My Controband Discussion Questions 1. Discuss how the words and actions of Faith

Question

My Controband Discussion Questions

1. Discuss how the words and actions of Faith Dane challenge current social conventions about the role of women in society in the mid 1800s.

2. How does the power shift back and forth between Faith Dane and Robert.

3. How does recognizing the transgression of normal gender roles by the narrator of "My Contraband" shape our understanding of the story?

4. How does Alcott represent masculinity and manhood in “My Contraband”?

5. How and why does Alcott use binary oppositions (black/white, female/male, slave/master,

dark/light) in “My Contraband”?

Explanation / Answer

1.  Nurse Dane is an example of how women endeavored to find themselves in a time when women had no voice in government, no voting rights, no legal voice in their households, and no protection of their human right. Through the words and actions of her female protagonist, Alcott showed how the support of a few believing souls could change the world. Nurse Dane is only concerned with healing the sick and comforting the dying. The tolerance she preaches is easily transferable to the struggle for women’s rights. She seems to call for readers to put themselves into the shoes of someone else, to truly see from their point of view, without regard to race or class.

2.  She is given a contraband, a freed slave who only goes by the name of Bob. Bob is a mulatto whom Faith sees as a curious mixture of the submissive, spiritless black slave coupled with the high and haughty nature of his white heritage. Bob himself refused to be housed with those he regarded as “niggers” and so agreed to stay with Faith to nurse the Rebel commander. Faith takes an interest in him, noticing that despite the ugly gash across his face that there was a “comeliness” about him.

As the Rebel officer, a captain, begins to turn the corner towards recovery, Bob makes his intentions known. After Faith dozes off he deliberately closes the window which had been open to give the captain fresh air. Bob intended that the room become warm lulling Faith to sleep so that he could kill the captain. Faith awoke before he could complete the task but the stage was set. The door was locked, he had the key and he had Faith in his grip.

Faith struggles to find some way to convince Bob to abandon his plan. Bob hoped the captain would die on his own but if he did not, Bob planned to finish the job. In an attempt to divert Bob’s attention and keep him occupied, Faith uses her wits to discover the reason: the captain, known to Bob as “Marster Ned” was Bob’s brother and he had stolen and defiled Bob’s wife Lucy. In a fever-induced delirium, Marster Ned blurted out that Lucy eventually killed herself..

Faith’s fear turns to sympathy towards Bob but she is still intent on preventing murder. At one point Bob determined that the captain was not suffering enough for his crimes towards Lucy and seizes him by the throat. What was she to do? “One weapon I possessed–a tongue,–often a woman’s best defence; and sympathy, stronger than fear, gave me power to use it.”

Louisa’s own deep faith in live after death injects hope into this story as in all of her stories that involve death. Faith believes that death is not the end but a passage to a more beautiful life. Her belief convinces Bob that he must too think of his eternal soul for if he commits murder, he will be barred from that beautiful life known as Heaven where Faith believes Lucy will be if in fact she is dead.

Louisa is also interested in justice. After Faith convinces Bob to spare the captain, she secures his freedom by giving him to means to get to Massachusetts to start a new life. It is eventually her sad duty to have to tell him that in fact, it was true that Lucy was dead and Bob acts on that by joining the army to fight the rebels.

Justice is then served as Bob meets his brother, Marster Ned, on the battlefield where he can kill him in the heat of battle. In Louisa’s mind, he can exact revenge legitimately without jeopardizing his future life in Heaven.

“My Contraband” is a rich short story that demonstrates just how profound Louisa’s short experience with down and dirty real life was.

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