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The importance of slave narratives as a literary genre
The relevance of black people in literature
The importance of slave narratives as a literary genre
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Clotel, or the Presidents Daughter Jalissa Ecxford 02 Apr 2015 English 1302 Professor Woods Abstract How is Clotel: or, The Presidents Daughter a novel about tragic mulattos? To answer this question the reader must break down the characters and their journeys throughout the novel, especially Clotel and her sister Althesia the primary characters. This novel received intense criticism because it was believed that Brown did not write this novel alone. It is important for the reader to understand that this novel focuses on the sexual exploitation of Clotel and her sister. The interpretations written by brown helps the readers grasp a better interpretation of what Clotel and her sister are going through in their journey …show more content…
Mitchell said that Brown emphasized romantic conventions, dramatic incident and a political view in his novel. Recent scholars have also analyzed Clotel for its representations of gender and race. Sherrard-Johnson notes that Brown portrayed both the "tragic central characters " and the "heroic figures" as mulattoes with Anglo features, similar to his own appearance. She thinks he uses the cases of "nearly white" slaves to gain sympathy for his characters. She notes that he borrowed elements from the abolitionist Lydia Maria Child 's plot in her short story, "The Quadroons" (1842). He also incorporated notable elements of recent events, such as the escape of the Crafts, and the freedom suit court case of Salome, an enslaved woman in Louisiana who claimed to be an immigrant born in Germany. Martha Cutter notes that Brown portrayed his women characters generally as passive victims of slavery and as representations of True Women and the cult of domesticity, which were emphasized at the time for women. They are not portrayed as wanting or seeking freedom, but as existing through love and suffering. Cutter asks, if Mary could free George, why did she not free herself? Although Brown published three later versions of Clotel, he did not seriously change this characterization of the African-American women. Slave women such as Ellen Craft were known to have escaped slavery, but Brown did not portray such women fully achieving
Eventually Macaria marries a well-to-do American, Sam Polk, and leaves behind the poverty and prostitution that once ruled their lives, but is never fully accepted by her peers into her new moneyed existence. Meanwhile Marcela grows into a beautiful, white-skinned, pale beauty. She is a ready conquest for any male, particularly those of darker descents like Tony, and a thorn in her mother’s side. Unfortunately Marcela’s whiteness draws sexual advances from the local male population and her mother blames her daughter for these interactions.
...r 21st 1855. The story just demonstrated that slaves did not have any legal protection when their masters rape them despite that “the second article of Section 29 of the Missouri statutes of 1845 forbade anyone "to take any woman unlawfully against her will and by force, menace or duress, compel her to be defiled," Judge William Hall refused to instruct the jury that the enslaved Celia fell within the meaning of "any woman"—giving the jury no latitude to consider Celia's murder of her sexually abusive master a justifiable act of self-defense”.
Laurence Hill’s novel, The Book of Negroes, uses first-person narrator to depict the whole life ofAminata Diallo, beginning with Bayo, a small village in West Africa, abducting from her family at eleven years old. She witnessed the death of her parents with her own eyes when she was stolen. She was then sent to America and began her slave life. She went through a lot: she lost her children and was informed that her husband was dead. At last she gained freedom again and became an abolitionist against the slave trade. This book uses slave narrative as its genre to present a powerful woman’s life.She was a slave, yes, but she was also an abolitionist. She always held hope in the heart, she resist her dehumanization.
William Wells Brown’s Clotel, or The President’s Daughter could read as a pure romance if it were not a slave narrative; some parts still strongly resemble typical mid-nineteenth century romances, meant to appeal primarily to white women. All of the protagonists are women, the most prevalent being the eponymous Clotel and her sister Althesa, both of whom are mixed-race and born to Currer, a “bright mulatt[a],” and Thomas Jefferson (Brown 49-50). Clotel has “a complexion as white as most of those who were waiting with a wish to become her purchasers’ her features as finely defined as any of her sex of pure Anglo-Saxon” and, though Althesa’s color is not as explicitly described, she presumably has an appearance similar to her sister’s. The novel
... middle of paper ... ... Men were no different, but they were forced to mate with choice slaves to produce optimal offspring like livestock. Her experiences with slavery were in different ways, but the underlying result of it is the same for anyone else at the time.
As for the analysis of the book itself, although the author aims toward providing a chronicle of two years in the lives of the two brothers, he actually ends up writing more about their mother. He discusses LaJoe's parents, how they met and married and why they moved to Horner. He depicts LaJoe as an extremely kind-hearted yet tough woman who will do anything to help not only her own family, but all the neighborhood children as well. LaJoe feeds and cares for many of the neighborhood children. For this, she is rare and special in an environment of black mothers who are prostitutes and drug addicts. She sticks by her children when most mothers would be ashamed and disown them. I finished this book feeling a great deal of respect and admiration for LaJoe and everytihg she went through.
