Daoism (Taoism), Daodejing (Tao Te Ching), Lecture Outline

Daoism(Taosim)

• earliest writing associated with Daoism: Daodejing
  • 'The Classic of the Way and its Power' – by Laozi (Lau-Tzu) & Zhuangzi (Chuang-Tzu)
• Laozi – supposed to have been a contemporary of Kongzi
  • may just be a legend, not a real person
  • the Daodejing possibly came into existence over many centuries
• when was Daodejing written? No one really knows...
• the Dao – 'the way' – can be 'the road/path'
  • 'the way things go'
  • the Dao is social
    • a moral principle
  • in Daoism, the Dao is more a metaphysical notion, suggesting the ultimate principle of nature/universe
  • 'the ultimate principle of the universe'
    • can be understood in terms of origin
  • secret: follow the Dao
  • as a Daoist, emulate nature (Confucians follow rites)
    • go with the flow, go with the harmony
    • not resisting nature
  • Daoism is not about rules
  • Daoism is quite opposed to Confucianism – Confucians want social convention, Daoist want to be natural
  • be natural – follow your own nature; emulate nature – the 'flow' of the natural world
    • give up artificiality
    • forget scripted, rule governed behavior
      • reject ritual
    • quit thinking about what you are 'supposed to be doing' – and be a part of the harmony which is around you
  • Philosophical Daoism vs. Religious Daoism
    • religious Daoism – did adopt some rituals
  • Confucian: How do I fit into society? What is my role?
  • Daoist: How do I fit into nature? What is my role in the natural order?
• The Ultimate Reality – The Dao
  • that which is natural, eternal, spontaneous and ineffable (not-describable)
  • one translation: “The Dao which can be spoken of is not the true Dao”
  • this is common in mysticism – the view that there is some ultimate reality that goes beyond bodily sense perception
    • transcendent
    • this is connected with its ineffability
    • perhaps if one can use language in a somewhat artistic way to convey that which is beyond language
  • perhaps language is best suited for communication about ordinary objects – tables, chairs, saber-tooth tigers
    • not suited to discussion of the Transcendent Reality
• The Dao is not God! Not a personal deity; you can't pray to the Dao – it's not listening; it has no will, no plan, doesn't particularly care what you do
  • Daoism is non-theistic
  • God – omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent/loving, personal – will, conscious, plan; the creator of the universe, remains active in the world
  • god – ex. Zeus
• if you want to be like nature,
  • you must be spontaneous, natural, and free, and that people are not
  • you will be a lot happier if you can be like the Dao
  • natural – a human quality, free from rigidness or
• importance of water to the Dao: the flow
• How does one become spontaneous, natural and free?
  • A 'flow' experience – the zone
  • getting in the zone when running, getting in the zone when playing music – the running or music just takes over and you aren't aware of exerting any effort anymore
  • also...takes a lot of energy to swim upstream, going against the flow
    • learn to intuit the flow of the Dao
• the Daoist sage emulates this
  • this is the paradigm of morality
• Daoism wants to say the fundamental nature of the universe is associated with spontaneity
  • not that is impossible to predict
    • but mostly
• bk 1 ch1
  • “A way that can be followed is not a constant Way”
    • spontaneity/constant change
    • you can't set out to follow it
    • though don't you want to be following the Dao?
  • “following the Dao” – in some sense naming it
    • if you can't name it you can't think about it...right?
    • naming – intellectualizing, rationalizing; labeling, defining
  • “eliminate desires in order to observe its mysteries”
    • how does this relate to 'following the Dao'
  • we are being alerted to putting labels – rationality – onto the Dao, that is ever-changing
    • to understand in this way is to avoid spontaneity – to control what is
    • this comes from attempting to control nature into our desires
  • the usual way we operate:
    • I want X, if possible I will manipulate nature to bring it about
    • must understand to manipulate
  • ceasing to intellectualize will result in being with the Dao
  • following is intentional, from a desire
  • ((Buddhism))
    • wrong desire is responsible for suffering
    • wrong desire is grasping, craving, attachment
  • in wanting to eliminate desire, it sounds like buddhism
  • the Dao in its essence is the source of all things
  • “Always have desires in order to observe its manifestations”
    • an intuitive grasp of the Dao: (like point zero, from which all sprang when the void contemplated itself)
  • “these two come forth in unity but diverge in name”
    • in order to label something, it must be distinguished from other objects
    • a distinction in thought only
