Slave Dialect and Narrative with a Hint of The Trickster

The thing that interests me the most about The Conjure Woman Tales is the structure of them. It is complex and modern, but also reflects ancient practices of oral story telling. It's initial structure is a frame story, where John, our narrator, is telling a story within a story. But as it progresses we see that it is also a Slave Narrative being told in the structure of a frame story. Slave Narratives, a unique category of literature, was eventually made up of these oral stories told by slaves and written down by a white author. Many scholars question the validity of these narratives because most of the early stories published were contaminated by the white author. Since the majority of slaves did not know how to read or write, their stories had to be written by a white author and often published under that author’s name. Chestnutt uses a unique form of writing style for The Conjure Woman Tales, as the stories are written by an African American (Chestnutt), but narrated as a Slave Narrative (the stories are being orally told by Uncle Julius to Sally and John), two white plantation owners, who then tell the stories through their narration. This leaves the reader not only questioning the validity of the stories, but also wondering which narrator they should believe: Chestnutt, Jim, or Uncle Julius. But these stories are authored by an African-American in the form of a Slave Narrative, so it's kind of paradoxical in its structure. To me, it's brilliant. I found this quote when browsing Wikipedia (I know- not the most accredited source, but it's great for references):

"As George Joseph notes in his chapter on African literature in Understanding Contemporary Africa, whereas European views of literature often stressed a separation of art and content, African awareness is inclusive:

    "Literature" can also imply an artistic use of words for the sake of art alone. ...traditionally, Africans do not radically separate art from teaching. Rather than write or sing for beauty in itself, African writers, taking their cue from oral literature, use beauty to help communicate important truths and information to society. Indeed, an object is considered beautiful because of the truths it reveals and the communities it helps to build."

This made me think of Uncle Julius and our class discussion on whether he was "good" or "bad". I think that Uncle Julius, like any other normal person, has qualities of both. His intentions, to me, seem good, but he's also not a fool and will benefit from certain situations if he can, like gaining a new suite or protecting his store of honey. His stories, though, "communicate important truths and information to society", society being, in this case, John and Anne. He is sharing life information to them in a way that is a social norm of Southern culture. To me, Uncle Julius is a "trickster". A trickster can be either good or bad, but often times he is both. 

In folklore of any kind, the storyteller will use the “trickster” to act as the antagonist of the events to come. Aside from African folklore, we see this character in many of Shakespeare’s plays, such as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ariel in The Tempest, and Feste in Twelfth Night. In The Conjure Woman Tales, not only could Uncle Julius be considered the "trickster" in the frame story, but the conjurers of the stories within the story are the “tricksters”, as they create conflict amongst the other characters of the story.  When I think of Uncle Julius, I can't help but think of Puck from A Midsummer's Night's Dream. They are mischeivious and create conflict, but they are, for all intents are purposes, good. And to me, the trickster is the most authentically "human" character of folklore because he combines both the good and the bad. 

 An Example of an African Trickster Tale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKMbatSrk_4

   

Another thing I found interesting about this collection of stories is the difficulty of understanding Uncle Julius' narration. Slave dialect is difficult and I think part of that is because we think of it as "broken English", or at least that's what I thought it was when I first read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But I learned in one of my language classes that it's really its own dialect because it borrows from English and African dialects to create its own form, usually known as Gullah or Creole. Watch this video on Slave dialect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6pHmNDYEio 

It is a perfect example of slave dialect and maybe can help when reading this kind of language. Ironically, it is a white scholar that is using this dialect and its origins, but it's still a great video.

The Metamorphosis

In the beginning of Conjure Woman and Other Tales by Charles W. Chesnutt, I hated the way Julius acted and I thought this was going to be a book were John is going to be tricked by Julius, Annie would die, and no one would be happy. But as I kept reading my perspective started to change. For the first few stories Julius, I believed, was out to just get what he wanted. He benefited from a lot of thing on the vineyard and even benefited from John buying a donkey. Ironically after he told him not to because he didn't know where it could of come from. But when you get to the end of the Sis' Becky's Pickaninny you see a side of Julius not yet seen. He gave Annie he precocious rabbits foot. He and Annie, from that point, had a certain unspoken bond. Even if at first i thought the rabbit foot meant he was messing with her at first. The friendship grew and John could even see it. He didn't care though that Julius's stories were probably fake, his stories seemed to depress and bore Annie. But when Annie listened to Julius' stories however it made her happy and healthy. Julius gave her an escape from her everyday life.That escape gave Annie the chance to regain some mystery in the world after probably being bombarded with science and facts while being sick.  Julius has changed from a man that looked out for just himself, to a man that cares for others and tries to help them even if it means missing a big opportunity. Julius has made a friends with John and Annie. The friends that can change a man that only looked out for himself, to a man who would gladly do things for others even if it meant a lose for him.

Group Blog: The Winchester House Mystery And The Conjure Woman Tales

Source Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0rxIDzivoQ

Our source tells the story of Sarah Winchester and the mystery behind the Winchester House. Supposedly, Sarah saw a Medium after her husband and child died and the Medium told her that her bad luck came from all of the people who had died by being shot by a Winchester rifle (for which her husband was the inventor). The Medium told her the only way to save herself from the bad luck was to move to the West and build a mansion. As long as she continued to build onto the mansion, she would be saved from bad luck. The moment she stopped building, her life was in danger.  So, Sarah began construction of the Winchester house and continued to do so until her death. This is because she believed the medium, and believed that this was the only way to save her self.

Mediumship or channeling is the purported ability to mediate communication between living and the dead. Attempts to contact the dead report back to early human existence. It gained popularity in the 19th century, but was questioned because of a large amount of fraud. Most mediums communicate by hearing the spirits message or when the spirit takes over the medium's voice to relay their message. Mediumship is most commonly associated with Spiritualism.

