Week Two: James
JUNE 12, 2024 • CAMP TOB WEEK TWO
James
second half discussion
Welcome to our second week of Camp ToB 2024! Activity Leader Sabrina A. is back to discuss the conclusion James by Percival Everett—take it away Sabrina!
-
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.
This has been excerpted from the publisher’s summary and edited for length.
Hello Camp ToBers! We are here today to talk about the rest of James, What a lot there is to discuss! Because this is our last week on this book, I want us to look at specific elements of parts two and three, but also at the novel as a whole.
1.
Norman tells James that Emmett was apoplectic about the theft of his notebook with his songs in it. When Norman asks why James didn’t rip out the song lyrics, he says, “I had not torn out Emmett’s songs—somehow they were necessary to my story.” Why?
2.
I want to talk more about writing—the power of writing, and the importance to James of writing down the story of his life. Why is it so important to James that he write down the events of his life, in his own words?
3.
I am sure many of you have read the same articles as I have, but Brock is a reference to Lucius Broakway, an employee of Liberty Paints in Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man.
For reference, Mr. Kimbro, who is white, is in charge of the section of Liberty Paints where the narrator is assigned when he gets a job there. Brockway, who is Black, is the second supervisor, who maintains the factory boilers in the basement. He also is, as he boasts to the narrator, the creator of the slogan, “If It's Optic White, It's the Right White.” Brockway in Invisible Man, and Brock in James both end up having the boilers they tend to explode.
What does Everett accomplish by having James meet Brock?
4.
What role does rage play in James? What about revenge?
5.
In Huckleberry Finn, James becomes, by proxy, a father figure to Huck, guiding his mind and body in a way that Huck’s own father didn’t. Why do you think Everett made James and Huck actual father and son? Also, how does Huck react when he finds out he, by the standards of the time, would be categorized as Black? How does that differ from Norman’s feelings about his race and identity?