    • the reason you can't see the Dao is because you are too busy intellectualizing it
  • “their unity is known as an enigma”
    • enigma – something that baffles understanding but cannot be explained
• a kind of order that doesn't entail prediction
  this sort of order is present in art, music
  • an aesthetic order (concerned with beauty)
• b. 1ch. 2
  • “when beautiful strives to be beautiful, it is repulsive”
  • (water is a feminine element)
  • Daoist government: don't intervene with force, find a way to bring it into harmony
  • wu-wei – actionless action, minimal action
  • “to have and to lack generate each other. Difficult and easy give form to each other. Long and short off-set each other. High and low incline into each other. Note and rhythm harmonize with each other.”
  • “and by not lingering, merit never deserts them”
• nameless ~ formless – when things acquire names, they acquire forms
  • early Daoists did not call themselves Daoists
  • name-language-convention-form
• all the stress in our lives is from resisting the Dao
• The Dao often compared with water
  • ex. ch. 32
  • what does water do?
    • water flows downhill effortlessly
  • If you let it out of a hose, it goes the easiest way
  • if there is an obstacle, you go around it
  • even a stone is gradually eroded by water, which always takes the easy way and goes around confrontation
  • no confrontation – often we perceive a conflict – we beg for confrontation especially with people
  • Daoism: if you think life is too hard, you are having a hard time, there is something you cannot see
  • wu-wei is not passivity – it is economy of action; the water is not inactive, it just goes the natural way
    • minimal effort, maximum results
    • perhaps because there is no conflict
• desire – in Daoism – (connection to effort)
  • if I have a desire that X occur:
    “I desire X”
    I desire cold beer
    I do not have cold beer,
    As I pursue the cold beer I initiate change
    • the opposite of understanding the changes that are already taking place and cooperating with these
  • is it against the Dao to make this change come about?
  • Desire involves intervention, as in things are going a certain way and you are trying to control it
• wu-wei: listening: paying attention
  • rather than jumping in and trying to change things before we understand what's happening
• opposites generate each other – complement/need each other
  • 'night begets the day begets the night'
  • in nature – cycles; transitions between opposites
  • female-male
  • dark-light
  • yin-yang
  • soft-hard
  • emptiness (nonpresence – is capacity, has potential [to be filled])
    • emptiness becomes a potential for power
  • to have and to lack generate each other – opposites
• self-conscious: trying to create yourself for other people
  • cannot be what you are
  • Spontaneity vs. Self-Consciousness
  • ch. 7 “is it not because they have no thought of themselves that they are able to perfect themselves”
• Feng Shui – creating something – house, garden, etc. - as to maximize energy flow
  • important: wind chimes, flowing water
• the Dao itself does not change; nature is in flux, the Dao is somehow behind it, what makes change possible
• Ch. 11 – Dao is the hub of the wheel, nature flows in a circle around it; if the hub moved, the wheel would be unstable
  • the emptiness is a useful emptiness
    • normally we think of emptiness as inert; in this case emptiness is potential
    • an active emptiness (maybe) (?)
  • the spokes of the wheel are carrying all the weight, there is no stress in the center, it is empty
  • *in the west, especially talking in spiritual/religious terms, there is a distinction:
    material vs. non-materialist
    physical vs. spiritual/mental
  • in the Daoism:
    presence vs. nonpresence (emptiness)
  • problem in the west: mind-body dichotomy
  • the center of the wheel is non-material, yet still part of the wheel in such a way that it makes it function possible
  • passive hub still contains the potential of the wheel to function
  • the hub expends no energy
  • center of the wheel is balanced, harmonized
• The Dao is self-so (Chinese ziran)
• How can I 'be the hub'?
  • Be the empty center of your own environment
  • our heart/mind should be empty
  • listening is still active but not interventionary
  • Daoist ideal/sage: listen, be attentive; not active but not intervening
• Daoist meditative practice: “forgetting”
  • do nothing and allow yourself to be what you are
  • to be self so is to be what you really are
  • being in harmony with your own nature
• the sage is like a child/baby
  • unspoiled by convention
• *Fiscal conservatives – don't interfere with economic activity (libertarian)
• *Legislative conservatives – legislate as little as possible (libertarian)
• *Social conservatives – actively anti-gay marriage, anti-abortion
• Daoist – Jefferson – that government that governs best governs least

