Joshua Herring

Dr. McGee

Honors Children’s Literature

October 30, 2005

No Less Effective

It is a common assumption that children’s literature should be written at a more simplistic level than adult literature (Nodelman 72). The people who believe this assumption are also the same ones who accept the assumption that children possess a limited ability of understanding (Nodelman 73). However, there are others who argue that children are just as capable of reading and understanding texts with complicated issues, and that children’s text should be written and evaluated at the same level as adult literature. Peter Hunt argues in his article “Defining Children’s Literature,” that “research has shown that children are far more competent text handlers than is generally assumed” (6). It is the people in the latter group who challenge themselves to create children’s literature that is anything but simplistic. These authors create texts that force children to ponder and participate in their texts, and these texts include issues that many people consider to be “adult” ones. Not only do these authors often include relevant and debatable issues of the past, present, and future, but they also cover these issues with the same amount of comprehensiveness at the same level of intelligence.

One such complex issue is the process of interpellation. People have often been guided by dominating ideas within a society or through physical force to view themselves or others in a particular way (McGee). Many authors of children’s literature have deemed it necessary to share this often negative process with children. One of the most infamous examples of interpellation to occur in the United States is that of African Americans from the time of slavery up through the Civil Rights Movement. In an effort to show that children’s literature can be just as complex and in depth as adult literature, this essay will follow the process of interpellation of African Americans to feel inferior to whites from the time period of slavery up through the Civil Rights Movement, using children’s texts as the source of historical events and happenings.

The interpellation of African Americans as being inferior to whites during slavery times undoubtedly included both social influences as well as coercion. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a book written by Mark Twain that represents these forces at play in great detail through the travels of a Caucasian boy named Huck and an African American slave named Jim. Huck and Jim are familiar with one another as they both at one time lived under the authority of Miss Watson; Huck as an orphan and Jim as a slave. However, due to undesirable happenings both run off into the wilderness. By chance, the two fall upon one another and end up traveling down the Mississippi together.

In talking to Huck one day, Jim sheds light on the way he was treated by his previous owner Miss Watson. He tells Huck, “ole missus-dat’s Miss Watson-she pecks on me all de time, en treats me pooty rough…” (Twain 43). This statement by Jim encapsulates years and years of poor treatment that slaves endured during the period of African American slavery. Jim explains how his owner constantly picked on and abused him. However, readers find out later that the punishment for an attempted escape was much worse. When Jim is recognized and caught as a runaway slave for the last time, before Huck’s friend Tom Sawyer informs everybody that Miss Watson had already set him free in her will, he is socially degraded and beaten. In referring to the men who take hold of Jim, Huck says “they cussed Jim considerably…and give him a cuff or two side the head once in a while…” (Twain 284). Through this cussing and beating, Jim is reminded that he is a slave and must remain submissive to whites. From these two depictions, Twain explains the type of force through abuse that whites inflicted on African Americans to make them feel inferior.

Twain, however, does not neglect the social factors that led to the interpellation of African Americans during slavery. African Americans were made to believe that they were ignorant and dumb in comparison to the white race. This was done despite the traits or identity associated with Africans prior to enslavement as often “prior to the act of interpellation, the “subject” might be described as without any already constituted position…” (Pease 2). Thus, this makes it possible for interpellation to take place as the interpellators justify themselves by claiming to give the “subject” an identity. As in the case of Africans, they were said to be barbaric, and Caucasians claimed to want to civilize and Christianize them.

The effectiveness of this interpellation process of African Americans is shown in Twain’s book when Jim is held in captivity under the Sawyer family. Jim is bewildered by the fact that he has to go through so many ridiculous procedures to escape the hut. Huck, recognizing Jim’s confusion thought, “Jim he couldn’t see no sense in the most of it, but he allowed we was white folks and knew better than him” (Twain 248). This statement shows interpellation has taken root as Jim has accepted the belief that his intellect is not that of the white race and therefore goes along with the children’s’ ridicules demands.

However, the fact that Huck recognizes the thought process that Jim goes through shows that he has been interpellated as well; he believes that the Caucasian race is far more intellectual than that of the African American race. This fact is reinforced when Huck gives up on explaining to Jim why he must endure such trials to escape when he thinks “there ain’t necessity enough in this case; and besides, Jim’s a nigger, and wouldn’t understand the reasons for it…” (Twain 239). Huck believes that Jim is incapable of understanding such “necessary” procedures, because he has become just as interpellated as Jim, which shows that interpellation does not only occur to the “subject” or group that suffers from it.

Yet, slavery for the African American race did not last forever, and the Civil War marked the turning point in slavery. However, the same biased forces, though maybe slightly reduced in the North, remained in the forefront of society. The North with the benefit of its manufacturing economy claimed slavery had to end, while the South and its agricultural based economy claimed that slavery had to be maintained. Though whites in the North had the consciences to fight for the end of slavery, they were not ready to make African American social equals. This is represented in a book called Pink and Say, in which two Union soldiers who are fighting for the cause of liberty end up meeting. However, one major difference between the two soldiers causes a great disadvantage for one of the soldiers fighting in the war. This difference was in race as one of the soldiers, Pink, is African American and the other one, Say, is white. Upon Pink saving the wounded Say from the battle field, the process of interpellation that still existed to a great degree in the United States becomes evident.

