Voodoo, African Paganism and The Conjure Woman by Charles Chestnutt  - Literature Essay Samples

The Conjure Woman by Charles Chestnutt is a frame narrative, retelling a story within a story and incorporating valuable information about the traditional African fetishism practiced by the slaves against their slave masters. Fetishism or Voodoun provides a source of empowerment and gives the slaves, as a result, a feeling of mastery over their cruel masters. John assumes that black magic that the slaves practiced where old meaningless and therefore powerless however, he receives the opportunity to witness how the traditional Negro doctors could heal a wound or remove a spell. John determines that the slave’s medicine was â€Å"the powers of darkness† and classified Christianity as the â€Å"powers of light.† (Chestnut 2008). The dichotomy of characterizing slaves as black, darkness, or evil and white as light and good is a pattern in language that John perpetuates in his story. However, Old Uncle Julius proves him wrong as he demonstrates that it is the slaves w ho overcome the darkness of slavery through the use of their voodoo. John labors under the assumption that blacks are inferior to him â€Å"for we like to speak of the low morality of the inferior races† (Chesnutt 2008). The text contains the common racial assumptions and stereotypes of Blacks at the time which marginalises them. For example, on being introduced to a black boy John states that his â€Å"first impression of Tom proved to be correct. He turned out to be very trifling, and I was very much annoyed by his laziness, his carelessness and lack of responsibility. (Chesnutt 2008). However, in Mars Jeems Nightmare, the coin is flipped and it is the white who understands life on the opposite side of the fence. Mars Jeems suffers under the cruelty of the slaveowner who usually would call the slaves lazy since it appeared that the work was not being done quickly enough. The story’s own narrator Uncle Julius was not lazy for he was of the stock of plantation slaves, a â€Å"toiling field-hand† (Chesnutt 2008); therefore, this image of the lazy, carefree Negro has to be abolished. John observes that Black â€Å"relics of ancestral barbarism are found among all peoples, but advanced civilization has at least shaken off the more obvious absurdities of superstition. We no longer attribute insanity to demoniac possession† (Chesnutt 2008). Here he relegates the Afrocentric religion to vain, useless superstition which testifies to a barbaric people. In John’s dealings with Uncle Julius, the former is condescending and although treats him better than the typical Black man, still has these preconceived notions of the Negro race as uncultured and substandard in American society. The efficiency of the superstition is highlighted in Mars Jeem’s Nightmare where the master was recompensed for his treatment towards his slaves. Uncle Julius, the storyteller â€Å"never indulged in any regrets for the Arcadian joyousness and irresponsibility which was a somewhat popular conception of slavery.† (Chestnut 2008). Back in the days of slavery it was pop ularly thought that the period was a time of carefree joys, pleasures, and nostalgic delight as slaves enjoyed the oppression under their white masters. Julius set about to squash this theory by painting graphic pictures of cruelty, exploitation, and dehumanization. The figure of the black minstrel was beginning to rise where the blackness was primitive and comical. Black Minstrelsy gave the Negro the stage literally and figuratively to communicate joy and sorrow, humor and pathos, joke and criticism. The minstrel was often portrayed grinning, playing drums or singing, always insensitive to his suffering. The oral narrative of Uncle Julius nevertheless also gives the Negro the literary power to express himself when education was denied to him. The narrative is relayed in simple, dialect which bespeaks the narrator’s lack of formal education but the simple language betrays a profundity that even John has to admit-blackness does not equate to being unlearned or uncultured. It i s through John that Uncle Julius’ story survives and is immortalized for future generations. The issue of motherhood is central in the novel, The Conjure Woman. As a matter of fact, motherhood features paramount in Voodoo and African paganism, modelled after Mami Wata, the Mother Goddess of the Waters and Mother of Nature-Earth. Mami Wata is a charming, beautiful, seductive and serpentine woman who deceives and betrays many. Painted mostly as a mermaid, she jealously reigns over other water spirits. Due to her maternal attributes, her petitioners seek her protection, nurture, wisdom and wealth. The principal stock character mothers figured in these novels are the tragic slave mother, the bereaved children, and the slavery institution which orchestrates the separation of the family. Slavery has had both a negative and positive impact on the African American and the family structure. Although family ties survived during slavery, they remain brittle in the