Power-hungry Characters

After participating in the seminar today, I noticed many interesting connections in the novel. First of all, Dr. Bledsoe connected well to the grandfather’s advice. The grandfather says, “Live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ’em with yeses, undermine ’em with grins, agree ’em to death and destruction, let ’em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open.” A major component of the discussion was whether or not Dr. Bledsoe was a representation of the grandfather’s advice. If he is, then Bledsoe is basically living with his “head in the lion’s mouth.” While I believe that Bledsoe is trying to undermine white authority, I am not sure about his attitude towards the whites. I thought that the grandfather’s advice was an important metaphor. When the grandfather says, “live with your head in the lion’s mouth,” the lion represents the whites. Therefore, the whites are dangerous, but the blacks should live with the white mentality as their “head,” or way of thinking, is in their mouth. One important line that shows that Bledsoe is potentially taking the grandfather’s advice is when he says “Why, the dumbest black bastard in the cotton patch knows that the only way to please a white man is to tell him a lie!” Obviously, Bledsoe wants to please the white men. His attitude begs the question—why does he want to please the white man? I think that is more about power. Much of the novel revolves around power-hungry characters. Both the Founder and Ras the Destroyer are kings and need power. Even Mr. Norton seeks power as he supposedly controls the fate of others. Bledsoe, involved in this power struggle, participates in making the black people feel inferior and in need of control by somebody else.

One significant part of the novel that we touched briefly upon in class was the narrator’s discussion with the veteran. From their entire conversation, I thought the most important quotation was when the veteran says, “He believes in you as he believes in the beat of his heart. He believes that great false wisdom taught slaves and pragmatists alike, that white is right. I can tell you his destiny. He’ll do your bidding, and for that his blindness is his chief asset.” Firstly, the incorporation of “white is right” connects well to the later liberty paint scene (which is our next discussion). “White is right” is part of the company’s slogan. Since another meaning of right is pure or moral, the quotation, as the veteran mentions “false” wisdom, shows that white truly isn’t right. Just as the white paint is tainted, the white wisdom is false. It is also interesting that the veteran mentions “blindness,” which appear almost everywhere throughout the whole novel. The narrator is “blind” in that he doesn’t realize that Mr. Norton wants to be powerful through the narrator. For Mr. Norton, the narrator is just part of a scorecard. As the novel progresses, I think that the narrator seems to lose some of his blindness, especially when he encounters Mr. Norton again at the end.