The wonderful tar baby story analysis

For our first essay, you will be taking a closer, analytical look at “The Wonderful Tar-Baby

Story,” and “How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp For Mr. Fox,” both by Joel Chandler Harris. Your

essay will have two parts to it for an essay totaling 5 pages in length.

For the first part (3 pages): Discuss and dissect the themes surrounding both stories; a few

being trickery, cunning, wit, pride, and folklore. What do you believe to be Harris’ motif in

writing these two pieces and, using quotes and passages, how do they reflect your opinion?

What is the relationship between the rabbit and the fox and whom might these two characters

be reflecting historically? How would these tales reflect the nation? We will be having class

discussions on the works in various lights so that they may aid your analysis.

For the second part (2 pages): I would like you to assert the place the stories of Joel Chandler

Harris have in American literature. The collection – originally published in 1880 – was first

received as a literary triumph, being so well received that President Roosevelt himself

thought the stories served, “...to bring our people closer together...[Harris’] art is not only an

art addition to our sum of national achievement, but it has also always been an addition to the

forces that tell for decency...” However, as decades passed, critics began to blast Harris’

collection as a blemish on American literature that only sought to exploit the culture of

African Americans. With that, explore the questions: Is Harris’ work worthy of praise? Do

these stories, “...bring our people closer together...”? Where should Harris’ work fall in

American literature? This second section of your essay requires both examples from the

stories as well as one researched article from the MVC library database as it will serve to aid

your argument. This essay should be 5 full pages in length in MLA format with a work-cited

page.

“The Wonderful Tar Baby Story”

The story of the Tar-baby is perhaps the best-known of the Uncle Remus tales.

Uncle Remus also was known as a traditional character in the Antebellum, slave era.

The themes surrounding both stories dissect and discuss the relationship between the

Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox; quite frankly there is a deeper in depth message behind the

two tales. “The Fox, Tar Baby and the Rabbit”, these two characters represent tales that

reflect historically and national facts. Taking a closer, analytical look at “the Wonderful

Tar Baby Story”, it demonstrates how Joel Chandler Harris’ work falls in the American

literature. But not just any American literature, the literature that only sought to exploit

the culture of African-Americans. We can slightly see a hint of the message behind the

story from its title. How could a Tar Baby be wonderful? The fact is, a Tar Baby is a

meaning of complicated random manipulated concepts, especially when it was made

by brer Fox.

An author's purpose is his reason for writing. In other words, the author’s goal is

to convince the readers to agree with the author. With that being said, I believe Harris’

motif in writing these two tales was simple. I strongly believe that harris wanted to give a

message to his readers. The message of keeping the legacy of the Uncle Remus tales

alive along with the Southern dialect used to describe the tale. To put it differently, there

is a deeper meaning behind the two tales.

As we know, the uncle remus story was published in 1880 at the end of the Civil

War and the economical American growth and also when the union soldiers took over

the plantations. Harris lived among a poor family in Georgia and grew up with the

slaves, with that in mind, Harris saw the miserable slave life and witnessed the disaster

they lived in. All of these experiences led Harris to create this genius short story tales

with the famous fictional character Uncle Remus and its folklore. With that being said,

Uncle remus was an old slave of the owner of the plantation, also he was telling the tar

baby story to the son of the owner. ‘“Didn’t the fox never catch the Rabbit uncle remus?’

asked the little boy next morning.” (Wonderful tar baby) The little boy was speaking

proper english and he was white, on the other hand, Uncle Remus was uneducated and

African American.

Going more in depth with the analysis of the characters, Harris was trying to send

a deep message to the world through these two characters. Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox

are both a reflection to historical facts back in the Civil War and the antebellum era. For

instance brer fox made the tar baby as a trap for brer rabbit and to capture him and

torture him in any painful way there is; Brer rabbit was walking peacefully on the road

with no intention to hurt anybody. Brer fox was hiding and waiting for brer Rabbit to fall

in his trap with the tar baby, until brer rabbit finally did. Rabbit walked by, noticed the tar

baby and greeted him, no response came from the tar baby and this upset the rabbit. I

must say as reader, there was a sense of pride coming from the rabbit when he said,.

But also in return, Brer rabbit outsmarts brer fox by manipulating him and using his wit,

giving him a taste of his own medicine. How did he do this? Well it's very simple. While

brer Fox was celebrating that he captured the rabbit but little did he know the rabbit was

already thinking of a plan to survive.The plan was to convince the fox that the rabbit is

venerbole on purpose to give the fox an illusion in order to manipulate him into throwing

him in the Briar-Patch, not only is this a creative act but it's also very brave.

Each one of these characters play a significant role when it comes to the morals

and ethics behind this tale. To put it differently, after reading and analysing the two

tales, I come to the fact that Harris chose the rabbit and the fox because of their

characters and personalities, that is to say that the rabbit is known as a friendly, lovable

animal, on the other hand the fox is known for its games and backstabbing, not safe to

be around and more importantly, if it wasn’t for him there wouldn’t be a tar baby and

there wouldn’t be a story after all. According to all the facts and the analysis we can

derive that Brer Fox is a representation of The northerns and the Union soldiers when

they came to the south to take over the plantations, most certainly they enslaved african

americans and took over their lands