African American community. WEB Du Bois attributes this tendency to slave owners who first would separate families whenever they decided to sell slaves and to break up uprisings in the home and plantations. Through the family, white slave owners had the ability to classify slaves since slave-born babies had to take after the status of the mother. Chesnutt’s â€Å"Po’ Sandy† and â€Å"Sis Beckys Pickaninny,† are united in theme dealing with the separation of the Negro family. Nevertheless, it is conjuration that comes to the rescue in keeping the family together. The slave mother was one to be pitied since she had to face the peril of eternal separation from her children at the whim of her slave master. The separation was conducted in such a way that it was made almost impossible for families to be reunited. Jacobs explains that ‘to the slave mother New Year’s Day comes with peculiar sorrows. She sits on the cold cabin floor watching the children who may all be torn from her the next morning† (Jacobs 2003). The classic song, â€Å"Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, a long way from home† rings true in these slave narratives for there is that period of homelessness, displacement, and longing for a love that is usually the first that one encounters after being born. The slave children all feel disconnected and in one way or another hope and seek for that compassion and tenderness which characterize a mother. In the days of slavery, not only were the slave children torn from the wombs of their mothers (literally and figuratively) but sometimes the mothers never survived to see her child’s growth and development. At other times, in the case of Mag Smith in Our Nig, the mother chooses to put her child up for adoption seeing her incompetence to provide care. Similar to The Conjure Woman, The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, a mother figure, the grandmother, steps up to the plate and supplies the vacuum created when Harriet Jacob’s mother dies in her early years. It should be noted here that the name Harriet means she who governs the household. However as soon as slavery is abolished, the first priority is to reunite with her long-lost mother. She resolves â€Å"as soon as I am able I will begin to search for my dear mother. I will advertise for her in the papers and hunt for her in the churches†¦What a cruel thing it was to separate us!† (Harper 2008). Slavery was so inhumane and dehumanizing that the slave mother was like a factory producing more property to be auctioned, shipped and exported, rupturing deep ties. The innate desire for one’s mother is clearly evidenced in the novels, as the characters search for their maternal roots. Iola celebrates her success in rediscovering her mother for by the novel ’s end she returns â€Å"bringing with her, her mother, grandmother †¦these once severed branches of our family† (Harper 2008). The aim of the reconstruction after slavery served to reunite the lost fragments of the African American family for during slavery this reconciling and reuniting are not easily achievable. In Our Nig, Frado suffers under the weight of loneliness because her mother abandons her. She laments â€Å"Oh I wish I had my mother back† (Wilson 2011). She feels unsheltered and uncared for in her foster home where the mother and daughters treat her like the proverbial Cinderella, forced to do hard, menial work to thankless mistresses. The height of Frado’s motherless brokenness is expressed when she fears â€Å"I got to stay out here an’ die. I ha’n’t got no mother, no home, I wish I were dead† (Wilson 2011). Lifelessness is the consequence of the absence of a real mother figure in a mulatto slave girl’s life. Her emotional needs are however unsatisfied. Figuratively the oral tradition embodies the slave mother who gives birth to the narrative, her only heritage to her orphan descendants. These novels bring to the surface African American oral tradition seen through the eyes of the downtrodden slave. The works advance the cause for civil rights and the demands for equality which would form an integral part in the years of Reconstruction that follow bondage. The common denominators in all four works are the fixation on the state of the slave, his culture, and the family structure. The authors infuse parts of their biographies into the narratives. The Conjure Woman structured as a frame narrative (a story within a story) further emphasizes the importance of the story however; it is related in two different perspectives with the bias of the white man and the simplicity of a slave. Story-telling is a very important tradition for African Americans who passed down tradition and history during these occasions. Works Cited Chestnut, Charles. The Conjure Woman. EasyRead Comfort Publications, 2008. Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins. Iola Leroy. Accessible Publishing Systems, 2008. Wilson, Harriet. Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, 2011. Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself. Washington Square Press, New York, 2003.

