The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" features a rich tapestry of characters that embody the complex experiences of African Americans in the Deep South. At its center is Miss Jane Pittman, a centenarian former slave whose resilience and wisdom reflect a lifetime marked by hardship and survival against institutional racism. Jane's adoptive son, Ned Douglass, represents hope and leadership, tragically cut short by his activism for civil rights, while Joe Pittman, her common-law husband, brings moments of peace and love into her turbulent life. The narrative also introduces Jimmy Aaron, a young civil rights worker whose martyrdom underscores the fierce struggle for equality. Characters like Jules Raynard, a compassionate white man, and Albert Cluveau, a morally ambiguous assassin, illustrate the varied perspectives within the racially charged environment. The tragic love story of Tee Bob and Mary Agnes highlights the societal barriers that lead to personal despair, reflecting the deep-rooted issues of race and identity. This ensemble of characters not only drives the plot but also serves as a poignant commentary on the historical and ongoing challenges faced by African Americans.
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Ernest J. Gaines
First published: 1971
Genre: Novel
Locale: Rural southern Louisiana
Plot: Historical realism
Time: The early 1860's to the early 1960's
Miss Jane Pittman, a former slave and lifelong agricultural laborer and domestic. She is small but wiry, perhaps 110 years old at the time of the narrative. Miss Jane is a living repository of the American black experience in the Deep South. Jane has survived a long life of neglect, abuse, and oppression through a combination of endurance, tenacity, and necessary forbearance. She weathers the brutality and dehumanizing effects of institutionalized racism and the grief of personal loss with a wisdom and vitality that affects even her white social superiors. Her autobiography reflects her personality and attitude, and she shapes the novel with an eyewitness' sense of historical immediacy. At the end of the novel, in a culmination of her life, she asserts her independence and freedom by staring down a white plantation owner as she leaves for town to lend her support to a civil rights protest.
Ned Douglass, Miss Jane's adoptive son, a Spanish-American War veteran, schoolmaster, and community leader. In his late thirties at the time of his murder, Ned is tall and powerfully muscled, with intense eyes and a natural orator's persuasive ability. As a small child, Ned is unofficially adopted by Jane, herself barely more than a child, after his mother and infant sister are murdered by nightriders shortly after emancipation. Ned is the child Jane can never have biologically. His departure to the North at the age of seventeen or eighteen devastates her. He is killed because of his indepen-dent thinking and his campaigning for civil rights for black citizens.
Joe Pittman, Jane's common-law husband, a widower with two daughters and an expert breaker of wild horses. Joe accepts Jane's inability to bear children with compassion. His expertise as a horse tamer leads him to seek employment on a ranch in western Louisiana, where he becomes locally renowned for his courage and ability. Joe is killed trying to tame a huge black stallion. The seven or eight years Jane and Joe spend together are the most carefree and peaceful of Jane's life.
Jimmy Aaron, a young civil rights worker born on the Samson plantation. He is shot dead by white racists in the nearby town of Bayonne. Tall and thin, with serious eyes, Jimmy is from birth considered a savior figure in the black community. He is constantly identified as “the One” upon whom black hopes rest for a leader. Jimmy's intelligence and oratorical skills lead him neither to the pulpit—as universally hoped among the black community—nor to the teacher's lectern, but into civil rights action after the example of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. After successfully motivating black citizens to attend a protest in Bayonne, Jimmy dies a martyr's death.
Jules Raynard, an elderly white man, godfather to Tee Bob Samson and “like a second father” to Robert Samson, Sr. Jules, a big man with white hair and a red face, apparently an asthmatic, intervenes in the crisis triggered by Tee Bob's suicide. A man of intelligence and compassion, Jules speaks truths with Jane about the insidious effects of institutional racism on modern young people. Jane respects Jules more than any other white person.
Albert Cluveau, a Cajun ne'er-do-well and paid assassin who murders Ned Douglass. Pock-faced and bowlegged, with patchy, unkempt white hair and watery blue eyes, Cluveau admits dispassionately to Jane to killing numerous people, both black and white. Oddly attracted to Jane, Cluveau seeks her company, runs errands for her, and sips coffee and fishes with her. He shows neither hesitation nor remorse about shooting Ned, even knowing that Jane loves Ned as her son. Believing afterward that Jane has put a curse on him, Cluveau dies terrified, in a delusion of being attacked by demons.
Robert Samson, Sr., the owner of the Samson plantation and father of Tee Bob. He defends the values and attitudes of the Old South. Robert is a tall, thin man with brown hair and gray eyes. Like his natural son, Timmy Henderson, Robert is high-spirited and loves practical jokes. Robert is part of the racist status quo. He is not personally vicious, but he lacks any sympathy for black civil rights.
Tee Bob, the name by which Robert Samson, Jr., is called. He is the legal heir and only child of Robert Samson, Sr. He commits suicide after falling deeply in love with the mulatto schoolteacher on his father's plantation. Childlike in appearance (though a college student), with a soft red mouth; large, sorrowful eyes; and fair, smooth skin and a beardless face, Tee Bob's love for Mary Agnes LeFabre transcends racial boundaries and social mores. His love is rebuked by the adults, both black and white, as well as by his closest friend, leading Tee Bob to take his own life.
Mary Agnes LeFabre, the mulatto teacher on the Samson plantation and the object of Tee Bob's love. Beautiful, of medium height, fair-skinned, and with long black hair, Mary Agnes resembles the people of Italian and Sicilian descent living in the Bayonne area. Mary Agnes perceives Tee Bob's basic decency and enjoys his boyish attention from a respectful distance, but she rejects Tee Bob after he confesses his love for her; she knows that they cannot be together. She is forced to leave the state in anonymity after Tee Bob's suicide.
Timmy Henderson, Robert Samson, Sr.'s, natural child by a black woman, Verda Henderson. Tall and thin, with reddish-brown hair and brown eyes, Timmy even has his father's hook nose. Beyond the striking physical resemblance, Timmy has his father's personality. His confusing identity and confused social status lead Timmy into a violent confrontation with a jealous white overseer. For Timmy's own safety, Robert sends him away from the plantation. Timmy's character and story powerfully convey the destructive effects of the South's institutionalized racism.
Amma Dean Samson, Robert Sr.'s wife, the mistress of Samson plantation. Mrs. Samson comes across as the domestic heart of the Samson enterprise, worrying about the supervision of the black staff and keeping a nervous watch over Tee Bob. She is resigned to the existence of Timmy Henderson and allows him to be Tee Bob's playmate and companion. She is devastated by Tee Bob's suicide, even though Jane tried to warn her of his love for Mary Agnes.
The narrator, a black history teacher who travels to the Samson plantation to interview Miss Jane in 1962. Although more a presence than a developed character, the narrator provides the frame story for Jane's dramatic autobiography. The narrator also establishes the importance of Jane's life and story as the oral history of all black Americans in the South.