The Green Pastures Essay | Critical Essay #6

The Green Pastures Critical Essay #6

Modern Negroes, weary of the "Uncle Tom" picture of the "Good Ol' Darky," may be offended at the opening scene of The Green Pastures. Although Mr. Deshee is shown as a good man, he is a kind of "Uncle Tom," a man who seems so simple that his goodness appears to be the result of simplemindedness rather than of virtue. In the first Sunday School scene, for example, he is teaching a class of small Negro children. In his opening speech, he summarizes the first five chapters of Genesis; and the emphasis is entirely upon long life: "Adam lived a hundred an' thirty years an' begat a son in his own likeness . . . Seth. An de' days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years!" The only reference to contemporary life is that "ol' Mrs. Gurney's mammy" is called "ol' Mrs. Methusaleh caize she's so...
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