Samuel Mathis

1 March 2010

Web Review

            In preparing for my midterm writing assignment, I decided to look at three other midterms for my web review.  My reading included Martin Briones‘s “Consequences of Flight,” Cindy Goodson’s “Chains, Songs and Bible Motifs: A Dialogue on the American Dream Deferred,” and Sonya Prince’s “Does Literacy Really Guarantee Freedom?”.  I enjoyed reading these three essays because they gave me an alternative view on the subject of flight and literacy in African American literature.  While I may not have agreed with everything my colleagues said, I was challenged to examine their writings and formulate my own opinions.  This review will examine each of the three essays individually and my response to them.

            Martin Briones’s essay “Consequences of Flight” deals with what must be given up in order for flight to occur.  I enjoyed the examples provided by Briones.  He focused most of his examples around Milkman and the things he forfeits in order to learn of his history and fly from the shackles of his father’s business and violence surrounding him.  He continues the discussion with Langston Hughes, Fredrick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs.  I found his examples fitting and they offered an interesting perspective on the aftereffects of leaving.  I reviewed the texts, and those left behind almost always suffer consequences for the flier‘s actions.

            Cindy Goodson asserts that the African American “Dream” has yet to be obtained in her essay.  I found Cindy’s essay someone difficult to follow, and I believe this is due to her large topic.  She attempted to show that despite the fact that slaves gained their freedom, they were still in some sort of bondage.  Even individuals who had obtained freedom, such as Langston Hughes and Macon Dead Jr., felt as though they were not free.  I saw through her essay that she still believes African Americans are oppressed through the dominant culture in some of the same ways they were 200 years ago.  I disagreed with her statement that the dominant culture is using the Bible to subdue the African American minority today, but I allowed for her own opinion. 

            I found myself really connecting and getting into a discussion with Sonya Prince’s essay “Does Literacy Really Guarantee Freedom.”  Although Prince argues that Literacy provided opportunity over freedom, I would have preferred for her to give me her definition of what it meant to have literacy.  I found her examples of the benefits of being literate to be strong points in her argument, and her discussion of Macon (Jake) Dead’s problems surrounding his illiteracy to be an excellent counterbalance to the initial argument.  However, her real point comes out when she describes Corinthians’s inability to be free from the common jobs of her people despite her advanced degree showing that she was educated and literate.  Prince’s essays was a very fair essay and offered some great points about the opportunity over freedom that presents itself to the minority culture that becomes literate.

            All three of these essays helped me to form my own essay idea, and while I may not have agreed with their writings, they did spur my thinking.  I can understand why Dr. White had us do this portion of the assignment now that I have completed it.  By reading these essays, I am able to construct my own essay and argue for my own views concerning African American literature.

The Life-Giving Word:

Biblical Language in African American Literature

            In much of early African American literature there exist a common theme of Biblical language and allusions.  Early minority writers used this language to resonate with their fellow minority members and to give the appearance of assimilation with the dominant culture of that time.  Their African American readers would have recognized the phrasing, allusions, and songs that both spoke of freedom and hinted at an alternate meaning.  This meaning would have slipped past the dominant culture, and the writers seen as a deeply spiritual people adopting the religion of the dominant culture.  By using religious language, African Americans were both assimilating and resisting the dominant culture by using the white man’s words against him.

            This essay will examine four texts as they relate to the study of American Minority Literature and the various literary tactics used by the minority culture to be accepted by the dominant culture while resisting it at the same time.  In accordance with objective 1.c and 4 of the class, this essay will discuss the literary strategies used by minority cultures to gain voice and the dilemma of assimilation or resistance.  I will argue that by using scriptural references, the minority writers put out a semblance of assimilation while also using the dominant culture’s language and words to resist.  The essay will look at four works including Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jupiter Hammon’s poem “An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ, with Penitential Cries,” Fredrick Douglass’s The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, An American Slave, and Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon.  By examining these four texts, one can see that the use of Biblical language is a strategy used by the African American minority to help them achieve a voice.

