With thorough analyzation, Julius’ underlying statement about the how a man named Henry was taken into town to be sold for fifteen hundred dollars covertly exposes the horrors that blacks went through during slavery. His use of dialect can be interpretive of the great horrors of the institution of slavery. Its distracting nature to many symbolizes a deeper meaning that is being forced upon the reader. At first glance, the first thing that might be noticed is the language or dialect that is spoken to form sentences. Uncle Julius explains, “Long de nex’ spring, after de sap ‘mence’ ter rise, en Henry ’n’int ‘is head en sta’ted fer ter git young en soopl, Mars Dugal’ up ’n tuk Henry ter town, en sole ‘im fer fifteen hunder’ dollars,” (Chesnutt 11). Given the story was birthed during the peak of slavery, Chesnutt strategically uses plantation-like dialect to effectively reveal the lack of education that slaves possessed. He goes into great depth about the way in which the piece of property came to be dangerous and infertile. It is at this point, Chesnutt uses his brilliant imaginative mind to tell a tale of the cursing of the land through a man named Uncle Julius. Being in search of economic prosperity, he hopes to utilize the grape industry by prospecting a vineyard for cultivation. In The Conjure Woman and Other Tales, Chesnutt utilizes plantation-like dialect, stereotypes, and the conjure woman to subconsciously deconstruct negative biases and perceptions of the black community to his white audience.Īs the novel begins, a white man by the name of John moves to North Carolina with his wife on advice from their family doctor. Attention to detail within figurative language, simple plot, character analyzation, and overall themes can uncover significant social intentions within the text that secretly work to break down certain pre-conceived notions of something. Some may be found to be true and others not, but it is important to identify and analyze the true meaning that lies behind the broad story that is told. Often passed down from generation to generation, folk-tales remain concrete but descriptive in their telling and contribute to a larger meaning at large. Chesnutt took advantage of this genre and employed its characteristics to speak to his white audience. His accounts include Aun' Peggy's conjure spells in "Mars Jeems's Nightmare," "Po' Sandy," "Sis' Becky's Pickaninny," and "Hot Foot Hannibal" as well as those of free black conjure men in "The Conjurer's Revenge" and "The Gray Wolf's Ha'nt." These conjure tales reveal moments of active black resistance to white oppression in addition to calculated (and even self-motivated) plots of revenge.Folk-tales and myths are arguably one of the most widely effectives pieces of fiction that can alter the view of the reader. Yet Uncle Julius McAdoo, the ex-slave and "trickster" figure extraordinaire who narrates the internal story lines, presents a remarkably different view of Southern life. Enamored by remnants of the plantation world, John portrays the South in largely idealistic terms. These seven short stories use a frame narrator, John, a white carpetbagger who has moved south to protect his wife Annie's failing health and to begin cultivating a grape vineyard. While drawing from local color traditions and relying on dialect, Chesnutt's tales of conjuring, a form of magic rooted in African hoodoo, refused to romanticize slave life or the "Old South." Though necessarily informed by Joel Chandler Harris's popular Uncle Remus stories and Thomas Nelson Page's plantation fiction, The Conjure Woman consciously moved away from these models, instead offering an almost biting examination of pre- and post-Civil War race relations. Published in 1899 by Houghton Mifflin, Chesnutt's first book, The Conjure Woman, was a collection of seven short stories, all set in "Patesville" (Fayetteville), North Carolina. Download cover art Download CD case insert The Conjure Woman
0 Comments
Although multi-stack machines aren’t quite as versatile as functional trainers, you can still get a complete workout in a fraction of the space that multiple machines would take up in a gym.įor example, the Body-Solid Multi-Stack Home Gym pictured below incorporates three stations: a multi-function “press arm” station for bench press, incline press, shoulder press, and chest supported mid row exercises a “perfect pec” station that also has options for ab crunches and seated row, and a “leg press calf press” station for leg development. Some machines allow a single user to modify the machine to do various exercises, and other machines use the same infrastructure to house several “stations” that can be used by multiple people at once. Multi-stack machines incorporate several exercises into just one piece of equipment. If you prefer traditional strength training to “functional training,” you may be able to save some space in your home gym by investing in a “multi-stack’ machine. Dual or multi-function (“multi-stack”) machines If you’re interested in learning more about the fitness benefits of functional trainers, check out our post: The Top 5 Reasons You Need a Functional Trainer Right Now. In fact, because functional trainers include so many adjustable mechanisms and handholds to vary your workouts and improve specific muscle groups, it’s one of the most versatile pieces of equipment ever conceived.įinally, because functional trainers employ two separate stacks of weights instead of a single bar, you can make sure that your exercises are devoting equal attention to each side of your body - in fact, due to the dual-weight stacks, two people may even be able to use the machine at once. And unlike a traditional fitness machine, you’re free to move your body more naturally as you push or pull the weight. Because users can adjust the pulleys to any height they want, the machines can adapt to users of any size and can accommodate the widest variety of exercises. Functional trainersįunctional trainers are extremely versatile and low-footprint machines that use a cable and pulley system for resistance.Įach of the two handles attach to two separate stacks of weights. This includes products featuring a “minimum footprint, maximum versatility” design so you don’t have to sacrifice quality in the name of space.īelow, we explore some of the best space-saving equipment options to consider for your home gym. Thankfully, many fitness equipment manufacturers have taken space concerns into account. That’s why it’s so important to be thoughtful about the type of equipment you will choose for your home gym. Even those of us with a basement to spread out in a bit don’t have much space compared to what’s available in a commercial gym. We typically have to make do with a spare bedroom or corner of the garage for our fitness area, if we’re lucky. Most people who want to build a home gym don't have the luxury of unlimited space. |