Have you ever heard the story of some frat that was given kegs full on non-alcoholic beer, but were unaware of it? Well, the members of the frat believed it to be normal good ol’ beer and acted as though they were drunk, some, even threw up. This is the placebo effect; a simulated treatment or medication to deceive whomever receives it.
Though this may not be directly related, this is how I thought of the “root” that was given the Frederick Douglass by another slave, Sandy Jenkins. “He told me… I must go with him into another part of the woods, where there was a certain root, which, if I would take some of it with me, carrying it always on my right side, would render it impossible for Mr. Covey, or any other white man, to whip me (111).” This root received by Douglass was the object that allowed him to stand up to Covey, altering his situation and essentially foreshadowing the freedom that was coming to him. Before lashing out against Mr. Covey, Douglass states, “On this morning the virtue of the root was fully tested (112).” Douglass firmly believed that the root was responsible for his actions, which is what I believe too. Although it did help him in standing up to his master, I think it could be considered as a placebo. Just like the example of giving a person beer and telling them that it will get them drunk, even though there is no alcohol in it. I don’t wan’t to say that Douglass had a false sense of courage, but I will say that his courage was probably inflated, because he thought he was protected by this root. What would have happened if Sandy Jenkins and the root never crossed Douglass’s path? Perhaps his whole narrative would have been altered, and he could have been under the reins of Mr. Covey, having never stood up to him.
I think that Douglass’s courage in this scene should be attributed to much more that the root that was in his right pocket. We learn through his narrative that Douglass was a remarkable and intelligent man that fought his way out of slavery. He may have thought that the root gave him superstitious powers to fight back against Covey, but at the end of the day, he was just taking the word of another slave that happened to persuade him.
This is very interesting idea because it represents what might have happened to Douglass if he hadn't taken the root. At this point in the narrative, Douglass is at his lowest with a broken mind and body. His courage was also failing him. This is right after he was just writing about how he did not want to die as a slave, “It cannot be that I shall live and die a slave,” (pg.107). With this in mind, the reason why he accepted that the root had special powers is because he was extremely desperate and figured that it could hurt to try it. However, I do not believe that he fully believed in it’s power when he first received the root from Sandy Jenkins. “To please him, I at length took the root, and, according to his direction, carried it upon my right side,” (pg. 111). He was only being kind to Sandy when he agreed to take it. Sandy also had a wife that was a free African American and to Douglass, the root may have been viewed as a symbol of freedom, which therefore encouraged him regain his confidence.
ReplyDeleteMeghan, this is a great connection between the story and a real-life situation. It was very interesting! When I read this section of the novel, like Rikki also mentioned, I thought Douglass was reluctant to take the root; he did not fully believe in the idea of it. If I were in that situation, I probably would have reacted in the same way! I do agree that it helped give him the courage to finally stand up to Mr. Covey and show him that he did not deserve to be treated the way he was being treated. I also think that the root could also be interpreted as a blessing. It seems as though Douglass had had it with Mr. Covey and he was searching for anything to give him the hope to carry on instead of just waiting to die. The root gave him a certain boost of confidence, for lack of better term, to show Mr. Covey that he was not going to take the brutality any longer.
ReplyDeleteI think if Sandy had never given Douglass the root, the narrative might have been completely different. There was something special about the root. Whether it actually worked or if it was all in his mind, it was beneficial to him because it led him to believe that he could take Mr. Covey down (which he definitely did) and show his owner what he was really capable of. This gave Douglass a whole new point of view and changed how he behaved on the plantation. The root could have also contributed to his cycle of man to slave, slave to man. He was suffering because of Mr. Covey until that root came around. Yes, even after he beat Mr. Covey he was still a slave, but Mr. Covey was now somewhat threatened by him. “He would occasionally say, he didn’t want to get hold of me again. ‘No,’ thought I, ‘you need not; for you will come off worse than you did before.’” (Douglass, p. 113). If Mr. Covey had never seen that side to Douglass, he would still have complete control over him. That root gave him the opportunity to show Mr. Covey that he was not a slave, but that he was a man. A man you don’t want to mess with!