Reference no: EM133365144

Question: On page one in Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Seth is described as being in his early fifties, "born of Northern free parents," and having "a stability that none of the other characters have." In "Gem of the Ocean," Caesar is an older black man with a good job, and he owns land. Both Seth and Caesar generalize other African Americans, especially African Americans from the south. In Act One Scene One of "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," Seth states, "These niggers coming up here with that old backward country style of living. It's hard enough now without all that ignorant kind of acting. Ever since slavery got over with there ain't been nothing but foolish-acting niggers. Word get out they need men to work in the mill and put in these roads...and niggers drop everything and head north looking for freedom. They don't know the white fellows looking too." In Act One Scene Three of "Gem of the Ocean," Caesar states, "Some of these niggers was better off in slavery. They don't know how to act otherwise. You try and do something nice for niggers and it'll backfire on you every time. You try and give them an opportunity by giving them a job and they take and throw it away. Talking about they ain't going to work." They have the same rhetoric when they refer to black people being freed from slavery. How do you think their conditions, being in a more comfortable place in society, helps form their harsh opinions of African Americans?