Post #3: Of One Blood

Probably the thing that has interested me most about Pauline Hopkins' Of One Blood is her style of writing. It's hard for me to describe my exact feelings about it, but I'll do my best. Keep in mind that, as of writing this, I have only finished about half the book, though I'll assume

I find the Hopkins' writing style (at least in Of One Blood) to be rather strange. Maybe it's just because I've been rather distracted during my time reading the book because I've been sick the entire time I've read it, but a lot of time's I'd read a page and then have to reread it because I had no idea what happened. It's not that the language in the book itself is inherently hard to read, it's just that I feel as if the Hopkins does not make everything important that happened very explicit. For example, at the end of Chapter IX, the last paragraph reads:

"Suddenly Aubrey's paddle was caught and held in the meshes of the water-lily stems that floated all about them. He leaned far over to extricate it and in a moment the frail craft was bottom up, its living freight struggling in the river. Once, thrice, a thrilling call for help echoed over the darkening land; then all was still." (p.74)

I can't help but think of rapper Aubrey "Drake" Graham (or the Artist Formerly Known as Jimmy from Degrassi) whenever I hear the name "Aubrey."

I suppose that after rereading and retyping that paragraph, it's pretty clear that Aubrey died, but upon my first time reading it, I just kind of thought "wait, what?" and had to reread the last page and a half tp figure out what I just read (though maybe my brain is just too clouded from cold medicine). I would just think that a passage about one of the main characters dying would be more exciting and catch my attention more. Even Imperium in Imperio got my heart racing more than Of One Blood so far, and that book uses some of the blandest, most dead-pan language I've ever read.

Another testament to this is the fact that I didn't even think about what races the characters were until they first used the horribly dated term "negress" to describe Dianthe. It wasn't until I read the back of the book that I found out that Griggs was black. Though I guess me not discerning who was what race until prompted kind of exemplifies the meaning behind the title, that we are all "of one blood" because all of our ancestors originated in Africa. However, I just thought it was interesting to point out that I didn't even think about it, considering race is supposed to be such a prominent theme in the book.

Though, again, maybe it's just the cough syrup.

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you think Hopkins made a conscious decision to downplay the importance of race in the novel in order to perpetuate the theme and title of the book?

2. How would you describe Hopkins' writing style? Do you think it is too bland for the types of events that are occurring?