The Contemporary Slave Market

Octavia Butler’s “Kindred” is a novel that binds the hiatus between a shadowed past and neoteric history as it conveys the confluence of past and present time.   The legacy of slavery has perpetuated through many life cycles, claiming various forms in political, economical, and social norms.  Although slavery has been abolished for almost 150 years, the concept and power structures which exploited slavery is still in effect as vestiges of the master-slave mentality still persists today. 

One passage in the novel describes the symmetry of slavery in present time as the protagonist, Dana alludes to the labor agency in which she works in as a “slave market” (Butler 52).  Dana states, “I was working out of a casual labor agency- we regulars called t a slave market.  Actually, it was just the opposite of slavery.  The people who ran it couldn’t have cared less whether or not you showed up to do the work they offered.  They always had more job hunters than jobs anyway” (Butler 52).  While Dana could exercise her freedom of choice to work or quit the agency, her economic and social conditions depend on how she uses her degree of freedom.  The face of modern slavery no longer encompasses direct enslavement since the system has evolved to assimilate the concept of slavery into much more sophisticated dimensions.  Although Dana is not compelled into the labor force by vapulation, she is compelled like everyone else, to grow dependent on the system,  and adjust to the relentless hours of work, the inferior pay and working conditions, and more just to survive in society.   

Dana continues to describe the nature of the “slave market” as she states, “Waiting with you were winos trying to work themselves into a few more bottles, poor women with children trying to supplement their welfare checks, kids trying to get a first job, older people who’d lost one job too many, an usually a poor crazy old street lady who talked to herself constantly and who wasn’t going to be hired no matter what because she only wore one shoe.” (52).  The bodies of labor ranging in vast amounts from young kids to old adults, all in need for the demand to work to simply adjust and sustain in society attribute to the passive slavery which bind people to servitude as property of the system.  This novel ultimately mirrors our own kindred to the past through the irrevocable stories which continue to play out in contemporary life for many amidst the ignorant notions of freedom, change, and progress.  The latter excerpt envelops the essence of the modern shackles which stem from the very roots which allowed for the conception of this “great nation” through the historic chains of slavery.                         

If She Hollars, Let Them Know

Chester Himes, "If He Hollars, Let Him Go" is a novel that expresses the complexity of a black man amidst a time of racial tension.  The unpredictable outcome as a result of Bob’s unwarranted encounter with Madge induces a degree of suspense and mystery evoked through the false pretense of rape.  Bob states, “My eyes sought Madge’s warning.  Hers were panicky, trapped.  Neither of us breathed” (Himes 179).  Madge’s ability to exploit the gender-race card in her favor culminates to the suspense and power which her mere presence admonishes to Bob.  Moments later, Madge accuses Bob of rape, immediately conjuring a crowd of white saviors to the rescue.  The mobship which arises is parallel to the historic chains which have conditioned generational legacies of the master-slave mentality as well as the sponsorship against the “black monster;” who’s lust whether fantastical or true was castigated by lynching.

The power that Madge displays by simply provoking the sexual delicacies of certain white men through the origins of slavery is enough to inspire the masculinity for some at the expense of others. For instance, Bob states “I felt buck-naked and powerless, stripped of my manhood and black against the whole white world” (Himes 181). Madge brings down the entire history of slavery as she eviscerates Bob's identity and social status.  This event conveys the volatility and reality which plagued a black man in a white world. 

Although the anagnorisis of the story may vary, one possible assumption is when Bob runs from the authorities after being accused of rape and ponders on his situation.  Bob states “Then it smacked me, shook me to the core… I’d been instinctively scared of being caught with a white women screaming ‘Rape.’  Scared of the mob; scared of the violence; just scared because I was black and she was white; a trapped, cornered, physical fear” (Himes 187).  The grim possibilities which always lingered in Bob’s head manifested in reality causing his experience to penetrate his psychology. Through this affect he attained embodied knowledge triggered by his unconscious and instinctual response to adapt and survive.  Thus, culture becomes a biological component which imparts experiences and understanding that is biologized and felt as vividly as the fear of knowing one’s own death.  After the peripeteia occurs during the altercation scene with Madge, she grants him a much deeper understanding of himself and his tragedy amidst persecution. At this point the protagonist achieves a realization of himself as he confronts his fear of death or exile by challenging the historic current of violence, hatred, and oppression in face of what seems like inevitability. 

