Symbolism In Master John's Voluntary

The erratic cry of a lost wolf reverberates through the slave cabins.

“You hear that wolf boy? You hear it?” Cassius Banner, Master John’s longest held slave, screams to his son. The dark-skin adolescent nods. The fury of his father is the product of a life lacerated not by the whip but by the whites. Cassius’s left arm was eviscerated by Master John’s ferocious pack of rottweilers, after the slave was framed for learning how to read. His back contains blotches of dark red swamps, dirty-covered areas of dried blood and open flesh.

“That wolf cries every single night. It’s lost. We’re lost too, son. We ain’t cut out for this.” the one-armed father bemoans as he recollects the maternal death of his exuberant, fair-skinned wife. Her cries for helps, which slipped past the confines of her clenched teeth, cemented her legacy and her life. Cassius, a being who never meant any member of his true family, found only one source of reciprocated love and it emanated from one being- Clara, his wife. Following her death, everyday has been an opportunity to escape the confines of Charleston, South Carolina.

Each scar on his body symbolizes the sixty-five attempts he has made to escape, all of which brought about onslaught not opportunity.

“I know we’ve failed but we gotta keep
The infuriated vultures began to attack, pecking away at the slaves’ bare, upper bodies. Blood trickled down their torsos and Cassius was even pecked in the eye by a vulture, leaving him blind in his right eye. Although, the pair did not stop and despite the birds’ attempts, they brought the body all the way to the inside of their slave cabin. They remained in the shoddy shelter known as their home for hours, until the birds left. Their bloody bodies emanated the smell of death while their physical state indicated that their body would soon be like that of the