FREE JOE and the REST of the WORLD by Joe Chandler Harris
Free Joe and the Rest of the World" reflects a revisionist version of the antebellum South. It was published in 1884 by Joe Chandler Harris who tells the 'sad' tale of the African-American Free Joe, cruelly freed and drifting like "a black atom," in contrast to the happy, singing, and laughing enslaved human beings in the fields (Harris 1884, p.117). African-Americans are portrayed as quaint stereotypes in this tale, either as picturesque field hands, man-servants, or fortunetellers. Joe is freed by an irresponsible white man, a gambler who does so more out of vengeance on the world after he blows out his brains after a game of cards rather than kindness. Clearly, this is supposed to suggest to the reader that only bad slave-owners free their black slaves. These owners do so because do not want to take care of the slaves, not because they are abolitionists at heart. Joe is estranged from his wife, left with only a dog for company, and is said to see his status diminished as he must rely upon the mercy of "poor white trash" (Harris 1884, p. 120).
The title of the story suggests Joe's misery and estrangement from the rest of the world he knows and loves, namely his fellow African-Americans who are in bondage. No other free men are portrayed in the story, other than 'poor Joe,' and Joe makes no move to head to the North, to find other freed men and to seek an education or a job to buy his wife's freedom, as many slaves did in real life. Instead, he passively sits and pines for his wife Lucinda, but her master forbids the two of them to meet. When Joe disobeys him, her master sends Lucinda away, and Joe dies, waiting for her in their usual hiding place, a 'victim' of his freedom, the author implies. Rather than portraying the man as cruel, Chandler suggests what is to blame is the fact that Joe is free, and lost without a wife or purpose in life. The story is a chilling example of the self-justifying logic of slave-owners.
Works Cited
Harris, Joel Chandler. (1884). "Free Joe and the Rest of the World." The Century. 29. 1 1884,
Cornell University Library. Retrieved February 16, 2009. http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABP2287-0029&byte=31679514
Joe Biden Presidential Primary The effective use of free and paid media strategies will be critical in getting Biden through the primaries and into the general election to face off against President Trump. This will include get out the vote plans and polling strategies to obtain a clear idea as to how Biden stands with voters in each of the key demographics. Where Biden will need to impress early on is
Trader Joe's uses to promote a positive work environment for its employees. Determine at least three (3) ways in which Trader Joe's is able to increase job satisfaction and performance. Trader Joe's is excellent in what retailers consider delivering the last one hundred feet; the last 100 feet are always the hardest (Lewis, 2005). To overcome these obsticles, Trader Joe's places a significant amount of attention towards its human resources. For
Freedom to Be Yourself Harry Brown, the author of How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World, once wrote "...the only way to achieve total freedom is to jettison all attachments and responsibilities -- to family, to country, to people, to government and to morality. In other words, only when you become a lone wolf outlaw do you achieve maximum freedom." And true to form, Browne hit a nerve: being true
Masculinism in Science Fiction Science fiction has always been a masculine genre, no matter that Mary Shelley invented it in her novel Frankenstein. Until fairly recent times, most science fiction writers were men, and they dealt with subjects like technology, power, space battles, featuring male heroes, explorers and adventurers. In film, science fiction has been a perfect subject for ultra-masculine actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, although Lieutenant Ripley in the Alien trilogy
At times, it strikes the reader surprising that the novel is set as recently as the Great Depression. The town is so 'backward' -- in its modes of life and its outlook, it feels as if it is even older. The Great Depression seems to have set East Texas back economically and culturally, at least in Harry's recollection. Harry's father's farm was doing a bit better than most neighboring farms,
" This is significant because it shows how some critics of contrarian investing will often point to the various instances of speculation and assume that it is contrarian investing. In some cases the psychology of consumers can become so extreme, that the definition of what is speculative expands greatly. As a result, using contrarian investing in conjunction with other indicators / tools can help prudent investors and traders, be able to
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now