Catharsis seems to happen in the scene where Bob accidentally gets
locked up in a room with Madge, and she uses that to her advantage and accuses
Bob of rape. Madge screamed out, “Help! Help! My God, help me! Some white man,
help me! I’m being raped” (Himes 180). During this moment, we feel emotions of
pity and fear. We dread the consequences of the accusation and feel sorry for
Bob that he gets accused of a crime he did not commit. There’s a tension and
suspense present, in a conflict between a black man and a white woman. The fact that she called out for a “white man”
to help her indicates that right at this moment she has power over Bob, and he
is helpless because he knows society will never side with him. “Coloured”
people like Bob aren’t even considered human, thus anything they say may be
considered lies. In this moment, he is deprived of his masculinity and his
pride. The anagnorisis seems to happen before this scene, where Bob has a long
talk with Alice about their future. In this scene, Bob saw a future of him
getting married and having children, realizing that perhaps deep inside him he
wanted a family of his own. Thus he changed his mind and considered settling
down with Alice, to marry her and start a family in which he never thought of before
for he was against the idea of marrying Alice.
Works Cited
Himes, Chester. If He Hollers, Let Him Go. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1986. Print.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteGreat opening sentence your writing have, you started with the scene including Bob and Madge locked up in her room. The way you described Catharsis in this scene when Madge was accusing Bob of raping her, and she was screaming “Help! Help! My God, help me! Some white man, help me! I’m being raped”, is very convincing. Even In fact, she was the one who was forcing Bob to rape her by saying things against his race that were making Bob emotional. I liked the way you showed your feelings towards Bob. I can see that you were feeling the pain from which Bob was going through. It reminds me when I read this scene and when we were discussing this scene in my class with Prof. I had exactly the same feeling that you have for Bob. How bob felt powerless and humiliated even when he didn’t do anything to Madge. Helplessness of Bob for this society and hating people around him the one who loved him was really sad. Overall, very good writing and perfectly showed your feelings for bob’s struggle.
Nabba. =)
Hello
DeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog. I liked that you mentioned the emotions that the passage evoked in you and that you described the social aspects of it as well. Your evidence really supports your point. However I think that defining catharsis would make it easier to read. For example you can briefly describe in your first sentence. "Catharsis,define it, seems to happen..."
Over all you did a good job!