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The cruel treatment of the slaves is a despicable not humane, it impacted so many people lives. “Dey hit’ em de hide and de meat done come off dey bones on little round chunks. And wen dey had whupped ‘em wid de strop till dey backs was all raw and bloody” (Porter 31-33). The way that Porter depicts the treatment would leave a image in the minds of the readers. The idea would make the reader not wanna repeat the past. The image would send chills and its described so well it puts the reader in the shoes of Uncle Jimbilly. “Ve’y nex day day’d got to git back to work in the fiels or day’d do the same thing right ovah agin” (Porter 37-38). The slave masters would always make them work and until they would drop dead. They would make them do the same thing everyday and would never give them a give them a break.

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Throughout the story we get told many quotes and various things about Uncle Jimbilly’as life.  As Katherine Porter had Uncle Jimbilly saying in the story  “Dey use to take `em out and tie `em down  and whup `em”, “I think that this quote states that the owners of the slaves would hit them and beat them if they did something wrong or if they just wanted to and they wouldn’t care on how the slaves felt it only was important on how they felt. I chose this quote because it shows how terrible people were treated in the past and how they will remember it for the rest of their lives and even tell stories to people if they think that life now is bad. Another quote that Katherine Porter has Uncle Jimbilly saying is  “wig gret big leather strops inch thick long as yo’ ahm, wid round holes bored in `em so’s everytime dey hit `em de hide and de meat done come off of their bones in little round chunks”. This is saying that the owners of the slaves would constantly beat them with straps until they feel the need to stop even if the slaves are bleeding and their skin is coming off. I chose this quote also because it tells you what they would get hit with and that shows how bad it would be if you got beat and what it was like. With this being said it shows that everyone who use to be a slave will still remember it and the world could have been a better place if slavery did not happen.

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As a slave, Uncle Jimbilly went through many things, and due to this he is a very different man. “Uncle Jimbilly would talk in a low, broken, abstracted murmur.” (Porter 23) We can see that he is a very closed man, he is maybe even scared. In The Witness, Uncle Jimbilly was born into slavery and had no choice to what his life would become. The children and everyone around him thought he was over the fact he was in slavery, but based on the way he acted and the way he became it was clear he was not.

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When Uncle Jimbilly is introduced into the story, he is described as a beaten up old man that has worked hard throughout all of his life. It is obvious for the reader to acknowledge that Uncle Jimbilly is old and worn down by when the author says, “Uncle Jimbilly is so old and had spent so many years bowed over things, putting them together and taking them apart.” (Porter 2) Porter makes this statement to better define to the reader, the quality of work that Uncle Jimbilly has done throughout his life. The type of work that Uncle Jimbilly does is unique to him because it is hard, physical work. This work is unique to him because he’s good at hard work because of his years as a slave. The years when Jimbilly was a slave were the worst years of his life, but his those years helped him work hard throughout the rest of his life, and that's why he's so beaten up in his old age. Porter uses specific diction when defining how beaten up he has gotten by saying, "He hobbled on a stick; this purplish skull showed through patches of wool." (Porter 6) This statement helps define how worn he has gotten in his old age because it helps the reader picture what Uncle Jimbilly looks like during the time the story is told. Uncle Jimbilly goes on to tell what life was like as a slave when talking to three kids.

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Throughout the story, the narrator includes some quotes from Jimbilly that were heard in the various conversations people had with him. Jimbilly uses so much colloquial words within the story, that it leads us to being able to assume he lives in the South and comes from a slave heritage. The word choice used within the story, helps the reader understand the character Jimbilly really is. Porter exemplifies this certain diction through the phrase “dey used to take ‘em out and tie ‘em down and whup ‘em” (Porter 30). This certain phrase shows the lack of literacy Jimbilly has, and we were able to tell where he is from based on the way he talks. If he had good grammar, we might not have been able to know where the story’s setting is, since Porter never told us where it took place. Along with that, when Jimbilly told the children, “cose dey died-dey died” “by the thousands and tens upon thousands” (Porter 31), this showed how he made them feel remorse. With Jimbilly telling white children this, it helps reinforce the theme of trying to prevent history from repeating itself. Throughout their whole life, the white children probably never heard about all the horrors the slaves encountered, and with them growing up around Uncle Jimbilly and him telling his gruesome stories, they might be able to prevent it from happening again in the future.

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It takes a lot of skill to be able to make miniature tombstones out of blocks of wood like Uncle Jimbilly. "Give him almost any kind of piece of wood and he could turn out a tombstone, shaped very like the real ones, with carving, and a name and date on it if they were needed." (Porter 30) In this quote we see that Uncle Jimbilly is a man who likes to keep to himself and talks to himself. "Uncle Jimbilly would talk in a low, broken, abstracted murmur, as if to himself; but he was really saying something he meant one to hear." (Porter 30) This relates to the theme individual versus society because it shows what all he went through in life and the flashbacks that he goes through everyday and the horrific memories that he has been through in his past. Also this shows how society treated the slaves and because of the horrific memories he has nobody can relate to him so he has to tell his stories while he was carving the miniature tombstones.

