Discrimination. Just one of the million words that we encounter every day. One simple word in the dictionary that has already affected the lives of many across nations. A simple word that gave rise to uprisings, heroes, villains, icons, war, freedom and not to mention history itself. When a word is born and it speaks of the lives of the marginalized, the oppressed, or of the powerhouse alliances, it will always be heard even in silence. Upon reading the text The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point by Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, it easily came to me that the prevailing issues on oppression, or on racial discrimination in particular, played a heavily important role in making this masterpiece. It is a universal issue that has been moving history and is affecting our political system since time immemorial. It has defined several stereotypes in our society and has been the inspiration in the making of popular literary works like that of Browning’s. Moreover, literary masterpieces of written by female authors has always been given a …show more content…
certain kind of attention especially when we are talking about gender and equality. However, what really intrigued the world is the idea that an Englishwoman has written a powerful and intense literary work on anti-slavery. It may not sound unusual, only that her work was written on an escaped slave’s point-of-view. Was she merely sympathizing with the ones affected or was she only pretending to be? What drove her to write such a masterpiece full of anger and frustration? This is the reason why most critics find Browning approach problematic. According to BABL-Instructor’s Guide to Elizabeth Barrett-Browning (2012), in the recent years, Browning’s approach in writing has received largely positive criticisms, emphasizing the Victorian Era as its peak. It pointed out that Browning’s work such as Sonnets from the Portuguese had been in the spotlight for a long period of time, influencing renowned writers and feminists in their own field. Margaret Reynolds has in fact made an outline of testimonies proving the wide readership of Browning’s masterpieces: By the end of the nineteenth century it had been reprinted more than twenty times in Britain and nearly as often in the United States. It became one of the books that everyone knew and read. Oscar Wilde loved it, Algernon Swinburne wrote a gushing preface for it, the novelist Rudyard Kipling borrowed the plot for The Light That Failed (1890), and, in America, the feminist activist Susan B. Anthony presented her treasured copy to the Library of Congress and wrote on the flyleaf, “This book was carried in my satchel for years and read & re-read. The noble words of Elizabeth Barrett ... sink deep into my heart.... I now present it to the Congressional Library ... with the hope that Women may more & more be like Aurora Leigh.” (Margaret Reynolds, Preface, Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Aurora Leigh, ed. Margaret Reynolds [New York: Norton, 1996], vii-viii) However, it was also stated in the BABL Instructor’s Guide that in the time when Britain and America were finally celebrating universal suffrage, Browning suffered from a sudden downfall in her reputation as a writer (2012).
Virginia Wolf was said to be one of those who had expressed her critical criticisms towards Browning’s works. “Nobody reads her, nobody discusses her, and nobody troubles to put her in place (1932).” With these at hand, it seems to me that several writers in Browning’s time were against her approach in writing. Most of her critics are feminist writers or female writers in general. The directness of her verses were said to be one of the primary causes why her reputation went into a severe eclipse. It was a time were allusion and irony were at their prime in literature and in society as a whole. But for a writer who writes without reservations and lies to what his/her soul is singing, these criticism do not count that
much. In The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point, we can see the directness that some critics are talking about regarding Browning’s approach in writing. Although her family owned slaves during her childhood, her works speak of their sentiments in a very clear and real representations. It was as if she had experienced literally being a slave at a point in her life. The emotions are strong and the construction of the masterpiece is deeply connected to each other that you can relate to it without having prior experience of the scenarios being described. We can say that these verses are just metaphors of anger and frustrations that Browning has towards the issue on oppression in her time but, it takes so much more to write on a slave’s point-of-view when you’re an Englishwoman. Based on the archives of Armstrong Browning Library (2015), Barrett- Browning wrote “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point” as a contribution for the Boston anti-slavery annual The Liberty Bell (Borderud, 2015). It was published from 1839 to 1858. She already knew from that point that her work will catch the attention of America in a distasteful way. Based from Imagining Charity for All: Anti-Slavery Writings at the Armstrong Browning Library by Jennifer Borderud (2015), Browning has written a letter for his American friend stating her views on sending the manuscript to America: “My conscience has been restless about it ever since, (whenever I thought that way,) but neither head nor heart were at liberty sufficiently to do anything. What I have sent at last, my belief is, will never be printed in America, or will, if it should be, bring the writer into a scrape of disfavor. But I did only write conscientiously, you know, in writing at all; and my “Cry of the Children,” was not less written against my own country (1847).” Despite volumes of publications written to express distaste towards Browning’s work, some still celebrated her artistry. Joyce Zoanna, emphasizes on the tendency of many scholars and critics to treat Browning Sonnets in binary fashion – to the death of the credibility of the sonnets. “Something about Elizabeth Barrett Browning inspires in her sympathetic readers (and I count myself among them) a worshipful identification of the artist with her work. Where once critics found in Barrett Browning a perfect wife writing exquisite sonnets of sentimental love, the current generation of feminist critics, using Aurora Leigh as a primary text, claims her as an originator of loved feminist poetics. (Joyce Zoanna, Review of Helen Cooper, Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Woman and Artist, in Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, 9.1 [Spring 1990], 161). Upon examining these critical criticisms