The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman Context Ernest J. Gaines was born on January 15, 1933 on the River Lake Plantation in Oscar, Louisiana. His parents, Manuel and Adrienne Gaines, worked on the plantation ,and Ernest also started working there he was just eight. By the time he was nine, he was digging potatoes for fifty cents a day. He is the oldest of eight brothers and three sisters. A major influence in his early life was his Aunt Augusteen, to whom The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is partially dedicated. She was disabled, having no legs, so she took care of the children while the other adults worked. Her strength and determination influenced the young Ernest, and, as a result, strong older black women, such as Jane Pittman, have frequently played an important role in his fiction. In 1948 at the age of fifteen, Gaines moved with his family to Vallejo, California. In California, Gaines was able to receive a more thorough education than had been possible in the south. He began to read extensively, feeling particularly drawn to the Russian novelists, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, whom he felt taught him to write about rural people. After high school, Gaines enrolled in Vallejo Junior College and also served for two years in the army. He published his first story in 1956 in a small San Francisco magazine, Transfer. Transfer. He graduated from San Francisco State College in 1957. In the same year, he won a Wallace Stegner Fellowship to study creative writing writi ng at Stanford during the academic year of 1958–1959. 1958–1959. Since graduating from Stanford, Gaines has devoted himself fully to the craft of writing. He says that he writes "five hours a day, five days a week." His dedication has paid off. Gaines published his first novel Catherine Carmier Carmier in 1964. Seven other novels have followed: O Love and Dust (1967); (1967); Bloodline (1968); Bloodline (1968); A A Long Day in November (1971); November (1971); The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman Pittman (1973); In (1973); In My Father's House House (1978); A (1978); A Gathering of Old Men (1983); Men (1983); and A and A Lesson Less on Before Bef ore Dying Dying (1993). The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, A Pittman, A Lesson Before Dying, Dying, and A and A Gathering of Old Men Men were also made into television movies, thereby popularizing Gaines's work. Gaines currently is a professor at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Ernest Gaines's work is best categorized as Southern fiction and African- American fiction. Gaines's novels and short stories focus on the people, folklore, and dialects of rural Louisiana. The setting of his novels is always Bayonne, Louisiana: a mythical region that embodies the Louisianan culture, much in the way that Faulkner's mythical county of Yoknapatawpha did for Mississippi. Many textual references to Faulkner can be seen in Gaines's writing such as the common first person narration and the use of Southern dialects. Gaines does acknowledge that Faulkner heavily heavily influenced his work and also has cited cit ed the influence of another great Southern stylist, Hemingway. Hemingway. Earnest Gaines originally wanted to write The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman Pittman as a folk biography, with a "group of people telling of this one person's life" for over 100 years of history. Gaines attempted the tale in that manner but found that it seemed "untrue," so he proceeded to write the novel from her point of view. Miss Jane's oral story falls into the
tradition of the slave narrative, which is a pattern common to the African-American tradition, since the days of slavery. Slave narratives essentially were stories of enslavement, suffering, endurance, and escape. Some of the most famous slave narratives are Frederick Douglass's autobiography and Incident and Incidentss in the Life of a Slave Girl Girl by Harriet Jacobs. By using a personalized narrative, Gaines is able to describe one hundred years of African-American history, as experienced by Miss Jane. Miss Jane's history offers a broader version of American history than the ones often included in textbooks, since the personal experiences experiences of blacks have often been ignored. The oral form of Miss Jane's tale also allows him to explore the textual realm of Southern dialects and the often circular nature of the oral style itself. The novel also brings up several themes common to Gaines's other work, such as the struggle for black manhood, the violent legacy of slavery, and the difficult of freeing oneself from one's history.
Plot Overview The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman Pittman begins with a note from the editor, who is a local schoolteacher schoolteacher near the plantation where Jane Pittman lives. He has long been trying to hear her story, and, beginning in the summer of 1962, she finally tells it to him. When her memory lapses, her acquaintances help fill in the spaces. The recorded tale, with editing, then becomes The Autobiography of Miss Jane. Jane . Jane Pittman is born into slavery on a plantation somewhere in Louisiana. Jane is called "Ticey" during her days as a slave and has no parents; her mother died as a result of a beating when Jane was a child, and Jane did not know her father. Until she is around nine, Jane works in the Big House caring for the white children. One day toward the end of the war, some fleeing confederate soldiers arrive, followed soon after by some union soldiers. While being served water by Jane, one Union soldier named Corporal Brown tells Jane that she will soon be free and can then visit him in Ohio. He tells her to change her name and offers her that of his daughter, Jane Brown. After the soldiers leave, Jane refuses to answer when her mistress calls her "Ticey "Ticey." ." The mistress later beats Jane until she bleeds, but Jane J ane insists that t hat her name is now Jane Brown. Because of her obstinacy, Jane is sent to work in the fields. On the day of the Emancipation Proclamation, Jane's master frees them all. On the same day, Jane leaves the plantation with a group of ex-slaves. They have no idea where they are going, but a woman named Big Laura leads the way. Jane wants to go to Ohio to find Corporal Brown. The first morning away, a group of "Patrollers," local white trash who used to hunt slaves, comes upon them and kills everyone but Jane and a very young boy Ned, whom they did not find. Jane and Ned then continue on their own, still headed for Ohio. They meet many characters on their trip, tri p, all of whom tell Jane that Ohio is too far and that she s he should go back to her plantation. Jane's obstinacy persists for a few weeks until she and Ned are completely exhausted from walking. Finally they catch a ride with a poor white man named Job who lets them sleep at his house and takes them the next day to a plantation run by Mr. Bone. Mr. Bone offers Jane a job, but only pays her the reduced rate of six dollars a month (minus fifty cents for Ned's schooling) because she is so young. Jane and Ned get a cabin and after one month on the job, Mr. Bone raises her pay to ten dollars because she is doing as much work as the other women. Life on Mr. Bone's plantation initially is good with a colored schoolteacher and a political scene still monitored by Republicans Republicans from the t he north. Then the original owner owner of the plantation, Colonel Dye, buys it back (with money borrowed from Yankees). Life reverts back to almost how it was before slavery, with segregation and violence against blacks who step out of line. The blacks start fleeing north because of the worsening conditions. Initially the whites do not care, but soon they try to stop the flight. Ned, who is now almost seventeen, joins a committee that helps blacks leave. Colonel Dye warns Jane that Ned must stop, but when he will not, Ku Klux Klan members arrive at Jane's house. Ned is not home when they come and is able to f lee the plantation later that night. Jane does not want to leave her s ecure life, so they separate with sadness. Ned goes to Kansas, gets an education, and eventually joins the U.S. Army to fight in Cuba. Jane soon marries Joe Pittman (without an official ceremony). Despite Colonel Dye's
attempts to keep them, Joe and Jane soon move to a ranch near the Texas-Louisiana border where Joe has found a job breaking horses. Joe and Jane live at the new ranch for many years, but as they age Jane becomes increasingly worried about Joe getting hurt in his work. One of her recurring dreams depicts him being thrown from a horse. Soon after, after, Jane sees a black stallion stall ion in a corral that is the horse from her dream. She tries to t o get Joe not to t o ride it, it , even consulting a Creole voodoo voodoo woman, but after the horse escapes (because (because Jane frees it), Joe is i s killed trying to recapture it. After a few more years, Jane moves to another part of Louisiana with a fisherman, who suddenly leaves, and she is left all alone. Ned soon moves back to where Jane is, and he brings his wife, Vivian, and three young children. He buys a house and starts building a school. At the school, he teaches ideas about the political rights of blacks as well as basic subjects. The local whites fear Ned's rhetoric, and therefore they hire a Cajun that Jane knows, Albert Cluveau, to shoot Ned, which Cluveau does. After Ned's death, Jane tells Cluveau that the chariot of hell will come for him and Cluveau later dies a fearful, f earful, painful death. Jane then goes to live on the Samson plantation. Robert Samson runs the plantation with his wife, Miss Amma Dean. They have one son, Tee Bob, although Robert Samson had another son, Timmy, with a black woman on the plantation, Verda. Timmy looks and acts more like Robert than does Tee Bob, and the two boys are close friends even though Robert and Miss Amma Dean still expect Timmy Timmy to t o be subservient to his brother since si nce Timmy Timmy is black. After After the t he white overseer, Tom Joe, severely beats Timmy in response to Timmy's obstinacy, Robert Samson gives Timmy money and tells him to leave l eave the plantation. Later in life, Tee Bob falls in love with the Creole schoolteacher, Mary Agnes LeFarbre, who appears almost white. His friends and family remind him that a white man cannot love a black woman, but one night he goes to her house and asks her to marry him anyhow. After she tells him that he is not thinking straight, he returns home and commits suicide. Tee Tee Bob's stepfather intervenes after the suicide so that Mary Agnes is not imprisoned or killed in revenge for Tee Bob's death. In a conversation with Jane, he describes that they all killed Tee Bob because of their adherence to racial regulations beyond which Tee Bob could see. In the final chapter of the book, Jane describes a boy named Jimmy Aaron, whom the whole plantation hopes will become the "one" who will save them all. Eventually, Jimmy gets involved in the civil rights movement. After several years away from the plantation, he returns home and plans an act of civil disobedience followed by a protest at the courthouse. First a young girl is arrested for drinking from a white water fountain. On the day that they all are to march to the courthouse in protest, however, Jimmy is shot dead. The crowd who was planning to march had already gathered when they hear the news. With the assistance of one young black man, Jane bravely encourages the people to march and takes the lead even though Jimmy is already dead.
Character List protagonis t of the novel. She is a spunky woman who who has always Miss Jane Pittman - The protagonist fought her way through the world and stood up for herself. She represents courage, fortitude, and determination. From the very beginning of the novel to the very end, Jane attempts to make herself as emotionally and physically free as possible. She is a physically strong woman who becomes a community leader because of her str ength, insight, and character. character. Read an in-depth analysis of Miss Jane Pittman. Pittm an. son. Ned Ned represents insight, strength, and and youth. youth. He is Ned Douglass - Jane Pittman's adopted son. a bright young man who desires change in the society and boldly makes an effort to help his people by building a school. He is well aware that he might be killed for his actions, as he is, but he insists on doing it anyhow. His His bravery makes him a savior within his community. husband. Joe is kind, kind, likable, and and tough. His toughness toughness gave him the Joe Pittman - Jane's husband. courage to leave Colonel Dye's Dye's plantation after finding another job. Joe's desire to break horses shows his forceful personality and yearning for true manhood. Joe's excellence at his work indicates his status as a truly strong man. Unfortunately, Joe's desire to constantly demonstrate his manhood will lead to his death as he refuses to retire even though he is aging. Joe's death when trying to capture the black stallion can be seen as his final attempt to claim the masculinity that whites had long denied him. Read an in-depth analysis of Joe Pittman. Tee Bob. Bob. Robert Robert Robert Samson - The Master of the Samson Plantation and the father of Tee Samson represents the old southern social order. He governs his plantation almost as men did during slavery. He seduces a black woman and fathers a child, Timmy, but he refuses to accept this son as his own because because he is black. Timmy Timmy lives li ves on the plantation and resembles him more than Samson's white son, but for Samson the color barrier between them is larger than their blood connection. connection. Samson's inability to see beyond the old southern order leads to his r ejection of Timmy and the death of his other son, Tee Bob. Because of his archaic beliefs, his legacy is ruined. and mistress of the Samson plantation. Miss Amma Miss Amma Dean Samson - The wife and Dean maintains the racial social order on the plantation. Her dislike of Robert Samson's black son Timmy most obviously indicates how she expects the traditional decorum of blacks. Still, her harsh treatment of Timmy also relates to her dismay at her husband's infidelity. Her affection for her own son and her extreme grief at his suicide also makes her a sympathetic character. Gaines makes Miss Amma Dean a sympathetic character who demonstrates the way that the strict stri ct patriarchy pushed women women in the old southern realm aside. who fishes near Jane's cabin cabi n each day and who shoots Ned Albert Cluveau - An old Cajun man who Douglass. Initially Cluveau is a friendly character, even though he speaks frequently about killing people. He and Jane are even friends. Cluveau's willingness to shoot Ned shows him as a coward. Cluveau is a poor white Cajun who will follow the orders of the higher-ranking whites in order to get their acceptance. After Cluveau believes believes that Jane has cursed him, his status as a weak coward becomes more obvious since he fears going to hell so much that he beats his innocent daughter. Cluveau is so afraid of death that he screams for days before it comes. This
cowardice toward the end of his life contrasts strongly with the bravery showed by Ned Douglass, the man he shot. Tee Bob is a tragic tragi c Tee Bob - The son of Robert Samson, the owner of the Sampson Plantation. Tee figure who kills himself during the book because he cannot accept the social mores of the South. Tee Tee Bob's first disappointment with the Southern order comes when when his father forces his half-brother, Timmy, off the plantation. Tee Bob cannot understand why Timmy has to leave because the white overseer beat him. Tee Bob's later love for Mary Agnes again steps outside of the rules proscribed by their culture. No one, not even Mary Agnes, supports Tee Bob's love of her. When she turns him down, he sees that the world is too harsh for him, and he kills himself. Tee Bob's love for his brother and for Mary Agnes is pure, and he cannot understand why anything can be wrong with them. Tee Bob in many ways still maintains a sense of racial superiority because he is white, but the kind nature of his heart makes him willing to step outside the rules. And it is his willingness willi ngness that leads to his dismay and suicide. Read an in-depth analysis of Tee Bob. Bob. imm y is the unrecognized son of Robert Samson. Timm Timmy y looks and acts just like Timmy - Timmy Robert Samson, but because Timmy is the son of a black woman he cannot claim Robert Samson's name. Timmy's Timmy's knowledge of who who is father is makes him slightly more obstinate obsti nate than other blacks. Timmy is not entirely a likeable character because he is so hardheaded and mischievous, but he is a sympathetic one. His father exiles him from the plantation eventually because Timmy's Timmy's attitude is not becoming of a black man. Timmy Timmy yearns to be the man that he is, but despite his heritage, his black race still requires that he cower in a white man's world. Timmy's presence is a testament to the widespread existence of black children of white men and the longtime rejection of them by their fathers both during and after slavery. schoolteacher that comes to live on the Samson Samson Mary Agnes LeFarbre - The Creole schoolteacher plantation and with whom Tee Bob falls in love. Mary Agnes came to the plantation in an effort to make amends for her family's slaveholding past. Most of the plantation, however, believes her to be slightly uppity, because of her background. Her desire to be with dark skinned people is equally as racist as her Creole family's desire to only be with whites. Mary Agnes is somewhat of a coquette, as she continues to befriend Tee Bob but naïvely assumes that nothing will come of it. She never considered the relationship between them serious. Her attitude, to a great extent, leads to his death. Tee Bob's godfather, or Parrain. Parrai n. Jules Raynard - A good friend of the Samsons who is also Tee Jules Raynard is a true gentleman who refuses to let violence against Mary Agnes follow Tee Bob's death. Raynard's wisdom leads to Mary Agnes's flight and his speech about how all of them killed Tee Bob, especially by supporting the culture that wore him down. Jules Raynard is an exceptional white man who seeks understanding in a time of prejudice and segregation. Jimmy Aaron - A boy born in the plantation whom everyone believes is going to be the "one". Jimmy Aaron is a messiah-like figure who will return to help mobilize the community toward action. The elders on the plantation want Jimmy to become a religious leader, but because of the changes in Civil Rights he becomes more interested in politics. Jimmy Aaron's commitment and the final sacrifice of his life truly saves the other people from the fear that has governed them all their life. li fe. Bob's best friend, whom whom he met at Louisiana State Univers University ity in Baton Baton Jimmy Caya - Tee Bob's Rouge. Rouge. Jimmy Caya is not from the high landowning class like the Samsons, and Jules Raynard Raynard
