Advanced Reading, Writing, and Grammar

In the short story The Ingrate Paul Laurence Dunbar raise the question of the race descrimination, narrating about one fate of the slave Josh, who heard the daring whisper ”Courage!” and ran way for freedom.

The historical context of the story is to portray the hardship of the slavery and reveal grim attitude of the owners towards their “nigger”. The author narrates about time before the Civil War and after, displaying the great changes that have come after the proclamation of freedom for slaves. He mentions abolitionists and Quakers, who played a significant role in the movement against slavery. The story also embraces the cultural context trough the relationships between whites and slaves.

Describing the dialogs between Mr. Lecker and Mrs. Lecker the author vividly demonstrate his own opinion about the sly and greedy nature of the Southern noblemen, hidden by feigned charity and generosity. Mentionning the ideas that occured in the Mr. Eckley’s and Mr. Lecker’s brains, Dunbar ironically exposes the culture of that society, their beliefs and values. Mr. Lecker thoughts about Josh “usually inteligence in a slave meant discontent; but not with Josh…” explain the real intention to his slave.

The tone of the text is very rich and  colorful, his words touch readers  deeply. He descibes feelings and motives of different people from the distinct levels of the society lively.

Asel