the opening scene begins on the dark stage with Jeanine, a downplayed character until the second act, who feels that the only reason she is living is because this man, who is the son of 'God'-  not 'god' (because it seems that the playright made it a point to not capitalize when the non-believers said God.

Her belief in Him keeps her alive. Many times throughout the book, He changes his name, and it is noted that He never actually talks to anyone, and it seems that only people who believe really see him through a sort of light.

How much more confusing can you get, Foster? Is Naked Lunch by Augusten Burroughs really considered porn? I think that when we're at the stage that we turn everything into a sexual innuendo, it can either be the best or the worst time to be reading literature. In one instance, we can see everything as representing sex, and since symbols can mean more than one thing, sometimes more than others we'll be right in some aspect, but this can also be over-kill and we will just be called peverts. In some cases, this will be rightfully so. It's just frustrating to no end that Foster will say, in essense, everything is sex, and then turn around and say nothing is.

"....becoming aware that there were two of me: the old self that slept a few hours a night and dreamed sometimes of my grandfather and Bledsoe and Brockway and Mary, the self that flew without wings and plunged from great heights; and the new public self that spoke for the Brotherhood and was becoming so much more important than the other that I seemed to run a foot race against myself..." (380)


This is one of many times in the novel that our narrator realizes he has changed so much.
The fight with Ras makes him reflect back to his fight in the first chapter of the novel, and every so often he becomes wary and asks himself if another person is going to steer him wrong again like he has been so many other times.

A bit earlier he says that he is becoming 'more human' and even shocks himself by saying this..

" 'More human'... Did I mean that I became less of what I was, less a Negro, or that I was becoming less a being apart... But this is all negative. To become less- in order to become more?"

in my opinion,  he naturally feels more accepted now, more human and less invisible because he is accepted by the people.

Other Thoughts

Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
romped is usually a word used with animals. they were acting as animals. and his mother was unhappy, but apparently could not stop it.

The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
His father's hand is holding his wrist so he doesn't move, and is battered possibly because of physical harm that the fist has done. If he stumbles, messes up, he gets punished more

You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt."
This is, to me, the most alarming stanza of the poem. literally it is saying because the child was around all day and is up too late (maybe?), the father has had enough of his nonsense (when the father needs some parenting advice himself...) is again abusing him and dragging him off to bed.

In Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, the characters are truly more bazaar than any I have ever read about. In act I, a boy who is but 12 years old says,

"Telegraph boy: 'Thank you Mrs. Antrobus. Mrs. Antrobus, can I ask you something else? I have two sons of my own; if the cold gets worse, what should I do?'"

Not only did Wilder bring dinosaurs, and tons of biblical illusions into his book, but a twelve year old has two children?

I believe this just sets the stage for the rest of the play being as far fetched and out-there as it is, and as I read on, my mind didn't change.

However, the fact that Selena was the maid, quit, and then met Mr. Antrobus and swooned over him so he cheated on his wife, kindof unsettled me. I couldn't tell if it was a flashback (because of the pageant,) or if that is really what Wilder made happen after she left her job.