Slave on the Block

Luther’s singing symbolizes his roots in Black folk culture and serves as a measure of his willingness to cooperate with the Carraways’ appropriating Black culture—and his time. Paragraph 36 reveals that the Carraways initially ask Luther to sing “southern worksongs and reels, and spirituals and ballads.” Singing is “work” that Luther does instead of keeping up the garden, but the psychological toll of being made to perform eventually wears on him, as he “got tired” of the demand to pose and sing on demand.

The Carraways’ cluelessness about this toll and their sense that Luther is there to perform for them peaks when the Carraways invade his room and then Mattie’s room—at one o’ clock in the morning—to ask him to perform for an out-of-town guest. This event marks a turning point. When Anne demands that Luther come upstairs to pose one day, he sings “Before I’d Be a Slave (Oh Freedom!)”—a song that former slaves began singing after Emancipation to mark their release from slavery. Luther’s rebellion against the order of things nears completion when he grows “familiar” by walking through the upper floors of the house “singing” even when it’s inconvenient for the Carraways.

Luther’s complete rejection of the Carraways’ domination is clear when he walks through the house singing “(I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead) Oh You Rascal, You” while Michael’s mother is there. He’s essentially telling all three Carraways that he wishes they’d drop dead, which reflects his contempt for them.