters in Circus in the Attic

By Livi Côté

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kendric Coleman, Department of English Article Abstract A close reading of Robert Penn Warren’s Circus in the Attic reveals a conceptualization of women as self-aware and constantly performing impression management— otherwise, they are either emotionally volatile or as innocent as children. Sara Darter, Bolton’s first love and ward of his emotions, abandons him on a whim, having sex with him right before she leaves, the plan already within her breast. Mrs. Parton, who becomes Mrs. Lovehart when she marries Bolton, hides her true feelings throughout their marriage and is only discovered after she dies while driving with another man.

Bolton’s mother is never deceptive; her lack of self-management allows her pathological fear of betrayal to manifest in an unpredictable volatility. These women stand in contrast to the ideal Janie Murphy, who is not self-aware and whose love of Jasper and her next husband is pure. While it is true that society makes women self-aware, the motive for deception is usually some combination of self-preservation and empathy, not heartlessness. Although the novella is a masterful expression of the absurdity of life, Warren’s negative portrayal of the majority of his female characters is misogynistic.

Livi Côté Robert Penn Warren’s negative portrayal of the women characters in his novella Circus in the Attic was a reaction against the shifting definition of femininity in the early twentieth century.1 From 1850 to 1960, the proportion of women authors and women characters in fiction declined (Underwood et al.); published in a book of short stories by the same name in 1947, Circus in the Attic has a women:men character ratio of 1:5. Not only are Warren’s women characters underrepresented, but they are misrepresented; more specifically, they are vilified. Warren portrays women as overall contemptuous, or at least cold, and constantly managing their images, as I will demonstrate in an analysis of the major women characters below. The only two sincere women characters who don’t carefully monitor themselves are Bolton’s mother, who represents unbridled emotions (hysteria) and a fear of betrayal, and Janie Murphy, who represents the ideal woman—docile, sincere, and innocent. An emphasis on women’s eyes runs throughout the novel, painting a picture of women as always watching, judging, aware of themselves and others, but silent about their true feelings. Women’s actions drive the underlying theme of betrayal, building the characteristically modernist sense of alienation and impermanence that underscores the whole story. In contrast, men are portrayed as genuine, well-intended, and relatively oblivious; they experience life whereas women experience themselves.

From 1850 to 1960, as women struggled to gain civil rights, they lost representation in fiction, both as authors and characters (see figure 1).

Figure 1. Underwood et al. analyzed works from HathiTrust Digital Library and the Chicago Text Lab to determine how much of the character description was dedicated to women (Underwood et al.). This graph was originally published under a Creative Commons license 4.0, and it is reprinted here with permission.

Underwood et al. examined “104,000 works of fiction” with an algorithm that determined how much of a book’s characterization was spent describing

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An Analysis of Women Characters in Circus in the Attic women and how much was spent describing men. The researchers discovered that description of women in fiction decreased from 1850 to 1960. Circus in the Attic is just one example of this trend. Some theorize that a contributing factor was the “backlash against first-wave feminism . . . dated by Gayle Greene to the 1940s and 50s” (Underwood et al.). Employment of women increased by necessity during WWII, empowering women outside the home and threatening men’s traditional roles.

Dishearteningly, there was also a consistent difference between men authors and women authors when it came to describing women characters (see figure 2).

Figure 2. Men authors dedicate less of their character description to women (Underwood et al.).

Around the year Circus in the Attic was published, 1947, it appears that most male authors spent just under 25% of their character description on women characters. As Warren’s characters were 20% women, Circus in the Attic fits this trend. This graph was originally published under a Creative Commons license 4.0, and it is reprinted here with permission.

Not only are women underrepresented in the novel, but they are misrepresented—even villainized. From the minor characters to the major characters, women are portrayed as contemptuous, bitter, cold, and a major contributing factor to men’s sense of alienation. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar examine Victorian gender roles in their book The Madwoman in the Attic, finding that during the Victorian Era, which ended just before Warren’s birth at the turn of the century, women were portrayed as either “angels or monsters depending on how well they adhered to the valorization of passive, domestic female behavior” (qtd. in Jockers and Kirilloff). Although this trend was especially strong during the Victorian Era, the villainization of women in literature has much deeper roots and extends into the modern day: “Evil is another trait that has been at-

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Livi Côté tributed to women for centuries, a characteristic that dates back to the Biblical allusion of Eve’s temptation of Adam in the Garden of Eden” (Wrenn). In Circus in the Attic, Warren simply adapts this belief to modernist purposes, rendering women as either contributors to men’s alienation or perfect Janie Murphys.

The villainization of women begins even before the major characters are introduced. As Warren takes the reader on a tour of his setting in Bardsville, Kentucky, he wastes no time in portraying women as resentful: “Lunch will be served by a white girl wearing a green smock, a splash of lipstick, and an expression of indefatigable contempt…” (13). This woman’s expression sets the stage for a procession of negative women throughout the novella.

