Crafting Creative Concepts with Charlotte

There are a number of younger characters who appear throughout Mumbo Jumbo . Though their plot lines widely vary, nearly all of them show an inability to commit to the pro-Jes Grew movement as they are easily tempted and distracted by Atonist culture. This largely negative portrayal of young adults clearly conveys Ishmael Reed's skepticism towards the ability of younger people to fully dedicate themselves to a movement. The clearest and most obvious example of this moral weakness appears in Thor Wintergreen. Though he initially comes across as extremely devoted to the Mu'tafikah, he caves immediately once he starts talking to Biff Musclewhite. Musclewhite basically reconstructs Thor's entire belief system in a matter of minutes by reintroducing the Atonist beliefs that Thor has unintentionally internalized. In this scene, Reed is essentially saying that because Thor is young, he doesn't know what he wants and is therefore easily manipulated.  Some more cases of Re...

In the opening chapters of Mumbo Jumbo , we've been introduced to Papa DaBas, a voodoo priest. In class we talked a bit about the largely negatively perception of voodoo in America. This immediately made me think of the Disney princess film, The Princess and the Frog . This movie is set in New Orleans, and follows a princess who falls in love, blah blah blah...but the villain is a voodoo-practicing witch doctor, Dr. Facilier.  I found it really interesting to look back at Dr. Facilier's character after discussing the American perception of voodoo, because Dr. Facilier is portrayed as a man of pure evil (here's a picture if you haven't seen the movie to show how creepy he is). His soul belongs to evil loas (his "friends on the other side", as he calls them), and he uses their power to achieve his greedy  goals, convincing the loas to continue working with him by feeding them the souls of innocent victims. He's manipulative and extremely powerful.  ...