Monday, March 26, 2007
Sympathetic characters
How did you feel about the people in the book? Could you identify with any of the segregationalists? In my opinion, the author did a good job of bringing out the humanity inherent in each character, even the Grand Dragon and his wife. It was not difficult to feel sorry for some of the characters who I think would have done greater things if they had been raised in a different environment.
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I think the word is "segregationist," isn't it?
For me, "bringing out the humanity" in an asshole tends to show him for an even bigger asshole. How can someone who has tenderness and love for his wife, for example, be capable of dragging another man out of his home and lynching him? What is so screwed up about his heart and mind that he can't translate his experiences to another human being's? How can empathy be so utterly lacking? The loving scenes of family life made these guys even more revolting to me because they perfectly understood the human happiness they were depriving others of.
And obviously part of his point was to show that racists are not monsters with green teeth. They're our "normal" next-door neighbors.
Segregationist, of course. I don't know what I was thinking.
Interesting point about their humanity making them even worse. A complete sociopath is scary, but a "nice guy" who can also be a horrible person in certain ways is scarier and maybe has less excuse.
I found the Grand Dragon scene especially horrifying. The way he felt no remorse for anything he'd done, the way he tried to pretend he wasn't racist, the way his wife was proud to have had her own robes. Here he is, a feeble old man who's had a stroke, who cries without reason, and he's just the same horrible asshole as ever.
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