The Song of the South

(This is on the front cover of the movie)

The Song of the South (1946)

I chose to do my analysis on this particular story because not that many people know about it. They know about the songs and the rides at Disney parks but don’t really know where all of that came from. A couple years ago we came across the copy of the movie at the California State Fair. It was a copy from Europe because it’s a “banned” movie. I was so excited to watch it but worried about the reasons why it was banned. I was worried about what kind of racism I would see. Much to my surprise this movie is not racist, in my opinion, at all. There might be a little bit of racism, but I believe when it comes to movies and books it’s extremely important to be looking at them and watching in the correct context. In this essay I will be discussion my impressions of the movie, and the information and opinions I found in my research.

The first scene of this movie shows a typical white American family of the time. There was the Mom, Dad, son, and their slave in a carriage on their way to their Grandma’s plantation. They called her Aunt Tempy. When talking they did not ignore her and were completely respectful to her. A noticeable thing was the white people were wearing much nicer clothes then their slave. They arrive and the Grandmother greets everyone with a hug except their “Aunt Tempy”. Their Grandmother has many slaves working on her plantation and they have kids. The grandmas tells one of the children of color to take care of Jonny (the son) while he is staying there. They run off playing together. The Father of Jonny leaves him and his wife at the plantation to stay and we don’t know why. Jonny is very upset about this and tries to run away. But Uncle Remus, one of the older slaves who is famous for his wonderful stories, stops him by telling him some of his wonderful stories about Br’er (brother) Rabbit.

None of the movie showed any disrespectful treatment to the slaves at all. I was very surprised because it is not what I was expecting after all of the myths I had heard. The slaves didn’t use proper English when talking and were singing a lot of the time. We have to take into account this is a Disney movie called “Song of the South”. When children watch this film I think they really enjoy seeing the stories of come to life as Uncle Remus tells them. It shows people of color and white people getting along, being respectful to each other, and playing together. I think it actually sends a good message. But while kids are watching this they may get the wrong idea (sugar coating) about slavery and how it was because most children watching this movie don’t know the history and about the time it was taking place and what was happening in history at this time.

This movie takes place right after the Civil War. So, slaves were in fact free at this time. They were free to go if they pleased, but many had been born and raised into slavery. At one in the movie it even showed Uncle Remus leaving because he thought it would be best for Jonny if he left. He also goes against the wishes of Jonny’s mother when she had told him not to see Jonny anymore. Also, the antagonists in this movie are two young neighbors, white boys. (theforbidden-zone.com/scrolls/songofthesouth.shtml) This movie is based on African American folk tales and was made to try to preserve how things were in this time period. This also explains why they are using the old southern dialect. One thing I didn’t like was how vague this movie was. It does not explain the situation with parents or why they are now staying at their Grandma’s plantation. It is mostly just focused on Jonny and Uncle Remus. A problem some people found with the movie is that it may give children the wrong idea about slavery. It may show that the slaves were happy and that it was not a serious issue. This is not the case. Like I mentioned earlier, it’s about knowing the context the movie and the time period it is from. I think Disney should release this movie to America because there are much more offensive movies out there today. They could solve the problem by writing at the beginning of the film talking about the time period so people and children understand. (http://www.songofthesouth.net/movie/overview/defense.html)

I personally loved this movie and truly enjoyed watching it. I think Disney should release to the public because it is a wonderful tale and it is amazing how cartoon and live action film was combined. The stories told by Uncle Remus are clever and have good morals. :)

Sources:

http://theforbidden-zone.com/scrolls/songofthesouth.shtml

http://www.songofthesouth.net/index.php

(This is Uncle Remus with the three main children)

Here is Uncle Remus Telling the Grandma at the end of the story, "Things are lookin' mighty satisfactual."

Here is a Preview of the film :)

I also want to share these facts from a website I used:

Consider some facts about Song of the South (1946):

• Song of the South was one of Disney’s first films to successfully combine live-action and animation.
• Song of the South features the first Oscar-winning performance by a Black man (James Baskett won an honorary Oscar "For his able and heart-warming characterization of Uncle Remus, friend and story teller to the children of the world").
• Song of the South was the first film to feature performances by two Oscar-winning Black Americans, James Baskett and Hattie McDaniel, a feat which would not be repeated until 2001 by Rat Race, which featured Whoopi Goldberg and Cuba Gooding, Jr. (this is progress?).
• Song of the South won two Academy Awards in 1948. In addition to James Baskett winning an honorary Oscar, “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” won for Best Song.
• “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah,” sung by Baskett in the film, is one of the most famous songs in the Disney library.
• Song of the South is one of the first Hollywood films to feature a Black man as a main character and was released uncut in the South. Many Hollywood films at the time, if they featured Black characters at all, would shoot duplicate scenes without Black characters, for release in the South. For example, in Hold Your Man(1933), starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, two versions of the wedding scene were shot: one with a Black minister and one with a White minister.

