My first example on how deleting our humane feelings caused harm is Document 7 by James Ramsay called, “Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies”. The article speaks about the punishments done to slaves for misbehaving in their eyes and committing mistakes. The white men would beat them with sticks, breaking their bones, chain around their necks, etc. All this was done to cause fear within them. All these people thought since Africans are slaves, it’s okay to treat them as beasts.
Thus, Southern Slavery was a system of exploitation, but not to the extent which many abolitionists claim. Slavery in Southern America varied vastly between different masters. Some slaves were put through very harsh and demeaning experiences, such as the description of a slave named Francis Henderson in the book ‘A North-Side View of Slavery’. Francis was said to witness his master physically abusing his family right before his eyes. “I have known him to kick my aunt, an old woman who had raised the nursed him, and I have seen him punish my sisters awfully with hickories from the woods.” However, slavery in Southern America was usually patriarchal in character contrary to common belief; quite a big portion of slaves were regarded and considered to be part of the family to which they belonged.
There are also many other important issues and problems brought up in the book that were linked directly to the real life social problems in rural California which Steinbeck brings to life in a variety of techniques and language styles. The first and most obvious issue involved with inequality is racism, because crooks is black, he is looked upon in a typical and prejudice way, which was normal and socially acceptable in the 1930’s. His views and opinions are seen as worthless, “Why its just a nigger saying it.” Crooks is socially outcast in the ranch, he lives and sleeps alone, no-body had ever entered his room or decided to discuss things with him until the conversation he has with Lennie. I think it is ironic in the way that crooks dismisses Lennie as being the same as all the other white men, “You got no right to be in my room, Nobody got any right in here but me.” Considering Lennie to be racist is being racist himself. I also think it is very ironic that the most unintelligent person on the ranch is the only one who ignores the very unintelligent social hierarchy of racism, which the other supposedly better educated workers take part in.
Dong-Kyu Rhee Dear Senator Sumner, My name is John Freedman, a free and literate slave living in Jackson Mississippi. I am writing this letter on the issue of the abominable living conditions that WE (the black population) are facing currently and even for maybe years after. It is not only the conditions in which we live in physically, but also the inhumane and disgusting acts of certain white men that hurt us in many ways because of their prejudices towards the black race. Even with the help from the Freedman’s bureau, we can never get enough and sometimes we have to do without them. Although we have been given the same rights as white men have, through the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the crimes committed by white men make it seem as if we are still slaves and “vile” animals in the society we live in today.
Overall, Crooks is an important character to the novel as a whole as he shows racism on the ranch and how black people were treated in the 1930’s. Additionally, he shows us the main themes of loneliness and dreams. The way Crooks behaves and speaks is important to the novel because it shows us how there was racism on the ranch in the 1930’s. For example other characters always refer to him as ‘nigger’. Another example is how he must live away from other workers.
'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is a book dominated by a single theme - the evil and immortality of slavery. Stowe challenges conventional dichotomies between black and white, male and female, and North and South. Circumstances of geography and birth may decide whether a person practices slavery, but Stowe does not allow circumstances or chance to excuse these slaveholders. All people possess some measure of evil, and therefore all people are capable of the evil of owning slaves. Depending on the circumstances of one's birth, the evil in one's life takes different forms.
Throughout the play, animal imagery such as “an old ram”, “Barbary horse” and “beast with two backs” is used to describe Othello, which portray the racist attitudes held by society of the time and highlights the belief that black people were animalistic and therefore acted on emotions, lacking rational thought, like animals. Due to the entrenched attitude of black people being second-class to white people in society, Othello himself believed that he was below the status of what Desdemona deserved. This attitude leads Othello to so readily believe that Desdemona cheated on him and why he would “most gladly have forgot it. Though sadist – Oh, it comes o’er my memory.” This shows that due to his race, he thinks that he is not good enough for Desdemona and allows himself to be engulfed by jealousy. Iago, one of the most racist characters in the play, is racist towards Othello due to his extreme jealousy of his rank, which is evident when he says, “I hate the Moor.” This jealousy is employed by Iago to his advantage by manipulating Othello’s low-self esteem due to his race to plant a seed of doubt about the faithfulness of his wife, which is abusing
The Invisible man essay In The Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison uses many symbols to represent the pain and the suffering of African Americans in the 20th century. The Sambo Doll is one of the many reappearing symbols that portrays black suffrage in the United States. The Doll is depicted as a black man with large lips and a wide nose which has strings attached to its head taking the form of a puppet. This puppet illustrates how black people were being treated at the time. African Americas are described as to having no power and are seen as invisible to Society, because they are being controlled by the superior race.
4th October Explore what Crooks contributes to the novel Candy introduces Crooks into the novel as the stable buck. He talks about how the boss “gives the stable buck hell” because he is a “nigger”. Crooks is the only black man in the novel and therefore takes the role of showing how black people were discriminated by a white society. The characters’ use of racist language and the casual use of the term “nigger” to describe Crooks suggests that it was seen acceptable for Crooks to be treated with no respect this way. However Candy does describe Crooks as a “nice fella”.
To understand the racism in this novel, we must first understand this novel illustrates the mistreatment, hatred and injustice towards African Americans in 1930’s. I will use examples from the novel to demonstrate these situations and examine culture in which they were acceptable. The beginning of black racism started when white people went to Africa and took captives and sold them in the southern U.S. Africa American started as possessions like animals—slaves. In the next 200-300 years, they suffered a life which a mankind can not bear anymore. They were forced to work without any payment.