Testing and Tricking: Elegba in Charles Chesnutt's "The Goophered Grapevine" and "The Passing of Grandison"
2010; Volume: 43; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2165-2678
Autores Tópico(s)American and British Literature Analysis
ResumoWhen Charles Chesnutt wrote Goophered Grapevine and Passing of Grandison, he engaged in African tradition of storytelling that has been passed down for generations. His stories evidence oral of African peoples: stories within stories, spoken language, call and response, hyperbole, personification, and signifying. introduced lore of 'conjuration,' African American hoodoo beliefs and practices to a white reading public, validating African experience, revealing its continued existence in a land where there had been a deliberate attempt to eradicate that experience, and evidencing resiliency of African peoples and their cultural traditions (Gates, Norton 603). Chesnutt's The Conjure Woman first indicates his deliberate referencing of these cultural traditions. The seven-story collection focuses on plantation and slave life, featuring Aun' Peggy, a conjure woman who works magic and casts spells, as a primary character. Aun' Peggy's spells and magic are enslaved's primary defense against inhumanity of enslavement. Gloria C. Oden posits that Chesnutt chose conjuring as a frame and theme because he knew that conjure filled a deep need in slave's life for a weapon to invoke against arbitrary and often violent circumstances that made up his existence. It compensated for powerlessness he felt, and, consciously or unconsciously, it gave him vitality of his African heritage (39). While others had written about Negroes and their beliefs, they did so in terms of [Negroes] being fearful of dead and of their keeping a charm about them as a protection against evil spirits (39). Chesnutt, however, ventured into this spiritual area of Black folk belief (39). More significant is Chesnutt's engagement of African cosmological system to tell his stories. This engagement is nowhere better evident than in Goophered Grapevine and Passing of Grandison. In African cosmology, there exist many Orishas, secondary divinities who represent various aspects of Supreme Being, who is too vast for (wo)man to comprehend. Within that cosmology exists deity Elegba, also called trickster, who is considered messenger to Supreme Being. Elegba is deity of crossroads, of choices and decisions: He is Orisa who sits at threshold of every decision and offers options that decide our future. Elegba is gatekeeper who owns various options or roads (Mason 8). While many use Elegba interchangeably or in combination with Esu, according to John Mason they are two separate energies contained within same deity. Mason explains, is wild, uncontrollable aspect of this Orisa, whose shrine must be kept outside of house. Elegba, on other hand, is a part of Eshu which has been calmed down by of Obatala, deity of divine wisdom and coolness (8). It is through Elegba that offerings are made to and for other deities. It is Elegba rather than Eshu that is most appropriate for this analysis. Elegba, present at creation of universe, safeguards principle of free will, providing, within a limited scope, a chance for a person to decide his own destiny (Mason 8). This notion of freewill is central to African cosmology because each decision plays important part in determining one's overall future (Mason 8). Carrying a magic wand which enables him to travel great distances in an instance (9), it is he who carries prayers to Supreme Being. However, before he translates those prayers, Elegba will test requester and proffer an alternative to determine if request is indeed what is wanted. Too often people choose Elegba's alternative and are thus tricked. is often called God of Mischief because he offers the options which lead to disruptive collision of men's paths .... His mischief serves to wake a person up and to make him realize flaws in a particular action (Mason 10). …
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