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Voltaire
John Locke is an influential English philosopher and writer who lived during the 18th century’s Age of Enlightenment. Jim dreams about and hallucinates Locke during his journey, and he confronts the hypocrisy of his writings, which both criticize and condone slavery. Like Voltaire, Locke’s presence allows Jim to critique the alleged defenders of his humanity, thereby defending it himself.
John Locke Quotes in James
The James quotes below are all either spoken by John Locke or refer to John Locke. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1, Chapter 15 Quotes
I had already come to understand the tidiness of lies, the lesson learned from the stories told by white people seeking to justify my circumstance. […] And so, after all these books, the Bible itself was the least interesting of all. I could not enter it, did not want to enter it, and then understood that I recognized it as a tool of my enemy. I chose the word enemy, and still do, as oppressor necessarily supposes a victim.
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Alone, Jim reads the narrative of Venture Smith, an enslaved man brought from Africa to the United States in the 18th century. Jim casts doubt on the narrative’s “so-called self-related” qualities, believing the exhaustive detail and neat themes indicate “the tidiness of lies.” In suggesting that Venture Smith’s narrative was manipulated by “white people seeking to justify my circumstance”—that circumstance being enslavement—Jim calls attention to the way white people attempt to romanticize the hardships of slavery to make them appear reasonable and palatable. This rationalization allows them to continue oppressing Black people without guilt, willfully ignoring the more violent truths Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Qu
Part 1, Chapter 18 Quotes
“What you’re saying is that if someone pays you enough, it’s okay to abandon what you have claimed to understand as moral and right.”
“When you put it that way,” he said.
“When I put it that way what?”
“They wanted a constitution that would justify their behavior. If I hadn’t written it for them, someone else would have. What in the world would be different if that had happened?”
I looked at him. “You tell me,” I said.
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Jim dreams he is speaking with John Locke, the English philosopher whose views on slavery are notoriously hypocritical. Though Locke claimed to be against slavery in general, he helped write the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (1669), which gave southern planters absolute power over their enslaved Black people. In this passage, Jim accuses Locke of abandoning “what you have claimed to understand as moral and right” in exchange for financial gain. It is worth noting that Jim’s access to Locke’s books allows him to engage the philosopher’s ideas in a way that is unavailable to him in the physical world, underlining Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur q
Part 3, Chapter 3 Quotes
“Imagine it all as a state of war,” Locke said. “You have been conquered, and so long as the war continues, you shall be a slave.”
“When does the war end?” I asked.
“Does it end? That’s the question. Who gets to say that it’s over? A war continues until the victor says it’s over.”
“If I am in a war, then I have the right to fight back. That follows, doesn’t it? I have a right, perhaps a duty, to kill my enemy.”
“Well, now.”
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While wrestling with a gigantic catfish, Jim is pulled underwater, where he hallucinates the English philosopher John Locke once more. When Jim asks if he has come to continue defending slavery, Locke directs him to imagine his enslavement as “state of war.” In this analogy, enslaved people “have been conquered,” and will remain so as long as the war rages on. Using this logic, Locke attempts to make the institution of slavery a more natural state of affairs, describing it as the reasonable result of a war between white people and Black people. The assertion that war only ends when Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci voluptate et.
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John Locke Character Timeline in James
The timeline below shows where the character John Locke appears in James. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 18
...write with the pencil he stole, but he falls asleep. Jim dreams of the philosopher John Locke and calls out the hypocrisy of abandoning his moral principles to write a constitution that...
(full context)
Part 3, Chapter 3
...and he is pulled underwater. He thinks of Norman, Sammy, Lizzie, and Sadie, before hallucinating John Locke again. The philosopher says Jim is in a never-ending war. Jim responds that, if this...
(full context)
