Text 2
The real heroine of the novel stands at one remove to the narrative. On the face of it, readers are more likely to empathize with, and be curious about, the mysterious and resourceful slave, Sarah, who forms one point of an emotional triangle. Sarah is the property of Manon, and came with her to a failing Louisiana sugar plantation on her marriage to the good-for-nothing, bullying owner. But Manon’s husband is soon struck by Sarah, and the proof lies in their idiot small son, Walter.
However, the reader is forced to see things through Manon’s eyes, not Sarah’s, and her consciousness is not a comfortable place to be. Never a please or a thank you passes her lips when talking to slaves, though manners is the order of the day in white society. Manon is enormously attracted by inter-racial marriage (for the place and time—the early 19th century—such a concern would not be unusual, but in her case it seems pathological). Walter, with “his father’s curly red hair and green eyes, his mother’s golden skin, her full, pushing-forward lips”, is the object of her especial hatred, but she chatters on about all the “dreadful mixed-blooded”, the objectionable “yellow” people.
Beyond Manon’s polarized vision, we glimpse “free negros” and the emerging black middle-class. To Manon’s disgust, such people actually have self-respect. In New Orleans buying shoes, Manon is taken aback by the shopkeeper’s lack of desired respect. Mixed race prostitutes acquired the affections of male planters by giving them something mysterious their wives cannot often What that might be, and why wives can’t offer it too, are questions Manon can’t even ask, let alone answer.
The first third of the book explores the uneasy and unsustainable peace between Manon, Sarah and the man always called just “my husband” or “he”. Against the background of violent slave revolts and equally savage revenges, it’s clear the peace cannot last. It’s part of the subtlety of this book that as the story develops and the inevitable explosion occurs, our view of all the characters swiftly changes. Sarah turns out to deserve all the suspicion Manon directs at her; at the point of death Manon’s husband displays an admirable toughness and courage; and Manon herself wins the reader’s reluctant admiration for her bravery, her endurance, and her total lack of self-pity.
Perhaps the cruelest aspect of this society is the way it breaks down and distorts family affections. A slave’s baby is usually sold soon after birth; Sarah’s would-be husband, if he wants her, must buy her; and Manon herself, after all, is only the property of her husband.
1. Which of the following reflects Manon’s attitude towards colored people?
[A] Sympathetic. [B] Suspicious.
[C] Concerned. [D] Disgusted.
2. It can be inferred from the text that the novel is written _____.
[A] with a mobile point of view
[B] with a limited third person singular
[C] from Manon’s perspective
[D] from Sarah’s eye as a slave
3. According to Manon, black people should _____.
[A] emerge as free middle class citizens
[B] behave submissively towards the whites
[C] have self-respect in the mixed race marriage
[D] learn to offer more affection to their wives
4. We learn that as the story develops _____.
[A] readers will think differently of all the characters
[B] Manon’s husband will win back her admiration
[C] the emotional crisis will be swiftly resolved
[D] all the suspicion will be proved against Sarah
5. From the text we learn that _____.
[A] Manon’s husband is a nameless but bullying person
[B] Manon is the real heroine who deserves readers’ sympathy
[C] Sarah is in fact smarter than her master Manon
[D] Walter is a proof of the mixed race prostitution
