Perhaps one of my weaknesses when I approach a book, movie, piece of art, or anything really is that I tend to not look at that thing through the eyes of a critic. While I think some literary works are horrible and a waste of my time, I don't typically read them doubting their credibility or thinking to myself "This could never happen in real life." In class, as well as throughout this blog, there seems to be a going trend of people not caring for the books we're reading because they aren't realistic and too ironic for a person to feel anything but annoyance towards them. I think and hope that we can all get past the fact that books are not always written to be realistic, nor predictable, and by spending so much time bashing them for their lack of realistic content, we're missing out on the opportunity to look at what the author did write and what it means, whether it's likely to happen in real life or not.
With this said, I would say that I have enjoyed The Heroic Slave very much. Douglass composes a story that closets meaning behind many of the far-fetched ideas that he presents. I love the fact that there is a sense of "destiny" guiding this story by putting two people together at different moments, places, and times. Douglass touches on so many pre-civil war issues including slavery and women within slavery. Beyond that, he does something even more powerful by adding the feelings of a white man towards slavery after hearing one speak of his tragedies. This idea, that a white man can make a complete 360 in his feelings towards a slave is surrounded by so much hope that, I think, represents much of Douglass' hope throughout his entire life. That, to me, is a big part of why I think Douglass wrote the novella. Sure, money was involved but who says selling something you write doesn't mean you didn't get some reward out of writing it?
Aside from all of that, I noticed the line at the end of the reading that blatantly links the ocean with slavery as we have been talking about. Washington says right out, "The ocean, if not the land, is free." giving an idea to how the ocean linked to slavery for a slave. That line just caught my attention so I decided to throw it in here.
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I agree that it is good to go into a book without a predisposition to be too critical. While I find that there are unrealistic coincidences in the story, I think that his speeches and setting descriptions are well carried out. Furthermore, I enjoy a “fairy tale” and don’t mind a story being a little too perfect. Douglass was trying to send a broader message out to abolitionists, so perhaps a lighter story was necessary to get people’s attention. Sometimes Douglass simply made things seem easier than they were. For example, one usually wouldn’t have a change of heart to be an abolitionist after one speech and then be willing to risk his farm to protect a runaway slave. (Many people did through the Underground Railroad, but they weren’t in a normal bedroom..they were hidden) Washington was an educated, handsome, charismatic , and all together likeable slave, which made him the perfect hero. I would guess it’s hard not to desire to save slaves after reading this, but I wasn’t around during that time period.. While I don’t believe the novella is always realistic, it is a fiction book based on history… So some of that should be expected.
ReplyDeleteThis comment really resonated with me because I, too, have been feeling as if the two books we’ve read have been attacked for their validity and discounted because of incredibility. I think the question of credibility really depends on how you perceive story plots. As I’ve been reading I’ve struggled with whether or not an author is telling a story as if it happened in this world or presenting a story that does exist in a parallel world. If the first viewpoint is your paradigm, then many of our favorite books we read are not actually credible (how many people who love Harry Potter or Twilight think they’re really plausible?). I don’t think we should read all stories as mere repetitions of previous events but rather something that we can interact with. We read Twilight because we hope there is someone who loves us perfectly out there. We can also read Poe and hope that we have the courage and luck of Arthur Gordon Pym to have amazing adventures. We read Douglass and feel the emotions of Madison Washington and the rising courage of Mr. Listwell.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s quite plausible that Douglass wrote The Heroic Slave to give us the experience of courage, of destiny, as Ashlee said, and the inspiration to act on our conscience. Rather than straight propaganda, it resonates more with us because we are not told what to believe but rather shown emotion that causes us to think. Could The Heroic Slave have happened here in this world? However it happened, or if it could, it’s a great narrative worth telling.
I somewhat agree and disagree with this post. In some ways there are stories that are written where we, as a reader, need to get past the realistic aspect of it and just enjoy the quality of the work. There are other times where the work does need a realistic quality. I believe that The Heroic Slave was realistic enough for me and that it work. Throughout the story, Douglass made many attempts to explain things that would have made people think twice. For example, the fact that Madison was able to get out of his chains was explained by Listwell giving him the files. These are attempts to make the story more realistic.
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