The Known World by Edward P. Jones:
The author’s fictional assessment on this unusual phenomenon begins with the death of the 31-year-old Henry Townsend who is a former slave turned now a master of his own 33 slaves. In Manchester County, he also owns way beyond 50 acres of land. Townsend is critically concerned about the eventful destiny his holdings after his early death. During his time as a slave (his youth), Henry certainly works particularly hard to make himself essentially indispensable to the master, William Robbins. After Henry's parents manage to secure the family's freedom, Townsend maintains a high level of allegiance to Robbins (Parrott, 2003). On the other hand, Robbins patronizes him immediately he sets up shop to be a shoemaker through helping him purchase his plantation and his first slaves1. Jones's thorough knowledge on social and legal intricacies of issues to do with slaveholding enables him to display a complex of the startling quality of life around the region.
In the end, some of his richest characterizations in relation to Robbins and Henry are practically revealed. Even though he is viewed as, a cruel slave master to his own, Robbins is helplessly in love with one black woman who has as much adoration for Henry as he has for his children. Meanwhile, Henry reads Milton and beats his slaves just as much as Robbins does. Caldonia, Henry's wife, affirms his worst fears after his death as she is not as disciplined and organized as her husband (Merkel, 2007). One of the aspects that reveal this is the fact that the plantation turns into chaos. Jones's prose is rather static as his phrasings are ponderous even though his narrative attains a crushing momentum based on sheer accumulation of information, unusual historical insight as well as generous character writing2. Quoting the book, “Whenever people in that part of the world asked Patterson about the wonders of America, the possibilities and the hope of America, Patterson would say that it was a good and fine place but all the Americans were running it into the ground and that it would be a far better place if it had no Americans3”
Jones’ technique in ‘The Known World’ that seeks to reinvent the story’s form is as subversive as the element of slavery that he presents. One dimension of his prose is a plainspoken and direct expression, which has a colloquial and a decidedly nonliterary cadence. However, it is not minimally powerful or evocative for remaining so modest. On the other side, The Known World’ tells about context and community as Jones tailors the structure of the novel to playing up the themes therein. He also writes from various points of view and not only from Henry’s or that of his wife Caldonia. He touches on the narrations and experiences of each of the slaves, Sheriff John Skiffington, his untrustworthy deputy Counsel and cousin as well as his three rowdy patrollers4.
As one of the characters states, ‘we are all worthy of one another’5, and Jones is able to captures a sense of potential equality and fair treatment through a congregation of several voices. Each of their stories is worthy of being heard. Most critics in this topic will evoke a social sense of community in reflecting the widespread diversity of slavery even though Jones takes it a step further (Jones, 2004). He does this through creating an actual community that consists of slave owners black and white, slaves as well as freemen, and those setting themselves apart from slavery and still being pulled into it and its vortex. In addition, through portraying many different views of the community, Jones offers new sensational contexts, which evaluate his characters as well as their actions. He also includes not only the back-stories of the characters, but also their lives, their fates deaths and legacies. As put in the book, these shifting perspectives have been morally compromised by everyone in Manchester County in a place where there is not regard for heroes or villains and there are noble gestures and good intentions galore even though little is done to prove what is noble and pure6. While rarely cruel, the slave owners struggle to attain a middle-ground justice while the slaves trade all their dreams of social and economic freedom for their everyday comforts such as food and companionship7.
On a separate view, ‘The Known World’ narrates a story of two vast plantations where the young Henry Townshend (who is a black slaveholder) owns one the other owned by Henry's former master, William Robbins. The two enjoy a friendly relationship, which is more paternal as Henry's father Augustus maintains the unsuitability of the same through a stern disapproval. Augustus was a former slave (as a furniture builder) and worked countless hours to earn enough money to buy his freedom followed by that of Henry's from Robbins. The novel tells of Henry's death and later in time, skips backward and forward as it layers stories upon stories. Immediately Henry dies, the plantation that he had worked so hard to maintain falls apart under his wife’s, Caldonia, wobbly leadership (Beasley, 2004).
The plantation is the integral nerve of this book as it connects both individuals and families to each other. Both Caldonia and her mother develop a faction, the field slaves another, the house slaves form another, and then there is Robbins and his family, his slaves, his illegitimate children and the dishonest men that he is charged with offering protection to. Biblical in scope, the power of ‘The Known World’ rests in the countess and mysterious connections, which bind the characters together. The story of each character is sufficiently to stand-alone as some are rather tragic while others are heroic (only a few are both). However, even as most of the great stories are essentially woven together the impact of the tapestry becomes even more dazzling. At certain intervals, the reader can almost picture what it is to be like God. An excerpt from the book that explains this is ‘.He knew he was going to die but he thought this little thing might provide him with a nothing stool way off in the corner of heaven reserved for fools, people too stupid to come out of the rain. People got to that corner by heaven's back door8.’
