Final Re-Write and Commentary by Nina Tapu

Introduction or the 'Overture' to the film of 'Gone With The Wind' and an excerpt from the film.

There was a land of cavaliers and cotton fields called the old south. Here in this pretty world gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of knights and their ladies fair. Of master and of slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A civilization gone with the wind.

 

Prissy: Mammy, here's Miss Scarlett's vittles.
Scarlett: You can take it all back to the kitchen; I won't eat a bite.
Mammy: Yes'm you is, you's gonna eat every mouthful of this.
Scarlett: No... I'm... NOT.

 

Scarlett: Atlanta!

Mammy: Savannah would be better for ya. You'd just get in trouble in Atlanta.

Scarlett: What trouble are you talking about?

Mammy: You know what trouble I's talkin' 'bout. I's talking 'bout Mr. Ashley Wilkes. He'll be comin' to Atlanta when he gets his leave, and you sittin' there waitin' for him, just like a spider. He belongs to Miss Melanie...

Scarlett: You go pack my things like Mother said.

 

Link of a '60 Minutes' segment on 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' and an excerpt from the book.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7369826n

 

Huck Finn: [Jim appears wearing a silly African costume and looks disgusted] What in hell's bells are you supposed to be?

Jim: The King said I was a Swahili warrior. He even taught me some Swahili or what he said was Swahili. Sounded like a pig in heat to me.

 

Excerpt from film of 'Driving Miss Daisy'

Hoke Colburn: Hey, there, Oscar, Junior... how you boys doin' this morning?

Oscar: How the old lady treatin' you, Hoke?

Hoke Colburn: Lord, I tell you one thing... she sho' do know how to throw a fit!

[Hoke, Oscar, and Junior break out in laughter]

Daisy Werthan: What's so funny?

Hoke Colburn: Nothin', Miss Daisy. We jus' carryin' on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REWRITE

Dialogue between Mammy, Hoke and Jim

Characters:

Mammy - female black maid of Southern belle 'Scarlett O'Hara' from the film 'Gone with the Wind'

Hoke Colburn - elderly black Chauffeur of wealthy Jewish, southern widow 'Daisy Werthan' from the film 'Driving Miss Daisy'

Jim - black runaway slave and friend of 'Huckleberry Finn' from 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'





Setting: A sticky Sunday afternoon. The local church bells chimes the end of the service, a Preacher man flings open the door and streams of black folk exit their sanctuary - a small run down wooden building with a single front-door and two glass-less windows. Chipped paint but ivory white. 3 familiar figures linger on the church steps garnering the end of the summers day and ponder the subtlies of times passed.

Hoke: Good afternoon Mammy, hot enough for ya?

Mammy: Hotter than a possum on a tin roof Mr Colburn.

Jim: Not even the Devil himself could take that sorta heat!

All: (laugh)

Mammy: (to Hoke) You still driving Miss Daisy?

Hoke: Till the good Lord say so...

Jim: Mista Colburn folk say she mean ole lady... got you runnin roun like you back in the field..

Mammy: Not me not Miss Scarlett, not no-body gonna get Mammy runnin roun like she some chicken withouta head.

Jim: thas right Miss Mammy...

Hoke: Y'all need to stop talking and start listening...carrying on tripping on your own tongues. The only thang running round here is black folks mouths.

Mammy and Jim: (miffed)

Hoke: Yes I drive Miss Daisy because I'm her Chauffeur. I drive, I got a car, I got a job. I get paid. Sounds like this chickens seized alot for somethings that's got no head.

Jim: Ohh Mr Colburn we didn't mean nothing by it.

Mammy: Hoke we was just concerned in all.

Hoke: I appreciate y'all worrying but since when did worries do anyone any good? Can you feed someone or clothe somebody with worry. Can you pay for something with worry? Worry warrants nothing and I aint about to give it the profits of my time.
Jim: Preacher couldnta sermoned any betta... right outta the good Book...the book of Hoke...
Mammy: sure thing right after the Book of Judas. You is sounden more biblical soon enough you Moses, Abraham and Miss Daisy got more in common.

Jim: Money.

Hoke: Say what Jim?

Jim: thats wot I had the same as Ms Watson, Nigger Traders, The King, Duke even Huck.

Mammy: Suns' burning up your mind fool come sit.

Jim: Ms Watson she wanted to sell me, Nigger Traders sniffed around ta buy. The King and Duke got da price on my head and Huck well he was always troubled by the cost o Abolition.

Eight hund'd dollars.

Mammy: You here now Jim not eight hund'd less or eight hund'd more.

Jim: Free.

Hoke: How bout you Mammy? Why'd you stay on in Tara -  the price of Emancipation not high enough for ya?

