Joel Chandler Harris , captured the character of Brer Foz and Brer Rabbit in his stories of Uncle Remus. As Tiffany presented to our class, the characters and the story would have been much different if they had not had the african american wording. Sure, it was tough to read, but if you sat there and really got into the story you could really imagine a fox and a rabbit in a cartoon talking to each other this way. Paul had suggested in class that it would have been easier to read if it were in "regular" english writing. I slightly agree with this because there are Shakespeer books that have the english written on the side so it is easier to understand. But it would have been all the same if Jim, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, who was african american, talked just the way everyone else did.
Would the story have been the same? Would we have viewed Jim in the same manner? Probably not.
I found an online analysis of The Wonderful Tar Baby Story that asks an interesting question that was also brought up in class. If these two animals represent two races, white and african american, how do we know which is which?
Do you think Harris primarily wrote these stories to make a point about race in society, or did he write them because he found the narration of blacks to be "poetic imagination" and "quaint and homely humor"?