LITR 5731:
Seminar in American Minority Literature
University of
Houston-Clear Lake, Fall 2001
Sample Student Midterm
Linda Higginbotham
Seminar in American Minority Literature
October, 2001
SEARCH
FOR PERSONAL FREEDOM
Many minority authors write about an
individual's
search for self which culminates in the realization of personal freedom. This
has been an important theme in African-American literature beginning with the
slave narratives to modern poetry and prose. The concept of freedom has a myriad
of meanings which encompasses national political liberty to an individual's
own personal freedom. Personal freedom is the ability to ignore societal and
familial influences to find the true sense of self. Individuals are truly
liberated when they are physically, mentally, and spiritually free. Sense of
self is the enlightenment we possess when we psychologically realize and accept
our true qualities and limitations. Attaining personal freedom is not a simple
affair. It is a lifelong journey which is tedious and demanding with obstacles
and setbacks which must be conquered. The search for personal freedom is
exemplified in the following three novels, Incidents in the Life of a Slave
Girl by Harriet Jacobs, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, and Push
by Sapphire. The main protagonists, Linda Brent, Milkman and Precious,
respectively, achieve personal freedom through attainment of knowledge, by
confronting their families, and by overcoming the prejudices of society.
Moreover, although the search for personal freedom is an individual journey, it
cannot be achieved without assistance.
Knowledge is a primary factor in the
attainment of personal freedom. This includes not only scholarly education but
also awareness of historical heritage and familial legacy. Henry Louis Gates,
Jr., in his introduction to The Classic Slave Narratives, states that "[t]he
narratives of ex-slaves are, for the literary critic, the very foundation upon
which most subsequent Afro-American fictional and nonfictional narrative forms
are based" (Gates xii). Through their fiction, Morrison and Sapphire build
upon this foundation. Moreover, to discover one's true self, a
person has to understand his or her past. Morrison believes that the search for
personal freedom begins with healing and rebirth which she defines as "rememory."
Linden Peach in Toni Morrison refers to rememory as "the
basic concept...is that memories have a physical existence beyond the minds of
the individuals in whom they originate: it is possible to bump into and have
another person's memory"
(Peach 101). The fact that African-Americans were held in human bondage cannot
be forgotten; it has to be remembered and passed on through rememory. Moreover,
literacy gives minority cultures a voice to reach out to others with
encouragement and hope.
Literacy was important to Linda Brent
because, before she could procure mental and spiritual freedom, she had to
escape her cruel master. As Gates states, "the
slave who learned to read and write was the first to run away"
and that "[i]n
literacy lay true freedom for the black slave"
(Gates ix). Linda Brent was fortunate that her first master taught her to read
and write. However, this was a dangerous skill for a slave to possess because
literacy meant power. The ability to understand the concept of freedom enhanced
slaves'
desire to escape from their oppressive masters. In Song of Solomon, Macon
Dead, Sr. is plagued by his illiteracy. Pilate said, "[h]e should have let
me teach him. Everything bad that ever happened to him happened because he
couldn't read. Got his name messed up cause he couldn't
read" (Morrison 53). In addition, Macon Dead, Sr. lost his land because he
signed a document that he could not read.
Furthermore, literacy is a means for
poverty-stricken African-American youth to escape from the ghettos and attain
their personal freedom. In Push, it is possible that Precious would not
have survived to adulthood without literacy. She believes that school is going
to save her (Sapphire 35). "[S]ure
you can do anything when you talking or writing, it's not like living when you
can only do what you doing" (3). By writing their stories, Linda and
Precious begin to heal. The horrors that they have bottled up inside are able to
be expelled through their writing. When Precious is ready to surrender, she told
Ms. Rains:
I don't have
nothing to write today--maybe never. Hammer in my heart now, beating me, I feel
like my blood a giant river swell up inside me and I'm drowning. My head all
dark inside. Feel like giant river I never cross in front me now. Ms. Rain say,
You not writing Precious. I say I drownin' in river. She don't look me like I'm
crazy but say, If you just sit there the river gonna rise up drown you! Writing
could be the boat carry you to the other side. One time in your journal you told
me you had never really told your story. I think telling your story git you over
that river Precious (97).