Sara Darter is the first love interest of the main character, Bolton Lovehart.

She is the first example of a woman who hides her true feelings and manages her impression on others. Warren makes this clear immediately after introducing the character, writing, “She knew how to make him feel at ease” (Warren 31). Making someone feel at ease requires the emotional intelligence that she never seemed contemptuous or ill-intended. She hadn’t been plotting the betrayal throughout the relationship: “The plan for her leaving, however, had come to her suddenly, like a revelation, the day before that last evening with Bolton Lovehart. That last encounter with him had not been part of the plan” (Warren 36). At most, Sara Darter is cold, unsentimental, abandoning Bolton and her elderly aunt to create a life in another town (36). In pursuing a life for herself, true to the 1920s’ idea of the independent “new woman,” Sara Darter has betrayed her gender role as ward of Bolton’s emotions (Jockers). Warren villainizes her for this; as the “ladies of Bardsville” said, “That girl, she has no heart” (Warren 36). This portrayal of women as self-centered and uncaring toward men’s feelings continues throughout the novella.

Bolton’s mother is another example of a self-obsessed woman in this story; in this case, she is paranoid about betrayal. As she lay dying, she lamented the betrayal of her own heart: “It had lain there inside her all those years, doing her will, pretending to love her, giving her instant obedience, and planning this, this, this,” and it reminded her of a kitten she had thrown out the window as a child for scratching her (Warren 44). This pathological fear of betrayal is ironic because it is the unsuspecting Bolton who is ultimately betrayed again and again, most literally by both his wives.

Bolton’s mother is the most pathological of the women, with emotions that are volatile instead of well-monitored and controlled. She revolves between various strong emotions, including a dark affection defined by an “intensity of egotism” rather than love: “Mrs. Lovehart would fling herself to her knees and suddenly seize him, driving her fingers into his thin back, and crush

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An Analysis of Women Characters in Circus in the Attic him to her bosom and crouch thus for minutes in the emptiness of one of the rooms where shadows depended like black gauze from the high ceiling” (Warren 18). She also sometimes rages with fear of betrayal, such as when Bolton recommends she see a specialist for her heart: “Oh, you want me to die—flesh of my flesh, and you want me to die!” (34). Unlike the other female characters, Bolton’s mother is sincere; however, her lack of self-management is dangerous because of the volatility and egocentric fear of betrayal within her. In her intense emotionality, her character invokes the outdated idea of female hysteria. Because self-management and inauthenticity are a common theme among the other women, one has to wonder if Bolton’s mother is a representation of what men of this time period feared lies beneath women’s carefully controlled exteriors.

Another element of Bolton’s mother is that she is an oppressive presence for Bolton. Her “dark and deep” obsession with him “possessed the child with a thousand invisible threads controlling the slightest movement of his limbs and lips and spirit like a clever puppet” (Warren 16). Her domineering nature shapes Bolton into “a man easily manipulated by a woman, whether it be Sara or his mother” (Runyon 91). Bolton does express rebellion at various points in his youth, such as when he runs away and joins a circus (Warren 23).

He is soon discovered and brought home by his father (26), but the circus persists as a symbol of freedom for Bolton, of escape from his mother. This symbolism is epitomized in the wooden circus he builds in the attic: “His circus is something more like a cry of passion, a way of bolting—as his first name suggests—the attic door against a domineering mother (‘nobody knew what went on up there, behind the always bolted door’ [41])” (Runyon 88). So, the central symbol of the novella, which represents all fleeting things, as well as the ridiculousness/absurdity of life despite our incessant habit of taking it seriously, came about as a reaction against Bolton’s “domineering” mother.

After the death of Bolton’s mother, Warren provides another example of this pattern of maligning women, even minor characters. When Bolton was in the habit of collecting rent from his tenants after his mother’s death, Warren writes that the door would open to “the sullen face of a man or the bitter face of a woman” (46). Men are ascribed the harmless word “sullen,” while women are “bitter.”

Bolton’s final love interest, Mrs. Parton (later Mrs. Lovehart) combines the irrational bitterness of Bolton’s mother with the secrecy of Sara Darter. Although she was married to Bolton, she was secretly full of contempt for him.

She never tells him about her hatred of their stepdaughter Janie Murphy, and he cluelessly gushes about Jasper’s marriage all the time, having taken her son as his own. Bolton’s enthusiasm incites her rage: “She had always loathed him.

