Listened to this podcast last night... it could be good :)
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/theres-war-sugar-justified/
Monday, June 12, 2017
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Sugar Update Outline
Well, this is embarrassing...
I have been writing for the last 3 weeks without being able to make a paper --- it is still pretty directionless despite all the analyzing... or probably, perhaps because of it.
I think I need to limit myself. And set of parameters... what is important to me is how beautifully this poem brings together so many elements which all pertain to sugar. I need to however let go from being able to say everything. I need to stay focused on SUGAR. I want to talk about how sugar being a tool of discourse... it is used to make
So, in the first part, I discuss three (3) binary oppositions in the epigraph from Phillis Wheatley.
black vs white
good vs evil
us vs them
I wonder if I can stick to this... just these three binary oppositions.
I suppose to get at sugar, I can ask...
How is sugar black? How is sugar white?
How is sugar good? How is sugar evil?
How is sugar us? How is sugar them?
How is sugar neither black nor white? How is it both?
How is sugar neither good nor evil? How is it both?
How is neither us nor them? How is it both?
I want to talk about the poem and it's structure. I want to see how sugar is told...
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Analyzing Discourse in Sugar Cane: Stanza 6/6
60) One day Evelina’s son waved goodbye
61) and climbed on board a northbound train,
62) black angels guiding him invisibly.
63) In class he quoted a sentence from Jean Toomer:
64)“Time and space have no meaning in a canefield”
65) My father died last fall at eighty-one.
66) Love’s bitter, child, as often as it’s sweet
67) Mm-mm, I sure do have the blues
68) Baby, will you give me some sugar?
This final stanza brings the poem sugar full circle. The dichotomies of bitter/sweet, life/death, north/south, young/old are circumvented in the concluding stanza.
Jean Toomer's book, "Cane" is also cyclical. The sections of the book Cane is also marked with images of arcs, the first two sections are singular half arc, the third section, "Kabnis" is marked by two half arcs together forming a circle. The third section of Toomer's "Cane" confronts life and death and the confrontation of the Southern past.
Like in Toomer's "Cane" where the old man Kabnis assumably dies, here, the old man, the narrator's "father" dies old. Here, the dichotomy of age is present and still overcome through the preceding quote from Toomer's “Time and space have no meaning in a canefield.” One could read this as, history is bound to repeat itself as long as we are all under the same hegemonic forces. This old age is contrasted with youth.
In this last paragraph, Bubba, Evelina's son gains complete agency. Again, responding to the original epigraph from Wheatley, Corn writes in lines 61-62 that Bubba "climbed on board a northbound train,/black angels guiding him..." Here, it is not just the poems white narrator taking up the torch to tell the story of African-American history, but the actual desendents of African-Americans exploited by the American sugar companies and the society in all. Here, in line 64, it is not only Jean Toomer's voice, but also Bubba's voice, and the history.
It can be inferred that the invisible black angels are all the African-Americans who have come before him. Those in the previous stanza that succeeded in music, art, and business, such as those in the Sugar Hill region of New York City.
"Love’s bitter, child, as often as it’s sweet/ Mm-mm, I sure do have the blues/ Baby, will you give me some sugar?"
I am however unsure what the last three lines of the poem are getting at. I seem to believe, due to line 65 referring to what appears to be the narrators father, but that perhaps it is the narrator a) either addressing the reader. or perhaps b) the narrator addressing Shug. The narrator, says that love is bitter as much as it is sweet, and he says he is sad and he has the blues. HE then asks for sugar... ans this sort of boggles my mind. Is he asking for sugar as he is a white man and addicted to it? Is this the sugar as a drug we as a nation have come to depend on and use to handle that which we can not and do not want to confront.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Analyzing Discourse in Sugar Cane: Stanza 5/6
49) Phillis Wheatley said the sweet Christ was brought
50) here from Asia Minor to redeem an African child
51) and maybe her master’s soul as well. She wrote
52) as she lived, a model of refinement, yes,
53) but black as Abel racing through the canebrake,
54) demon bloodhounds baying in pursuit,
55) until at last his brother caught him,
56) expressed his rage, and rode back home to dinner.