looks down on him for that reason. Jimmy Caya is young, like Tee Bob, but Jimmy Caya maintains the classic southern ideas on race. Any meaningful relationship between Tee Bob and a black woman is unthinkable in his eyes, as it is for most white men. After he learns of Tee Bob's death, he responds in the classic southern white way: he wants to blame the girl that Tee Bob loved and have her killed. He serves as a contrast to Tee Bob, who was willing to stretch the confining social limitations that society placed upon him. Caya's character articulates the racist status quo, while simultaneously demonstrating the classicism within the white southern sphere. who reclaims the plantation where where Jane first lived after slavery. slavery. Colonel Dye - The man who Colonel Dye fought with the Confederate Army and represents the old southern landowning order. Colonel Dye supports restrictions and possibly violence against his blacks if necessary, such as when he sent the Ku Klux Klan to get Ned. He also is slightly dishonest in the way he tries to keep Joe on the plantation by saying that Joe owes him money and by adding interest after Joe gets the cash. consults . Madame Gautier moved Madame Gautier - A Creole "hoodoo" woman whom Jane consults. to a country town from New Orleans because of the competition in the city. Madame Gautier speaks with a funny accent in order to affect a spiritual tone. In many ways, she is a comedic figure because her affectations suggest that she is just a plain black woman dressed up and acting like a sorceress for financial f inancial gain. who originally owns owns and runs the plantation on which which Jane Pittman stays Mr. Bone - The man who after slavery. He is a Republican who is willing to run the plantation with relative fairness for all the blacks. He employs a black schoolteacher and pays everyone fairly. Mr. Bone is a relatively good white man who suggests what the south could have become if the Republicans had stayed in control. Job - A poor white man who takes Jane and Ned to his house when they are fleeing slavery. His wife has gone crazy during the war, and he has little to share with them, but he does so anyway anyway and takes them to the safe location of Mr. Mr. Bone's plantation. He represents kindness in the face of so much evil. Like his biblical namesake, he is a man who has seemingly endured much but who still maintains a sense of goodness goodness and Godliness by being charitable. who leads the freedmen as they leave slavery. Big Laura - Ned's mother and the slave woman who Big Laura is one of many physically and emotionally strong black women who dominate the novel. plantat ion who goes crazy after trying tryi ng to Black Harriet - A slow witted woman at the Samson plantation win a race in the fields. Black Harriet's ensuing insanity and slow wittedness suggest the harshness of the southern order upon the psychology of the people within it. woman who works in the Big House at the ranch where Joe goes to Molly - The older black woman break horses. Molly has become completely indoctrinated into slavery such that she cannot envision life without it. After she feels forced to leave l eave the house, she dies soon after. Aaron's great aunt. She She raises him and represents represents one of the strong older black black Lena - Jimmy Aaron's women who remain on the plantation. Another older black woman woman on the Samson plantation. plantation. She offers to drive the other Olivia - Another protestors in her car. who lives with Jane Pittman Pittm an and helps to take care of her. her. She is Mary Hodges - A woman who one of the strong older black women in the book. plantation who is supposed supposed to drive Miss Jane to Brady - A older black man on the Samson plantation town on the day of the protest at the courthouse. Brady is too scared to do so, however. His fear
is representative of the fear felt by most of the black people in the area because of years of abuse and control by the whites. Because Brady is an older black man, his inability to stand up for that in which he believes also suggests the way in which the southern order emasculated black men into inaction. plantat ion who takes care of Mary Agnes after she thinks Mary Ida Simon - A woman on the plantation Agnes was ravished. local Sheriff in town. He He is a classic white southern sheriff sheriff who seems Sheriff Guidry - The local totally indifferent to justice in the wake of Tee Bob's death. He supports Jules Raynard when Raynard begs for peace, but it seems just as likely that he would look away if the Samson family proceeded proceeded with violence. who lives on the Samson Samson plantation plantat ion at the end of the Clamp Brown - One of the teenage boys who book. Tee Bob Samson is engaged. Judy Major - The white girl to whom Tee Union soldier who renames Jane. Corporal Brown - The white Union
Analysis of Major Characters Miss Jane Pittman Miss Jane Pittman is the protagonist of the novel. She is a spirited woman whose defiant attitude and resilience help her persist throughout her more than one hundred years of life. Jane's mother died as a result of a beating when Jane was very young, leaving Jane to managing. During slavery, she is brave and obstinate. She calls herself "Miss Jane Brown" despite the beating that this act inspires. Once she is free, Jane's obstinacy presses her to try and reach Ohio. She is foolish too and refuses to listen to friendly people who try to help her along the way. It is not until she is completely exhausted, does she finally agree to stay at Mr. Bone's Bone's plantation. Jane works at Mr. Bone's plantation just as she worked in the fields as a child and as she will work in the Samson plantation fields when when she is about fifty. She is a physically strong woman who works her whole life and maintains a lively and happy spirit despite hardship. Notwithstanding the pains that she suffers from seeing loved ones die, Jane's life proceeds in relative poverty. For a woman born in slavery, she may feel grateful for what she has, but Jane consistently lives in small cabins with no furniture, open fire pits, and occasionally even dirt floors. Not until the very end of her life does she even have running running water to drink. Despite the relative difficulty of such a life, she never complains about her lack of material possessions. As Jane ages, she becomes a mother figure to the entire community. Jane's first son was Ned, whom Jane fostered in the days after slavery. After Ned's death and Jane's placement on the Samson plantation, she plays an important role to many of the youths. Even the white heir to the plantation, Tee Bob Samson, looks up to her affectionately. Jane has never been able to physically have children of her own because she is sterile. Her lack of biological children makes it more possible for her to have many adoptive children. By the very end of the novel, Jimmy Aaron, the One, specifically comes to see Jane in order see if Jane will partake in his protest. Jimmy knows that Jane is a community leader because everyone respects her. Jimmy's confidence in Jane becomes fully proven when she actually marches the crowd towards Bayonne Bayonne after Jimmy's Jimm y's death. Still while Jane may be a community leader, leader, she is not austere and very serious. She has Jimmy read cartoons to her from the newspaper. She grows addicted to listening to baseball games on her radio, a fact that is protested by other elders at the church. She also argues argues with the elders at the church, much in the way that she once argued with the other slaves when she was a child on the plantation. Jane remains her spunk even though though she is over a hundred years old. Her attitude have allowed her her to succeed during all her life.
Joe Pittman Joe Pittman is an honorable, brave, and kindly man. Joe Pittman has a vision of his life and he acts upon. He is skilled in the way of breaking horses, so he rises up and finds a new job. Colonel Dye attempts to trap Joe by saying that Joe owes him one hundred and fifty dollars. While many men would give up when faced with such a sum, Joe matter-of-factly goes out and
borrows the money from his new boss. When the Colonel requests added interest, Joe manages to gather that too, by selling almost everything he owns. The Colonel wants to trick Joe into staying, but Joe bravely steps past the Colonel's tricks. Joe's act is brave because the Colonel could easily request that Joe be killed for f or beaten for the impertinence of wanting to leave at all, or for the impertinence of finding fi nding the money to pay back the debt. Joe insist ent behavior shows shows him to be a strong st rong man. Joe is a black man who longs to be appreciated for his abilities, not his race. In a culture that requires servile black manhood, Joe finds a job, breaking horses, with which he can demonstrate demonstrate his masculinity m asculinity.. Joe is so good at his job, in fact, that t hat he becomes the Chief Breaker at the ranch. All men, white and black, respect Joe in spite of the color of his skin. Unfortunately, while Joe does manage to show his manhood, his manly desire for control gets the better of him. Although he has aged, he insists on taking on the tremendous black stallion. The black stallion kills him, but truly it is Joe's yearning to constantly control that leads to his downfall. Joe's desire is a very human one Gaines suggests, which the Creole hoodoo lady calls "Man's Way".
Tee Bob Samson Tee Bob Samson is one of the most sympathetic characters in the novel. Even though he is a white man of privilege, being the heir to the Samson plantation, Tee Bob's awakening to the reality of their racist system leads him to kill himself. Even as a children, Tee Bob appeared to be a sensitive child. He followed Jane around in the field checking to see if she was okay. It was upon his request that the Samsons transferred her to the Big House. As a boy, Tee Bob could not understand why his brother, Timmy, was sent away. Tee Bob's ability to relate to and love his brother as children allowed him to develop a genuine relationship outside of race. Tee Bob was supposed to understand as he grew up the basic racist regulations of his society, but his adoration of Mary Agnes Agnes demonstrates that he never did. Tee Tee Bob kills himself because he feels that he cannot fit into a society where race defines him and everyone in it regardless of the true content of their hearts. Although Tee Tee Bob is sympathetic, he still sti ll is i s a member m ember of the white ruling class. His behavior in the novel and even the way that he courts Mary Agnes shows his knowledge of his superiority. As they walk, for example, he rides on a horse—a move that indicates his higher social position. In the moments before his death, though, Tee Bob suddenly sees the way that the history of his family and the South forces him to be something, even if he does not want to be it. Given the history of relationships between between black women and white white men, there t here is no way that Tee Bob can simply love Mary Agnes as person truly loves another. The burden of race and its history always will come between them. Tee Bob's final appreciation of this truth is what finally causes his death.
Themes, Themes, Motifs, and a nd Symbols Themes The Legacy of Slavery
The violent history of slavery permeates so many aspects of American history. Jane Pittman begins her life in slavery, but the social framework of slavery continues for almost the rest of her days, even after her emancipation. Although she lives for a hundred more years and becomes free, she still lives on a plantation. Likewise, the rigid race relations of the south affect all of its residents. Most people in the south, both white and black, stay within the boundaries of what they are supposed to do. The few people who attempt to change what is happening, such as Tee Bob Samson, Jimmy Aaron, and Ned Douglass, all end up dead. Tee Bob most clearly demonstrates the difficulty of being trapped in one's historical legacy. Although he would would like to love l ove Mary Agnes, Agnes, he cannot free himself from historical histori cal significance of being the heir to a southern plantation. Weighed down by guilt and frustration at his own enslavement in his past, he kills himself. Manhood
Although The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman concerns Pittman concerns Jane's life, the idea of manhood permeates the novel. The four sections of the novel roughly follow the lives of four men: Ned Douglass, Joe Pittman, Tee Bob Samson, and Jimmy Aaron. All of the black men in the novel struggle to articulate their masculinity. Joe Pittman conquers horses as a means to prove his worth. Ned Douglass openly defies the social order by becoming a schoolteacher and teaching about race relations. Jimmy Aaron also is defiant by organizing political protests. All of these brave black men meet their deaths through struggling for manhood, although the richness of their lives make their efforts worthwhile. White men also need to demonstrate their manhood by controlling people or using violence against them. The white landowning men, like Robert Samson, govern as clear patriarchs. Everything on the plantation happens as he says so, and he even enjoys sexual relations with a black woman there. The poor white men often use violence against blacks in order to prove themselves. But as shown with Albert Cluveau, their need to use violence against others actually indicates their own cowardice. Gaines suggests that all of these men, both white and black, have an inherent need to conquer creatures, such as Joe's horse; things, like the river; or people, like the slaves. It is this desire for control and conquest that usually leads to their downfall. downfall. Class Differences Inside Race
Gaines exposes the striations of class and racism within the white and black race as well as between them. The white race divides itself upon economic grounds. The landowning whites look down on everyone else, mostly the working class Cajun whites. These poor whites serve the landowning whites by using violence to maintain the racial order. Despite their efforts however, the landowning whites still detest and scorn them. In the black race, the Creole culture shuns all darker skin blacks. The Creoles are light skinned blacks who come from the original French colonists in Louisiana. When a Creole girl, Mary Agnes LeFarbre, goes to work on the Samson Plantation with common blacks, her family disowns her. Even though local
whites consider the Creoles common blacks, the Creoles themselves refuse to mix with the general black population and act superior. The concept of racism within the black community itself suggests the ridiculousness in using skin color as a means of social divis ion.
Motifs Slave Narratives
This motif is a textual one and refers to the fact that Gaines mimics a classic slave narrative with his novel. Slave narratives tell stories of enslavement, suffering, endurance, and escape. Abolitionists once used slave narratives in order to illustrate the cruelty of its practices. Most accounts remained oral, but several notable exceptions were published in the nineteenth century, especially the story of Frederick Douglass, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Women's stories also fit into this literary tradition such as Harriet Jacob's Incidents Incident s in the Life of a Slave Girl. Man On a Horse
The image of a man on a horse is one of the novel's most dominant and recurring images. The image is an emblem of the old South and recalls the chivalric tradition that is part of southern mythology. Traditionally, the ability to ride a horse embodies southern manhood. Gaines both reinforces and alters the meaning of this motif in his book. Robert Samson, for example, uses his horse as a classic southern master would. He rides to a black woman's house on his plantation and seduces her. His son Tee Bob also uses a horse to court Mary Agnes. The noble idea of a man on a horse is inverted though with the role of the Patrollers, white men who do nothing honorably. Joe Pittman's obsession with horses testifies to his desire to claim a manhood that the southern culture denies him. As a black man, however, his playing with horses is a dangerous activity and will ultimately l ead to his death. Names
Miss Jane Pittman's name changes from Ticey, to Jane Brown, to Jane Pittman throughout the course of the novel. The repeated motif of naming oneself testifies to the importance of the act for the ex-slaves. The novel opens with a Yankee soldier naming Ticey, Jane Brown—a name that Ticey clings to even though she is beaten for it. After slavery, the other slaves all choose their own names: Ace Freeman, Abe Sherman, Job Lincoln. The ability to name themselves demonstrates their newfound freedom. Later in the book, the younger blacks often name themselves again. Ned becomes Ned Brown, then Ned Douglass, and then Ned Stephen Douglass, and finally Edward Stephen Douglass. Calling themselves by what they believe is their true name, is the ex-slaves' first symbolic act of defiance against the slavery system. In naming, the blacks assert their personalities, their wills, and their ability to use language—all of which had been denied them before. When Tee Bob proposes to Agnes Mary, he says that he will give her "his name" that very night, but she turns it down. At the very end of the book, Jane closes by saying "Robert and me" looked at each other and walked away. Here she has renamed him, from Mister Samson—the appropriate away she should refer to her white Master—to using his first name. With the civil rights movement, the ex-slaves appear to suddenly stand upon equal ground as Jane's terminology term inology suggests.
