Postmodern Book: Proposal Colson Whitehead\'s John Henry

Postmodern Book: Proposal

Colson Whitehead's John Henry Days explores the relationship between fact and fiction with a postmodern narrative structure. One of the characteristics of postmodernism is the way in which it destabilizes what constitutes 'the known.' John Henry, according to American legend, was an African-American man who challenged a steel engine in a contest of who could work the hardest. Henry won, but died in the attempt. The saga of Henry is paralleled with that of a contemporary, young African-American journalist named J. Sutter, who seems to be everything the Henry of legend was not. Sutter is a dilettante journalist who puts little effort into anything, other than finagling free food at press events. However, like Henry, he is struggling with the changes in his profession in the new technological revolution.

The novel fluidly draws associations between the mythic past and present. Just as Henry's era struggled in terms of its ability to understand how human worth would now be valued in the age of machines, today we must also reevaluate what is meaningful in the digital age, particularly journalists like Sutter. Rather than straightforward 'progress' in a positive sense, there is always a sense of loss as well as something that is gained, as a result of change. That sense of loss may be a false nostalgia that is more about myth than reality. This is seen as various characters reminisce about John Henry or reflect on what he meant to them.

As an African-American who faces racism, despite the officially 'post-racial' society in which we live, Sutter's struggles to find his identity also are postmodern in nature. Sutter has a fragmented self-image. He feels distanced from the concerns of many African-Americans because he is reasonably well-off, and educated, but his white colleagues do not fully embrace him as one of their 'own,' either. He feels drawn to the figure of Henry, and even purchases a large statue of Henry at one point.

The novel uses multiple lines of narrative to explore the meaning of John Henry. The novel's many threads are anchored by a fictional device: a fictional celebration of the figure of John Henry which Sutter is covering. But as well as Sutter's story, the novel also depicts John Henry, the myth, as a real man, as recounted in the memories of those who claim to knew Henry (significantly, every person recalls Henry slightly differently). It also dramatizes characters from history in other time periods, like Paul Robeson, who was famous for singing the ballad of John Henry as well as for his leftist activism. Other musicians who tried to capitalize off of the Henry name suddenly turn up in the narrative, as it weaves in and out of the past. This suggests a common postmodern theme: the past is the present, and our social constructions about race and other concepts continue to impact the world today. Also, everyone has a different version of how the past seemed, based upon their subjective impressions, so every person's unique perception of the past affects the present. The novel weaves in different narrative voices, some of which seem to be deliberately constructed rather than 'real' and fictional accounts of Henry to suggest that what we call 'history' and 'myth,' particularly about racial issues, are often very similar.