Two Characters Liz and Little George, Essay Example

James MacBride’s Song yet Sung can be understood as a novel that attributes clear ethical values to its characters. This notion is reflected in Macbride’s utilization of the classical narrative technique of the struggle of good against evil. Two of the characters in the novel, Liz Spocott and Little George, may be considered to be archetypical examples of good and evil. Whereas Liz Spocott is the victim of the ethically bankrupt slave-owners, she thus is exemplary of a character that functions as a protagonist that constituted by positive moral traits. In contrast, the character of Little George is defined in terms of violence, evil and a disregard for a common humanity. In the following essay, we shall attempt to illustrate through examples how MacBride uses the characters of Liz and Little George to develop his ethical narrative.

Liz Spocott’s character is a dreamer, and the visionary aspect MacBride gives to her character suggests that Liz represents a new future, a possible break from the inhumanity of the slave-owning period in America. This possible break endows Liz with the qualities of a classical heroine, who symbolizes freedom against oppression. Her escape from Patty’s slavery recalls the typical motif of a flight from injustice and McBride employs her in his narrative as the embodiment of justice and hope. Furthermore, what is crucial to Liz’s character is this very notion of her as a dreamer. The visions she has possess a certain clairvoyant quality, one that is imbued with an ethical content. Perhaps one of the key lines of the novel occurs at the outset, when after a vision, McBride writes: “Liz had this dream in captivity, just as the flickering light of her own life was disappearing, and when she awoke from it realized with a gasp that it was some kind of apparition and she had to find its true meaning in this world before she died.” (2) This dream sequence foreshadows the existential journey of the entire novel, as Liz attempts to realize not only her freedom, but also attempts to understand what freedom itself means. Her dedication to the meaning of a dream demonstrates a profound desire for wisdom and a deep purpose that has been created in her life. This is not a selfish purpose, but rather a selfless purpose as the dream precisely addresses the future of her people. As such, Liz can be understood as a classical heroic personage in MacBride’s novel.

The character of Little George starkly contrasts the good that is embodied in Liz. Little George, like Liz, is black, however George does not embody heroic qualities. Little George works for the slave-owner Patty Cannon and is particularly ruthless and sadistic. The fact that Little George is black is crucial to McBride’s narrative: the character demonstrates selfishness, as he is only concerned with his own welfare. Little George is a hedonistic, violent character, as evidenced by his treatment of the black slaves: “Little George done shot you and gived you medicine and washed you. You corn on the cob to him, chocolate and pretty as you is. Death’d be a relief to you.” (McBride, 8) For Little George, there is no value attributed to the lives of the black slaves. They carry the same meaning for him as a piece of corn, a piece of food that is only intended for his own vitality. Little George plays a classically evil role, in his dehumanization of the slaves and his violent behavior. While it can be argued that Little George has become this way to the extent that Patty Cannon had raised him from infancy, the character nevertheless demonstrates how evil arises: as his own humanity has been stripped away, he subsequently views others in an inhumane fashion.

Accordingly, the characters of Liz Spocott and Little George can be understood as functioning in McBride’s novels as classical examples of the conflict between good and evil. Liz embodies character traits such as selflessness and justice, whereas Little George is only concerned with his own existence, dehumanizing those around him. McBride effectively uses these characters to illustrate the timeless struggle between those possessive of an ethics of good and those without any moral or ethical position.

Works Cited

Macbride, James. Song yet Sung. New York, NY: Riverhead Books, 2008.