Complicating race cont.

It is true that Wilson reflects her own experience and the circumstance at that time into the figure of Frado.  In the introduction of the book, we can see the fact that “Sleeping in alternately stifling and freezing quarters, being overlooked to the point of exhaustion, and enduring depressing isolation were the norms in service.  As a young black child indentured toa white family in a town that only a handful of blacks called home, Wilson experienced a fate even worse than the typical northern indenture” (p. xxvii).  African-americans were property.  Mrs. Bellmost indicates this when she talks about “keeping” a servent on page 16, and again when Jack refers to Mag as “our nig,” which is on the same page.  Since these people are viewed as property, they are treated like dogs.  Booth explains in his essay, “Perhaps the most important differences in narrative effect depend on whether the narrator is dramatized in his or her own right on whether his or her beliefs and characteristics are shared by the author” (p. 151).  If the author is sharing the same beliefs as the narrative characters, than there might be some complications in what is actual happening.  The idea of race and how it is portryed could been thrown off and/or complicated.  The reader might get two differnet angles of the idea of race and that complication can give different responses to the audience.  Wilson reflects her own experience exactly in this book’s world view and into the figure of Frado.  However, even after we read these statements, we can consider that Frado is seprate from Wilson in terms of the view of independence as a character, and a woman.  But other characters could be affected.  Just like a dog, Mag sleeps outdoors.  Mag is also punished with raw-hide and “allowed” to eat her breakfast away from where the family is eating.  This view and treatment leads to desitute and hopelessness.  Again, do these actions realte back to Wilson’s experience?  I feel as if some of the life-styles might not correlate to what Wilson expirenced, which in short, could lead to confusion from the audience.  The way race is portrayed might lead to complications in being able to determine what is actual happening during that time.  Is it just the way the book its written?  Maybe Wilson is trying to create a more attractive narrative, instead of revealing what actually is happening during that time.