57) Tell it to Fats Domino, to those who live
58) on Sugar Hill, tell it to unsuspecting Shug
59) as soon as she is old enough to hear it.
The violence and conflict peaked in the 4th stanza. Here many of the themes developed in the previous Stanza's come together. Not only is Phillis Wheatley alluded to, but she appears (again) in the poem along with her quote.
there again, is the repetition of the word "expressed" from the previous stanza...
Here, there is finally a step towards conclusion, and a response to the line in teh first poem, "Who will tell the story." The answer may be, that the story has already been told, and we are to retell it. As all stories. Like the blues which has a long oral tradition. We are commanded to tell tell the story to the famous, to the rich, to the old and young. Again, here is transportation and transformation. The quote from Wheatley suggests that Christ, the savior, comes from Africa (which is the historical evidence). And Christ in America serves as a redeemer of the African people, but also of the Americans and Christians who have sinned/committed sins.
This is the story in the Bible of Cain and Abel. Cain does kill Abel, however God does not kill him for this sin. Instead, he forbids anyone to kill Cain, and commands Cain to continue to live on earth and have a family. The poem might suggest, that Abel was black too.
there is again the repetition of the word demon (demonic, diabolic)
Here is another Domino, neither a game piece nor an international corporation. Here Domino is pianist and singer "Fats Domino" known for his jazz music as well as blues.
in line 58 Sugar is a proper noun. It is a place, a location in New York City, in Harlem, known for being the neighborhood of wealthy African Americans.
50) here from Asia Minor to redeem an African child
51) and maybe her master’s soul as well. She wrote
52) as she lived, a model of refinement, yes,
53) but black as Abel racing through the canebrake,
54) demon bloodhounds baying in pursuit,
55) until at last his brother caught him,
56) expressed his rage, and rode back home to dinner.
57) Tell it to Fats Domino, to those who live
58) on Sugar Hill, tell it to unsuspecting Shug
59) as soon as she is old enough to hear it.
The violence and conflict peaked in the 4th stanza. Here many of the themes developed in the previous Stanza's come together. Not only is Phillis Wheatley alluded to, but she appears (again) in the poem along with her quote.
there again, is the repetition of the word "expressed" from the previous stanza...
Here, there is finally a step towards conclusion, and a response to the line in teh first poem, "Who will tell the story." The answer may be, that the story has already been told, and we are to retell it. As all stories. Like the blues which has a long oral tradition. We are commanded to tell tell the story to the famous, to the rich, to the old and young. Again, here is transportation and transformation. The quote from Wheatley suggests that Christ, the savior, comes from Africa (which is the historical evidence). And Christ in America serves as a redeemer of the African people, but also of the Americans and Christians who have sinned/committed sins.
This is the story in the Bible of Cain and Abel. Cain does kill Abel, however God does not kill him for this sin. Instead, he forbids anyone to kill Cain, and commands Cain to continue to live on earth and have a family. The poem might suggest, that Abel was black too.
there is again the repetition of the word demon (demonic, diabolic)
Here is another Domino, neither a game piece nor an international corporation. Here Domino is pianist and singer "Fats Domino" known for his jazz music as well as blues.
in line 58 Sugar is a proper noun. It is a place, a location in New York City, in Harlem, known for being the neighborhood of wealthy African Americans.
Analyzing Discourse in Sugar Cane: Stanza 4/6
34) Black-and-white negatives from a picture
35) history of the sugar trade develop
36) in my dreams, a dozen able-bodied slaves
37) hacking forward through a field of cane.
38) Sweat trickles down from forehead into eye
39) as they sheave up stalks and cart them to the mill
40) where grinding iron rollers will express a thin
41) sucrose solution that, when not refined,
42) goes from blackstrap molasses on into rum,
43) a demon conveniently negotiable for slaves.
44) The master under the impression he owned
45) these useful properties naturally never thought
46) of offering them a piece of the wedding cake,
47) the big white house that bubbling brown sugar built
48) and paid for, unnaturally processed by Domino.
