Of the Coming of John

In the chapter “Of The Coming Of John” by W.E.B Du Bois tells the story of two men named John, one white and one black. The story begins in the small town in which both Johns are from. John Jones regarded by “the white folk of Altamaha” (166) as a “good boy, fine plough-hand, good in the rice-fields, handy everywhere, and always good natured and respectful” (166). Through this description the audience is aware of the ways in which the white world measures the worth of a black man; focused primarily on the physical work that he does and what physical jobs he is good at. The use of the world “respectful” implies that John is a man who presents no issues or resistance to the white community, thus he is well liked.

When it becomes known that John’s mother is going to send him north for school the white community shake “ their heads” and remark that school will “spoil him, ruin him” (166). These comments are similar to the way in which Mr. Auld discouraged his wife from educating Frederick Douglass. This illuminates the way in which white people viewed the education of blacks to be dangerous and destructive. In their eyes the less knowledge the black community had the more secure their social standing would be.

The narrator describes a distinct difference in John Jones appearance once he completes school. “He grew in body and soul, and with him his clothes seemed to grown and arrange themselves. . . And a new dignity crept into his walk” (169). The physical transformation becomes a symbol of the intellectual transformation he has made. He becomes aware of “the Veil that lay between him and the white world; he first noticed now the oppression that had not seemed oppression before . . . He felt angry now” (169). As his feelings shift John begins to dread returning to his hometown because he knows that his new knowledge will never let him be happy as he was once. The community he was once apart of he no longer fits into. And the community who supported him in pursuing his education no longer recognizes the boy they once loved. Du Bois makes an interesting comment on education and how it is not such a wonderful thing sometimes but rather something that causes discontent.

Once he has returned home John Jones has a brief conversation with his sister in which she questions if school makes everyone unhappy. John replies regretfully that is does and his sister says “ ‘I wish I was unhappy, . . . I think I am, a little” (175). We see that his sister has the same yearning for education that John had and as she has grown she has become aware of oppression slightly in the way that John has. After his school is shut down by the judge John discovers the other John attacking his sister and strikes him with a branch using “all the pent-up hatred of his great black arm” (178). He leaves calmly and tells his mother is his returning North. As the men on horses approach him his only thought is to pity them and accept his fate.

What role does the narrator occupy? Does he seem invested in one John or the other?

Why do the two Johns make the decisions they do? Do they definitively make decisions or does fate/destiny seem to take a role?