The Riverboat Life

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Recommended: Positive and negative aspects of stereotypes

The current stereotype for the Black American family has not changed much from the 1950s of the dominant female who is overbearing thus usurps her male partner in her home of his authority as head of the household. This stereotype is also known as the black matriarchal and is still unfortunately a reality in the black home. It’s stated in “The Moynihan Report” (1965) that the black matriarchal structure is the attributing factor that has caused the deterioration of the black men to serve as authority figures (www.blackpast.org). As a result thereof they have suffered failure of the family unit thus leading to divorcing or never wedding in the first place whether boring children or not. Thus, throughout time the black American family has always been plagued with the label of family failure. However, reflective in Rita Dove’s collection of poems entitled, Thomas and Beulah (1986), she defies the atypical black American family by writing about her grandparents’ riverboat life that broadly discusses their loyalty to nobility such as love, marriage, family, and perseverance through life’s imperfections. These aforementioned points were black stereotype allegations in the 1950 as they still are today. However, as time passed in the 1980s the blacks were typecast as less intelligent than whites, less moral due to vulgar profanity and violence, thus inferior to whites. Over time the black family stereotype remains with the old pigeonholes that blacks are impoverished, lazy, very religious, drunk, and the black male as being incapable of providing for his family, thus the failure of keeping a family unit. The stereotype of the black family is different, however, holding to those aforementioned aspects but presently adding more c... ... middle of paper ... ...f life thus in greater depth meaning that water flows down the river…the flow of one’s life. Therefore this is a metaphor that is reflective as to the lives of Thomas and Beulah. However, in the end Dove concludes her collection of poems with “The Oriental Ballerina” by stating about Beulah’s death that, “so rapidly she is standing still / The sun walks the bed to the pillow / and pauses for breath (in the Orient, / breath floats like mist / in the field)” (76). In the end the riverboat life ends with a cessation of the water that dissipates into air (i.e., breath that floats like mist), therefore, her soul’s ultimately liberty. Works Cited Dove, Rita. Thomas and Beulah (1986). Pages: 11, 14 and 76. United States Department of Labor. “The Moynihan Report” (1965). (http://www.blackpast.org/?q=primary/moynihan-report-1965#chapter1). July 30, 2011.

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