Again, in the fourth stanza, the theme of color is dominant. Again, there is the oppositional relationship of black and white. Back-and-white is idiomatic expression, meaning an issue is simple, clear, and without controversy. This can be read as ironic. The idy of binary and identy comes into question with the technology of photography. Corn creates an image of an image --- the image is a negative, meaning that the colors are reversed. What would appear to the human eye as dark appears light in the negative, and what appears light to the human eye is then dark in the negative. There is another play on words with the term "develop." Film is developed from negative to create the photo image... when events develop, they progress in time and sometimes in complication.
Lines 37 and 38 also contain references to the Genesis. Corn writes "able-bodied slaves" which means healthy and strong slaves... however, this could also mean that they have the bodies of the innocent son of Eve from Genesis. The slaves laboring in the field have bodies like Abel... These slaves are "hacking forward through a field of cane" literally meaning that they are cutting the cane grass and harvesting it, however, this can be interpreted also as a reference to Genesis. The context of this stanza is a dream, it is something that did not happen. Another condition of the context of this dream is that it is a dream of a photographic negative. Photographic negatives reverse colors, but by the same token, roles may also be reversed. The field of cane can also be interpreted as a "field of Cain." Cain has therefore been cut down by Abel in these lines, offering another subversion of the binary.
There are parallel images in this stanza. The sweat running from the forehead to eye parallels the this sucrose solution. The transporting, harvesting, and the processing of sugar cane seems to be mirrored by the slaves in the field. There is a mirroring happening in this stanza which reverses images. The color theme continues, the unrefined sugar product is thick, dark, black molasses -- which is integral in the making of rum.
Again, words from Wheatley's poem are adapted for the use in "Sugar Cane." the word refined appears in line 41.Demon also recalls Wheatley's use of the devil "diabolic dye" in "On Being Brought from Africa to America."
In contrast to the previous two stanza's which focused on individuals, the scale of the narrative is larger. The narrative is historic, economic, and on an industrial scale. In line 34 sugar is part of a two word phrase "sugar trade."
Again, there is transformation. This stanza centers on
contrasting color is again the opposition The binary
There is also a repetition of alcoholic drink. Here it is not the upscale crystal champagne to intoxicate those with status, but the strong dark rum. The symbol of the cake returns, and it is a monolith, like the estate houses on plantations. Big white symbols of decadence. Again the cake may symbolize the whole. The phrase "slice of the cake" means the portion, or ones share of something. Another subtle allusion may be that the white house and cake represent the America as a whole, And the White House refers to the home of the President in the US Capitol of Washington, D.C. If this wedding cake and the estate house and the White House are mirror images then, this stanza is also insinuated that the exploitation and denial of the individual master on the plantation is the same exploitation and denial which the nation participates in with respect to African Americans.
The end of the stanza returns to the binary of the slave and master. Lines 44 through 48 deal with contrasting the slave and master dichotomy. There is also the dichotomy of natural and unnatural. The "bubbling brown sugar" "built and paid for" the
35) history of the sugar trade develop
36) in my dreams, a dozen able-bodied slaves
37) hacking forward through a field of cane.
38) Sweat trickles down from forehead into eye
39) as they sheave up stalks and cart them to the mill
40) where grinding iron rollers will express a thin
41) sucrose solution that, when not refined,
42) goes from blackstrap molasses on into rum,
43) a demon conveniently negotiable for slaves.
44) The master under the impression he owned
45) these useful properties naturally never thought
46) of offering them a piece of the wedding cake,
47) the big white house that bubbling brown sugar built
48) and paid for, unnaturally processed by Domino.
Again, in the fourth stanza, the theme of color is dominant. Again, there is the oppositional relationship of black and white. Back-and-white is idiomatic expression, meaning an issue is simple, clear, and without controversy. This can be read as ironic. The idy of binary and identy comes into question with the technology of photography. Corn creates an image of an image --- the image is a negative, meaning that the colors are reversed. What would appear to the human eye as dark appears light in the negative, and what appears light to the human eye is then dark in the negative. There is another play on words with the term "develop." Film is developed from negative to create the photo image... when events develop, they progress in time and sometimes in complication.
