Ok, more on the story. It's Thursday, the rough is due Tuesday, and I still have no idea what the thesis is going to be. I know a lot more about the story though. Over the past few days I have drudged through my first of what will probably many close readings of this story. It's a long one, and I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't have picked such a long story, cause I read so damned sloooooooow. Still, I've done the reading and made my notes all over the pages. I did make one note that might lead to a thesis, but I'm not sure. I think the problem with this story is that everything is out in the open. There is nothing left to guess work about what is going on in the story, it's all straighforward. The guy has negro blood, but passes for white as he enters college. Everything he thinks, all his fears that build as the story progresses comes right out and slaps the reader in the face.

Could that be my point about the story? That fact that nothing is left to the imagination? There are some things, but not many, and I made note of them as I read of course. As I read, I posed questions that the story later answered. Anyway, the guy becomes a successful lawyer, marries a white chick from (chick, a derogatory term?) a good 'background', and they have a baby. He eventually becomes a judge, and at 49 has a crisis. See, there's this black lawyer in town always representing black people that have been wronged by the system, mostly because of the prevailing opinion of society of the times. There was a point that specifically said the law was clearly against the plaintiff, and the point there was the story was giving the impression that the black lawyer always fought battles that were obviously losers.

Ok, where was I going with this. Had to take time out to eat, we had tacos.....

So this black lawyer was always fighting the losing just causes, and it's quite evident that the black lawyer has all the character the main character lacks. He does in fact become his nemesis in the end, and she even gets that out in the open as well. The black lawyer was nephew to the lady Victor was living with when he came into his fortune. Seems she told the guy all about Victor, so he knew exactly what was happening. Victor finds this out after the black lawyer makes a remark in court alluding to the judge's (Victor's) beginnings. He can't take it, and goes to see the lawyer to ask him about it. That's how he finds out how the lawyer knows what he knows, and the knowledge that someone knows his secret proves to be too much for Victor, and he dies of an anxiety attack.

Actually, it may not be an anxiety attack, could be anything that would result from such turmoil going on in someone's head. So, I looked up the author, cause the instructor, and stuff we've been reading, emphasizes we should sometimes read with the author's background in mind. She was a high school teacher of black/white/indian descent. A lot of the stuff she writes deals with the social and cultural issues going on in and around Louisiana, where she's from. Oh yeah, she looks white, but describes herself as 'of color'. I think that's the way it's put anyway.

Ok, I'm getting nowhere with this. Here's my notes . In one scene he's moved away from the village and walking through the streets of New Orleans for the first time, and nobody notices him. Here we get a clue that he's not black even though his grandmother is. Well, there may have been a clue before that, but I didn't catch it. Not surprising, I miss quite a bit. 'in recognition or maybe as others looked at him back in the village' 'he still gets homesick, even for the nasty place he grew up in' 'he did a lot of reading in the bookstore, but in light of the rest of the story he learned nothing about personal attributes'

His grandmother dies, but he doesn't go back for the funeral. 'why did he not feel compelled to go back?' 'He systematically broke ties with his past - what caused him to shame his past?' 'That annoyance was his past, that such a past, while not his fault, could ruin him socially if found out'

Time to stop, my eyelids are getting heavy.....