by Angélica Santi“Houses don’t talk, you know!”, writes Linda Hayward at the end of “Hello, House!”, her simple retelling of one of the "Tales of Uncle Remus", a well known collection of oral tradition folktales compiled by the American journalist and writer Joel Chandler Harris .
Probably an adaptation of the African cunning rabbit[1], Brer Rabbit, the clever protagonist of “Hello, House!” as well as of other two-thirds of the “Tales of Uncle Remus” and a supporting character in most of the rest, is regarded by some scholars as the best-known trickster in American literature[2]. Throughout this story he manages to outwit Brer Wolf, one of his usual victimized opponents, with complex simplicity. He does so in such a way that readers are almost compelled to reflect upon his doings. And out of this reflection various authors have considered Brer Rabbit as “a revolutionary black figure” from African American traditional lore[3]. More precisely, through this particular story, the power struggle, typical of colonial times, is depicted in a new and improved manner, one in which Brer Rabbit comes out victorious in what could be thought of as a “brain beats muscles” situation.
Historically speaking, the people from the colonies underwent many abusive situations in the relationship with their colonizers. Also within this category, African American slaves needed trickster stories to pass on their experience and knowledge without provoking the dominant white society. And most frequently, these stories focused on oppressed weak characters that used previous experiences and had all their wits about them in order to take advantage of their powerful opponents[4]. Uncle Remus, the protagonist of the mentioned tales, is a vehicle through which this purpose is accomplished using Brer Rabbit and his counterparts with considerable significance.
However, as feeble as they may seem, tricksters don’t pretend to carry a moral tone. In order to be successful, they would not stop to think about right or wrong. They would come up with any prank to deal with the crisis. Similarly, Brer Rabbit achieves his main objective, to fool his enemy, by performing a trick that best suits the circumstances through lies, stealing, injuring, betraying, humiliating, even murdering. In the case of “Hello, House!”, Brer Wolf is really humiliated after falling for Brer Rabbit’s trick. Another tale places Brer Rabbit at the bottom of a well, a hapless victim of Brer Fox, and develops in Brer Fox rescuing him from the well by asserting that the moon reflected in the water at the bottom of the well is really a block of cheese. Brer Fox jumps into the other water bucket, descends into the well, and, in the process, enables Brer Rabbit to rise to freedom.
Being at ease during stressing times is another interesting aspect of this character’s personality. It is the perfect complement to brains and the cherry on the cake in Brer Rabbit’s temperament that, together with sensibility and wits, leads him to take the dominant role in underprivileged conditions. This emotional-rational combination is perfectly pictured in “Hello, House!”: Brer Rabbit does not panic when he comes back home and sees the door open. Instead he calmly inspects the surroundings and finally comes up with the brilliant culminating idea of making Brer Wolf believe that the house would talk.
In trying to find a way out of the oppression, the enslaved peoples found it impossible, under that social context, to parallel their masters’ power. They had to get the most out of their cultural wisdom and did so by trickster stories like “Hello, House!”, which contains underlying serious comments of the injustice they had to endure and whose leading roles are performed by animal characters that carry considerable significance. When placed in the stereotypical situation of the weak against the powerful, the weak characters, who represent the black minority, use brains, intuition and prior experience to find a smooth way out of the conflict and outwit the strong ones representing the more educated, resourceful white society.
[1]Harris, T. The Trickster in African American Literature. Freedom’s Story, TeacherServe. National Humanities Center. Retrieved October 25, 2010 from http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1865-1917/essays/trickster
[2]Kemper V. eNotes.com. 2006. The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus. Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, Revised Third Edition. Salem Press. 1998. Retrieved October 23, 2010 from http://www.enotes.com/complete-tales-uncle-remus-salem/complete-tales-uncle-remus
[3]Cochran, Robert. (2004, March 22). Black father: the subversive achievement of Joel Chandler Harris The Free Library. (2004). Retrieved October 25, 2010 from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Black father: the subversive achievement of Joel Chandler Harris-a0117188856
[4]Harris, T. Op.cit.
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