Symbols The black stallion
The black stallion symbolizes a creature that is almost unbreakable. Ernest Gaines says that he modeled the stallion after Moby Dick. He wanted to make it a creature that drives man to destruction in his desire to control it. While Moby Dick Dick ultimately gets away, away, a man will break the black stallion even though Joe Pittman will die fir st. The black stallion represents an object that is just beyond the control of man but also one for which men will always strive, even if it will ruin them. Ned's flint
After the murder of Big Laura, Ned carries her flint around as they journey. Jane uses the flint to light fires during their trek. Ned Ned keeps it with him constantly as a reminder of his mother; he even gets in a fight over it when they stop at the orphanage. The The flint suggests the symbolic fire that Ned will attempt to light much later in his life. Although he may not use the flint as he ages, his mother's death, as well as other injustices, inspired the desire to fight back against a system that oppresses him. As he ages, Ned gathers the ability to light metaphorical fires with the tools of language and education. The river
The river, which comes into play during the novel's second and third book, symbolizes the inability of a social order to control nature. The river floods several times during the 1920s, killing people, destroying houses, and breaking up dams. Jane uses this imagery to symbolize the ineffectual attempts of man to conquer things that are inconquerable. On a metaphorical level, however, the river represents the human spirit. Just as the white men cannot control the river, they also cannot control the emotional spirit in black people that demands their equality. Likewise, Likewise, the tendency for the river r iver to overflow also could be compared to t he tendency for the river of love to overflow Tee Bob's heart. Tee Bob was not supposed to have his love transcend the social constructions of race regulations, but it did anyway. These emotions for love and equality, like the river, ri ver, are natural currents such that nothing can keep them down down forever.
Introduction and Book 1: 1 : The War Years From Soldiers to Soldiers to Heading Heading North Summary
Introduction The editor introduces the novel by explaining that after years of asking Miss Jane Pittman to tell her story to him, she finally did in the summer of 1962. He wants to hear her history because he is a teacher and her experiences have not been included in the history textbooks he uses. The teacher records Miss Jane as she speaks. Miss Jane is over a hundred years old, however however,, and sometimes forgets things. When she does so, her friends fill in the gaps with their memories. Since a group is contributing to her story, the editor feels that the t ale belongs to all of them. Sometimes after the story has been gathered, Miss Jane dies, and the editor meets many of the people from her life at her funeral. Upon meeting them, the editor again reflects that Miss Jane's story applies to all of them not just herself.
Soldiers It is a hot summer day on the plantation where Miss Jane Pittman lives as a child. Her name during slavery is Ticey. Troops from the retreating Confederate Army, referred to as "Secesh" (for secession), come by. Jane's master hides in the swamp with the silver, and Jane's mistress orders her to give them water. Jane does so and hears one of the soldiers grumpily suggesting that they should just give up and free the slaves. The Confederate soldiers soon ride off when they hear that the Yankees are coming. When the Yankee soldiers arrive, the mistress tells Ticey to give them water too. One soldier, Corporal Brown, tells Jane that she will be free soon, and she can come see him in Ohio. When he hears that her name is Ticey, he says that she needs a non-slave name and offers her the name of his daughter, daughter, Jane Brown. After the soldiers leave, Jane insists that her name is now Miss Jane Brown and refuses to answer when her mistress calls her Ticey Ticey. Once the Master returns from the fi eld, they beat Jane until she bleeds, but she insists that her name is Jane Brown. The The mistress is i s so angry that she sends her to work in the fields fi elds instead of i n the house as she had previously done.
Freedom Jane and the other slaves hear the bell ringing, which means that they should stop working in the field. After some initial confusion, they all stop and approach the house. Their master is standing there with a piece of paper in his hand. He tells them that they all are now free. The slaves cheer and start singing. After a moment though, they ask the master what they are supposed to do. He tells them that they can stay, and he will pay them, or else they can leave. One of the older slaves, Uncle Isom, takes the ex-slaves back to the quarters where he discusses the issue with everyone. Jane stubbornly insists on leaving and going north to Ohio. Other slaves fear the outside world and decide to stay. Jane has no reason to stay, as she never knew her father and her mother was killed when she was young. The mistress and master offer everyone potatoes and apples before they leave. Jane grabs some food, her other dress, and
assembles with the t he people who are leaving.
Heading North The ex-slaves have no idea where to go, where the north is, or what freedom means. As they walk off the plantation, they break some of the cotton out of spite and grab some corn for food. When they must walk through the more difficult swamp, a woman named Big Laura starts leading the group. Big Laura is as strong as any man and very brave. They walk until night when they camp. Once stopped, everyone starts renaming themselves, becoming Abe Washington, Job Lincoln, and Ace Freeman. One slow-witted man decides to call himself Brown, Brown, but Jane protests because it is i s her name and starts start s hitting hitti ng him with a stick. st ick. As he fights back, the slow wit gets a strange look in his eye, and when he grabs Jane, he does so in a sexual way. Big Laura appears and starts hitting the slow wit with a stick, telling him go back to the plantation if wants to sexually force young girls. She hits him until he cries. As it gets darker, the group finds the north star in the sky. They walk again, and then everyone sleeps under bushes for the night. Analysis
With his introduction, Gaines sets the tone to come by explaining that it shall be an edited oral narrative by Miss Jane Pittman, a woman aged over 100 years, who was born in slavery. The oral narrative has been an essential ingredient in the black literary tradition since the earliest slave narratives, best exemplified in works such as the Autobiography of Frederick Frederick Douglass, but also consistent with some s ome modern works such as The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The X. The oral narrative allows for Gaines to retell the history of rural Louisiana through the eyes of one person. Her story becomes a composite tale of the African-American African-American experience since slavery, primarily in the south. The events that she experienced were experienced by multitudes, and in her story lies details from the stories of many others. It is significant that Gaines uses a female narrator to tell his communal story. Rarely has the voice of a black woman chronicled American history. By writing Jane's autobiography, he grants her the power of self-definition in written speech, something to which the illiterate Miss Jane has rarely had access. Overall, Gaines's narrative technique illustrates his interest in expanding the concept of what makes up American history to include perspectives by Americans of all races. At the time of the novel's publication, 1972, few attempts had been made to correct one- sided history books, as Gaines wants to do here. The opening of the novel introduces the reader to Miss Jane Pittman's voice, which will persist throughout the novel. In order to find a realistic voice for Jane, Gaines studied texts of slave narratives that the government recorded after the Civil War. Miss Jane speaks in the southern dialect with which she was raised. Her tale proceeds with an occasionally circular motion, while neglecting the regulations imposed by the formal English grammar that she never learned. Miss Jane's tendency to use informal colloquial terms can be seen when she refers to the Confederate Army as the "Secesh." In the very first chapter, Jane also describes that the Confederate Colonel had a "sable" hanging from his waist, so that it almost dragged to the ground. This "sable" is obviously a "saber," a long sword used in battle, and Jane's confusion over the terminology provides a slightly humorous edge that also suggests the level of her formal education.
Jane's personalized history manages to retell classic events in a more vivid, real manner. The institution of slavery s lavery usually exists as an abstract concept that, while horrible, is removed from present-day life and reality. By describing slavery with a personalized view, the abstraction disappears since the way that slavery affected individual people comes forth more clearly. Since we feel drawn close to the narrator and the brutality that she sees or suffers—such as being whipped or seeing people killed—becomes very real and in its reality more painful. Jane's personal narrative also helps to point out the historical facts that few f ew ever consider, consider, such such as the idea that the slaves had no idea what to do when slavery ended. The motif of naming appears first in this section with Jane's renaming by Corporal Brown and then the renaming of the slaves by themselves. The ability for Jane to choose her own name, even though Corporal Brown suggests it, is a powerful statement against the slavery system that controlled all aspects of her person. In addition to Jane picking her own name, an act worthy of a human, she also initially initi ally refers to herself as "Miss Jane Brown." Brown." The The "Miss" before her name is a title used only by blacks toward whites or by whites toward each other. Jane's use of it is i s akin to calling herself a free fr ee person, instead of a slave. Her Her master and mistress mist ress are well aware of the significance of her act. They They beat her severely for it, contemplate selling or killing her, her, and finally send her to the fields. Jane's ability abil ity to choose her own own name represents her first fi rst act of defiance. Jane's defiance itself is a theme that will persist throughout the book. Its presence in these opening chapters foreshadows foreshadows the obstinacy that will keep Jane alive and vigorous, despite t he numerous hardships that will follow foll ow in her hundred years years of life. As As a child, Jane's obstinacy is almost too much as she fights not just with her master but with the other slaves as well just after the emancipation. Jane also picks a fight with the slow wit, who responds by trying to rape her. her. If not for Big Laura, Jane's aggressiveness aggressiveness could have led to physical trauma. t rauma. While Jane's spunky attitude will motivate her through the years, as a child fleeing slavery it could have certain downsides if not governed by an equal sense of prudence.
Book 1: The War Years Years From Massacr From Massacree to All to All Kinds of People Summary
Massacre Just after aft er everyone wakes, wakes, someone screams "Patrollers" and everyone everyone hides under bushes, Jane hiding with Big Laura's small son, Ned. Patrollers are poor white trash who used to find runaway slaves, and who later will become the Ku Klux Klan. They ride in on horses and see the slow wit, who did not hide because he did not know what was happening. They beat him to death. Jane hears cries and screams from other beatings but stays hidden with Ned. They hide until the cries cri es stop and all the Patrollers leave. l eave. When When they get up, Jane sees that everyone she is with has been killed, including Big Laura and her baby girl. Big Laura apparently managed to kill two Patrollers before she died, as Jane sees one body and another set of bloody clothes. Since everyone is dead, Jane takes their leftover food. She gives Ned the flint that Big Laura kept to light the fire. Ned and Jane then leave walking all day and well into the night. They stop by a river that they cannot cross. As Ned sleeps, Jane thinks about everyone's death and where she will go.
Heading South The next morning, Jane and Ned walk along the river to find a place where they can pass. They stop when they hear voices, but realizing that they are black voices, they approach. When the blacks see them, everyone freezes. But when Jane asks if they are in Ohio, they all burst out laughing. The blacks are with a white woman who fled her plantation in Louisiana during the war to hide in Texas. She is now returning to see about her land. The white woman tells Jane to go back to her plantation. Jane describes how her master beat her mother to death. The white woman gives Jane and Ned some meat and hot food and invites them to return with her to her plantation, because she never beat her slaves. Jane refuses to listen and explains that she is going to find the Yankee soldier Mr. Brown in Ohio. The white woman explains that Jane will need to take a ferry to cross the river, ri ver, which which requires money, and that she should really just stay with them. Jane is obstinate and refuses. As As she leaves l eaves with Ned, she sees that the white woman is crying.
Shelter for a Night Jane and Ned soon find the ferry on the river and try to get on it. The captain forces them off since they have no money, so Jane and Ned just sit by it all day long. After many hours, a white man with a horse approaches and sees them. When they tell him that they want to cross, he takes them across. Jane explains about leaving her plantation and desire to get to Ohio. The white man is an investigator for the Freedom Bureau and he comes from New York. He tells Jane that Louisiana will soon be as free as Ohio, so she might as well stay. He knows where they can spend the night anyhow and takes them to a big house. A black woman meets them at the door and shows Jane and Ned a boys and girls dormitory. The woman feeds them, forces
them to bathe, and puts them to sleep. Jane tells Ned before they lie down that they are going to leave tomorrow.
All Kinds of People A white man enters before they sleep and makes everyone get on their knees to pray. As Jane tries to sleep, she hears voices from the boys' dormitory and rushes over. A boy tried to grab the flint Ned has carried around, but Ned fought back and now the other boy had a knot on his forehead. The white man returns and wants to take Ned's flint away, but Jane argues with him so he leaves it. He orders them all back to bed. The next morning they dress, wash, and eat. When Jane learns that they have to learn their ABCs before playing, she decides that she is leaving. She grabs Ned and their bundles. When the white man asks her where she is going, she says Ohio. The man, the black woman, and the other children all watch them walk away. As Jane and Ned walk, they soon come upon a group of Yankee soldiers. Jane sees two black soldiers and asks about Mr. Brown. There is a Brown at the camp, so Jane forces her way over to his tent and eventually goes inside. This Brown however, is Colonel Brown and not the one she met. He asks her a few questions, but she leaves quickly with Ned. Ned and she continue to walk and later that day Jane asks a poor white woman for some water. The woman says miserable things about "niggers" and the fact that the Yankees ruined her house, but pours water into their hands anyhow. Jane and Ned walk East until sundown, then sleep. Analysis
These chapters jump into the beginning of Jane's odyssey in the days after slavery. The appearance of the Patrollers and the death of her acquaintances leave Jane on her own with the exception of the very young Ned. The violence of the Patrollers testifies to the violence experienced by blacks after slavery. Their deaths are tragic given the fact that they have just been freed. The way that Gaines focuses upon Big Laura during the incident further increases the poignancy of the crime. Big Laura dies holding her infant daughter in her arms. When Jane sees them, she initially takes the baby out of Big Laura's arms to bury it, but decides that Big Laura looked more sad with nothing to hold and places it back. Jane and Ned's reaction to the deaths demonstrates the way in which they have become accustomed to violence at a very young age. Both Both of them t hem stay hidden and quiet when the Patrollers arrive and Jane reflects that even though young, Ned made not as sound "as if he knew that death was just a footstep away." The presence of the Patrollers also initiates Gaines's discussion of the various social classes in the white race that will continue in the book. The Patrollers are lower class whites who did not own land or slaves, but who used to work capturing slaves and bringing them back. In the post Slavery period, many of these whites will become a biggest haters of the blacks. The landowning whites will still maintain their land, but the working class whites in the South will now have to compete with free blacks who could take some of their jobs. Partially in response to the changing social times, these lower class whites become especially involved in violent activities and societies against blacks, such as the Ku Klux Klan. Their involvement in these groups is often related to their social class. The white female landowner whom Jane and Ned meet is very different from the Patrollers, though of the same race. While the Patrollers kill the blacks, the white woman offers to take
Jane and Ned back. The slaves around the white woman all seem to like her and frequently are laughing. One of them in particular, even gets upset when Jane talks back to his mistress and chastises her. This group has been living in Texas, though, since the war and in many ways they appear to be completely out of touch. The mistress entertains romantic notions of slavery. While Jane explains that her mother was beaten to death on their plantation, the mistress claims that her slaves were never beaten. The mistress her plantation as some sort of idyllic pastoral, but Jane knows better. She refuses to sign up under another form of condescending patronage that would once again enslave her. As Jane walks away, the white woman is crying. Her tears reflect her realization about the brutality of the slavery she has supported, rather than her grief that Jane is actually leaving. Jane has awakened awakened the mistress to t o her own complicity complicity in the t he racist system. Jane and Ned's encounter with a Yankee from the Freedom Bureau starts Gaines's commentary upon the role of the Northern Federal Government after the war. The investigator maintains somewhat unrealistic romantic ideas about what will happen in the South, which were held by many Northerners at the time. He tells Jane that Louisiana soon will feel as free as Ohio, a completely untrue statement, so she should just stay there. Still while his notions are overly idealistic, he does offer insight to Jane. He is a man with a horse, a motif common to the Southern gentleman, but he treats her in a very different way than most white men that she has met. He pays to get them across the river and finds them a safe room. The children's home that Jane and Ned reach represents safety, but for Jane it also represents another form of enslavement. Jane has just been freed and she wants to be under obligation to no one. She is free to do what she wants and she chooses unsafe freedom rather than safe adherence to the rules. In some ways her decision might be unwise, but it is completely consistent with Jane's spunky character. Jane's personal voice continues to grow during this section. Several incorrect spellings of words appear in an effort to demonstrate Jane's speech patterns. The Freedom Bureau written as "Beero," a forehead is called a "forrid," the investigator is called the "invessagator," and Louisiana is always called "Luzana." The improperly spelled terms approximate the way that Jane would pronounce them. By placing them within a written text, Gaines is able to replicate the sound of Jane's oral narrative as his editor supposedly would have heard it. The terms additionally help to maintain the richness of Jane's dialect, while further reinforcing the notion that she has never been formally educated. educated.
