Journal Entry for Holding onto Practices
I revisited a moment in the text after seeing Annie’s response. Her reply made me realize they had grown very close together and had bonded but it did not quite resemble a friendship. It reminded me of the relationship that slaveholders thought they shared, where they believed it was beneficial to both parties. John goes further into the dynamics and benefits of slavery when he states, “he had been unable to break off entirely the mental habits of a lifetime, but had attached himself to the old plantation, of which he seemed to consider himself an appurtenance”. Here, it is evident that John has the older, white slaveholder mindset that assumed slaves needed or enjoyed slavery.
This is also the reasoning behind my first blog post. Although I did take it in a different direction because I focused on Julius’ grandson, it is the same idea of internalizing the slave and slaveholder dynamic. Chesnutt delivers in a more subtle way throughout their interactions, so I thought it was important to emphasize. It explains the reason John and Julius get along so poorly in comparison to Julius and Anne’s relationship.