HUMANITY There are many aspects pertaining to literature that cause readers to consider it good literature. Some may analyze the plot, setting, narrative structure, character, mood, or theme. Others may choose to analyze or focus on literary techniques such as imagery, hyperbole, personification, or irony. Though we may choose to focus on any of these facets, as well as many more, the one condition that we all seem to be looking for in literature is connection. We want to be able to relate to the characters in the works we read. We want to read stories that we can comprehend and identify with; stories that allow us to associate ourselves with the characters, see the story through their eyes, put ourselves in their shoes, feel their pain, and celebrate their victory. Good literature fully explores the depths and aspects of humanity through empathy, morality, madness, vulnerability, and pride. The White Troops Had Their Orders, but the Negros Looked Like Men by Gwendolyn Brooks exemplifies empathy through the white troop meeting the black troops, likely slaves, for the first time. The poem starts us off by showing how the white men had been trained to look at the black men. They had been given the formula on how to treat them until their empathy sets in after seeing the black troops for the first time. “But when the Negros came they were perplexed. These Negros looked like men” (Brooks, 2495). In fact, they appreciated the similarities so much, they didn't have the time or frame of mind to worry about the differences they were trained to look down upon. “Besides, it taxed Time and the temper to remember those Congenital iniquities that cause Disfavor of the darkness” (Brooks, 2495). There were also two different boxes, or coffins, for the white and black troops if they were killed in battle. Obviously the white troops were to get the nicer coffins, but they ended up having so much empathy that they didn't care at all when the boxes started getting mixed up. Brooks ends the poem basically telling us a big deal was made out of nothing when referring to the weather, heaven, and earth standing still in light of the compassion and empathy shown by the white troops. While Brooks chose to connect us to her poem through empathy, morality can also be used to connect us to a literary work. William Faulkner's “Barn Burning” takes us through a father's struggle and a young boy's struggle with morality. Faulkner immediately presents the aspect of morality to us in the very first line by just the mention of the Justice of the Peace. Abner Snopes is a man of low character, proven by an injured heel from being shot on a stolen horse thirty years ago, as well as being on trial for burning down a neighbor's barn over a dispute. While Abner couldn't be proven guilty for burning down the barn, they knew he did it, therefore telling him to leave the country. The story even compares this move to times in the past, leading one to believe that something like this has happened before and proving even more that there is a history of immorality. Abner's immorality is further evidenced by his talks of “inherent voracious prodigality with material not his own” (Faulkner, 2190) and of him “living fruit of of nights past during those four years in the woods hiding from all men, blue or gray, with strings of horses (captured horses, he called them)” (Faulkner, 2190). The son was in a different situation involving his own morality. In the opening court scene, he was led to the stand to testify on the barn burning. He knows he is supposed to obey his parents and honor his father, but he also knows he is supposed to tell the truth to authorities. Does he continue the family tradition and lie to the judge? Does he tell the truth against his father? Luckily for the boy, they took him off the stand before he was asked anything. His father still knew that the boy was going to betray him and tell the truth, later on getting the boy to admit that's what he was going to do, even smacking him for it. Unfortunately, this isn't the last time the boy's morality will be tested with his father. After moving, Abner moves the family to work with Mr de Spain and it didn't take long for his immorality to show. He ruined a rug of Mr de Spain by knowingly walking into his house with horse manure on his shoes and off to court he goes again. This time Abner is charged extra bushels of corn for ruining the expensive rug. At this point the boy is hoping his father, who has a history of immorality, has learned his lesson and is done. “Maybe this is the end of it. Maybe even that twenty bushels that seems hard to have to pay for just a rug will be a cheap price to stop forever and always from being what he used to be” (Faulkner, 2195). A boy can dream, can't he? The father reacts to this by grabbing kerosene and telling the boy to get the oil. The boy knew what his father was going to do and contemplated running away. Does he obey his father? Does he run away? Does he tell someone what is happening? The boy proves again that he has stronger morals than his father by going to the de Spain house and warning them of the barn being set on fire, which led to his father being shot and killed. What are the consequences of morality? Is it death? What are the consequences of madness? Charlotte Perkins Gillman introduces us to the human aspect of madness in her story, The Yellow Wallpaper. I find it interesting that the very first sentence leads us to believe that this is a story about a normal couple. “It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer” (Gillman, 1669). From there, Gillman builds up her character's infatuation with the wallpaper throughout the story. The woman just makes small comments in the beginning, such as calling the house haunted and saying there is something queer about it. Even when she's noticing the nice conditions of the house, she insists there is something strange about it and says she can feel it. “That spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid, but I don't care-there is something strange about the house-I can feel it” (Gillman, 1670). One of the first things I notice the author say about the woman analyzing the wallpaper is that the lines curve for a distance and then commit suicide. I thought it was very interesting she decided to use this kind of wording so early in the story. Her husband tells her if she doesn't start showing improvement he will send her to a doctor. She talks of following the wallpaper pattern by the hour and is determined to follow the pattern to some kind of conclusion. Then the madness really starts. We're told “There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will. Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day. It is always the same shape, only very numerous. And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don't like it a bit. I wonder-I begin to think-I wish John would take me away from here!” (Gillman, 1675). She then talks about the faint figure behind the wallpaper wanting to get out, and although it took a little longer, she made up her mind that it is definitely a woman there. She seems to become better because of the wallpaper, the thing that seemingly drives her crazy. It gives her something to do and focus on instead of just laying there getting sicker. Her husband even sees her supposed improvement. She becomes so enthralled with the wallpaper that she even becomes enamored with the smell of it. A yellow smell. At this point, Gillman turns the madness up another notch. She stares at it for so long she begins to see the front pattern of the wallpaper move and says the woman behind it crawls all over it fast and shakes it. She even suggests that there a a great many women behind the paper. She says the woman is all of the time trying to climb through and get out of the paper, but the pattern stops her. Finally, the wallpaper finally got the best of her until she starts ripping every single bit of it off so that she doesn't have to go back behind it. She's creeping around the room and even crawls over her husband after he sees what she is doing, which caused him to pass out. Right before he passed out, I'm sure the husband felt very vulnerable, but not quite as vulnerable as our next individual. Ralph Ellison shows us this vulnerability in his work, Battle Royal. The story shows vulnerability in some obvious places, such as the girl, the fight, the rug, and the speech. These will be discussed later, as we see it first at the very beginning of the story. Our character starts off as being very vulnerable when he is looking for himself. “It goes a long way back, some twenty years. All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was.............I was naive. I was looking for myself and asking everyone but myself questions, which I, and only I, could answer” (Ellison, 2395). Shorty after we're shown the vulnerability of the grandpa as he tries to pass it along to his family. He tells them “I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open” (Ellison, 2395). We see his vulnerability on his graduation day when he has to give a speech. He tells them that humility is the very essence of progress, when he didn't even believe that. The speech was so strong that he was invited to give it at a gathering of the town's leading white citizens. The entire idea of the battle royal made him feel very uncomfortable. The other guys were a lot bigger than he was and they were tough. He saw himself more like Booker T. Washington than he did a fighter. If this is what he has to do to get to make his speech, then this is what he has to do. The story tells us of him nearly wetting his pants when they were brought up to the front of the ballroom in front of all of the successful white men. Then they send the naked girl out. They begin to flaunt her and she dances in front of all of them, the crowd and the fighters. He was scared something would happen to him if he dared to look. Things got so crazy with the men chasing the girl that the fighters tried to leave. This entire time they were being taunted while the girl danced around them. One of the biggest points of vulnerability is the beginning of the fight. All of the fighters are blindfolded, have boxing gloves put on them, and are told to go at it. All the while, they're constantly taunted. “Let me at that big nigger! ..........Let me at those black sonsabitches ..........Tear him limb from limb” (Ellison, 2398). Through these illustrations, Ellison shows us that the boy has no dignity left. The fight is finally over after the biggest guy knocking the boy out. Now, for their payment and the rug. The first point of vulnerability at the rug is when they're told to get down on their hands and knees around the rug just to get their payment for the fight. The man had thrown coins and paper on the rug for the guys to fight for. Little did they know the rug was electric. They were subjected to electric shock to get their payment, of which some of the coins ended up being fake. The men in the crown even began to throw the fighters on the rug just to watch them squirm. We're told of some of the fighters laughing out of fear and embarrassment. Of course, the crowd is still taunting them, as if they didn't feel vulnerable enough already. It's now time for the most vulnerable part of the story. It's time for him to give his big speech. How was he going to do it while standing there a bloody and sweaty mess. There's no way he can miss this opportunity, so he has to do it as he is. “There was still laughter as I faced them, my mouth dry, my eye throbbing. I began slowly, but evidently my throat was tense” (Ellison, 2403). The entire time he was giving his speech the men continued to laugh and talk. The boy mentioned social equality and the talking and laughter turned into displeasure. This is the most vulnerable he's been throughout the story. Does he continue to tell them of social equality or does he do as his grandfather said? He did gain a nice briefcase and college scholarship from his vulnerability, but also lost his pride; which is what Dee did in our next example.