The Winchester House Mystery parallels to Annie in Conjure Woman Tales because both women possess similar qualities. Sarah and Annie were both in a position where they felt powerless and dependent. Instead of looking at this situation logically, they sought guidance from the supernatural. Both women believed in what they were told, and followed accordingly.

Emily B’s Reading Reflection: Conjure Women

        When we first began reading the Conjure Women I really did not care for it. I thought it was a long difficult read, and the story went off topic at various times. However once I was done reading it and we had broken down certain sections my opinion had changed. I think that John was just out of his normal area in life and refused to accept any other way or culture. Instead John only grows a tolerance of Julius and his stories, mainly for Annie’s sake. Annie I feel wanted something away from her everyday life that would free her in a way, and Julius’s stories were the perfect fit. I thought it was interesting that at one point in the book John was reading a book about philosophy and critical thinking. Yet he would be so closed minded to Julius stories that he wouldn’t believe that any of them could have a deeper meaning. Some of the stories such as the one involving the wolf can be looked at as a lesson of not being too arrogant and being careful who you trust. I think Julius made most of the stories up the day he told them, with a deeper meaning in mind then just having John and Annie believe the tale. However some of the tales were so powerful that it made Annie take down the kitchen that was built from a tree which was once a man. Julius never says that they had to believe, he would just give certain explanations or vote against certain decisions with a tale.  Overall my opinion on the story changed once we finished because there were several ideas and variations of why something was told in the story. The Conjure Women was about more than just the culture of the time, but how people thought and what they chose to believe as a lesson or a fantasy. I probably would have been more like John's character in the story however I wouldn’t just dismiss what Julius said, I would ask myself why he said what he did. Annie doesn’t really believe all the stories but she does like to hear them, as well as question them.

Slave Skundus and the Seven Sleepers

The passage that inspired me to do a reading reflection on this week’s reading was in A Deep Sleeper when Julius referred to the boy Tom as one of the “Seben Sleepers.” I had never heard of The Seven Sleepers but the way Julius referenced them made it sound like a well-known cultural story so I looked it up. Of course, the story of The Seven Sleepers does turn out to be a very well-known story that comes from Christian and Muslim legend about seven religious believers who went to sleep during a century when they were an oppressed minority and then, as a miracle, woke up in a new century when their religion was widely accepted.  It’s a clever joke for Julius to be referring to Tom as one of the sleepers in the story because it contrasts the miracle of divine 100 year sleep with the vice of supposedly lazy teen-aged drowsiness. The interesting thing about this reference in A Deep Sleeper is the way the legend parallels the story Julius tells. In the legend, the sleepers sleep in a time that they would not want to experience, in the same way Skundus went to sleep after his wife got sold to another plantation. In the legend, the sleepers woke up to a better world, the same way Skundus woke up to a time where his wife was back home. As part of the miracle, Skundus also got to be treated by doctors who decided that Skundus shouldn’t be worked too hard anymore, on account of his condition. If we look at Skundus’ narcolepsy through the interpretation of the Seven Sleepers legend, then we can conclude that Skundus’ “condition” is that he is blessed.

Reading Reflection: Conjure Woman

The supernatural has always been a very vague idea since the beginning of time. Even in the Salem Witch trials, there was no real evidence that the people they were killing were actual “witches”. Ghosts are believed by many, even by those who have never even seen them. Aliens have never actually been captured or full exposed, yet many people believe they exist. The supernatural is unknown, and I believe that is what makes it so popular. People fear what they do not understand, and this is very relevant when it comes to magic and the supernatural. In the Conjure Woman and Other Tales by Charles W. Chesnutt, Annie believes the tales told be Uncle Julius, for she feels powerless and wants so badly to be out of her melancholy that she is desperate to try anything.  She even thinks a rabbit’s foot will solve her feelings of unease. When people feel lost or confused, they usually look for guidance to get back on track. The supernatural is extremely appealing because there is no solid proof of it, so there is just as much reason to believe it could be true versus not true. That glimmer of hope is attractive to the lost or confused, or just the plain believers. Plus, it seems pretty interesting in general. Yes there are not cold, hard facts present, but if you let your imagination wander, anything is possible. The idea of a lost soul that lingers where it once lived in human form, or that a special potion can make someone do something they never would, is quite intriguing. This brings up the question, where do we go after we die? This can also tie into religion, and the idea of believing something without ever physically seeing it. It’s interesting to see how some people believe so strongly in certain things, while other are adamant that it is not true or it does not exist. Like John and Annie, both have extremely opposite views of whether or not the tales told by Uncle Julius are true or false.

The Conjure Woman

Although, I side with John’s notions of validity to Uncle Julius’s stories, these stories as a whole weren’t about John at all. In my opinion the stories were to shed light on the relationship between Julius and Annie. A symbiotic relationship, in which Annie and Julius relied on each other to grow stronger, and indirectly express ideas and thoughts between just the two of them.

Throughout the stories, Annie’s, who is frail and sickly in the beginning of the stories, grows stronger both physically and mentally with the companionship of Julius’s stories. Both Julius and Annie are in similar positions in this time of history. Annie being a female and Julius being black, they had to find creative ways to change John’s mind. Annie was making more decisions in the face of John by the end of the Hot-Foot Hannibal. Whether it was to use only new wood for the new kitchen (Po’ Sandy), to keeping the rabbits foot that Julius gave her (Sis Becky’s Pickaninny), to making the decision to take the long route (Hot-Foot Hannibal).

Yes, Uncle Julius made some gains in results to the stories he told, but he kept coming back, and telling stories that hit closer to home and the heart. By the end of The Conjure Woman stories, he was saving relationships, and establishing his place among the white couples family.