“Oh, yes. this is a wonderful government, wonderful. Why, looky here. There was a free n***** there from Ohio- a mulatter, most as white as a white man. He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest hat; and there ain’t a man in that town that’s got a fine clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a silver-headed cane-the awfulest old gray-headed nabob in the state. And what do you think? They said he was p’fessor in a college, and could talk all kinds of language, and knowed everything. And that ain’t the wust. They said he could vote when he was at home. Well, that let me out. Thinks I, what is the country a coming to? It was ‘election day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn’t too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a state in the country when they’d let that n***** vote, I drawed out. (Faulkner 27)
In this quote Pap is ranting on how the mix-man has the right to vote in his home state of Ohio but his trial, for Hulk’s wealth, is being delayed. Pap thinks Judge thatcher wants to prevent him for obtaining Hulk’s wealth which causes Pap to be disappointed by the law. Pap feels humiliated since the black man can vote and cannot be sold in their state. While he has been awaiting the trial others mix people are obtaining rights in some states.
The meaning based on this scene reflects on how Pap believes that based on someones color they should not deserve the same rights. His ideology is that people with different color skin should not be able to succeed in their society by not being able to vote. People being suppress doesn’t allow them to move upward from the social pyramid. It prevents many people of color to become highly success but what they actually want is to keep them lower and not allowing them to get any properties or any rights. Suppression is what caused reflect racism; whites wants to run this society with all the power and wealthy they have but in order to do this they have to make laws against black people. Color people are still not seen upward of the social pyramid; many of the whites who had the power back in history continue to have the power and are the wealthiest now in this country. Not only did they suppress the ancestors but based on what happened in the past they don’t have the tools to become successful in this racist and not accepting community. Taking it back to the Marxist lens blacks are not at the same level as white. Minorities in general are usually on the lower level economically wise while the white continue to become more powerful and their wealth increases with the work minorities do for them.
Faulkner uses diction and imagery to get his point across to portray the anger he has toward people of different color is used in many instances. For example, he uses the term “n*****” and is very detail with what object the color man is wearing. He wants his audience to picture the man, as he criticizes and feel left out since he is white and cannot even afford what the color person has. Money is a great issue in this scene since the person of color is a teacher and get’s paid money while Pap has no money and doesn’t work. There is jealousy and suppression. The constant repetition of the n word is a way of trying to suppress the color people in a different manner than not just going pro laws against them. Adding on the italicize of the word vote pops up in the part of the text and it highlights the idea of why Pap is angry. That word is what makes the picture clear because it is mainly what the rant is on.
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