Scribd
Upload
15 views2 pages

Berry's Class Notes

Uploaded by

Nerian Smith
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
15 views2 pages

Berry's Class Notes

Uploaded by

Nerian Smith
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Characters

Milbury Jones (Berry)


A young black man
He’s very observant
Poor and uneducated
He is gentle and good with children
Mrs. Osborn
The housekeeper of the children’s home.
Rumoured to be in love with Dr. Renfield.
Very high-handed with her staff but was docile with Dr. Renfield.
Displays racist characteristics in subtle forms.

Dr. Renfield
He is racist.
It’s rumoured that he had an affair with a female staff.

Themes

Racism This theme is apparent when Berry was being considered for employment at the
Home. Mrs. Osborn was concerned about where Berry would sleep, implying that he could
not sleep with the white servants because he was considered to be beneath them. His salary
was also cut due to his race, and he was overworked, with no discussions of days off,
'everybody was imposing on him in that taken-for-granted way white folks do with Negro
help.' (Hughes, 162). Even more importantly, when the unfortunate accident occurred with
the child, there was no attempt at discerning what led to the incident. Still, the blame was laid
on the obvious person - Berry. As a result, he was relieved of his job in a hail of racist slurs.

Oppression

The theme of oppression is expressed repetitively throughout this story. White workers and
superiors kept expecting Milberry to do more and more. Milberry’s response to these requests
was a quiet acceptance without bitterness because he was happy and thankful enough to have
this job and food. Milberry found happiness in helping the crippled children at play during his
brief rest period in the story. At first, the nurses were hesitant about whether they should
allow it or not. At the end of the story, the nurses had changed their mind frame about Berry
and would come looking for and demanding his immediate help.

In his typical nature in responding to and accepting their demand he unknowingly caused his
demise. While Berry was helping a boy in a wheelchair down the stairs, the boy fell out of
the chair onto the grass and the wheelchair onto the walk. The boy was not hurt in the fall,
but the wheelchair back was snapped off. In this scene, Langston Hughes uses the wheelchair
as a symbol of Milberry’s undoing. The wheelchair’s falling represents Berry’s falling from
the grace of the white people’s acceptance. The snapped back of the wheelchair foreshadows
Berry’s immediate termination of employment. Even though it was the white nurse’s
responsibility and the job they quickly and gladly placed all the blame for the accident upon
Berry. This truly exemplifies the use of oppression of white people over blacks.

You might also like