It is interesting that Kidd stresses guilt over pity. This is the link to a graph I found that shows the word “guilt” was used most in literature during the early 1800s, the same time period Kidd writes about.
I think love and guilt are feelings that we often confuse because of the vague meaning they carry. Someone cannot give you a simple definition of either word, and, from experience, I tend to get the response, “it’s something you just feel.” In other words, I am still very confused on their meanings. But I have come to realize that it’s easier to identify both words when your point of view is from the outside. For example, one of the main themes of Handful and Sarah’s friendship is if it is out of love or guilt. Throughout the novel, Handful struggles with the difference between the two emotions because she believes that love has barriers (54). She believes that whites only pity slaves and cannot truly feel a love for them because of a lack of empathy. Handful, unlike Sarah, understands the difference between sympathy and empathy. With empathy, both people have similar experiences that allow them to feel the same thing as the other person, enabling them to understand and love each other. Even in the last pages of the novel, Handful still struggles with defining what her and Sarah share, claiming that it is still not love (335). I now have a clearer definition of love and guilt because I view Sarah and Handful’s relationship from the outside. I find guilt in the way that Sarah uses Handful as a way to satisfy her need to have anti-slavery views. I understand love better because of the lack of love Sarah has for Handful because she lacks empathy for Handful’s life as a slave. I realize that love and guilt are vague and can easily change meanings depending on context. But by reading this novel, I have filled and improved my lack of understanding for love and guilt that I had in the past.
It is interesting that Kidd stresses guilt over pity. This is the link to a graph I found that shows the word “guilt” was used most in literature during the early 1800s, the same time period Kidd writes about.
2 Comments
Molly Nelson
3/17/2014 01:15:47 pm
Charlsea, I love this graph you found about the repetition of the word "guilt" in literature in the 19th century. Yet, it is extremely fascinating how the word is more prevalent in the early 1800s, before the coming of the civil war, and the undermining of traditional Southern values, specifically regarding the institution of slavery. Yet it progressively declines following this war on mindsets. I can only speculate that it does so due to the fact that people seem to think their conscious is cleared with the outlaw of slavery. Maybe, there were many more that shared Sarah's personal guilt of owning a slave, and how she feels temporary relief when she denounces her ownership. Maybe this viewpoint of human enslavement as wrong was not exclusive to the North, for many seem to feel guilt.
Ariella
3/18/2014 11:22:14 am
Molly, it is so interesting that you brought up how the instance of guilt declines after the Civil War. Rather than prove a cleared conscience, perhaps the decline is due to increased guilt. Perhaps people don't speak of guilt because its pain is so acute and because maybe they are still hanging on to the pride of pre-Civil War southern life. Leave a Reply. |