• Qi (Chi) – vital energies – mentioned several times in the Daodejing
  • ch. 42, p. 183
  • something significant about 'vital energies'
  • identified with the yin and yang

female & male

• these energies are around us
• there is a natural flow of these energies, when we resist them, we get sick and eventually
• yin – light, yang – dark
  • symbol suggests constant motion, transformation between the two
  • continuous cycling of opposites, in which each opposite possesses the seed of its opposite (that's what the opposite colored circle is)
• sage is as a child – spontaneous, free, they play all the time, children are empty of all this
  • that is why the Daoist meditation is forgetting
  • forgetting all the junk that builds up

Plato's Allegory of the Cave, Summary and Explanation

What exactly is Plato saying about human beings in his Allegory of the Cave? He is saying just this: people live their lives bound by the shackles of appetite, and these shackles force them to look only at shadows of a copied truth, through light manufactured not by the divine, but by those whose original intent was to imprison. Plato's answer for the human quandary is education.

Each piece of the allegory is meant to represent some part of real human experience, including the scene setting at the beginning of Republic VII. The cave is identified as an “underground, cavelike dwelling, with an entrance a long way up, which is both open to the light and as wide as the cave itself.” By this, Plato means to convey that real people are in a position such that from their particular vantage point, it does not appear there is a world which contains more than they are seeing, even though it is open to them.

Next the prisoners themselves are described: “They’ve been there since childhood, fixed in the same place, with their necks and legs fettered, able to see only in front of them, because their bonds prevent them from turning their heads around.” Human beings are alive in a place that is corporeal, without sensory access to the outside, or the Forms. They are in this realm since childhood – as far as I know, nobody takes a physical vacation to the land of the immaterial. So when applied to real people, the allegory tell us that at birth the appetites of the body are all that is known, and so they fall into the role of guide.

The cave-dwellers are meant to illustrate all people. There are at least two reasons to believe Plato means to describe all human beings, not just a particular group, as bound cave-dwellers at birth. First of all, in 515a he states that the prisoners are “like us,” and goes on to give an explanation. Second, when describing the ideal luxurious city, Plato makes it clear that the philosopher-kings can come from any set of parents, since no one even knows their which class their actual parents belong to. So, when the Cave Allegory is looked at in light of the philosophy surrounding it, it would appear that either all people are born in the cave or none are, if the cave-dwellers are to represent actual people.

A line from 82e in Phaedo may well be the sneak preview to Republic VII, as it was written earlier in Plato’s philosophical career, and it nicely sums up the ‘fetters’ or shackles of the Cave Allegory. “Philosophy sees that the worst feature of this imprisonment is that it is due to desires, so that the prisoner himself is contributing to his own incarceration most of all.” What is meant by desire here are bodily desires, such as those for food, alcohol and sex; these are the shackles spoken of in Republic VII's Cave Allegory. Plato goes on in the Phaedo to say that feeding these bodily desires only contributes to their growth, as they are a greedy appetite. He says the only solution is philosophy, or seeking knowledge about the way things really are. It helps the soul keep from being consumed by the body. This is also helpful, he says, because when the body of a philosopher dies, the soul will not miss it so profoundly that it must come back and essentially reincarnate again. The soul of a philosopher will be free to move on to more divine things, as it is not hopelessly mixed up with the corporeal world.

The Allegory goes on to give an account of the scene these prisoners see. Images are projected onto the wall all the prisoners face, shadows cast over their heads by a fire. This light by which they see is not natural, it is from some fire built by a guard. The light is produced within a system that is purposely deceiving, and it illuminates unnatural and incomplete representations of actual objects outside, namely, statues and other artifacts. In real life, the images on the cave wall are supposed to represent people’s perceptions of sensible objects, viewed not through reason but because they are lusted after by the appetites and imagination.

The rest of the story describes a particular cave-dweller who is unshackled and forced to look at the deception of the system he has been living in. When first looking at the fire, and later the sunlight outside, he is completely unable to see because his eyes are not used to the comparatively brilliant light. This initial blinding describes the denial human being go through when forced, either by circumstance or another person, at something which challenges their current thoughts about the nature of reality. It is painful, just as bright light is to the unadjusted eye. Eventually the cave-dweller's eyes adjust, and he sees how the shadows on the wall were cast by statues and other artifacts, carried by puppeteers. These objects represent sensible objects, the things we see everywhere in the world. In the story, they are copies of the real objects outside; in real life, sensible objects participate in the Forms.

The cave-dweller is led outside, where again he experiences blinding light. As his eyes  adjust, he sees the real objects which statues were modeled after. This outside world represents the realm of the Forms. The cave-dweller is now completely changed, and has an entirely new understanding of the world.

At this point, the Cave Allegory can be continued in the previous book, when Plato gave us an account of the good. We could imagine this prisoner looking up at the sun, and coming to understand how the sun makes it possible for him to see. The sun represents the Form of the Good, what makes it possible for all other forms to be. The Form of the Good is equated to being complete, pure, and eternal. The entire process represents the process and result of education on the soul within a body. With the understanding he has at the end of the Allegory, the cave-dweller could never go back and choose to be shackled to the wall. There is much more to explore outside of the cave. In the same way, an educated person ought to understand the importance of seeking knowledge about the way things really are. This frees the soul from attachment to the body, as described in the Phaedo, and when the body dies, the soul goes on to be with the gods. The soul does not choose to come back to another body.

