After listening to the groups today in class, and hearing what they had to say about “The Passing of Grandison” I mulled it over a little more at home and realized that I reacted somewhat differently to the story. The group suggested that Grandison had his escape planned from the moment his master offered to send him up north with Dick. I thought that this was unrealistic, because it was probably above Grandison’s ability. I do not mean that he was not smart enough to have devised this plan, because he shows everyone his true colors when he outsmarts them in the end. I only mean that I was under the impression that Grandison was being sincere in his loyalty as he made his claims to love his master and have no notions of being a free man. I took this more as a man who had spent so many years in such a dehumanizing position that he had lost his touch with reality outside the plantation and also with his own independence.
I saw this as sort of similar to the Stockholm syndrome we see in kidnapping cases when a victim is forced to solely rely on the captor for his or her basic needs to be met and therefore eventually forms a loving bond with the same person who is hurting them. This could have easily applied to Grandison as he became most likely would have become more brainwashed while living in the plantation, grateful for every ounce of attention given to him by the one person who controlled his food and other necessities. He may have truly agreed with his master because he no longer had trust in his own strength and capabilities to succeed as a free soul.
When I read this story, I felt that it was more likely that Grandison was forced into freedom by Dick rather than that he had been plotting to leave the entire time. To explain this we can look at the many chances that he was given to escape and did not. He was eventually on his own in Canada, but he could not have been specifically waiting to cross the border because he had no knowledge that Dick would resort to traveling there. I felt that although he was abandoned instead of entering into freedom by choice, once he experienced it, he was able to see the life outside of the realm of the plantation, and that is when he decided to return, and trick his master to bring his family away with him.
1 comment:
I don't think that Grandison had the idea of how to take his family north until he talked with the abolitionists, Ruchell, but his statements to the Colonel--especially that "Yaas!"--seem a little too close to telling the master what he wants to hear for me to believe in his sincere sense of loyalty..
Post a Comment