This line of dialogue confused me for a while. It interrupts the serious conversation on page 85, where Paul D reveals to Sethe that Halle was in the barn when she was violated and that he felt less free than the roosters at Sweet Home when he had the iron muzzle on.
Then Sethe starts smiling: “He loved that tub,” she says about Mister the rooster’s perching habits.
In that serious moment, there’s still room for a respite of humor. That’s how it always is isn’t it? There’s always something funny, something beautifully real to reflect on mixed in with even the most horrible memories.
But that sweet moment still has really dark undertones. The rooster sits on the tub “like a throne.” Mister is free to perch on a tub and talk; he has a personality, a name, a title. The text gives that rooster so much power as a the human being watching it can’t speak or relax.
Then Halle reflects on when he helped that rooster out of its shell and its aggressive behavior towards the other animals later on. “He was always hateful,” he says. He has to be a hateful rooster. He was born into a world of inherent evil. He lords over Paul D on his throne, living comfortably and wreaking havoc on others. Mister is just like a slave owner. In a small way, he's part of the power structure at Sweet Home.
I think the fact that Paul D helped Mister to hatch also calls forth a few other interesting parallels. Many slaves did a lot of domestic work, which would put them in a position of assisting with some of the caring for their slaver's children, or occasionally even birthing the illegitimate children of their slaver. Depending on their situation those who the slaves helped to survive may turn their back and take on an oppressing stance.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you commented on the humor. When I read this passage it really made me think about how even after facing all the hardships that they had, Sethe and Paul D. are still human. They still have emotions, they still make jokes, and they are still people who can find joy. I like that you wrote about this passage because the difference in rights between a literal animal and a Human in this passage is hard to look at. To see someone treated so awfully is hard to read about but the way you looked past it and focused on the positive side, the resilience of people, I really liked that.
ReplyDeleteIt's also interesting how the rooster has more agency than Paul D. He can choose to go wherever he wants and do anything he wants to while Paul D. a human is subjected to being a slave having no freedom of his own. I liked that you saw the humor brought into it, I completely overlooked that but I agree with you that how intriguing it was that Sethe had some humor while she was reflecting on a horrible memory.
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