             

           

Philosophy of Earnings

As a follow-up to Thursday’s in-class discussion, I would like to briefly address the philosophy of earnings from the novel “Ruth Hall” by Fanny Fern.  After the protagonist is left widow, she must forage money for sustenance.  In doing so, she is compelled to financially depend on others and supplicate for money.  One day following the need to request money from her father, Ruth becomes ill and asks her daughter, Katy to visit her grandfather on Ruth’s behalf.  After complying and meeting with her grandfather, Mr. Ellet asks, “come for money again?  Do you think your grandfather is made of money?  People have to earn it, did you know that?  I worked hard to earn mine.  Have you done anything to earn this?  Mr. Ellet’s affection towards the dollar which he reluctantly gives to his granddaughter hints of the psychological facade that veils deeper sentiments for himself, and those like him.  Beneath the conscious veneer lies the dependence for acceptance.  Mr. Ellet’s earnings not only symbolize his ticket (the dollar) to a certain level in society.  His philosophy of earning is fallacious if one considers the labor invested by women, slaves, and even some men who technically earned much more then what was repaid to them.  The term "earn" in this context autonomizes moral decisions from how money is distributed, thus exonerating Mr. Ellet from moral responsibility.  The more money, the better access to resources, reputation, and security all proffered by the malleable society in which preys on individuals like Ruth in both character and circumstance to maintain its own existence.  The blood which circulates throughout the system in the form of currency is assimilated from the blood, tears, and dependency on others. 

Ultimately, even the people who profit most in the society such as Mr. Ellet are victim to the dependency of the system in which the system rests in return.  This is largely psychological for those like Mr. Ellet who have the luxury to spend fifty-dollars on a collar, but seems to struggle to let go of the dollar to aid his own flesh and blood.  The philosophy of earnings is then subjective like most ideas in philosophy, and essentially portrays ones yearning for acceptance.  The system imagines standards for acceptance to occupy certain space, gain a certain education, and have access to other resources which basically have no favor if it weren’t for the mentally generated system which is actualized still today.  The system which speaks through its affects on human experience such as Mr. Ellet and Ruth’s circumstances exploits our nature as social beings-dependent for survival- to validate its existence.  In other words, people have created a society in which they seek acceptance through means of class and social status as a way to have purpose, and justify their doings in a world in which possibility seems chaotic, and freedom poses threat to a familiar way of life.

A Medium for Change

In response to this week’s blog assignment, I have written a summary of Linda Grasso’s essay titled “Anger in the House: Fanny Fern’s “Ruth Hall” and the Redrawing of Emotional Boundaries in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America.”  I have also provided an excerpt from Fanny Fern’s novel, “Ruth Hall’ in conjunction to the content of Grasso’s article.  Linda Grasso’s critical essay examines the social and gender implications of Fanny Fern’s evocative novel, “Ruth Hall.”  Grasso draws insight from proponents and opponents of Fern’s novel such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Caroline Dall to provide a holistic sense of the struggle for gender equality during that time.  Grasso describes Fern’s literature as “an inspiring act of resistance against the ‘romance’ of dependency (252).  The "romance of dependency" socially defined gender relationship during the time and still does so currently in many cases.  She also emphasizes Stanton’s attempts to junction the cause for women’s rights movement and abolitionism through the injustice condoned by society.  The historic and powerful technology that is the novel provides a “useful model of fearless expression” for abolitionists and women alike to strike the emotional chord that would compel responsive change in a “tyrannical” and patriarchal society.  By publically exposing the anger in which women were entitled to feel against their “tyrannical parents, husbands, and brothers,” Fern pronounces the “gendered double standard”, provoking detractors to criticize the novel in defense of social and moral propriety.  The novel poses “direct challenge to the maintenance of unequal gender roles and privileges” amidst the “hypocrisy of a male-defined version of democracy” (Grasso 252).  Interestingly enough, the apprehension surrounding the redrawing of emotional boundaries as women’s anger was exposed surmounted to inevitable “sexual” warfare similar to the class and racial warfare that undergoes  in the same system of influence which is capitalism.   According to Grasso, “anger could be regarded as a proper ‘female’ response, but also whether it posed a threat to a rapidly industrializing nation that was that was reliant upon an ideology if rational self-restraint” (257).  The latter ideology was further reinforced by the subjectivism of natural law philosophy and religious precepts which marked a shift in social norms mainly attributed to the “growth of capitalism” (258).  Critiques like Dall, argue on behalf of the system in which they base their ethics and identity. Thus, they denounce Fern’s writings as inappropriate, especially for a women.  In the novel, a dispute between a husband and wife in regards to his desire to venture to California during the gold rush initiates a vindictive response from the spouse prompting her to leave her husband with the burden that befalls women in rearing a child.  Fern writes, “Still, he could not believe that her desire for revenge would outweigh all her maternal feeling” (Fern 116).  The unexpected reaction of the “obedient wife” signified the potential change that was brewing in a national scale, as women began liberating themselves of the social conventions enacted by men through exploits of the novel for fundemental change.                    

                                                                    

                                                                   Work Cited

Fern, Fanny.  Ruth Hall. 1855.  New York: Penguin Books, 1997. Print.

Grasso, Linda. "Anger in the House: Fanny Fern's "Ruth Hall" and the Redrawing of Emotional Boundaries in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America." Studies in the American Renaissance , (1995), pp. 251-261. Published by: Joel Myerson

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30227673