OPPapers.com Essay Index >> English >> Black'S Survival In A White Word
We have many free term papers and essays on Black'S Survival In A White Word. We also have a wide variety of research papers and book reports available to you for free. You can browse our collection of term papers or use our search engine.
Submitted by Davebo on April 18, 2008
Category: English
Words: 1275 | Pages: 6
Views: 70
Popularity Rank: 107,584
Average Member Grade: N/A (Add a Comment / Grade this Paper)
“Africanisms… exist in all of us, independent of our knowledge or our volition” (Bradley 213). After being integrated into the American society, black people had a difficult time preserving their heritage. Often blacks could survive easier in America if they tried to act as white as they could in order to better adapt into the white society. However, the blacks still desired to preserve their culture, but they couldn’t without straying away from parts of the white culture.. In David Bradley’s The Chaneysville Incident, the black culture can only survive in a white-led country by shunning parts of the white society. The black culture can survive by shunning the white concept of death, technology, education, and protectiveness.
The white concept of death leads the black society into slavery, but by embracing the African belief of death blacks can escape servitude. John states that black people never believe “that a person has died. ‘Passed Away,’ perhaps. Or ‘gone home.’ But never died” (213). The Christian way of thought however brings in the idea that “death is cold and final” and those who are not servile to the white people will “forever burn in hell” (213). This threat drives the Blacks to listen to the white masters to prevent such a death. The black belief leads many men on slave ships to “actively pursue [death] by jumping overboard if the opportunity to do so present[s] itself” in order to escape slavery and return to Africa in the afterlife. While suicide may appear as a poor alternative to slavery, suicide is generally condoned in the novel, as CK, Moses, and John all commit suicide. By shunning the white belief that death is not a continuation of life leads many Africans to escape slavery through death and continue in their African traditions. Azacca, the old man in the group of runaways whom CK rescues, tells the story of how some men “did not do exactly as the [white men] said, and they were...
You must Login to view the entire paper.
If you are not a member yet, Sign Up for free!