Journal Entry for Time Well Spent
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Reading, Race, and Charles Chesnutt’s “Uncle Julius” Tales
Heather Tirado Gilligan
In Gilligan’s “Reading, Race, and Charles Chesnutt’s “Uncle Julius” Tales” she focuses on the emotional aspect of the reading. For instance, she states that Julius tales’ show a confrontation between a sentimental and a realist way of reading race (203). I noticed this during several moments in the texts, especially between John and Anne. Gilligan also narrows in on John and his doubt on being attached to such stories. The reason this section stood out to me was because she said that during the time there was much debate about whether it was a good idea to incorporate sentimentalism rather than rationality. Here, Chesnutt demonstrates this back and forth through their characters. It also shows the way Black stories were not taken as seriously. This reminded me of the prefaces in some slave narratives where a white man must agree with the story so that other people can believe it. Gilligan also comments on John’s wealth when she states that he has no issues to worry about, had small tasks, and was lazy because of his abundance of wealth (204).