Taken back to the cave, the freed prisoner tells the others of the deception in which they live, but they cannot understand him. All they see is that he has lost his eyesight. They may even become violent with him for this. This is the probably the reason Plato separates the three classes of citizens in his ideal city. Problems seem to erupt when the life of a person from the higher class (ruler) is mixed into the lives of a group of the lower class (producers).

The concept of the Divided Line from Republic VI is intertwined with the Cave Allegory. The Divided Line section essentially describes the metaphysics behind the process of education the cave-dweller goes through in the Cave Allegory. In the Divided Line explanation, reality is separated into two realms, the Visible and the Intelligible. The realms are on a continuum, with the Intelligible realm on top. In the Visible realm, the lowest cognitive state of imagination is paired with images or reflections of sensible objects. This corresponds nicely to the shadows viewed by bound prisoners in the cave. The next higher cognitive state is belief. Still a sensory experience, belief is paired with the actual sense experience of objects. It's counterpart in the Cave Allegory are the statues and other artifacts. They are real only insofar as they incompletely copy actual objects outside of the cave. On the other side of the divided line from the Visible realm is the Intelligible realm, where the forms and images of the forms are contained. The images of forms are likened to geometric symbols, which are not the forms themselves, but nearly complete ideas about them. The images are grasped by thought, while the forms themselves are grasped by understanding, and are complemented by the real objects outside of the cave.

The cave-dwellers very accurately represent the lives of uneducated human beings. Most human beings need a rude awakening, such as being forced to see each level of truth of the cave, to become of the philosophical nature. However, Plato does forget to illustrate for the reader another possible situation which can mark a person’s deliverance into the realm of sunlight. It might look like this: the cave-dweller refuses to be a prisoner any longer, and begins upon a quest to escape. After seeing too much of the shadowed images, they finally snap. They scream, make noise, otherwise disrupting the cave in any way they can, desperately trying to get help or find a way out. Eventually the cave-dweller breaks a bond on one of their arms, then fumbles around in the dark and finds a small piece of metal, and over the course of a period of perhaps weeks, months or years, uses the metal to pick the locks in the shackles binding them to wall. The cave-dweller is at this point emotionally consumed with an apprehensive enthrallment, as a result of being rewarded freedom after intense searching. At this point the free cave-dweller carefully examines each level of deceit. This person is afraid of what they might find, but cannot conceive of again living the life from which they escaped. So they press onward, understanding the workings each level entirely before moving on.

The person I have described was not physically forced to move beyond their shackles. Plato’s Cave Allegory shows that he believes the only way for a human being to acquire a philosophical nature is by through brute forced. I firmly disagree. People can become fed-up with a life of insatiable appetite for bodily pleasure, and as a result they can choose to change.

The cave-dwellers most accurately represent human beings in Plato’s day. There was very little science, which means people relied more heavily than today on myth or belief than on systematic or even loose methods of inquiry. That is not to assert that all people of the present are entirely devoted to science. Obviously a great many dwell in scientific ignorance, whether by conscious or subconscious choice or through some other means which keeps them in this state. These are the people who see no life outside of welfare, are content with feeding off of charity, or are so mentally and bodily deficient in such a way which hides them from self-improvement. They will not look away from the shadows on the wall of the cave. But on the whole, individuals in society seek the truth at a much greater scale than in the past. This fact is utterly plain when one takes a look at the exponential growth of scientific publishing in the last 150 years.

For the normal, run of the mill, completely average human being, Plato is partially correct. He thoughts on the purpose of education, illustrated through the Allegory of the Cave, are superb, and have had much influence into the present day. Perhaps this is a small reason why science now flourishes – because childhood education is extensive in comparison to Plato's time.

Darfur crisis: a student's perspective

Through the course of research, I have learned a lot about Darfur and the humanitarian crisis occurring there. My portion of the group project was to examine the role of non-governmental organizations in the crisis. These organizations provide various forms of aid, intelligence, and advocacy. The complexity and severity of the crisis had yielded a huge response from the NGO community.

There are many types of NGO intervention. Aid comes in the form of food, medical supplies and services, financial support, psychological and spiritual services, and organizational management for displaced persons, and building materials and construction. Examples of NGOs that provide this micro and meso level aid are the Save the Children Coalition, Help Darfur Now, the Darfur Coalition, the World Health Organization, the United Nations, the Red Cross, and CARE International and its national branches.

