Review for Song Yet Sung by James McBride - Book Report/Review Example

 Book Review for Song Yet Sung by James McBride McBride’s (2008) novel does not really lend itself to understanding family in sense that family could be identified in the way the questions for this essay were written. Instead, the reader had to see family in a broader sense and think about the relationships that the slaves built with one another. As an example, the slaves were a part of an extended family that provided food, shelter and comfort for them while they were running away. In slavery, there were no specific families living together because slaves were sold and often separated. This paper will provide insight into the extended family concept. Communication and Slavery (#6) In the beginning of the book, the reader meets Liz Spocott. She is on the run in the beginning of the book and the reader never finds out why she is on the run, but she ends up in Patty Cannon’s attic recovering from a musket ball shot to the head. In this attic, after a short time, she is taught the Code. The Code is the major communication for the slaves and it shows who can be trusted and who cannot. The Code was something the slaves developed so they could move around secretly without white people knowing what was going on. The Code brought her many things including flint to make a fire, food, water, and clothing. Liz was generally well taken care of by people along the way who also knew the Code. Beyond the verbal Code, there was a nonverbal Code. Two examples of this were to wear the left pant leg rolled up, and to draw a symbol in the dirt; both of these symbols told that the person could be trusted. Amber was a character that has a sister Mary. He longs to run to freedom but he knows that Mary will not go because she likes it at the Sullivan’s home. In fact, Mary was be the reason later in the book that Amber is caught because she will tell the character called The Gimp to look out for him and let him know he is with Liz A Sense of Family (A) There were no specific family in this book but the strength of African American people was a theme throughout the book. When Liz first goes to Patty’s attic after she is captured by another slave, Big George, she has already escaped with a fighting attitude. She wants to get away from slavery, but her dreams have told her that there is not a lot of freedom for blacks in the future. She meets the Women with No Name who begins to teach her the Code. This is a strong African American woman who tries to escape with the others in the attic but knows that she will not make it and asks to be laid next to a creek where she can die. Many slaves in the book had an extended family that was not a blood relation. This was because most slave families were sold so they could not stay together. According to the textbook, slaves depended on families for their strength, especially when they understood that their family was “out there” and they could perhaps be reunited. In the book, all of the slaves seemed to be a part of a large extended family. The Woolman had learned to trade of hunting from his mother before she died and was able to live in the woods without interference from the whites for 19 years. If his son had not become ill, he would not have taken him to town and the whites probably would not have found them. He was also a part of the slave network. Amber was an integral part of the underground railroad and this helped him and other slaves build the kinship network that spanned to many farms in and outside the area. The Old Woman with No Name took care of the people who came to Miss Patty’s attic, but she could not stop them from being raped by Big George; Liz had the strength to do this. The slaves were also very strong because they kept their faith. Their faith taught them that they would be free one day and they just had to hold on. The slave network also took the place of a typical family because it provided food, shelter and nurturing as much as it could. Theories and Family Relationships (4) The three theories that seem to match the relationship of this family are the structural functional perspective, the symbolic interactive perspective and the ecological perspective. The structural functional perspective see that the family is a social “institution” that makes sure that the members of the family that will insure the family’s stability in society. The majority of functions portrayed in the novel were manifest functions – intended. The underground system was elaborate and deliberate in its movement from one place to another. They supplied someone new into the free economy when they sent slaves to the North and Amber did the same when he took the Woolman’s son out of slavery. Amber also helped the socialization of Woolman’s son because he had always been in the woods without socialization. The symbolic interaction theory because it looks at the internal interactions of the family, the actions within, and the response that family members have towards each other. If the reader begins with Liz, it is clear that the situations she found herself in were always changing. She was never sure what she would find because she never understood the entire Code. She was placed into real situations and had to figure out what she would do next; she was largely dependent on what the situation brought to her for her behavior. The extended family in this book was also influenced by their environment. The environment dictated how they acted in any situation. The slaves had to be cautious around any whites, whether they were their masters or other whites. They had to do what they were told. This put them under an extreme amount of stress and if their masters were mean and cruel, they had more stress. In the book, it appeared that most of the slaves were treated well except for the ones that Patty Cannon had under her employ. Each aspect of the underground railroad had to be alert at all times and take extra precautions for safety. All of these situations were part of their everyday life and environment. Growth and Achievement (5) As it is true that parents encourage achievement in their children, the reader in this novel gained experience of what happened to many of the characters through their thinking about what they were taught. As an example, the Woolman’s mother taught him to hunt and to survive on the land; in turn, he was teaching this to his son. This was supposed to keep them away from slavery. Amber remembered that his mother taught him about the Code before he died in case he would need it. Within the story, socialization was met through the “parents” of the slaves which were their masters. The white slave owners were the ones that provided the discipline and the socialization needs because they were the ones who decided whether the slaves could visit with each other. Cognitive and intellectual growth was different for each character. As an example, Liz was able to grow because of the visions she had of the future. Amber grew cognitively and intellectually as he began to read a little and he understood that he also had to leave the area. The Woolman did not speak, but he was able to take in a lot of information from his surroundings. He made a mistake by interacting with the whites when his son was ill, but there was nothing else for him to do; he eventually takes Jeff Boy, one of the white children and keeps him in exchange for the child the whites took from him. The slaves were always being chased by Patty and her crew and they were hunting the slaves as though they were animals, but they continued to stay out of their way until the end of the book. The challenge for the slaves in the book was that they could not find solace until they were free because the whites were always a problem. Kathleen Sullivan was an exception because she began reading the bible and began to understand that owning people was not a right thing to do. She had both intellectual and emotional growth when she finally frees Amber at the end of the story and allows him to take Woolman’s boy and Liz; in fact, she helps them because of her belief. Conclusion McBride did a very good job of showing the plight of slaves as they moved through the underground railroad. Instead of focusing on Harriet Tubman, he focused on Liz and the other components of the railroad. The reader could tell that he was historically accurate about the time period and that he painstakingly created characters that were rich and vivid on the page. McBride showed the characters as they were and he let the reader understand more about this time period in history. The character of Liz, seeing the future as it is today, seemed to be a testament to what McBride was seeing around him from other blacks. This novel was very interesting, fast paced and never let the reader down in terms of a good story line that was played out until the finish. References McBride, James (2008). Song Yet Sung. NY: Riverhead Books. Read More