It rose up inside her. She suddenly knew it. The thought filled the room, like light” (Warren 54). Mrs. Lovehart, more than any of the other women char-

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Livi Côté acters, is defined by image management. As she observes Janie Murphy at the celebration of Jasper’s honorable death, she exemplifies both women’s judgment and self-awareness:

She can’t keep her hands still, she is picking one of her nails, she thought. She surreptitiously spread her own small, well-shaped, well-manicured fingers in her lap and studied them, her head slightly bowed in her characteristic modest way. (57) Clearly, Mrs. Lovehart is not modest—she knows she looks better than Janie.

However, she knows how to portray herself regardless of her true feelings.

By the end of the story, Mrs. Lovehart both betrays and abandons Bolton: “Mrs. Lovehart was killed that night in an accident on the highway. She and a certain Captain Cartwright, who had been at the wheel, had driven at high speed into the back of a heavy truck . . .” (Warren 59-60). All at once, Mrs. Lovehart’s façades are shattered: that she was loyal, that she “only takes one” drink at a time (48), and, in a more abstract sense, that she would be there for Bolton. Bolton is a victim of the absurd, now and throughout the novel: a random death, a shattering of meaning in a world he had just begun to make sense of. Bolton has now been betrayed by both of his major love interests: his first girlfriend, Sara Darter, and his wife, Mrs. Lovehart.

In contrast to the other women characters, Bolton’s stepdaughter Janie Murphy is genuine and dedicated to her romantic partner. She doesn’t keep secrets like the other women, yet she isn’t hysterical like Bolton’s mother. Janie Murphy is described as “a good-looking, well-mannered girl, with few words but a nice, direct look at you out of her gray eyes” (Warren 49). “Direct” is an important word here; there is honesty in Janie Murphy, and even better (from a patriarchal standpoint), the only thing she really cared about was getting married. In contrast to the other girls, Janie has a conscience for betrayal—when she moves on to her new husband after Jasper’s death and loves him even more, she feels that she has “truly killed” Jasper, and “sometimes wakes up in the night and out of this new guilt in her happiness . . . weeps silently and sweetly . . .” (61). Janie, the ideal woman, cares about men’s feelings and is defined by sincerity and innocence (a lack of secrecy, a lack of self-awareness). Janie Murphy is the only woman character who is portrayed positively by the author.

Just as Janie’s honesty is conveyed in the description of her eyes, an emphasis on women’s eyes runs throughout the story, reflecting their constant awareness and silent judgment. As Sara Darter is described, “She was a thin, nervous girl, with big black eyes straining out of the dead white of her face” (Warren 31).

The color black represents coldness, and the fact that her emotions can’t be read; the darkness is the unknown. Mrs. Parton’s description especially reflects

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An Analysis of Women Characters in Circus in the Attic the silent judgment of women: “Out of the corner of her innocent, china-blue eyes she watched what people were like, and her tight little mind snapped up and ticketed away every bit of old gossip or new scandal . . .” (47). “Innocent” is a sarcastic descriptor, as she is one of the most critical characters of all; but china connotes an opaqueness, a resistance to being read, and in its opulence reflects her sense of superiority. Even the eyes of the wooden “girl acrobat” Bolton creates are described as “far too wide and blue”—maybe connoting honesty and purity, a prototype of what he wishes women would be (40). Eyes are an interesting symbol because they connote both passivity and judgment, awareness and silence. Warren describes the eyes of almost every woman character, but not so much the men, highlighting men’s expectation that women merely “sit and watch,” while reflecting their fear of women’s sublimated feelings and opinions (Glasgow).

The simple way men experience life in this story contrasts with women’s awareness—drenched experience. Bolton is defined by a childlike sincerity, believing in relationships the way the people of the town believe tall tales about Cassius Perkins and Seth Sykes in the beginning of the story. Bolton’s emotions are obvious, but he can’t read other people’s emotions the same way—for example, after Sara Darter’s father dies, “[O]nce when he put his arms around her and tried to kiss her, she struck him savagely on the chest, with clenched fists, and screamed at him with furious words which he could not interpret” (Warren 32). He also had no idea how furious his mother would be when he suggested a specialist, to the extent that he misinterprets her facial expression as a smile (34).

As a final example, he remains clueless to his wife’s hatred of Janie Murphy: “So she put the best face possible on the marriage, and referred to it as little as possible. But her husband could talk of little else” (54). This divide becomes the main reason for her resentment toward him. Women are aware, while Bolton and other men are often oblivious.

Another difference in women’s and men’s experience of life in this novella is that while women could communicate their true emotions but choose not to, men try to connect with others and fail. For example, the old man who knows the true story of Seth Sykes and Cassius Perkins tried to tell the true story, “[b] ut nobody was there to hear him, under the maple” (Warren 8). Bolton especially struggles to communicate—as his father lies on his deathbed, “a thousand questions” jump into his mind, but he doesn’t ask them (28-29). Also, when Jasper leaves for war, Bolton is overcome with emotion: “Bolton Lovehart wanted to say something, he didn’t know what, but something which was swelling in his heart. ‘My boy—’ he began, ‘my son—’ Then he fumbled for words” (50). Men experience the tragic, human feeling of alienation often described by the modernists, while women don’t. By making men care about connecting with others, he humanizes them more than he does women, who prioritize themselves and keep their true feelings secret.

