on I chose Nas’s “One Love” because Nas reads letters he writes from jail to his friends. In Dark Princess, Towns does the same for his mother at the end of Part II — although Towns does so just before he is incarcerated. I connected the tone and situation of the song and Towns’ situation.
on from Dark Princess, W.E.B. Du Bois:
Matthew Towns blackened shoes. All night long he blackened shoes, cleaning them, polishing them very carefully, and arranging the laces. He was working in a standard Pullman at the forward end of the train, having been hurriedly transferred from the private car after the incident of the night. He gathered more shoes and blackened them, placing them carefully, in the graying dawn, under the appropriate berths. He arranged clean towels in the washrooms and tested the soap cocks. He saw that the toilets were clean and in order, and he carefully dusted the corridor and wiped the windows. (ebook 91-93)
Du Bois writes this passage to begin section XV in a slow, deliberate manner that outlines exactly what Matthew Towns is doing just after he has saved the train and its occupants from quick fiery demolition. Du Bois uses anaphora, starting each sentence with “He . . .”, as a device to list each action Towns takes. As each sentence begins, Du Bois signals to the reader that the following part of the sentence is an individual and specific part of Towns’ job as a porter. The deliberate pacing from compound sentences of similar lengths and anaphora places the reader in Towns’ mindset: Towns is unsure of what to make of his situation, and as he works in a state of traumatized shock, he rethinks and remembers saving the train. Du Bois clarifies and expounds upon Towns’ state of mind and the ramifications of his actions in the rest of this section.
In addition, the focus on the material space and time grounds this passage in a very specific timeline and geographic location. Towns is described as “[blackening] shoes. All night long . . . in a standard Pullman . . . in the graying dawn.” Du Bois specifically and specially sets this scene in the night, which furthers the thought of Towns’ tiredness from earlier in the section. This, combined with the discussion of Towns’ mindset, prepares the reader for a broader discussion of the consequences of “the incident of the night.”
Darren, 9/14