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The universal theme of coming to terms with reality is enhanced by Porters use of imagery. This is because while reading this story you can picture what Uncle Jimbilly is talking about along with his experiences and his story. An example of this in the story would be, “His hands were closed and stiff from gripping objects tightly, while he worked at them, and they could not open altogether even if a child took the thick black fingers and tried to turn them back” (Porter 30). This quote uses imagery by saying how his hands were closed and stiff from gripping the objects so tightly you can imagine what his hands looked like and what is going on at that moment. This quote relates to the theme because reading about how Uncle Jimbilly is in pain and that tragic stuff like that actually happens in our world.

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Uncle Jimbilly views the tombstones as an important symbol that represents his slavery experience. One of the young children, Maria, asked “Can you carve ‘Safe in Heaven’ on that, Uncle Jimbilly?” (Porter 31). Here Maria is asking Uncle Jimbilly to make a tombstone for her rabbit. This quote shows that Uncle Jimbilly is still doing hard work and tombstones are symbolic. The tombstones are symbolic to him because they represent death and that is hard to cope with as a slave. Maria asking Uncle Jimbilly this put him in mood and he told her how rabbits were just food to them back in the days. “To out over a tame jackrabbit Missy?” (Porter 31). In this quote, diction is being used to show how emotional Uncle Jimbilly gets when Maria asked. This quote by Uncle Jimbilly shows that he finds his job very important and not something simple. Thus, Uncle Jimbilly finds tombstones symbolic and is still a hard working man.

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“Uncle Jimbilly would talk in a low, broken, abstracted murmur, as of to himself; but he was really saying something he ment one to hear.”(Porter 23)  This quote shows the reader Uncle Jimbilly’s demeanor. “Sometimes it would be an incomprehensible ghost story; listen ever so carefully, at the end it was impossible to decide whether Uncle Jimbilly himself had seen the ghost, whether it was a real ghost at all, or only another man dressed like one; and he dwelt much on the horrors of slave times.”(Porter 25) Jimbilly is afraid of slavery. He is afraid of being whipped. Jimbilly survived being whipped and set on fire, then still having to work in the cotton field.

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From the start, former slaves had a horrible experience and aftermath after the era of slavery. Uncle Jim had a hard time getting around: “His hands were closed and stiff from gripping objects tightly, while he worked at them, and they could not open altogether even if a child took the thick black fingers and tried to turn them back. Jimbilly explained"(Porter 30). This quote describes how overusing his hands has potentially caused him to develop severe arthritis. Along with the visual harm to his hands, there was also some visual effects to his head as well,”His purplish skull showed through patches in his wool, which had turned greenish gray and looked as if the moths had got in it,” Porter stated (Porter 30). Through this imagery, it’s easy to assume that his body is not in good working order from the abuse and overwork. Slaves were pushed far too hard for the work that was demanded.

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Throughout elements of the story, we start to get the sense that  Uncle Jimbilly seems to be a wise old man. With plenty of days under his belt, but his health is in a weaker condition than it once was due to his age , and his time of being a captured slave. This is expressed through diction. Diction first shows us he is old and in bad health when it is explained that Uncle Jimbilly “hobbled on a stick; his purplish skull showed through patches in his wool, which had turned greenish gray and looked as if the moths had got in it” (Porter 6-8). The word “hobbled” expresses Uncle Jimbilly has a hard time walking , and he uses a stick or cane to help him on his way.  We understand the idea that Uncle Jimbilly was a hard working slave , that had some skill in some jobs he preformed. Imagery helps us understand this when it is stated that “he worked turning the long blade of his bowie knife deftly in circles to cut a flower” (Porter 20-21). Uncle Jimbilly did his jobs with pride even though he was just a slave of the south. This is all expressed through diction and imagery that Porter uses in her text.

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The universal theme, the evils of racism, is made more clear due to the use of literary elements throughout the passage.  “Dey used to take ‘em out and tie ‘em down and whup ‘em.” This quote from page 30 of The Witness is just one example of diction that the author used throughout the passage to help reinforce the theme. The diction used throughout the passage helps us to conclude that Uncle Jimbilly had his moments when he was very moody and hard to be around, but it also shows us that his past is what made him who he is in the present. Another quote that helps us to identify the theme using a literary element, is from page 30 of The Witness. The quote states, “He mended harness and put half soles on the other Negroes’ shoes, he built fences and chicken coops and barn doors; he stretched wires and put in new window panes and fixed sagging hinges and patched up roofs; he repaired carriage tops and and cranky plows.”  In this quote the theme is made more evident using the element of syntax. The long drawn out sentence shows readers that Uncle Jimbilly, though now a freed man, still does tasks that seem to be slave-like and the list seems to be never ending. There are multiple ways throughout the entire passage that the theme is expressed, and it is up to us as the reader to figure out what ways this particular author used.