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Livi Côté As further evidence of the simple, un-self-aware nature of men’s experiences in the novella, both of the transcendental nature scenes involve men. For example, Lem Lovehart experiences some kind of emotional epiphany in the woods: Then he lay down on the grass, in the great stillness, broken now and then by the liquid, somnolent ripple of a robin’s note or a last, lost burst of birdsong from the cedars down the bluff, and for no reason his leathery heart suddenly softened and swelled in his breast and he wept. (Warren 14) The other transcendental experience happens when Bolton hears the news of a victory on the warfront: Bolton Lovehart . . . stood there in the street steadily breathing the sweet spring air, letting the tears run down his cheeks, feeling the exquisite sensation in his bosom. He reached out, timidly, to touch the bark of the old maple which grew between the pavement and the street. The coarseness of the bark was a vibrant delight to his fingers.

He touched it humbly. He looked up at the tree, at the tinted, waxy beginnings of buds, then swung his gaze over the street, the houses, the trees, the springing lawns, and up at the great, rain-washed, glowing sky. It was all real. It was real. (51) Such deep, pure emotional experiences are reserved for men in this story.

The only comparable scene is when Mrs. Parton gets drunk alone to “go to bed and lie hot and dizzy and shaking in the dark, and feel her body flow tinglingly away from her,” and the experience is tainted by shame and self-awareness: She does it in the privacy of her own home because she is aware that this behavior is incongruent with her public image (48). In this novella, men experience life whereas women experience themselves.

The portrayal of women in this story is harmful in some ways and accurate in other ways. It is accurate because women are taught to be more self-aware in ways that can hinder genuine human connection—we are socialized to keep the social balance, even if that sometimes means sublimating our own thoughts and feelings. This is truer of the era in which the story was written than today, but this problem still hasn’t been eradicated. For example, in a 1996 study on lying, “Women told significantly more other-oriented lies than did men and significantly fewer self-centered lies” (DePaulo 992). A 2002 study replicated this result, finding that “men told more self-oriented lies than women,” and adding, “These results suggest, perhaps contrary to popular belief, that men do not lie more than women or vice versa, but that men and women lie in different ways” (Feldman et al. 169). The hidden emotional labor of maintaining social harmony through lies that benefit others can lead to abrupt endings of seemingly func-

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An Analysis of Women Characters in Circus in the Attic tional relationships, such as when “cold” Sara Darter (who “knew how to make him feel at ease”) left Bolton. However, when women unexpectedly leave men in real life, it is usually not the result of coldness or heartlessness, but perhaps an emotional exhaustion from dealing with an unequal proportion of the emotional effort put into the relationship.

Also, Warren did not entirely miss the mark when he depicted women’s self-awareness, which causes us to live life not from our own perspectives—able to experience life transcendentally, as some of the male characters do in the story—but from the perspectives of others. As Margaret Atwood famously wrote, “You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur” (388). However, he did fail to attribute women’s self-awareness to sexist socialization. Rather than victims of sexist socialization, he depicted women as perpetrators of men’s alienation.

Finally, a disproportionate number of the female characters are portrayed as deceitful and even contemptuous, and the only one that is portrayed in a positive light is simple, passive, and wifely. However, Warren’s portrayal of women as harsh or cold is not entirely without basis. As a reaction to sexism, many women do become hostile toward men. Sociologists find that “the greater hostility expressed by women, as compared with [the ambivalent sexism of] men, may reflect the more negative experiences that women tend to have during intergender exchanges throughout their lives. This greater negativity is likely caused both by the frustration that women often experience due to men’s more dominant interaction style, and by the fact that women are more likely than men to be the targets of sexual harassment and everyday sexism (Seta & Garren, 2011; Swim et al., 2001)” (Franzoi 235). So, while it is true that women may feel hostile toward men, this hostility is not without precedent. Warren, as a man living in the early twentieth century, probably witnessed the bitter effect of oppression on women’s psyche without correctly identifying it as such, focusing instead on its effect, the alienation of men—a tragic existential experience for which many 20th century authors were, and still are, respected.

The misattribution of women’s anger continues today as some groups deny the existence of the sexism and oppression causing it. Close readings of works of literature of any era will continue to be important in the quest for equality.

Understanding the nature of sexism in various literary eras and the history of women’s oppression overall makes it easier to recognize sexism in the present, helping scholars avoid the same mistakes in today’s literature and move toward a more enlightened and equitable future.

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Livi Côté References Atwood, Margaret. The Robber Bride. McCleland and Stewart, 1993.