Book 1: The War Years Years From Hunter From Hunter to to Rednecks Rednecks and Scalawags Summary
Hunter Jane and Ned are walking in the darkness and suddenly smell food cooking. They immediately freeze, but from the darkness a voice summons them. It is an old solitary black man who is cooking a rabbit on his fire. He cuts it up and gives them each one piece. The old man is heading south to try and find his father who was sold in Mississippi. When Jane explains that they are going to Ohio to find the Yankee soldier, Mr. Brown, the old man laughs. He tells her that she has barely gone anywhere anywhere and that they should just j ust go back to their plantation because it is too far. Jane gets angry and tells him that she never wanted his rabbit anyhow. When he teases her and suggests that he should knock them out and drag them home, Jane wakes Ned and walks away with him in the darkness. Soon they come back quickly because of the cold, and the man jokingly asks them how Ohio was. Jane and Ned fall asleep, and when they wake, the hunter is gone.
An Old Man Jane has to carry Ned and both of their bundles the next day since they are sloshing through the Louisiana swamps. After a long morning, Jane approaches a gray house by a field and finds an old white man on the front porch. He He tells them t hem that they are still stil l in Louisiana, takes her inside, and gives her greens and cornbread. Over his fireplace is a large map of the states. He shows Jane how far Ohio is. Jane still insists on going and is sassy and obstinate. The man then humorously describes Jane's route, including the fact that she refuses to go to Mississippi and concludes that it will take them about thirty years to get there. Jane says that they better get started then, and she leaves with Ned. After this stop, she and Ned walk for about a week, and Jane says that what they encountered was similar to what they encountered before. Finally, they ask a white man with a wagon for a ride. It turns out that he is not exactly going their way, but she goes with him since she is exhausted and because Ned already has fallen asleep in his wagon. The man, whose name is Job, says that their fatigue was evident.
Rednecks and Scalawags Job is a poor white man, but he takes Jane and Ned home. His wife is very displeased that he brought two "niggers" "niggers" there and starts listing l isting all the ways in which Job is not a true t rue man: he did not fight in the war; he cannot make her have babies; their house is falling apart. Job lets Jane and Ned sleep in the empty food crib just outside the house and gives them some cornbread. Through the wall, Jane hears the wife hollering late into the night and reflects that many white women went went slightly sli ghtly crazy during the war. In the morning, Job puts Jane J ane and Ned in his wagon and and tells them they are going to Mr. Bone's. Some Confederate soldiers approach as they are riding, and Job explains that Jane and Ned belong to him. The soldiers let them go. Eventually, Job drops them at a house by a plantation
and leaves. Jane is sent to talk to Mr. Bone, who runs the plantation. Mr. Bone first thinks that Jane is too small to work in the fields, but she convinces him otherwise. He agrees to pay her the reduced rate of six dollars a month, minus fifty cents for Ned's schooling. Jane is shown to her new cabin, small but clean with only two beds in it. She says t hat she will live li ve there for ten t en years. After a month of working, Mr. Bone starts paying her ten dollars like the other women because her work is so good. Analysis
This section is the final sequence of the "War Years" book of the novel. Jane and Ned continue their adventures by meeting up with three more m ore significant people: a lone black hunter, hunter, a white poor farmer, and Job. These stops contain an increasingly comic touch as Jane's obstinacy about reaching Ohio grows grows increasingly ridiculous. ri diculous. The black hunter simply cannot believe that two children are wandering through the Louisiana swamp in search of Ohio. He is kind and shares his food with them, but Jane acts like the child that she is and argues about not wanting his food whenever he criticizes her plan. The black hunter has his own interesting story to tell, but it never is fully explained. He is heading south to find his father, who was sold in Mississippi. The hunter's stealth and knowledge of the world suggests that he may have been an escaped slave who has lived on his own for a while. The details of his life are unclear, but his interlude with Jane provides insight into the different types of journeys that other black people made after the t he emancipation. Jane's encounter with the white farmer grows increasingly comic. She refuses to listen to him and insists that she will not walk through Mississippi to get to Ohio, even though she knows nothing about Mississippi. The old white man comically describes her journey at length and concludes by saying that it will take them thirty years. Jane leaves after this comment. Although the old man, like the black hunter, is a kindly man who wants to help Jane, Jane trusts no one and will not accept anyone's help with regard to her plans to reach Ohio. Her unwillingness to trust people is not entirely surprising since she grew up in a slavery system with no parents and always had to look out for herself. Jane lacks the wisdom and insight that she will grow in her later years. The narrative then skips for the first fi rst time ti me in the t he book, and and Jane tells about a week with a simple sentence, saying that everything that happened to them continued as it had been. When this week is over, Ned and Jane are exhausted from walking. Jane's exhaustion allows her to be guided by Job, the white man who eventually delivers her to Mr. Bone's plantation. By the time she reaches Mr. Bone's, she realizes that heading north is not as amazing as it sounds and decides to stay right there. Jane started this section of the novel at a plantation and is ending it at another plantation. The two plantations are different in that she will be getting paid at Mr. Bone's. Still, the fact that Jane has journeyed all this way just to arrive at another plantation in Louisiana makes us wonder how far she has truly come. It is her spirit though that has grown during her small odyssey. Jane has grown less naïve through her explorations and also a great deal more knowledgeable about the world. Most profoundly, she has come to realize that although she may have to stay in Louisiana, she is s till a free person because freedom has to do with her mindset rather than actually reaching Ohio. Jane's odyssey will continue throughout the novel although once again it will be mostly about her emotional rather than physical ourney.
The two white men who help Jane on her route—the Old Man and Job—testify to the cracks in the racist system that exist and have always existed in the South. Job, like his biblical namesake, is a man who appears to have suffered. He is poor and his wife is embittered and slightly crazy. Despite the difficulty of his life, however, he is, again like his biblical namesake, a man motivated by goodness toward other people and even his poverty finds space for Jane and Ned at his home, as well as food. When he drives them to Mr. Bone's plantation, he additionally lies to the Confederate soldiers to protect them. This lie could cost Job his life, but he does it anyway because he is a good person. The small sacrifices made by people like Job and also the old white man, who earlier gave Jane and Ned food, demonstrate the undercurrent of humanity that existed between the races even at that time.
Book 2: Reconstruction Reconstruction From A From A Flicker of Light and Again Darkness to Darkness to Two Letters From Kansas Summary
A Flicker of Light and Again Darkness Life on Bone's plantation initially is good. An educated black man is the schoolteacher and teaches kids in the day and adults at night. Each night, a different family feeds him. When it is Jane's turn, she sends Ned out to find a plate and fork for the teacher but later discovers that every family borrowed the same plate and fork each night because it was the only one. Ned learns how to read, although Jane never never attends the t he school herself. Mr. Bone is a Republican, and the anti-slavery Republican stance allows for some black leaders to emerge in helping to reorganize the south. One day during a public political rally, a large fight breaks out, and Jane hides with Ned under the stage. Later, she finds out that the secret white societies, the Ku Klux Klan, the White Brotherhood, and the Camellias of Luzana, caused the trouble. These groups frequently beat and kill blacks or the whites who help them, with little littl e justification. justif ication. Sometime later, Mr. Bone Bone suddenly tells his workers workers that t hat he no longer owns the plantation as the original owner, a Confederate Colonel named Dye, has managed to buy it back with some money borrowed from northern whites. Within a few days, Bone, many of the blacks, and the schoolteacher leave. When Colonel Dye arrives, he says that he will hire a new schoolteacher and pay the same wage as Bone. Still, something has changed. The slaves have to identify their plantation master if they walk into town, as they would have had to in slavery days. The new schoolteacher is white and teaches only for a few months out of the year. All of the Yankee soldiers and Freedom Bureau members have disappeared, so Louisiana becomes almost as it i t was before slavery.
Exodus Many black people start fleeing the south when they see that conditions are worsening. Originally many people wanted to stay because Frederick Douglass told them to and because they believed the promises of the Freedom Bureau. But with the changing conditions, they leave. At first, the whites feel glad that they are going but soon try to stop them because they need the labor. The blacks keep leaving—sneaking off in the silence of night to search for a better place to live.
Ned Leaves Home Ned now is about seventeen and has changed his name to Edward Stephen Douglass from Ned Brown and Ned Douglass. He becomes active in a committee that helps blacks flee the plantations. One day, Colonel Dye tells Jane that Ned needs to stop what he is doing, but when Jane tells Ned, Ned refuses. Some time later a group of Ku Klux Klan members, wearing hoods, appear at Jane's cabin. They They strike her several times, but Ned is not there. When he returns later that night and sees her face, he tells her that they are leaving. Jane does not want to leave because she does not feel it is her time. Ned, who treats Jane as his surrogate mother and calls
her mama, is very upset and wants her to come. She insists on staying though, and they both weep when he leaves later than night.
Two Letters Letters From Kansas Jane starts spending time with a widower named Joe Pittman, and they decide to get married. Jane knows that she cannot have children and eventually she tells Joe. He does not mind because he has two daughters from his first wife. They all start living together. Joe Pittman breaks horses for Colonel Dye, and he wants to move to a better place where he can earn more money. He starts looking for a new place, but Jane does not want to leave until she hears from Ned. Finally Finally after a year, she gets an old letter l etter from Ned. He He is in Kansas helping relocate black people. A second letter informs Jane that Ned works on a farm and attends school at night. Jane reflects that Ned soon will finish school and become a teacher, before joining the Army and heading to Cuba in the war. Analysis
The opening of the second book of the novel, "Reconstruction," explicitly deals with changes in southern politics after the war. The northern government with its Freedom Bureau has thus far been involved in rebuilding the south. The ease of life on Mr. Bone's plantation demonstrates the relatively high level of freedom and respect the blacks felt at that time. Not too long after the war, however, the northern government abandons the south, and when the southerners return, they bring back their racist social order. Jane herself keenly feels the abandonment by the north. While she once met the New Yorker from the Bureau who promised her that Louisiana would soon be as free as the north, she now knows that his statement is false. Furthermore, Gaines emphasizes the irony of the northern role by explaining that while the northern government abandons the reconstruction efforts, northern businessmen and banks make thing worse by lending money to southerners, like Colonel Dye, so that they can buy back their plantations. The north then has left the south with its old ways while simultaneously helping to promote them. Jane knows that "slavery has returned" once the white secret societies start threatening t hreatening and beating beating blacks for the smallest oversight or success. Time suddenly begins passing much more rapidly in this section. While we received an almost day-by-day account of her adventures while fleeing slavery, suddenly Ned is almost seventeen years old. The sequence sequence of events is clear but the exact time between between the different events i s not. We have no idea of how many years Mr. Bone stayed on the plantation, for example. Toward the end of the section, Jane also starts offering certain predictions of future events. Ned later will become a soldier, she reports. Jane's ability to control how quickly time moves is consistent with an oral narrative. The existence of misspelled "oral" terms, such as "sable" for "saber" also reinforces its oral context. If Ned now is about seventeen, Jane must be in her mid to late twenties. In contrast to her earlier desire for long adventures, she chooses to remain on the plantation several times during this section: first when Colonel Dye returns and second when Ned needs to flee. Jane's unwillingness to leave can be traced to her growing realization about the nature of the world, not due to her lack of spunk. Given the betrayal by the federal government, Jane cannot imagine that life lif e in the north can be better than life li fe in the south, so she stays. st ays. When Ned Ned leaves,
Jane insists that she can stay because no one will treat her like a dog. Jane lives in a racist system, but she has not internalized it. Her control over her ideology makes it possible for her to remain where she is despite the problems around her. Ned's conflict and the emergence of Joe Pittman touch upon the theme of the difficulties of black masculinity in the south. Ned's trouble with the Ku Klux Klan foreshadows his later murder and also the trouble that the other black men will face for similarly independent acts. While Ned has to flee for asserting his own manhood and humanity (by helping other blacks flee), the white men who come to attack him in the Klan are cowardly. They come in a group to attack a single man, and they wear masks to hide their true identity. The failure of these white men to stand up and fight fairly is ironic, since the whites constantly act as if they are more powerful men than the blacks. The black man's desire to articulate his manhood in a system that demeans it will become further developed with the character of Joe Pittm an.
Book 2: Reconstruction Reconstruction From Another From Another Home to Home to Professor Professor Douglass Douglas s Summary
Another Home Joe eventually finds a ranch on the Louisiana-Texas border that offers him a job. Colonel Dye does not want Joe to leave because Joe's work is so good and even offers Joe a sharecropping plot, but Joe insists insist s on going. The Colonel Colonel then recollects that t hat he once paid the Klan 150 dollars to get Joe out of trouble, and Joe needs to repay him before leaving. Joe leaves and is able to borrow the money from the t he boss on his new ranch. ranch. The Colonel Colonel is astonished that Joe has found the money, but he demands thirty dollars of interest. Joe takes twenty-five dollars from Jane, that Ned had sent her, and sells all his belongings to make thirty. After he pays the Colonel and gets a receipt, he leaves l eaves with Jane and his two daughters.
Molly Joe, Jane, and his daughters walk for days to the new ranch. Upon arrival, they are given a house and fed heartily. Joe will work each day with the horses and Jane will work in the house. The first time Jane works in the house an older black woman named Molly tries to get her to leave by hitting her, ignoring her, and shoving her. Molly has worked in the house since slavery and nursed the mistress herself, Miss Clare. Molly views views all other black women in the house as competitors and has managed to get rid of them in various ways. Miss Clare refuses to fire Jane, though, and as a result Molly quits. Molly finds work with another white woman and frequently returns to drink tea with Miss Clare. Not too long after she leaves, Molly dies, and Jane believes that she did so because of a broken heart.
A Dollar for Two Two Jane and Joe stay on the ranch for about ten years. Joe is named Chief Breaker Breaker because he is the best at breaking horses, and although the two had saved up several hundred dollars and discussed finding their own place, he still wants to work with horses. Soon Soon Jane starts worrying about Joe getting killed by a horse. She has a recurring dream where one horse throws him against a fence. Joe laughs at her worries. One night in a February however, Jane walks by the corral and sees a black stallion that is the horse from her terrible dream. She tells Joe. He laughs and tells all the other men about it at dinner. The sight of the black stallion gives Jane the chills.
