Uncle Tom's Children | Themes & Symbolism

Uncle Tom's Children Significant Topics

Violence and Power

Each episode in Uncle Tom's Children revolves around some violent act or series of acts. Usually, the violence rises to the level of the horrific and spins out of control, destroying both white and black lives. The violent acts depicted include murder, torture, coercion and intimidation. Inevitably, given the Jim Crow power structure in place in the American South Wright portrays, black people end up bearing the brunt of the violence. Their bodies suffer, and yet Wright also charts more insidious, less visible types of violence at work, such as violence done to family and community ties, human dignity, justice and even the ability of words to have meaning.

In light of the brutalities that follow in the five fictional episodes, the beatings Wright describes suffering in "The Ethics of Jim Crow" seem, if not mild, at least non-fatal. Yet on closer inspection, one must question the quality of the...
(read more)