DePaulo, Bella, et al. “Lying in Everyday Life.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 70, no. 5, 1996, pp. 979-95, citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.597.8906&rep=rep1&type=pdf. Accessed 20 July 2019.

Feldman, Robert, et al. “Self-Presentation and Verbal Deception: Do Self-Presenters Lie More?” Basic and Applied Psychology, vol. 24, no. 2, 2002, pp.

163-70.

Franzoi, Stephen. Social Psychology, 7th ed., PVT Publishing, 2016.

Glasgow, Ellen. “Feminism.” The New York Times, 30 Nov. 1913, timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/11/30/100079171.pdf.

Accessed 7 July 2019.

Jockers, Matthew and Gabi Kirilloff. “Understanding Gender and Character Agency in the 19th Century Novel.” Journal of Cultural Analytics, 2016, culturalanalytics.org/2016/12/understanding-gender-and-character-agency-in-the-19th-century-novel/. Accessed 6 July 2019.

Runyon, Randolph. “Chapter 3: Willie’s Wink.” The Taciturn Text: The Fiction of Robert Penn Warren. Ohio State University Press, 1990. Knowledge Bank, kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/31737.

Underwood, Ted, et al. “The Transformation of Gender in English-Language Fiction.” Journal of Cultural Analytics, 2018, http://culturalanalytics. org/2018/02/the-transformation-of-gender-in-english-language-fiction/#identifier_4_1217. Accessed 6 July 2019.

Warren, Robert Penn. Circus in the Attic. The Circus in the Attic and Other Stories.

Harcourt, Brace, 1947.

Wrenn, Heike. “The Woman in Modernism.” English Literary File, vol. 2, www. uscupstate.edu/globalassets/academics/college-of-arts-humanities-and-social-sciences/languages-literature-and-composition/english-literary-file/elfvol2wrenn.pdf. Accessed 6 July 2019.

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The Conscious and Unconscious: A Psychoanalytic Critique of Ian McEwan’s Atonement

By Asia White

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ubaraj Katawal, Department of English Article Abstract Ian McEwan is the author of many award-winning novels. His novel, Atonement, is a fictional story of a woman who spends her life regretting the decisions she made in her childhood. In her article, “To Make A Novel: The Construction of a Critical Readership in Ian McEwan’s Atonement,” Kathleen D’Angelo argues, “For if Atonement is a novel concerned with the ‘making of fiction,’ it is also a novel concerned with the reading of fiction, as well as the reading of experience.” In this article, I explore Briony Tallis, the novel’s main character, throughout her life into adulthood. I use psychoanalytic criticism, a theory coined by Sigmund Freud, to interpret Briony’s actions as resulting from her childhood trauma.

Asia White Ian McEwan’s Atonement is a riveting tale of a woman who spends her life regretting the decision she made during her younger years. The story is written in three parts that all lead to the denouement. Part one introduces us to the Tallis family and, most importantly, Briony Tallis. Briony is a thirteen-year-old, upper middle-class girl with an active imagination who witnesses the rape of her cousin Lola. Briony wrongfully convicts Robbie Turner, a friend of her sister Cecilia and the son of the housekeeper, as Lola’s rapist. Part two follows Robbie in World War II; five years later, he tries desperately to make it back home to Cecilia. Part three picks back up with Briony, this time eighteen years old, and completely remorseful about her wrongful accusations. Briony has followed in her sister’s footsteps and became a nurse instead of her earlier plans to attend Cambridge. During this part, the reader finds out that Paul Marshall, Lola’s actual rapist, and Lola have gotten married. Through a letter from the author, Briony, readers find out that all of the stories about Robbie were made up, and that Cecilia and Robbie never made it back to each other; both died in the war. Because Briony is a character of imagination, stuck between the conscious (reality) and unconscious (imagination), it can fruitfully be analyzed via a metafictional approach using psychoanalytic theory. As we shall see, this approach underscores the extent to which the traumatic events a child experiences can have a lasting impact on their future.

Psychoanalytical criticism uses theories of psychology to analyze literature, and it tends to focus on the author’s state of mind or the state of mind of the fictional characters. In her essay, Sara Williams defines “psychanalysis” as “a form of therapy which aims to cure mental disorders by investigating the interaction between the conscious and the unconscious elements of the mind” (Williams). McEwan’s novel forces the conscious events that happen to interact with the different perspectives, or subconscious, of each character, most importantly, of Briony. To fully analyze Briony, one must first understand her life. Briony, the youngest of three, is a middle-class girl who is also an aspiring writer. Her brother, Leon, is away at college, her father is away on a business trip, her mother is always occupied, either nursing a migraine or doing housework, and her sister, a college student, is caught up in unresolved feelings for Robbie. This leaves Briony with her active imagination and an unclear understanding of the things she witnesses. In Critical Theory Today, Lois Tyson claims that “the family is very important in psychoanalytic theory because we are each a product of the role we are given in the family complex . . . the ‘birth’ of the unconscious lies in the way we perceive our place in the family and how we react to this self-definition” (13).

