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Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Motifs
Explanation and Analysis—Positive Race Relations:
Throughout Up from Slavery, Washington describes moments in which he has unexpectedly positive interactions with white people, forming a motif. This motif illustrates the existence and future promise of positive race relations. For example, Washington hears that Mrs. Viola Ruffner is going to be a very strict boss, but he respects her for her high standards and goes on to consider her “one of [his] best friends.” Years later, Washington asks a white ship captain to pay him a day’s work when he has run out of money while traveling and describes the man as “kind-hearted” in his decision to hire him.
Later, when Washington’s mentor George Armstrong recruits him to build and run the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, he does so on behalf of two men—George Campbell and Lewis Adams. George Campbell is a white ex-slaveowner from the South who Washington describes as “willing to extend all the aid in his power” to materially support the school. More notable perhaps than his care for Black Americans broadly is the fact that Campbell worked closely in his development of Tuskegee with Adams, an uneducated ex-slave. Washington writes how these two men together “supported me in every effort,” challenging readers’ preconceptions about the priorities and temperaments of white Southern ex-slaveholders and white Americans generally.
Overall, Washington effectively employs the motif of positive interactions with white people in order to communicate to readers that not only are positive race relations possible in the future, they are already happening now. So long as Black Americans prove that they are willing to work hard, Washington argues, white Americans will treat them with respect. (It is worth nothing that this meritocratic understanding of race relations was critiqued by many of Washington’s peers, including W.E.B Dubois.)
Related Themes:
Chapter 3: The Struggle for an Education
Explanation and Analysis—Cleaning:
Cleaning shows up several times throughout Up from Slavery, forming a motif that shows how Washington came to value the dignity of labor over the course of his life. For example, in Chapter 3, when Washington is trying to earn money in order to be able to attend the Hampton Institute, he accepts a job with Mrs. Viola Ruffner, who had such high expectations that she fired every servant she’d previously employed after just a couple weeks. Rather than resent her for these standards, Washington respects and appreciates her, coming to value cleanliness the same way that she does:
The lessons that I learned in the home of Mrs. Ruffner were as valuable to me as any education I have ever gotten anywhere since. Even to this day I never see bits of paper scattered around a house or in the street that I do not want to pick them up at once. I never see a filthy yard that I do not want to clean it, a paling off of a fence that I do not want to put it on, an unpainted or unwhitewashed house that I do not want to paint or whitewash it.
Later, when Washington makes it to the Hampton Institute, the principal Miss Mary Mackie forces him to sweep out the entrance hall in what Washington calls “a college entrance exam.” Because he has already had so much experience with cleaning, he does an excellent job and successfully earns a place in the school.
Later in his time at Hampton, when he is offered a job cleaning the Institute alongside Miss Mackie before all the other students arrive for the start of term, he gladly accepts. When reflecting on this moment in Chapter 4, Washington writes:
It was hard for me at this time to understand how a woman of her education and social standing could take such delight in performing such service, in order to assist in the elevation of an unfortunate race. Ever since then I have had no patience with any school for my race in the South which did not teach its students the dignity of labour.
As this analysis makes clear, to Washington, simple acts like cleaning “assist in the elevation of an unfortunate race” and should not be looked down upon. Though white Americans historically looked down upon people who cleaned—and, after the end of slavery, Black Americans no longer wanted to be degraded in the eyes of white people—Washington is arguing that there is nothing inherently degrading about cleaning. In fact, as he argues throughout the book, there is dignity in all forms of labor. And, Washington proposes, the only way Black Americans will achieve racial progress is by accepting and embracing labor in all its forms.
Related Themes:
Chapter 4: Helping Others
Explanation and Analysis—Cleaning:
Cleaning shows up several times throughout Up from Slavery, forming a motif that shows how Washington came to value the dignity of labor over the course of his life. For example, in Chapter 3, when Washington is trying to earn money in order to be able to attend the Hampton Institute, he accepts a job with Mrs. Viola Ruffner, who had such high expectations that she fired every servant she’d previously employed after just a couple weeks. Rather than resent her for these standards, Washington respects and appreciates her, coming to value cleanliness the same way that she does:
The lessons that I learned in the home of Mrs. Ruffner were as valuable to me as any education I have ever gotten anywhere since. Even to this day I never see bits of paper scattered around a house or in the street that I do not want to pick them up at once. I never see a filthy yard that I do not want to clean it, a paling off of a fence that I do not want to put it on, an unpainted or unwhitewashed house that I do not want to paint or whitewash it.
Later, when Washington makes it to the Hampton Institute, the principal Miss Mary Mackie forces him to sweep out the entrance hall in what Washington calls “a college entrance exam.” Because he has already had so much experience with cleaning, he does an excellent job and successfully earns a place in the school.
Later in his time at Hampton, when he is offered a job cleaning the Institute alongside Miss Mackie before all the other students arrive for the start of term, he gladly accepts. When reflecting on this moment in Chapter 4, Washington writes:
It was hard for me at this time to understand how a woman of her education and social standing could take such delight in performing such service, in order to assist in the elevation of an unfortunate race. Ever since then I have had no patience with any school for my race in the South which did not teach its students the dignity of labour.
As this analysis makes clear, to Washington, simple acts like cleaning “assist in the elevation of an unfortunate race” and should not be looked down upon. Though white Americans historically looked down upon people who cleaned—and, after the end of slavery, Black Americans no longer wanted to be degraded in the eyes of white people—Washington is arguing that there is nothing inherently degrading about cleaning. In fact, as he argues throughout the book, there is dignity in all forms of labor. And, Washington proposes, the only way Black Americans will achieve racial progress is by accepting and embracing labor in all its forms.
Related Themes:
