So Much Blue Literary analysis

Ochieng-Onyango 2

The word stereotype is used to refer to a commonly unfair and often false conception that an individual may have about a person or object with a certain characteristic. Gender stereotypes have been a very long time and are frequently used today’s society across the board including literature. Percival Everett challenges dominant stereotypes about masculinity, love and the American family in his novel So Much Blue. Everett uses a diverse array of characters such as a black painter and a war criminal as well as a midlife crisis to illustrate these stereotypes.

· Don’t summarize use one sentence of background info from the book

· Ex an example of this can be found in the scene where (insert background info)- explaining its significance immediate

How are love, family, and masculinity defined in so much blue according to Everett?

Does it challenge the dominant perceptions or does is project them?

· How is it (love) shown in each of the sections?

· 1979- is love for Richard made him go to el Salvador

· Paris- His need for love is what made him stay in Paris

· His love for his kids makes him leave

· House- His love for his daughter kept her secret

· His love for his wife and family keeps them distanced from his internal pain to protect them

· He married his wife because he needed stability, not because he loved her.

· He did it because he was traumatized in el Salvador because he killed someone.

· The stereotypical idea of what is masculine is challenge in this novel-

· He cries when he sees the watercolor she painted

· The bummer is a constant example of the stereotypical ex-army guy and is always questioning his and Richards sexuality and calling them sexist derogatory names-

· He himself is a cliché- he is a 40-year-old guy in pairs having an affair with a 22-year-old beautiful art student

· How does he challenge the stereotype of a family? –

· The nuclear family- man, wife, kids-

· black teen pregnant –

· absent black father

· He shows that family is not just who you are related to with Kevin relationship with Richard

· He challenges the idea of family through Kevin- he did not originally want kids. His wife had to persistently work to change his mind. He ended up being a pretty absent father due to his inability to show his drinking