Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Our Nig
This story is a lot different than the other novels we have gone over so far. It is a fiction but has the feel of a non fiction. The other ones were meant to send a message about society and to spread fear in the writting, Wilson's story scares the reader through testimony. I think she wrote it just to be able to be heard, like this is her way of saying this is what happened to me and what I have come through to get to where I am in life. The way she writes in third person during the beginning I do not have a strong reason for maybe its a way to give a better over view of all the characters at first before going into Frado's personal thoughts.
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I think she wrote the story to send a message about society. Even in the North blacks were still not being treated as equals or even as humans. She confronts the abolitionists because the Bellmonts were supposed to be supporters of the movement but still treated Frado as a slave. Her story shows the horror she experienced in life (like you said, her testimony). It is the story of Harriet E. Wilson's life but it is written as though it were ficiton. In regards to the point of view the story is told from I think that writing it in third person made the story have a more fiction feel to it.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right about why she did it in 3rd person in the beginning, but I also think that it helped add to the idea of the story being fiction. If the entire book was written through the eyes of Frado, it would have come off as an autobiography, and just like Kelsey said, she wanted to be heard. No one would have read this back then if it were taken as anything but a fictitious piece of literature.
ReplyDeleteIt is unclear wheater or not "Our Nig" was written with any political agenda to portray to society that blacks were still subject to slavery in the north but only called a servant, or if it was soly written to just show the strougle and hardship just on northern black faced througout her life. It can be said strongly that Wilson did want to be heard, she wanted others to know what she went though. I would venture to guess her reasoning for wanting other to know is to just get it off her chest, literature is a great way of portraying what a author beliefs or is thinking and I guess that wilson is just trying to express herself the only way a black really could during that time period--through their writings.
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