Lines 37 and 38 also contain references to the Genesis. Corn writes "able-bodied slaves" which means healthy and strong slaves... however, this could also mean that they have the bodies of the innocent son of Eve from Genesis. The slaves laboring in the field have bodies like Abel... These slaves are "hacking forward through a field of cane" literally meaning that they are cutting the cane grass and harvesting it, however, this can be interpreted also as a reference to Genesis. The context of this stanza is a dream, it is something that did not happen. Another condition of the context of this dream is that it is a dream of a photographic negative. Photographic negatives reverse colors, but by the same token, roles may also be reversed. The field of cane can also be interpreted as a "field of Cain." Cain has therefore been cut down by Abel in these lines, offering another subversion of the binary.
There are parallel images in this stanza. The sweat running from the forehead to eye parallels the this sucrose solution. The transporting, harvesting, and the processing of sugar cane seems to be mirrored by the slaves in the field. There is a mirroring happening in this stanza which reverses images. The color theme continues, the unrefined sugar product is thick, dark, black molasses -- which is integral in the making of rum.
Again, words from Wheatley's poem are adapted for the use in "Sugar Cane." the word refined appears in line 41.Demon also recalls Wheatley's use of the devil "diabolic dye" in "On Being Brought from Africa to America."
In contrast to the previous two stanza's which focused on individuals, the scale of the narrative is larger. The narrative is historic, economic, and on an industrial scale. In line 34 sugar is part of a two word phrase "sugar trade."
Again, there is transformation. This stanza centers on
contrasting color is again the opposition The binary
There is also a repetition of alcoholic drink. Here it is not the upscale crystal champagne to intoxicate those with status, but the strong dark rum. The symbol of the cake returns, and it is a monolith, like the estate houses on plantations. Big white symbols of decadence. Again the cake may symbolize the whole. The phrase "slice of the cake" means the portion, or ones share of something. Another subtle allusion may be that the white house and cake represent the America as a whole, And the White House refers to the home of the President in the US Capitol of Washington, D.C. If this wedding cake and the estate house and the White House are mirror images then, this stanza is also insinuated that the exploitation and denial of the individual master on the plantation is the same exploitation and denial which the nation participates in with respect to African Americans.
The end of the stanza returns to the binary of the slave and master. Lines 44 through 48 deal with contrasting the slave and master dichotomy. There is also the dichotomy of natural and unnatural. The "bubbling brown sugar" "built and paid for" the
Analyzing Discourse in Sugar Cane: Stanza 3/6
21) One day Evelina who worked for us
22) showed up with her son Bubba and laughed,
23) “Now y’all can play together.” He had a sweet
24) nature, but even so we raised a little Cain,
25) and Daddy told her not to bring him back.
26) He thought I’d begun to sound like colored people.
27) She smiled, dropped her eyes, kept working.
28) And kept putting on weight. She later died of stroke.
29) Daddy developed diabetes by age fifty-five,
30) insulin burned what his blood couldn’t handle.
31) Chronic depressions I have, a nutritionist
32) gently termed “the sugar blues,” but damned
33) if any lyrics come out of them, baby.
Alfred Corn's third stanza is another interesting one in relation to form and diction. There is the speaker of the poem, but there are also many other voices. Similar to the epigraph from Wheatley.
This stanza continues with the intertextual "mise en abyme." Not only does Corn's "Sugar Cane" reference Wheatley's poem, but also references the Book of Genesis (Which Wheatley also alludes to in her poem).
On one level, the character's Evelina, "Daddy," and Bubba and introduced to the narrative, with the speaker. These characters can be seen as those from Genesis. Bubba derives from "brother." Evelina is the diminutive of Eve. "Daddy" is the speaker's father, however, neither the speaker nor the speaker's father have a given name within the poem.
In this stanza, Corn retells the story of Cain and Abel. In order to understand a subversion or role reversal in the biblical story of Cain and Abel, it is important to first have a concept of the story from Genesis. In the Bible this is also the first instance of mortal murder. Cain is the first born son of Adam and Eve and Abel is his brother. The story according to Genesis tells of Cain who planted crops and Abel who tended flocks making offerings to God. Abel sacrificed the season's first-born lamb and Cain offered the early harvest of vegetables. However, God expressed his dissatisfaction to Cain about his offering. Which results in Cain then secretly killing Abel while he is tending his flocks. In the evening Cain returns to Adam and Eve and does not admit what he has done when asked whether he knows where Abel is. According to Genesis he responds, "I am not my brother's keeper." God calls Cain out on his lie and then banishes Cain to wander the earth cursed. (Apparently he wanders the world for 700 years procreating the whole time, cursed to be unhappy and never able to settle down) Because of this story, it is Cain who is known as the "black son" and is associated with "evil" and sin.
