"He took a step forward and Mr.
John Edgar raised the gun to the level of the boy's heart." Pg.38
The action taken by Mr. John Edgar
in this scene struck me as a representation of changing southern attitudes. The
death of his dog Shep has certainly caused him pain but instead of taking it
with a grain of salt and trying to avoid confrontation, he breaks the norm by
threatening the white family responsible and murdering one of their dogs. We
have read many stories in this course that involve black southern characters
facing oppression and injustice and the safest and most common defensive
strategy for these characters has been passive resistance. Any time these
characters have resisted physically or verbally they have been left with mortal
consequences. Yet Mr. John Edgar purposefully and calmly murders one of the
Terrell dogs and threatens to shoot each of the family members as they try to
defend their pet. It could be argued that Mr. John Edgar reacted this way
because of the arrival of Chi. While we dont know much about Mr. John Edgar
before he encounters Chi, it is reasonable to assume, (because he is an old man
and has apparently lived in the same place for many years) that he has
encountered the Terrell family before and likely suffered some previous
transgressions. Yet he has apparently never reacted with violence before. It
seems that witnessing the aftermath of Chi's apparent quarrel with intolerance
pushed him to an emotional edge and when confronted with the murder of his dog,
he decided to make his judgment known. Perhaps this scene represents a change
in black southern attitudes, reflecting the spread of public protest in the
south as well as the civil rights movement. The extremely violent reaction of
Mr. John Edgar and his attitude about it could be used to represent the violent
resistance movement of the black panthers and other militant groups. Any way
you look at it Mr. John Edgar seems to be doing more than just avenging Shep.
He seeems to be shouting at the intolerance of his homeland, "An Eye for
an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth. That's the onliest Law i'm studying
about."
Question: Is Kenan trying to reflect a change in southern
attitudes? Who the hell is Mr. Chi?
I agree with Bonner that this is a more modern look at the race issues that the other texts we read deal with. To be honest, I didn't realize that Mr. John Edgar was black until a few pages into the story (maybe I missed something early on?) because his life seemed relatively peaceful and his home very comfortable in comparison to other black characters we read about in the past. The death of Mr. John Edgar's dog, Shep, took me completely by surprise though (I had been distracted wondering who Mr. Chi actually was) and then Mr. John Edgar's reaction to Shep's death surprised me even more. I applauded his act of justice against the Terrell boys, but despite all evidence to the contrary still felt nervous that something terrible was bound to happen to him as punishment. Thought ultimately I was wrong and the worst punishment for Mr. John Edgar was jail, I realized that the issue was far from resolved. In our other readings death has been dealt with, as many black characters are lynched for unjust reasons or really no reason at all, but a lot of the focus has been on the fact that the characters were given no rights in the first place. This story, in contrast, brings to light the the deeper power that the white characters were striving to keep; the power over death. Lynch mobs had power over their victims just as the Terrell boys in the story have power not to kill Mr. John Edgar, but to kill his best friend in an attempt to break his spirit. With the help of Mr. Chi, Mr. John Edgar takes the power of death away from his oppressors and fights oppression on possibly the most basic level of all; his right to live or die.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: How did Mr. John Edgar actually die? Are we supposed to know, and if so, is it significant to the statement that he was trying to make with his own death?