Table de matières
Table de matières
This chapter deals with the thematic study in The Slave Dancer. In another word it discusses themes in the above mentioned literary work. Themes are made up of thoughts and ideas that help to understand the massage that the narrative conveys as well as the authors’ view of the world surrounding them. Regarding that, this section will look at those developed in The Slave Dancer around, violence, oppression disappointment.
By the definition, Violence is defined as anything that is turbulent or excited in an injurious, destructive way representing a risk accordingly. Violence Is a brutal force Applied to submit somebody on what he does not like.
However, violence is according to MCKENDRICK (1968:8) a destructive harm including only physical assaults that damage the body, but also the many techniques of inflicting mental harm or emotional means. For concise oxford dictionary ninth ed. (1995:257 ), it is the low full exercise of physical force intimidation by the exhibition of this.
Hence, violence is source of violence when a person attacks another, there is always possibility of another reaction in returns against the oppressor. And his or her reaction is sometimes harmful. In this situation he or she has made also violence. Thus, his/ her violence originated from the first one.
This is the case we find in “The Slave Dancer,” when Jessie was attacked by pirates, by the New Orleans Docks in the afternoon. He resisted and reacted negatively to the pirates.he grabbed stones and used knife in response to the attack. The passage here below proves it:
“hands of those courageous men grasped me through the neck, I tried to shout
I loudly cried, walking stick, stones and knife were my objects to save my life. P 13”
Two forces opposing negatively to one another, result a failure of one part. As two forces cannot be conquerors at the same time. Hence violence is source of weakness when two peoples or group of people are fighting against each other; the strong one will necessarily weaken the other. It can be even an oppressor facing to an oppressed. If the oppressed is stronger than the oppressor he can weaken the oppressor and vice visa.
It is the same situation that happened between Jessie and Purvis. When Jessie was attacked by Purvis, he resisted by defending his personality. He did whatever he could for not being kidnapped away, but finally he was weakened and defeated. Then violence between Jessie results weakness on the side of Jessie. The passage here testifies it “ After my wisdom, I was tossed, then trussed, then lift up and carried away like a pig to market”. P.17. Jessie is weakened after he has resisted first and kidnapped a way to be ill-treated to gether with slaves.
Alteration is the action of or results of alternating from doing something. Alteration may be understood as a way of to become different or behave differently from the way you use to.
It is obliviously that a person or animal can alter either positively or negatively. the case we have in Paula fox’s narrative The Slave Dancer is negative alteration. Negative alteration is in The Slave Dancer, since Jessie was away from home, he has submitter to several duties, exercises among which to amuse slaves was one. Jessie was asked by Cawhorn to perform them in difficult conditions. He was depressed by this and to escape it , he behaved immorally as to be not asked to do. The passage says the following
/My youth was challenged with my talent, I danced the slaves whenever, seeing how the men’s ankles had been gnawed at their shackles as though the metal things were vicious and alive. I hated what I did, I tried to comfort myself with my thoughts but I lost the early sense of what I knew p 73/
This passage shows how somebody can become immoral through violence and lose the sense of what he knows. Jessie knew quite well the music he used to play at home. But as he was derived from his freedom, from his will, Jessie altered negatively from playing the fife and he lost the interest finally he become immoral of what he knows.
Criminality, an activity against the low, is another minor theme found in The Slave Dancer.
In Paula fox’s fiction criminality is held by Cawthorn around the slaves. Many slaves liked Ben Stout because he was giving them food and clothes, they hated Cawthorn for being ill-treating them. Thus Cawthorn as a captain of the crew started killing them and threw naked pregnant black women slaves into the sea. Cawthorn committed many crimes by killing many pregnant black women for not increasing slaves in his ship.
On the other hand, stout could protect them as to have new born from whom will be successors after they will die. He said “are we for killing them or taking them to our land, once they get old and die their children will be our benefit as well P 99”.
Then it is worthy understanding that, violence made or done, by Cawthorn enslavering black people led them to make crim even to innocent people.
Resignation is generally understood as an act or an instance of resigning specially from one’s job or office. Thus, we may consider it as a fact of giving up your job or position.
In the Slave Dancer, resignation is expressed through the main character Jessie. After he has been out of his home, he was asked to face violent actions of different ways. He was doomed to dance naked women and men old than he was. He was asked to smoke and drink rums. These events did not affect him positively as result he rejected his career of playing music. The passage says,
“I wouldn’t like to listen to music. I could not bear to hear a woman sing, and at the sound of any instrument, a fiddle, a drum, a combo with paper wrapped around it played by my own child ;i would leave instantly and shut myself away I hated what I did and I lost the early sense of what I knew p 127” through this passage we understand what pushed Bollier to hate and lose or resignate his work.
