The Story of Uncle Jimbilly

This week’s readings were a much easier read than many assignments in the past. There were several chapters written by Katherine Anne Porter that we were assigned to read, and the one I found the most interesting was “The Witness.”
The Witness begins with an introduction to Uncle Jimbilly and his character. Uncle Jimbilly is described as an older man with fragile hands that hurt from all the work he has done in his life. We learn of all the things that Uncle Jimbilly has made in his lifetime with his hands. Some things he has made are fences, chicken coops, barn doors, window panes, fixed sagging hinges and patched up roofs, repaired carriage tops and cranky plows. Uncle Jimbilly was very crafty with his hands and was had the ability to carve miniature tombstones out of blocks of wood. He kept himself very busy, and I feel that he always kept himself occupied because he had a lot of stress built up from his days of slavery. While he makes things I feel this is a therapy for Uncle Jimbilly to be able to take his anger and stress out of the things he makes, and in the end once whatever he is making is complete, he feels a sense of accomplishment and success.
Uncle Jimbilly recalls in vivid detail his experience as a slave. He tells stories to the three children, who did not know much about slavery, except that Negroes used to be slaves. They did not understand exactly what this meant, or to what extent they were abused. The only impression they knew that slavery had on Uncle Jimbilly was that from this experience, Uncle Jimbilly did not take orders from anyone. This experience had a very bad effect on him, as well as any other person that went through this horrible time. But, it changed Uncle Jimbilly and left him with a permanent temper that was very short. The children knew not to test his waters; as well everyone else knew this too. Uncle Jimbilly’s temper made him come off as very unfriendly and he would suddenly get very annoyed and no one knew why. I feel this emotion came from being a slave and going through this hard time. Uncle Jimbilly would always threaten to do many things to many people, such as killing them in very disturbing ways, but claims he never followed through because he never could get around to actually doing them. When I read this part, I was unsure if Uncle Jimbilly was being serious, or would state these threats as a joke. The things he would say he was going to do were almost funny, but at the same time it was shocking to think that someone could come up with something like this. As well, the reading is left with a threat. It was stated in the reading, “..But some day, somebody was going to get a mighty big surprise, and meanwhile everybody had better look out.” This makes me question Uncle Jimbilly’s “joking manner” about threatening to kill people, especially with the amount of hatred he has inside of him from going through the times of slavery.

Unfair Endings

The short story, "Dry September" by William Faulkner tells of an investigation taking place due to a supposed rape that occurred. The reader is first introduced to the woman, who claims she was raped, but the reader never actually hears her voice. The men in this story take control of the case, and accuse Will Mayes of raping her. There is a certain group of men, led by John McLendon, that organize and successfully kill Will Mayes. There was no proof that Will Mayes raped the woman, but due to the time of the incident and the amount of hatred between whites and blacks, Will Mayes was without a doubt in these men’s minds, guilty. Will Mayes was a black man that had no chance of getting out of this case a free man, due to the amount of racism. The odds were most definitely not in his favor. As well, the reader never actually hears Mayes’s voice in this story. The story is based on the planning, capturing, and killing of Mayes, not the actual raping. This was blamed on Mayes because he was a black man and McLendon and his men knew that if they said he did this then it would automatically be deemed as true. During this time, the amount of racism and inequality was so severe that the black man had no chance.
I felt as though McLendon took his personal problems out of Mayes. McLendon was not happy at home with his wife and it seemed as though there was no love there. McLendon knew that he could get away with the murder of Will Mayes, and never looked back in the process. The barber knew that McLendon was a disturbed man, and knew that McLendon could get away with the murder as well. This being true, the barber wanted no part in the killing of innocent Will Mayes. When he told McLendon he did not want any part in the killing of Mayes, the barber was automatically considered a “nigger lover.” He was called this name over and over, until he finally left the car on the ride to Mayes’s death. There were very few people like the barber at this time and because of this, Mayes was killed. There was no one willing to save Mayes, even though everyone knew that he did not commit the raping.
I feel as though she said she was raped to get attention. She was described in the beginning of the story as something similar to a southern belle. She was loved by everyone and was very well known in the community. With age, she lost the attention of many and was not marveled like she used to be. She miss eth way she used to be noticed, and knew that if she made something up such as being raped, everyone would aim their attention to her. I feel that she did this to get attention and be noticed again like she was when she was younger. I found this to be pathetic and disgusting, especially because an innocent black man was killed in the act of all of this.
There was not much of a clear ending in this story. The reader had to pay attention to every detail of the story to understand the point. I reread the same lines many times, but still had a lot of unclear ideas to the story. Once I finished reading this I had a lot of unanswered questions because there was no clear ending that said “this is exactly what happened and this is why.”