Mammy: Emanca what? That high convoluted word is same as chitterlings - waste. The white mans guilt and anyone white or black buying into that nonsense is eating slop. I dont need no Act, no Yankee doodle-dandee fighting their guilt ova me. When the good Lord breathed He exhaled and mammy was and is the same, today, tomorrow, yesterday and yonder

Hoke: Miss Scarlett lost 2 husbands, 1 child and she gone and done murder to save Tara and she ended up seedling, toiling, hungry and poor. Almost losing her mind practically a negroe herself.

Jim: At least i ran Miss Mammy, I ran no-body own me, I's hungry and thirsty but no-body owned Jim no more

Mammy: Niggers got no business judging . You hungry,barefoot and lawless no better than some wild animal. The King dress you up like some crazy African promise to take care of ya and you blind to his plan. And Mr Hoke driving old Jewish lady in fancy car like like you own it, "Yes Miss Daisy, No Miss Daisy". Drive each other straight to the promise land?

Miss Scarlett spilt blood for Tara and if that mean she negroe-like then thats my reign. 

Our tears, our blood, both runs deep into this earth and Tara stands.

 

 

COMMENTARY

I began my Re-Write by showing examples of dialogue from the films 'Gone with the Wind', 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' and 'Driving Miss Daisy'. This was to demonstrate the types of conversations the characters Mammy, Jim and Hoke had with their owners/employers or confidants. It was also to show the nature of their relationship with the protagonists in these stories and to depict the representation of their characters.

 

Although I have only presented a snippet of their dialogue I will explain more fully how these representations can result in misleading the audience to not realising the full potential of the secondary characters.



 

I've chosen 2 classic American texts 'Gone with the Wind' and 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' adapted to film and a popular play 'Driving Miss Daisy' also adapted to film because these texts have enjoyed such incredible success with overwhelming universal appeal. I question the popularity with a postcolonial view because although these Black/African-American characters were depicted with a fighting spirit to maintain their dignity - they still came across as only being able to achieve this at the expense of being subordinate, loyal and long suffering to their white counterparts.

 

They are painted/presented as sympathetic characters at the mercy of their Slave owners/Employers and friends. Mammy is feisty and matronly, Hoke is loyal and Jim is protective They are positive in so far as how their 'characteristics' can benefit the leading characters in these different texts. They also exist to offer some kind of moral compass to their superiors.

 

The black characters are utilised as the vehicle for their white owners/employers/friends to find solace and redemption through their 'exotic' confidant. The 'alien' friend or 'other' who represents a foreign world subjected to the position of slave/subsordinate within the natural order.

 

They are not part of the 'ruling class' and their own marginalised existence is exploited to educate the estabishment of the inequalities within race and power.

 

These groups are stymatised by their race, gender, class and education. Their attempts for a voice is silenced by the sacrifices they must make to maintain their dignity, to achieve an income and to survive expulsion and escape death.

The impositions placed upon them are to benefit those in power and to maintain a stronghold of physical, social and cultural domination. The silenced voice becomes a mechanism for survival but it was to the detriment of their sanity and spirit.

 

In the re-write of my dialogue between these 3 characters I wanted to reveal what they really thought of the lives they've lead under the rule or influence of their white owners/employers and confidants. I wanted to expose 3 characters who were more independent, stronger and not as complacent and tolerant of their superiors and circumstances as they were originally depicted. I wanted to show their talents and gifts as individuals and not portray their positive attributes in relation to how it would serve or benefit their masters.

 

I also wanted to depict how  attempts to portray subordinate characters positively can end up generalising those very same groups. All three characters are depicted to endure their mistreatment and accept the harsh realities of their circumstances. However I wanted to show through my re-write of their dialogue that these characters were not passive and not accepting of societies conditions. They were more strategic in their efforts to withstand cultural appropriations forged upon them.

I didn't want to re-work this so far as to create a romanticized world where the roles are reversed and power and position are transferred from the coloniser to the colonised. I chose to depict secondary characters who were aware of how society pereceived them but chose not to succumb to those ideologies by making a stand in their own way. Their stance or position may not have been understood or received by their superiors or peers but they committed acts of defiance which served themselves. 

 

Through this re-write I hope that I have given a more realistic portrayal of characters whose 'humanity' should have been re-written to show their legacy as courageous and resilient individuals who resisted and fought oppressive circumstances on their own terms and not via alienating forces that pre-determined their fate. 

References

Filmograhpy
Fleming, Victor. Gone with the Wind, Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer USA, 1936
Beresford, Bruce. Driving Miss Daisy, Warner Bros USA, 1989
Sommers, Stephen. The Adventures of Huck Finn, USA, 1993

Bibliograhphy
Mitchell, Margaret. Gone with the Wind, Macmillan Publishers, USA, 1939
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chatto & Windus/Charles L Webster & Company, UK + Canada 1884, USA 1885