Americana
Sambo and the coin bank
Ellison portrays the narrator’s
experiences with racist objects to provide insight into the black stereotypes
plaguing the nation and how the narrator perceives them. The coin bank and
Sambo are separated by many chapters yet share similar meanings. They both have
racist connotations from times of slavery and infuriate the narrator. The
stereotyped appearance of the coin bank that is introduced in the 15th chapter
doesn’t appear until the narrator is leaving Mary’s place where he proceeds to
smash it to smithereens. Sambo appears just as spontaneously as the piece of
early Americana and makes the narrator just as transfixed as when he saw the
bank. Both appeared to be right under his nose, “Then near the door I saw
something which I’d never noticed there before: the cast-iron figure of a very
black, red-lipped and wide-mouthed Negro, whose white eyes stared up at me from
the floor...(319)” and when he sees Sambo he says, “Puzzled, I moved into the
crowd and pressed to the front where at my feet I saw a square piece of
cardboard upon which something was moving with furious action.” While the
narrator is both confused and angry at the racist items he has trouble
distinguishing them from normal life.
The narrator is becoming better at
understanding what’s racist in the world as he finds becomes enraged by these
objects, but Ellison could also be adding them to the book to reflect on the
narrator’s situation. When the narrator
is leaving Mary’s house to join the brotherhood he meets the coin bank. The
coin bank can hold onto the coins but when it’s full it’s broken, and all the
coins return to the person which has been feeding it. This represents how the
brotherhood, a white organization, pays the narrator, a black man, but the
brotherhood reaps the rewards.
Sambo is a better example as it
reflects how the narrator is being controlled by the brotherhood. While it may
seem like Sambo is dancing himself, he’s being controlled through difficult to
see strings. Like Sambo it may seem like the narrator is projecting his own
ideas when he’s on stage, but he’s simply regurgitating the Brotherhood's
ideology. The fact that it’s Brother Jack who’s taking care of the Sambo stand
can also be a critique of the black men in power at the brotherhood when it’s
not really helping the African-American’s of New York. These two pieces that
the narrator encounters are ways for Ellison to reflect on the narrator’s
story.
Good points. Maybe the piggy bank breaking also alludes to how Brotherhood planned their own collapse in Harlem?
ReplyDeleteThese are all really interesting points. I agree that the narrators anger at the bank and the sambo doll reflect his growing consciousness at the racism in society and the oppressiveness of white people. I also really like your point about how the bank represents the way that the brotherhood takes advantage of the narrator and uses him for their own purposes.
ReplyDeleteI really like your point about how the bank and Sambo represent the status of black people in society. We talked a little in class about the significance of the nearly invisible strings, and I don't remember us actually landing on a theory, but I think yours is definitely what Ellison was going for. I also, like Lili, agree with your observation on how the narrator's reaction to these two objects shows his growth in understanding his racist society.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I thought the analogy between these racist objects and the brotherhood was really interesting – it’s true that the narrator is toyed with and used solely for the brotherhood’s benefits throughout the novel, and I hadn’t realized that Ellison was using the racist objects to articulate that idea. I think it’s also significant that the two objects are both stereotypes that the brotherhood sees the narrator through: a tool to further their interests, and a funny plaything.
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