Ideally, the premature death of Henry that occurs at the book’s beginning, Caldonia, leaves his wife, with the ultimate responsibility of taking over the role of her husband’s as slave-owner and master. She is not in a position to effectively do it and a wide spread anarchy follows in which a maelstrom consisting of escalating violence and chaos which feels almost a metaphor for most organized, controlled and institutionalized slavery violence are due. To a conspicuous extent, the reader is lenient and almost forgives Caledonia for the inhumanity of confiscating the freedom of Henry’s slaves9. Here, it is certain that her role models were certainly not the best. Besides Henry, there is her domineering mother, Maude who is a woman above using arsenic on her husband to ensure that their slaves did not get freedom10.
Then there is Caldonia’s etiquette and literature instructor, Fern who encourages Caldonia to retain Henry’s slaves. In addition, she is encouraged to socialize with William Robbins as well as Philomena and other free blacks in possession of slaves. It is for this reason that Jones writes with a fundamental level of sureness, which many related novels lack even though he never let the reader, are too attached to any of his characters in the book. In most of his other works, this element would be lacking even though it is a plus for this one. Keeping such events happening in the book distanced from the audience places them squarely on the South’s history as Jones invents a Canadian historian. Personally, I like this creative invention of Jones, which allows him to add in details about the characters, which would otherwise, weighed down his main narrative. To show that he also has a sense of humor, he tells the reader that the copies of the rare pamphlet were bought for $1.7 million by one individual with a German decent and had a penchant memorabilia for the ‘blacks’11.
One of the great achievements of Edward Jones's award-winning novel, ‘The Known World’ is the ability of its moral vision in circumscription that locates the strife between good and evil. This is not necessarily situated in the diabolical slaveholding system and their vicissitudes among the American south, but rather, it is inside each person’s consciousness, slave or free, black or white, who seeks to flourish in an environment that bears a soul-deadening system. Relevantly, there are not real heroes in this novel’s populous world. Further, there are not unmitigated villains even though there are several who fail to honorably live irrespective of their endless intentions. The summary of the plot in this rewarding novel is rather a hopeless enterprise as a lot happens and time is fluid. The characters are apparently placed with their fate flinging out before them. For instance, a slave child, Tessie says ‘My daddy made it for me’ as she responds to the question rose about her doll. For her the sentence, she is at her deathbed. An excerpt that explains this is ‘She would repeat those words just before she died, a little less than 90 years later’ (Merkel, 2007).
The Law is one of the major influences of the conduct of the characters in the book. ‘The Known World’ generally handles the law in a more pointedly dimension in the context of John Skiffington, the town’s Sheriff who requests Richmond for offer him guidance about what needs to be done about the outrageous sale back into slavery of the free blacks. The outright answer to this question is that the sales should be made are illegal and attract capital punishment for all they bear. More certainly, the novel handles the issues of the legality plus extra legalities of human slavery. This is some of the elements that the U.S. Constitution expressly forbade any form of intervention or interference by ‘peculiar institutions’ for up to twenty years (Beasley, 2004). They also formed southern plantation economy’s backbone the before the strike of Civil War even though it is not mentioned. Everyone (black and white) takes for lightly that slavery aspects are warranted by both divine and human law. By essence, blacks bear the skin color of slaves.
In conclusion, the novel ‘The Known World’ is written in the third person and in past tense through someone who is displayed as not related to any character above. However, its offers a privy to all their innermost and well mitigated thoughts. The narrator in this case who is motivated to tell the story is not revealed and they appear to possess a wide range of historical records, which are thought to be destroyed in a wild fire. However, they have a profound desire of explaining society and life prior the Civil War (Parrott, 2003). In particular, they examine the probability of blacks having to own blacks as slaves. This creates curious narration intensity even though the narrator is able to occasionally jump forward and tell how fate deals with several minor characters and back to the reasons why or how the situations happens. In my opinion, the kind of choppy narration used in this case is clearly intentional and is aimed at heightening the sense, which the narrator is earnest and urgent about on the trend in which things were in the rural regions of Virginia just before the Civil War.
References:
Beasley C., (2004) A Luminous Look at an Obscure World: Much-Praised Novel Focuses on Black Slave Owners in America, in the National Catholic Reporter, Vol. 40, No. 19, March 12 p. 15.
Jones E., (2004) The Known World: A Novel. New York: HarperCollins
Merkel J., (2007) What Slavery Does to Whites and Blacks in Edward P. Jones's "The Known World". New York: GRIN Verlag
Parrott B., (2003) Review of The Known World: A Novel, in Black Issues Book Review, Vol. 5, No. 6, November. Pp. 50-51.