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Diction helps to clearly distinguish the universal theme that once something horrible happens to you, it can affect your life greatly. In the way that Jimbilly talks shows us how under educated he was and his unforgettable slave background. In the following quote, “His hands were closed and stiff from gripping objects tightly, while he worked at them.” (Porter 30). This shows Jimbilly’s hard working background and how being a slave could have changed him and made him a harder worker. We can also see through imagery, just how tough his past was. “He dwelt much on the horrors of slave time.” (Porter 30). This relates back to the theme and how the past he endured haunts him forever.

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For instance, Uncle Jimbilly tells a group of children about his experience during slavery. In one of his stories, he recounts how, “Dey used to take ‘em out and tie ‘em down and whup ‘em...wid gret big leather strops inch thick long as yo’ ahm, wid round holes bored in ‘em so’s evey time dey hit ‘em de hide and de meat done come off dey bones in little round chunks.” (Porter 30-31). This line from Uncle Jimbilly shows how the slaves weren’t treated like human beings at all. The slaves were not equal to the whites all because they had black skin. Uncle Jimbilly continues his tale with, “And den, the ve’y nex day dey’d got to git back to work in the fiels or dey’d do the same thing right ovah agin.” (Porter 31). Uncle Jimbilly’s story tells the children how the slaves had to do whatever their masters told them or they would suffer vicious consequences.

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In the beginning of the story, the author uses the literary tool syntax to be able to drag on a sentence. In the story it says, “Uncle Jimbilly was so old and had spent so many years bowed over things, putting them together and taking them apart, making them over and making them do, he was bent almost double.” (Porter 30). This sentence is the first sentence the reader reads and because of the way the sentence is formed, the readers have to take there time to read it. It also gives the readers a better understanding of what Uncle Jimbilly looks like. Another way syntax is used in the story is toward the end of the story. In the story it says, “Yassuh. Dat was it. And nary a drop of watah noh a moufful of braid… Yassuh, dat’s it. Lawd, dey done it. Hossanna! Now take dis yere tombstone and don’ bother me no more… or I’ll…” (Porter 31). This also makes the readers have to read carefully in order to make sense of the sentence. The author uses many periods and commas making the sentence drag on. Syntax attributes to the theme of the evils of racism because the way the sentences are formed add to the way Uncle Jimbilly is talking. The readers are able to see how hard it is for him to talk about slavery.

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Throughout the story, the author uses imagery to help the reader create a clear picture in their head of what Uncle Jimbilly has experienced throughout his life. As the reader, we learn that Uncle Jimbilly has had a hard life living through slavery and that slavery has has a major impact on his life. Even though slavery has been abolished for many years, Uncle Jimbilly still remembers everything that has happened and is able to tell the stories to the children. Uncle Jimbilly states, “evey time dey hit ‘em de hide and de meat done come off dey bones in the little round chunks,” (Porter, 31). This creates a clear image for the reader to understand what it was like during the times of the slaves. Uncle Jimbilly is still able to remember this, because it was a hard time for him to live through that has forever changed him. Even though slavery has been abolished, he still acts like a servant to others. He was always helping other people with whatever they needed and was never able to say no to them. The story states, “He mended harness and put half soles on the other Negroes’ shoes, he built fences and chicken coop and barn doors,” (Porter, 30). In this quote, the author shows that Uncle Jimbilly was always helping others with what they needed. Whether it be fixing something or building something, he was always going to help. Through the images created in the story, it is understood that Uncle Jimbilly has grown wiser because of the things he has went through in his lifetime.

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In the beginning, Uncle Jimbilly is presented as a hard working man through diction and detail. With details, we make the assumption that he is African American, “put soles on other Negroes’ shoes” (Porter 30). This helps us characterize him and develop the stories narrative. As the passage goes on you can tell through diction the time era and setting that is presented as Uncle Jimbilly says, “Dey used to take ‘em out and tie ‘em down and whup ‘em” (Porter 30). This shows southern slang and with him talking about slavery it presents the time era and how African Americans were not accepted in society.

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People view slavery as a very difficult time and hardship even though they never had the personal experience of going through it themselves. Ever since people have known Uncle Jimbilly, he had never done a single thing that anyone told him to do. “He did his work just as he pleased and when he pleased”(Porter 49). This showed on how slavery changed the way he viewed certain things. "If you wanted a tombstone, you had to be very careful about the way you asked for it" (Porter 50). He was making it clear that he wasn’t going to take orders or demands from people anymore since he was now his own person. The children had never been through slavery but are learning about it through their Uncle Jimbilly and all of the different things he went through.