First Impression of Clotel
Before opening up my book to begin Clotel, I knew nothing of the text I must admit, I’ve been a bit surprised of what I’ve read. I feel as if we’ve all read so much literature about slavery. I know my Sophomore year of high school we spent an entire quarter (and some of the other quarters) reading books on the subject, and it’s a main focus in almost all of my American lit classes. Not saying we should not read books about slavery, but occasionally some of the texts seem exactly the same.
I’m a bit reluctant to completely judge my opinion of the text so far, since we’ve only read the narrative of William Wells Brown so far. But, from what we have read, it’s much drier than I would have expected. Maybe it’s because we have not been introduced to any characters so far, but it did not seem to have any flourish to it. Once again… at least not so far.
I really enjoyed some of the little stories within the text. I definitely think they were the most powerful. Such as the blind mother whom was ripped away (literally) from her child who was sold for a measly $1. Or about the woman who was also taken from her husband and her children and decided to drown herself in the ocean. These were very powerful stories which were unlike any I had ever heard of before. It’s horrible to think of what it must be like to be torn apart from the people who love you most.
I hope to really benefit from hearing the personal narrative of the author. He truly had an amazing journey himself from slavery to author. It’s inspiring that he went from a simple spelling book to writing the first African-American novel. I also really loved at the end his response to his former slave-owner. That no matter how much money was offered in exchange for his papers, he would never give it to him. With his background and spirit, I look forward to seeing how that may translate into the novel.
I’m quite enjoying the book so far. I think on the surface level books about slavery can seem similar, but there’s usually a lot more going on underneath that diversifies them from novel to novel. I’m on the lookout for any queer formulations of family that might pop up in the text. Of course, I’m usually on the lookout for queer formulations of anything, in every text. Maybe it’s my inner rebelliousness that always wants to point to something and say “Look, there! You can do ______ this way too, and it’s so much better than your way!” I’ll stop rambling.
I agree with Kendra about the benefit of hearing the author’s story in his own words. It helps us to understand where he is coming from and to place his novel into the context it belongs to. I also think that the fact that he shows himself to us at the very start makes us more personally connected with him and more invested in his tale.