(Source:http://theforbidden-zone.com/scrolls/songofthesouth.shtml)

Ruby's Wish

The title of the book is Ruby’s Wish. It’s written by Shirin Yim Bridges and illustrated by Sophie Blackall. Age range 5-8 years and published on July 28^th 2002.

This book is a true story about the author’s grandmother. It’s about a young girl living in old China in a wealthy home. Her only wish is to go to a University. She doesn’t want to only learn to cook and clean like all girls, she wants to go away to school like all of the boys. This is the story of how her wealthy (from California Gold Rush) Grandfather helps her get her wish.

I found the illustrations in this book very accurate. They do not seem stereotypical. This book is about an old Chinese family so all of the people are wearing traditional Chinese clothing and have slanted eyes. Also, this book is set in “Old China” so it doesn’t show current cultures and situations. The tokenism I saw was all of the children and adults have the same looking faces. This could be accurate, but it is noticeable to the reader. Also the active doer in this book is the grandfather. He is the one who came back from the gold rush wealthy. He is the one who had many wives, many children and a large house with a personal teacher. He is also the one who gave her an acceptance letter to a University for her Chinese New Year gift. But Ruby could also be considered an active doer in the story because she was always learning all she could and stayed up late many nights catching up on her embroidery.

The role of women, or in this case Ruby, definitely comes into play in this story. While all of the other girls were dropping their classes Ruby continued to take the education classes with the boys and the cooking and cleaning classes with the girls. Her achievements relied on her own personal initiative and drive.

Sex roles are incidental in this story because Ruby being a girl in a culture and time where no girls went to school was the main focus of the plot. Ruby ended up becoming the first female to go to a University in China.

Both sexes are not portrayed in nurturing roles for their family because of the time this book is placed. The grandpa is the power in the house because he is the one with the money and all the wives.

In this story there is no variety of different races. This whole book is about this particular Chinese family. After a child reads this they might not even apply to their own lives unless they are Chinese or Asian. There are no other skin colors throughout the book besides white. Some children reading this may think that being another color is bad and that anyone of color may not be able to achieve anything of significance. But the main character is strong and very ambitious.

The author writing this book may be inclined to strengthen Ruby’s character because it was her grandma. Also, I’m sure it was her grandma who was telling her the story so it might have actually happened a bit differently. There might have been more struggles for Ruby.

I found this book a wonderful read. I read it through a few times and didn’t find many stereotypes or racism. There are things that bothered me because of the time it was placed in. (Like Ruby not being allowed to attend University.) But times have changed so that type of sexist behavior in minimal in this day and age.

Does their representation include significant specific cultural information? Or does it follow stereotypes?

This book doesn’t have many cultural details but it does show some cultural aspects from Old China.

Who has the power in this story? What is the nature of their power, and how do they use it?

In this story Ruby’s grandfather has the power and uses it for good to help his family lead better lives.

How is language used to create images of people of a particular group? How are artistic elements used to create those images?

Language isn’t really used to represent the Chinese people but in the story they do show Chinese calligraphy.

Who has written this story? Who has illustrated it? Are they inside or outside the groups they are presenting? What are they in a position to know? What do they claim to know?

The writer of the story is the granddaughter of the main character in her story. I’m not sure about the author. I know that the writer is on the inside of the group they are representing. She knows from hearing from her grandmother.

Whose voices are heard? Whose are missing?

The grandfather and Ruby were the only voices in the story. The mother and teachers and other children’s voices were absent.

Analyze the storyline.  How are problems presented and resolved?

The problem is that Ruby has a dream to go to University but sees no hope because girls in her culture were not allowed to go; it was resolved by her grandfather sending her application and presenting her with her acceptance letter as a wonderful New Years present.

Would you recommend this book?  Why or why not?

I would highly recommend this book; it is a wonderful story for every age about strength and shows that dreams can come true.