Stereotypes In The Goophered Grapevine And Dave's Neckliss?

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Scattered throughout our history books, you can find countless examples of wars being fought and conflicts that boil down to simply power and who has it. As a general statement, everyone wants to have some power and ability to control their own lives, if not the lives of those around them. If the two stereotypes that we are presented with about the relationship between race and food could be reduced to their most simplistic explanation, you would be left with the idea that by treating African Americans as food or comical relief, Caucasians are stripping their African American counterparts of their power to control their own lives and showing their supposed dominance. There is no doubt that Chesnutt utilizes these stereotypes in both “The Goophered Grapevine” and “Dave’s Neckliss,” however, he goes past and complicates these stereotypes when he introduces characters that slyly take back some of the power that they are stripped of. The first stereotype …show more content…

This is only after he first longingly gazes at the ham and “his eyes rested lovingly” upon it (pg.123). The husband first observes Julius eat, as if he is some sort of entertainment, and then describes him as eating with relish making readers assume that he is taking so much joy purely from eating a ham. Until Julius had the ham and had eaten, that is what completely captivates his attention and he lovingly looks upon it as if it is something beautiful. Then the husband even goes as far to question Julius “was the mustard so strong it moved you to tears?” (pg.124). The husband seems to not be able to grasp the idea that something more serious than a ham could bring Julius to tears. In the husband’s mind, everything Julius does is centered on the food. For this reason Julius can’t be taken seriously and the husband sees himself as more

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