After the Narrator returns to Harlem from downtown, he runs into Tod Clifton selling paper sambo dolls on the street. The Narrator is stricken with rage, and feels betrayed by Clifton, a once active and vocal member of the Brotherhood, now selling racist caricatures on the street.
The Sambo dolls share a name with the titular character of Little Black Sambo, created by Helen Bannerman, although not intended by Bannerman to be racist- the crude and stereotypical illustrations of Sambo and other black characters in the original print; the name Sambo, which was used at the time as a racist epithet to depict "the lazy, grinning, docile, childlike, good-for-little servant", according to Ferris State University's Jim Crow museum; and the more explicitly racist knockoff versions distributed around the country- would end up making Little Black Sambo one of the most infamous iterations of the 'pickaninny' archetype.
As the story takes place in the 1930s and was published in 1947, Ellison knew that his audience would be familiar with the character of Sambo, and all of the extra baggage that comes with the use of the name. Ellison uses the name Sambo to trigger an emotional response in the reader, to get them to feel the rage and disgust that the narrator felt seeing a once proud ally reduced to selling the opposite of what he was preaching a few weeks earlier.
The dolls were described as having a kind of 'energy' when Clifton was performing with them, appearing almost alive, especially after the Narrator spits on the doll Clifton was performing with. Once Clifton and the crowd leave however, the Narrator examines the doll, and "half expecting it to move" he instead finds it just a "still frill of paper". I think this is a way of Ellison showing just how real the effect of negative stereotypes had on the black community.
Finally, the mention of the dolls two faces, which the Narrator describes as "like a mask", calls to mind the lesson that he was told from the beginning of the book- act like a yes man, while undermining them with those yeses- "agreeing them to death and destruction".
Thanks for this. I didn't totally understand the significance of the doll when I first read the chapter because I didn't know all of the history. The two faces would definitely fit the idea that the grandfather told the narrator from the beginning of undermining them with yeses while acting like the submissive servant.
ReplyDeleteI like how you provide the historical background of the Sambo doll because the "pickaninny" archetype would have been very prevalent in society at the time of the novel's publication in 1952. However, almost 65 years later the context of these blatantly racist depictions explain the Narrator's initial accusation of Clifton as a traitor -- not only for leaving the Brotherhood -- but actively propagating the stereotypes which they work to forget in the hope of creating a non-racial society.
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ReplyDeleteGreat post, the historical information does a lot to illuminate even more of the meaning of the Sambo doll. Like you said, a lot of the stuff in the book might have had a different significance to people in the 1930s than it does today. I also like your points about the symbolism of the dolls. Even after finishing the book I still don't really understand why Clifton left the brotherhood to sell the dolls, but it's clear that the dolls have a lot of significance in the story and your post does a good job of explaining that.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator's realization of the fragility of the doll is an important one to note. The minstrel aspect of the street performance with a paper doll shows the narrator that white people will believe nearly anything about black people, despite how two dimensional the ideas are. The exaggerated nature of these performances is saddening as the narrator seems to be the only one that recognizes the problem.
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