Advocacy is an important role of NGOs as well. Advocacy raises awareness of the crisis, which brings political and aid support. Nearly all NGOs I researched were involved in advocacy. Many local student organizations are raising awareness on college campuses, and raising money for aid organizations. NGOs that specifically advocate for displace persons in Darfur and raise the international awareness of the crisis include Bloggers for Darfur, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, the Genocide Intervention Network, Justice for Darfur, and the Student Anti-Genocide Coalition.

Advocacy would not be possible without organizations that are on the ground collecting intelligence data on the crisis. In my opinion, this continues to be the most dangerous job, and the most necessary. Without good intelligence, the International Criminal Court would be unable to prosecute, the UN would be unable to impose sanctions, and in general political action could not be taken. Some of the NGOs collecting intelligence include Amnesty International, Civilian Protection Monitoring Team, Crisis Watch, and the Small Arms Coalition.

The above three groups approximate the roles of many NGOs. Many NGOs play multiple roles, and others do not fit perfectly in the categories of aid, advocacy, and intelligence. For example, Air Serve International provides air lifts throughout Chad and Sudan; a very dangerous and needed job. They transport the wounded and bring humanitarian aid into different areas. The International Criminal Court attempts to prosecute key players behind the unrest in the area. AfriCare supports farmers in Chad and Sudan.

Chapter Summaries, Part 3 of 4, Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody

Book Summary

The book is divided into four parts:
1) Childhood
2) High School
3) College
4) The Movement

Below are the most important events in each of these four parts of the novel and how they affect Anne Moody and her coming of age. 

Part Three: College

Chapter 20

Out of high school, Anne tries to go to college but realizes she can't pay for it. She gets a basketball scholarship to Natchez College, an ugly little college in Mississippi. She becomes the star of the basketball team, but she gets in an argument with Miss Adams, the dean's secretary, in a challenge of authority. The President agreed with Anne in the dispute and this pisses off Miss Adams who is a manager of the basketball team. She makes life miserable for Anne. This shows Anne's strength and her courage to stand up for what she thought was right, no matter the risks.  

Chapter 21

Anne has a boyfriend, Keemp, and they kiss for the first time. She is very prude about guys although she is incredibly gorgeous and sought after by many.  

Also, in Natchez College, Anne starts a boycott of the school cafeteria when maggots are found in the grits. The cook, Miss Harris, is a nasty old woman who knew that the food was spoiled but didn't care. The protest goes up to the President and the President once again agrees with Anne. This protest is a prelude to the sit-in"'"s that she will be doing during the movement. Anne graduates Natchez with straight A"'"s, as usual, and this impresses to President very much. The President recommends her to acquire a scholarship at Tougaloo, the top black college in Mississippi.  

Chapter 22

In Tougaloo, Anne quickly becomes involved with the NAACP and the SNCC. She attends the famous Woolworth sit-in and after this becomes bound with the black empowerment movement. Meanwhile, her mother writes her letters telling her to stop her involvement with such stupid organizations. Her mother is afraid of her family being killed by white supremacists at Centreville. The difference between Anne and her mother becomes apparent: Anne hopes for change and reform, but her mother is so settled in with the ways of racial etiquette and the fear for her life, she cannot believe in change. She tells Anne that black people will always have to deal with the misery in life, and after Anne dies (and she will die soon because she is involved with such a dangerous cause) life will remain the same for black people. Anne doesn't believe her and continues working for the civil rights movement.



1) Childhood
2) High School
3) College
4) The Movement

Chapter Summaries, Part 4 of 4, Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody

Book Summary

The book is divided into four parts:
1) Childhood
2) High School
3) College
4) The Movement

Below are the most important events in each of these four parts of the novel and how they affect Anne Moody and her coming of age. 

Part Four: The Movement

23. Anne spontaneously decides to sit-in at a bus stop and almost gets herself killed by an angry white mob. She participates in many protests thereafter and works with many famous black empowerment leaders such as Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King. 

24. Anne works in Canton, Mississippi for the cause of voter registration. It's very frustrating work and she suffers a huge burden from fear and pressure. People involved in the movement die left and right. Anne finds herself on a KKK black list. She fears for her life. She also finds that her family are afraid to communicate with her. When she finally quits her job in Canton and goes back to her family, she sees how complacent they are with their situation and that frustrates her as well. Her family treats her like a stranger and think her selfish for endangering them by getting involved in the Movement. She is miserable and doesn't fit in anywhere. She graduates from Tougaloo and no one goes to her graduation. Her sister Adline gives her a pretty green dress. 

25. The story ends with the murder of McKinley in front of a gathered group of a gathered group of nonviolent civil rights activists. Tired Anne Moody wonders if things will change.



1) Childhood
2) High School
3) College
4) The Movement

Chapter Summaries, Part 2 of 4, Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody

Book Summary

The book is divided into four parts:
1) Childhood
2) High School
3) College
4) The Movement

Below are the most important events in each of these four parts of the novel and how they affect Anne Moody and her coming of age. 