Moreover, Linda and Precious are able to
assist other African-Americans in their rememories.
In contrast, Milkman has a high school
education which he took for granted. For Milkman to achieve personal freedom, he
needs to search for his ancestral roots. Milkman's father, Macon Dead, Jr.,
denies Milkman his rememories because Macon assumes that achieving the American
Dream means erasing his past. However, as stated above, Morrison believes
Milkman has to remember; he has to know his past in order to know his self. His
father taught him that Athe
one important thing you'll ever need to know: Own things. And let the things you
own own other things. Then you'll own yourself and other people too@
(Morrison 55). Macon falsely leads Milkman to believe that "You'll be free.
Money is freedom Macon. The only real freedom there is" (163). Milkman buys
into his father's fallacy as he too frantically searches for the gold that will
supposedly set him free. Up to this point, Milkman is only concerned with
drinking, sex and hanging out with his buddies. However, he eventually realizes
that money will not satisfy what is missing from his life. He therefore, begins
his search for his sense of self. Milkman metamorphosizes after his journey into
his ancestral history which gave him the means to become personally free.
A second element essential for personal
freedom is the ability to break familial ties that hinder or restrain us on our
individual journeys. Milkman, Linda, and Precious each had the courage to leave
their families to discover their sense of self. Everyone is affected by
childhood events, but it is important that these incidents do not prohibit us
from discovering our true selves. David Willbern in "Reading After
Freud" states that "[p]atterns of expectation, satisfaction and
frustration in early life provide templates for the gradual construction and
emergence of self" (Willbern 160). Linda, Milkman, and Precious each aspire
to evolve from their childhood nightmares to actualize their personal freedom.
Linda is physically and psychologically
oppressed by her white masters, and she desperately apprehends that she and her
children have to escape. In order to go North, Linda has to separate herself
from the security and love of her family. Instead of offering encouragement,
Linda's grandmother tells her "do you want to kill your old grandmother? Do
you mean to leave your little, helpless babies?" (Jacobs 417). When Linda
decides to leave, her family, "despairing of my having a chance to escape,
they advised me to return to my master, ask his forgiveness, and let him make an
example of me" (424). Understandably, Linda's family's actions are based on
fear; however, Linda has to defy them because her only chance for freedom is to
escape. In contrast, Milkman and Precious are oppressed, not by a white master,
but by their own families.
Although Milkman lived in the
Twentieth-Century and is not physically a slave, he is repressed by his family.
Milkman's parents love him; however, Morrison refers to their love as an
"anaconda love" as they squeeze the life out of Milkman and leave
little room for growth and maturity. Ruth Dead is so possessive of Milkman that
she continues to breast-feed him long after he should have been weaned as
"his legs [were] dangling almost to the floor" (Morrison 13). When
Freddie caught them in the act, Milkman "had been rechristened with a name
he was never able to shake ..." (15). In addition, Macon Dead, Jr. wants to
model his son in his own image. Milkman feels trapped. He defies his father
through his sexual relationship with Hagar as he unconsciously seeks to become
part of Pilate's free-spirited family. He becomes lackadaisical; he is tired of
Hagar and bored with his life. "Boredom, which had begun as a mild
infection, now took him over completely" (90). Milkman has to escape to
find personal freedom. As Milkman gains knowledge through his travels to
Danville and Shalimar, he recognizes that he resembles his grandfather more than
his father. When Milkman leaves his family and discovers his ancestral roots,
which was denied him by his father, he is finally able to understand himself.
