A Place for All?

The Vaark family farm more accurately portrays the attitudes and living conditions in the founding of America than what many Americans believe today. It was a place where all types of people could be found and it was not a place of easy work off easy land. Not only can the reader find the predicted African slave, but the white indentured servants, the Native Americans who ended up working for the immigrants, as well as the neglected and mentally handicapped in society. However, the farm can be seen from another view point, Jacobs’, the quintessential immigrant attempting to fulfill his dreams by moving to America. But the more realistic portrayal of life is by the workers on the farm and their struggles adapting to a new life and new conditions. Jacob’s life is also an example of how the American dream was nearly impossible in the past and now.

The farm is a very accurate portrayal of life in the late 1600’s in the newfound colony it also shows how the American dream and its ideals did not play out in reality. The farm portrays this by showing the reader the caste system in place in the new world. In the book White Cargo by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh, they show how prior to Bacon’s rebellion the slave and indentured servant system was not race based. “They played the race card. The status of the European servile class was upgraded and a sense of racial superiority instilled. Meanwhile, the process of degrading non-whites was accelerated.” (pg. 212) They show how race was a stepping stool for the powerful to control the masses by turning them against each other. Toni Morrison does an excellent job not conforming to the norm, but attempting to redefine history as it is believed. On the farm it is not a race based slave system, in fact the majority of the work is done by two white indentured servants, Willard and Scully. It is clear that Morrison wanted to emphasize how skin was not the reason certain people did certain jobs on the farm by having a wide range of backgrounds of the workers. Despite the fact that their skin is black, does not mean they are not given equal opportunity, a contradictory thought compared to what is believed.

In the novel as a whole Morrisons actively goes against the ideas surrounding the new world by putting a free black man in as both a savior and skilled worker. He is brought onto the farm to help Jacob build his grandest house and subsequently greatly influences each of the character’s lives. He is a testament to the inaccuracy of the American myth and history. No one imagines a black man being free in the 1600’s, let alone a man so skilled that he is needed by a white man. He is also among the smartest men since he cured Sorrow of sickness as well as Mrs. Vaark.

Morrison works hard to accurately exemplify life in a realistic view in the 1600’s, yet how Jacob is portrayed is somewhat contradictory and requires closer inspection. Jacob appears to be caring for the people that work for him and seems genuinely nice to the people around him, but his actions do not align with his thoughts much of the time, it could be seen as though he is somewhat power hungry. Despite him believing that slavery “is the most wretched business”, (pg. 30) he still takes part because of his thirst for power. This causes the reader to be conflicted by his decision to take Florens because they are not sure what his exact motivations are.

Much of what Jacob does is in line with what the American dream, which can be argued with in many different ways and is in many ways inaccurate about the real world. Part of the American myth is that after a settler arrives in the new world he goes and finds a piece of cheap, fruitful land. This is also in line with the myth that if the immigrant works hard then he will achieve what he wants. Jacob finds a piece of land and works hard to make the piece of land work for him. But it is not his diligence and hard work, but the work of his servants that makes the land sustainable, which is far more accurate to the past since it is unlikely that a European man would be able to go to a new land and successfully operate a farm never having done it before. Now, not only is Jacob free of the burden of finding food, but he can actively pursue ways to grow his wealth and status in this new world. He does this by expanding not only his trade, but what is physically on his property. However, Jacob’s attempts to improve his life condition is not what he expects it to be since he gains very little and does more bad than good. The American dream is founding on the principle of working hard to achieve a better and better life, and in the New World this meant upgrading your land and what you did for a living. Jacob was able to do both by changing his trade from farm work to a merchant of trade. He then worked on improving his land by adding his numerous houses, including the last one which he was eventually buried in. The farm symbolizes the beginnings of all the settlers, the first stop on the way to their dreams. It appears as though the American dream is possible, how one can start of a lowly farm worker and build their lives to greatness, but the underlying message is that it does not.

Morrison uses the farm to show the problems with Jacob’s logic and the inaccuracies of the founding of America and the American dream. Instead of using his own hard work, Jacob uses the work of his multi-racial work force, not solely black. Instead of his final house being a triumph of his trials it is his grave and is avoided on the farm, a symbol of the failures of his life, much how many immigrants failed to successfully achieve their dreams in the New World. The failure of Jacob attempting to achieve the American dream is a testament to how accurate Morrison portrayed him and the other characters. In reality the American dream was rarely achieved through out history, for example in the early 1900’sdespite the beliefs of “rags to riches” were fully believed, very few men achieved mountains of success.

(No need to watch the video, only using for music)

To this day, the immigrants coming to this country are unable to fulfill their hopes and dreams. America, as Morrison portrays it

and America as it is today

was a place where

dreams

did

NOT

come

true.