Racial Tension in "Sanctuary"|
Racial Tension in "Sanctuary" |
| Nella Larson was born in 1891 to a Danish
mother and a West Indian father; this situation would shape her
literary works as well as the rest of her life. Larson’s origin led to a life riddled with family tension due to race. After the absence of her father, she was the only black member of her immediate family. She later acquired a white half-sister and left her family to attend Fisk University, an African-American college. Later in life, her husband was rumored to have had an affair with a white woman. All of this tension was put to good use in Larson’s writings, making her a prominent writer during the Harlem Renaissance. Even though she was regarded as black, Larson must have struggled between the two races that were a part of her, not knowing which culture to embrace at times. She must have often felt caught in the middle. In her short story “Sanctuary,” Larson uses the characters of Annie Poole and her son Obadiah to express this position. The question of blind loyalty to one race is addressed and both blacks and whites are seen as types of oppressors in the story. The story is based around Annie Poole’s decision to hide Jim Hammer, a presumed murderer. As he is hidden in her house, tucked away in Poole’s bed, she discovers that his victim was not a white man, as he had supposed, but her own son. The tone of the story is immediately set by the description of the road where Annie Poole’s lonely, timid, and shrunken cottage was located. It was “a strip of desolation some half a mile wide and nearly ten miles long,” that had been forsaken by new developments. Jim Hammer took this road to Poole’s house where he found her standing in the lighted kitchen; he remained hesitating in the dark. This road symbolizes the chasm between blacks and those of a mixed race, a long and difficult road. Hammer saw Poole in the light, suggesting that she was in a better position than he was, which was also true literally, because he had just shot a man. This dreary road provided a bleak beginning to the story and hinted at its similarly fated end. When Hammer reached Poole’s house, he decided to forego knocking and walked into the house. Annie’s “brown gaze was immediately on him, though she did not move.” This look showed that she was not surprised or threatened by him. In her mid-race role, Annie did not seem to be uncomfortable around other blacks. This example is important, because it shows that she was comfortable in her position and that she was not completely ostracized by other blacks because of it. As she listened to what Jim had done, she expressed contempt for his action, even though it was supposedly a white man that he had shot. This suggests that Annie held some regard for whites. If she symbolizes a person of mixed race, this race would also make up a part of her. Her contempt also shows that she was angered because someone of her own color had committed an act that would undoubtedly add to the negativity with which her perceived race was regarded. This point is important to her position as well because it shows the ties that would bind a person of mixed race to each of their ethnic backgrounds. Throughout the story Hammer describes Annie as a hard woman and an old demon, but he turns to her, begging and whimpering for a place to hide. His harsh descriptions depict his attitude towards Annie, one bordering on contempt. His disposition is symbolically due to her link to a race seen as superior in those times, and in the story could be due to two types of personalities conflicting within the same race. This suggestion seems to contradict the earlier idea of a person of mixed race being partially accepted by both whites and blacks, but it serves to represent the oppression that can surface from others at times. Hammer uses this language towards her, but knows that he must turn to her for help in his situation. Poole’s frail frame disguised her toughness and complexity. She could not help but wonder what Hammer was “lookin’ foh me to do ‘bout et.” He was a potential threat to her standing. Ironically she takes him in because her son, Obadiah, is fond of him and “white folks is white folks.” At this point Annie makes a decision based on race, the race that a person of mixed ethnicities would be more likely to be classified as in her time. She tells Hammer that she and Obadiah have kept out of trouble all their lives, suggesting that ties to both races had been beneficial. Yet when she chose to favor one race, she allowed Hammer to soil her snowy reputation as well as her snowy sheets. His “soiled body and grimy garments” dirtied her life, leaving it changed forever. Hammer’s conniving personality is discovered while he is lying in Poole’s feather bed; he experiences the shock of what he had done. His thoughts swirled crazily from hunger, to suffocation, and then to a falling sensation. All of these feelings are the strange things sometimes felt when in a dangerous situation. He suppressed the impulse to cry out and eventually succumbed to sleep, an odd choice for the position in which he found himself. His guise was dropped when he believed himself to be out of danger: “A sigh of relief slipped from him. His thick lips curled in an ugly, cunning smile. It had been smart of him to think of coming to Obadiah’s mother’s to hide. She was an old demon, but he was safe in her house.” His thoughts show that Hammer thought himself shrewd in thinking to go to Poole’s house, the “middle ground” for protection. His “ugly, cunning smile” removes any trace of sympathy felt for Hammer; it is now evident that he has become an oppressor to Annie. This idea is problematic in that Hammer represents blacks, but it is central to the idea that Annie has ties to this race and that some can abuse this tie. Hammer’s confidence quickly turned to fear again when he heard the terrifying sounds of men drawing near. Time seemed to freeze and he felt weighted and dead. Hammer used the same language to describe the approaching Sheriff Lowndes as he had to describe Annie, only with the added adjective of “white.” It seems as if he saw no real difference between the two, just the tie to Annie that was the only difference Hammer needed in the situation. Lowndes, as a white, seemed harmless enough, but
his mistake came in telling Annie, “Ef they was all like
Jim continued in his fearful paralyzed state when
he realized his new danger, one in which there was no middle
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