Part Two: High School

Chapter 11

One HUGE event which effects Essie Mae, whose name is now changed to Anne, is the murder of a young boy, Emmitt Till. Emmitt Till was 14 and was visiting Mississippi from Chicago. He allegedly whistled at a white woman and was killed by white men. Anne is really bothered by this issue and can't sleep or work for days.  

Chapter 12

Anne overhears her employer, Mrs. Burke, speak about the NAACP with her "Guild" (her group of white-supremicist friends). Anne asks her mother what NAACP is and her mother told her she shouldn't know, so she asks her teacher, Mrs. Rice. Mrs. Rice tells her what it is and helps her develop an understanding of black/white America. Later, Mrs. Rice is fired. Mrs. Rice was the first guiding light for Anne to the Movement. 

Chapter 13

Other unfair black/white incidents: Bess and Mr. Fox, Jerry and the operator woman, the Taplin family house burnt down, Benty and Rosetta. All these incidents show how interracial relationships lead to violence. 

Chapter 14

Anne tutors Mrs. Burke's son, Wayne, and Wayne's friends in algebra. Wayne starts to have a crush on Anne and Mrs. Burke is furious. Anne eventually quits because Mrs. Burke was making life difficult for her. An equal relationship between a black female and a white male was virtually impossible. 

Chapter 15

In order to keep herself from going crazy with all these terrible things happening around her, Anne busies herself with doing lots of extra-curricular activities at school: basketball, tumbling, piano, working for white ladies. She is very smart, gets straight A's, and does very well in school. Anne shows herself to be a girl of immense potential. 

Chapter 16

The Principle of her high school, Principle Willis is an Uncle Tom. Samuel O'Quinn, a black empowerment activist and NAACP member was trying to secretly organize a meeting in Centreville, and Principle Willis tattled on him. Samuel O'Quinn was shot by white men. Anne develops an intense hatred Principle Willis and "Uncle Toms" like him. 

Chapter 17

Over the summer, Anne goes to New Orleans to live with her Uncle Ed in hopes of finding a high-paying job as a waitress. She finds that a good job is hard to come by. At first, she is ripped off of two-weeks worth of work by Mrs. Jetson, a poor white lady. Then she goes and works as a scab worker at a slaughterhouse of chickens. She is sickened so much by this experience that she doesn't eat chickens for years after. She also goes back to school feeling more mature than the other kids because of what she had to go through and what she understands of the world after working behind the picket fence. The next summer (summer of sophomore year) she goes back and scab workers were no longer needed, but she finds a job with Grandma Winnie in a restaurant. She is a gorgeous girl and all the boys find her very attractive. She is promoted from dishwashing, to busgirl, eventually to a waitress, and she learns about every aspect of the restaurant business from cooking to managing money – another leadership skill for her. She also meets among her coworkers Lola and Lily White, two gay men who she befriends. Lily White is a queer strip club dancer. Lola teaches her to dress nicely and accentuate her body. 

Chapter 18

Everyone is attracted to Essie Mae when she comes back home from New Orleans, including her basketball coach, Mr. Hicks, and her stepfather, Raymond. Essie Mae gets especially pissed off at Raymond one day for being a horny, lazy ass, and blows a fuse. She threatens to kill him with a piece of glass. Then she runs away from home and gets the racist sheriff, Cassidy, to pick up her clothes from Raymond and her mother's house. She moves away to her Daddy's house.  

Chapter 19

Daddy's new wife, Emma, is a strong woman whom Anne learns to love. She goes with Emma to dinner with Emma's family. Emma is full of energy and warmth. Unlike Raymond, Emma stands up to her "yellow" family and makes her family love Anne's Daddy. Emma's brother-in-law Wilbert gets in a huge fight with his wife over financial issues and threatens to kill his wife. Emma gets in the way and as a result has her foot shot off by Wilbert.

Daddy carries Emma to the truck with a "supernatural force" and the reader knows that Daddy really loves Emma. Emma is good-natured in the hospital. She did not blame Wilbert for her injury but "put the blame where it belonged," on the white people and the American society which make life so difficult for Wilbert and his family.