In Corn's poetic interpretation of Cain and Abel, it is hard to tell which role is taken by whom. If we assume Evelina is Eve, then it is unclear whether Bubba is meant to be Cain or Abel. The expression "to raise Cain" is idiomatic and the equivalent to "to raised hell" meaning to behave in a rowdy or disruptive way. Corn however writes that "we raised a little Cain." First, it's important to note that the pronoun is "we." The two boys behave together. Another shade of meaning belonging to the word raise, would be "to life." If we assume that the biblical Cain has died, perhaps the two have resurrected Cain (though I am not convinced of that interpretation). "Daddy" in this story fulfils the action of God in the story of Cain and Abel by banishing the son of Eve from his house. In this story, it is Bubba who is banished, however, he has not killed anyone. However, the one who shamed and cursed in this story is Evelina. In line 28 she becomes obese and dies of a stroke.
The theme of transformation and sugar in the first stanza is paralleled in the third. Whereas the sugar in the first stanza starts as thick black liquid boiled in a vat until it becomes pure, white granular crystal, like table sugar, the sugar in the third stanza is carried in a different kind of vessel. here, the vessel is the human body, and sugar is carried in the blood and it is "burned" by insulin.
Again, color is thematized. Color is a emotional sickness, it is a symptom of a nutritional illness. In line "32" the "sugar blues" are diabetes related depression.
Another element of this is a diction, a vocabulary which is borrowing from AAVE. This is another way which Alfred Corn's "Sugar Cane" subverts the binary.
There are binaries of health and sickness and life and death in this stanza.
22) showed up with her son Bubba and laughed,
23) “Now y’all can play together.” He had a sweet
24) nature, but even so we raised a little Cain,
25) and Daddy told her not to bring him back.
26) He thought I’d begun to sound like colored people.
27) She smiled, dropped her eyes, kept working.
28) And kept putting on weight. She later died of stroke.
29) Daddy developed diabetes by age fifty-five,
30) insulin burned what his blood couldn’t handle.
31) Chronic depressions I have, a nutritionist
32) gently termed “the sugar blues,” but damned
33) if any lyrics come out of them, baby.
Alfred Corn's third stanza is another interesting one in relation to form and diction. There is the speaker of the poem, but there are also many other voices. Similar to the epigraph from Wheatley.
This stanza continues with the intertextual "mise en abyme." Not only does Corn's "Sugar Cane" reference Wheatley's poem, but also references the Book of Genesis (Which Wheatley also alludes to in her poem).
On one level, the character's Evelina, "Daddy," and Bubba and introduced to the narrative, with the speaker. These characters can be seen as those from Genesis. Bubba derives from "brother." Evelina is the diminutive of Eve. "Daddy" is the speaker's father, however, neither the speaker nor the speaker's father have a given name within the poem.
In this stanza, Corn retells the story of Cain and Abel. In order to understand a subversion or role reversal in the biblical story of Cain and Abel, it is important to first have a concept of the story from Genesis. In the Bible this is also the first instance of mortal murder. Cain is the first born son of Adam and Eve and Abel is his brother. The story according to Genesis tells of Cain who planted crops and Abel who tended flocks making offerings to God. Abel sacrificed the season's first-born lamb and Cain offered the early harvest of vegetables. However, God expressed his dissatisfaction to Cain about his offering. Which results in Cain then secretly killing Abel while he is tending his flocks. In the evening Cain returns to Adam and Eve and does not admit what he has done when asked whether he knows where Abel is. According to Genesis he responds, "I am not my brother's keeper." God calls Cain out on his lie and then banishes Cain to wander the earth cursed. (Apparently he wanders the world for 700 years procreating the whole time, cursed to be unhappy and never able to settle down) Because of this story, it is Cain who is known as the "black son" and is associated with "evil" and sin.