Kate Chopin Reaction

Kate Chopin’s writings were not as long as most that we have read in class, but had just as much detail as a longer story such as “Swallow barn” had. The two main stories that we read were “At the Cadian ball” and “The storm” These two stories were similar in many senses, but also had contrasting points. All three of these stories dealt with different relationships and the dysfunction that came along with them.
Chopin’s “At the Cadian ball” was a drama-filled experience for Bobinot, Calixta, Alcee, and Clarisse. This first story is the set up to what will become in the future, two marriages. This story is an introduction to each of the main characters’ personalities and gives the reader an understanding the wants of each of the characters. Alcee has a crush on Calixta, and she feels the same way but knows that Alcee is not good for her, and that she should be with someone like Bobinot. Bobinot likes Calixta throughout everything, and Clarisse has feelings for Alcee. There is a love square going on in this story, and there is no definite say as to who will end up with whom. It got very confusing at times reading about this, trying to keep up with who wanted to be with whom, but when I read “The storm” it was made very clear that Calixta ends up marrying Bobinot, and Alcee ends up marrying Clarisse. Bobinot and Calixta both fall in love with one another, but when first reading about their relationship I felt it was a one way relationship. I felt that Bobinot was in love with Calixta, but Calixta was only with Bobinot because she was supposed to get married and stay within her “kind.” I feel that later in “The storm” this point was proven even further when Calixta has an affair with Alcee when he comes to her house. Alcee comes to Calixta and Bobinot’s house while Bobinot is out with Bibi and Alcee comes on to Calixta and she doesn’t stop him. This led me to believe that she wanted to be intimate with Alcee, almost as if she needed some sense of closure from their flirtatious relationship in “At the Cadian ball.” When I first read about this affair I was very displeased. However, after discussing it in class, it was more a sense of closure for Calixta, and this was what she really wanted, even if she knew it wasn’t right for her, it was something that was always in the back of her mind. Calixta was living in a time where you were supposed to do what was right, not what you wanted. Therefore, I feel as though Calixta was doing what she was supposed to, by marrying Bobinot, and tried to make the best of it.
Overall I found Kate Chopin’s stories very interesting than most. All of them were short and an easy read, but had a lot of detail in the few pages of the stories. In all of Chopin’s stories that we read there was a twist to them by the end and left the reader thinking. There were a lot of different situations going on at the same time, and Chopin made her stories very interesting to read.

The life of Frederick Douglas

Frederick Douglas' story was the most interesting piece of work I have read thus far this semester. I feel that Douglas' way of writing was very attention grabbing due to his use of language. Douglas' wording was very graphic and gave me the chills at certain points. I almost felt as though I were there watching everything occur when Douglas was telling his story. Douglas’ use of language was so descriptive. For instance, Douglas describes the beating of his aunt Hester: He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin. I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a child, but I well remember it. This specific description left me in tears. The thought of someone having to go through this, and Douglas witnessing this at such a young age is terrifying. I cannot imagine living through the time of slavery from any perspective. I feel Frederick Douglas endures a lot of strength to be able to allow his self to open up and recall these memories so vividly.
Another part of Frederick Douglas’ work I found interesting was the idea of the Great House Farm. The Great House Farm was a place for slaves who were selected by their slave owners to go and do work that wasn’t in the plantations. From the reading, it seemed as though the Great House Farm was a privilege for slaves to be chosen to go to. The slaves didn’t do field work here but more manufacturing. They were in charge of shoemaking and mending, the blacksmithing, cartwrighting, coopering, weaving and grain-grinding. When Douglas was selected to go to the Great House Farm he was very excited. However, I don’t think slaves knew everything that was going to happen once they got to the Great House Farm. I think slaves, including Frederick Douglas thought that the Great House Farm wasn’t going to be the same kind of slavery where you were beaten or abused. Upon Douglas’ arrival, he was treated better than he was on the plantation, but after a short while, Douglas was treated just as poorly as he was on the plantations. Once Douglas was at the Great House Farm he experienced his first severe beating. The description of this beating was so terrorizing and difficult to read for the fact that I could feel Douglas’ pain as he wrote each word.
Overall this reading was very interesting and filled with many facts about slavery I did not necessarily know for a fact prior to the reading. I knew many things about slavery as a subject, but not about specific experiences of slaves. I knew who Frederick Douglas was just as a slave, but not who he was as a person. I feel this reading taught me the life of a very important person whose impact on our world’s history will never be forgotten. It is unfortunate that there are millions of more slaves that have passed on that could have just as interesting life stories as Frederick Douglas, but were never taught to read or write.