By: Alexis Gagnon
Class of 2018 What Love Can Do centers around Henry Goody Jons, the mixed-race son of a young slave girl and her Louisiana master. Jons is faced with the decision to identify as white and escape slavery or embrace his black heritage and remain a slave. Jons identifies with his African American heritage and returned to his community as a pastor after the Emancipation Proclamation. Prejudice and hatred, are a stronger form of slavery than physical bondage. While not physically bound,, prejudice and hatred limited these African Americans from living full, safe lives from the Emancipation Proclamation to present day. A few years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Jim Crow laws were enacted, legalizing segregation and prohibiting the African Americans in this collection of stories from exercising their rights. Even though they were faced with hatred and prejudice, they refused to stop living their lives. An astounding ideal to go by, presented by Henry Goody Jons, gave them the tenacity to live: “When you take on real love for people, you actually take on God, for God is Love.” As mentioned in the memoir, prejudice and hatred is a greater form of slavery than bondage itself. It is a mental prison that can turn physical if one is found in the wrong circumstances at the wrong time. However, despite his prior circumstances, Henry Goody Jons was always able to give his fellow African Americans the strength and perseverance to give love to others. That strength helped heal the community’s wounds then and could continue to heal the wounds our country suffers from today.
0 Comments
By: Sydney Pattison
Class of 2018 Books have a magical way of bringing people together through emotions elicited from them. No matter if the book brings out the best or the worst in a person, reading always produces an effect on the audience. What Love Can Do is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Arthur Mitchell is able to communicate loss, triumph, and acceptance through the stories that have been passed through generations. In doing so, Mitchell’s secondhand stories give readers firsthand insight of how love must be at the forefront of our hearts and minds, even in the face of adversity. Here are a few quotes from our classmates about how Arthur Mitchell’s stories personally affected them: “It gave me perspective on how other people are treated determined by race and how we need to open our eyes to how society acts toward others of different ethnic backgrounds.” “I think it just gave me more perspective on what to appreciate in our lives.” “It showed me that there are similarities between that time period and our society today.” The most prevalent example of love in the face of adversity takes places at the beginning of the book when slavers capture the Niaconigogoa family, but the captain falls ill on the journey back. The crew members allow the captured women to venture into the jungle to find herbal remedies for their white captain. Even though they are being taken to the Americas to be sold, when given the choice, they freely choose to return to the ship that will eventually lead to a life of slavery. The women choose love in the most morally challenging circumstances and eventually pass this morality onto their children and their communities. The only way to come together fully is through love, and by loving one another, we spread love throughout the world. |
AuthorsTen students, a teacher, and an editor trying to make dreams a reality. Archives
December 2017
Categories |