The excerpt “Uncle Buck Loves Jesus”, not only illustrates the suffering of slavery but also how faith influenced their journey. “Uncle Buck Loves Jesus, Sometime” is a selection from “The Big Mama Stories” by Shay Youngblood. The setting takes place in Princeton, Georgia where Uncle Buck talks about how he isn’t religious but he does love Jesus in his own way.
A theme in this story is religion. Two story telling device’s the author uses to present this theme is the description and imagery she uses with Uncle Buck’s character, whether it be describing him on a rocking chair smoking clouds out of his pipe, or Uncle Buck sharing his story on his point of view on Jesus. The author also presents this theme through Uncle Bucks point of view on religion when he says “Some folks go to church every Sunday wouldn’t be caught dead without a Bible in they hand, a cross on they chest, or a amen on they tongue. But if Jesus was alive today they would step over him lying in the streets. More hypocrites in the church than sinning outside.”
A character I chose was Uncle Buck, two values that appear to be important to him would be close relationships and religion. Uncle Buck shares a close relationship with Big Mama and his former wife Hattie. He also prays to God and believes in Jesus sometimes. He says: “God is sure to disappoint you. He let me get outta that place where many had dying trying to leave. So I believe, sometime. Sometimes I love Jesus and sometime I think he hard of hearing.” So throughout this selection both values correlate to each other aiding Uncle Buck in his struggles.
African American motifs I found in this selection were religion and slavery. I found both motifs while Uncle Buck was telling his story about what happened after he and his former wife got married. They met up with a fella who hired both of them on the spot, but the next day, two white men ordered all the men to get on a truck that was expected to take them to a lumberyard. When Uncle Buck got back, Hattie was crying with her hands almost raw from scrubbing a white woman’s house. They then both knelt down and prayed all night making promises to God. God eventually came through halfway, after six months of slaving away, Hattie died and Uncle Buck escaped and ran back to Georgia.
All in all, what I learned was this was both a slave narrative and a growing up story and yes this story has value to me. The value I got from this story is that God is there, whether you go to church every Sunday, or pray to him when you need him or want something, he’s there to listen. Although he might not be here or answer our prayers in a rush, everything that happens to us, it happens for a reason, and although it might not make sense at the moment, everything will tie together in the end. Which is something I’m sure we all can relate to.
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