‘Berry’ (Part 1)
I’M HAPPY to have you here again this week. You do know that you should find and remember the similarites between the poems and those among the short stories, so that when a question demands answers that have to be taken from two sources, whether poems or short stories, you are ready. In other words, pair them up by themes! Please do not wait until you are in the examination room and you see the question to try to do so.
Did you get a chance to read or reread Berry? If you did not, please stop reading this lesson and take a few minutes to go through it now. As in Raymond’s Run, you will recognise prejudice. Prejudice in Berry, though, is of a different nature from that in Raymond’s Run, where it is based on Raymond’s mental deficiency. Berry, on the other hand, faces racial prejudice.
Berry is a young, black man who, in his desire for improvement/survival in life, moves from his home state of Georgia to New Jersey. He gets a job at Dr Renfield’s Summer Home for Crippled Children, where he is immediately discriminated against both by Mrs Osborn, who is the housekeeper of the establishment, and by Dr Renfield. Mrs Osborn does not wait to see if her employer will hire Berry but puts him to work, while thinking that there could be a problem finding a place for him to sleep. One wonders whether she would have done the same had he been white. Dr Renfield reveals his dishonesty and prejudice when he decides to reduce the young man’s wage and refers to him as a ‘darkie’.There are no other obvious reasons for his actions. Milberry Jones is a person with a name by which he could have been addressed, and his colour did not need to be mentioned. But this is only the beginning, and as we read we find out just how awful Dr Renfield is, the humourous link between himself and the housekeeper and the character of Berry, after whom the story is named.
Briefly, what happens is that the doctor agrees to employ Berry. He is apparently to be a member of the kitchen staff, but as time goes on he becomes overworked, being called on at first and then later, as a matter of course, to do every and anything. The children love him because he treats them well; in fact, better than those who are supposed to take care of them.
Later, there is an incident which happens because of the loving relationship he has with them, and he is harshly and unjustifiably dismissed. His dismissal and punishment underscores the racism with which he was treated during his employment and shows up not only the cruelty of his employer, but also the weakness of Mrs Osborn and the selfishness and unfairness of the nurses.
Now, let us look at Dr Renfield. He has opened a business for crippled children. What does it do for the children whose parents pay as much as they could for this ‘service’? He takes the children off their parents’ hands during the summer, but they do not get any special care. The food they are being fed is inferior to what is on show when parents come to visit. There is mention of the doctor making his rounds. However, where we learn that the children become attached to Berry, we do not get any suggestion that he has a close relationship with any of them. The little boy who falls out of his wheel chair clings to Berry, refuses to go to the doctor, and even kicks at him.
As for the nurses, they seem to be more concerned with their pay than about the ‘little brats’ that cause them to be employed. I doubt that ‘brat’ is used by them in a humourous way but, instead, tells us that they are critical and disrespectful of the children. You know what I mean, don’t you? Yes, they look down on the children. If the owner of the business had been conscientious, he would have been aware of this and taken steps to change their attitude. But judging by the way he treats Berry, it is likely that he, too, does not think much of his charges. Berry is not happy at what he observes and concludes that Dr Renfield is running what we call today a ‘scam’ on the parents. Do you agree with him? It ccould be that he was not in the habit of treating his employees well, for the nurses complain about their wages and the Scandinavian boy left without even telling Mrs Osborn that he was going.
The first person we meet in this story is the ‘boy’ and then Mrs Osborn, and soon after we find out that she is particuliarly attached to her employer. She worships him, according to the workplace gossip. She takes every opportunity to to be with him and is critical of his wife who, seemingly aware of Mrs Osborn’s fondness for her husband, treats her coldly on the one occasion we see them together. In next week’s lesson, we will continue our exploration of this text. Walk tall, young ladies and young men, and God bless!