Racism is understood as a belief that certain races of people are by birth and nature superior to others. Hence racism will be defined as hatred based on race. That is why J. Priestley (1957:67) said it as “unfair treatment of people who belong to different race. Indeed, oppression as social behavior consisting on ill-treating people can be a result of racism among people. In racism people stand for torturing and under considering others as being unequal in sharing the same right.
Then, when a given race is appraising itself it tends to be higher than the others. This alludes it to neutralize other races which turns back to oppression. This case can be supported by evidence from South Africa, whereby Dutch people would like to be the first significant race of the country by social segregation.
This pretention conducted them into oppressing others. It is this case that fox discusses in The Slave Dancer, Captain Cauthorn is racist when he protected the two white women who were pregnant and objected to care for the four other pregnant black women who were suffering from diarrhea. They died alone in the same ship. In the ship two black women cooked food in restaurants, but no white people could buy food from them while they were people with a lot of money. This passage states it better.
/I wish I had Hitler’s ambition; I would have made me a fine rich man. These crowds black females should free us as they do not fit with our mind; my hunger does not despise the menu only the owner p 69.
In this passage Fox presents social hatred, racism and segregation that people in the ship held among themselves.
Injustice is another aspect of minor theme discussed by Fox in her novel The Slaves Dancer. It is a situation in which a person does not treat people equally. In The Slave Dancer, the oppression that Cawthorn and Purvis held around their crew led them to injustice. In their travelling from Africa to Cuba, when they were in the middle of the sea a great number of the crew was infected by diseases caught from latrines. Then, Cawthorn and Purvis suggested to white people fresh places and medicine once suffering black.
With this passage we can understand more
/ It is not mistake, it is inherited and lucrative God–granted trade of black, they are non sense if they do not fulfill our needs, the sun is born in east and sleep in west, black Africa have never died, all Africa is nothing but bottomless sack of blacks p 95!
Trauma is an unpleasant experience that makes you feel upset or anxious. It is again defined as a mental condition caused by severe shocks, especially when the harmful effect last for a long time. It originates from different sources among which oppression and terror are the first. A person who survived from genocide will remain with bad experience or thoughts for the rest of his life. Oppressed people who survived a strong oppression are also affected negatively in their lives. For example, People from Makobola, In fizi territory were oppressed by Banyamulenge for three years (2000. 2003), these people up to now they are upset and anxious of it.
The oppression that Bollier underwent and assisted at a long the journey from Cuba to Africa and from Africa to Cuba in the slaves’ ship traumatized him. Jessie Bollier assisted at several horrible events such as, in justice, racism, dancing old naked black people, eating food in latrines; all these situations did not affect him in a good way. These oppressions he faced at his age of thirteen traumatized all the rest of his life. A passage declares this
“at home I often weep, not because my father’s brother took me away from home, but because of the story of the Slave ship, The Moonlight our ship” p 125
Frustration, is viewed as a state which makes somebody to feel annoyed or impatient because they cannot achieve what they want. A child can be frustrated by his Mather from sucking; he is not happy and he turns to be disappointed.
By observing the main character in the novel, Bollier was disappointed and frustrated by Purvis. He was frustrate when he was dancing the Slaves in ship “The Moonlight” most of laves liked him. And yet, captain of ship became jealous and ordered purveys to hit Bollier violently, simply because slaves loved him. Bollier was again frustrated by purivis who hides his fife and start asking it to Bollier, when Bollier misses it, he was tossed the arms and ill –treated. These two situations frustrated him and as a child he wouldn’t like to dance again. Bollaier was more hatred rather than appreciated for whatever he did. By then, when he did better he was punished and when he did worse he was punished i.e. the better he was performing the worse he was punished. Finally Bollier became disappointed by his father’s brother who subdued him from his natural life and brought him into ill-treatment. The passage asserts the following
“I would leave instantly and shut myself away from crowed as my skills turned to nothing in those days” p.48
Sorrow is to be seen as feeling of great sadness because something bad has happened to you or to somebody else. Somebody can be sorrowful of what he has seen; another one can get sorrow by facing difficult situation.
Therefore these situations will allow us to consider the sorrow that Bollier has gotten as result of disappointment he has gotten after he had been forced to assist at different categories of violence. Bollier assisted at human ill-treatment, At horrible actions that committed by Purvis and Cawthorn, and he turned sorrow full of that. The passage adds more information
/ I found a dreadful thing in my mind, I hated slaves, I hated their shuffling, their howling, their very suffering, their ways of sleeping and eating, their food soaked with human excrement, oh God I wished them all dead ! Not to hear them. I dropped my fife on the deck and fled to my hammock, I would lie their until I forget them pp69/
This passage expresses most of dreadful facts that made Bollier to become sorrowful and traumatized person.
This chapter on thematic study in Paula fox’s narrative The Slave Dancer has introduced us to the main themes emerge in the narrative, specially; violence, oppression and disappointment. It tries to help the reader understanding the social circumstances that this author had been defending. The following one will be about satirical aspect in this fiction.
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