1) Childhood
2) High School
3) College
4) The Movement

Critical summary of Zhuangzi

In the last two paragraphs of chapter one of Zhuangzi's writings (p. 213 in Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy), a character Huizi likens a large gnarled tree to Zhuangzi's lofty philosophy.
“I have a big tree, the kind people call Spring. Its trunk is so gnarled it won't take a chalk line, and its branches are so twisted they won't fit a compass or square. It stands by the road but no builder looks twice at it. Your talk is similarly big and useless, and everyone alike rejects it.”
Unshaken by Huizi's outright rejection of his philosophy, Zhuangzi replies with:
“Haven't you seen a weasel? It bends down then rises up. It springs east and west, not worrying about heights or depths—and lands in a snare or dies in a net. Now the yak is so big he looks like clouds hanging from Heaven. He sure can be big, but he can't catch mice. You have a big tree and are upset that you can't use it. Why not plant it by a nothing-at-all village in a wide empty waste? You could do nothing, dilly-dallying by its side, or nap, ho-hum, beneath it. It won't fall to any axe's chop and nothing will harm it. Since it isn't any use, what bad can happen to it?”
This has much philosophical significance. First of all, Zhuangzi does not make a point to explicitly name Huizi's point about the tree wrong. His response unobtrusively provides Huizi with a different way to see the tree, which stands for his philosophy. The manner of Zhuangzi's response is very important because acting this way is in agreement with other portions of his philosophy which describe following the attitude of being unshakable in all things, and letting the world be as it is. Examples of this can be found throughout the text, such as page 210:
“The whole world could praise him [Songzi, assumed to be a sort of sage] and he would not be encouraged. The whole world could condemn him and he would not be upset.”
and pages 211-212
“The world longs for chaos, but why should they fret and make the world their business? Nothing can harm these people.”
and page 218
“The Way is lost in the glorification of right and wrong.”
and page 223
“When you and I have started arguing, if you win and I lose, then are you really right and am I really wrong? If I win and you lose, then am I really right and are you really wrong? Is on of us right and the other one wrong? Or are both of us right and both of us wrong? If you and I can't understand one another, then other people will certainly be even more in the dark.”
This last excerpt touches on the importance of understanding rather than being limited to ego based labels of right and wrong.
Besides Zhuangzi acting in demonstration of his philosophy, he gives brief descriptions of a weasel and a yak. The animals aren't depicted with any exaggerated flashiness. He sort of just kind of tells us how the animals are – weasels jump around, free of worry, and eventually are caught and killed, and yaks are big which limits their ability to catch mice. I think what Zhuangzi is trying to say is that these animals are as they are, and to see them with a particular observer-imposed end in mind will be upsetting because is not their purpose.
Following this train of thought, Zhuangzi suggests that Huizi plant the tree somewhere where he could just kick back and relax underneath it. It seems Zhuangzi is trying to get Huizi to see that if the tree were meant to be chopped down and used as building material, it would have grown straight in the first place. This relates to Daoist thought because in order to use a gnarled tree as building material, a builder would have to exert a lot of extra effort, directly contrasting the Daoist concept of wu­wei, or effortless action.
When Zhuangzi's philosophy is substituted for the gnarled tree, the reading suggests that perhaps it is not supposed to be taken completely seriously, such as that philosophy attributed to Mozi, Mengzi, and Kongzi (whom Zhuangzi seems to lightly mock). Perhaps expecting Zhuangzi to be excessively serious and concerned with ethics misses the entire point. Maybe “everyone alike rejects it” because they expect the philosophy to do something other than what it was designed to do. When it is used appropriately, it can be enjoyed.
A root of many troubles in my own life is that I can expect things to be other than they are. When they are not as I expect, it is easy to get upset and caught up in unneeded conflict. These lapses understanding usually occur for me because of some emotional attachment to the past. In these cases, if I were to have realistic expectations in the first place, there would have been no problem. I think this is what Zhuangzi is getting at when he is talking to Huizi. It makes sense, for basically what he describes is to see the world as it is, no more or less, and enjoy. The Way flows, like water, and maybe it is best to relax, listen to tian (nature or Heaven), and go where it takes you.

Chapter Summaries, Part 1 of 4, Coming of Age in Mississippi, by Anne Moody

Book Summary

The book is divided into four parts:
1) Childhood
2) High School
3) College
4) The Movement

Below are the most important events in each of these four parts of the novel and how they affect Anne Moody and her coming of age.

Part One: Childhood

Chapter 1

Anne (Essie Mae) lives with her mother, her father, her sister Adline, and her brother Junior on "Mr. Carter's plantation." Although the story is set in the late 1940's, the reader can't tell from the first page of the novel exactly what time period the story is in. It sounds like it could be any time - before or after the civil war and reconstruction. Moody begins the book this way in order to show the timelessness of black oppression in America.  

The first major event: George Lee, Essie Mae's cousin who is babysitting for her and her siblings, burns down the family's house in a fit of anger and blames it on Essie Mae. When Daddy gets home, Essie Mae gets punished for a crime she didn't commit. This forshadows the injustice and tyranny that will always lurk in Essie Mae's life. 