Pink finds Say injured lying in a field. He picks him up and carries him to the safety of his home. The soldiers begin discussing the war. Pink shares his feelings on the inequality that exists in the Union army. He tells his new found friend, “least you got to carry…we couldn’t have guns at first…” (Polacco 20). He continues to ask a question, “…can you imagine not trustin’ us with our own fight?” (Polacco 20). Pink felt a very personal tie to this war obviously, as he along with many other African Americans at the time saw it as a fight for their freedom. Not being able to carry weapons was very discouraging for the African American soldiers. Pink figures that it’s a trust issue; however, could it be that the Caucasian race is still trying to show a difference in social class? In a sense, Caucasians in the North are still showing superiority; the Caucasians give the African Americans the right to carry weapons.

While the North maintained a race separation to keep the African Americans believing they were inferior, the south also kept its tradition; superiority by means of force. Eventually both soldiers are caught and made prisoners of war. The book concludes with how each soldier was treated upon captivity and how each soldier made out. Referring to the treatment of Pink, Say said, “they smote him and dragged him away from me… they crossed his back with knotted hemp and pushed him along” (Polacco 40). The white soldier was treated better and also ended up surviving captivity while it is believed that Pink “was hanged within hours after he was taken into Andersonville” (Polacco 41). This particular children’s book is based on a true story which certainly reflects to who exactly interpellation was directed at.

Once the Civil War ended, there was a quick glimpse of equality for the African Americans upon being set free. However, this brief time of Reconstruction in which African Americans even participated in government came to a heartbreaking end. African Americans, at least still possessing freedom, now faced the hardship of survival. Though those who migrated to the North experienced some luck with job opportunities in factories, conditions were far from perfect. In the South, the Jim Crow Laws that felt like a nightmare for the African Americans were all too real. The Jim Crow laws brought numerous inequalities. In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor, a vivid representation of the life of an African American during these times following Reconstruction is presented. In this novel, there is a particular character named Cassie whom the reader seems to discover these inequalities with.

As Cassie walks to school on the opening day for the black community, something in front of the all white school struck her attention. She noticed that “in the very center of the expensive front lawn, waving red, white, and blue with the emblem of the Confederacy emblazoned in its upper left-hand corner, was the Mississippi flag…” while “…directly below it was the American flag” (Taylor 15). Clearly this is a symbol showing the African American population in Mississippi at the time that southern values of the state were going to be held higher than that of the country’s. These values include white supremacy. Cassie as well as many other African Americans continued to find that the Caucasian community planned on maintaining these values through social forces like the flag as well as physical force.

At Cassie’s all black school, excitement spreads throughout the building because for the first time the students are getting text books. However, the conditions of these books are extremely poor and this is because they have been handled by white students for many years. Cassie recognizes the wrong in this as she realizes that the only reason they received these texts was because they were deemed no longer useable in the white school. Cassie tells her teacher, “they give us these old books when they didn’t want’em no more” (Taylor 26). However, their teacher has no patients for this ungrateful child and she actually goes to her mother who happens to be a fellow teacher and says “they’ve got to learn how things are sometime” (Taylor 30). Taylor in this situation shows the social forces at work and like in previous time periods, African Americans are being interpellated to believe that this is the way things must be. This teacher, who should be one of the smartest African Americans in the community, had come to accept this role as being inferior. This fact is further emphasized as the teacher tells Cassie’s mother that she is “biting the hand that feeds” her by tempering with the books as she covers up the white names along with the respective “conditions” of each book. (Taylor 30).

Cassie is further confused when she goes to the market with her grandmother and finds that the African Americans have to give up the best marketing spots at the market to the whites. Cassie continually tells her grandmother that they need to move closer to the entrance where their supplies will be seen first (Taylor 105). However, Cassie’s grandmother finally tells Cassie that the space near the entrance is reserved for “…white folk’s wagons…” (Taylor 106). The inequalities that African Americans are facing are becoming clear to both Cassie and the reader. From both the school text controversy to the wagon segregation, the social structure of whites coming first and receiving all the benefits is a resounding theme for African Americans during the period that Jim Crow Laws were in place.

The physical force some Caucasians released upon African Americans is also represented in Taylor’s book. While Cassie is walking back to her grandmother’s wagon after attempting to buy some items from a store, she and a white girl bump into one another. The white girl demands that she apologizes and though Cassie does she still receives abuse from the girl’s father. The girl’s father caught Cassie’s arm, twisted it, and then pushed her into the road (Taylor 114). The father then made Cassie apologize to his daughter using her full name and with the respective title of “Miz” (Taylor 114). This type of forceful treatment leaves no questions as to the social structure the Caucasian race planned to maintain. It may also be noted that this treatment was to a female child, which shows the heartlessness of the dynamics at play.