            In order to better understand the need for a partial assimilation with the dominant culture, a discussion of the publication industry of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century must first occur.  During this time, African Americans did not hold prominent positions in the publication industry.  In order for someone to be published, they either had to print out and distribute their work themselves or have it published through a white publisher.  This created difficulties for African Americans who wished to be published during this time.  In order for them to be published, they usually had to have a white supporter or use language that would not offend the dominant white society.  Fredrick Douglass fell into the former category as Mr. Andrews and Mr. McFeely both edited and supported his work.  Jupiter Hammon, on the other hand, as the first African American to be published in the United States, does not publicize the support of a white editor.  His poem uses language that seemed to be nothing more than a simple prayer for salvation, and it was because of this language that he was published.  Harriet Jacobs underwent the same issue as Fredrick Douglass during the 1860s.  She had to be very careful about how she wrote for fear that her writings would not be accepted by publishers.  Fortunately, by the time Toni Morrison wrote her work, the publication industry had changed enough to allow her to publish without any fear of repercussions.

            In contrast to Toni Morrison, Harriet Jacobs had much to fear in the form of repercussions against her work.  Had she been very specific, she could have been hunted down and taken back to her master in the south.  Although she was not able to be specific with names and details, Jacobs integrates much of her text with Biblical allusions and images to evoke a spiritual response in her readers.  One very poignant passage comes during her discussion of her master’s lustful pursuit of her.  She describes his “restless, craving, vicious nature [that] roved about day and night, seeking whom to devour… O, how I despised him!  I thought how glad I should be, if some day…the earth…would open up and swallow him up and disencumber the world of a plague.”  This passage calls to mind two distinct scriptural passages.  The first portion of this passage comes from 1 Peter 5:8 that states, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”  This statement creates a connection in the reader’s mind between the slave master and the devil.  While the language is one that the dominant culture would have expected from a slave since slaves supposedly knew what they had learned in scripture, it suggests an alternate meaning and shows Jacob’s belief that slavery was evil and not from God through the connection of her master and Satan. 

            Jacob furthers this argument by wishing for the earth to swallow up her master and relieve the world from his “plague.”  The word plague instantly brings the reader’s attention to the most famous plagues surrounding Moses and the Hebrew slaves in Egypt.  By using this language and referencing the Hebrew slaves, Jacob alludes to the Egyptian slavery and the subsequent Hebrew freedom achieved through Moses.  She also alludes to Korah and his punishment for trying to lead a people that were not his by wishing the earth would swallow her master up. Korah challenged the leadership of Moses and Aaron and claimed they led the Hebrews out into the wilderness in order to become their new master.  Moses prayed to the Lord, and the Lord provided a means for Moses to show he was God’s chosen servant.  In Numbers 16:28-32, we see how Korah was punished for attempting to usurp Moses’ leadership just as Satan attempted to usurp the authority of God:

“And Moses said, Herby ye shall know that the LORD hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind.  If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the LORD hath sent me.  But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick unto the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses and all the men that appertained unto Korah and all their goods.”

This correlation between Jacob’s wish and the happening with Korah is not coincidental.  She purposefully makes her comment because of the connections her people would understand and relate to.  This saying has a very special meaning to fellow slaves because they would have identified themselves with the Hebrew slaves and viewed their masters as individuals attempting to usurp God, the ultimate Master.  They wished for a Moses figure to save them, and they saw the slave masters and farm hands as obstacles to their freedom.  These plantation owners were seen as usurpers to the rightful leader that would lead them to a promised land flowing with milk and honey.  While the dominant culture would have seen this as a merely spiritual allusion, fellow slaves would have recognized the language as one of resistance and desirous for freedom.

            An excellent example of religious language being used to express a desire for freedom comes from Jupiter Hammon’s poem “An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ, With Penitential Cries.”  Hammon uses double language to cry to the Lord for salvation and freedom from oppression.  By masking his poem as a lamentation of sins, Hammon was able to gain rights for publication while in resisting the culture that the dominant society forced onto their slaves.  Caucasian Americans believed that this type of poem was a simple religious cry for forgiveness of sins since slaves were seen as very religious.  It was true that slaves would sing hymns while working in the fields, but that did not necessarily mean these slaves were happy.  Hammon uses the hymnal qualities in his poem to create an atmosphere similar to that of the slaves in the south.  They could have easily sung this song and asked, “Lord, unto whom now shall we go,/ Or seek a save Abode?”  They slaves would not have been asking where they could be safe from the punishment of their sins; rather, they would have been requesting a safe place to fly from their oppression.  Their cry for Salvation was a song for the freedom from slavery.

