Tuesday, July 21, 2009
The Goophered Grapevine
I think that what we talked about today in class about stories appealing to the audience, was a tool that was used in "The Goophered Grapevine". I feel that this story for the time that it was written, was meant for the white middle class. The author uses the idea of a slave being property to appeal to the white audience. Once Mars Dugal realized what he had in his slave, because of the curse Mars Dugal wanted to take advantage. He sold him to other owners during the spring when he was strong and young. Only to have become weak and old in the winter, when he knew the other owners would want to sell him back, so as to not loose all their money from the investment. This went on for many years and this idea of African Americans being a posession would appeal to most of the readers of that time. This was the same idea that we discussed and saw in "Our Nig". I think that it also portrays the African American as being uneducated. When the narrator is speaking in the beginning, he is well spoken and literate. When the African American is telling the story in his voice, it is in broken english.
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I agree with you when you state that this was written to almost humor the white-middle class. I was actually a little disgusted by Mars Dugal and his awful way to make money off of this one slave, using him to his full advantage. But back then, slaves weren't seen as equal so they should not be given any respect. Unfortunately, I agree when you say that the African-Americans were only seen as a possession, an object that can be bought and sold.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that the story within the story was used merely to agree the white audience. The story was targeted toward them because they had the money and skills to purchase and read the text. It makes me sad to see how the author depicts a stereotypical African American, but in retrospect, the author used wit to sell his narratives.
ReplyDeleteWhen this piece was written people expected blacks to talk and behave a certain way. I agree that he wrote this piece for the white middle class and used the stereotype to sell his work. I also think the portrayal of Julius can be seen as a way of adding local color to his piece.
ReplyDeleteThis story show African Americans being property to White people. This goes further to show how most whites viewed Blacks as a commodity and not an equal. Mars Dugal knew he could capitalize off of Henry so he sold him and resold him until he could get nothing more out of him.
ReplyDeleteI think your right that it does shed light on the way African Americans were thought of as possessions back then. I also think that the slave told the white people this story so they wouldn't buy the land but it didn't work in the end. I know that the slave talked with a dialect but I don't really see that he was uneducated because he had the idea of telling the story so he could keep getting the profit off the land.
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