Wednesday, February 3, 2010
The Passing of Grandison
My first thought after reading this short story by Charles Chestnut was that slavery was the main point or issue. But after thinking about it again I realized that Dick Owen's love for Charity Lomax was the reason that Grandison even became a part of the story. He was so in love with her that he was willing to do whatever it would take to get her to love him back, even if it was something he did not believe in or agree with. He did not really care about the slaves and whether or not they were free. His motive was very selfish. Eventhough Charity was not very happy with how Dick just left Grandison all on his own she still married him which did not make much sense. I like how the story has a very unexpected ending! The whole time Dick thought he had been the sneaky one that left Grandison behind but Dick was actually the one that got outsmarted. In the end, things work out great for both of them. Dick marries Charity and Grandison gets to be free along with his entire family. Something else I liked about this story were the accents. Even if Chestnut would not have said that they lived in the South, the accents would have given it away. It was kind of odd though that only the slaves had the accents and not any of the others. But having the accents make the story more interesting and entertaining.
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I agree with Nicole on this because Mr. Owens' motive was selfish. For him to treat a slave as a bargain for someone else's love is highly upsetting. I mean I don't think that he would be very fond of someone using him as an example to prove their love, so why do it to someone else even though back then they were considered as property. It was still not right for him to stoop to such a level to prove love. That was not even a good way to prove love and Charity should have read right through that because if you think about it what slave does not want his freedom. I don't care how far under the slave owner the slave was, they are human and want to be set free to live their life as they please. This is an example of how lazy Mr.Owens was; instead of getting a real job you would rather just free a slave.
ReplyDeleteNicole is right the true and only reason Mr. Owens even tried to help Grandison get free is because his infatuation or desire for a woman. It was a great story even though the morale aspects could of been a bit off this story proved that no matter how much you think you know you truly don't know if you're right. For example Owens felt that all slaves if in the right place at the right time would flee to freedom and yet the old slave Grandison made no attempt to escape. Funny and yet serious by nature a twist of events that occurred in this story is one of true remembrance.
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