Mules carry different folks’s burdens. Zora Neale Hurston’s third e-book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, describes the situation of being a mule. They’re “tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences.” Individuals flip animals into mules. And, folks flip different folks into mules. This evaluation will be present in Hurston’s second e-book, Mules and Men.
Mules and Males, Hurston’s second e-book, accommodates folktales about human and animal characters. The relationships between these topics replicate the situations of teams (e.g., the situations of racial and gender teams) and relationships between these teams. A key theme in these tales is makes an attempt by people to realize their very own targets by shifting the labor that may result in these targets onto another person. While you power somebody to hold your burdens you could have turned that particular person right into a mule. This assortment of folklore makes quite a few very direct statements concerning the shifting of bodily labor. Nevertheless, studying these folktales in respect to existentialist ideas—together with Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s definition of existence, Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of contemporary existential burdens, and Frantz Fanon’s conceptualization of the “sealed” physique—provides us insights into how people and teams shift their existential burdens onto others.
Mules and Males is a groundbreaking autoethnographical research of black tradition in the US. Its first half focuses on folklore. Hurston traveled to her residence state of Florida to gather folktales. Whereas there she spent a while with black staff in noticed mill camps. In the course of a break one of many staff, Jim Allen, tells her a story concerning the origin of labor.
Allen’s story of the origin of labor goes as follows: God created 4 issues. First, he made the world, then animals, after which folks. The very last thing that he made was “an incredible huge bundle” that he positioned in the midst of the highway. Millennia handed. Then Ole Missus decides that she desires to grasp the thriller of the field, so she tells Ole Massa to carry her the field. Ole Massa is fearful that the field is “heavy,” so he tells the Brother in Black “Go fetch me dat huge ole field out dere in de highway.” The Brother in Black makes many makes an attempt at getting the field, however he’s unable to take action. So, he sends his spouse to get the field. She makes her technique to the field in a short while; she’s curious as a result of she thinks “there’s almost all the time one thing good in nice huge packing containers.” She opens it; “it was filled with onerous work.” The employee tells his viewers, “Dat’s de cause de sister in black works more durable than anyone else in de world. De white man tells de nigger to work and he takes and tells his spouse.”
The abstract informs one of the vital well-known traces in Their Eyes Had been Watching God, “De nigger lady is de mule uh de world.” However extra broadly, this story, “Why the Sister in Black Works Hardest,” is a narrative about several types of burdens, the shifting of those burdens, and the explanations for the shift.
The obvious burden is labor, outlined by Karl Marx as “sensible human exercise” in his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. “Why the Sister in Black Works Hardest” revolves round a name to motion: acquire possession of an object and transfer it from one place to a different place. But the successive calls to, and flights from, bodily labor masks different forms of labor. Harlem Renaissance author Rudolph Fisher’s novel The Walls of Jericho particulars the inside lifetime of Shine, one of many novel’s characters. Fisher writes “It was work that Shine liked due to the problem it introduced to his private energy and ability.” The “problem” inherent in labor makes labor a possibility for development. Fisher’s character accepts and appears ahead to this problem. Different folks wish to flee from it.
Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil states that the true quest for data calls for “audacious and painful” exercise. Ole Missus desires “to see whut’s in [the box].” However, she is just not prepared to interact this immense object which one finds in the midst of the highway to enlightenment. She shifts that burden onto Ole Massa. Nietzsche writes that favoring “well-being” over challenges (e.g., work as a problem as described by Fisher) is “ridiculous and contemptible.” Ole Massa assumes that the field is heavy. Favoring his personal consolation over completion of the duty, he flees bodily exercise and finds ease by shifting his duty for getting the field to the Brother in Black. Nietzsche cites “self-discipline” as the trail to enchancment. The Brother in Black engages the field quite a lot of instances, however he doesn’t discover any success, solely pressure. He additionally replaces “self-discipline” with ease. The Brother in Black has carried out some bodily labor, so his ease isn’t as nice as that skilled by Ole Massa. However, the Brother in Black nonetheless experiences ease. He shifts his burden to the Sister in Black. Retrieving the field is an act of bodily labor, and the folktale “Why the Sister in Black Works Hardest” reveals the shifting of this bodily burden. However the simultaneous flights that accompany the shifting of the burden of bodily labor—Ole Missus’ flight from “audacious” inquiry, Ole Massa’s flight from bodily exertion, and the Brother in Black’s flight from disciplined pursuit of a objective—communicate to the shifting of existential burdens.
