Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

FEBRUARY, 1946 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE 17 mean tvay, hut some of his remarks tickle my fiimiy-bo7ie just because they’re in dialect. I guess my English is vretty good by comparison.) “ ‘Get up the main trunk first, a7id then 1 will tell you which ivay to go — and here — stop! Take this beetle with you.’ “ ‘De bug, Massa Will! — de goole-bug!’ cried the Negro, draiving back in dismay. ‘What prepai'ed to ascend the iree.” “ ‘If you are afraid, Jup, a great big Negro Like you, to take hold of a harmless Little dead beetle, ivhy you can carry it up by this string — but if you do not take it up luith you in some way, I shall be under the necessity of breaking your head with this shovel.’ ” {Jupiter is just like a little child, but his master knows how to deal with him. Master Will talks exactly as if Jupiter were a little boy. First he coaxes — then he threatens to beat Jupiter.) “ ‘What de matter now, Massa? said Jup, evidently shamed into compliance. ‘Always want to raise f uss wid ole nigger. Was only f minin’ anyhow. Me feered de bug! — What I keer for de bug?’ Here he took cautiously hold of the extreme end of the string, and, maintaining the insect as far from his person as circumstances ivould permit, 27repared to ascend the tree.” {The Negro is scared all right. It makes you laugh at how frightened he is of a little beetle. Maybe superstitious, too.) Reading on, the pupil is entertained with how Jupiter climbed the tree, how he hesitated to venture out on the limb unless he could first rid himself of the beetle, and how his master remonstrated with him. “ ‘You infernal scoundrel!’ cried Legrand apparently much relieved, ‘tvhat do you mean by telling me such rionsense as that? As sure as you let that beetle fail. I’ll break your neck. Look here, Jupiter! Do you hear me ?’ ‘‘ ‘Yes, Massa, needn’t hollo at poor fiigger dat style.’ ” {Jupite7‘’s right. Even if he is a fiigger, his master shouldn’t yell at him that way.) “ ‘Well! now listeti! — if you will venture out on the limb as far as you think safe, and 7wt let go of the beetle. I’ll make you a prese'ut of a silver dollar as soon as you get down.’ ” {Boy, I can just see Jupiter’s eyes bugging out! I’ll bet he’d do almost anything for a dollar.) Next in the sequence of events Jupiter was instructed to drop the gold-bug through the left eye of a skull which was attached to the end of the limb. However, this procedure failed to locate the position of the buried treasure until Master Will suddenly saw the light. “ ‘You scoundrel,’ said Legrand, hissing out the syllables from between his clenched teeth — ‘you inferncd black villain! — speak, I tell you — answer me this instant, without prevarication!— which — which is your left eye?’ “ ‘Oh, my golly, Massa Will! Ain’t clis here my lef eye for sartain?’ roared the terrified Jupiter, placing his hand upon his RIGHT organ of vision, and holding it there with a desperate pertinacity, as if in immediate dread of his master’s attempt at a gouge.” {Now wasn’t that a stupid trick? The poor colored man didn’t know his left eye from his right.) And so it goes. The effect upon the young reader of such a story as The Gold-Bug is to establish in his mind a stereotype of the Negro as an ignorant. foolish, childlike, craven individual. How can the average white youth help but feel patronizingly superior toward Jupiter? If in empathy the reader projects himself into the place of a character in the story, it is the master, Will Legrand, whose role he plays in imagination. With Legrand, the reader heaps imprecations on Jupiter for his stupidity, his ridiculous fears. With Legrand, the reader lovingly condescends to wheedle Jupiter with a silver dollar. With Legrand, the reader looks down upon Jupiter from the lofty pinnacle of white superiority. If Jupiter could be accepted as an individual rather than a type, Poe’s characterization would not be objectionable. Unfortunately, Jupiter is precisely the prototype of his fictional brethren as they are encountered by the highschool student everywhere, at the local motion picture theater, on the radio, and between the pages of other books, including other textbooks. Jupiter reinforces other images, and they in turn reinforce the cruel caricature that is Jupiter. Other Minority Groups Although the stereotype of the Negro is the one found in our textbooks most often, other minority groups suffer similar treatment. The Irishman, for instance, appears in several derogatory patterns. This kind of portrayal, incidentally, has existed for some time in the history of English literature. Hard feeling between the English and the Irish gave rise to the disparaging delineation of the Irishman. Subsequently this tendency was carried over into American literature and has continued down to the present day. Some textbook stereotypes of the Irishman are casual — a chance descriptive phrase, a