Reading prompts for the class of October 18: Huck Finn, chap 10 + excerpt from "The Heroic Slave" by F. Douglass
As always, choose either of the reading prompts to comment on:
2 comments:
Anonymous
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Carolina Amaro
In “The Heroic Slave”, Frederick Douglass combines fiction and historical facts to portray Madison Washington in a way that directly challenges the racist stereotype of "ignorant negroes”, defended in this story by the character Williams. Douglass uses both narration and the development of scenes to demonstrate that Washington could not possibly fit into this role.
Through the narration, Washington is described as a “superior man”, courageous, intelligent, as an “exception of Williams’s rule”, “his words well chosen, and his pronunciation equal to any schoolmaster”. He is also presented as someone with great character and motivation. His decision to escape slavery and later lead a rebellion aboard the ship shows a deep understanding of the injustice of slavery and a determination to fight for freedom, not just for himself, but also for others. The author also uses dialogue and actions to prove the eloquence and capacity of Washington. For example, in Washington's interactions with other characters, he demonstrates leadership and persuasion skills, intelligence and the ability to plan. His capacity to express his thoughts through words and inspire others to follow his example.
All of this shows that he’s far from ignorant and being so, impossible to be considered part of the stereotype in question.
Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist and women’s rights advocate. The heroic slave, written by him, is a fictional account of Madison Washington and the mutiny aboard the Creole. He combined real-life events and fiction. At the time, most black people were slaves. They were denied access to education.
The reader can sense Grant’s hypocrisy when reading the story and thus the white man hypocrisy. What matters is not, in the end, is not how capable or eloquent or smart a person was but the color of their skin. Grant may disagree with Williams but even he says that “Mr. Williams speaks if ‘ignorant negroes,’ and, as a general rule, they are ignorant” (page 60) and that what happened was an exception to the rule.
Throughout the story, black people are described, for example, as rascals (page 57) darkies, black devil, darkies, coward (page 58) while the exception, Madison Washington, is described as “powerful, good-disposed negro” (page 60), “His words were well chosen, and his pronunciation equal to that of any schoolmaster”, “I forgot his blackness in the dignity of his manner, and the eloquence of his speech” (page 61), “I felt myself in the presence of a superior man (…) I could not bring myself to recognize their application to one whom I deemed my inferior” (page 63). Washington was knowledgeable, eloquent and had good pronunciation; he sailed “with the equanimity of an old sailor” (page 63); all things that a black person was considered to ignorant to learn.
However, one also needs to compare ignorance with stupidity. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, ignorance means “lack of knowledge, understanding, or information about something” while stupidity means “the state of being silly or unwise”. The fact that a person lacks knowledge while being denied access to education and the knowledge itself says more about the government than it does about a person. Furthermore, it is unfair to consider what one might call superstitions as less legitimate knowledge. Chapter X of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn plays a bit with this theme. Huck assumes that Jim’s superstition means Jim does not know better. They had just come across a dead person which Jim said it “would fetch bad luck”. However, to Huck that sounds stupid, how can it be bad luck when they “raked in all this truck and eight dollars besides.”
2 comments:
Carolina Amaro
In “The Heroic Slave”, Frederick Douglass combines fiction and historical facts to portray Madison Washington in a way that directly challenges the racist stereotype of "ignorant negroes”, defended in this story by the character Williams. Douglass uses both narration and the development of scenes to demonstrate that Washington could not possibly fit into this role.
Through the narration, Washington is described as a “superior man”, courageous, intelligent, as an “exception of Williams’s rule”, “his words well chosen, and his pronunciation equal to any schoolmaster”.
He is also presented as someone with great character and motivation. His decision to escape slavery and later lead a rebellion aboard the ship shows a deep understanding of the injustice of slavery and a determination to fight for freedom, not just for himself, but also for others.
The author also uses dialogue and actions to prove the eloquence and capacity of Washington. For example, in Washington's interactions with other characters, he demonstrates leadership and persuasion skills, intelligence and the ability to plan. His capacity to express his thoughts through words and inspire others to follow his example.
All of this shows that he’s far from ignorant and being so, impossible to be considered part of the stereotype in question.
Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist and women’s rights advocate. The heroic slave, written by him, is a fictional account of Madison Washington and the mutiny aboard the Creole. He combined real-life events and fiction. At the time, most black people were slaves. They were denied access to education.
The reader can sense Grant’s hypocrisy when reading the story and thus the white man hypocrisy. What matters is not, in the end, is not how capable or eloquent or smart a person was but the color of their skin. Grant may disagree with Williams but even he says that “Mr. Williams speaks if ‘ignorant negroes,’ and, as a general rule, they are ignorant” (page 60) and that what happened was an exception to the rule.
Throughout the story, black people are described, for example, as rascals (page 57) darkies, black devil, darkies, coward (page 58) while the exception, Madison Washington, is described as “powerful, good-disposed negro” (page 60), “His words were well chosen, and his pronunciation equal to that of any schoolmaster”, “I forgot his blackness in the dignity of his manner, and the eloquence of his speech” (page 61), “I felt myself in the presence of a superior man (…) I could not bring myself to recognize their application to one whom I deemed my inferior” (page 63). Washington was knowledgeable, eloquent and had good pronunciation; he sailed “with the equanimity of an old sailor” (page 63); all things that a black person was considered to ignorant to learn.
However, one also needs to compare ignorance with stupidity. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, ignorance means “lack of knowledge, understanding, or information about something” while stupidity means “the state of being silly or unwise”. The fact that a person lacks knowledge while being denied access to education and the knowledge itself says more about the government than it does about a person.
Furthermore, it is unfair to consider what one might call superstitions as less legitimate knowledge. Chapter X of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn plays a bit with this theme. Huck assumes that Jim’s superstition means Jim does not know better. They had just come across a dead person which Jim said it “would fetch bad luck”. However, to Huck that sounds stupid, how can it be bad luck when they “raked in all this truck and eight dollars besides.”
Sources:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/stupidity
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ignorance
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