The physical forces at play regarding adults were indeed even more severe. When an African American was accused with flirting with a white woman, a group of Caucasian men set him and a couple others on fire (Taylor 39-40). The accused man and his friend both died in the burning (Taylor 39-40). When this horrible hate crime was reported to the police, it was ignored and the sheriff actually called the African American woman who reported it a “liar” (Taylor 40). This reinforces the representation that the Mississippi flag holds by flying above the American flag. In fact, the Caucasian men that committed the crime claimed “they’d do it again if some other uppity nigger get out of line” (Taylor 40). Clearly, the importance of African Americans “staying in their place” is not something the Caucasian community in the south was ready to lose.

Sadly, similar conditions held true up through the Civil Rights Movement which took place just thirty to forty years ago. Not only did the social manipulation persist but even the physical force was clearly present. The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963, written by Christopher Curtis, shows the terrible type of violence that existed during the Civil Rights Movement. In his book, a family travels from Michigan down south to Alabama. One of the children within the Watson family has continually misbehaved, and the parents decide to drop him off with his strict grandmother for a summer to straighten him out. During their brief visit, the youngest daughter in the Watson family goes to church where unexpectedly a bomb goes off. Curtis does not hold back on the horror of such a scene as Kenny the main character in the story describes what he sees as he searches for his sister outside the blown up church: “I got right next to where the door used to be when the guy came out with a little girl in his arms…” I walked past people lying around in little balls on the grass crying and twitching” (184-186). Indeed, the inhumane treatment of African Americans that existed all the way back during slavery times seems to have been unyielding even up to such recent times.

The mindset behind such horrible actions is presented in Natalie Carlson’s book The Empty Schoolhouse. In response to all of the violence that had been taking place in towns around French Grove, the setting of the story, one white woman claims “there wouldn’t be all this violence if they stayed in their own school” (Carlson 28). “They” in this reference, are the black students who have been integrated into a Catholic school. As evident by the Caucasian woman’s attitude, there is a belief that African Americans are attempting to rise up out of their place by intermixing with the white race. The truth is, equality was exactly what the African American race was striving for during the time period.

In another one of Natalie Carlson’s books, Marchers for the Dream, she represents this push for equality. In this story, thousands of African Americans have traveled to Washington D.C. for a demonstration to make the world aware of their oppressions. Once arriving in Washington, people explain to one another why they made the trip:

“I’ve worked hard all my life, but there’s those say we’re poor ‘cause we’re lazy… Lots of

us had jobs till the government gave the plantation owners big money not to grow more

cotton… My boy put himself through college, but all he can get back home is stoop work…

We’re not too poor… but we’re oppressed… The whites are trying to drive us out of

everywhere” (Carlson 52).

The oppressive social structure that was still in place during the 1960’s and 1970’s, which showed that a racial divide still existed, is an incredible thought. Yet, it is not that far-fetched once considering that “a critical review of the law will not… undo the force of conscience unless the one who offers that critique is willing… to be undone by the critique the he or she performs” (Butler 8). It could certainly be claimed that the Civil Rights Movement was the time when the interpellators recognized and reversed their actions.

However, one might still wonder if the brief time period of the Civil Rights Movement truly put an end to all of the complex beliefs and values that interpellation of African Americans created. Indeed, it is not incorrect to say that the Civil Rights Movement gained a lot of rights for the African American race. However, it is very difficult to claim that there is not a degree of interpellation that still exists today. For this reason, there are undoubtedly many scholars currently researching the topic. However one must not overlook the fact that there is not only adult literature being published discussing the issue but also children’s literature. Hopefully it has become evident that the children’s literature being published on the topic today has every chance of being enlightening as the adult literature being published. One must keep in mind that just because children’s literature at times is written with slightly larger font or with the addition of pictures, it does not mean that the texts are any less effective in communicating content. In fact, there are probably some adults who could benefit from such illustrations along with the reading.

Works Cited

Butler, Judith. “Conscience Doth Makes Subjects of Us All.” Yale French Studies No. 88

(1995): 8. JSTOR. 15 Nov. 2005 <http://www.jstor.org/view>.

Carlson, Natalie. Marchers for the Dream. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1969.

Carlson, Natalie. The Empty Schoolhouse. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1965.

Curtis, Christopher. The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963. New York: Bantam Doubleday

Dell Books for Young Readers, 1997.

McGee, Chris. Notes on Interpellation. 2005. 15 Nov. 2005.

< http://www.longwood.edu/staff/mcgeecw/NotesonInterpellation.htm>.

Pease, Donald. “Negative Interpellations: From Oklahoma City to the Trilling-Matthiessen

Transmission.” Boundary 2 Vol 23 No. 1 (Spring, 1996): 2. JSTOR. 12 Dec. 2005

<http://www.jstor.org/view>.

Polacco, Patricia. Pink and Say. New York: Philomel Books, 1994.

Taylor, Mildred. Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1991.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Bantom Dell, 2003.