{"id":543,"date":"2012-11-01T00:43:47","date_gmt":"2012-11-01T04:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.briancroxall.net\/lit-tech\/?p=543"},"modified":"2012-11-01T00:43:47","modified_gmt":"2012-11-01T04:43:47","slug":"looking-for-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.briancroxall.net\/lit-tech\/2012\/11\/01\/looking-for-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking For Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Annette Debo introduces her say on Bellocq\u2019s Ophelia<\/em> by highlighting the significance of looking as a part of the sexual trade conducted between Ophelia and her customers. \u201cThe sex industry is as much about theatricality as it is about sex, and in Bellocq\u2019s Ophelia the act of looking is layered, circular and reflexive\u201d (Debo, 207). Looking is central to sex. Ophelia\u2019s customers look at her and identify her traits by looking before they conduct a deal with her. The \u201cwealthy gentlemen\u201d auction to get Ophelia just by a simple look (Trethewey, 13). The men at the brothel are seeking to purchase a prostitute\u2019s services just by looking at her. They judge a woman by only observing.<\/p>\n

Debo in her article \u201cOphelia Speaks: Resurrecting Still Lives In Natasha Trethewey\u2019s Bellocq\u2019s Ophelia\u201d, also asserts the role looking plays as a part of a person\u2019s self and social identity. \u201cLayers of looking are complicated by the racial and gender identity of each person looking and by the way in which people are trained to look at others\u201d (Debo, 207). The act of looking at someone is very strange, superficial most of the times. After one glance, a person tries to identify someone\u2019s characteristics and quite often one goes too far, leading to wrong assumptions, generalizations and discriminations. Men at the brothel are curious to search for evidence of Ophelia\u2019s blackness. \u201cOthers (customers) look for evidence \u2013 telltale half moons in our fingernails, a bluish tint beneath the skin\u201d (Trethewey, 26). Customers want to classify Ophelia as black and relate her to the stereotypical characteristics of an African American by just looking at her.<\/p>\n

Initially I thought that Ophelia identifies her to be black because she is deceiving people on the streets to be white, however, she herself knows that she is black. \u201cI walk these streets a white woman, or so I think, until I catch the eyes of some stranger upon me, and I must lower mine, a negress<\/em> again\u201d (Trethewey, 7). But after a careful reading, I think that she is still rather confused as to who she is. She once talked back to her teasing friends when she said \u201cYou are what you like\u201d (Trethewey, 17). Ophelia looks white and can easily deceive people that she is white. Is she confused about her identity? Her white demeanor and upbringing may be troubling her self-identity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Annette Debo introduces her say on Bellocq\u2019s Ophelia by highlighting the significance of looking as a part of the sexual trade conducted between Ophelia and her customers. \u201cThe sex industry is as much about theatricality as it is about sex, and in Bellocq\u2019s Ophelia the act of looking is layered, circular and reflexive\u201d (Debo, 207).<\/p>\n