Ambiguity's Bayou

Walking out of Eve's Bayou, I wasn't the only one who was confused by the ending. Many in class were unsure of what the last scene meant, and who was actually at fault here. Louis and Cicely both had different versions of what happened between them and although Eve learns the full truth, a clear answer is never given to the audience.

So what happened? I think Louis was most likely the perpetrator here, but I want to cover each side since it had so many of us confused. 

Cicely is her father's favorite child. This is established fairly early on, as Eve is upset that Louis will not dance with her, and only her sister. We see more of this throughout the movie. Louis often ignores, or simply spends less time with his other children even though they love him to death. He clearly still loves them, but not as much.

In return, Louis is his daughter's favorite parent, and by a long shot. She constantly defends her father despite his wrongdoings, and when compared with Roz's feelings of frustration and betrayal, may have encouraged Louis to take increasingly more interest in Cicely. She eventually becomes his only anchor to his old life (even if he was the one causing the discourse), above his wife and his other kids. Cicely had also recently begun puberty, and chances are Louis began to see her in a different light, eventually taking advantage of her affection for him.

After the fact, Cicely is often seen hiding in her bed and covering her body with something, whether it be a blanket or her arms. She isolates herself and lashes out at her family, all common signs of a survivor of sexual assault. When her father comes near her, she curls in on herself further. She won't look at him or talk to him.

She continues her silence until her sister can't take it anymore, and explains what happened while tears run down her face. Cicely hid what happened as long as she could, but her love for her sister, likely coupled with loneliness considering her father was her favorite person before this, forced her to reveal the most vulnerable and heartbreaking thing that could ever happen to her.

On the other hand, Louis has some defense for himself.

Many of the points listed above could be applied to other perspectives. For example, Cicely's silence and avoidance of her father could be attributed to the embarrassment of being rejected.

Additionally, Cicely idolized her father, even to the point of blaming her mother for Louis's infidelity. She tried to deny Eve's claim of seeing Louis with Mrs. Mereaux even though she logically knew it to be true. Was this out of fear for her parents or jealousy of Matty? Regardless, she was undoubtedly a "daddy's girl." He was her favorite parent, and she was his favorite child. He danced only with her at parties while she stayed up to wait for him every night.

With Louis's obvious favoritism, perhaps she became confused and took her feelings too far. It would help explain some of her resentment toward her mother aside from being trapped in the house for weeks on end. She could have simultaneously been jealous of Roz for having Louis while hating her for supposedly not being enough, as most of the family knew he was unfaithful and was gone from dawn to dusk.

These feelings could have especially been heightened due to changes that come with age, as it is noted she had started her period. It is a confusing, scary time for any girl, and maybe she attempted to replace Roz. However, many people have favorite parents and hormone changes without taking it to incestuous levels.

Louis only wrote his note after being confronted by his sister, so perhaps his initial silence could be attributed to keeping Cicely's secret so as not to embarrass her. Of course, things change once one is accused of molesting their daughter, so he tried to explain.

Some more evidence could be found after his death when Cicely is distraught at his funeral. If he had truly assaulted her so horrifically, would she really miss him so much? However, her sadness doesn't completely rule him as innocent. Even if he did do it, she has loved him her entire life, and those feelings are unlikely to go away the second he commits an act, no matter how horrendous.

Again, I believe it is much more likely for Louis to be the perpetrator here, but Cicely being the one at fault is not out of the picture. Many of these scenes mentioned could have various meanings and interpretations behind them, and there is no way of truly knowing what happened unless someone involved in the film itself were to say something.

Overall, I think this ambiguous ending really took a lot out of what was initially a wonderful story. I don't think it was a good decision, even if it was supposed to prompt the viewer to think and draw their own conclusion. Endings such as this can be interesting and thought-provoking, but in the case of incest and pedophilia, it felt very tone-deaf and left a bad taste in my mouth. Realistic? Very much so, as in he-said, she-said situations, nobody knows the truth for sure; but Eve had Mozelle's second sight and found the answer for sure, so why not clear it up for the audience? Sexual assault should not be a "mystery" for entertainment purposes. 

I suppose it is a little ironic, then, that I am writing about this, wondering who did what.

2 Sides of the Same Coin

Similar to Shaft, Boyz n the Hood places much emphasis on masculinity. I have stated quite a few times that I really do not like Shaft, and most of that resentment comes from its portrayal of masculinity, or to be more precise, its relation to femininity.

I loved Boyz n the Hood, though, and I think its portrayal of black masculinity was done much better.

One of my favorite characters is Furious Styles, Tre's father. From the very beginning, he is there for his son and works to teach him responsibility, with the hopes that he will be able to go to a good college and have a successful life outside the dangers of the hood. 

Furious is a great parent, and I like his message regarding sex. Through his jokes with Tre, it is clear that he sees sex as a good thing, but encourages his son to be safe about it to avoid an unwanted child. He doesn’t act like Tre’s friends, who constantly push him to have sex to prove his status as a man, but he also does not try to restrict him completely. He encourages Tre to do as he wishes but to practice responsibility.

On the subject of Furious, Reva, Tre's mother, made a great point about how men are praised for being good parents while it is expected of women. 

