I wish Butler developed some of the more minor characters a little more because I'm finding it hard to relate to some of the moments in the book when I know I'm supposed to be feeling the "realness" of the situation and of the history. For example, when Dana witnesses the Alice's father getting beaten for sneaking into her house, the description is certainly detailed and clearly horrible to imagine:
The the man's resolve broke. He began to moan--low gut-wrenching sounds torn from him against his will. Finally he began to scream. I could literally smell his sweat, hear every ragged breath, every cry, every cut of the whip. I could see his body jerking, convulsing, straining against the rope as his screaming went on and on. (36)
And I don't mean to sound like an awful person, but I just can't bring myself to be really invested in the story, particularly when Alice's father hasn't really been developed, even as a minor character. I'm just finding it difficult to really feel the way I think Butler wants the reader to feel. Her goal, it seems to me, is to help readers gain a new perspective about the history we all learn and I'm just not getting that, although I can't say I'm not enjoying the book.
1 comment:
In a sense, the reader's position in this scene is mirrored by Dana's own: she doesn't "know" the man being whipped at all (although she does infer that he is her ancestor, which gives her a certain investment, she's seeing him here for the first time). The "feeling" being evoked here might not be the personal-identification kind but more the "historical" kind: we witness at close range what it *means* to live in a social context where an adult man and woman have no rights. The spectacle of a family being rousted from bed by a gang of thugs in the middle of the night and beaten (and, we later learn, sold away to the Deep South as a consequence), and the utter helplessness Dana feels oin the face of such outrageousness (as we, too, can't *change* the scenario we're witnessing)--it's a way of demanding that a reader actually try to imagine the kinds of situations that this economic system makes possible (and even commonplace).
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