The Haunting

I wanted to also talk about slavery in African American literature as haunting. I think that all of the books we have read exhibit this feature. There is something completely eerie about the fact that this nation used to enslave an entire group of people. And eerier still, as depicted in Kindred, we are not too far removed from our oppressive past.

It is haunting to read Going to Meet the Man, and to be completely disturbed and troubled by the stories and know that they are all too real. If anything, all of these stories, novels, and novellas have simply reminded us that the ghost of our horrific past still haunt us today. We cannot too easily put behind us our awful past.

Another haunting book is The Known World. I believe the thing that was so haunting about this book is the spirituality that is brought into it. For some reason, whenever something is deeply spiritual, it feels like it never goes away. Like those that have been enslaved still exist. They may only exist in the spiritual world, but they are still here.

If anything, books like Kindred and The Known World, make one realize that our past as a slave nation still haunts each and everyone of us—black or white. More frightening still, as a modern nation we are still trying to find equality. We are still learning how to rise above oppression. And those that suppress others, are now learning how to put that part of themselves aside. Either way, are nation is the way it is because of slavery and the books that we have read this semester make that fact very, horrifically real.