The Luminous Voice Of An Enslaved Character

Counted amongst the most memorable illustrations of American literature, the picaresque novels follow the mischievous and reckless adventures of the titular protagonists who are juvenile and white. In the first part of the duology, Jim is described as 바카라�the small coloured boy바카라� whose marginal presence is barely noticeable in the novel. His sparse speech, cluttered with contractions and disjointed diction, is believed to represent the 바카라�slave dialect바카라� of the time. When Tom tells him to swap whitewashing the fence with fetching water from the pump, Jim mumbles 바카라�Can바카라�t, Mars Tom. Ole missis, she tole me I got to go an바카라� git dis water an바카라� not stop foolin바카라� roun바카라� wid anybody. She say she spec바카라� Mars Tom gwine to ax me to whitewash, an바카라� so she tole me go 바카라�long an바카라� 바카라�tend to my own business바카라�she 바카라�lowed she바카라�d 바카라�tend to de whitewashin바카라�.

When 바카라�Miss Watson바카라�s big nigger바카라� Jim learns that his owner is going to sell him, he runs off from the plantation hoping to escape to Illinois, a free State. Jim chances upon Huckleberry Finn who is running away from his drunkard and abusive father. The duo band together and set on a meandering journey full of perilous adventures along the Mississippi river. They travel at night while hiding during the day, because, in addition to being a runaway slave, Jim is accused of Huck바카라�s murder and there is a lucrative bounty on his head. Their uncommon companionship compels Huck Finn to deeply reflect on the legal and moral validity of Jim바카라�s servitude, which the boy gives voice to in the first person in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But Jim is portrayed as a dim-witted ignorant slave who indulges in witchcrafts and lacks lucidity of thought and speech. Big Jim never grows up cognitively. 바카라�You can바카라�t learn a nigger to argue,바카라� Huck claims with an air of condescension. Such disparaging and stereotypical remarks, not least the (ab)use of the 바카라�N바카라� word, abound in the novel.

In James Percival Everett turns Mark Twain바카라�s depiction of Jim on its head. It is not so much the retelling of the adventures as the sublime reinvention of the character in a fresh light. In a notable departure, Everett hauls and hoists James front and centre of the narrative, giving him a firm and lucid voice with which he writes himself into being:

My name is James. I wish I could tell my story with a sense of history as much as industry. I was sold when I was born and then sold again. My mother바카라�s mother was from someplace on the continent of Africa, I had been told or perhaps simply assumed. I cannot claim to any knowledge of that world or those people [바카라�] I can tell you that I am a man who is cognizant of his world, a man who has a family [바카라�], a man who can read and write, a man who will not let his story be self-related, but self-written.

Voice forms a prominent subject matter in James바카라�s perspectival rendering of the adventures. Hitherto written about and sized up by whites (author and characters), James reclaims his voice and takes up the narrative reins in the language of his choosing, proficiently switching between slave diction and clear speech. If James babbles away incoherently, it is to play along white expectations. It is seldom his default speech. James insists that the mastery of language is indispensable for safe movement in the white man's world.

Giving language lessons to children, he explains, 바카라�white folks expect us to sound a certain way and it can only help if we don바카라�t disappoint them바카라�. The children learn to apply slave filter and situational translation when they are nearby whites. If the kitchen is on fire, they are instructed not to say 바카라�fire, fire바카라� directly but cry 바카라�Lawdy, missum! Looky dere바카라� and let the whites take lead in naming the trouble, finding a solution to it and feel superior to the 바카라�stupid바카라� slaves. Their survival lessons also include self-effacing gestures and demeanours (such as, 바카라�don바카라�t make eye contact바카라�; 바카라�never speak first바카라�) to humour inflated white superiority because any infractions to the heavily guarded master-slave relation is met with gratuitous and unspeakable violence.

바카라�They enjoy the correction and thinking you바카라�re stupid. Remember, the more they choose to not want to listen, the more we can say to one another around them,바카라� James judiciously cautions his students. By taking the slaves for gormless nincompoops the whites are taken for a roundabout ride. It never occurs to them that they can be mocked by the slaves, which James describes as double irony.

James is industrious, erudite and caring. He steals himself into Judge Thatcher바카라�s library to read books secretly. In his vivid dreams he converses with Voltaire, Rousseau and John Locke, taking them to task for their convoluted and problematic views on race and slavery. Cunégonde, the tormented female character in Candide by Voltaire, visits James in a dream to inform him that slavery is a global profitable enterprise in which banks own slaves as mortgaged assets. While on the run, James is preoccupied with the imminent threats his wife Sadie and their daughter Elizabeth face in the plantation, which counters the dominant image of the absentee Black husband and father. James reminds himself, 바카라�I couldn바카라�t lose sight of my goal of freeing my family. What would freedom be without them?바카라�. When James and Huck navigate the unremitting dangers on the Mississippi river, the whites바카라�slave owners, bounty hunters and tricksters바카라�pose the biggest threat to them than the raw forces of nature. The 바카라�adventures바카라� from James바카라�s perspective sounds like a cruel misnomer. He affirms, 바카라�there is no adventure in it, Huck바카라�.

Twain바카라�s Huck has a guilty conscience; he cannot reconcile with the fact that his friend Jim is Miss Watson바카라�s property. It is his introspection and romantic thrill for adventures that drives Huck to heroically help Jim in escaping slavery. Jim바카라�s liberation, in other words, is Huck the white boy바카라�s moral burden. Despite Huck바카라�s good-hearted approach to Jim, their relation is weighed down by white guilt. In marked contrast, Everett바카라�s depiction of the duo is dialogic, engaging and mutually enriching. When Huck is confused by the conflict between the good and the lawful, James clarifies, 바카라�Good ain바카라�t got nuttin바카라� to do wif da law. Law says I바카라�m a slave.바카라� James finds himself in a tight spot to rescue either Huck or Norman (who is James바카라�s friend and is black) from drowning in the river. He makes the difficult decision to save Huck after which he reveals the troubling secret that he is in fact Huck바카라�s biological father.

James is the hero of his story who escapes from slavery and returns to liberate his family. To a slave owner pointing a gun at him, James trains his pistol in turn and declaims, 바카라�I am the angel of death, come to offer sweet justice in the night. [바카라�] I am a sign. I am your future. I am James.바카라� The electrifying words cast James in a remarkably different light than Twain바카라�s subdued Jim. Literature possesses the potency to etch enduring images of characters on the public mind. Everett바카라�s James is a much-needed corrective which amplifies the voice of an unforgettable character of American literature.

Purnachandra Naik is an academic researcher interested in Dalit literature and African American literature