Lola's Perspective of the Role of Slavery and Race in Francis Harper's Lola Leroy
How does Iola’s perspective of the role of slavery and race change throughout the novel?
Social Stature
Francis Harper in the novel Iola Leroy suggests that social stature can change an individual and their views on race and slavery. These views change drastically during the duration of the novel. The character Iola is a prime example of how social stature can affect an individual and change their views on certain aspects of their life.
The cliché saying “you do not know what you have until its gone” plays a major role in this novel with the protagonist Iola. Iola grew up with an independent mindset that slavery is not as malignant as people truly believe it is. Because her father was a slave owner Iola thought there was nothing wrong with having slaves and the way slaves were treated. The way her family treated and nourished their slaves was completely different from the way most slave owners did. But, by Iola being isolated it caused her to think that everyone else treated their slaves similarly to the way her family treated theirs. The children, including Iola, developed relationships when they were growing up on the plantation with the slaves and even began to see them as family. They would spend time reading and playing with the slaves to pass time during their younger years.
When Iola and her siblings matured, they were sent of to school in the North to be educated. They were sent off not knowing their racial backgrounds and that actually in fact they had “tainted” blood, which contained Negro blood in it. Iola After Iola went off to school; she started to get into arguments with classmates about her view on slavery. This is because the other children had not grown up the way she had been raised and this put Iola to have a different mindset then the other children her age in the school. One day she said in response to a classmate who was claiming that slavery was wrong,
“Slavery can't be wrong," she would say, "for my father is a
Social Stature
Francis Harper in the novel Iola Leroy suggests that social stature can change an individual and their views on race and slavery. These views change drastically during the duration of the novel. The character Iola is a prime example of how social stature can affect an individual and change their views on certain aspects of their life.
The cliché saying “you do not know what you have until its gone” plays a major role in this novel with the protagonist Iola. Iola grew up with an independent mindset that slavery is not as malignant as people truly believe it is. Because her father was a slave owner Iola thought there was nothing wrong with having slaves and the way slaves were treated. The way her family treated and nourished their slaves was completely different from the way most slave owners did. But, by Iola being isolated it caused her to think that everyone else treated their slaves similarly to the way her family treated theirs. The children, including Iola, developed relationships when they were growing up on the plantation with the slaves and even began to see them as family. They would spend time reading and playing with the slaves to pass time during their younger years.
When Iola and her siblings matured, they were sent of to school in the North to be educated. They were sent off not knowing their racial backgrounds and that actually in fact they had “tainted” blood, which contained Negro blood in it. Iola After Iola went off to school; she started to get into arguments with classmates about her view on slavery. This is because the other children had not grown up the way she had been raised and this put Iola to have a different mindset then the other children her age in the school. One day she said in response to a classmate who was claiming that slavery was wrong,
“Slavery can't be wrong," she would say, "for my father is a