In Briony’s case, she knows that her place in the family is as the youngest child.

Because of this, she tries to get the attention of her family anyway she can. She creates a play for her brother Leon upon his return, hoping to elicit his attention.

She uses this same play to grasp for her mother’s attention as well, getting her to read it before it is performed. Thus, Briony is a young girl who is forced to be headstrong, to be conscientious, and to function alone because her family does

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The Conscious and Unconsious: A Psychoanalytic of Ian McEwan’s Atonement not pay her much attention. She is associated with order and tidiness: “Briony’s was the only tidy upstairs room in the house . . . her wish for a harmonious, organized world denied her the reckless possibilities of wrongdoing,” (McEwan 5) but this is also what causes her destruction. When things do not go Briony’s way, everything else around her starts to fall apart. For example, she falsely accuses Robbie of rape because she is unable to have him. Even though Briony knows her place in the Tallis household, it is still something she struggles with because she is not treated how she should be as the child of the house.

Because Briony’s mother does not pay her much attention, Briony seeks love and attention from her sister Cecilia. She gets this attention in her childhood to some extent, and that is enough for Briony from time to time. However, it is still clear that she longs for her sister’s attention well into her adult years. During Briony’s childhood, Cecilia cannot help but be distracted by whatever is going on in her own life, including school, the naughty notes Robbie writes her, and her repressed desires for Robbie. However, the underlying issue is Briony’s absent father. Because he is often absent from her life, Briony seeks love and attention elsewhere, including from Robbie. This is what Tyson describes as the Oedipal conflict: “competition with the parent of the same gender for the attention and affection of the parent of the opposite gender” (14). Although, Robbie and Cecilia are not Briony’s actual parents, the concept still applies. Briony sees Cecilia as a threat because Cecilia has what Briony wants. We see Briony’s attempts at love and attention from Robbie through one of Robbie’s flashbacks in part two of the book: “. . . he heard, but did not see, her jump in . . . almost immediately he found her. ‘Thank you,’ she kept saying. ‘Thank you, thank you. . . You saved me’” (McEwan 218). Briony confidently confesses her love to Robbie, in response to which he “restrained an impulse to laugh. He was the object of a school girl crush” (McEwan 218). This shows not only Briony’s act of gaining the “love” of Robbie, but also how naïve she is to think that needing to be saved shows a man that she loves him.

Sara Williams suggests that the first time we are introduced to Briony’s unconscious is in the very first chapter. We are presented Briony’s play, titled “The Trials of Arabella.” In the play, a handsome prince rescues a heroine. Williams suggests that beneath the intelligent wording of its script, this play shows how immature Briony really is, and as an audience we are exposed to her understanding of love and relationships (Williams). However, contrary to Williams, I believe the first time the reader truly encounters Briony’s unconscious is during a moment between Cecilia and Robbie. Cecilia goes to fetch some water in a vase out of the fountain in the yard. She and Robbie exchange a few awkward words.

As she is going to dip the vase in the water, Robbie goes to help, getting a grip on the vase; they both pull away from each other breaking off a piece that lands at the bottom of the fountain. Irritated and up for the challenge, Cecilia quickly undresses down to her underwear and dives into the fountain to retrieve the

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Asia White piece. Having obtained the piece of broken vase, she dresses quickly and returns to the house (McEwan 29). In this scene, the reader is presented with what truly happens in this moment between Robbie and Cecilia. On the other hand, this is not what Briony’s (unreliable) unconscious witnessed: What was less comprehensible, however, was how Robbie imperiously raised his hand now, as though issuing a command which Cecilia dared not disobey. It was extraordinary that she was unable to resist him. At his insistence she was removing her clothes, and at such speed. She was out of her blouse, now she had let her skirt drop to the ground and was stepping out of it, while he looked on impatiently, hands on hips. What strange power did he have over her? Blackmail? Threats? Briony raised two hands to her face and stepped back a little way from the window. She should shut her eyes, she thought, and spare herself the sight of her sister’s shame. (McEwan 36) Not only is Briony a second-hand witness to an event, she is unaware of what is really going on. As stated by Teti Apriyanti, “Briony’s powerful imagination works to confuse the real with the fictive” (18). Briony imagines her sister, the damsel in distress, needing to be saved by the dashing prince, Robbie. However, this scene does not play out in the conventional way, and from this point on Robbie has become the bad guy.

