“When we take away from a man (woman, animal, earth itself)
his traditional way of life, his customs, his religion, we had better make
certain to replace I with something of value.” Robert Ruark
I keep these words on the wall above my computer so that I
can be reminded of them daily to better understand what is happening with me
and the world of my experience each day. Every time I experience something or
read something I realize that what is happening in my world (beginning with me –
a female in a white man’s world, the environment and the endless cycle of war,
famine and poverty) is the result of treating this piece of advice as fake
news. I have a great deal of respect for
understanding the teachings of Jesus as
a foundation for living to help me understand what it is that oftentimes robs
me of finding the “peace that passeth understanding” that Jesus lived.
I grew up reading the
Bible and believe in the truth and wisdom of these teachings, but I do not
discount the teachings of others who have been enlightened, especially by
honest observation of the world around them, and have their own parables
designed to help me better understand spiritual truths that transcend this physical
world, whether of some other faith or simply the playwrights and authors that
have shared these ideas in great works of literature and the other arts. Robert
Ruark did it in his best-selling book “Something of Value” and as I have delved
into the authors from the Harlem Renaissance I am beginning to see how their
works illustrate how the African Americans both in the North and the South are
still in bondage because of Mr. Roark’s astute prediction. I could also see how
all of us (women, indigenous people, immigrants, Asians and on and on) have
been affected in the same way.
I just completed the chapter in “The Invisible Man” where
the main character goes North with seven letters of introduction to some of the
most powerful men on Wall St. He doesn’t
open the letters but believes in the truth of what the President of his all
black college in the South has told him is written in the letters. The character
believes that he will spend the summer in the North working for men of power
who will make it possible for him to return to school in the Fall and redeem
himself in order to graduate to follow in the footsteps of the esteemed President.This journey to the North has been the history
of the African American in his/her struggle to be free and reap the fruits of “life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness” which is what the North has always meant
to the African American.
What the main
character of “The Invisible Man” learns is much the same as the experience of
Richard Wright after he moved to Chicago.
Wright’s autobiography details the
truth of his experience there. His
fictional story “Native Son” is a powerful commentary on the situation in the
North and gives the reader an understanding about why the Black Power movement and
destructive race riots have been centered in the North instead of the South. “The Invisible Man” like Native Son and
Another Country by James Baldwin are other examples of great classics from the
Harlem Renaissance.
After arriving in New York and settling in at the Men’s Club
(a YMCA), the main character has a lot of time on his hands because despite
visiting all but one of the offices of these powerful men, he never meets any
but the secretaries and receives the same response from all after the letters, “he
will be getting back to you." The character has
encounters with owners of restaurants where he is allowed to sit at the
counters with other white people but the white owner's stereotypes are all the same. When
he finally gets an interview with the last man on the list, he is shocked by
the ugly noise being made by a caged, tropical bird living in this resplendent
office. Why is he making such an ugly noise? The character then remembers a
visit to one of the museums on the campus of his all black college.
“I recalled
only a few cracked relics from slavery times: an iron pot, an ancient bell, a
set of ankle-irons and links of a chain, a primitive loom, a spinning wheel, a
gourd for drinking, an ugly ebony African god that seemed to sneer (presented
to the school by some traveling millionaire), a leather whip with copper brads,
a branding iron with the double letter MM . . . preferring instead to look at photographs of
the early days after the Civil War . . . And I had not looked at these too
often.” As I remembered the metaphor of
the beautiful caged bird, I realized why the bird was making such an ugly noise
as I connected it to Robert Roark’s prophetic words. When I finally discovered the contents of the
letter along with the main character, I too, lost hope. The letter began “The
Robin bearing this letter is a former student. Please hope him to death and keep
him running. . .”
After leaving the Wall St. Office with all hope drained from
his heart, the main character hears a black man singing a rhyme he remembered
from his childhood.
“Ole well they picked poor Robin
clean
Ole well they picked poor Robin
clean
Well they tied poor Robin to a
stump
Lawd, they picked all the
feathers round from Robin’s rump
Well, they picked poor Robin
clean.”
When the main character returns
to his room, he begins to make a new plan – one now based on revenge.
No comments:
Post a Comment