In Wilson's "Our Nig," her exigence is fairly clear. By showing Frado's difficult experiences and writing about instances where she is severely mistreated, Wilson allows her audience to experience and possibly understand her own past through the eyes of Frado. While Wells-Barnett's exigence in "Lynch Law" is mainly to bring about change and to make lynching the concern of all Americans, Wilson's exigence, on the other hand, is to offer an "inside look" into a way of life that many people are not aware of and have not experienced. Even though both pieces deal with similar issues of race inequality and gender roles, they have very different purposes.
However, Wilson may have had another exigence along with the one I just mentioned. As we discussed in class on Monday, there are many assumptions present in the novel that involve race, gender, status, etc. But Wilson, in many instances, counters these assumptions with specific characterizations and pieces of the plot. For example, Mary and Mrs. Bellmont, both women in the Bellmont household, would be assumed to have less power than the men of the household and to be less forceful. This is because women did not have authority over men at that time, and they were known to be ladylike and gentle. However, Mary throws a knife at Frado, and on many occasions, Mrs. Bellmont abuses Frado. Overall, both women are the most physically and verbally abusive towards Frado. The men, on the other hand, are indifferent towards Frado and even defend her on a few occasions.
In addition, Frado's friendship with James counters the assumption that black servants are only allowed to be friends with other black servants, or others of their social status. However, although James is not a servant, and is in a higher social class than Frado, they still become friends purely because they get along well.
While it is fairly obvious that Wilson is showing us her life through Frado I do not think that her exigence can entirely lie with trying to relate to the audience. I believe there is an incredible appeal to pathos. The way she describes her life with fleeting moments of kindness in an overall day to day life of horrible events does bring out sympathetic qualities in an audience, and had the language been a little different it could be a call to arms. However, I believe Wilson's exigence has as much to do with showing her life to herself as it does with showing it to the world.
ReplyDeleteWilson uses Frado in a way that pathos comes into play, but I also believe that ethos comes into play as well. While Frado is not necessarily the most attractive character the terrible things everyone around her does endears her to the audience more. I believe the character that Wilson created gives her confidence and authority to create a character to tell the world about her experiences.
So Wilson's exigence is not necessarily about telling the world but also telling herself what happened and how it happened. I believe it is her way to talk it through with herself and learning how to deal with the memories even as Frado tries to deal with her present. Wilson's exigence is not just for an audience but also for the author herself.