Freud coined the theoretical idea of a three-part personality: id, ego and superego. Freud explained the id as pleasure oriented. In contrast, the id is completely unconscious: it is “the psychological reservoir of our repressed aggressive desires” (Tyson 25). As Fredric Jameson puts it, the id works “outside of the realms of logic or reasonableness; it just wants, and it doesn’t care how or why” (qtd. in Roberts 56). Notably, the id does not always have to be sexual, in fact the id is “devoted solely to the gratification of prohibited desires of all kinds (Tyson 25). In Briony’s case, her desire for power and control is her id. We witness this when we meet Briony’s cousins, Lola and the twins, when they come to visit over the summer. Her cousins have just witnessed the divorce of their parents.

However, Briony has written a play and assigned roles without much thought on how her cousins are feeling or the family trauma they have just witnessed.

Filimonova argues that, “her [Briony’s] id is in control of her decisions . . . her id is like a child who does not take ‘no’ for an answer, the id does not take needs of others into consideration” (9). In another instance, the family sits down for a dinner that Robbie was invited to. Briony has just witnessed a heated, passionate scene between Cecilia and Robbie when Robbie asks a question to one of the twins. Instead of letting the twin answer, Briony has a rather rude comment for Robbie. In his moment, instead of thinking logically about how she should be treating Robbie, she’s working solely off of instincts, her id.

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The Conscious and Unconsious: A Psychoanalytic of Ian McEwan’s Atonement Freud explains the relationship between the id and ego as follows: The ego represents what may be called reason and common sense, in contrast to the id, which contains passions. Moreover, the ego seeks to bring the influence of the external world to bear upon the id and its tendencies, and endeavors to substitute the reality principle for the pleasure principle which reigns unrestrictedly in the id [. . .].Thus in its relation to the id it is like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse; with this difference, that the rider tries to do so with his own strength while the ego uses borrowed forces. (qtd. in Filimonova 15).

In light of Freud’s explanation, Filimonova suggests that “The ego acts according to social norms and etiquette, it tries to satisfy id’s demands without harming others, that is, through a compromise, solving a problem by trying to find realistic ways out” (16). Briony follows her ego when she gives Robbie’s letter to Cecilia. She does not ask any questions or make any comments about how inappropriate the letter was; instead “Briony pushed into Cecilia’s hand a piece of paper folded twice and then she squealed her brother’s name and leaped into his embrace” (McEwan 104). In this case, Briony’s ego has got the best of her.

She knows that the letter was not meant for her and that it is best not to make a scene out of the situation.

“The social values and taboos we internalize and experience as our sense of right and wrong” are known as the superego (Tyson 24). An example of Briony’s superego at work comes in part three of the book. Briony’s father has sent her an invitation to her cousin Lola’s wedding in which she is marrying Paul Marshall.

Briony attends the wedding and wants to tell everyone that Lola was marrying her rapist: “[n]ow was the chance to proclaim in public all the private anguish and purge herself of all that she had done wrong” (McEwan 306). But Briony ignores her id and follows her superego; it was not the time nor the place for such action. No one seemed bothered by the union, not even the bride: “Nor did the bride appear to be a victim, and she had her parents’ consent” (McEwan 306). She realized that her confession would do no good there. She would have finally told the truth, but for Lola, Paul, and their families it would cause more harm and anguish than any good.

Ken Gemes, explores Freud’s ideas on sublimation and repression: “According to Freud, Leonardo, like Schreber, repressed his homosexual desires[,] and his repression later led to his scientific inquisitiveness and inventiveness and his artistic activities, including his obsession with capturing in drawings perfect representations of the male body. This for Freud is a classical case of sublimation” (41). This quote sums up the relationship between repression and sublimation.

Repression, as in the suppression of thoughts, actions, desires, or feelings, will

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Asia White then lead to a person expressing themselves in socially acceptable ways which commonly include creative works like art, music, or writing. This act of letting out one’s most inner repressed desires through the arts is what Freud calls the “sublime” or “sublimation.” At the end of the novel, when Briony has become more mature, she realizes she has sent an innocent man to jail. She has repressed the thought, her whole life, that Robbie was not the man she saw rape Lola that night, but instead it was Paul. She feels the crushing weight of guilt and it has forced her to choose a defense mechanism; she chooses sublimation. Briony writes a novel in hopes of getting rid of the guilt she has felt her entire life. Barati and Eslamieh argue in their essay that Briony fails to maintain the fictional reality she had created, instead she expresses the reality behind her novel and because of it she still represses those guilty feelings about Robbie (Barati and Eslamieh 121). In his essay, “Creative Writers and Daydreaming,” Peter Gay suggests that uncomfortable events in real life can become comfortable or pleasant in fiction: [F]or many things which, if they were real, could give no enjoyment, can do so in the play of phantasy, and many excitements which, in themselves, are actually distressing can become a source of pleasure for the hearers and spectators at the performance of a writer’s work.