Man's Way Jane is so worried about the stallion that she consults a Creole voodoo woman, Madame Gautier, in town. Madame Gautier comes from New Orleans and tells Jane that Joe needs to break horses in order to prove himself as a man. Jane cannot give Joe more children and for that reason, amongst many others, Joe feels compelled to always show his manhood. It is "man's way." Upon Jane's request, Madame Gautier gives her some powder to sprinkle by
Jane's bed so that Joe will not get on the horse. After seeing Madame Gautier, Jane feels sick all week. The night before Joe is going to break the horse, Jane heads to the corral. Before she knows what she is doing, she has opened the fence and tried to get the horse to run. Joe sees her and runs toward the corral, but the stallion escapes. Joe tosses Jane out of the corral, climbs on his horse, and takes off after him. The next morning the other men bring back the stallion, Joe, and Joe's horse. Joe had managed to lasso the stallion, but the stallion dragged Joe through the swamp so that he died. The ranch holds a wake for Joe. At the rodeo that follows, the crowd mourns him before the start. Another man breaks the black stallion, and Joe's daughter, soon after, decides to marry him. They head to Texas. A few years after Joe dies, Miss Jane meets a fisherman named Felton who takes her down to the Southwestern part of Louisiana. She and Felton live together for three years, but one day he leaves without warning. Although she is alone again, she discovers that Ned is coming.
Professor Douglass The summer after 1898 Ned arrives with his wife, Vivian, and their three children. He comes in his Army uniform, and Miss Jane can scarcely recognize him. Ned wants to start a school for local black children, since there is not one in the area. Ned tells Jane about the ideas of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, about helping the other colored people, and Jane is amazed. In the following weeks, Ned tries to find people interested in his project, but everyone is scared. Eventually, Eventually, he buys buys a house by the road r oad and starts teaching t eaching classes out of it. it . He also buys a piece of land on the t he riverbank where where he will build his school. Still all the blacks are afraid, and the whites start watching him. Analysis
The majority of this section deals with Joe and particularly with the issue of masculinity that drives him to his death. Joe is a courageous, resourceful man who has a vision of a better life and pursues it. When Colonel Dye tries to trap Joe on the plantation by referencing a debt that Joe owes him, Joe simply leaves to find the money. Colonel Dye laughs upon hearing that Joe is actually looking for the money, since he assumes that no one would give a black man so much. When Joe proves the Colonel wrong, Dye makes a last meager and shifty effort to keep Joe there by requesting interest from the debt. Joe still manages to free himself though by borrowing money from Jane and then selling most of his belongings. While many men would simply have stayed on the plantation after Colonel Dye created such a substantial debt, Joe's refusal to do so demonstrates that he, like Jane, believes in fighting the system that keeps him down. Joe's trade of breaking horses is closely linked to the issue of masculinity. Madame Gautier clearly connects the two when she explains to Jane that Joe needs to break horses to show that he is a man. Jane's barrenness may even heighten Joe's need to do so because he cannot show that he is a man by making her pregnant. Joe's skill as a horse breaker gains him a large l arge amount of respect. Instead of being considered by by his race, Joe is appreciated for his skil l that the other men, both white and black, crave. As he ages, however, Joe's desire to break horses relates increasingly to his yearning for control. Joe has aged, but still he wants to demonstrate his worth by breaking the almost unbreakable black stallion. It is Joe's desire to control, what Madame Gautier calls "man's way," that leads to his death because Joe is unwilling to accept
that not everything, such as the stunning st unning stallion, can be broken. Ned Douglass's return at the end of this section shows another man who struggles against the dehumanizing effects of the t he social order. Ned Ned has become a schoolteacher schoolteacher and furthermore f urthermore has been in the Army. He wears his Army uniform when he returns to see Jane, which is a dangerous dangerous act. The uniform suggests Ned's equality as an American man and also his ability to to use violence against others, as he did in the war. In a culture where black men are supposed to act constantly servile, Ned's desire to display his equality and masculinity are threatening. For this reason, as well as his desire to build a school and teach, the whites immediately start watching him. As a final note, one should recognize the theme of psychological slavery that Gaines develops in this section. The character of Molly most clearly shows someone whose psychology has become so entrenched in slavery that she s he cannot cope with freedom. Molly wants everything to remain as it was during slavery. When she has to leave the Big House, she dies soon after. Jane and Ned's new community near Bayonne similarly has become psychologically governed by fear so much that they are enslaved. Although they believe in Ned's cause, they will not help him because of their fear. Gaines portrays all of these characters sympathetically, especially Molly. Still, by contrasting their fear-ridden behaviors with the more courageous ones of Jane and Ned, he points out how much more satisfying life can be when one makes all efforts to be free both physically and mentally.
Book 2: Reconstruction Reconstruction From Albert From Albert Cluveau to Cluveau to The Chariot of Hell Summary
Albert Cluveau Miss Jane lives next to the river and fishes everyday. A Cajun man, Albert Cluveau, frequently fishes right near her, and they often talk, even though all Cluveau likes to discuss is how many people he has killed. He and Jane have a fairly friendly relationship such that she often brews coffee for them and gives him some of her fried fish. One day Cluveau tells Jane that the men in town are not happy about Ned. Jane feels worried and later goes to see Ned, although she tells him nothing. About a week later, Cluveau tells her that the same men want him to kill Ned. Jane looks Cluveau straight in the eye and asks if he could do it. Cluveau tells her that he could. Jane faints in response. Later that day, Jane visits Ned and tells both him and his wife about Cluveau's threat. Ned refuses to stop teaching. His wife, Vivian, says that Ned warned her that he might be killed if i f he came back here.
The Sermon at the River Two weeks before he is killed, Ned gives a talk by the river. His students, Jane, and his family are there, but no one else. Several white men watch and listen to Ned's talk from a boat on the river. Jane fears momentarily that the white men might shoot him then and there. Ned is wearing his Army Army uniform and turns his back on them before speaking. Ned tells everyone that they are true Americans and humans who are equal to all other American people of whatever race. He urges them to stand up and be true men—to pursue all of their dreams and not to simply take subservient jobs in order to conform to the social order, as Booker T. Washington suggests. He vigorously promotes the idea of social change that can be made if blacks take action. By the end of the speech, Ned is sweating, and, when Jane looks at him, she sees the look of death in his eyes.
Assassination A month passes and nothing happens. One day, Ned rides to Bayonne with two of his students to get some lumber for the school. As they are driving back the next morning, Albert Cluveau steps out of the sugar cane fields with a shotgun. Ned's students want to try and fight Cluveau, but Ned makes them stay seated. He then charges Cluveau. Cluveau shoots him once in the knee, since the whites wanted Ned to kneel before dying, and when Ned keeps coming he fires into his chest. Blood is everywhere. The students place Ned on the lumber and drive to his house. Ned later will be buried in the schoolyard, which the black community will finish and support for years until it is destroyed by a flood in 1927.
The People With news of Ned's murder, the community flocks to his house and all want to see his body and touch the lumber that held him. When Jane arrives, Vivian is holding Ned's body and sobbing.
Jane soon takes Vivian's place but is eventually led away. The next day the sheriff in Bayonne questions the two students who saw the shooting, but he dismisses their accounts by asking them if they are calling Albert Cluveau a liar. No justice follows. After Ned's death, Vivian returns to Kansas, on Jane's advice. A new professor eventually arrives after the school is finished, but he teaches nothing about race relations. He stays until the flood destroys the school in 1927.
The Chariot of Hell After Ned's death, Jane searches for Albert Cluveau, but Cluveau's daughter, Adeline, always says that he is not home. Finally Jane sees him hiding behind the house and knows that he is avoiding her. One day however, fate intervenes, and she meets him at a different part of the river. She She tells him that when the Chariot Chariot of Hell comes for f or him, people all over the parish will hear him screaming. Cluveau and everyone around thinks that Jane put some type of voodoo spell on him. When he gets sick a year later, he keeps on hearing the Chariot of Hell. He beats Adeline in response because because he claims that her sinfulness, si nfulness, not his own, has brought the Chariot (she is not really sinful). Adeline finally visits Jane and asks Jane to remove the voodoo spell because she keeps getting beaten. Jane insists that she never did any sort of voodoo voodoo on Cluveau. Cluveau does not die for almost another ten years. When he finally does however, he screams for three days before dying. In the end, he rises as if to shoot someone before collapsing in his daughter's arms. Analysis
Thematically this section contrasts two men, Albert Cluveau and Ned Douglass, who stand opposed to each other in regards to their moral fiber. Albert Cluveau is a weak cowardly character who preys upon other people. Ned Douglass is a brave black man who is willing to accept death for doing what he thinks is right—teaching r ight—teaching students students about their rights. Gaines spends considerable time developing Cluveau's character, a move that may seem curious since Cluveau's deeds make him a villainous murderer. At the opening of the section, however, Cluveau seems to be a fairly decent guy. Although he discusses killing people, he is basically friendly with Jane. The segregation of their races would never permit them to openly be "friends," but they do talk almost daily and often share coffee. Cluveau even occasionally buys Jane things from the store if she needs them. Cluveau's early behavior places his terrible deed in an interesting context. Cluveau is not necessarily a bad man, but a man who does terrible deeds, mostly mostl y out of cowardice and a desire to t o be accepted. Cluveau Cluveau is a relatively poor Cajun who who proves his worth to the higher-class whites by killing kil ling blacks for them. Because he is deeply steeped in racist ideology, Cluveau seems to have no problem shooting blacks upon request. From the very beginning, Cluveau's Cluveau's matter of fact way of discussing the t he many murders he has committed suggests s uggests his failure to understand what he is doing as necessarily wrong. The fear that Cluveau shows after Ned's murder reinforces the idea that he is a coward. First, Cluveau Cluveau repeatedly hides from Jane, which shows shows a certain irony because although he is willing willi ng to shoot down a man in daylight, he does not want to be chastised for it. After Jane tells him that the Chariot of Hell will come for him, Cluveau almost loses it. i t. When he falls sick, si ck, he beats his daughter and blames her for the chariots that he keeps hearing. Although Although he lives for f or almost
ten more years, he wails for f or several days before he finally fi nally dies. Cluveau's inability to cope with his deeds, his need to blame and beat his faultless daughter, and his failure to stand up and accept his death, all indicate that t hat he is a coward. Gaines's Gaines's depiction of Cluveau underscores underscores his general presentation of whites who commit violence against blacks as cowards. As Gaine shows, the perpetrators of racial violence generally are lower class white men want to show their self worth by ganging ganging up against innocent blacks. By contrast, Ned Douglas is a man of courage. Ned knows that the whites want to kill him, but he persists with his mission. The Army uniform that he wears to his speech by the river carries an implicit threat against the whites, since it asserts his equality with them and also reminds them that he once wielded a gun. The uniform seems suitable, too, because if Ned were to be shot in it, as he thinks may be possible that day, his status as a soldier fighting a war against racial injustice injusti ce would be even clearer. clearer. Ned's speech itself urges the people around him to stand s tand up as Americans and humans. Ned himself stands up until the very end of his life. When Cluveau arrives to shoot him, Ned calms his students and then charges toward the gun. Ned runs willingly into his death as an honorable and brave man. Even when Cluveau shoots Ned's knee, Ned still manages to rise again. Ned's bravery in the face of death contrasts greatly with Cluveau's weakness. In addition to being brave, Ned Ned is the first major messianic figure fi gure in the novel. Ned's Ned's attempt to change the society around him will be later replicated by Jimmy Aaron at the end of the novel. The "Sermon by the River" sequence uses strong imagery from the New Testament. Just as Jesus preached to his disciples near water, so too does Ned. Both Ned and Jesus also knew that their cause would lead to their death, but they both were willing to teach regardless. After Ned dies, the entire community wants to lay their hands on him and touch the blood stained lumber to honor him. They are searching for his courage and his bravery. Ironically, the community never supported Ned during his life even though he dedicated himself to serving them. Had they stood up then, his battle might have been much more successful. The fear felt by the community shows the extent to which the white-dominated social order has subjugated them into inaction. Like some of the earlier characters who internalized slavery such that they could not live outside of it, so too have many of these characters internalized the racist social order and are happy to live meekly inside of it. Jane's narrative proceeds slowly during this section with careful attention to its events. Even Ned's sermon by the river is remembered almost in full. As As she retells, retells , Jane foreshadows foreshadows Ned's death several times before it actually happens. The foreshadowing creates suspense about the exact time and place that he will be killed. Jane's ability to foreshadow her own story reminds us again that her autobiography is an oral narrative. Toward the end of the section, Jane also starts flashing back between certain events after Ned's death, such as the river flooding. Her ability to shift time as she sees fit demonstrates narrative control. She also begins to use the floods as benchmark dates, another technique common in an oral tradition when the speaker lives close to the land l and and has has little lit tle access to formal timekeeping.
Book 3: The Plantation From Samson through Samson through Of Men and Rivers Summary
Samson After Ned's death, Jane wants to leave the area, but after speaking to some friends she decides to move onto the nearby Samson Plantation instead. With the move, she will be able to stay close to Ned's grave. Initially, Mr. Samson doubts Jane's work ability because of her advanced age, but she talks her way in. Jane works in the plantation fields. She tells one story about the best worker in the field named Harriet Black, a dark slow-witted woman usually referred to as "Black Harriet." One day, a new girl named Katie finally sets up a race between her and Harriet, after many challenges. The workers and the white overseer, Tom Joe, like the race because it makes their day more interesting. interesti ng. As Harriet races her way through the field, her work becomes less and less skilled, with her frequently leaving weeds and chopping cotton. After Tom Joe sees her errors, she ignores him, and then Tom Joe starts beating her. The other women physically protect Harriet, and a large fight breaks out. At the end of it, Harriet has gone somewhat crazy and is taken away to a mental hospital that night. Several of the women from the fight and the new girl Katie are fired, but nothing happens to Tom Joe.
The Travels of Miss Jane Pittman Miss Jane eventually decides to join the church. After attending for a while, Jane still does not feel the Lord within her but finally one day she feels that she has acquired religion. In her vision, Jane is traveling with a large sack on her shoulders when she meets someone who appears to be God. He suggests that she should cross the nearby river to get rid of her heavy load. The terrain grows more physically challenging as she walks, and a white man appears and offers to take her sack. Jane declines his offer. The The man transforms into Ned, then Joe Pittman, and finally Albert Cluveau, all of whom ask for the sack. Jane will not yield, however, and makes it across the river. Upon reaching the other side, she sees the savior. Her heart suddenly feels light li ght and good. She She has found religion.
Two Brothers Brothers of the South The owner of the plantation, Robert Samson, has two sons: one white, Tee Bob, and one black, Timmy. Timmy's mother, Verda, lives on the plantation, and Robert Samson used to ride on his horse to see her. Everyone in the plantation knows that Timmy is Robert's son. Although Timmy is black, he has inherited more of Robert's traits than Tee Bob, who is white. Timmy looks just like Robert and has the same sassiness and recklessness, while Tee Bob is more fragile and polite. Timmy is about six years older than Tee Bob, but even as children the two boys spend their time together. Robert and Miss Amma Dean try to impose a racial order on them, so that Timmy always is supposed to ride his horse behind Tee Bob's pony. Jane now works in the Big House, because Tee Bob wanted her there as his old black nanny recently died. Sometimes she rides a pony with them. One day, the boys trick Jane into riding an unbroken
horse. The horse takes off, and Jane gallops around the plantation before the horse stops. Miss Amma Dean wants Timmy punished for this trick, but Robert Samson just laughs when he hears of it. Sometime later, Tom Joe severely beats Timmy up because he feels that Timmy has attitude inappropriate for a black man. After Timmy recovers, and Robert Samson sends him away with some money but does nothing to Tom Joe. Samson feels that Timmy needs to know his place as a black man, which is always below a white man, no matter who Timmy's father is. Tee Bob, however, cannot understand why his brother and best friend is sent away because a white man beat him. Jane reports that Tee Bob apparently will never understand the reason because he will will kill himself before he finds out.
