Sacrificing Johnny

When Sally forbids Remus from telling her son any more stories, the dejected old man begins to leave the plantation in a carriage. Johnny, seeing the carriage pulling away, cuts across a fenced-in field to stop Remus from leaving him. The reason the field is fenced in, however, is because of the angry bull that lives there. Before Johnny can make it to the other side, he is gored by the bull.

Johnny's father returns from Atlanta by carriage to the sound of all of the black characters from the plantation standing on the porch of the main house singing a rather "white" call-and-response mourning ballad. John (Eric Rolf) is greeted by Toby (Glenn Leddy), Johnny's black companion, who tells him that Johnny was hit by the bull. Tempy (Hattie McDaniel reprising her role as the bearer of bad news from Gone With the Wind) comes out of the house, greets John, and tells him that Johnny was trying to stop Remus from leaving the plantation when he was hurt. As he speaks, Remus comes into the frame for the first time and stands directly behind John. After John and Tempy enter the house, Remus looks toward the heavens and takes off his hat. The scene cuts to the bedroom where Johnny is lying in pain. His parents, grandmother, and Tempy are standing around the bed looking concerned:

Sally: Son, Daddy's here.
Johnny: Uncle Remus. Come back, Uncle Remus, come back.
John: [with authority] Johnny. . . . Johnny . . . .
Johnny: Uncle Remus, please. . . .

With the parents looking forelorn, the grandmother goes downstairs and asks Remus to come up to Johnny's sick bed.

There is a close-up of Johnny as Remus concludes a story in which Brer Rabbit returns to his comfortable home. As Remus says, "Yes sir, things was mighty satisfactual ‘cause Brer Rabbit done come back to his laughin' place where the folks all around him were belonged," the camera pans down Johnny's arm and shows him putting his hand into the servant's hand. A close-up of Johnny's face. He opens his eyes and says, "Uncle Remus." The camera cuts to a close-up of Remus again:

Remus: And that night, he was the happiest Brer Rabbit and that was the laughinest place in the whole wide world.
[Cut back to close-up of Johnny looking at him. Cut to close-up of John. Cut to close-up of Johnny.]
Johnny: Daddy. . . mama, Daddy's here mama. . . . [lets go of Remus' hand and his parents rush toward him]
John: She's right here, son.
Sally: Yes, darling, It's all right.
Johnny: Mama, make him stay. Please.
John: Relax, son. I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying right here [cut to Remus and Grandmother two-shot] where I belong. [cut to close-up of Johnny]
Johnny: Honest? [cut to parents]
John: Honest. . . . And we'll have more fun than. . . than Brer Rabbit hisself.
Sally: And we'll have the laughinest place in the whole wide world. [close-up of Johnny]
John: [voiceover] And dat's de truth. [cut to Remus and Grandmother]
Remus: [smiling] Miss Dosha, things are lookin' mighty satisfactual. [turning and opening door to leave] Mighty satisfactual.

As the climax to the film, where Johnny is clearly on the road to recovery after hearing a story from Uncle Remus and seeing his father back with the family (where he belongs), this scene also avoids the threat of Remus becoming Johnny's permanent surrogate father. James Snead discusses in white screens/black images the way in which Remus appears as a central figure in the white family:

In almost every tableau where significant family events are shown, the black appears as a pivot of visual and emotional support. Uncle Remus, more than even Aunt Tempy, is coded as the person who resolves crises in the white social or family structure, usually by telling a story. . . . In a sense, the entire plot might be regarded as a cautionary tale about what might happen if the white male (here, Johnny's father) skirst his responsibilities to wife and family. Deserting his position as father means that he runs the risk of being replaced by a black surrogate.⁽¹⁾

Snead is correct in identifying this situation but the prior scene allows for a much closer reading than he is willing to offer. Although Remus taught Johnny many of the tools he needed to deal with his problems, he was ready to abandon the boy when he couldn't tell him any more stories. In order to stop this surrogate parent from abandoning him the way his real parent already did, Johnny runs through the field and is gored by the bull. In a sense, he is sacrificing himself so that both men might return to him.

This move is successful but it should be noted that even though John is in Atlanta and Remus is most likely pretty close, John arrives at the scene first, with Remus directly behind him--almost as if he were shadowing John. Remus stays outside while Johnny's real father goes upstairs but Johnny can't be healed until he knows that both men have returned and so, he asks for Uncle Remus repeatedly until the old man is brought upstairs and tells Johnny a story.

When Johnny hears the tale and puts his hand in Remus', the healing has begun. Although John arrived first, Remus must return to Johnny before the boy can clearly see that his father has returned. Once the bond between Remus and Johnny has been re-established, the true bond between father and son can occur again--but only after there is an assurance that the father is not going to leave ever again.

While it seems that this commitment might be enough to heal Johnny, his parents take it another step further. John begins speaking in dialect when he promises that they will have more fun "than Brer Rabbit hisself." Sally joins then speaks in dialect, assuring Johnny that they'll have "the laughinest place in the whole wide world." John affirms the statement by saying, "And dat's da truth."

Since Remus was so successful in playing the role of surrogate father with Johnny, his real parents now are placed in a position where they must become surrogate black caretakers. To do so, they appropriate Remus' dialect and, unlike Johnny's attempt at using Remus' dialect to calm Ginny in an earlier scene--these two white adults succeed. Even Remus seems satisfied with the appropriation for the moment but as he learns in the final scene of the film, things are anything but "satisfactual."