(437) Briony tries to give Cecilia and Robbie their happy ending by writing one into her novel, but she is still left with the guilt that she prevented this from actually happening. Toward the end of the novel Briony states: The problem of these fifty-nine years has been this: how can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? There is no one, no entity of higher form that she can appeal to, or be reconciled with, or that can forgive her.

There is nothing outside her. In her imagination she set limits and terms. No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists.

It was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all. (McEwan 350) Briony has not atoned for her guilt and she never will. McEwan points out that the only way that she can is from forgetting the memory and the guilt all together. She will eventually atone because she has vascular dementia. Briony finds a little comfort in this.

This psychoanalytical analysis of Briony can be countered by a very simple truth: not only is Briony the only child in the house, she is just that, a child. She has no friends, and she is rather lonely: “Her effective status as an only child, as well as the relative isolation of the Tallis house, kept her, at least during the long summer holidays, from girlish intrigues with friends” (McEwan 5). As stated

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The Conscious and Unconsious: A Psychoanalytic of Ian McEwan’s Atonement earlier in this essay, her family members are preoccupied by the day to day task of their own adult lives to fully pay any attention to Briony. No one has taken the time to pay attention to her wants or needs, so she retreats to her imagination and stories. There, she is the orchestrator of her constructed reality. This is what many children do who do not have the companionship of someone their own age to keep them occupied. However, in this case, Briony’s imagination and misconstruction of the adult world led her to do something she would later regret. In some ways, Briony cannot be blamed for her misunderstanding; she is only a child.

As Kathleen D’Angelo argues, Atonement is a novel that requires readers to be familiar with the reading of fiction, but the making of fiction as well. She states the novel is: . . .concerned with the “making of fiction,” it is also a novel concerned with the reading of fiction, as well as the reading of experience. Briony’s crime has been widely read as one of literary imagination, but it is also one of poor reading comprehension. Nevertheless, the adult Briony has learned the value of reading, and she constructs a narrative that continually reminds the reader of this crucial role.

In this sense, McEwan positions Atonement against earlier narrative models that were also concerned with the author-reader relationship, specifically the 18th-century novel and the modernist novel. (D’Angelo 89) As D’Angelo points out, other critics have tended to focus on “the metafictional elements of the work’s narrative structure, as well as Briony Tallis’ revelation in the final pages that she in fact authored the text,” raising the question, “whether the novel earns this epilogue or whether it is an abrupt rendering of a straightforward realist narrative (88, 89). D’Angelo answers this question with the following: In his critique of the reader’s role, McEwan presents an implicit argument about the ethical responsibility for readers of contemporary fiction. Readers hold the final power of interpretation, judgment, and atonement; to meet these aims, they must maintain a stance toward the text that involves both critical assessment and empathetic identification. As we will see, both tasks prove necessary for readers of Atonement. (89) Much like D’Angelo, critic Brian Finney viewed this novel as “a work of fiction that is from beginning to end concerned with the making of fiction (69). Finney argues that not many critics have concentrated on the self-conscious aspect of the novel, but critics have understood the novel to be “an essentially realist novel

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Asia White that at the end inappropriately resorts to a modish self-referentiality” (69). I, on one hand, agree with the critics here. This novel is about the making and reading of fiction as we see it through Briony’s eyes. But it is much more than a young child’s imagination, it is also her reality. It is her psychological state.

Ultimately, using Freud’s ideas on psychoanalysis, it is obvious that Briony’s childhood traumas are the cause of her adult guilt. Through a psychoanalytic critique, readers can trace, from start to end, the conflicts in Briony’s life that make her who she is in childhood and who she becomes in adulthood. The lack of adult attention, specifically from her parents, forces her to find that attention elsewhere. When she finds that manly figure in Robbie, she develops a small crush and has somehow made it a competition between herself and Cecilia to win over Robbie. Her id, ego, and superego are all constantly at battle throughout her childhood and adult life cause her crippling guilt. Her book cannot atone for that guilt and neither can the many wounded soldiers she takes care of as a nurse. Finally, her mind gets rest only after she develops dementia. Through this critique of Briony, it is shown that our own childhood traumas have lasting effects on us in the present and well into the future. Frequently, like Briony, we become defensive and repress those feelings until we find an outlet. McEwan illustrates these concepts compellingly within the metafictional world of Atonement.

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D’angelo, Kathleen. “To Make A Novel: The Construction of a Critical Readership in Ian McEwan’s Atonement.” Studies in the Novel, vol. 41, no. 1, 2009, pp. 88–105.

Filimonova, Irene Bjork. “Childhood’s Trauma in The Go-Between and Atonement.” University of Iceland, 2014, pp. 1-27.

Finney, Brian. “Briony’s Stand Against Oblivion: The Making of Fiction in Ian McEwan’s Atonement.” Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 27, no. 3, 2004, pp. 68–82.

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