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Part 1, Chapter 28
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in James, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Speech, Performance, and Willful Ignorance
Identity, Narrative, and Agency
Racism, Dehumanization, and Hypocrisy
Innocence vs. Disillusionment
Family, Alliance, and Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
A man named Norman sits Jim down to put bootblack on his face. When they are alone, Norman tells Jim to “drop the slave talk.” Jim is shocked when Norman tells him he is a former slave, as the man’s skin is light enough to pass for white. The rest of the minstrels do not know Norman is Black. He tells Jim the minstrels’ show makes fun of Black folks to entertain other white people, singing songs they think slaves would like. Jim is particularly amused to hear the minstrels perform a cakewalk, which is a dance that Black people have used to make fun of white people. Norman claims white folks have no awareness of their own potential to be mocked.
Norman’s ability to pass as a white man is another kind of performance, especially since the rest of the minstrels are ignorant of his identity. His knowledge of slave talk seems to Jim like proof of his Blackness. The minstrels’ practice of mocking enslaved Black people is dehumanizing, suggesting Emmett is not as progressive as he pretends. Norman’s assertion that white people mock Black people without thinking of themselves as mockable highlights again their lack of self-awareness. In a sense, according to Norman, white people are so desperate to think of themselves as separate from Black people, that they never consider their own potential to be ridiculed.
Themes
Norman performs with the minstrels because he needs the money. He wants to return to Virginia and buy his wife from her enslaver. Jim wonders if Emmett will pay him too. Norman says the musician has never knowingly hired a Black man before, so he cannot say. Emmett comes over to inspect Norman’s work and tells him to keep practicing the songs. According to Norman, Jim will not be allowed in the auditorium if they know he is actually Black, so he is disguising him as a white man disguised as a Black man. Confused as he is, Jim allows himself to hope that he might earn enough money to buy Sadie and Lizzie.
Although Norman travels with the minstrels out of necessity, he views their performances with contempt, indicating that he still thinks of himself as a Black man, even in the all-white company. Jim allows himself to hope that Emmett is true to his word and will pay him as he does the other employees. The fact that Jim must disguise himself as a white man in blackface emphasizes that, in the context of theatrical performance, Blackness is only welcome as a form of comedic entertainment. Authentic Blackness, in the eyes of white society, can only serve the purpose of enslaved labor.
Themes