Of Men and Rivers Timmy leaves the plantation in 1925 or 1926. In 1927, a huge flood overtakes the area breaking down Ned's schoolhouse and overturning the levee. Jane contemplates the way that white men have tried to conquer nature, unlike the Indians beforehand and suggests that the big flood shows that nature will always win. Analysis
With the beginning of the third section of the novel, Jane moves back to a plantation, the third and final one of the book. This book differs from the others in that Jane does not move at all through the duration. Her narrative shifts from describing her own personal adventures to detailing the social circumstances of her environment. The tone of the plantation becomes clear in Jane's first story about Black Harriet. Black Harriet Harriet is a slow witted, but gentle, woman who works quickly and quietly. When she begins working sloppily during a race, however, however, the white overseer beats her violently. The beating and the race r ace make Black Harriet lose her senses. The cruelty of the white overseer, Tom Joe, returns when he beats Timmy, a few sections latter. Tom Joe is a non-landowning white who establishes his superiority over other people by beating them. Robert Samson, who is a landowning white, does not see anything wrong with the way that Tom Joe does his job. After the fight with Harriet, Tom Joe is not reprimanded for beating a harmless black woman, but the women who fought against Tom Joe are fired. Likewise, after Tom Joe brutally beats Timmy, Robert Samson sends Timmy away and does nothing to Tom Joe. The relationship between Timmy and Tee Bob is the central point of this section. Tee Bob and Timmy are brothers who spend all their time together. Although everyone knows that they are brothers, their different races segregate them. Timmy is supposed to cower next to his brother, even though Timmy is actually more intimidating than Tee Bob. Robert Samson acts like a classic southern plantation owner. His visitations to Timmy's mother announce his dominion over all portions of the plantation, including the black women worker's bodies. He rides his horse, a symbol of southern gentility, to her door and leaves it outside so that everyone knows what he is doing. For Robert Samson, black women are open sexually to him, but in no other manner. Likewise, the child whom his illicit relations spawned, Timmy, is a meaningless figure who stands outside of any meaningful relationship simply because he is black. Timmy may have originated from his seed, but Timmy cannot use the Samson name—Robert Samson will never treat him like a son. Robert's attitude toward Timmy recalls similar ones by slave
masters during slavery. White slavery masters frequently spawned children who simply were sold into slavery sl avery like all the t he other blacks. The strict division of race made the blood connection between between father and child unimportant. The image of the horse comes into play multiple times in this chapter. The horse is a motif common to the entire novel, which started with the arrival of soldiers on horses at Jane's original plantation, continues with Joe's obsession with horses, and still follows in the role that they play for the Samsons. In addition to Robert Samson riding his horse to seduce Timmy's mother, the horse serves to distinguish Tee Bob's and Timmy's social positions. Although Timmy, who is stronger and more athletic than his brother, can ride a horse while Tee Bob rides a pony, Timmy must ride behind Tee Bob. Jane's adventure on the horse serves primarily for humorous effect, but it additionally serves as a metaphor for Jane's ability to courageously hang on despite difficult circumstances. Her historical period has taken Jane on a whirlwind ride just as the horse has, but Jane is able to stay up in both scenarios. While the character of Timmy is developed in this chapter, the sequences foreshadow more about Tee Tee Bob's and the plantation's ultimate fate. Ernest Gaines's use of two brothers who are divided by race, references Faulkner's similar move in Absalom, Absalom. At Absalom. At the end of this section, Tee Bob cannot understand why Timmy has to be sent away because for Tee Bob, since his connection to his brother is more important than race. Jane tells us in this chapter that Tee Bob will eventually kill himself because of misunderstandings like this. Ironically, although Robert Samson rejects one son in this chapter, his other son Tee Bob, the one he considers who true son, will reject his father through the act of suicide. In the end, Robert Samson will be childless, in part because of his failure to see Timmy as his child. Just like in Faulkner, Robert Samson's inability to connect to his two sons will lead to the downfall of his legacy. The presentation of the two different colored sons, which underlies the events on Samson Plantation, can be read as a metaphor for the country as a whole. Just as Robert Samson has black and white sons who are brothers, the blacks and whites from the south are essentially brethren in their histories.
Book 3: The Plantation From Huey From Huey P. Long through Long through Confession Summary
Huey P. Long Jane reflects upon Huey P. Long and remembers him as a good man who tried to help poor Louisianans, both whites and blacks. Although he called blacks "niggers," he also gave them free books to read and helped them in other ways. Jane feels rich whites had Huey Long assassinated because he tried to help the t he poor.
Miss Lilly Jane moves into a house near the Big House, now that she works there all the time. Because she has extra room, the new schoolteacher, Miss Lilly, comes and lives with her. Miss Lilly teaches the children but also wants to reform them socially by making them dress up and brush their teeth (she buys them all toothbrushes when they cannot afford it). Miss Lilly also gets into fights with parents about their harsh disciplining of children. Miss Lilly never adapts to the plantation world where the students cannot take school seriously because they have to work. After a year, she leaves. The next schoolteacher, Hardy is a black man who begs everyone for money saying that the government does not pay him enough. He also flirts with the girls in school. One evening, a father and his son beat Hardy for flirting with their daughter/sister. When Hardy Hardy complains to the t he Sheriff, the Sheriff tells t ells him to get out of the town. Hardy Hardy leaves and the school has no teacher for a year until Mary Agnes LeFarbre comes.
The LeFarbres The new teacher, Mary Agnes LeFabre, is a Catholic Creole, who appears to be almost white. Her grandmother was an octoroon who became the lady of a white man, Mr. LeFarbre. Her children took his name even though they were not married, and upon his death, he left them property, including slaves. Mary Agnes longs to make amends for her family's slave holding past, so she has come to work on the plantation. Her family fami ly disowns her when she comes to t he plantation. Once when her father visits her, he slaps her; the next time, he weeps but still she remains. The Creole culture has strict ideas about the lightness of skin tone, and Mary Agnes's association with dark people brings them shame. Jane tells a s tory about some local blacks who almost got lynched after they tried to sneak into a Creole party. The Creoles supposedly maintain high standards and act better than everyone else.
A Flower in Winter Tee Bob now is at university in Baton Rouge and comes home usually once a week to see his family. When he returns because of his uncle's death, he first sees Mary Agnes. Mary Agnes has come to the kitchen to get some firewood from Jane, and Tee Bob sees her face through the door. Tee Bob asks Jane if Mary is white, and Jane tells him that she is not. Tee Bob still is smitten. After first seeing her, Tee Bob starts returning to the plantation several times a week.
Soon he starts coming every day. One day he stops in the schoolroom and stands awkwardly around looking at Mary Agnes while the whole class stops and stares up at him. Finally, one evening as Mary is waiting for the bus to go to New Orleans, as she does every weekend, he walks up to her and talks with her.
Confession Tee Bob starts spending a lot of time at the plantation because of Mary Agnes. They frequently walk and talk together, while Tee Bob sits on his horse and Mary Agnes walks beside him. One night, Miss Jane asks Mary about it. Mary refers to Tee Bob as "Robert" and insists that she has everything under control and that nothing will happen. Finally, Tee Bob's mother, Miss Amma Dean, asks Jane about Mary Agnes. Miss Amma Dean does not want her son fooling around with a black woman as her husband did. Tee Bob, although visiting Mary Agnes, is actually engaged to Judy Major, a local white girl. Eventually, the Samsons throw them an engagement party. Before it starts, Tee Bob tells his friend Jimmy Caya that he is love with Mary Agnes. Jimmy Caya reminds Tee Bob that Mary is black and that love between them is impossible. He suggests that Tee Bob should have sex with Mary Agnes as much as possible, but that Tee Bob cannot love her because she is a "nigger." Tee Bob strikes Jimmy after this comment and then becomes quiet. Jimmy and Tee Bob go back to the Samson house, but Jimmy soon after goes out. As he is leaving, he sees Tee Bob raise a glass to him, and Jimmy thinks Tee Bob is apologizing for hitting hitti ng him, although Jane knows that he truly was saying good-bye. Analysis
Jane's discussion of the social environment of the Samson plantation continues in this chapter, after her brief interlude on Huey Long, the one time governor of Louisiana. Jane then runs through a series of schoolteachers who worked on the plantation. None of them fit into the unique rural culture, however. Finally Jane arrives at Mary Agnes LeFarbre who, with Tee Bob Samson, is the major character in this and the next section. In this section, Tee Bob falls in love with Mary Agnes. Mary Agnes's Creole background provides an important commentary upon skin tone within the black community. Mary Agnes comes to Samson because she wants to amend for her family's slave owning past. Basically, Basically, she feels that by being with darker- skinned people, she can correct her family's history. Her family, and the Creole culture, detest dark-skinned blacks such that they try to lynch two intruders to their party. Although the white world considers the Creoles black, the Creoles have their own high racist standards. Mary Agnes appears to be separate from Creole racism since she comes to Samson, but actually her desires are just as racist as theirs. Mary Agnes judges people based upon their skin color just as the whites and the Creoles do. Actually, Mary Agnes's Agnes's desire for blackness is ironic, i ronic, since soon a white man will fall in love with her. In light of Mary Agnes's desire to be with darker people, it seems highly unlikely that she would want to be with Tee Bob. The complex racism within Mary Agnes herself helps to suggest the ridiculousness anything based on race. Tee Bob finds himself pulled to Mary Agnes because of her beauty, despite the commute from Baton Rouge, Jane's discouragement, and Mary Agnes's emotional distance. As long as Tee Bob does not announce announce his love, l ove, his attentions to Mary Agnes Agnes cause no difficulties. The horse motif moti f
reappears again when Tee Bob courts Mary Agnes from his higher position on a horse. She walks beside him, and they talk, but their conversations do not attract attention because it is obvious that they are not walking side by side. Although Tee Bob appears to be maintaining the social hierarchy, in other ways he does not. He tells Mary to call him "Robert," a name that is too casual and lacks the title with which black people are supposed to refer to whites. The way that he wants to be called suggests that he views Mary as an equal, but on another level he still maintains himself in the higher racial class. Although courting courting Mary, his engagement with Judy Major is still going forward. To some extent, Tee Bob's exploration of a relationship with Mary Agnes Agnes initially initiall y still follows in the steps of how society decrees that it must be. With Tee Bob's confession to Jimmy Caya, however, Tee Bob raises his relationship to another level. He is not supposed to love Mary as a true woman but rather only as an object for lust. Tee Bob, as Jimmy reminds him, is a white man, whereas Mary Agnes is a "nigger," which means that she is not really even human. Tee Bob's violent reaction to Jimmy's statement reinforces the difference of his opinion from Jimmy's as well as from Tee Bob's father, who once slept with black women as Jimmy recommends that Tee Bob does. Tee Bob still belongs to the white landowner landowner class, but his ideas long to step away from their rest rictions. The narrative flow changes changes in this t his chapter, chapter, especially in that Jane does not see all of the events that she recounts. Her description of Mary Agnes and Tee Bob's relationship takes place through what she has heard from other people. She was not present for the conversation between Jimmy and Tee Bob, for example, nor was she there when Tee Bob went into the schoolhouse. With this section, Jane becomes a narrative editor of her own by pasting together bits and pieces that she heard in order to t ell the story st ory of Tee Bob and Mary Agnes. Agnes.
Book 3: The Plantation From Robert From Robert and Mary through Mary through The Samson House Summary
Robert and Mary When Tee Bob hears Judy Major and the other guests arrive for the party, he leaves. He heads to Mary Agnes's. She is packing to head for New Orleans, as she does each Friday night. Tee Bob appears flushed when he arrives, and Mary Agnes thinks that he has drunk too much. He tells her that he wants to take her to New Orleans Orleans that night and give her his name by marrying her. She tells him that he cannot do that. He says that Jimmy Caya called her a nigger, and she says that Jimmy was right. He gets frustrated and says that he only has here. She continues packing, insisting that she is going to New Orleans, but, as she does, something happens between between them although alt hough it is not clear what. The scene cuts to Clamp Brown, a young man who lives in the plantation and who currently is waiting to take the bus with Mary Agnes. When he sees Tee Bob leave her house, he goes in. When he finds her on the floor, he collects a nearby woman, Ida, to help. Clamp then runs to the house for Jane.
The Samson House Jane and Jules Raynard, Tee Bob's godfather, are having a cup of coffee when Tee Bob runs into the house and locks himself in the library. Jane and Raynard have been discussing Tee Bob and Mary. Raynard had reminded Tee Bob the week before that the girl was black and that love for her in the open would be impossible. When Clamp arrives, Jane refuses to go outside to speak to him (it is raining), so he comes in and tells everyone in the kitchen that Miss LeFarbre has been ravished. Miss Amma Dean and Robert Samson soon appear. Everyone feels confused and panicked. Raynard tells Jane to stay in the house and tells Robert to get Tee Bob out of the library. Miss Amma Dean starts speaking through the door. Robert Robert Samson uses an axe to break it down. When they enter, Tee Bob is sitting in a chair dead with blood on his belly and a letter opener on the floor. floor. Jane sees Raynard grab a letter off the t able and shove it in his pocket. Jane and Miss Amma Dean start to pray, and the party is scattered. Later Raynard says that the letter was to Miss Amma Dean and that Mary Agnes is innocent. Jimmy Caya suddenly reappears and is angry and distressed upon learning of Tee Bob's death. Jimmy blames it on Mary Agnes. Robert Samson then makes a move as if to leave the library, but Raynard stops him. He begs Robert Robert not to follow the lead l ead of the likes li kes of white trash, such as Jimmy, into using violence against Mary Agnes. When Jimmy cries out again for justice, Raynard Raynard slaps him and tells Jimmy that Tee Bob's death is his fault. Jimmy Jim my explains that he had only explained the rules of society to Tee Bob earlier. When Raynard says that Sheriff Guidry will get Jimmy for his actions, Jimmy starts to cry. Soon after, Sheriff Guidry arrives. Sheriff Guidry eyes everything and everyone and picks up the letter opener. He listens to Jimmy Caya but also treats him disdainfully and quickly sends him home.