Everyday Use by Alice Walker fully explores the depths and aspects of humanity through pride. Walker not only shows us the aspect of pride in the mother, Dee, and Maggie; she also shows us the lack of pride in Dee. Although she is poor and uneducated the mother shows pride in getting her place ready for her daughter to come visit. “I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon. A yard like this is more comfortable than most people know. It is not just a yard. It is like an extended living room” (Walker, 2715). We read of the house fire that Maggie was burned in 10-12 years ago. The mother tells of holding Maggie while watching Dee under the gum tree. “And Dee, I see her standing off under the sweet gum tree she used to dig gum out of; a look of concentration on her face as she watched the last dingy gray board of the house fall in toward the red-hot brick chimney. Why don't you do a dance around the ashes? I'd wanted to ask her. She had hated the house that much” (Walker, 2716). Their mother knew the house wasn't much, but she was proud of what little she did have. It seems as if she saw the fire as a loss while Dee saw it as a type of gain. There is a lack of pride that Dee shows is in where she came from. This is evident when she writes and tells her mom that no matter where they “choose” to live, she will manage to still visit, but never bring her friends. She may not be happy with the way her mom and sister lives, but she needs to remember where she came from. She has to remember what her mother went through to get her where she is now. Dee does have a certain type of pride in herself and the possessions she can accumulate. She's always tried to look neat and proper, from her graduation to visiting her family. We're told of her dress, her shoes, and her bracelets. When she gets out of the car, she takes a picture of the house and pasture. I think it's safe to say this isn't for memories, but for display. The same goes for the butter churn and quilts. The churn as a table display and the quilts to hang. Dee is also proud of the person she is now and her new found philosophy. She tells her mother of her new name, Wangero. When her mother asks what happened to Dee, “She's dead, I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after people who oppress me” (Walker, 2718). This also shows a lack of pride in where she came from. She was named after her aunt, who was named after Dee's grandmother, who was named after Dee's great grandmother, and could probably be traced back beyond the Civil War. After asking about the hand carved benches and butter churn, Dee set her eyes on the hand made quilts that her mother had. She did have pride in wanting the quilts, but also showed a lack of pride. She wanted to display them, almost as a part of a history that she had nothing to do with. Grandma Dee and Big Dee handmade the quilts from pieces of clothing from different family members, including a piece from a uniform that her Great Grandpa Ezra wore in the Civil war. Her mother wanted to keep them and even let Maggie use them. She cherished them and was proud of where they came from. She wanted to let Maggie use them as a tribute to where they came from. Maggie knew how to make more if they get worn out and learned how from Grandma Dee and Big Dee. She knew she could keep the family tradition and family pride through Maggie continuing what they taught her. The main point of pride was at the end of the story after Dee was told that Maggie was to keep the quilts. Dee told her mother that she just doesn't understand. When the mother asks what Dee is talking about, Dee tells her it's her heritage she doesn't understand. Seems to me that she has it backwards. Dee may understand the history of her heritage, but she doesn't understand or have pride her true heritage in any way whatsoever. Good literature fully explores the depths of humanity. Walker, Ellison, Gillman, Faulkner, and Brooks each examine the aspects of humanness through empathy, morality, madness, vulnerability, and pride. The works from these authors allow us to learn something about ourselves. They give us a chance to grow. They encourage us to see the perspective of others. Finally, they inspire us to see the humanity in ourselves and in others.

WORKS CITED
Brooks, Gwendolyn. "The White Troops Had Their Orders, but the Negros Looked Like Men." Ed. Nina Baym. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Eighth Edition. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2013. Print.
Faulkner, William. "Barn Burning." Ed. Nina Baym. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Eighth Edition. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2013. Print.
Gillman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Ed. Nina Baym. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. . Eighth Edition. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2013. Print.
Ellison, Ralph. "Battle Royal." Ed. Nina Baym. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Eighth Edition. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2013. Print.
Walker, Alice. "Everyday Use." Ed. Nina Baym. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Eighth Edition. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2013. Print.