Key Factors for the New Novel: "The Cotton Belt"

Key Factors for the Novel:
“The Cotton Belt”

(Reference is made only to the Novel)





Name: The Cotton Belt
Full title: A Short Novel, and Collection of Short Stories, Volume IV

Author: Dennis L. Siluk
Type of work: A Novel with added short stories, poems and a play

Genre: Bildungsroman (novel of self-development and maturation; of education); a war novel, psychological, sociological. A series of events take place, as the Civil War ends, and those characters within the story, know things will never be the same, it is just a matter of weeks or perhaps months, but no longer years.

Language: In English and Spanish (the author often uses Southern and black dialects in dialogue)

Time and place written: The novel stays within the last part of the Civil War. Mostly in Ozark, Alabama, but reaches out to New Orleans (especially with the independent chapter “Gingerbread Nigger”; written in Huancayo, and Lima, Peru, 2009-2010. Parts taken from previous episodes of “Old Josh, in Poor Black,” the writer had writing since 2005, and molded into the novel.

Date of first publication: To be published: August/September, 2010

Publisher: ?

Narrator: Third Person Narration

Climax: The most important climax of the novel itself is in the last chapter, when Ashley has the Ghost set Josh’s house on fire. Another, secondary climax, is in the independent chapter “Gingerbread Nigger,” when Ashley, is kidnapped and taken out to sea in New Orleans.

Protagonist: If there is a hero, maybe it is Old Josh for making up his mind not the steal Mr. Hightower’s gold coins, which will cost him his life. On the other hand, maybe it is Rosalina, in the follow-up chapter, “Gingerbread Nigger,” who gets revenge for Old Josh, unintentionally, but nonetheless, gets it. For the most part, the heroes are very thin indeed.

Antagonist: Ashley Walsh is the most notorious contender, for the role of adversary. Tod is somewhat of a thin antagonist, when he runs off with Old Josh’s fish, but he doesn’t come close to Ashley.

Varies at different points in the novel: Between the good folks of the city of Ozark, Alabama, and the soldiers of the Civil War, and the slaves working on the plantation, depending on the chapter (and the folks in old shantytown), the viewpoints vary, yet for the most part, the Southern culture is at the forefront, and change to be, especially with the Hightower’s, and the Ritt’s.

Setting (time and place): The story takes place mostly in Alabama, 1865, final days of the war, and one independent chapter, 1866, “Gingerbread Nigger,” and mostly within the area of the Hightower and Smiley plantations, and Ozark, Alabama, along with its shantytown, some three miles from Ozark.

Point of view: Mostly told from a slave’s perspective, through the narrator who occasionally describes things Old Josh has endured before this present time and more than often the narrator sees through his eyes.

Tense: Present and past tense (with a few shadowy interludes explaining elements of the war at hand, more on a report narration during these pauses)

Tone: Grand and epic, as befits a heroic adventure story, but more serious as time goes on and Josh develops his plan of escape, and Ashley conjures her plan of escape, and during this time, we see Ashley jump to maturity; this seemingly parallels with the thoughts of Josh. The tone from chapter to chapter is even more dramatic and poetic.

Themes: Morality and moral development; racism and injustice; honor; violence and its effects; the oppressive effects of war, and meaningless social codes because of war along with a lack of: politeness, respectability, to a certain degree: the restrictions imposed on women.

Motif: The story is designed to have a serious kind of humor, with a historical background, and warfare and slavery being the bulk of that background and the cotton fields to a certain degree. Also, it is a journeying Old Josh is taking and Ashley Walsh for the most part, with schemes and the growing plot around the gold coins, which means freedom to both characters mentioned. A consequence is only looked at by Old Josh. Ashley looks at the end will justify whole.

Symbols: The box of gold coins, New Orleans, the end of the war at hand, it is all part of a new era to be (the Reconstruction, and Emancipation)