The Sheriff and Jules Raynard go down and question Mary Agnes. Jane was not there at the time, but Ida listened through the cracks of the house and later told her what happened. Sheriff Guidry initially hit Mary, but Jules Raynard goaded her to talk by being more gentle. Mary explains that Tee Bob did not rape her, he just pushed her out of the way when she tried to leave the house, and she fell and hit her head. Jules Raynard orders Mary Agnes to leave the plantation that night and leave New Orleans as soon as she could, telling no one what happened and leaving no word of where she is going. He tells Ida to find her a ride to the city. Sheriff Guidry and Jules Raynard return to the big house and speak with Tee Bob's mother and father. The next day the papers say that Tee Bob killed himself, but will not mention anything about Mary Agnes. Later Jules drives Jane home, and she tells him that he is a good man. Jules says that he is not good just because he prevented Mary Agnes from being killed. In fact, he killed Tee Bob just as they all did, even Jane, because of their adherence to their race relations. Tee Bob wanted more out of life, and, when he could not get it, he chose to leave. Analysis
Jane continues describing events that she does not personally witness in this section. Furthermore, Jane stacks her narrative in a way to create suspense. She could have initially revealed that Tee Bob did not rape Mary Agnes, but she tells the story with dramatic effect so that the entire scenario is not clear until the end. Jane's reliance upon accounts given by members of the community particularly demonstrates that this section of the novel is a communal, and not individual, history. Thematically, this section cuts to the heart of the social and racial division on the plantation. As the plantation is a representation of the south as a whole, it also provides a clear commentary on general race relations. Tee Bob kills himself in this chapter because he cannot stand living in a world where race is more important than genuine human emotion. Twice in his life, Tee Bob has lost acquaintances because of race relations. First his constant companion and brother, Timmy, is sent away simply because he is black. Next, Mary Agnes, the woman that he thinks he loves, is shown as unacceptable. Since there seems to be no place in the world where Tee Bob can live in peace without the issue of race r ace constraining him, he kills himself. As Jules Raynard hypothesizes, Tee Tee Bob likely understood in the moment before his death that the historical legacy of sexual relations between white men and black women made it impossible for f or he and Mary Agnes Agnes ever to truly love outside of race. This realization of being trapped in the history of southern racism effectively leads to his death. Jules Raynard appears for the first and last time in this section as a man with considerable insight and perspective. It is Raynard who stops Robert Samson and Jimmy Caya from meting out violence against Mary Agnes in revenge for Tee Bob's death. Raynard knows that Mary Agnes did nothing and that she even rejected Tee Bob, so he takes pains to protect her. Robert Samson's desire for "justice" shows him once again as a fi gure trapped in the older social order. Ironically, Ironically, it is this order that led to t o his son's death. Robert Robert Samson's ridiculous desire to injure the beautiful woman with whom his son fell in love testifies to his lack of understanding about his child. Tee Bob never would have wanted Mary Agnes injured since he loved her. But in the unequal system of southern vigilante justice, Mary Agnes might die simply for attracting Tee
Bob. Robert Samson's desire for justice for his lost son seems equally ridiculous when we consider the way in which he dismissed Timmy, his black son. Now Robert Samson has no sons to carry on his legacy. His racist beliefs have cut him down. First they led him to expel a child from his home, and next they reinforced the social order that was so oppressive that Tee Bob killed himself. The character of Jimmy Caya again reinforces the classicism within the white race itself. Jules Raynard consistently criticizes Jimmy as coming from a white trash background and is blatantly rude to him. Jimmy did give Tee Bob advice that led Tee Bob to his suicide, but, as Jimmy cogently expresses, he was not the only one. Jules Raynard, in fact, gave Tee Bob similar advice just a week before the party, party, although likely less crassly expressed. Jimmy start s crying at Raynard's abuses, and one cannot help but feel sorry for him, despite the horrible nature of his racist ideas. The desire to sympathize with Jimmy Caya recalls a similar emotion for Albert Cluveau. Both men hold racist ideas and seem to be completely unacceptable. Still Gaines does not draw them in an entirely negative light. His willingness to see them with compassion suggests that a certain leniency should be given to all people, both white and black, who find themselves trapped in racist southern ideology. The ability to liberate oneself from the burden of a violent and racist history is difficult and often detrimental, as Tee Bob's death suggests.
Book 4: 4 : The Quarters Part 1 Summary
Jane opens the final section of the novel with a theoretical discussion about how people have always been searching for "the One" who will save them. This search existed even in the times of the Old and New Testament. The elders on the Samson Plantation search for the "One" with each new child who is born. Finally, they believe that a boy named Jimmy Aaron might be the "One." Jimmy was born to Shirley Aaron, although the identity of his father is not known. When Shirley Aaron moves to New Orleans in search of work, Jimmy's great aunt Lena raises him with help from some of the elders, including Jane. Jane wanted to move back to "the quarters," where the other blacks live, after Tee Bob's death, but she stayed in the house because Mr. Samson wanted her to be with Miss Amma Dean. After five years, she requested to move again. Although Miss Amma Dean and Robert want her to stay, mostly they say because of her health, she insists upon leaving so that she can have her own place. She moves back sometime in the 1940s. Because Jimmy appears to be the One, the community pays special attention to him. By the time he is nine, he can read better than anyone except the schoolteacher. As a result, Jimmy often reads the paper to the old people, like Jane, and also writes their letters. Jimmy is especially talented with words and always seems to express things perfectly. perfectly. When he reads the paper, he shows that he is gifted in making people happy as well. Jackie Robinson recently has been inspiring blacks all over, especially Jane who loves baseball, so Jimmy will often lie slightly if Jackie did not have such a great game in order to make everyone feel better. Jane also has recently acquired a radio on which she li stens to the t he baseball games and philosophizes on the importance of Jackie Robinson and also Joe Louis who came before, because they inspired their people by their bravery and defeat of white men. Occasionally Occasionally Jimmy Jimm y gets into trouble especially as he reaches r eaches puberty and wants wants to fool f ool around with girls. The elders strictly punish him for minor infractions, because they want him to stay on the right path, since he is the "One." They also want Jimmy to be involved in the church, but he is not very devout. Jimmy always attends church, but he lacks fervency. Furthermore, although some other children his age have been transformed, Jimmy does not seem to have "gotten religion." One day however, Jimmy finally tells Jane that he thinks that he has found God. During the next Sunday at church, he explains his vision to everyone. The elders are elated that Jimmy, the One, has found God, and they want him to become a preacher. Jimmy does not want to become a preacher however and although he attends church, he never preaches. The old people do not entirely understand this as they assumed that "the One" would become a preacher. The plantation has changed since Tee Bob's death, as Robert Samson has leased his land mostly to Cajuns. The Cajuns brought in tractors for farming and reduced the need for black labor. As a result, most of the adult population has left the plantation with only the elderly and children
remaining. Many of the houses have become decayed and abandoned, and the plantation lacks some of the life from its it s earlier days. Eventually, Jimmy starts attending school in New Orleans and staying with his mother on a partial basis. As time passes, he comes back more and more infrequently i nfrequently.. Over time, he begins to change. He attends church for example, but he seems more interested than talking about the ideas on race he has heard in the outside world than describing mystical visions as t he old folks do. Jimmy may still stil l be the One, they are not sure, but but he is not acting acti ng as any of them expected. Analysis
The final section of the novel is called the "Quarters" and focuses almost exclusively on the black community that lives there. t here. Jane has been living in the Big House, but but she wants to return to the Quarters because of its community. Both Miss Amma Dean and Robert Samson try to get Jane to stay by saying that they are concerned about her health. In truth, they need Jane for support more than Jane needs them. Although Miss Amma Dean is younger than Jane, she is more frail, more isolated, and needs comforting. Both women have lost their sons, but Jane is still physically and emotionally tough. While the Big House may hold more physical comforts, Jane prefers her freedom to them. Jane's desire to leave the security of the house recalls her much earlier departure from the secure orphanage that she and Ned found after slavery. These parallel moves show that the end of her life is as it was in the beginning: Jane still prefers freedom to docile comfort. Jane's desire to leave the house also contrasts with the contrary desire by the character Molly, from the ranch where Joe and Jane lived. Molly could not envision life outside of the Big House and died soon after leaving it. Jane relishes in being separate, which indicates indicates that she never internalized the servant status as Molly did. The community's fixation upon "the One" takes up the entire final book of the novel. With it, Gaines continues the messianic theme seen earlier, most notably with the character of Ned. Jane uses strong religious imagery in discussing Jimmy as "the One," and the elders in the community definitely contend that Jimmy's role as a savior will have a religious bent. As Jimmy ages however, he does not become highly interested in church as they expect. By the end of this section, Jimmy Jim my thinks more about politics than religion. The old people people are not sure what to make of his ideas, since it does not fit within their expectations of how "the One" should act. To some extent the older blacks should not be surprised, since times have changed on the plantation, and they all are almost outdated. The life and spirited culture of the quarters is diminishing as the t he Cajun farmers push the need for black labor away. away. Most people of adult age have moved to cities for work, and only the very old and very young remain. The time of the civil rights movement is almost upon them, perhaps appropriately. With the advent of civil rights, the ideas believed by whites and blacks of the older generation will slowly die. The old people themselves will become outdated because of their adherence to these ideas, unless they change. The question of whether whether Jimmy Jim my Aaron Aaron truly is a messiah or simply became one out of pressure pervades this chapter. Clearly, Jimmy is a smart child with certain aptitudes and certain yearnings. Still the community shepherds him relentlessly. Their disapproval of his pubescent
sexual experimentation seems most important because it returns to the idea of his masculine expression. As a young teenager Jimmy wants to try sex, but the elders disapprove because of religious reasons. Their denial of Jimmy's yearning for masculine expression in sex can be compared to similar emasculating efforts seen throughout the novel. While they mean well, perhaps the older community is not benefiting Jimmy best by denying him the very thing that black men have been seeking for generations: an articulation of their manhood. The problems with the community's guidance, however, will change as Jimmy returns later, having grown into a man. Jane's narrative changes in this chapter so that it is not loosely divided into titled sections anymore. As a result, her account flows more directly and follows a straightforward story mostly about Jimmy Ji mmy Aaron Aaron and the people who raise him. Jane seems increasingly humorous as she ages. She gets Jimmy to read the cartoons to her from the paper, and she develops a deep fondness for baseball. Jane sees the outside characters of Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson Robinson as men who have helped to save the black community themselves, by excelling at what they do. With these two sports heroes, the white white world finally respects black men for their abilities abilit ies in spite of their race. In this way, Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis are able to achieve what Joe Pittman tried to do years ago, but on a national level.
Book 4: 4 : The Quarters Part 2 Summary
Jimmy Aaron soon leaves the plantation to attend school full time. Just as he leaves, the southern civil rights movement starts kicking into full swing. Robert Samson calls the entire community to his house and tells them that they live on his property for free, use his water, and and electricity for free but if they or anyone in their family gets involved in protesting, he is going to kick them off, without exception. Sometime after, the son of Yoko, a local woman, is caught protesting in New Orleans. When Samson hears of it, he makes Yoko, her husband, and her son leave, even though they have lived there for fifty years. As they are leaving, the son makes a big sign protesting Samson's treatment, but even Miss Jane's requests cannot save them. A few months after Yoko leaves, Jimmy Aaron returns and shows up in church. He stands up during the service and tells everyone that he has been in Alabama and Mississippi, that he has been arrested with Reverend Martin Luther King, and that he has come this day to gather them together to help continue the protest in Bayonne. Only old people attend the church service. Jimmy's ideas scare them because they do not want to be forced off the plantation where their ancestors are buried. Only Jane stands up for Jimmy and even fights with other church members over him. Jimmy tries to convince them in his cause, but when they remain unchanged, he walks out. Later in the day, Jimmy and a sloppy looking young black man approach Jane's house. Jane explains that she is willing to help Jimmy but that everyone is scared because they are old like she is. Jimmy becomes excited at her willingness to participate. He explains that they want to protest in Bayonne against the fact that no true restroom exists for black people, just one in a basement that is truly inaccessible. Also, they want to protest against the white-only drinking fountain. A black girl is going to use the water fountain on a Friday and get arrested. After After her arrest, arr est, the blacks will use the t he weekend weekend to solicit support. Then on Monday they will march on the Bayonne courthouse and demand her release. After the girl is arrested, Jane speaks with Mary Hodges, who lives with her, and Lena, Jimmy's aunt. Lena fears that Jimmy will be killed, but they all agree to head to Bayonne with him on Monday morning. A man named Brady is supposed to drive Miss Jane, but he shows up the night before, crying, because he is scared. Jane finds instead a woman named Olivia who will take her. When Monday morning comes, Jane, Mary, and Lena gather outside. Suddenly Jane sees a whole crowd of people walking toward them. Jane feels so proud that she starts to cry. Just as the crowd is coming though, a car driven by Robert Samson appears. When Lena sees him, she looks grieved. Samson tells them that Jimmy was shot dead that morning at eight o'clock. Lena falls to the ground, wailing. Samson tells them to go home and forget it. One young man named Alex says that those people who want to go to Bayonne will still go. Others look confused, but Jane takes the lead. She urges everyone to go. She stares down Robert Samson as she walks off with Alex. With the crowd behind her, they head to the courthouse. Analysis
The final section of the book and of the "Quarters" chapter focuses upon Jimmy's rise to lead.
Jimmy definitely definit ely has become a leader to the extent that he longs to mobilize the community for the cause of civil rights. The church once thought that Jimmy would become more of a religious messiah, however his conversion toward politics is equally as important. The growth of the Civil Rights movement clearly threatens the social order that guarantees white supremacy. Robert Robert Samson believes that the Civil Rights movement is so threatening that he disallows any of his tenants getting involved in it. To some extent, this rule is both harsh and ridiculous. All of the tenants on Samson are old and have lived there for almost fifty years. When Robert Samson throws Yoko and her family off, we feels sad for her but also we can see how futile Samson's efforts are. He is an old man now, as are all of them, but he still makes a final attempt to control, even though the turning of the racial tides is well underway in the south. The people of the community react in fear when Jimmy wants to take action in Bayonne. Jimmy knows that Jane is a respected elder in the community, effectively the community mother, therefore he approaches her, and she agrees to help. Jane is very old now, older than one hundred years. years. She still stil l is spunky however however and frequently gets in rather comical fights f ights with other church members when defending her desire to listen to baseball or defending Jimmy's ideas. Jane is the only older resident who does not show fear in being thrown off the Samson plantation. Her fearlessness is not really surprising given the fact that it long has surfaced in her many adventures. Jimmy's attempts to mobilize the community should be considered in light of Ned Douglass's similar attempts approximately fifty years ago. During both periods, the communities feared social action. During Ned's era, no one ever helped him even though they all came together to idolize him at his death. Initially, the elders at the Samson Plantation feel equally fearful, but a great deal of them do mobilize, even though some like Brady remain too scared to partake. When Jane sees the amount of people who come, she feels so proud that she wants to cry. Her pride is a result of an understanding that these people have overcome their fear and are finally willing to take a stand, perhaps the last one of their elderly lives. It is the change in the community's involvement that marks the difference between Ned and Jimmy's time. Jimmy's community will continue on the t he march, led in part by Jane, whereas Ned's movement died with his death. Even though he has died, Jimmy has truly become a martyr because even with his death, he has saved people from their fear and given them the opportunity to finally prove themselves. In the last few sentences of the novel, Jane proves her obstinacy and courage once more. It is she who gets the people to head to town despite the death of Jimmy. Robert Samson gives her a low stare as she does this, but she simply remarks that she stared back at "Robert" and then walked by him. Jane's use of the term "Robert" instead of the more socially appropriate "Mr. Samson" once again again shows the way that Jane J ane uses names to reflect her changing ideas on social hierarchies. Soon after the novel opened, Jane insisted that she was "Miss Jane Brown" instead of Ticey. Now as the novel closes, she calls Mr. Samson "Robert", a mode of address that signifies equality and not subservience. In the end, both Jane and Samson stand upon equal ground with one another. As she moves by him, it is clear that Samson's position no longer threatens her in i n any way.
