Reflection Book Three: The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

In this book, unlike the others we’ve read, Jane stays in the same place, the Samson’s plantation. She focuses more on describing the social circumstances of her environment, although she also describes some of her personal experiences in the events carried in this book.  One of the things that caught my attention is one of the analysis she made. It doesn’t matter what men are willing to do in order to feel in charge of the world, they will never win a war against nature. Nature always win.

At the beginning, we were presented to Tom Joe. He was one of the men who made sure that the white superiority was established, by beating the blacks when they “deserved it”. Robert Samson, the landowner, let him get away with his behavior because he saw it the correct way to do his job.

Robert Samson is a typical southern plantation owner, who had two sons. One was white and the other black. During that time, it was common to see how the landowners thought that they had some sort of dominion over the women’s bodies. That’s how Timmy arrived to the world. Yes, he had a son with one of the black women but that was it. He did not recognize him by giving him his name nor did he cared for them. He simply gave his seed. We can see how Timmy is very much alike his father. The only thing that was different was their skin color. There was a strict division, because of their races, that made the connection between father and son unimportant and one that couldn’t happen for them. At the end, their races segregated them and kept the brothers and father apart from each other. Tom Joe was the one who said Timmy had to leave the plantation, and there wasn’t any objection coming from the father of the boy.

The relationship that Tee Bob and Timmy had was a very special one. They used to spend all of their time together. They never let race divide them. Tee Bob couldn’t understand why his brother had to leave because a white man beat him with a stick. Jane says:

“Robert thought he didn’t have to tell Tee Bob about these things. They was part of his life, and Tee Bob would learn them for himself when he got older. But Tee Bob never did. He killed himself before he learned how he was supposed to live in this world.” (P.154)

       Another relationship presented in this book is between Tee Bob and Mary Agnes. He is considered pure white while she is still considered black. She was a Creole, an in-between. They had high standards and were also racist, just like the whites. She came to the plantation as a teacher “to make amends” with her family’s slave owning past. Although Tee Bob and Mary fell in love, the races separated them still. The reminder of the rules of society, this time, comes from Jimmy. It is as if his father was talking to his son since he did this with Timmy’s mother. Jimmy says to his friend, after calling Mary a “nigger”:

“Listen Robert… If you want her go to that house and taker her. If you want her at that school, make them children go out in the yard and wait. Take her in that ditch if you can’t wait to get her home. But she’s there for that and nothing else”. (P.183)

      This scene that Tee Bob had, was just like the one with his brother. He just couldn’t understand why society acted the way it did. For him love was the key and it was not right to forget about it in order to follow the hierarchy. In the world he had to live, the race was more important than true emotions. He loved Mary Agnes and wanted to marry her but people warned him, several times, that what he wished to do was unacceptable.

“But somewhere along the way somebody wrote a set of rules condemning all that. I had to live by them, Robert at that house now had to live by them, and Clarence Caya had to live by them. Clarence Caya told Jimmy to live by them, and Jimmy obeyed. But Tee Bob couldn’t obey. That’s why we got rid of him. All us. Me, you, the girl- all us.” (P.204)

This was the drop that filled the cup, the cup being what drove him to his suicide. He did not want to be like his father, he wanted more out of life, to do what was right. It was as if, during that time, the only way to be free from the violence and difficult racist daily life and do as you wished, was through death.

“He had to find peace. He couldn’t find it here.” (P.196)

Robert Samson was childless. He had nobody to take on his “legacy”. He sent away one of his son and he basically killed the other one. The reason behind all of their children’s destiny was because of him and his racist actions and beliefs. He had a need to reinforce social order no matter who he would injure in the way.