ENGL 360K (Archived)

This is an archive of the site for the Summer 2005 "Gender and Literature" course. You are free to browse the archived version of this site, but it is no longer interactive. It was a great course with great discussions, but all good things must come to an end :-)

Samantha Blackmon, PhD
Assistant Professor of English
Purdue University

I will admit this book was not one of my favorites that we have read. I will also have to argue that the book was way better than the movie (even though Denzel is nice to look at on screen!). I was disappointed in the ways that some of the characters were portrayed in the movie. I thought Easy did a good job playing the "nieve" man just looking to make some money to pay for his "woman." I would also have to disagree with Lauren and say that I thought Joppy's character was well played too. When I pictured Joppy that was exactly what I pictured him to be. One character I did not like was Albright. For some reason I just thought he should look different. He wasn't convicible to me in the movie.

While I enjoyed the movie The Devil in the Blue Dress, I did not enjoy it nearly as much as the book. I think because of the difference between reading and watching the movie’s plot was more simple than the book’s. One detail that bothered me about the movie was Easy’s neighborhood. In the book it described it as a pretty lonely place for him compared to his neighborhood down in Texas where everyone knew everybody and people would often stop and talk to you on their way home. The neighborhood that was in the book seemed more desolate and I think it added to Easy’s character because he was more isolated from ‘his kind’ of people.

This book really had a lot to do with race (something we haven't really seen in the other couple of books that we read for this class). Color is a big theme in this book and it is carried out because of the time period it's set in, and the ending as well. I was very surprised at the ending of the book. I didn't expect Daphne to be half black, and this be the ultimate cause of all the problems leading up to the end.

I can sum up my view of the novel inspired movie in one word...WHAT? Was it just me or did another story take over the movie? I mean the characters were there, mystery and murder were in abundance, and Denzel was looking good, but where did the amazing story go? Granted, it was close, and the suspense was still there, but why all of the changes? Why have Junior murder Macgee in the novel with a knife, and then have him innocent of Macgee's shooting in the movie? Why have the search be for a letter and pictures rather than just a girl and $30,000? Why, why, why? I loved the book... as for the movie...i just loved Denzel and Don Cheadle. :)

So this class is over for me- I really enjoyed my first experience at Purdue and had fun with everyone! Ok so I really liked the movie today- it was actually a really good depiction of the novel. I thought it really used key points to deliver the feeling and tone the book was trying to get across. One thing that actually dissapointed me was Daphne- I thought she was a pretty poor actress. There was a scene when she talks to Easy about Coretta being killed and her crying is fake and pethetic. She also really should have had blond hair, I don't get why they made it brown in the movie, maybe to make it more realistic that she was half black? I don't know. I also think she didn't carry that seducing sexy quality we discussed she had in the novel; I think they casted her character very poorly, but she was the only one I had a problem with. Denzel played Easy's character perfectly; I actually cannot think of anyone who would have done a better job. Well and I actually think Joppy should have been a bigger guy. He was actually fairly fat and normal sized. He was a former boxer and those guys are big cattle, like football players, and even though he was obviously quite a few years away from this time, I still feel that he still would be larger than the average guy, Like George Foreman or something.

The last novel of the course is finished!!! Actually it was the first one I read before the class even started... My initial reaction to the novel when I first finished it was ....wow. It was a little bit rough and raw and gangster for me to take in all at once. I think I have my sheltered Lafayette life to thank. I don't really like violent stories like that, so I tend to stay away from stuff like that which is in movies. I'm glad I had to read it though- it had a lot to say about race and society. I really was not a fan of the large man and the little boys. That made me sick when I read about it; to think that that man was acutally running for mayor of California was shocking. I think that was due to the fact that today everything in politics is everyone's business, and everyday citizens actually do have the power to bring people down from office and positions even through little things such as blogs like these. People in the spotlight's personal life is constantly on show, so I highly dought a man like that would ever be in office.

I just finished what was easily my favorite book of the course, Devil in a Blue Dress. I learned one very important thing: You cannot trust anyone. At all. Ever.

Here's what bothered me: Mouse saving Easy just in the nick of time at the end. I always hate those deus ex machina kinds of things. It happens in every action movie, where the heor is saved at the last possible second by a mysterious gunshot from nowhere. Then the bad guys falls down dead, and right behind him is the other good guy-sidekick who you thought was dead or missing or you had just forgotten about. That is lame. Oh well.

The end of this novel was definitely very complicated when all of the character names were floating around. It is hard for me to believe how many people were killed in this novel just over the greed of money and the need to keep Daphne’s racial identity a secret. It seems strange to me that Daphne is really a mixed race woman who appears white, but is scared to death that people will find out that she is not 100% white. I know in 1948 times were much different than they are now, but I do not quite get what the problem was if she appeared to everyone around her to be white. Maybe that is just me.

This book is definitely much different from the others we've read so far. I like how Easy is a down to earth, non professional detective; he's just a regular guy in need of money so he takes a job. Seems pretty simple right? I'm not sure where the reading stopped, but things start to get confusing with all the gangsters and who is good and who is trying to kill who. The whole underground crime scene part is what has me a little bit scared.