NotNormativelyHuman 315
famously evidenced by Capt. Ahab in Moby-Dick (1851), is
unambiguously a characteristic of his novelistic practice (Mitchell and
Snyder, "Masquerades of Impairment" 27; Otter 8-9). Against this
background, his foregrounding of disabled bodies inConfidence-Man
comes as not much of a surprise, especially if one thinks of "Bartleby"
(1853) or "Billy Budd" (1891/1924). Rather, it can be read as a
continuing investment on the author's part in a critique, in the mode of
fiction, "of the narratives and norms, principles and presuppositions"
that defined the social and cultural politics in the United States at his
time(J.Frank2).
Critical readings of Confidence-Man usually focus on three
"disabled" characters, the mute, the Black Guinea, and the Soldier of
Fortune, some of them possibly guises of the eponymous "confidence
man" (Mitchell and Snyder, "Masquerades of Impairment" 38; E.
Samuels, "From Melville to Eddie Murphy" 64). As the story opens—
suggestively so on April's Fool's Day—a man in cream colors,
seemingly out of nowhere and without luggage or company, boards the
steamerFidèlebound for New Orleans. "[I]n the extremest sense of the
word, a stranger" (3), the man threads his way to the lower deck when
he comes across a group of fellow passengers congregating around a
notice posted at the captain's office which offers a reward for capturing
animposterjustarrivedfromtheEast.Atthatpoint,themanproducesa
slatewiththewords"Charitythinkethnoevil"writtenonit(4).Inspite
of the obvious, almost parodic Biblical overtones (I Cor 13) of his
further messages ("Charity suffereth long... endureth all things.. ."
[5]),hisfellowpassengersdonottakekindlytohismessageswhichalso
stand in obvious contrast to the bill of arrest which seems to be more
fittinganyhowtothefrontiercontextofaMississippisteamer.
Even when pushed and punched by passengers, the man in cream
colors never speaks a word; he just keeps modifying the inscription on
his plate several times, always retaining the word "charity." For the
passengers, "the singularity, if not lunacy, of the stranger was
heightened by his muteness" (5) until the "wonted and sensibleorderof
things"isrestoredbyathirdplacard,thisoneputupbytheship'sbarber
andreading"NoTrust"(5).Whilethemutestrangerretirestohiscabin,
he remains a conversation piece for his fellow passengers: "'Odd fish!'
'Poor fellow!' 'Who can be?' 'Casper Houser.' 'Bless my soul!'
'Uncommon countenance.' 'Green prophet from Utah'.. ." (6), and so