Chapter 2

Essie Mae's parents separate. Her dad abandons her pregnant mom for a "yellow woman," a mulatto Florence who "holds herself high and mighty" because she is not fully black. Essie Mae's mom is a strong woman, a survivor. After much crying and pain, she manages to find a job in the city and supports her four kids on her cafe salary. Essie Mae's strength throughout the novel is definitely influenced her mother's resourcefulness and ability to survive in the face of poverty and crisis.  

Chapter 3

Essie Mae visits the house of her grandmother (Winnie) with her Uncle Ed, and she finds two white-looking boys, Sam and Walter, who are also sons of Winnie and are her uncles. She is confused because she doesn't know why her uncles look white. Her mother is snappy with her when she asks her why. This is one of the first times she is confronted with the difference in skin color in her life. 

Chapter 4

The next time she is confronted with the issue of race is when she makes friends with a few white neighbors as a kid and goes to see movies with them. She discovers that she is not allowed to go to the regular seats with the white kids but must go to the balcony with the black people. She doesn't understand what made her white playmates different from her and why they have better toys than she does. She tries playing "doctor" and examines them to find an answer but is unable to do so. This shows Essie Mae's early concern with the question of race, an issue which she spends her whole life pondering over and fighting for. 

Chapter 5

Essie Mae begins working for white ladies starting when she's 9 years old in order to help out with the family. She works for many employers, some kind and some nasty. Her first employer paid her two nickles a week and some disgusting sour milk that has been lapped up by cats.

There's Linda Jean, a very nice white employer, and her mother Mrs. Burke who is a terrible control freak white supremicist. But the employer that influences Essie Mae the most is Mrs. Clairborne, who treats Essie Mae like a daughter and allows her to eat at the table with the white family and teaches Essie Mae about the white world. Essie Mae is different from her peers and from her family because of her education from Mrs. Clairborne and her white employers. She learns early on what race means in America, and that is why she is so much more concerned about the issue of race than her mother and her friends.  

Chapter 6

Mama has a long affair with a man named Raymond. She has three kids with Raymond but Raymond would not marry her. Raymond's mother, Miss Pearl, did not like Mama. Miss Pearl was also "yellow" and bigotted about being less black than Mama. Finally, Raymond and Mama do get married, but Raymond is a coward and never ever finds the courage to stand up to his mother.

Mama, Raymond, and the kids move in next to Miss Pearl and her family. Essie Mae is set in eternal competition with Darlene, a girl her age who is a granddaughter of Miss Pearl in the house next door. Mama tries really hard to get Miss Pearl to like her, but is never able to do so, and is always really sad. Raymond never stands up for Mama.  

Chapter 7

Trying to get on Miss Pearl's good side, Mama joins Miss Pearl's church and gets Essie Mae to do so too. Essie Mae does very well in Sunday school and gets very involved in the church community. But Mama wasn't happy because Miss Pearl was still mean to her and would not accept her. After one really bad Sunday, Mama decides to go to back to her old Church at Centreville and forces Essie Mae to go back with her too. 

Chapter 8

Raymond tries to farm. It's a difficult process. He buys land cheap, only to find the land is loaded with hand grenades and mines from the war. He tills through the land and plants cotton. The cotton grows okay but they don't make nearly enough money from it. Essie Mae works one summer on the farm. She hates the sun and is dreadfully afraid of getting a sun stroke. She decides when she grows up she would never be a farmer because she wants to get out of this black system of poverty. She doesn't want to live her life like my mother and Raymond.

"I knew if I got involved in farming, I'd be just like Mama and the rest of them, and that I would never have the chance." (p.89) 

Chapter 9

Linda Jean, an employer of Essie Mae, is a poor white woman. She treats Essie Mae nicely, but her mother, Mrs. Burke is terribly white-supremicist. She insists on Essie Mae"'"s calling Linda Jean '"'Mrs. Jenkins.'"' When Essie Mae works for Mrs. Burke, Mrs. Burke tries to do everything and anything to break Essie Mae"'"s spirit and make Essie do things her way (ex. The correct way to iron shirts; using the back door instead of the front). But Essie Mae persists and eventually tires out Mrs. Burke. Essie Mae"'"s strength and stubbornness is reflected in her struggle with Mrs. Burke. 

Chapter 10

Essie Mae is a beautiful young girl and wins homecoming queen in 8th grade. In the process she fundraises a lot of money for her school with the help of her homeroom and her homeroom teacher. She learns a lot about organizing people from this experience, a skill she will use later on in the Black Empowerment Movement. Daddy buys her a beautiful blue dress for her homecoming parade.

1) Childhood
2) High School
3) College
4) The Movement