Books are a much more personal and private aspect of his life. He read in his home, and in his library. What he read in books allowed him to talk to his mother about being Black and gave him courage to ask the questions he couldn't ask anyone else. His heroes changed based on the books he read, and the books he read gave him the idea that he could be an exceptional Black person.
These two aspects of his life correlate to the two races he identifies with, and how he acts with each one. The pianist side of him corresponds with the white half of him in that it is public, it is something that he wants to show others. Playing the piano is something he identifies with in front of others, and at times in the book the main character tries to identify with the white people in the book. His more secretive reading corresponds with the black side of him, in that he is empowered to change, but does so with his mother, and not in public. He watches Shiny give a speech in front of white people and feels excited about it, but still questions why they clapped for a black person.
The two sides of his life don't necessarily conflict in public as they do in the thoughts of the main character. His inner warring or contemplation of his race and who he should identify with is a main focus of the book.
4 comments:
I agree with your insight and think you bring a really interesting idea to light. What you said about the book brought to mind Johnson's difficulty in finding information about the civil war. He claims that "the story was told in such a condensed and skipping style that I gained from it very little real information" (28). Based on this statement, it is interesting to think that if book represents Johnson's private, black side, that even this side can only be viewed from the history and written word that is structured by whites.
Another interesting aspect of this is that the narrator learns to play very structured, time-tested music, while some of his colored counterparts in NY play ragtime music. Throughout his entire time playing, the narrator expresses how intimately emotional he considers music, and in the ragtime style such emotion can be fully expressed and poured out without inhibition. It is interesting to compare social structure and streetside freedom and see what Johnson learns in his life away from home.
I agree with the premise of your post and find it very helpful. On top of that, one more thing to add is the symbol of the piano. Notice that when he firsts sits down at the piano, the main character says he feels an odd attraction to the "black keys". If you take that metaphor a little farther, the entire piano could become a symbol the main character's life - one that is both black and white but never really designated as wholly black or wholly white.
I like how Vu went further to use the piano as a symbol for the narrator's life. Jumping off of that, in order to make the music he loves, our narrator must play off of both the white and black keys to create a full-bodied sound. This could be seen as the balance the narrator "plays" into his life. His music symbolizes his mixed heriatge and mirrors the-public-meets-private side of his internal passion and inspiration turned into a public symphony.
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