Virginia Hamilton Response to Literature

In language arts class we have been reading Virginia Hamilton's work for the past month and a half. Two weeks ago we started working on our final writing piece of the year, a response to literature in the form of a letter. Here is my response to literature:

June 21, 2006

Dear Seventh Grader,

Have you been feeling like your boss has been acting like a slave master towards you? Well, if you have you should read some of Virginia Hamilton’s literature in order to better understand your situation. Virginia Hamilton effectively implements dialect into her folktales and historical fiction pieces to explain the slave master mentality. In the historical fiction novel Anthony Burns the Defeat and Triumph of a fugitive Slave Virginia Hamilton explains the slave master mentality to show how Charles Suttles disciplines his slaves. This pattern is also present in Virginia Hamilton’s folktale “He Lion, Bruh Bear, and Bruh Rabbit.” Another folktale also by Virginia Hamilton, “Bruh Lizard and Bruh Rabbit” contains this pattern too. Not always does Virginia Hamilton show this when talking about slave masters in particular.

It’s obvious that in the historical fiction novel Anthony Burns the Defeat and Triumph of a fugitive Slave by Virginia Hamilton dialect is incorporated to show the slave master mentality. The novel is about a Virginia slave; Anthony Burns who escapes from his master, is caught, and has a court case made against him. When Anthony is having a flashback of how his master, Charles Suttle disciplined his slaves and what he thought of his slaves, dialect is used to portray the slave master mentality. Suttle says, “Anthony you my property, you belong to me. You my own slave child.” One can clearly see that this is dialect and that it shows the slave master mentality because Suttle is talking about how his slaves are his property.

In the folktale “He Lion, Bruh Bear, and Bruh Rabbit” Virginia Hamilton incorporates dialect to portray He Lion having the slave master mentality. The folktale is about He Lion who picks on all of the other animals in the woods. One day the animals consult Bruh Rabbit and Bruh Bear about this problem and Bruh Rabbit and Bruh Bear teach He Lion that there are others superior to him. After mistreating the other animals He Lion starts saying “Me and Myself. Me and Myself.” It is distinctly evident that this quote uses dialect and it exhibits the slave master mentality because He Lion is thinking that he is the best and has no superior and this was the attitude of slave masters. Another example of this pattern in “He Lion, Bruh Bear, and Bruh Rabbit” is when the folktale states: “He Lion went on, stickin out his chest and roarin.” It portrays the slave master mentality because again it shows that He Lion thinks he is superior but it also shows that he thinks he is almighty like slave masters did.

In the folktale “Bruh Lizard and Bruh Rabbit” Virginia Hamilton utilizes dialect to depict the slave master mentality. The folktale is about Bruh Rabbit wanting to steal Bruh Lizard’s Sword which does work for him in the fields. Bruh Lizard knows this so one day he leaves Sword and Bruh Rabbit steals it. He makes it start doing his work for him but can’t stop it when the work is done and Sword destroys all of Bruh Rabbit’s belongings. Bruh Rabbit spots Bruh Lizard watching him and asks him to stop Sword and Bruh Lizard does. When Bruh Lizard tells Sword to stop dialect is used to show this and it shows Bruh Lizard having the slave master mentality. This is what the text states: “The lizard laughs again, and he calls out real loud, ‘Go-ee-pom!’ Sword stop.” Obviously this is dialect and it shows the slave master mentality because as Bruh Rabbit is suffering Bruh Lizard is just standing there laughing.

It is imperative for the reader to comprehend that dialect is used to portray the slave master mentality in Virginia Hamilton’s writing. The texts Anthony Burns the Defeat and Triumph of a fugitive Slave; “He Lion, Bruh Bear, and Bruh Rabbit”; and “Bruh Lizard and Bruh Rabbit” contain this pattern. I hope these writing pieces have enlightened your situation. See you soon!

Sincerely,
Robert