LITR 5535: American Romanticism

Student Presentation on Reading Selections, summer 2002

Selection Reader: Cynthia Garza
Recorder:  Illeana Dejuan
Thursday, 20 June  

Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, N 826-849  

            Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the story of Harriet Jacobs published under the pseudonym Linda Brent.  This true account of Harriet Jacobs’ struggle as a female slave is full of Romanticism.  The following Romantic qualities can all be found in the work: dark and light in physical and moral terms, quest or journey toward transcendence, desire and loss, rebellion, individualism, separation from the masses, sublime, crossing borders (physical, social, and psychological), heroine, and Eden (paradise, paradise lost, and paradise regained).  Because this work is immersed in Romantic qualities, my primary focus will be on dark and light in physical and moral terms.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

(p. 831)

            " I loved, and I indulged the hope that the dark clouds around me would turn out a bright lining.  I forgot that in the land of my birth the shadows are too dense for light to penetrate."

·        In this line, Jacobs lets us into her world, a dark world.  She continues this analogy throughout her work- light, the better life, the white life, cannot penetrate the “shadows” of her world.  She also lets us know that she has no choice in the matter, it was decided for her at birth.

(p. 834)

            " With me the lamp of hope had gone out.  The dream of my girlhood was over.  I felt lonely and desolate."

·        At this point of the story Jacobs has lost all hope to marry a free black man.  She has asked him to leave, and he has consented.   She again describes the better life, the free life, the life of choice as dark.  The lamp is an interesting turn on the use of light.  It is almost as she chose to turn it on, but “the lamp of hope had gone out;” and she had no choice in turning it off.

(p. 838)

            " The stars were shining through the boughs above me.  How they mocked me, with their bright, calm light!"

·        Here, Jacobs has revealed that she is pregnant with another man’s child, a white man of her choice.  Her master is infuriated, her grandmother disappointed, and Jacobs is left with few choices.  She thought she had found a way out, but again, the stars were “mocking” her at the thought that she had contrived a successful plan.  The light is described as “calm,” obviously the opposite of her mental state.

(p. 841)

            " There was no admission for either light or air."

            "The air was stifling; the darkness total."

            " ……for in my small den day and night were all the same.  I suffered for air even more than for light."

            "This continued darkness was oppressive."

            "….without one gleam of light."

" But of course this was not safe in the daytime.  It must all be one in darkness."        

·        In Jacobs’ description of the small den she lives in, she uses an abundance of light and dark language; and even adds air to the equation.  Air represents life, actual survival.  Light becomes happiness and is in conflict with air.  She is unable to do anything during the daytime, for fear of being caught, so her new life takes place in mental and literal darkness.

(p.842)

            "Now I will have some light.  Now I will see my children."

·        When Jacobs discovers a way to see her children, through a tiny hole, in the daytime she again has “light” in her life.  “Light,” represents happiness and what her children mean to her.

(p. 843)

            " One day the doctor took them into a shop, and offered them some bright little silver pieces and gay handkerchiefs if they would tell where their mother was."

·        I think the light and dark motif becomes very interesting at this point.  Silver reflects light, it does not possess light, and therefore it is almost a false light.  It seems fitting that the doctor would try to bribe the children with false light, false happiness.

(p.846)           

            " God forgive the black and bitter thoughts I indulged on that Sabbath day!"

·        The use of “black” in this line seems to be the traditional use of the word, simply meaning dark and/or impure thoughts.

(p.848)

            " ……black seal."

·        The “black” seal is a dark and sad moment for Jacobs; the arrival of the letter letting her know of her grandmother’s passing.

            " Yet the retrospection is not altogether without solace: for with those gloomy recollections come tender memories of my good old grandmother, like light, fleecy clouds floating over a dark and troubled sea."

·        This is the last sentence of Jacobs’ personal story of slavery.  She ends the story just as she began, with dark and light imagery.  Ironically, here, she refers to her grandmother as clouds that are “light.”  Light has been reserved for white people throughout the story, but now, it seems to be a tribute or gift to the woman, her grandmother, who watched over her and gave her guidance.  Though she has come full circle, and is now a free black woman, Jacobs still labels her life as the “dark and troubled sea.” 

Question for discussion:  Is it romanticism when she chooses her own way?

Dendy:  Did the children know she was there?

Jennifer:  She thought that the children, particularly the oldest son was aware of her presence.

Kelly:             It is, she took her hope and connected to her dream of better things, and that is Romanticism.

Natasha:  She is not innocent or empty of personality, she is self content and conscious of her and her surroundings.

Kelly:             She narrates here to be on her own because it did happen; however, there is something that she strives to her whole life- Romanticism.

Linda:  She reminds me of Thoreau.  The character discussed how she would rather be in jail.

            On page 835- a quote- " I would rather live and die in jail"

            On page 833- " as for the jail there would be more peace for me there."

Cynthia:  She is very boldly defiant, a Romantic in terms of being an individual in the story

Al:  Captivity narrative and slave narrative.  The attic is her prison like Thoreau.

Cynthia:  She always wants to be somewhere else.

Linda:  Did the 7 years have an effect on the physical?

Al:  Light and dark The way she looks both she and Douglas mention early in how they were They both describe their coloring, and she discusses she was mulatto.

Dr. White:  She is a lot like Eliza in Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Cynthia:  When she was free, it is her paradise.

David:  If she were to be seen in New Orleans, she probably would not have had the problems that she did in other states.

Kayla:  The Creole influence- because of her skin color, she can pass from world to " Cane River" world.

Linda:  Jordan- though historical

Dr. White:  The slave romantic must have a separate category, though it also has Romantic aspects.  The Federal Writers Projects was during the Depression and interviewers went around to gather the stories of slave narratives.

Cynthia:  Slave narratives definitely fit in with local color, like when Linda stays with Mrs. Bruce as a servant after emancipation.

Linda:  The seven years that Linda spent in the attic is biblical, and she questions whether the time line was changed in the story.

Dendy:  He thinks that the story has been reworked though the majority of the story is true.

Dr. White:  Did she communicate with Stowe?

Cynthia:  Yes.  Stowe suggested that she publish her story with A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Through my readings, studies of Harriet Jacobs, my initial presentation, and the class discussion, I think it is evident that Jacobs’ slave narrative is a unique perspective of slave life embracing many Romantic qualities.