Black Boy Blog

During Wright’s narrative, we witness a couple of times the dehumanization of blacks that they seem to accept. We see Shorty the elevator man say to a white man that he will do anything for a quarter. The way in which Shorty goes about getting the quarter by telling the white man to kick him for a quarter, to Richard seems disgusting, but he says that he has seen this scene enough that it doesn’t even make him angry anymore (228-229 Wright). Richard also encounters a situation like this where he is asked to fight for money. At first he is very against it because he doesn’t want to degrade himself, but he ends up giving in. Richard is filled with shame when he realizes what he has done; he gave into the stereotype that the whites had placed on him (242-243 Wright). After the fight Richard says he felt he had done something “unclean”, and he could never wash this from his memories. It is interesting to me that even though they are being dehumanized they still give into it. It’s sad that they are so hungry, or so in need of money that they basically have to sell themselves and be treated like animals. They get trapped in this never-ending cycle of doing anything they can for money.

Although Richard Wright gave into the stereotypes and was dehumanized by the whites that surrounded him,  he never lost his sense of identity and morals. He gave into the stereotype but he still had control over his mind. He knew that everything whites did was wrong and he gave in only to make money so that he could escape. In Chapter 13, Wright begins to further his "education" by starting to read books. Before this he always felt that society was wrong but know he knew. Wright began to see the white people in his life as characters from the books he was reading, making him see them in a new light. His mind was truly free now and any chance he would get he would read newspapers and books. The people around him began to notice a change in him. The books made everything so more concrete that was harder to ignore everything that was going on around him. Wright still followed the stereotypes in order to keep his job, but he was a different person because of the knowledge that books provided. 

Black Boy Ch1-3

In his novel Black Boy, we see Richard Wright develop from childhood to adulthood in a span of about five years. In his development we also see his change in attitude towards whites and towards blacks. In his early years, Richard had trouble grasping the concept that whites and blacks are “different”; “Though I had long known that there were people called “white” people, it had never meant anything to me emotionally. To me they were merely people like other people…” (23 Wright). The innocence that Wright has at this point in his life seems to foreshadow how awful it will be when he discovers that the rest of his world doesn’t see all people as equals. As we read further in the novel we see Wright begin to change how he sees whites, and how he sees blacks. Wright talks about how he began to play the role that he was given, “…the white boys and the black boys, began to play our traditional racial roles as though we had been born to them…” (83). Through this sentence seeing themselves as less than whites, and hating them seems like it was destiny, which maybe it was because of how they were conditioned growing up. This brings us back to the idea of how is a slave/master made. How is racial tension created? Is it conditioned? Or is it destined to happen (especially in this time period).

In the first 3 chapters of Black Boy, it was interesting to think about the different gender roles that were present. Black Boy shows us different gender roles at the beginning than Jacobs and Douglass. In both Jacobs and Douglass it was men that would beat slaves and have power to discipline. In Jacobs, there was the angry mistress who would try to discipline Linda but in reality she had little power over her. In Black Boy Richard is frequently beaten, sometimes close to death, by his mother and grandma. Richard’s mom and grandma hold all the power in the household unlike typical families. It shows how in the absence of a male figure,  the women often have to take up the roles of both men and women. Although his grandma was married, she still was in charge of disciplining him. Since this takes place in Jim Crow South, it  can show us how some roles and ideas changed after the civil war ended. But how did this reversal of roles come about? Did the destruction of the "old south" really create a new gender roles or is this simply an anomaly?

 

Jacobs Blog Ch XII-XX Kristin

Chapter XIII is about religion and its role in slavery. This chapter reaffirms that religion is used as a tool in slavery, as previously shown in Douglass.  A quote that sums up the role of religion and slavery is: “Ole Satin’s church is here below; Up to God’s free church I hope to go” (pg. 75)

In Douglass’ narrative, his master becomes religious and becomes crueler as a result. In Jacobs', the slaveholders use religion to “brainwash” slaves, especially through sermons. Preaching that God sees slaves' every move even if their masters may not catch them misbehaving, for example, teaches those slaves that they should obey their masters and mistresses. If they disobey their masters on earth, they have disobeyed their master in heaven. Religion was thus used as tool to instigate fear among slaves and stop them from rebelling and trying to escape. 

Jacobs reinforces the idea that Douglass presents to us in his autobiography, but she also shows that there were some in the south who didn’t use religion for that purpose. When Jacobs runs away, she is eventually taken to a white woman’s home and hidden from her master. This white woman keeps her a secret even though doing so could ruin her and her family. In response to this good deed, Linda says, “For that deed of Christian womanhood, may God bless her forever!” This indicates that religion may have been a positive force for slaves rather than a way to reinforce the institution of slavery.  True Christian ideals were still present somewhere in the South. 

Effects of Narrative Voice (Jacobs XII-XX) Joy

Harriet Jacobs’ narrative is powerful in many ways, but one way that may be more powerful is that she makes a personal connection with the reader. By using a voice that easily allows connection, she makes a bigger impact with what she is saying. Jacobs is constantly questioning the reader and making sure that they are “listening” to what she is saying. She causes the reader to feel a certain attachment to her, and to want to root for her to get out of this wretched situation. Jacobs’ narrative voice does make a certain connection with women more so than men. As we know, this narrative was written in hopes that the women of the north would learn of all the atrocities happening to slave women. Jacobs uses her voice, and her feminism to entice the reader into continuing the narrative, we feel the pain that she feels as she is separated from her children, and the joy she feels when she realizes that they are finally free (139-140 Jacobs). By talking about the pains that her children have to go through, and having to leave her own children in order for them to be free, the reader sees the strength that she has, and I know that I wonder if I would have the same strength. She connects with the women readers through the horrors that happened to her that no man could understand, no matter how hard they tried. Men can sympathize for her, but women can empathize with her, which makes this narrative more powerful for women.

I found an article comparing and discussing Douglass’s narrative to Jacobs narrative:

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1609-1865/essays/douglassjacobs.htm