Longest Memory Flashcards
chapter 1
Whitechapel schooled in “subservience, obedience, compliance”
vs
Chapel who is “thirsty for change”
pg.12
- contrast b/w generations expose consequences of oppression
- w/ Lydia’s help, Chapel’s literacy transforms him from powerless to powerful/empowerment = dangerous bc threatens to subvert society + risk corporal punishment
- WC’s internal colonisation -> share view of ‘the master’/Cook keeps Chapel’s secret
-Older generations uphold status quo vs younger generations who question it = intergenerational conflict/juxtaposing old vs new/cons vs progressives - WC believes he = model/paradigm
- WC “eyes” = key motif/recurring metaphor, eyes are the window to the soul
Chapter 1,’Whitechapel’,
“born owned by another man, like his father before him and like his son would be”
Chapel dreams “his children would be free” but Whitechapel rebuts with “evidence of 300 years” of history
pg.12
- cyclical pattern of history, WC accepts truth
-WC = older generation/traditionalist who wants to uphold the status quo/believes slavery = natural order and cant change, pessimistic about its ending - WC = hugely institutionalised
- WC = educator/councillor, role = teach slaves natural order/they’re inferior/role is to serve white ppl. -> cultural imperialism
- Chapel = manifestation of broader group/idealistic and progressive youth
-> wants change (flee north) - Chapel believes slavery - injustice + willing to risk his life to fight it
- dramatic irony -> aud. knows more, change comes bc now slavery abolished
- Through literacy, Chapel knows change is coming/knowledge about the broader world
- Foil……
Prologue, ‘Remembering’,
Whitechapel describes himself
“boy, mule, nigger, slave”
Family call him “dog”
- names central to identity
- WC rejects his own name + individual identity/adopts a white view of himself
-> only a slave - slavery and slaves equated w/ status of animals and seen as objects -> suggests that slaves have no identity or humanity
- WC + family + oppressors use animalistic terms/slaves accept dehumanised status and internalise white view as a political act/act of self protection
Virginian editorial
Slaves are “not our equal, not derived from our race”
A “just” punishment for a runaway = “something in the region of 200 lashes” and restricted diet and “maybe leg irons”
“this seems just and fair”
- flippant debate over treatment reveals accepted mistreatment and violent abuse of slaves
- authoritative tone -> opinions appear as facts/Virginian represents attitudes of white majority
- extreme violence used as tool for economic exploitation
- editorial = echo chamber of white (superior) views
- pervasive racist ideology -> instiutionalised racism -> brutality death of minority victems
Slaves compared to “stock on the plantation”
“they do not feel what we feel”
Whitechapel
“a slave could live a good, long life”
- editorial echoes societies belief in white superiority and divide bw dominate and subordinate groups/beliefs based on anecdotal and subjective ideals of “values”
- dehumanising language, created divide bc slaves worthless outside economic benefits provided to powerful -> American heritage replaced with western culture eg. WC given his masters name
- slaves taught to believe they’re serving God/good slave -> going to paradise (heaven)/WC sees himself the way his masters see him
Ch.8
Cook explains her “masters pot is full of the best things” but her pot is “sweet” to her
Cook hearing Chapel read:
“all I feel inside is pride, not fear, not yet; just pride swelling my chest and filling my heart”
- Cook = female voice + more positive perspective/contrasts relentless oppression
- cooks for master as job but fam with love
- strong identity + life enriched by love of fam
- loves Chapel -> keeps literacy secret/proud + hopeful (can use literacy against his oppressors)
- w/o literacy -> powerless -> in order to keep ppl + knowledge contained
Whitechapel in Forgetting
“memory is pain trying to resurrect itself”
“how long can the masters’ daylight continue to rule our nights?”
BP3
- DA wants reader to empathise with slaves stories, feel emotional when reading
- WC realises obedience to slavery is inherently unjust
- Reflects on Chapels escape and realises other slaves view the world like Chapel
- WC realises slavery is unsustainable bc slaves wont abandon deep desire for freedom -> eventually change must come
- DA foreshadows inevitable change and forces readers to ? current status quo in society bc despite progress, inequalities remain
Lydia about Chapel’s literacy
Mr. WC suggest “it might be possible in the future […] in the next century perhaps”
- even people in higher power know change is inevitable, symbolic of transition in society
Cook
“Any other man would have me thrown away. He is no ordinary man. His master respects him.”
WC
“Is that what I have become? The master of my fate.”
“A master of his own slavery. Slave and enslaver”
- his master protects/respects him bc works hard-> adhere to societal expectations without resistance/accepts reality
- WC wedded to patriarchal society -> internal subservience
- realisation -> he’s contributed to own pain/his obdedience to slavery has failed him/system has not protected him or respected him the way he thought
- epiphany (during Remembering) -> should’ve let son live his own life intead he drove him to his death. Chapel = 1/2 wht. chasing wht. ideals
Lydia to Chapel
“I wish you were white or I black”
- caught in dichotomy -> division/contrast bw roles in society but both want same thing - change
- tension about wanting to break out of society
V.E
“the world is rapidly changing”
“it is the young after all who hold domain over the future”
- V.E = voice of ppl.
- recognise change is coming, nothing lasts forever
