"The next shot was worse, didn't even hit the truck, that boy's losing his touch. Then the next one hit him high on the left side, and Solon thought, 'Well, now I know what it sounds like when a rib breaks. It sounds like a banjo string, real bad out of tune.' This was the shot that turned him over on the seat, flop. Shock, it's not such a bad thing, really, shock ain't."
If you read an encyclopedia article about the murder of Emmit Till, you will likely discount Lewis Nordan's revitalization of the event.
But reading the article in Look magazine is a whole different story. When I skimmed over the Wikipedia article on Emmit Till I didn't see "Bobo" anywhere, but sure enough, the Look article refers to Emmit as "Bobo Till" almost exclusively. Nordan's description of the initial conflict between Bobo and Carolyn (Sally Anne Montberclair) also bears a closer resemblance to the Look account than the historical archive. The Look writers concluded their description of the incident with much emphasis on the "wolf-whistle" that Bobo made to Carolyn. Nordan chose this colloquialization for his book's title.
I went to the Look article to find an explanation for Nordan's Solon character, and although I think I found it, I will stop short of telling what I found and instead ask the class...
How historically accurate do you think this account is, and what purpose do you think Nordan's embellishments serve? The only hint I'll give is that the exchange of fire between Bobo and "Solon" both did and didn't take place.
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