The coin bank portrays a grinnig slaves who eats the coins. This represents a "good slave" who will worship over white men in order to recieve superficial rewards. This stereotype haunts the narrorator for after he smashes the coin bank, it is returned to him in small pieces, each wrapped in paper. Also, this figurines ability to swallow the coins relates back to the "battle royal" in chapter one. Just as this statue swallows the coins, it almost represents the black youths as they were scrambling to collect the coins on the electrified carpet.
The Sambo doll is created in the image of a Sambo slave, who, in the White man's eyes, is sterotypically lazy yet arrogant. It is another representation of black entertainers who laugh and sings for whites. The Sambo doll represents the whites complete control over black's, controlling their every move. The invisible strings on which the doll is made to move from represent the ways a person's potential can be manipulated due to prejudice.
To learn more about the Sambo doll, visit https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Little_Black_Sambo.
This totally answered all of the questions I had after reading these scenes so thank you! I now understand the symbolism behind the coin bank and the doll. I wonder if this foreshadows the narrator's ultimate fate. Is he just a puppet used for the delights and pleasure of the prejudiced white man? I felt as though this might be true when the narrator is requested to sing an African-American song by a white man of the Brotherhood. If the man truly respects the narrator and considered the narrator his "Brother", why does he subject the narrator to such racial profiling and teasing? The motives of the Brotherhood are questionable to me so far.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely!! I thought it was foreshadowing as well, hopefully I can make sense out of all of this soon.
DeleteA sambo doll accurately symbolizes the way that the Brotherhood manipulated Clifton and the narrator, and how the narrator/blacks have always been manipulated by whites. This goes back to the battle royal. The white men at the Battle Royal took advantage of the blacks for pure enjoyment, just like the doll entertains the audience.
ReplyDelete