In The Phenomenology of Perception, Merleau-Ponty defines existence as “the everlasting act by which man takes up, for his personal functions, and makes his personal a sure de facto state of affairs.” Ole Missus, Ole Massa, and The Brother in Black shift a burden of bodily labor. But, every of them additionally shifts their existential burden, that of figuring out their very own state of affairs. Jean-Paul Sartre’s Anti-Semite and Jew says that an individual’s state of affairs “kinds [the person] and decides [their possibilities, even though] it’s [they who give] it that means by making [their] decisions inside it and by it. To be in a state of affairs, as we see it, is to decide on oneself in a state of affairs, and [people] differ from each other of their conditions and in addition within the decisions they themselves make of themselves.” Ole Missus seeks a state of affairs whereby she positive factors data. Ole Massa desires to satisfy the wants and wishes of Ole Missus. The Brother in Black must placate Ole Massa. Every of them points an order. They command another person to carry out the labor that may result in their very own desired existential state of affairs. Hurston frames the folktales present in Mules and Males as an ontological assertion, an outline of issues and their relationships. The character of folklore implies that the actions of Ole Missus, Ole Massa, the Brother in Black, and the Sister in Black shouldn’t be solely interpreted as reflections of how these people acted at one time limit. These actions must be taken as indicators of qualities and dynamics which, normally, outline these teams and their relationships to one another. These relationships entail the shifting of contemporary existential burdens.
Merleau-Ponty describes the existential mission. Nietzsche’s Past Good and Evil explains how the workings of contemporary society usually rework this mission right into a collection of burdens. Nietzsche argues that fashionable society imposes quite a lot of notions, every handled as a dogmatic “good,” as “[a single] fact for everyman.” But Nietzsche views any dogmatic “good” as posing an issue for our “spirit,” our “energy of invention and simulation.” Fashionable existential anxieties are created by the battle between dogmatic items and the probabilities of the spirit. The folktales in Mules and Males supply many parallels to, and illustrations of, Nietzsche’s factors in Past Good and Evil. These folktales repeatedly determine a key component of the fashionable good, the existential burden that this component produces, and the way this existential burden is shifted. Mules and Males contains tales with titles akin to “How the Preacher Made Them Bow Down,” “Ah’ll Beatcher Makin’ Cash,” “How Jack Beat the Satan,” and “Why Ladies All the time Take Benefit of Males.” What every of those tales point out—typically even by their titles alone—is the sense that attaining a excessive place within the social hierarchy is a vital a part of the fashionable “good.” The pursuit of such stature is an existential burden, a burden felt particularly by those that fail to take action.
The battle in “Why Ladies All the time Take Benefit of Males” is pushed by The Man missing the “energy” that he must subjugate The Lady. His lack of standing makes him “troubled in [mind and spirit].” So, he hatches a plan to ease his troubles. This plan entails shifting his emotions of powerlessness onto The Lady. Projection is equally a subject in Past Good and Evil: those that “don’t want to be answerable for something, or blamed for something, and owing to an inward self-contempt, search to put the blame for themselves elsewhere.” The onset of contemporary existential anxieties and the flight from these wishes emerge within the African-American folktales collected in Mules and Males.
Mules and Males additionally covers unsuccessful makes an attempt to shift existential burdens. These incidents are vital as a result of they assist foreground the dynamics of how projection is used to shift existential burdens. There’s an undomesticated cow that an “outdated” man and his spouse wish to rely upon. They need the cow’s milk to be their sustenance, however the cow fights them. They went to get milk from the cow “however [the cow] saved on rearin’ and pitchin’ and kickin’.” Annoyed, the “outdated” man and the girl go to their son. He tries to make use of science to manage the cow’s nature. The household will have the ability to management the cow if they will cease her “humping.” The cow’s “rearin’ and pitchin’ and kickin’” can solely occur after the cow stretches her mighty again. They determine to make use of “weight,” a sort of power, to cease the cow’s humping. The son’s father will function the load. The “outdated” man climbs on prime of her again and clutches her abdomen tightly. He strains the cow as she begins to maneuver. He slows her down, however he’s not sufficient to cease her. This story, “The Son Who Went to Faculty,” ends with the “outdated” man holding on to the cow for pricey life, “bustin’ on down de back-road.” You have to crush an individual, or a bunch, earlier than you possibly can flip them right into a mule. The burden retains them in place so as to shift your burden onto them. They’re what Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks describes as existentially “sealed.” Opposite to actuality they stay their lives in response to an unreal set of limits. Right here the daddy’s weight isn’t sufficient to perform his mission. A special and larger, if not bodily heavier, weight is required if you wish to make mules out of individuals.
In one other story from Mules and Males, “’Member Youse a Nigger,” we study of John, who again throughout “slavery time” labored out within the area of Ole Massa. Ole Massa was married to and had two younger youngsters with Ole Missy. Sooner or later, Ole Massa and Ole Missy aren’t being attentive to their youngsters. However, John hears the screams of the woman and the boy. The 2 youngsters are in a frail boat in center of the water with no oars. John finds their mother and father and tells them what is occurring. Ole Missy is paralyzed. She takes their loss of life as a given reality. Ole Massa doesn’t. He rouses his spouse from her mixture of Stoicism and pessimism. Then he, Ole Missy, and John go to the water to avoid wasting the youngsters. Once they discover them John jumps into the water, swims to the boat, and will get into it. Because the folktale doesn’t point out John’s having oars, he will need to have used his mighty arms to soundly carry the boat and the youngsters by way of the water and onto shore. Ole Massa is glad that his youngsters are secure and guarantees “to set [John] free.” Not then and there. However later. Subsequent yr. Perhaps. If John’s work within the fields yields a “good” crop. John does the entire labor that Ole Massa calls for of him. In reality, he does much more: the crop he raises can’t match into the barn through which it’s imagined to be saved.
