The Tragic Mulatto
In 1933, Sterling Brown, a great black poet and critic, divided the full range of black characters in American Literature into several categories: the contented slave, wretched freeman, comic negro, tragic mulatto, local negro, and the exotic primitive. Among these categories, one would think that the mulatto would be favored above all. This is a very common assumption because it seems like mixing the races would rule out acceptance by one and resentment from the other. Also, the mulatto bears a skin complexion similar to that of the Caucasian race who were considered superior at that time. However, this character seems to be the most complex, disturbed, and most of all- tragic. The stereotyped character, the " tragic mulatto" was used quite often in 19th Century when portraying African Americans. The mulatto was primarily a symbol of the rape and concubinage that took place during slavery between the black woman and the white master. The purpose of these novels was to make the public aware of the cruelty of slavery and to encourage society to do away with it. However, the depiction of such a character lead to the degradation of African Americans through future literature and the reinforcement of racist ideas in modern ti
Afterwards, they isolated themselves from her and treated her like an outkast. When her husband returned, Desiree began to question him about the baby and what the color of his skin meant. But when I reflected that I was a slave, and that the laws gave no sanction to the marriage of such, my heart sank within me. They acted as if they had never met the girl. The narrative also makes note of how much more lighter slaves were worth than darker ones. Her children would have been of a darker complexion. He also threatened to punish them if he ever caught the two of them together. we became mutually attached, and he proposed to marry me. Jacobs Slave narratives like this one led to the continuous use of the tragic mulatto as a narrative device. Everything was fine, until Madame Valmonde, Desiree's mother, came to see the baby. He physically and emotionally abused her. This is a rather classy life for a slave. When she refused to cooperate, he decided to punish her. Though only ten years old, seven hundred and twenty dollars were paid for him.
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