Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Reapers

Black horses drive a mower through the weeds,

And there, a field rat, startled, squealing bleeds,

His belly close to ground. I see the blade,

Blood-stained, continue cutting weeds and shade.

-"Reapers," Jean Toomer

In this passage from "Reapers" Toomer is lamenting the mechanization of farming that was rapidly taking place around him at the start of the 20th century. The "Black horses" deliver the connotation of the blacks horses, often associated with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, indicates an extreme and lasting death, in this case, of nature. The idea of death is further pursued by Toomer by the graphic depiction of the death of the "field rat". In this sense Toomer is depicting the literal death of nature while also suggesting to the reader that this is just one instance of death and that the death of nature will continue because of the blades that "continue cutting weeds and shade."

Toomer also seems to feel a personal connection to the death of nature through the mechanization because of the use of the personal pronoun "I." Toomer uses this in the context of "I see the blade." He is actively seeing the death of nature and yet the speaker of the poem does not seem to be doing anything to stop this death, possibly because of the inevitability of the death as suggested again by the blades that "continue cutting weeds and shade."

Toomer also points to the irony of this death of nature through the use of the horses. The horses are the things pulling the mower through the weeds and causing the destruction of the rat, and in turn nature. As humans we are exploiting one part of nature, the horses, in order to destroy another part, the rat and the weeds.

10 comments:

  1. “Reapers” is a tragic poem. The imagery is dark; “black” is used to describe the reapers and horses. I interpreted the poem as one about African Americans being condemned to field work. “Black” describes two objects, the reapers and the horse, which are demonstrated as property. The field work process is monotonous as the worker constantly sharpens and cuts weeds down. The field rat could also be a representation of African Americans. The worker sees “the blade, blood stained” but continues “cutting weeds and shade” (5). The worker does not value the life of the rat enough to stop working. This shows that the life of an African American worker was not valued by society and that it was typical for an African American to die without anyone caring.

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  2. I think it's really interesting that you didn't see the connection to slavery that I saw but, just like one other "Reapers" critic, you saw the idea of reapers as a mechanization rather than simply men reaping, especially in the context of slave owners reaping the benefits of "killing" their slaves through the labor that they forced on them. I do agree with the idea that there is a sense of inevitability, but more in the sense that there is a criticism of the idea that these changes "must" happen, rather than being a truly moral ideal. Finally, I would like to point out that the horses are themselves black. Do you think that Toomer was arguing that the rat was another part of nature, along with the horse, or the literally 'small' morals of both the slave drivers and society as a whole?

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  3. I would have to agree with what Ian says in the last paragraph of his analysis. Toomer does in fact point out the irony of this death of nature through the use of the horse, who is in fact part of nature itself, killing another part, the rat and weeds. However, i wanted to take this a step further and point out the very simple way in which Toomer constructed the poem. Yes, he does use caesuras as a way to stop the reader and put an emphasis on a certain point, but overall the poem is only one stanza in length. It is only eight lines long with a very simple rhyme scheme that is constructed with rhyming couplets. I took this as a way of saying that we are doing this exploitation of nature with hardly even thinking about it. It is almost like it is second nature (no pun intended) to us.

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  4. I do not think I would necessarily view the "black horses" as a comparison to the 4 horsemen of the Apocolypse. I think there is a distinct comparison between the black horses and the black reapers (slaves) and it shows that the slaves are portrayed as horses. The slaves are treated as animals in a sense. Horses have been an important symbol in American history, particularly through the development of agriculture. But the mere fact is that they are animals that are able to endure strenuous labor unlike human beings. Slaves however, during those times were powerless and under the control of slave masters and were not treated like human beings. So I think the "horses" have a deeper meaning in reference to slavery. I can see how they could potentially signify "death" but I just feel it relates to the slaves performing field labor just as the horses do.

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  5. I find this post to be a very interesting interpretation. I, along with John, saw the slavery theme to be a profound theme in this poem. However, your interpretation of the "Four Horsemen" is one I probably would not have considered. This interpretation is one that brings in a biblical aspect to the passage. I'm not too sure if there is any other place in the poem to where you can bring in a biblical reference, but the one that you note is of great significance. The connection of destruction to nature is closely related to the destruction that the four horsemen bring in the Bible. But, I still believe the poem is related to slavery, and how society viewed slaves as being insignificant as people.

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  6. While I think that the Nature interpretation is a creative reading of the poem, given the nature of body of work we've read, and given Toomer's own influences I would have to agree with the analysis that this represents the oppression blacks, either free or as slaves. In either case, an element of the poem I want to shed light on is that of the routine. Throughout the poem every action: the reapers sharpening their blades, methodically cutting through weeds, and destroying the life in front of them all appear to be part of a grand routine that has is well practiced and efficient. Perhaps Toomer's take on the monotony of black oppression?

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  7. I can agree that this piece could also be interpreted as the blight of black farm workers in the South as suggested by many, however Toomer was not alive during the existence of slavery, he was born after its outlaw. I do think, however, that this piece could be about the pains that black sharecroppers (a legalized form of slavery in many people's opinions) in the South experience.

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  8. While, again, I would have to acknowledge the issue of slavery in this poem, I think that you have hit another crucial element. The exploitation of nature. While reading the poem, myself, I also envisioned the four horses of the Apocalypse. I agree with the irony of using elements of nature to destroy other elements in nature, in the horses pulling the mower over the weeds. Also, the last line, "Blood-stained, continued cutting weeds and shade" shows man's indifference in his exploitation of nature.

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  9. I can see the mechanization evident in this poem. The field mouse also presents quite possibly the best argument for this interpretation. The machine ignores the creature that it has killed. It just mindlessly follows the path that it is going on, regardless of what must fall in its path.

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  10. I believe that any illusion to slavery in this poem is actually incidental, or at most tangential to Toomer's original focus. While there are some easy parallels to point out-- most obviously that of the black laborer swinging a scythe-- I think these are too superficial to hold much water. Looking closely, I doubt that Toomer would write about slaves who were entrusted with scythes and allowed to keep sharpeners in their pockets. And it would be illogical to compare the horses to slaves because the horses are themselves *agents* of oppression in the poem, not the oppressed.

    Ian's point that Toomer was not alive during the years of American slavery is important and thought-provoking. If Toomer was indeed writing from his own living observations, he may well have been inspired by the industrial revolution, which would have been still occurring as he grew up.

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