Where is the Bottom? How was it established? How is its name symbolic?
The Bottom began when a slave gained his freedom and was promised land. His former owner tricked him into going to live ontop of the hills and so Medallion was born. The Bottom ironically is at the top of a hill. "Where the Negoroes lived they called the Bottom in spite of the fact that it was up in the hills. Just a nigger joke"(Morrison pg.4). Here Morrsion points out that it is a joke to the white people because they laugh at the black community because they think they are dumb."White people lived on the rich valley floor ....everyday they could literally look down on white folks"(Morrison pg. 5). Even though the blacks are finally above the whites geogriphically it goes to show that they are still not above them. the community is able to look down at the valley and the white community yet they still think they are beneath them and are jealous. They call where they live the Bottom because they are still considered beneath the white population.
How does Shadrack and National Suicide Day frame the novel? How does it set the tone for the novel?
Shadrack and National Suicide day frame the novel because it revolves around trying to create order and meaning to the experiences and problems in life. Shadrack is discharged from the military and suffers from PTSD and is instituted into a mental facility. He is discharged and does not know what to do with himself once he returns home. "Shadrack began a struggle that was to last for twelve days, a struggle to order and understranding of experience. It had to do with making a place for fear and controlling it...in this manner he instituted National Suicide Day"(pg. 14). He is now haunted with the new idea that a person could die any day or any second and people have no control over it. The horror and struggles during the war have opened up his eyes to it and he does not know how to handle it so he creates National Suicide Day. This allows people the freedom to choose when they are going to die and gives a little bit of control back to them. Others in the novel also have the same difficulty with "a struggle to order and understanding of experience"(pg. 14). For example Helene's grandmother, Cecile, takes her away from her mother, Rochelle, because she works at a whorehouse. Cecile does not want her granddaughter to have the same fate as her daughter and could not understand what happened to her daughter. So, Cecile "raised her under the dolesome eyes of a multicolored Virgin Mary"(pg 17). She takes precaustions to be "on gaurd for any sign of (Rochelle's) wild blood"(pg. 17). Her equilvanlant to Shadrack's National Suicide Day is to take away the brightness of Helene's life and replace it with dull light and with a strict upbringing based upon the Bible.
Why is the incident on the train between Helene and the conductor significant? What happens as the train travels further south? How does Morrison used the notion of defilement in 1920? Who is defiled? Why?
The incident on the train between Helene and the conductor show that Helene is not inpendatrable. Although, she may seem to be this upright proper, perfect person she cannot escape the realities of racism; it can still reach her. Her smiling at the conductor shows that there is nothing wrong with the way that he spoke to her almost as if she gave him approval and she appears to be unintelligent in this scence. She smiles at him big and bright while he is being rude to her and tearing her down as though she does not realize what he is doing when in fact she does. It ruins Nel's perfect image she has of her mother in that moment Helene is defiled. "If this tall, proud woman..who could slip into church with unequaled elegance..if she were really custard than there was a chance that Nel was too"(pg. 22). Nel is now able to look at her mother in a whole new light. She sees that she is not the perfect person she has looked up to for so long but is indeed just like everyone else. She decides on that train "that no midnight or marbled flesh would ever accost her and turn her into jelly"(pg.22). She does not want to be like her mother and embarrassed that way. Nel cannot even bring herself to look at her mother on the train because she does not want her suspicions to be true. As the train ride goes on Helene is forced to get rid of her pride and to use the bathroom outside nearing the end of the train ride "Helene could not only fold leaces as well as the fat woman she never felt a stir as she passed the muddy eyes of the men"9pg. 24). Since there were no bathrooms for women at the train stations in the South she was forced to go to the bathroom in the high grass showing how segragated the South was during that time. Here again Helene is defiled before her daughter's eyes. Nel has now watched her mother be talked down to by a conductor, turn to custard, and then be forced to pee outside in the grass. Her image of Helene will never be the same after observing her mother act in such a manner.
