TLM Flashcards
Whitechapel schooled in ‘subservience,obedience,compliance’. (dead eyes)
Chapel who is ‘thirsty for change’
(Wild eyes)
-Contrast between generations expose consequence of oppression
-eyes= motif and reoccurring metaphor
-w Lydia’s help chapels literacy transforms him from powerless to powerful/ empowerment is dangerous bc threatens to subvert society and risk corporal punishment
-w/c’s internal colonization— share view of ‘the master’ that literacy= calamity and shame/ cook keeps chapels secret
-older gen’s uphold status quo vs younger gens question it
CHAPTER 1 Whitechapel
Whitechapels belief about slavery
‘Born owned by another man, like his father before him and like his son would be’
Chapel dreams ‘his children would be free’ but Whitechapel rebuts with ‘evidence of 300 years of history’
-w/c passes on inter generational trauma/ believes cycle x be broken bc slavery= inevitable/natural
-wc= manifestation of all slaves who have been broken/ accept natural order
- chapel X accept their life / X think it’s hereditary
-they foil and juxtapose each other
-d’aguiar illuminates intergen and compounding trauma of prior exposed to violence, exploitation and exclusion
-wc= respected patriarch/resigned to slavery’s existence
Virginian editorial
Salves are ‘not our equal, not derived from our race’
A ‘just’ punishment for a runaway= ‘something in the region of 200 lashes’ + restricted diet + ‘maybe leg irons’
‘This seems just and fair’
-flippant callous debate over treatment reveals accepted mistreatment +violent abuse of slaves
-authoritative tone—- opinions appear as facts/ Virginian represents attitudes of white majority
-extreme violence used as a tool for economic exploitation
-editorial= voice for the state
In the prologue ‘remembering’
Whitechapel describes himself as ‘boy, mule, nigger, salve’
Family call him ‘dog’
-Names central to identity
- WC rejects name + indiv Id/ adopts white view of himself — only a slave
- slavery + slaves equated with the status of animals and seen as objects —- suggests that slaves have no id of humanity
-WC +family + oppressors use animalistic terms/ slaves accept dehumanized status and internalize white view as political act and act self protection
-internally colonized —- accepted world view
-indoctrinated from birth to perpetuate cycle
Slaves compared to
‘Stock on the plantation’
‘They do not feel what we feel’
Whitechapel
‘A slave could live a good, long life’
-editorial echoes societies belief in white superiors + divide b/wn dominant +subordinate groups/beliefs based on anecdotal +subjective ideas of ‘values’
Dehumanizing language creates divide bc slaves worthless outside economic benefits provided to powerful — African heritage replaced with western culture eg. Wc given masters name
-slaves taught to believe they’re serving god/good slaves— going to paradise (heaven) wc sees himself way masters see him
Cook explains her
‘Masters pot is full of the best things’ but her pot is ‘sweet’
Cook hearing chapel read
‘All I feel inside is pride, not fear, not yet; just pride, swelling my chest and filling my heart
-cook = female voice + more positive perspective/contrasts the relentless oppression
-cooks for master as job but family w love
-strong identity +life enriched by love of family
-loves chapel — keeps literacy secret/proud +hopeful
-hopeful chapel can use literacy against his oppressors
Whitechapel I’m forgetting (last chapter)
‘Memory is pain’
‘How long can the masters daylight continue to rule our nights?’
-d’aguiar wants readers to empathize w slaves story/ feel emotional
-wc realizes obedience to slavery has backfired bc slavery is inherently injust
-reflects on chapels escape +realizes other slaves view would like chapel
-wc realized slaver is unsustainable bc slaves won’t abandon deep desire for freedom —eventually chance must come
-D’Aguiar foreshadows inevitable change + forces readers to question status in society bc despite progress inequalities remain