on Browning’s work and on Browning herself, it is clear to me that she is nothing but a writer who was never bounded by her givens and by any prevailing societal scripts. Critics shoot her works on the basis of her status, tracing back the reason behind her literary approach on her past, which is appropriate in a sense. Her family has owned slaves in the past which gave us the understanding of why she was deeply involved in anti-slavery campaigns. There is nothing wrong in speaking for the oppressed when you biologically belong to the line of the oppressors. Normally, the sentiments of the marginalized are suppressed by their struggle to survive in the hands of the oppressors. Their will to speak for themselves are being masked and they will eventually be accustomed to staying silent amidst suffering. They will be institutionalized and it will already be hard for them to fight for their freedom. Literary works which aims to shed light on gender and equality become the voices of the oppressed. Through these masterpieces, which include Barrett-Browning’s, the marginalized battles for their liberty without firing arms; the oppressed will be heard by the multitude without asking for a speck of attention. Speaking in a slave’s point-of-view, considering the fact that you are an Englishwoman, will only be problematic and ironic if it the writer is only after fame. One can never deceive the readers by merely pretending to be one with the marginalized. The masses have long been aware of political tactics that are making the system rot. This is same with the politics in literature. Having read some parts of Browning’s life, there are clear proofs that she has the knowledge of what she is trying to impart to her readers in all her works. Her insights and sentiments on gender and slavery were products of her experiences as a part of a family who has a history of mixed races and marriages among the family members. She was a witness to the struggles of the slaves that was owned by her family. Her eyes were lenses filming the suppressed anger of the oppressed towards the injustice of those who hold power over them. The BABL-Instructor’s Guide to Elizabeth Barrett-Browning included Marjorie Stone’s stand on Browning’s works and she emphasized that, “The literature associated with British female societies generally emphasized the passivity of blacks, their lack of ‘ability to speak for themselves,’ and their need for the ‘materialistic’ intervention of white ladies.” Yet not only does “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point” give to a black woman the ‘gift’ of speech; it portrays “a female slave who rebels against her double burden of sexual as well as racial oppression” by depicting the multiple rape of a slave woman by white male slave holders, and, in offering a “detailed representation of infanticide,” it also provides a “striking anticipation of Francis Harper's ‘The Slave Mother, a Tale of the Ohio’ and Toni Morrison's Beloved (513) (2012).” Today, in the post-modern era, we may question if Browning’s works are still relevant given the fact that we have long achieved liberty and equality. We may ask if the scenarios in the poem is truly the case in the eyes of the marginalized. The battle for equality is still burning in all nations. Marginalized communities are still marginalized despite the birth of a seemingly fair society. Most of us who are under the upper hand are still voiceless even though we are not slaves. We are witnesses to the slaughter of justice. We become slaves without chains but we are chained by our realities. I think, this is how Browning imagined herself as an escaped slave fighting for justice and equality. And with her strong will to speak for the truth from the point-of-view of the oppressed, she was able to speak for the voiceless and for herself, reclaiming justice for the lives who was never able to celebrate freedom.
In the novel, the author proposes that the African American female slave’s need to overcome three obstacles was what unavoidably separated her from the rest of society; she was black, female, and a slave, in a white male dominating society. The novel “locates black women at the intersection of racial and sexual ideologies and politics (12).” White begins by illustrating the Europeans’ two major stereotypes o...
The issue of Slavery in the South was an unresolved issue in the United States during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. During these years, the south kept having slavery, even though most states had slavery abolished. Due to the fact that slaves were treated as inferior, they did not have the same rights and their chances of becoming an educated person were almost impossible. However, some information about slavery, from the slaves’ point of view, has been saved. In this essay, we are comparing two different books that show us what being a slave actually was. This will be seen with the help of two different characters: Linda Brent in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Frederick Douglass in The Narrative of the life of Frederick
Throughout the eighteenth century there were a lot of African American slaves and a problem with women’s rights. During that time there were people writing about literature and the society around them that related to slaves. There were a lot of people influenced on what was written during that time. Frances E. W. Harper was a American poet that was a free slave. Hse wrote about her views on the world. Analysis of Harpers life and poems will show how influenced she was through her writing.
The illumination of the brutal treatment of the slaves, both physically and mentally, are also apparent in the works of Stowe and Jacobs. Stowe, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, uses the stories of Eliza, Harry, Uncle Tom and Cassy to show how slavery, with both cruel and kind masters, affects different members of the slave community. In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs focuses her work on the how the institution is “terrible for men; but is far more terrible for women” (B:933), adding sexual abuse to the atrocities of slavery. Douglass’ Madison gives the reader a masculine perspective on the
Slave narratives were one of the first forms of African- American literature. The narratives were written with the intent to inform those who weren’t aware of the hardships of slavery about how badly slaves were being treated. The people who wrote these narratives experienced slavery first hand, and wanted to elicit the help of abolitionists to bring an end to it. Most slave narratives were not widely publicized and often got overlooked as the years went by; however, some were highly regarded and paved the way for many writers of African descent today.