Important Quotations Quota tions Explained Explained In closing I wish to thank all the wonderful wonderful people who were at Miss Jane's J ane's house through those long months of interviewing her, because this is not only Miss Jane's autobiography, it is theirs as well. The editor makes this statement in the very last paragraph of the Introduction. The quote demonstrates the editor's desire that Miss Jane's autobiography serve as a communal narrative of black experience since slavery. Even Even though the story primarily focuses upon her life, lif e, many others experienced the events that she lived through, such as slavery, fleeing slavery, and Reconstruction. Even the particulars from later portions of Jane's life are communal. For example, not all black people in the South would have known about Ned Douglass's murder, but almost everyone would have known about someone who was similarly lynched. Likewise, not all black people lived on the Samson plantation but many lived on one that was similar. Ernest Gaines carefully studied individual histories of ex-slaves before he created the character of Jane Pittman. In fact, he said that because her story seems so real, he has often received letters from readers who argue against the idea that Jane is fictional. The fact that many people believe that Jane is real testifies to t o the communal nature of of her story. That's man's way. To prove something. Day in, day out he must prove he is a man. Poor Fool. Madame Gautier makes this statement in the "Man's Way" section of Book II. Miss Jane Pittman has come to talk to her about Joe, whom Jane feels will soon die on a horse. Madame Gautier's quote reinforces the theme of man's desire to conquer other creatures. Joe Pittman needs to break horses because he has no other outlet to express his masculinity. In a culture that demands subservience by black men, Joe never can be recognized as an equal of whites. It is only as a capable breaker of horses, and Joe is actually t he best on his ranch, that the other men respect him for who he is. Joe's desire to define himself through his skill soon swells to a complete yearning for control. Although Although Joe has grown old and originally planned to retir e with Jane and the money they have earned, he insists on working because of his desire to conquer. Although the black stallion will physically kill him, his never ending desire for conquest is what metaphorically does him in. Madame Gautier calls Joe's desire "man's way." way." In the novel, this desire can also be seen in the way that white men conquered slaves and blacks after slavery. Furthermore, it also reflects man's need to conquer nature, a theme that Gaines also briefly touches upon in the novel. I might be a Secesh. Then I might be a friend of your race. Or maybe just an old man who is nothing. Or maybe an old man who is very wise. Or an old man who might kill himself tomorrow. Maybe an old man who must go on living, just to give two children a pan of meatless greens and cornbread. cornbread. The old man in the section "Old Man" in Book 1, The War Years, makes this statement. He has taken Jane and Ned in and fed them. Jane is particularly obstinate during this sequence and refuses to let anyone help her. The old man shows Jane a map of the United States and plots her route to Ohio. Jane insists that she will not go through Mississippi, so the old man carefully
shows her the way way all around Mississippi to Ohio and and estimates that t hat it will take her thirty years. With his statement, stat ement, the old man demonstrates that he is just a human being who who tries to live l ive his life outside the strictures of race. This man's statement suggests the difficulty of such an existence. The entire country, country, and especially the south, divides itself it self upon racial lines and even a small black child will not trust this older man who wants to help her. The man sounds weary from the years of war. His appeal in this quote will be repeated in different ways by other characters throughout the text who will try to avoid the legacy of a racist history and simply life their t heir lives, such as Tee Bob. Bob. We caused one death already this evening. Jimmy was right. We all killed him. We tried to make him follow a set of rules our people gived us long ago. ago. Jules Raynard says this to Jane Pittman about Tee Bob's death at the very end of Book III. Jules Raynard is trying to suggest that the race regulations of their society and everyone's adherence to these rules resulted in Tee Bob's death. Although he killed himself, he did so because he was not allowed to love a black woman as he did. His best friend told him that he would be ostracized and that he was out of line. li ne. The black woman woman herself told him that their relationship could never work and that he was crazy for wanting to marry her. Tee Bob saw his love for Mary Agnes as completely pure and not wrong. Since he could not understand why his culture thought that his love was wrong, he killed himself. He could find no peace for his heart in the south, so he left l eft for a better place. As Jules Raynard explains, everyone everyone around him, both white and black, contributed to his grief because no one was able to see beyond the existence of race, as he attempted to do. Anytime Anytime a child is born, the old people look in his face and ask him if he's the One. Miss Jane Pittman says this at the very beginning of Book Four. Her quote sets the theme for the final section of the novel: the search for a savior for the black race. The elders of the plantation select Jimmy Aaron as the "One" that will lead them forward. Even though Jimmy does not know that he is the One, the community constantly monitors him so that he will develop properly. The elders longing for "the One" hearken back to the Bible, most obviously to the idea of a messianic figure like Jesus Christ. As Jimmy Aaron grows, he will become a leader that differs from what the elders expect, however. They wish him to become involved in the church, but he instead gets involved in politics. His involvement in the growing Civil Rights movement leads him to mobilize political action in Bayonne and, in turn, leads to his death. Although he has died, the political movement that he organized still continues, led by Jane and another youth. In his martyrdom, again another biblical theme, Jimmy has liberated them from their enslaving fear.
Key Facts Pittm an full title · The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
author · Ernest J. Gaines type of work · Novel African-Amer ican novel; Southern novel; American modern novel genre · African-American
language · English southwester n Louisiana time and place written · 1967–1970, southwestern
date of first publication publication · 1971 publisher · Bantam Books impl icit author, who who collected the autobiography of Miss Jane, documents the narrator · An implicit introduction to the book. Miss Jane narrates the remainder of the book in the first person. two narrators generally alternate between between the first and third person. They They point of view · The two use the first person when describing their perceptions and personal actions. They use the third person when describing those around them. schoolteacher's r's narrative uses formal English. Miss Miss Jane describes her experiences experiences tone · The schoolteache in a southern dialect common to Louisiana.
tense · Past the 1960s 1960s setting (time) · From slavery through the
setting (place) · Different parts of Louisiana Jane Pittman protagonist · Miss Jane equality in the south major conflict · Attempt to establish racial equality Douglass's attempt to organize a protest; Tee Tee Bob's Bob's suicide; Jimmy Jim my Aaron's Aaron's rising action · Ned Douglass's selection as "the One"
climax · Jimmy Aaron's murder before his organized political action leading the march, march, despite Jimmy's death. falling action · Jane Pittman leading legacy of slavery; slavery; manhood; class class differences in race themes · The legacy narratives; names motifs · Horses; slave narratives;
symbols · The black stallion; Ned's flint; the river Pittman's man's death; predictions of Ned's Death; Tee Tee Bob's response to foreshadowing · Joe Pitt Timmy's departure; Tee Bob's punching of Jimmy Jim my Caya
Study Questions and Suggested Essay Topics Study Questions The novel opens with a description of the editor who located Miss Jane Pittman and recorded her story. Is this account account true or fiction? f iction? Discuss the importance of the editor's introduction. According to Ernest Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is Pittman is completely fictional. With it, Gaines retells approximately one hundred years of American history with attention to the African-American experience. Gaines wanted to personalize this experience, which is why he has a woman who lived through it retell the story. Originally, Gaines entitled the book "The Biography of Miss Jane Pittman" and had her story retold by different narrators. The multiple narrators, however, did not create the effect that he wanted, so after studying actual recorded slave narratives Gaines shaped Jane's unique voice. Despite his assertion that Miss Jane is fictional, many readers and even reviewers refer to her as a real person. The idea that Jane is real is important, because it helps makes her experiences believable. Since the novel was published in 1971, just after the Civil Rights movement, credibility as to the truth behind accounts of racial violence were very important. By using a fictional, yet realistic narrator, Gaines is able to capture the experience of many blacks in one novel. Her tale is her own, but but it also reflects her community. Why does Tee Bob's love for the teacher Mary Agnes kill him? What does the dialogue about Tee Bob's death mean when Jules Raynard explains that Tee Bob died for their sins? Tee Bob's love for Mary Agnes is not acceptable in a culture that demands racial segregation. The genuine nature of his love kills him because it makes no sense to him that the world will not accept his pure love for Mary Agnes. Tee Bob has already once been crushed by the idea of racial segregation, when his friend and brother Timmy is forced off of the plantation by their own father. Tee Bob did not understand why Timmy's race necessitated his leaving. Although Tee Bob is able to relate to Mary Agnes and Timmy outside of race, not everyone in his community, whether white or black, can. No one, not even Jane or Mary Agnes, can understand how Tee Bob falls in love with a black woman. Mary Agnes herself is not willing to take the risk involved in their relationship and has not felt any emotions for Tee Bob because of his race. As Raynard explains, Tee Bob died because he could not cope with the harsh world that divided people because of race. Because no one dared to be courageous like him, they all hold equal responsibility for his death. Why does the author spend so much time discussing Albert Cluveau and his relationship with Jane? In what way does this affect the way that you view the murder of Ned? By developing the character of Albert Albert Cluveau, Cluveau, Gaines demonstrates the complexity of the t he men who often performed violent acts in the south. Cluveau and Jane essentially are friends who speak on almost a daily basis, drink coffee together, and even share food. The social mores of their society—particularly segregation—do not allow them to be genuine friends. This stifled friendship makes Cluveau's Cluveau's act particularly cowardly and despicable. Cluveau Cluveau knows, from his friendship with Jane, that black people are real human beings with ideas and feelings. Still,
Cluveau will immediately obey the request of the higher-ranking whites and kill Ned. After Ned's death, Cluveau Cluveau hides from Jane. His unwillingness to see her indicates that he knows that he did something wrong. After she tells him that the Chariots of Hell will come for him, Cluveau Cluveau transforms into a complete coward. coward. He rants and raves for years because he thinks that the devil is coming for him. He beats his daughter brutally because he claims that her sins, and not his, are bringing the chariot. He finally dies after days of screaming in the most cowardly fashion. It is only by articulating Cluveau's character over the course of several chapters that Gaines is able to illustrate the cowardice that underlay much racial violence in the south. Cluveau's cowardice is akin to members of the Ku Klux Klan who only are willing to strike down blacks when hiding behind a mask.
Suggested Essay Topics Discuss the importance of names and naming i n the book. Why does Ned Douglass Douglass choose to return to Louisiana? Was this a mistake or not? What effect does Jane's conversion to reli gion have on her? Why does Jane give up her dream of living free in the North to settle down in the south for the rest of her days? What does the hoodoo Madame Gautier mean when she tells Miss Jane in the chapter "Man's Way" that "slavery made you barren" and that's why Joe must ride the horses to "prove he is a man"? What do Miss Lilly, Mr. Hardy, and Mary Agnes have in common? Why are they important figures in the quarters?
Quiz Who records the story of Miss Jane Pittman? Pittm an? (A) Herself (B) A local school teacher (C) Joe Pittman (D) Ned Douglass () Mary Hodges What was Miss Jane Pittman's slavery name? (A) Ticey (B) Big Laura (C) Sharmie (D) Ceri () Mary What was her name after slavery before she married Joe Pittman? (A) Jane Smith (B) Jane Washington (C) Jane Brown (D) Jane Douglass How did she get that name? (A) She choose it herself (B) A Union soldier gave it to her (C) Her slave owners owners gave it to her before she left the plantation (D) Her mother gave it to her Where does Jane want to go when slavery ends? (A) Ohio (B) New York (C) Her mother's plantation (D) Canada How does Jane end up traveling with Ned? (A) He is her son (B) He had no parents at the plantation and wanted to see Ohio. (C) He is her brother (D) His mother and baby sister were killed as they traveled () He runs away from his family who want to stay at the plantation
Who does Jane not meet on her trek North? (A) Patrollers (B) A solitary black hunter (C) A white female plantation owner returning home (D) The Yankee soldier Mr. Brown who named her Why does Jane decide to stay in Louisiana? (A) Because Ned wants to (B) Because she finds that Mr. Brown moved to Louisiana (C) Because she finds her mother (D) Because Because she gets a job at a plantation and is tired t ired What does Joe Pittman do for a living? (A) He breaks horses (B) He's a sharecropper (C) He's a schoolteacher (D) He's the plantation overseer What does Miss Jane initially not want want to tell tel l Joe Pittman before they marry? (A) That she is barren (B) That she does not love him (C) That she had a dream that he will die soon (D) That she once had a baby that did not live Where does Ned go when he flees the plantation? (A) Kansas (B) Oklahoma (C) Ohio (D) Texas What does Jane do at the ranch r anch where where Joe Pittman breaks horses? (A) Works in the fields (B) Takes care of their cabin and his kids (C) Runs a small school for the local black children (D) Works in the Big House Why does Jane go to see the "hoodoo" woman? (A) Because she no longer wants to be barren (B) Because she is worried about Ned (C) Because she fears Joe's death (D) Because she wants good fortune in her new home
Why does Ned return to Louisiana? (A) Because he got a job in New Orleans (B) Because he plans to study at the University (C) To become a schoolteacher (D) Because he has become a lawyer and wants to defend his people Who shoots Ned? (A) Robert Samson (B) Jimmy Aaron (C) Albert Cluveau (D) Colonel Dye What does Jane do to Albert Cluveau after the shooting? (A) Spits on him (B) Tells him that she will kill hom (C) Tells him that he'll be screaming loudly when when the Chariots of Hell come to his door (D) Talks with him over a cup of coffee Who is Tee Bob's half-brother? (A) Joe Pittman (B) Job (C) Timmy (D) Clamp Brown With whom does Tee Bob fall in love? (A) Jane Pittman (B) Vivian Douglass (C) Adeline Cluveau (D) Mary Agnes Lefabre Why does Tee Bob Bob kill himself him self (A) Because he killed a man and doesn't know what to do (B) Because his half-brother Timmy was sent away (C) Because his pure love for Mary Agnes Lefabre cannot cannot survive in his society (D) Because Because he has incestual though t houghts ts about his sister Who does Miss Jane Pittman Pittm an think is the "One"? "One"? (A) Ned Douglass (B) Clamp Brown (C) Tee Bob (D) Jimmy Aaron
What does Robert Samson do with his plantation land after Tee Bob dies? (A) Allows to the school that Ned Douglass built (B) Lets his wife's brother Clarence run it (C) Sharecrops most of it to the Cajuns and a few blacks (D) Nothing, just keeps it as always What becomes a major part of Miss Jane's life at the end of the book? (A) Attending School (B) Taking care of the children on the plantation (C) Going to Church (D) Visiting New Orleans
Suggestions for fo r Further Reading Reading Auger, Philip. Native Philip. Native Sons in No Man's Land: re-writing Afro-American Afro-American manhood in the t he novels of Bladwin, Walker, Wideman, and Gaines. New Gaines. New York: Garland Press, 2000. Babb, Valerie Melissa. Ernest Melissa. Ernest Gaines. Boston: Gaines. Boston: Twayne, 1991. Beavers, Herman. Wrestling Angels into Song: the Fictions of Ernest J. Gaines and James Alan McPherson. Philadelphia: McPherson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Press, 1995. Carmean, Karen. Ernest Karen. Ernest J. Gaines: A Critical Critic al Companion. Westport, Companion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1998. Estes, David, ed. Critical Reflections on the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines. Athens: Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994. Gaudet, Marcia and Wooten, Carl. Porch Porch Talk with Ernest Gaines: Conversations on the Writer's Craft. Baton Craft. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Press, 1990. Lowe, John. Conversations with Ernest Gaines. Jackson: Gaines. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, Mi ssissippi, 1995.
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Table of Contents Introduction and Book 1: The War Years Book 1: The War Years Book 1: The War Years Book 2: Reconstruction Book 2: Reconstruction Book 2: Reconstruction Book 3: The Plantation Book 3: The Plantation Book 3: The Plantation Book 4: The Quarters Book 4: The Quarters