On the other hand, Precious was mentally,
physically, and sexually abused by her parents. Her abuse began when she was
three years old and continued until she fled at 16. In second grade, her peers
began to make jokes and ridicule her, and Precious began to "just sit
there, it's like I paralyze or some shit. I don't move. I can't
move." (Sapphire 36). Precious thinks that she is invisible to others
because she feels "so stupid sometimes. So ugly, worth nuffin'" (34).
"What it take for my muver to see me? Sometimes I wish I was not
alive" (32). Precious is a slave to her mother; she "feel
like killing Mama" (59). However, she overcame her familial obstacles which
allowed her to begin her journey to personal freedom. It is a turning point for
Precious when she delivers her father's second child, Abdul. She realizes that,
despite her parents, she is valuable. Precious is Abdul's mother, and he needs
her to succeed to survive. Precious will endure, although it will be an uphill
struggle all her life, but she just has to keep on pushing and forging ahead to
discover her personal freedom.
Another ingredient needed to attain personal
freedom is liberty from societal oppression. It is a more difficult struggle for
African-Americans to achieve personal freedom than members of the dominant
culture. There has always been a segment of "white America" that
diligently attempts to hinder African-Americans' progression to find a free
voice as a group and as individuals.
After Linda escapes slavery, she continues to
be oppressed by others. "Being in servitude to the Anglo-Saxon
race,...every where I found manifestations of that cruel prejudice, which so
discourages the feelings, and represses the energies of the colored people"
(Jacobs 491). Moreover, Linda finds prejudice from within her own people of
color because they possess a lighter skin tone than her. Linda states:
This was the
climax! I found it hard to preserve my self-control, when I looked round, and
saw women who were nurses, as I was, and only one shade lighter in complexion,
eyeing me with a defiant look, as if my presence were a contamination. However,
I said nothing (491).
Nevertheless, on other occasions, Linda did
stand up for herself:
Finding I was
resolved to stand up for my rights, they concluded to treat me well. Let every
colored man and woman do this, and eventually we shall cease to be trampled
under foot by our oppressors (492).
Like Precious, Linda's road to personal
freedom would always be a fierce struggle.
Unfortunately, Precious was also oppressed by
the society in which she resided. The school authorities think that she is not
worth saving, so they do not give her a chance to succeed. They ignore the signs
of abuse (such as Precious urinating in the classroom). In second grade, the
principal told Precious' teacher to "[f]ocus on the ones who can learn"
(Sapphire 37). When Precious has her father's child at 12 years old, nobody
rescues her. The police question her, but since she is afraid, she does not
respond, so they wash their hands of her. The counselor, Ms. Weiss, also fails
Precious by not gaining her trust. Precious is then left to rescue herself.
Instead of prostituting herself for drugs or money, Precious chooses to continue
to better herself through her schooling.
Unlike Linda and Precious, Milkman belongs to
the segregated society in which he lives; therefore, he does not feel the brunt
of prejudice. He knows nothing of the world outside his neighborhood. It is only
through Guitar that Milkman recognizes that a black man is not always safe.
Guitar tells Milkman that:
There are no
innocent white people, because every one of them is a potential nigger-killer,
if not an actual one. You think Hitler surprised them? You think just because
they went to war they thought he was a freak? Hitler's the most natural white
man in the world. He killed Jews and Gypsies because he didn't have us. Can you
see those Klansmen shocked by him? No, you can't. (Morrison 155).
Guitar also explains to Milkman how the
judicial system cannot protect him because "the judge,
the jury, the court, are legally bound to ignore anything a Negro has to
say" (160). Milkman revealed his naivety when he asked Reverend Cooper why
nobody was arrested for murdering his grandfather (232). When Milkman arrived in
Shalimar, he is out of his element. Here he is "unknown, unloved, and damn
near killed" (270). Milkman comprehends that his material possessions and
money are of no use to him in Shalimar.
His watch and two
hundred dollars would be of no help out here, where all a man had was what he
was born with, or had learned to use. And endurance. Eyes, ears, nose, taste,
touch--and some other sense that he knew he did not have: an ability to separate
out, of all the things there were to sense, the one that life itself might
depend on. (277).
