Q2. General Essay

Question 1

Paragraph on Native American Representation

Answer 1

Both Nick of the Woods and The Octoroon feature Native American characters – both plays leaning into the same stereotypes

Question 2

Nick of the Woods (Native American Representation)

Answer 2

1. White introduction
2. Indian Voice being represented as unintelligent and violent
3. Costume

Question 3

1. White Introduction of native americans in Nick of the Woods

Answer 3

• [On the violence of the Indians] Col B: ‘The murdering critters do make sad havoc among us… they scalp the women as well as the men’
• [On Cpt Ralph Stackpole – supporting violence against Indians] Col. Bruce: ‘As proper a fellow as you ever saw. Killed two Injun once, single handed’

Question 4

2. Indian Voice being represented as unintelligent and violent - Nick of the Woods

Answer 4

• [Enallage belittling the intelligence of the Indians – the first true Indian voice in the play] ‘Piankeshaw: White man think – red man do’
• [The violent Indian voice] ‘Weononga: I am Wenonga, the Sahwnee chief. I have fought the Long Knives, and drank their blood’
• [On stupid murdering Indians] ‘Wenonga: Ha! The pale face!.. I am Wenonga, and have no heart!’

Question 5

3. Costume (Native American rep. in Nick of the Woods)

Answer 5

• Every character in some way related to the Native American culture carries a tomahawk and wears a headdress

Question 6

The Octoroon (Native American Representation)

Answer 6

1. White Voice forgrounding
2. Zoe Foregrounding
3. The Native voice

Question 7

1. White Voice foregrounding the Indian 9Octoroon)

Answer 7

• [On M’Closky’s attitude to the Indian] M’Closky: ‘[Slowly lowering his whip,] Darn you, red skin, I’ll pay you off some day, both of ye.’
  -[The common reaction to the Indian] ‘M’Closky: Down with him—lynch him.
  Omnes: Lynch him!’

Question 8

Zoe Foregrounding

Answer 8

• Zoe’s infantilising attitude to the Indian] ‘Zoe: No; Wahnotee is a gentle, honest creature, and remains here because he loves that boy with the tenderness of a woman.’

Question 9

The Native voice in the Octoroon

Answer 9

• [note how the slave, who has his own broken English, comments on the Indian’s language skill] ‘Paul: He don’t understand; he speaks a mash-up of Indian and Mexican.’
• [On the linguistic deprivation of Indian characters – Wahnotee is given very short lines that don’t really make sense]
• ‘Wahnotee: No tue Wahnotee…No, carabine tue… ‘

[He is also only seen to be motivated by drink] ‘Wahnotee: Fire-water!’

Question 10

Paragraph on Zoe/Telie

Answer 10

• Both of the plays feature heroine’s who straddle the boarder between minority and witness - both of them end up dying in the interests of white protagonists

Question 11

Telie (Nick of the Woods)

Answer 11

1. Costume
2. Self-identification
3. Goodness

Question 12

1. Costume (telie)

Answer 12

‘Telie Doe – Brown serge gown: black shoes; dark stockings; black head of hair’

Question 13

2. Telie Self-identification

Answer 13

• Telie apologises for her identity [On turbulent identity and white acceptance]
• ‘Telie: I am a white Indian’s daughter’

Question 14

3. Goodness of Telie

Answer 14

• Telie uses her Indian powers for good
• ‘Telie: I’ll guide you safe; I know the path, ay, every inch of it. For seven years I’ve traversed these wild woods’
• [tellie being Christian] ‘Telie: Ay, thanks to the great Jehova!’

Question 15

Zoe (The Octoroon)
paragraph comparing Zoe/Telie

Answer 15

1. Costume
2. Comparison with the slaves
3. Self-hating

Question 16

1. Zoe’s Costume

Answer 16

• ‘White muslin dress’

Question 17

2. Zoe-Comparison with the slaves

Answer 17

• ‘Mrs. Peyton: Poor child! what will become of her when I am gone? If you haven’t spoiled her, I fear I have. She has had the education of a lady.’
• ‘Sunny: I dare say, now, that in Europe you have never met any lady more beautiful in person, or more polished in manners, than that girl.’
• ‘M’Closky: Zoe is your child by a quadroon slave, and you didn’t free her; blood!’