In her story Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs presents what life was like living as a female slave during the 19th century. Born into slavery, she exhibits, to people living in the North who thought slaves were treated fairly and well, how living as a slave, especially as a female slave during that time, was a heinous and horrible experience. Perhaps even harder than it was if one had been a male slave, as female slaves had to deal with issues, such as unwanted sexual attention, sexual victimization and for some the suffering of being separated from their children. Harriet Jacobs shows that despite all of the hardship that she struggled with, having a cause to fight for, that is trying to get your children a better life
Discrimination is known as unjust treatment of a particular group. In The Ways We Lie by Stephanie Ericsson, she discusses stereotypes and cliches (Ericsson 478). Discrimination is often a stereotypical device
Throughout history, women have struggled with, and fought against, oppression. They have been held back and weighed down by the sexist ideas of a male dominated society which has controlled cultural, economic and political ideas and structures. During the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s women became more vocal and rebuked sexism and the role that had been defined for them. Fighting with the powerful written word, women sought a voice, equality amongst men and an identity outside of their family. In many literary writings, especially by women, during the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s, we see symbols of oppression and the search for gender equality in society.
What is discrimination? Discrimination is a combination of representation, stereotyping and ideology set by society to rank different groups of people. In an excerpt of “The Woman in the Window”, Ramona Lowe shows that there is a racial discrimination toward African-Americans in America. The story focuses on Mrs. Jackson, an African-American who lives in the north, and the struggles she faces at her work place. She was hired to cook in front of a restaurant window dressing as a stereotypical “Southern mammy” (Lowe 3) to attract customers. While cooking in front of the restaurant window, Mrs. Jackson was laughed at by a group of white kids who called her “Aunt Jemima and nigger” (Lowe 3). Clearly, Mrs. Jackson was mistreated because the society she lives in ranks her race, Black, lower than her bosses', which is white. Lowe’s short story, “The Woman in the Window”, demonstrates a racial discrimination against Blacks during the 1940s by incorporating representation, stereotyping and ideology in the text.
These illustrations, along with many others, are the types of images Harriet Jacobs instills upon her readers in her personal narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. With basic knowledge of what comprises a slave narrative, one might assume Jacobs' attempt at a personal creation has the same goals as many others, to teach her audience of the personal hardships of slaves and to inspire a form of hope that an end of slavery is near. Upon the reading and analysis of this narrative, however, it is easy to see how Jacobs' narrative differs from her colleagues. Jacobs' intentions are laid out when she states, "Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women"(825). It becomes evident that Jacobs is writing for all female slaves and wants her audience to understand that being a woman in slavery was the most difficult situation a human being could endure. Although a very large endeavor, Jacobs' succeeds in her task by creating a narrative that speaks out to one particular audience, free white women of the north. By creating a narrative that is truly feminist, bo...
“Discrimination is the denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups because of prejudice or for other arbitrary reasons” (Schaefer 35). Discrimination differs from prejudice as it refers to the behavior or action usually based on prejudice rather than just thoughts.
Though racism is a controversial subject, many other subjects have received just as much controversy. One of these is discrimination. Discrimination is the denial of equality based on personal characteristics, such as race and color. Racial jokes and ethnic slurs are obvious examples of racial discrimination. These comments not only leave the victim feeling helpless and fearful, but they have a negative impact on worker productivity and economic performance (Dimensions of Racism).
Discrimination can be defined as the unequal treatment of equal groups in workplace situations such as engagement, compensation, and promotion. There are two key notions of discrimination in relation to a workplace context;
In today’s advanced societies, many laws require men and women to be treated equally. However, in many aspects of life they are still in a subordinated position. Women often do not have equal wages as the men in the same areas; they are still referred to as the “more vulnerable” sex and are highly influenced by men. Choosing my Extended Essay topic I wanted to investigate novels that depict stories in which we can see how exposed women are to the will of men surrounding them. I believe that as being woman I can learn from the way these characters overcome their limitations and become independent, fully liberated from their barriers. When I first saw the movie “Precious” (based on Sapphire’s “Push”) I was shocked at how unprotected the heroine, Precious, is towards society. She is an African-American teenage girl who struggles with accepting herself and her past, but the cruel “unwritten laws” of her time constantly prevent her rise until she becomes the part of a community that will empower her to triumph over her barriers. “The Color Purple” is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Alice Walker which tells the story of a black woman’s, Celie’s, striving for emancipation. (Whitted, 2004) These novels share a similar focus, the self-actualization of a multi-disadvantaged character who with the help of her surrounding will be able to triumph over her original status. In both “The Color Purple” and “Push”, the main characters are exposed to the desire of the men surrounding them, and are doubly vulnerable in society because not only are they women but they also belong to the African-American race, which embodies another barrier for them to emancipate in a world where the white race is still superior to, and more desired as theirs.
"The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point" was penned during the Victorian era by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Similar to the works of Anna Letitia Barbauld, Browning also used literature to protest the institution of slavery among African Americans. How she felt about racism and injustice is colorfully portrayed in this poem.