In Corn's poetic interpretation of Cain and Abel, it is hard to tell which role is taken by whom. If we assume Evelina is Eve, then it is unclear whether Bubba is meant to be Cain or Abel. The expression "to raise Cain" is idiomatic and the equivalent to "to raised hell" meaning to behave in a rowdy or disruptive way. Corn however writes that "we raised a little Cain." First, it's important to note that the pronoun is "we." The two boys behave together. Another shade of meaning belonging to the word raise, would be "to life." If we assume that the biblical Cain has died, perhaps the two have resurrected Cain (though I am not convinced of that interpretation). "Daddy" in this story fulfils the action of God in the story of Cain and Abel by banishing the son of Eve from his house. In this story, it is Bubba who is banished, however, he has not killed anyone. However, the one who shamed and cursed in this story is Evelina. In line 28 she becomes obese and dies of a stroke.
The theme of transformation and sugar in the first stanza is paralleled in the third. Whereas the sugar in the first stanza starts as thick black liquid boiled in a vat until it becomes pure, white granular crystal, like table sugar, the sugar in the third stanza is carried in a different kind of vessel. here, the vessel is the human body, and sugar is carried in the blood and it is "burned" by insulin.
Again, color is thematized. Color is a emotional sickness, it is a symptom of a nutritional illness. In line "32" the "sugar blues" are diabetes related depression.
Another element of this is a diction, a vocabulary which is borrowing from AAVE. This is another way which Alfred Corn's "Sugar Cane" subverts the binary.
There are binaries of health and sickness and life and death in this stanza.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Analyzing Discourse in Sugar Cane: Stanza 2/6
12) When I was a child whose payoff for obeying
13) orders was red-and-white-striped candy canes,
15) I knew that sugar was love.
16) The first time someone called me “sweetheart,”
17) I knew sugar was love.
18) And when I tasted my slice of the wedding cake,
19) iced white and washed down with sweet champagne,
20) don’t you know sugar was love.
The answer to WHO is going to tell the story is partially answered in the second stanza of the poem. The speaker narrates in the first-person past tense.
Already by the second stanza, there is subversion to dichotomy. Whereas the first stanza is written in free verse, without rhyme and rhythm, the form of the second stanza is different. It includes repetition and rhyme which reflects the blues form. The blues is based on African American oral tradition traced back to the African oral tradition of griots. There are typically three rhyming lines in a blues stanza, where the first two lines repeat and the third responds. (There are variations on this).
This stanza continues with the theme of generations. On interpretation of the repetition is a subversion of form, mixing both African and non-African form. Another way to interpret the repetition, with respect to the theme of coming of age is the repetition representing social conditioning. In the first two lines the speaker recalls childhood, and the sugary sweetness of a candy cane being approval and the following affirmation in line 15 that "I knew sugar was love." Then the speaker recalls his first romance in youth, and the associations of sweetness and emotions of affection in the use of "sweetheart" as a term of endearment. Again, the speaker affirms in line 17 "sugar was love." Again, there is a cultural symbol of the wedding cake, both as a symbol of decadence in a western wedding, but also as a symbol of purity in the unity of love between the bride and groom. In lines 18, 19, and 20, the speaker of the poem reaches maturity, and addresses the reader "don't you know, sugar was love."
There is also a clear contrast of power in this stanza. sugar becomes a "payoff"
it is unclear from who or where the orders come from, however, obedience results in a candy reward.
The speaker, the child as come to equate "obedience" with candy and candy with love.
Sugar here appears in line 13 in the processed form of a candy cane.
Sugar, by association, becomes a person again, in the term of endearment "sweetheart," which represents a lover or romantic interest.
Again, color is a theme. There is white in the stripe of the candy cane, however, black is not present in this stanza. The color red in the the stripes of the candy cane subverts the black and white dichotomy of the previous stanza and epigraph. The cake however is "iced white." Icing, naturally, being the primarily sugar covering on a cake. This is interesting, because the connotations of "icing" is something superficial, a surface covering used to hide or disguise unpleasantness below the surface. Again, the proximity of the words "white" and "washed" might also allude to superficial covering. "White wash" is cheap paint used to color and disinfect interiors and exteriors often just barely covering flaws, however idiomatically use "to whitewash" means "to censor" or "to cover up a scandal or crime." Whitewashing is also a term used in America to refer to institutionalized racial discrimination, this could also be an allusion in line 19. Another interesting element that enters the poems is status and intoxication. The image of cake, especially of wedding cake, is one of decadence. The word cake recalls the famous quote attributed to Marie Antoinette "Let them eat cake," which was her supposed response upon learning that the French peasants were rioting because they had no bread to eat.
