Charles W. Chesnutt
My experience with reading Charles W. Chesnutt's written work was definitely a challenge for me.
I just am not use to reading old African American dialect so it was a bit if a struggle for me to get through the readings. What helped me get through the readings though was professor Campbell's suggestion of reading the dialect portion out loud. By me doing that I was actually able to hear what the character Uncle julius was trying to say. The fact that Chesnutt was able to both write using standardized English and African American dialect around that time in the manner that he did is very impressive for that time. I love how one of the overall messages in the stories that we read were that the generalized belief that African American slaves were not intellegent was challenged. One person is not smarter than another because of ones ethnicity. As crazy as that sounds for me to have to even mention that, it was very hard to except anything around the time of slavery that proved otherwise.
The character Julius and the rest of the slaves are just as intellegent as the white Americans (slave owners) it is just that they (slaves) are limited by their speech which in turn limits their ability to express themselves.
Paying close attention to the characters of Annie and John helped me better understand one of the many purposes these stories were being told. With Annie, playiing the wife who has an irrational take on all of Uncle Julius's stories by looking beyond the rational and looks to the feeling. And John playing the part of the husband who pays constant attention to reason. John is always generalizing about slaves in a racist way, regardless of the fact that he means well.