Comparison of Dover Beach and Young Goodman Brown - Literature Essay Samples

It is always complicated to compare the literary pieces that belong to different kinds of literature. However, the word order is not the determining point due to perception and interpretation of literature. The lyric poem â€Å"Dover Beach† by Matthew Arnold and the short story â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† by Nathaniel Hawthorne are the pieces almost from different realms. However, a closer look at both of them might help observe the similarities in the vision of Hawthorne’s protagonist and Arnold persona in the poem. It is represented differently, for Matthew Arnold portrays it as the features of nature around, while in the Hawthorne’s novel it is the decay of the protagonists admiration with the world and people in it. Thus, the main thing that connects the two works is the portrayal of a smooth transition from joy and excitement to the obscure frustration with reality. The similarities between narrators in Dover Beach and Young Goodman Brown is the transitional tone incorporated in the two compositions. Both works begin with a romanticized view of the world. The persona sees all the beauty of a calm evening by the sees. It is filled with serenity and joy of being alive and be able to touch so simple things as sunset or not to worry about anything. The persona sees the complete harmony of nature, and joins it, feeling the bliss of the unity with the universe. In Dover beach, the narrator is captivated by the water: he observes the beauty in nature. â€Å"The sea is calm tonight / the tide is full, the moon lies fair.† He paints a perfect picture of Dover Beach. However, it is only an introduction to his further philosophical speculations the lead him to the pessimistic conclusions. Listening carefully to the movement of pebbles thrown back to the beach by the endlessly coming waves, He starts to think of the entire matter of living and the et ernal conflict of and dissonance that the waves represent. The narrator recognizes the grating roar the only sound that is impossible to confuse for him, which he call the eternal note of sadness. This is a message from nature itself, and only a thinking human being is able to recognize this sound. This sound is dedicated to the lone wanderers around the shore, who were led there by suffering the uncertainty and the vagueness of the matter of existence (Grob 2002). By the end of the work, the persona is all alone, facing the dark reality. The protagonist takes the first steps in the path through the woods as a naive and idealistic person. He sees the world as joyful and simple thing. Young Goodman Brown is also living a fantasy with his newly wed wife, Faith. He describes her as â€Å"a blessed angel on earth.† She is so perfect, in his eyes, that he wants to preserve her just as he has with faith in God. He is certain that all his ancestors were all decent and virtuous people anÐ ² good Christians. The community he lives in consists solely of best of people, and their pastor is simply a saint. This is the community that he intentionally leaves to the travel to the dark forest. This walk, for some reason, does not disturb Brown. All the events of the story align in the chain of psychological need after a certain incident, lying outside the story and accomplished in the mind and heart of Brown. The agreement to a meeting with the dark force is the product of subconscious unbelief. This journey shows him the dar k side of the entire world he lives in. Those people who are separated by social status, reputation, race, religion by day unite in the darkness of night and in the worship of evil (Connolly 1962). After his return to the village, he looks with horror at living normal lives of Christian citizens, whom he saw in the forest, turn out to be terrible hypocrites. He loses the faith in humanity and God. This is a presentation of a gradual loss of hope, the entire idea of the world and people collapsed before his very eyes, and this is a state of mind, with which he lived till the end of his life. To conclude everything mentioned above, the works mentioned have in common the tragedy of the persona, which finds them differently. As the two works develop, the tone change drastically. At the beginning both of the stories ode to the world and enjoy their lives being certain of everything they know. However, Dover Beach turns into a sad cruel place which people misinterpret into a paradise, while the author sees it as a dead end of the idea of existence. Young Goodman Brown sees everything that he ever believed in is false and he is surrounded by sinners and hypocrites. He develops into a cold, anti-social man who mistrusted everyone in town and lived in suspicion, as he does not know what to believe in. Works cited Connolly, Thomas E. How Young Goodman Brown Became Old Badman Brown. College English, vol 24, no. 2, 1962, p. 153. JSTOR. Grob, Alan. A Longing Like Despair: Arnold’s Poetry of Pessimism. 1st ed., Newark, University Of Delaware Press, 2002.