So Friday come, and Massa mentioned “Effectively, de day performed come that I mentioned I’d set you free. I hate to do it, however I don’t prefer to make myself out a lie. I hate to git rid of a great nigger lak you.”
…So John put [on his new clothes] and are available to shake fingers and inform ’em goodbye. De youngsters they cry, and Ole Missy she cry. Didn’t wish to see John go. So John took his bundle and put it on his stick and hung it crost his shoulder.
Effectively, Ole John began on down de highway. Effectively, Ole Massa mentioned, “John, de youngsters love yuh.”
“Yassuh.”
“John, I really like yuh.”
“Yassuh.”
“And Missy like yuh!”
“Yassuh.”
“However ’member, John, youse a nigger.”
“Yassuh.”
Fur as John might hear ’im down de highway he wuz hollerin’, “John, Oh John! De youngsters loves you. And I really like you. De Missy such as you.”
John would holler again, “Yassuh.”
“However ’member youse a nigger, tho!”
Ole Massa saved callin’ ’im and his voice was pitiful.
Ole Massa has promised “to set [John] free.” This promise is made and saved despite the fact that Ole Massa (in addition to Ole Missy and their youngsters) need John to proceed to be their mule. Weight is a power that’s positioned on folks’s backs, however it isn’t nice sufficient to settle folks in order that they’re all the time receptive to the burdens of others, in order that they change into mules. That is even true for folks dwelling beneath the situations of enslavement. In Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism, Lewis Gordon writes, “[The crack of the whip] locations limitations on the choices over which the slave chooses, however not over the slave’s skill to decide on.” The enslaved particular person continues to be free even when they’re dwelling beneath the oppressive situations of enslavement. Individuals flip folks into mules, however each mule continues to be, and can all the time be, a free particular person. What are some elements of the method that causes free folks to take up the place of mule?
Individuals have robust backs. Mules have robust backs which were exhausted by a weight. In Nietzschean phrases, this weight is love. Nietzsche’s The Antichrist states that “Love is the state through which man sees issues most decidedly as they aren’t. The facility of phantasm is at its peak right here, as is the facility to sweeten and transfigure.” Love is a course of that takes us from actuality to the “past.” Generally the past is just about not possible. Generally it’s utterly not possible. Ole Massa desires to repeatedly and eternally switch his burdens onto John. To ensure that this to occur John, a free man, should transcend actuality and stay his life as if he’s not free. Ole Massa endeavors to makes use of his love to do that. Profitable completion of this mission would entail three steps. First, Ole Massa should assemble an illusory world the place John is just not free; as a substitute he’s beholden to Ole Massa, Ole Missy, and their youngsters. Second, Ole Massa should impose this obligation (i.e., weight) onto John. These first two steps are mirrored in Ole Massa telling John, “I hate to git rid of a great nigger lak you.” A “good nigger” is somebody who’s, and can all the time be, beholden to their grasp.
Having established and imposed this illusory world on John, Ole Massa seeks to strengthen it. This occurs by way of Ole Massa’s public relations venture: “‘John, de youngsters love yuh.’ … ‘I really like yuh.’ … ‘And Missy like yuh!’” For Ole Massa, these phrases of “love” impose a weight onto John, a weight that supposed to make John receptive to the assorted burdens Ole Massa seeks to shift onto him. Ole Massa practices a grasp’s love, an “phantasm” that has “the facility to sweeten and transfigure” to the purpose that people and teams stay as if they aren’t free when in actuality they’re free. A grasp’s love can solely be efficient when it elicits a slave’s love, which occurs when a free particular person chooses to consider they’re unfree and obligated to somebody extra precious and extra vital than them. That is the ultimate step that should occur earlier than Ole Massa can shift his existential burdens onto John. Therefore, Ole Massa’s efforts to narrate these phrases of affection to the repeated reminder, “’member youse a nigger, tho!”
Nietzsche, in Past Good and Evil and elsewhere, gives a sketch of the centrality of shifting existential burdens in fashionable life, those that shift these burdens, those that obtain these burdens, and the processes that create the illusions that foster these shifts. Hurston’s Mules and Males helps to finish this portrait of contemporary life, offering an expanded image of the social processes by way of which some individuals are extra readily made to perform as “mules” whereas a separate group of individuals are capable of benefit from the deceptions afforded to “males.” We will enhance the concentrate on this image by exploring the various forms of love practiced in our fashionable society.
H. Alexander Welcome
Alexander Welcome is an affiliate professor of Sociology at LaGuardia Neighborhood Faculty. His work covers alienation, the racial wages paid to white folks, the social nature of existential experiences of time; and the way all three of those parts emerge within the stand-up comedy of Richard Pryor and Jackie “Mothers” Mabley. He’s presently revising a manuscript that makes use of comedic texts and Zora Neale Hurston’s early fiction to clarify the social processes that permit teams to shift their existential burdens onto different teams.
