I'm about halfway through reading the novel James by Percival Everett. I just got through a scene between James and Easter, before James is sold to the Virginia Minstrels, and I don't understand what's going on.
In the scene, Easter is asking James about Huck:
"What's the story with you and your boy? Did you teach him how to pass?"
"What?"
"How to pass," Easter said.
"Pass? Easter, that boy is whiter than Wiley" (Easter's owner).
Easter smiled at me. "The boy doesn't know?"
"Doesn't know what?" I asked. "I knew both of his parents."
Easter shook his head.
There's some more dialogue about the lynching of a slave (Young George), who stole a pencil for James, the potential consequences of James running away from Wiley, and Easter giving instruction for making a horseshoe. Then they have another exchange that I'm confused about:
"How many folks know?" Easter asked.
"Know what?"
Easter smiled and shook his head, scratched it. "Use the bellows to make the fire hotter. It doesn't take that much to see it."
"Easter, I'm trying to make a horseshoe. Are you going to help me?"
"Of course, brother."
Easter guided me and I listened.
The two men then talk about what they remember of how they became slaves–Easter doesn't remember much of his early life or home, but he remembers being on a ship. James says he was sold as soon as he was born/didn't have a recollection of a life outside of slavery.
I don't understand what Easter is implying about Huck and James. Is he suggesting that Huck is mixed race or that James is possibly his father? It seems like Easter has noticed something about Huck that James has not, and a feature that has not been mentioned by anyone else or anywhere else in the book.
Prior to this exchange with Easter, James and Huck have a conversation about his mother. Huck asks if she was pretty, and James says it's dangerous for a slave to have thoughts like that about a white person, so he says he's never thought about whether or not she was pretty, or can't say because he doesn't think about beauty in relation to people.
James will answer the question about whether or not she was nice (she was). Is this conversation supposed to imply that maybe James did have some kind of romantic thoughts about Huck's mom that he won't admit to or is suppressing? Did he potentially get into some trouble with her?
James being Huck's father seems like a pretty radical thing to suggest–I don't get the impression that James would ever take the risk of having sex with a white woman. No one else has made a connection or suggestion about Huck and James being related or that Huck has any non-white features.
Could someone please help me understand this exchange better?
by StellaZaFella