Celia, A Slave by Melton McLaurin tells a true story of a female slave who was sexually exploited by her master and the trial she faced as a result. At the young age of fourteen, Celia was brought to Callaway County under her new master, Robert Newsom. Celia later murdered Newsom, in an act of self-defense, and was placed on a trial challenging the institute of slavery and the moral beliefs of anyone involved with slavery in the South. The short life of the young Celia revealed a slave girl who had pushed beyond the ideal limit of a system that denied her humanity and threatened to erode the base of the antebellum southern society.
The History of Mary Prince is the story of the first female British slave to escape slavery. The book is told by Mary herself, and was used to help the anti-slavery movement. This book is the main source of information on Mary’s life, but there is no way to ensure that all of it is authentic. One should be aware of who truly had the control over this book, and how it may have affected whether or not all of the stories Mary had to tell got in. Without following the standard expected of her, she may not have ever been able to share her experiences like this. Mary Prince was able to convey her story of slavery to others by following the expectations set by the Antislavery Society, such as emphasizing Christianity, only including likable character
numerous types of themes. Much of the work concentrates on the underlining ideas beneath the stories. In the narratives, fugitives and ex-slaves appealed to the humanity they shared with their readers during these times, men being lynched and marked all over and women being the subject of grueling rapes. "The slave narrative of Frederick Douglas" and "Harriet Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" themes come from the existence of the slaves morality that they are forced compromise to live. Both narrators show slave narratives in the point of view of both "men and women slaves that had to deal with physical, mental, and moral abuse during the times of slavery." (Lee 44)
In the book, Celia, A Slave, written by Melton McLaurin illustrates in detail the story of a female slave who murdered her master and then disposed of him by burning his body on June 23, 1855. It took place in Calloway County, Missouri during a loud period in America. In the neighboring territory of Kansas, they were in the middle of a debate to decide if it would become a slave state or a free state. McLaurin illustrates Celia’s life, the politics and society that made slavery a isolating issue, and the controversy over her fate during the 1850s in antebellum America.
As Clarice Lispector was writing what would become her last literary creation, The Hour of the Star, little did she know that while her body was plagued with the devastations of cancer, her mental struggle for peace and grace in death would inspire her most renowned novel. Perhaps it is because of those circumstances, she created a novel with intuitive reflections on both life and death, as seen through the life of the main character, Macabea. The story is narrated by Rodrigo S.M., and although Rodrigo attempts to maintain a neutral stance, he is often conflicted by his own perceptions and feelings. At the book’s commencement Rodrigo spends quite some time explaining that while the story is mainly about a woman, having the book narrated by a female would weaken the richness of content. He explains that a woman is incapable of clearly emphasizing the harshness of reality; that she is too emotional and attempting to explain the life of a wretched girl would be hard because her emotions would not allow an unbiased depiction of the cruelties of life. Macabea is introduced in the novel as a poor girl who does what she must to survive in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. She is, Rodrigo remarks, nothing out of the ordinary. Physically there is nothing about Macabea which sets her apart from the other countless street rascals who live hand to mouth. He then provides readers with some of her early life history, including how she almost died at birth because of rickets, and how both her parents succumbed to typhoid fever when she was a toddler. Finally after their death Macabea was forced to move in with her aunt, who too eventually passed away, but not before procuring the child a job to support herself. In the course of the novel the popular culture, though vague and metaphorical at times, affects Macabea and the secondary characters personalities and actions.
I think Anna Quindlen and John F. Kennedy had very similar ideas on immigration. They also had some different Ideas. Even with their differences, both authors made very solid points. For both the overall message is America is founded on immigration.
In "Mericans," the girl narrating thinks that her grandmother is awful. Her grandmother does not like America and prays for it because it is "barbaric." The narrator does not agree with her grandmother, and feels very disconnected to her grandmother's religion and culture. Throughout the story, the narrator is vicitimized by the boys for being a girl, and they often make fun of her. Instead of crying, she acted tough. Towards the end, a tourist couple thinks that she only speaks Spanish just because she is Mexican, she proves them wrong by responding to them in perfectly fluent English.
Slavery is a term that can create a whirlwind of emotions for everyone. During the hardships faced by the African Americans, hundreds of accounts were documented. Harriet Jacobs, Charles Ball and Kate Drumgoold each shared their perspectives of being caught up in the world of slavery. There were reoccurring themes throughout the books as well as varying angles that each author either left out or never experienced. Taking two women’s views as well as a man’s, we can begin to delve deeper into what their everyday lives would have been like. Charles Ball’s Fifty Years in Chains and Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl were both published in the early 1860’s while Kate Drumgoold’s A Slave Girl’s Story came almost forty years later
For this very reason Jacobs uses the pseudonym Linda Brent to narrate her first-person experience, which I intend to use interchangeably throughout the essay, since I am referencing the same person. All throughout the narrative, Jacobs explores the struggles and sexual abuse that female slaves faced on plantations as well as their efforts to practice motherhood and protect their children from the horrors of the slave trade. Jacobs’ literary efforts are addressed to white women in the North who do not fully comprehend the evils of slavery. She makes direct appeals to their humanity to expand their knowledge and influence their thoughts about slavery as an institution, holding strong to the credo that the pen is mightier than the sword and is colorful enough to make a difference and change the the stereotypes of the black and white