James Baldwin creates a very vivid horrifying picture for his readers of inhumane treatment of African Americans. I found myself cringing several times throughout the story. Jesse hated African Americans with his whole heart but the idea of rough sexual intercourse with them excited him is beyond appalling. "Come on, sugar, I'm going to do you like a nigger, just like a nigger, come on, sugar, and love me just like you'd love a nigger." To me this is comparable to sick pornography of children that some very sick men have fantasies about. Not because its a white man with a black woman but because the man hates a whole other race but wants to completely destroy it mentally and physically with his sick fantasy. Jesse likes the power of fear over another human being, which men who have sick fantasies, do as well. It is the action of power over another being, that is so unjustly and makes me sick to my stomach. I'm not naive enough to think this doesn't happen in life but its just something no one wants to think about because it is so heart-breaking to know people exist like this in life.
Jesse and his family sat and watched the burning and torture of a black man with a sense of pleasure and thrill.
"His father's face was full of sweat, his eyes were very peaceful. At that moment Jesse loved his father more than he had ever loved him. "
I could not even watch my very own worst enemy go through that inhumane cruelty of a death. Blood and gore do not usually make me nauseous but reading this story made my stomach turn quite a few times. Although, James Baldwin writing style is very descriptive and precise, I will not be reading this short story again due to the simple fact that it disturbs me emotionally, mentally, and physically.