However, in Shalimar, Milkman felt
"connected, as though there was some cord or pulse or information they
shared" (293). Milkman realizes that back home he felt a sense of false
security. In Shalimar, with his own people he is at ease to find his self and
his personal freedom.
Although the road to personal freedom is an
individual journey, we need assistance to arrive at our destination. Pilate, as
well as the people of Danville and Shalimar, are instrumental in Milkman's
learning about his history through which he finds his true identity which sets
him free. Moreover, Guitar teaches Milkman about the real world and all of its
perverted prejudices. It would have been extremely difficult for Linda to escape
slavery if her first mistress had not taught her to read and write. In addition,
for Linda to succeed in the North, she depended on her white employers and
abolitionist helpers for her livelihood. Through Precious' story, Sapphire is
determined to tell the world what reality is to some young African-American
girls. It is society's responsibility to acknowledge children in abusive
situations and to insure that they receive the education they need. Ms. Rains
was able to influence Precious and the other girls by encouraging them to become
literate and to express themselves through their writing. The support groups
such as the Body Positive and Incest Survivors also assisted Precious in her
search for herself and personal freedom.
Pilate is the strongest character of the
three works herein discussed because she attained her personal freedom at an
early age. "As a natural child, free to follow her own inclinations, Pilate
relishes her freedom, roaming over her father's farm and the surrounding
forests" (Carmean 54). She intimately understands her true self, and she
dismisses anyone who disapproves of her lifestyle. She is not restricted by a
job as she is self-employed making and selling bootleg liquor. Pilate is a
natural women who is honest and guilt-free (56). She is also accepting of others
and welcomes Milkman into her life in spite of her strained relationship with
her brother. Pilate lived with no regrets; she is free and happy with her life,
her family, and herself. Family and society are not allowed to restrain her free
spirit.
We can achieve personal freedom as Pilate did
by acquiring knowledge, confronting familial restrictions and overcoming
societal prejudices. Through our own experiences, as well as with the guidance
of others, we are able to find our own sense of self which enables us to accept
who we are as individuals. The characters discussed herein all had a turning
point in their lives when they realized that there was something missing. They
chose to remedy the situation, unlike other characters (such as Ruth Deadman,
Macon Deadman, Jr., Hagar, Guitar, and Precious' parents), who are not strong
enough to pursue their own enlightenment. They remain stagnant in the quagmire
of their self-pity and fear which prevents them from finding the contentment
that personal freedom offers. The ultimate decision is an individual choice. We
learn from Linda, Milkman, and Precious that we cannot let parental, societal,
or cultural oppression keep us from being physically, mentally, and emotionally
free. While Milkman's realization of his personal freedom came as his life
ended, Linda and Precious, were still in the process of pursuing their personal
freedom. The route to personal freedom is not an easy one, but we must
persevere. The old Chinese proverb that Ms. Rains taught Precious should be
remembered, "The longest journey begins with a single step" (Sapphire
49).
WORKS CITED
Carmean, Karen, Toni Morrison's World of
Fiction, Troy: The Whitston Publishing
Company, 1993.
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of
a Slave Girl, Written by Herself. 1861. The Classic Slave Narratives.
Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.. New York: Mentor, 1987.
332-515.
Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New
York: Plume,
Peach, Norman. Modern Novelists Toni
Morrison. Ed. Norman Page. New York: St.
Martin's Press, 1995.
Sapphire. Push. New York: Vintage
Contemporaries, 1996.
Storhoff, Gary. "'Anaconda Love':
Parental Enmeshment in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon."
Style 31 No. 2 (Summer 1997). 290-309. September 18, 2001
<http.//p26688.uhcl.edu:2071/cgi-bin/web>.
Willbern, David. "Reading After
Freud." Ed. G. Douglas Atkins and Laura Morrow. Contemporary Literary Theory. Amherst: University of
Massachusetts Press, 1989.
158-179.