Over all I thought that this book was interesting and a good read but the ending was not good at all. What I thought was really interesting about the ending of the book was when he witnessed the lynching. First everyone is meeting at night almost to cover up what they are doing since the man probably never did commit a crime. But after he witnessed it everything about him changed. It hit him with a great force of realization that no matter what he thought or felt the blacks will not be treated the same as the white folks. He said he never in his life saw the transformation of human beings into savage beasts as they yelled burn him. He even went to far as to mention that people would not even treat animals they way they treated this black man.
But the thing I found to be most interesting was the part that held the biggest discussion in class. I believe it starts on page 190 just after the savage killing of the black man. It says " I finally made up my mind that I would neither disclaim the black race nor claim the white race; but that I would change my name, raise a mustache, and let the world take me for what it would; that it was not necessary for me to go about with a label of inferiority pasted on my forehead." There was a lot of debate whether or not this man was a coward for turning his back on his own people or if we could sympathize for what he is doing. I really don't think he is a coward since he never even had to embrace the black people it was his choice. He didn't find out till he was older that he was different than everyone else. He is mixed half black and half white. No i'm not saying overlook who you are I think everyone should be proud to be what they are. But the narrator is not doing it out of cowardice notions it's almost self preservation. If by looking at him and you cannot tell he is different than everyone else why point it out? But to say he is a coward for turning against the black people can the whites then say he is a coward for turning his back on the white people? It is extremely difficult to embrace fully who you are especially when one part of you is despised by the other part. So, no he is not a coward it is all about saving himself, self preservation everyone will chose that path since it is human nature to save oneself before you save another.
1 comment:
I really liked your comment about self preservation. I feel like this carries over into todays society in different ways. Today people look out for their own economic self interst. In the authors time you had to look out for ones own self preservation due to race which obviously you can't control. I think it's difficult to pass judgement on the way the author acted because i feel like we all have at some point maybe done the less moral thing in order to self preserve.
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