tement is depicted in Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” through “the Negro servant” named Tobe. Although he is a character in the story, the reference to him is as “a doddering Negro man to wait on her… He talked to no one, probably not even to her, for his voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse” (Faulkner 76). I feel through literature, society and “white” writers show the African-American experience or (black life) as valueless.Morrison also argues that society ignores issues of race by disguising the actual subject. She demonstrates this idea using a famous book within the canon, “Huckleberry Finn”. She says that, “the critique of class and race is there, although disguised or enhanced through a combination of humor, adventure, and the nave… the novel masks itself in the comic, the parody and exaggeration of the tall tale” (Morrison 320). Despite the serious subject matter within the book “it simulates and describes the parasitical nature of white freedom” (321). Morrison also claims that society reduces the importance of the African-American experience by perpetuating negative stereotypes. She states that the ending of “Huckleberry Finn” has been labeled as a “brilliant finesse that returns Tom Sawyer to the center stage where he should be” (321). By replacing the black slave, Jim, with the white character of Tom at the end of the book, racial stereotypes are confirmed. This book clearly minimizes the importance of black people and slavery issues; however Tom Sawyer is in the spotlight as a “coming of age” child.Morrison makes an exceptional statement in regards to race as well as summing up her viewpoint toward the issue when she says, “It is further complicated by the fact that ignoring race is understood to be a graceful, liberal, even generous habit. To notice is to recognize an...