            Fredrick Douglass also comments on the use of song as a means of keeping hope alive for a better tomorrow.  In contrast to the northern American view that the hymns and songs sung by slaves were songs of rejoicing and happiness, Douglass states that these songs “told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones loud, long and deep… Every tone was a testimony against slaver, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.”  Douglass’s statement mirrors two distinct scriptural passages.  The first comes from the Old Testament in Exodus.  In the 24^th verse of the second chapter, God “heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant.”  The slaves believed that their groaning and songs were similar to those of the Israelites, and they wished for a savior. 

The act of singing also mirrors the singing of Paul and Silas in Acts 16:25-26.  The scriptures state that “at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.”  Singing freed the righteous as well as unrighteous in this situation.  It can be argued that in the same way, the slaves could have believed the same thing about their singing. By singing, the slaves were calling out for freedom, and this cry is what saddens Douglass because he cannot see a means for them to become free. 

Despite the fact that freedom did become available to the African American population after the end of the Civil War, writers continued to write and speak on the need for freedom from the oppression of the dominant culture.  This writing was not without just cause either.  In Toni Morrison’s novel, Song of Solomon, she argues that although African Americans were no longer oppressed by slavery, their desire to be like the dominant culture still bound them.  Morrison correlates her novel to the Biblical Song of Songs and the interaction between Solomon, and the Shulamite woman.  Morrison’s character Milkman is like the Shulamite woman looking for her lover.  However, instead of a lover, Milkman is in a courtship with his history and the riches they offer.  Because of his past, Milkman believes he is unworthy to find his heritage and is hindered from his search by various parties.  Morrison turns the Biblical story on its head by reversing the roles of both the male and female characters as well as their relative prosperities.  Milkman comes from a family of wealth and believes that his wealth will hinder him from being liked by his people.  It is only at the end of the novel that the reader discovers the richness of Milkman’s heritage and the power he can obtain by accepting his past.

Morrison offers other Biblical allusions and side stories throughout the text.  Milkman’s sister Magdalene (Lena) is not analogous to Mary Magdalene as many would believe, but rather, it is Martha Magdalene, Mary’s sister, that Lena resembles.  Her explosion towards Milkman resembles Martha’s explosion towards Jesus in Luke 10:39.  Lena works and works, yet she never took time to search out what was really important.  Her history was more important than anything else, yet Lena became so bogged down with the housework that she failed to see the mystery of her family all around her.  Milkman’s other sister Corinthians also correlates with her namesake.  Corinthian’s fight and reconciliation with Porter resembles the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians.  Corinthians tells Porter that he “wanted a lady. Somebody who knows how to sit down, how to dress, how to eat the food on her plate.  Well, there is a difference between a woman and a lady, and I know you know which one I am.”  When she leaves his car, she is very upset, yet “by the time she reached number 12 Not Doctor Street, her trembling had become uncontrollable… she turned on her heel and ran back down the street to where Porter stopped the car… [She was] banging on the car-door window of a yardman. But she would bang forever to escape.”  Corinthians finally realized the importance of 1 Corinthians 13:2 that claimed “If I have the gift of prophesy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”  Just as her namesake teaches, Corinthians realized that she was and had nothing without love.  And it was her love for Porter that gave her life meaning.

There are many more examples of Biblical language being used in African American literature in order to connect with the dominant culture and to resist it at the same time.  As I have shown, scripture plays a heavy part in minority literature of the African American population.  Another aspect of minority literature that I have noticed is the use of music or songs in minority literature.  Music is a powerful tool and very important to both African Americans and Native Americans.  I intend to examine music and its effects on Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and in Native American culture as well.  I will write two research posts covering each topic separately.  The first post will examine music in Morrison’s text, and the second will look at the importance of music to the Native American minority.  Through my research, I hope to gain further insight into the power of song and its ability to bring a sense of community to the American minorities. 

American minorities are an oppressed people, yet they have found ways to resist the dominant culture while appearing to assimilate or comply with their oppression.  The use of song or Biblical language is just one of many ways minorities are working towards preserving their heritage and remaining distinct from the dominant culture.  By reading their literature, examining their songs, and learning their culture, the dominant culture can become more aware of the burdens placed on minorities.  Becoming aware of the oppression is the first step in alleviating those who are oppressed.  By working together, we as individuals and differing societies can create an America that no longer oppresses their minorities, but accepts the differences and allows the freedom to live as one chooses.