ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

condemnation of Lincoln begins with this passage and continues into the following scene,
where Lincoln actually frees the forlorn hog.
As Abe pulls it from the mud, he suggests that black Americans were freed too
quickly, saying: “I guess I’ll free it gradual-like. Sudden release wouldn’t be the best
thing. He’s got to get used to his liberty by degrees” (6). Though the pig makes only
animal sounds before it is freed, such as “eek,” “oink,” and “eee yee,” it cries out its
gratitude upon release in the stereotypical black dialect of minstrelsy: “Oh, Massa
Lincoln! Oh, Massa Lincoln! Oh, Massa Lincoln” (6)! This last asserts three semiotic
connections for the viewer, relating the pig to black humans, and thus relating the clowns
of minstrelsy and subhuman beasts to the entire body of enslaved African Americans.
Thus, as a consequence of McPharlin’s desire to employ minstrelsy exaggeration in
lowbrow comic plays, the humorous exaggerations in the play begin to shift it in a more
aggressively racist direction in its theme.
The pig exits, and Ned laments the waste of effort on “an or’nary razorback” (7).
By calling it this, the authors deepen the connection between the pig and black
Americans, in a disturbingly racist way. Or’nary is suggested by the only time in the play
Ned speaks with a dialect-derived contraction, and or’nary suggests it is a cantakerous
beast. Razorback is a term for an American breed of pig, which is semi-wild animal, thus
suggesting its American character, and its inability to behave in a civilized manner
without external controls. Thus, it is a special type of humorous referential exaggeration
that carries with it a viciously dehumanizing abuse of African American individuals.
The final scene depicts the pig being roasted alive in a log cabin called “Uncle
Tom’s Barbeque.” Lincoln laments his decision to free the creature “too sudden” (8).
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