Question 1. Vernacular Tradition.
The term Vernacular refers to stories, songs, or sermons that spoke to a particular community, or group; in this case black slaves. Usually the content was meant for the inner circle of folks that were doing the writing or singing. The folktale, I chose, called “Big Talk” (Hurston, 58) was a perfect example of a humorous tale; a casual conversation between two men/slave friends.
The first thing you’ll notice the dialect, the men spoke in a broken dialect that was common in that place and time, “ Ole Massa made me so mad yistiddy till Ah give ‘im uh good cussin’ out. Man, Ah called ‘im everything wid uh handle on it.” (Hurston, 58). This particular, short, story was more of a comedy sketch of sorts. Back in …show more content…
Characteristics and genre of the slave narrative.
For this question, I chose “12 Years a Slave”, by Solomon Northrup. The story is an autobiography/ memoir, and for this genre, the case is unique because Northup wasn’t born into slavery. He was a grown man with a family that had been lured to Washington DC by two slave traders. Northrop is kidnapped, sold, and shipped to New Orleans. Now in the south, Northup will find out first hand the reality of the slave stories he’d heard.
The characteristics of this type of genre are extremely graphic, even in words. The main characteristics of these writings were to tell the story without any sugar coating. One of Northup’s accounts left me wondering, what was worse? The anticipation of what was coming, or the punishment itself! “On one occasion the drunken madman thought to amuse himself by cutting my throat.” (Northup, 195). And what was done to Patsey, a light skinned, slave girl that the slave owner lusted after was worse than death. She had been whipped, by another slave, Northup, at the command of the Epps, the slave owner. But he wasn’t satisfied with the punishment Northup gave her, he continued the beating. “At length she ceased struggling. Her head sank listlessly on the ground. Her screams and supplications decreased and died away into a low moan. She no longer writhed and shrank beneath the lash when it bit out small pieces of her flesh. I thought she was dying!” (Northup, …show more content…
This is where he first used the metaphor, “life within the Veil,” it denotes the shadowy yet substantial line that separated whites from persons of African American descent in turn of the century United States. He proclaimed, “The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” (Du Bois, 682). But, he had to find a way to personalize the statement, to make its reality not merely a social and legal fact, but a profound psychological factor in the African American’s sense of self and relationship to society. So, in the beginning of the book Du Bois introduces his white reader to the odd dualities and conflicts in African American self perception, known as “double
The term Vernacular refers to stories, songs, or sermons that spoke to a particular community, or group; in this case black slaves. Usually the content was meant for the inner circle of folks that were doing the writing or singing. The folktale, I chose, called “Big Talk” (Hurston, 58) was a perfect example of a humorous tale; a casual conversation between two men/slave friends.
The first thing you’ll notice the dialect, the men spoke in a broken dialect that was common in that place and time, “ Ole Massa made me so mad yistiddy till Ah give ‘im uh good cussin’ out. Man, Ah called ‘im everything wid uh handle on it.” (Hurston, 58). This particular, short, story was more of a comedy sketch of sorts. Back in …show more content…
Characteristics and genre of the slave narrative.
For this question, I chose “12 Years a Slave”, by Solomon Northrup. The story is an autobiography/ memoir, and for this genre, the case is unique because Northup wasn’t born into slavery. He was a grown man with a family that had been lured to Washington DC by two slave traders. Northrop is kidnapped, sold, and shipped to New Orleans. Now in the south, Northup will find out first hand the reality of the slave stories he’d heard.
The characteristics of this type of genre are extremely graphic, even in words. The main characteristics of these writings were to tell the story without any sugar coating. One of Northup’s accounts left me wondering, what was worse? The anticipation of what was coming, or the punishment itself! “On one occasion the drunken madman thought to amuse himself by cutting my throat.” (Northup, 195). And what was done to Patsey, a light skinned, slave girl that the slave owner lusted after was worse than death. She had been whipped, by another slave, Northup, at the command of the Epps, the slave owner. But he wasn’t satisfied with the punishment Northup gave her, he continued the beating. “At length she ceased struggling. Her head sank listlessly on the ground. Her screams and supplications decreased and died away into a low moan. She no longer writhed and shrank beneath the lash when it bit out small pieces of her flesh. I thought she was dying!” (Northup, …show more content…
This is where he first used the metaphor, “life within the Veil,” it denotes the shadowy yet substantial line that separated whites from persons of African American descent in turn of the century United States. He proclaimed, “The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” (Du Bois, 682). But, he had to find a way to personalize the statement, to make its reality not merely a social and legal fact, but a profound psychological factor in the African American’s sense of self and relationship to society. So, in the beginning of the book Du Bois introduces his white reader to the odd dualities and conflicts in African American self perception, known as “double