“I wisht I could die. Die right now to spite his sorry ass. Yes sir. To show he ain’t got no power over death. Yes sir. I could die right now – content” (48).

I found this statement to be one of both sadness and empowerment. It once again reminded me of the condition of the Jews within the concentration camps. The Nazis’ goal was to strip away all forms of dignity and humanity, leaving nothing but a primitive struggle for survival. There were very few cases of armed resistance, but many stories have since come out of the Holocaust of what’s known as spiritual resistance. This encompasses any act meant to fight against this removal of humanity, be it keeping up appearances, sharing food, refusing to have one’s baby aborted, or even suicide. The Germans wanted to control every aspect of Jewish life, including the time and means of death. An act of spiritual resistance, then, would be taking control of one’s own death. It’s both sad and empowering. This story seems to take place in the first half of the 20th century, when white people still had control and sway over the minorities. Stokes, as it turns out, acted in both armed and spiritual resistance, by killing the dog of a white man and seemingly taking control of his own death. While both of these acts involve death, it seems that this was Stokes way of living outside of oppression; only by killing and dying could he truly have freedom.

I never quite understood the significance of Chi. I’m sure we will discuss it, but I’ll ask anyway. Why was Chi a part of this story? Did Chi kill Stokes?