Lawd Today! is a novel constructed with a high level of sophistication, but the dialogue is so casual and gramatically incorrect. In this technique, Richard Wright is making a sharp social commentary, one that does not reveal itself to the reader at the outset. Wright develops his main character, Jake, to be a hopelessly incompetent, pitiful figure. Through the course of the novel the reader becomes increasingly frustrated with Jake's level of stupidity, the simple fact that he cannot recognize why bad things happen to him. After meeting with his bosses at the post office because of his wife's complaints of domestic abuse, Jake views his lax punishment as a phenomenon of his own doing. His first reaction is to go home and give his wife a good beating for her actions... precisely the act that put his job in jeopardy in the first place.
Wright makes Jake such a despicable character because he is making a portrayal of the stereotypical black man, at least in the eyes of the white community. In doing so, he proves that he recognizes this image and refutes it. He, as a black writer, disproves the theory that all black men are like Jake. His inclusion of perfectly crafted English language among all the slang reinforces his disgust at the american impression of african american community.
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What A Difference A Day Makes
This is the class blog for English 341, 20th Century English Novel at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. During the Spring 2008 semester we will be studying the evolution of the twenty-four hour or 'day-long' novel in English during the twentieth century and early twenty-first centuries. This will be the online home of our class, where we will pose questions, offer answers, develop insights, share discoveries, and document our journey through the novels you see listed below.
What We"re Reading
Blog Archive
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2008
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February
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- Casting Shadows
- feb 22 and feb 29 post thoughts
- History Paves the Future
- Episode I - Lack of the Irish
- Seeing the World Properly
- Dreamland
- Moral Fiber 2.0
- Colour (As Spelled by an Irishman)
- wright post
- Sympathy or Pity?
- Lawd Today!
- Lawd Today!: Would it have promoted racism?
- The Power of Suicide in Mrs. Dalloway
- "When the bottle was empty..."
- Living Three Lives
- Lawd Today! A sad story
- Abrupt Reminders
- Confound it all...
- Jake, A Tragic Hero without the heroism
- Blame Games
- Nice guys finish last
- Excelling
- ignorant, stubborn, helpless
- The Power of Men
- Moral Fiber
- Self Control
- The Epitome of the Term Flip-Flopper
- Mrs Dalloway: A Struggle with Society
- Tension!
- Mrs. Dalloway
- patterns of thought
- Dreams are always better than realities
- Living Trees and Human Dogs
- Saturday
- Saturday opinion
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February
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3 comments:
I think part of Wright's purpose in creating despicable black characters is to point out the fact that just as not all black men are like Jake, not all black men are upstanding citizens either--because they're human, not tokens. But he's also trying to identify the reasons some black men are like Jake--the systems of racial oppression that turn him into a pathetic monster.
While you both make interesting points, I think Wright wrote the novel with a completely different intention. He wrote the novel as a challenge to the black reader to rise above the stereotypes and recognize his own agency.
Colin, I don't see how Wright "refutes" the negative image of the Black community.
And Professor Sells, I think crediting "the systems of racial oppression" as responsible for Jake's problems misses one of the underlying themes in the novel: self sabotage. When Jake awaits the verdict deciding whether he will keep or loose his job, a black man sits on the opposite side of the table. Each man is in his respective position not because of the coercive nature of society, but rather because of the individual decisions they have made.
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