‘Sunny: I bid seven thousand, which is the last dollar this family possesses.’

Question 18

3. Zoe’sSelf-hatred

Answer 18

• ‘Zoe: That is the ineffaceable curse of Cain. Of the blood that feeds my heart, one drop in eight is black’

‘Zoe: Yes, for I’d rather be black than ungrateful! Ah, George, our race has at least one virtue—it knows how to suffer’

Question 19

Paragraph on Black Representation (Intro)

Answer 19

• Nick of the Woods only features Blackness as a reference point of scorn
• The Octoroon develops the black voice more thoroughly, but it becomes a cite of white pity and little else

Question 20

Nick of the Woods Black Rep.

Answer 20

1. Derogatory point of scorn, used to bring the native characters down

Question 21

1. Derogatory point of scorn
   (Black Rep. in Nick of the Woods)

Answer 21

• [Talking to Wenonga, the Indian] ‘Ralph: Arn’t you got it, you tarnal half imp ! you n— in law to old Satan ! thar’s a par on you.’
• Ralph: and if I didn’t bring her down over them ar falls faster than a well-greased thunderbolt and slicker than snakes, n— ain’t n—, nor Injuns Injuns’
• Ralph: Let me loose, you sum totalized red n—, or tarnal death to me,
• Ralph: Here, you tarnal, temporal, long- legged, tater- headed, pumpkin- eating red n—- !

Question 22

The Octoroon - Black Reprersentation intro

Answer 22

1. Presentation of Black identity from a white Perspective
2. Presentation of Black identity from a black Perspective

Question 23

1. Presentation of Black identity from a black Perspective (The Octoroon)

Answer 23

• [On Pete’s dialect and scorn towards the other slaves] ‘Pete: It’s dem black trash, Mas’r George; dis ere property wants claring; dem’s getting too numerous round; when I gets time I’ll kill some on ‘em, sure!’
• ‘[The ingrained acceptance of slavery from Pete] ‘Pete: Hush! I tell ye, ‘t’ain’t so—we can’t do it—we’ve got to be sold—’

Question 24

2. Presentation of Black identity from a wite Perspective (The Octoroon)

Answer 24

• [On the dehumanising nature of slavery] ‘Lafouche: Yes; No. 49, Paul, a quadroon boy, aged thirteen.’
• [On the bizzare naturalness of slavery for Mrs Peyton] ‘Mrs Peyton: Heaven has denied me children; so all the strings of my heart have grown around and amongst them, like the fibres and roots of an old tree in its native earth.’
• ‘Mrs P: those poor people, born around me, growing up about my heart, have bounded my view of life’ – note the repeated reference to the slaves as ‘poor people’ from both Mrs P and Zoe

Question 25

Paragraph on the White co-option of culture

Answer 25

This is seen in the Jibbenoisay in Nick of the Woods and in M’Closkey in The Octoroon

Question 26

Nick of the Woods (Co-option of culture)

Answer 26

1. Costume
2. Spirituality
3. Violence

Question 27

1. Costume jibbenoisay

Answer 27

• ‘Jibbernainosay – Large indian blanket; Indian headdress of feathers and mask vs Bloody Nathan – deerskin hunting shirt… long staff and hunting knife’

Question 28

2. Spirituality (Jabbenoisay co-option of Native culture)

Answer 28

• ’ Nathan: I see the clouds, but ask them not from whence they come ;
• N: so pass all things through my brain gorgeous of hue, but withering, withering away !’
• ‘Nathan: ‘My home is with the invisible spirits of earth and air – the spirits of the departed’

Question 29

3. Jibbenoisay Violence

Answer 29

‘Nathan: Behold the fearful fiend, the Jibbenainosay, in Reginald Ashburn’

Question 30

Co-option of culture (The Octoroon)

Answer 30

1. On being an outsider
2. Using money and law to try and break in
3. Failure

Question 31

1. On being an outsider

Answer 31

• ‘M’Closky: Curse their old families—they cut me—a bilious, conceited, thin lot of dried up aristocracy.’

Question 32

2. M’C using money and duplicity to Break into Virginian society

Answer 32

• ‘Scad: Ten years ago the judge took as overseer a bit of Connecticut hardware called M’Closky’
• ‘Jacob M’Closky, Esquire, finds himself proprietor of the richest half of Terrebonne’