"Enfin je me rappelai le pis-aller d’une grande princesse à qui l’on disait que les paysans n’avaient pas de pain, et qui répondit : Qu’ils mangent de la brioche."
Rousseau (trans. Angela Scholar), Jean-Jacques (2000). Confessions. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 262.
The reference to cake and champagne might be a subtle symbolic representation of the disconnect between those who have and those who do not.
13) orders was red-and-white-striped candy canes,
15) I knew that sugar was love.
16) The first time someone called me “sweetheart,”
17) I knew sugar was love.
18) And when I tasted my slice of the wedding cake,
19) iced white and washed down with sweet champagne,
20) don’t you know sugar was love.
The answer to WHO is going to tell the story is partially answered in the second stanza of the poem. The speaker narrates in the first-person past tense.
Already by the second stanza, there is subversion to dichotomy. Whereas the first stanza is written in free verse, without rhyme and rhythm, the form of the second stanza is different. It includes repetition and rhyme which reflects the blues form. The blues is based on African American oral tradition traced back to the African oral tradition of griots. There are typically three rhyming lines in a blues stanza, where the first two lines repeat and the third responds. (There are variations on this).
This stanza continues with the theme of generations. On interpretation of the repetition is a subversion of form, mixing both African and non-African form. Another way to interpret the repetition, with respect to the theme of coming of age is the repetition representing social conditioning. In the first two lines the speaker recalls childhood, and the sugary sweetness of a candy cane being approval and the following affirmation in line 15 that "I knew sugar was love." Then the speaker recalls his first romance in youth, and the associations of sweetness and emotions of affection in the use of "sweetheart" as a term of endearment. Again, the speaker affirms in line 17 "sugar was love." Again, there is a cultural symbol of the wedding cake, both as a symbol of decadence in a western wedding, but also as a symbol of purity in the unity of love between the bride and groom. In lines 18, 19, and 20, the speaker of the poem reaches maturity, and addresses the reader "don't you know, sugar was love."
There is also a clear contrast of power in this stanza. sugar becomes a "payoff"
it is unclear from who or where the orders come from, however, obedience results in a candy reward.
The speaker, the child as come to equate "obedience" with candy and candy with love.
Sugar here appears in line 13 in the processed form of a candy cane.
Sugar, by association, becomes a person again, in the term of endearment "sweetheart," which represents a lover or romantic interest.
Again, color is a theme. There is white in the stripe of the candy cane, however, black is not present in this stanza. The color red in the the stripes of the candy cane subverts the black and white dichotomy of the previous stanza and epigraph. The cake however is "iced white." Icing, naturally, being the primarily sugar covering on a cake. This is interesting, because the connotations of "icing" is something superficial, a surface covering used to hide or disguise unpleasantness below the surface. Again, the proximity of the words "white" and "washed" might also allude to superficial covering. "White wash" is cheap paint used to color and disinfect interiors and exteriors often just barely covering flaws, however idiomatically use "to whitewash" means "to censor" or "to cover up a scandal or crime." Whitewashing is also a term used in America to refer to institutionalized racial discrimination, this could also be an allusion in line 19. Another interesting element that enters the poems is status and intoxication. The image of cake, especially of wedding cake, is one of decadence. The word cake recalls the famous quote attributed to Marie Antoinette "Let them eat cake," which was her supposed response upon learning that the French peasants were rioting because they had no bread to eat.
"Enfin je me rappelai le pis-aller d’une grande princesse à qui l’on disait que les paysans n’avaient pas de pain, et qui répondit : Qu’ils mangent de la brioche."
Rousseau (trans. Angela Scholar), Jean-Jacques (2000). Confessions. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 262.
The reference to cake and champagne might be a subtle symbolic representation of the disconnect between those who have and those who do not.
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