Katherine Anne Porter's The Witness '

Katherine Anne Porters short story “The Witness” tells a story of freedom after slavery was abolished. Uncle Jimbilly was born into slavery, and was freed years later. He works as a servant mending shoe soles, building fences, and chicken coops. As a free time hobby he makes small wooden tombstones, they are made for animals that are to be buried by his kids. They enjoy how he makes them for them to do this for the animals. Jimbilly was always suddenly annoyed and noone ever knew why.

The setting is the context in which an action of a story occurs. This story takes place in a historic time period. “The Witness” occurs in 1935 down south right after slavery was abolished, and most of the slaves were now being used as servants to the white men. Uncle Jimbilly talks about how slaves were treated before slavery was abolished as he said “Dey used to take’em out and tic’em down and whup em” (Porter 538). During this historic period slavery was abolished, and the white men still treated the blacks poorly, they were said to be free yet they were not completely free. …show more content…
The tombstones he carved were special for his kids that held little ceremonies for the animals that have died. As his family said “ He had a gift for carving miniature tombstones out of blocks of wood” (Porter 538) they loved his tombstones. He could make them unique for every grave, he could add names and dates if the kids felt the tomb needed it. The tombstone is a literary symbol because he made them special for the kids, and they enjoyed