Ideology of LBS
Long Black Song has three different ideologies attached to it. Long Black Song has realism, naturalism, and modernism. The realism aspect is due to the faithful representation of material reality. This is evident in the text due to Sarah‘s heightened desire for intimacy postpartum. It also parallels with her desire for the clock, and knowing she must consider, the financial means before accepting the clock. The naturalism aspect is introduced due to the harsher treatment of the power of social government and the jungle on an individual psychology. This is also viewed through Sarah due to losing the love of her life and not being happy at home with the man who has provide a stable home and income for her, which is why she was so easily tempted by the salesperson. Yet, the salesperson brought in a racial aspect to the conversation, causing her to be very hesitant. It was obvious her marriage wasn’t her issue with letting that man be intimate with her, it was the issue of the salesperson being white. Naturalism is also observed through the husband due to him having that momentary rant in the story of how the white man is always taking something from him, as a black man, no matter how much he’s working towards it. This relates to a very quick depression, or a final point for him as he was willing to give it up completely and willingly accept there was going to be shootout between him, the white man, and his fellow comrades. The naturalism is viewed in the basic structure of the story, and what they represent. Sarah’s house was an entrapment acting as a separation from her and nature. Sarah correlates to nature as narrated in a very vivid description of the nature of around her and her reaction to it, and how that seems to be her happy place yet as soon as the house is mentioned, it becomes dark and gloomy for Sarah. This demonstrates her connection with the nature and how the house is being a societal structure for her, limiting her, disabling liberty. This is a literal and metaphorical demonstration of her disabling liberty as she is a black woman in the southern south in the early 1900s. Modernism is highlighted throughout the story due to, the break of function of language in the conventional form. This is seen with the dialogue between Sarah and the sales person and how her language presents a very relaxed African-American vernacular dialect, while the sales person speaks the societal deemed “proper “English and you can see this throughout their dialogue with one another.
-tt