Blog 4 Revised

        Chester Himes novel " IF He Hollers Let Him GO" is about a narrator by the name of Rob. Rob deals with being a black man who feels every white human  is ready to attack him at some point due to the color  of his skin. His dreams always haunted him.  His paranoia comes true when one day he comes across the wrong white female and an pertipetia of the story takes place.
           Rob is faced with a dilema, it's his words against a white lady words, when he is accused of rape. A co-worker by the name of Madge pretends to be frighten of Rob everytime they bump heads. He later discovers that he has an attraction for her and tries to persue her. They play cat and mouse but eventurally Rob decides he rather stay faithful to his girlfriend and marry her, but once Rob bumps into Madge at work, everything changes for the worst .
  Personally I thought one of the key moments in this story was when Bob got setup by Madge. On Madge quote "Stop, N! Don't , N! N, don't Oh, please don't kill me, N...."(Chester Himes pg.180).
The narrator has readers very anxious to see what will happen next. The climax of the story takes place when Bob is confronted by an angry mob, they are fueled by Madge cries of rape. In those days black males were considered worthless. It started with slavery, being slaves African American were thought of and treated as subhuman. With that being said no one  second guessed that Rob wouldn't rape Madge. The narrator infomed us in a lot of ways how racism was still a factor, everyday Bob woke up in fear, afraid one day he would have to face a life and dealth situation. Rob quote " Every white person I come into contact with, every one I have to speak to, even those I pass the street- every g*ddamn one of them has got the power of some kind of control over my own behaviour" (Himes 166-167) Bob ends up getting beaten to a pulp, which led me to believe his thoughts came true. I was left wondering if he would die at that very moment or sent to a penitentiary. 
The story ends with him being sent to the army instead, which was really shocking, cause the readers and the narrator thought he would  be sent to jail for 30 years. Either way it was not a good twist of event.

Blog 5:


            Octavia E. Butler novel "Kindred" is about a protagonist by the name of Dana. Dana is black female from the nineteenth century who ends up in the eighteen century. Dan operates as a slave to save a white male's life by the name of Rufus including her and the slaves she resides with.
              The word "Kindred" means family unit, ancestor. Furthermore this novel proves that family is stronger then anything else. Dana and Kevin are married. They go through a lot during the period when Dana vanishes into the eighteen century. He follows her there and ends up loosing himself for a period of time after being trapped in the eitheen for eight long years without his wife, but in the end they find there way back in each other's arm, they love each other very much. The fact that she came back looking for him and asked to write to him shows she stilled valued him.  Dana quotes “I went on writing, feeling myself strangely near tears. It was as though I was really talking to Kevin. I began to believe I would see him again.” (Butler pg. 140)
             Dana believes in family value when she continues to assist the slaves in the eighteen century.  Dana acted like a slave and helped the other slaves by doing housework, teaching the kids how to read, healing there wounds, among so many other things. The slaves was her family until the very end, she never treated them differently. She played the role of slave not only to survive but also to free the slaves, because they were her family.