Further, although Grant and Jefferson are not blood relatives, they are connected through their common experiences as black males. Although physically free, Grant lives in a mental prison of his own making created by his hatred of whites, his arrogance, and his detachment from the black community. As an educated man, he sees himself as superior to people like Jefferson and Rev. Ambrose. Instead of preparing him to contribute to his community, his formal education has taught him to despise his own people.
Crooks Crooks feels isolated and is ostracised by society. ‘He kept his distance and demanded that other people keep theirs.’ This suggests that he is a private man who isn’t very sociable but it is also the laws of segregation that effects Crooks’ social life as well. While most of the other workers on the farm were out in town, Crooks is forced to stay by himself. All the rest of the rest of the workers share bunk houses but Crooks is again isolated from people, as he lives on his own in the harness room. In this way, Crooks is downgraded to second class to the white men, and seems to be treated with the same respect the horses are treated with.
People will always do what they want to do trying not to get caught. In the book the defense attorneys were not fair with Jefferson’s trial and they were not nice either by considering him a hog. In trials in the society today people get chances and say on what they did or didn’t do to prove how they’re not guilty. In the novel an innocent black man was not treated with respect. Jefferson was treated as a poor lowlife creature.
During the trial, Jefferson’s only difference was that he did not know what he was doing and that he was a hog. Extremely upset of the results, Jefferson’s godmother, Miss. Emma asks the town teacher, Grant to visit Jefferson in the jailhouse to teach him something before his time is up. She believes if Jefferson would be able to learn something before going in to the chair he would be able to die as a man and the lawyer would be proven defiantly wrong. Grant and Jefferson who are brought together under uncifient circumstances hit some hard areas but end with good ones on the journey before the day of the execution.
Identity Crisis: The Friction Between Function and Identity in “Battle Royal” In “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison, the narrator, an African American man, describes the constant inner struggle he resides in to discover his identity in life. His efforts are further complicated by the fact that he is living in a racist American society where people of his descent are rarely even given the chance to portray individual identities, but rather grouped as one. The narrator's uneasiness surrounding his identity begins when his grandfather shocks the entire family by leaving them with a final message to “keep up the good fight” and undermine the white community by only pretending to comply with their beliefs. Constantly attempting to please the white
A father is supposed to be the pillars of the household; he’s supposed to represent the backbone of the family. Unfortunately for Mr. Hernandez who is fond of neglecting his responsibilities as a father has yet to mature and attain to the consequences of being all the contrary of what a real father should be. In the “Parrot in the Oven” a novel written by Victor Martinez, Mr. Hernandez is a Mexican father of three children married to a hardworking women looking for what’s best for her children while living in the projects, the lower economic side of town. His undesirable qualities are being too prideful, extremely selfishness, and irresponsible. He has become an alcoholic and doesn’t seem to realize how much he has affected his fatherly figure by destroying the portrait he once carried.
The black community has suffered far too long and they should hold themselves on a higher pedestal, but not so high that they in turn start to act in the way the whites treated them not too long ago. Baldwin is invited by Elijah Muhammad to dinner at his house a member of the Islamic group states “The white man sure is a devil” (Baldwin, 65). The word devil is such a mean, evil spirited word. The lowest thing any man would want to be heard called and compared to. Baldwin doesn’t agree the white man is the devil, but “according to Elijah, that [he] failed to realize that the white man was a devil was that [he] had been too long exposed to white teaching and had never received true instruction” (Baldwin, 66).
Hale and Mrs. Peters the facts of the motive and their silence of the crime should be analyzed. They were in the Wright’s house to help their husband and the county attorney to solve the mystery but the men did not care about the women’s things, the trifles, they could not imagine that the little details were able to solve the case as when they were in the kitchen and the county attorney was asked if there was something important there and he answered with sarcasm “Nothing here but kitchen things” (67). "The big shot men in a small town" thought that if they were unable to find evidence of the crime, women were much less capable; moreover the observations made by Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters were a laughing stock for men, like when “county attorney picked up the apron. He laughed” and said “Oh, I guess they’re not very dangerous things the ladies have picked up.”(279) Besides of having their remarks ridiculed by men, the women imagined the miserable life of Minnie Foster because the old stove there was in the house, the neighbor did not used to see her, she used sing before become Mrs. Wright, because of the bird-cage they were able to imagine the lonesome life that she had. Sometimes, these findings were cry motives; even so Mr. Wright was known to be a “good man”, “He didn’t drink, and kept his words as well as most, (…), and paid his debts” but according to Mrs. Hale, “he was a hard man.” (202) and the broken door hinge could be another evidence
Instead, he stereotypes Teddy as a bad child, and assumes that he is up to no good. Finally, the author emphasizes his opinion that stereotyping is negative by not only having Teddy’s uncle, but also his aunt, given a stereotypical role in the family: “As his aunt gathered up the dishes, his uncle went into the living room to read his newspaper.” (132) Clearly the two grownups have stereotypical roles; the aunt cooks and cleans while the uncle works during the day and reads his paper in the evening. One of the reasons that his uncle cannot relate to Teddy is because Teddy does not fit into the stereotypical role of what male and female behaviour should look like, at least in his uncle’s mind. As a result of the treatment of his uncle which his aunt seems not to have the courage to prevent, even though she has a “weary sympathy” (133) for Teddy, the imaginative and creative impulse in Teddy is destroyed as he symbolically tears down his cardboard palace and his paper army. In the end, Nolan seems to be suggesting that the conflict in this story is an unfortunate but all too common situation that could easily have been prevented if
CROOKS Crooks is an old character who has a crooked back and lives in a harness room. He is isolated from the other men in the ranch because he is Black. He is insulted saying he stinks and isn't allowed to get involve in any activities like playing cards .Since, the society segregates him for being Black, he also doesn't allow others to get in him room and use his stuffs. When Lennie accidently comes in his room while he was looking for rabbits, crooks warns him to put his distance as he would with others. The quote 'You ain't no skinner.They's no call for a bucker to come into the barn at all...' suggests that Crooks has right to say to Lennie because he feels superior infront of a disabled guy.