As I was reading "The Source," I quickly realized that the Grandmother, Sophia Jane, had a big influence on the people around her. She was full of personality, and had a leadership role in the story. The African American people who worked for her would complain about their living situations to her, and Sophia Jane would make sure their needs were met. Sophia Jane also seemed to like everything clean and organized, and was big on authority. I got the sense that her grandchildren loved her very much, but were also happy to get away from her at certain times due to her strict leadership role. Sophia Jane seemed to have such a caring heart, not only did she care greatly for the people around her, she also took great care in the animals she owned.
Once I started reading "The Old Order," I realized how much Sophia Jane hated change. The values she had are values from the old south, getting married, having children, disciplining your children, and men working. She seemed to love the past because she would always talk about the past. On page 12 Sophia Jane and and Nannie said that, "children were conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity. Childhood was a long state of instruction and probation for adult life, which was in turn a long, severe, undeviating devotion to duty, the largest part of which consisted in bringing up children." I thought that was a strange way of child rearing.
On pages 12-14, I finally figured out who Nannie was. She was an African American girl who was bought for Sophia Jane to be her playmate. I thought it was really sad that Nannie was taken away from her parents because someone wanted to buy her. On page 14 I read, "I want the little monkey, I want that one to play with." That is what Sophia Jane said to her father. I think that the only good that could have come of Nannie being taken away from her parents was that she was free of hard labor. Instead of being worked to exhaustion, she was able to grow up as a playmate to another girl, and they grew up to be the best of friends. It's sad that she was taken away from her parents and sold like she was nothing to another family, but I think it gave her a better life. Nannie even celebrated her birthdays. At first she didn't know when her birthday was, but Sophia Jane closed her eyes and pointed to a day on the calender, and that day was to be her birthday. She even guessed the year she was born. Once her date of birth was determined Sophia Jane wrote it in the family bible with everyone else' s. I think this gave Nannie a sense of belonging and importance, also feeling that she was cared for by others.
Later on in the story I read about a change that Sophia Jane didn't like. She didn't like how the role of women was changing. She seemed upset that one of her sons married a "wild women." She didn't like her daughter-in-laws direct way of speaking, walking, and talking. Sophia Jane didn't like that her sons wife had to have her way about everything, and she compared her to the "new woman," who wanted to vote and make her own living.
I liked how Sophia Jane and Nannie were such great companions. They seemed to enjoy each others company a lot. Sophia Jane even breast fed for one of Nannies babies when she was ill. Sophia Jane didn't care about how much her husband told her not to breast feed that baby. She just wanted to help out her friend. They both seemed to have lived honest and spiritual lives. Even though Nannie enjoyed where she was, she was still very saddened by slavery. On page 23 I read, "She could not understand why God, Whom she loved, had seen fit to be so hard on a whole race because they had got a certain kind of skin." I feel that she blames God for slavery.
"The Witness" reminded me of the Frederick Douglas readings. Uncle Jimbilly told stories of how horrible the slaves used to be treated, going into gruesome details. It was very difficult for me to read about the torture slaves encountered in the Frederick Douglas readings, it gave me feelings of sadness and disgust, and I had those same feelings in this one. I don't believe anyone should have had to live their lives like that.
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2 comments:
Your right sophia didnt like change at all, people that dont like chang have the charcateristics that you just mentioned. They are very organized and they like everything to be perfect. Once change comes along it ruins everything. The only thing that she didnt change was the fact that her friendship with Nannie didnt change she was loyal to Nannie.
I also enjoyed Sophia, as a character she is was a good example of a good plantation owner. She was fair to her workers, providing for their every need. She defiantly like everything in their place. She was a little anal about things, but if I were one of her workers I wouldn’t mind because she only visited once a year to make sure everything was they she wanted it to be. Her Grandchildren needed her in their lives because if it weren’t for her I think their father would allow them to run around naked.
I have to disagree with you on the thing about her hating change. I don’t think she hated it I just think she didn’t want it for herself. As I mentioned in class the other day in “The Source” she said that riding astride was okay for her grandchildren, but she liked riding sidesaddle. I feel if she was completely against change she wouldn’t even allow them to ride astride.
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