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The Passing Of Grandison Short Story

558 Words3 Pages

Family may not seem like a huge deal to some people and some generations, but there is not one simple definition of what family is. One can say that a family is a group of people that share a certain bond. During slavery, family meant everything, and family is all that the slaves had, unless their masters separated them because they knew family meant the world to the slaves. In the narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, Equiano’s bond with his sister was exceedingly cherished. In the narrative of Harriet Jacobs, Jacobs’ children was all she had. In the short story, “The Passing of Grandison,” the author, Charles W. Chesnutt, had a different view on family because the slave, Grandison, had a close bond with his master and his master’s family. …show more content…

Slaves had no ties on family. Jacobs fell in love with a man, but no matter what her lover would never have any say over her. Jacobs ends up having two children, and they mean the world to her. Jacobs finally escapes, but she ends up staying in an attic of a shed for 7 years so she could hear her children playing outside. She could not bear the thought of being apart from her children. Jacob suffered for seven years in a tiny attic just to hear their voices. Family meant everything to her. Jacobs would have went to the ends of the earth for her children, and her family was the only thing good in her life. Jacobs concept of family was a powerful bond that she could not imagine losing. So far family has been a blood relation, a bond, but in the short story, “The Passing of Grandison,” Grandison was a slave that respected and cherished the family that owned him. He did everything he could to please his master. He was faithful and never abandoned the family that owned him. He did everything he was asked, and he never disappointed. Grandison knew what he had was good, and he never wanted to lose that. His master meant the world to him, and that was his concept of what a family was. Grandison had a strong bond with the family who owned him. Grandison trusted

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