I love this line because it puts things into perspective, acknowledges this problem with society, and highlights the importance of both men and women in this aspect without diminishing Furious's role as a father. Through his actions, he is still established as a great parent and respectable man while emphasizing the role of a mother. I think this is a great example of how masculinity and femininity can go hand-in-hand without holding one above the other.

That's not to say this movie's portrayal of masculinity does not have its flaws, though. Early on after the time skip, Tre's friends make fun of him for not having lost his virginity.

I don’t like this shaming, but it's not a big issue in itself since I think that's just how people tend to act. This is more of a personal grievance. It does, however, lead to my next point.

Spurred on by his friends, Tre pressures his religious girlfriend into giving up her virginity even though she has repeatedly stated that she is uncomfortable with it because it goes against her morals. When her beliefs were introduced, I thought he would come to respect her decision and I was excited to see how that played out. I hoped it would make a message about masculinity and how respecting other people's (especially women's) decisions despite peer pressure doesn’t diminish one’s manliness.

Unfortunately, this was not the case. After Ricky’s death, Brandi has sex with him. Her established boundaries are tossed aside with no explanation, and this is supposed to be a good thing for Tre. I take massive issue with this because it sets a dangerous precedent for viewers as well as establishes the man’s needs above the woman’s. It’s something you’d likely see in Shaft, and I worry viewers could take it as an invitation to treat their girlfriends similarly. It is the one issue I have regarding masculinity in this movie, but it’s a pretty big one. Constantly berating someone for sex even when they’ve said no multiple times is not consent, and I feel horrible for Brandi here. This also didn’t affect the plot at all. It should have either been cut out entirely or portrayed as a cruel action to one’s partner, not as a celebration. 

The big topic of this movie, however, is of course gang activity. I like how this is handled because it is established that the harsh life that is often romanticized in outside society, such as on social media, movies, and books, is not ideal. 

What seems to be a dominant message here is that trying to get out of the "hood" is not a weakness. “Softer” lives are often desired, and it takes strength to break out of this deadly cycle so many were forced into. Both Tre and Ricky dedicated so much of their lives to this. They work incredibly hard in their respective fields, with the constant worry that they will fail. This is exactly what happens in Ricky’s case: one small encounter with the wrong guy proves enough to get him killed, wasting his work. That’s how easy it is to fall back into the cycle. It takes so much work, strength, and luck to leave.

It is not an insult to the people that do not leave, though, as it's established that it also takes strength to remain. These characters have repeatedly shown that they are not scared of death. They take drastic actions while being fully aware of the consequences. To avenge his brother, Doughboy hunts the Bloods down and takes his time killing them. He dies for his actions 2 weeks later. He expected this. It takes a certain kind of strength to face death like that, and I think the tragedy of this was portrayed well. 

Although it had flaws, I think life and masculinity were portrayed well in Boyz n the Hood. I loved the story, characters, and messages in this movie, and it has dethroned A Raisin in the Sun as my favorite movie in this class.

Purple Rainbows

In Jaqueline Bobo’s essay regarding the controversies surrounding both the original novel and the movie adaptation of The Color Purple, one of the main topics is the characterization of black men. More specifically, it was argued that the men in The Color Purple were portrayed stereotypically, as Celie’s father, husband, and stepson were all abusive physically and sexually. It was argued that this worked directly against the last 70 years of black film and its efforts to portray African Americans - regardless of gender - as actual people to all audiences. 

When I first read this, I was shocked. It hadn’t occurred to me once, either while reading or watching. I thought this was an interesting and important insight and I was determined to write about it, especially since my last post was a complaint about how women were portrayed in Shaft, a somewhat similar argument considering negative portrayals of ‘inferior’ groups. One holds a lot more weight than the other, but I still thought they were worth looking at in a similar light.

But then I wondered why Walker decided to write her male characters this way, so I tried to find a bit more information. 

After some issues surrounding an actress in the musical adaptation, Alice Walker stated in a 2019 letter that Celie was “based on the life of my grandmother, Rachel, a kind and loving woman brutally abused by my grandfather. ... It is safe to say, after a frightful life serving and obeying abusive men, who raped in place of 'making love,' my grandmother, like Celie, was not attracted to men. She was, in fact, very drawn to my grandfather’s lover" (https://www.facebook.com/sgsanders/posts/10220513373769377).  

These criticisms mentioned in Bobo’s essay, then, are entirely irrelevant. Even if the story and characters are not “true” in the terms of, say, a documentary, they are based on truth. Celie, Shug Avery, and the men are all inspired by real people. They are not simply a group of made-up characters that reinforce harmful stereotypes: they tell a story about the author’s family, even if it is fictionalized, and I believe that is an important distinction. Alice Walker did not sit down to write these characters with the intention of demonizing black men, she was telling the story of her grandmother., a woman who overcame incredible hardships. 

I do believe, however, that this criticism was valid when initially published. Bobo’s article was published in 1989, and Walker’s letter regarding Celie’s history was written in 2019. This information may not have been available at the time, and I could not find any statements from her from the 1980s.

Since there was so much backlash from black men, however, it doesn’t matter. Even if this information was available, which I doubt considering it was not mentioned in the essay, it clearly wasn’t very well-known. This is an issue because, as seen, people will and have assumed that these characters are something they are not. These portrayals are not attacks on black men, and I believe that should be understood by everyone who views it. It may prevent anger from some and prejudice from others.