All cultures have their own style of
storytelling, so here is a chance for you to read some storytelling
that is part of America's culture. The stories used in this
storybook revolve
around the great storyteller, Uncle Remus. Uncle Remus is a fictional
character who sprang from the creative mind and imagination of Joel
Chandler Harris. Harris was a Caucasian- American who decided to create
an elderly African- American male, Uncle Remus, to be a storyteller in
all his writings (Uncle Remus would be a character based off the
stereotypical description of an African- American male). The role of
Uncle
Remus is to be the narrator of stories that Mr. Harris had collected
and written.
This may be a controversial issue for
some, but to be honest, Harris purposely chose to create an African-
American male as his storyteller because his stories were written
during a time that many African-Americans were trying to overcome the
oppression of slavery. Harris wrote during the 1880s, which was a time
when African- Americans were getting adjusted to the free life after
the abolishment of slavery. The purpose of Harris' stories was to
reveal
the struggle of escaping submission from the view of an Afican-
American male without offending anybody, and also to teach moral
lessons by using animals as his characters. Harris also wanted his
stories to be used as a source of entertainment for all to enjoy.
Although some may not undertand the dialect used, the stories told by
Uncle Remus are popular all over, and they have been and will always be
well known in the Southern part of the United States. However although
these stories are popular in the U.S.A., they originated in African and
some parts of Europe- basically Harris' works brought the two cultures
together since they both seemed to be present in the United States.
Another reason Harris chose a character
such as Uncle Remus was because of the importance Uncle Remus is to the
African Culture,. Although he is fictional, he plays a role as a
translating storyteller who tells stories that real
storytellers have passed on from generation to generation. Another
reason was the dialect that Harris chose to use. The dialect used by
Uncle Remus was that used by African- Americans who lived in the South
during the 1800s.
Within my storybook, you will be
reading stories about animals. These animals are used to keep
controversial issues of slavery away. These animals have internal human
characteristics and carry out their lives just as humans do. The main
character in most of Harris' stories is Brer Rabbit. He is a
significant character because of the type of role he plays. All of
Harris' stories have moral lessons to be learned.Therefore it is good
to pay attention. Even though these stories have beautiful lessons,
they are hard to read and comprehend because of the langauge used. I
chose this topic so people could enjoy reading
Uncle Remus stories and understand the text used. The storybook will
contain original stories written in a dialect easy to understand and
with a different plot. The characters may be the same, but the settings
and endings could be different.
