I thought this story showed us how unfair it was for African American people in the south of that time period. Based on a rumor in the town, a black man named Will Mayes was accused of a crime which possibly could have never happened. It seemed like some of the men in the barber shop randomly picked a black man to be the suspect in the rape of a white woman named Minnie Cooper. Without any evidence that a crime has actually taken place, Will was chosen to be the rapist based on his skin color. Just because Minnie said that the rapist was black, doesn't mean that it was Will. I thought it was so unfair that no one even bothered to look for evidence against him, beginning with his where abouts on the night of the crime. But I guess back then no one cared. If you were African American you had no rights according to most of the white people of the south in that time. Only one white man was brave enough to stand up for Will, and that man was a Barber named Henry. I liked how he spoke from his heart regardless of what others might think about him. Henry new that he lived in a raciest town, but he still tried to convince the others that he didn't believe Will committed the crime, and even mentioned that a crime may have even never existed. It was sad that no one else thought like Henry.
When the men who accused Will of the crime decided to get their revenge by going after Will, Henry went with them in hopes of stopping them from harming him. But he could do nothing. I thought it was sad when he jumped out of the moving car because he didn't want to see what was going to happen to Will. The story never described Will's fate, but it seemed that he was killed once he was taken because McLendon had a gun with him, and because some men in town had a few words to say about the incident, "What did they do with the nigger? Did they_? Sure. He's all right, all right, is he? Sure. He went on a little trip." Then someone else said, "Do you see? There's not a Negro on the square. Not one." It really bothered me to read that because Will never even had a chance once he was labeled as a rapist.
I don't even believe that a crime was committed. I think that Minnie made it up because she was depressed and desperate for attention. She was almost 40 years old and single. Guys never looked at her anymore and all of her friends were married with children of their own. When she was in the movie theater and started to laugh nonstop, I think she was happy that she was the talk of the town again, just like she used to be when she was younger. She was proud of herself for finding a way for people to notice her again, and because of it, a man was more than likely brutally murdered. It's sad that Will never had the chance to defend himself, and that it was only after his death that people began to question Minnie's accusations.
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6 comments:
It's horrible that they just jump to the conclusion that the black man did it with no prior knowledge. I guess if any white woman says anything about being touched by a man they'll just kill the black man. They don't even examine if she was bruised or that there was any evidence that she was raped. It's good in the end that she realizes that it was horrible thing to do and doesn't like the attention she gets after a while. She realizes it was a bad thing to do.
It really is hard to believe that the men in the town would go and kill someone just because of a rumor. The one person that wanted to take a few minutes to find out what had really happened or if anything had happened at all was basically seen as crazy and treated as being no better than a black man. This just reinstated the idea that Willie's life was worth nothing. Willie's life was even worth a little extra time to find out if he was guilty. It didn't matter if it had been Willie because the white men were focused on making a statement and its clear that they did because it later said that there were no blacks in the town square.
You made a good point right in the beginning- that African Americans were treated unfairly "back then". I absolutely agree with you, but I still think that there is unfair treatment. In my sociology class we recently studied crime, and statistically black men have a higher incident of committing a crime. Now the interesting point to that is that there is some speculation that this statistic is so high because of prejudice against black people. I agree with this view. I think that many people who are high positions, not just in the south, abuse their power. And this results in unfair treatment.
It's interesting to me that we can advance so much in all aspects, such as technology, beliefs, politics, etc., but still have such a long way before everyone sees everyone as equals.
I have to say that in this time period people really didn't know what to say about crimes like this. They didn't know what to do with the criminals and how to care for the viticm. Much of the justice was vigilante like the story that we read and much of it never reached the inside of a courtroom.
I think that others may have felt as Henry did, but they were each present and saw how Henry was being treated and didn't speak up or were too afraid of what the people of the town would think of them.
I found that a lot of things were unspoken in the town at first the word rape, then Willie's killing and what was really happening to Minnie. There was a lot that people were "afraid" to say out loud. The men in the Barbershop danced around the word rape. I thought it was interesting that they did this like it was a curse word or against the law to say it. Which is kind of like they didn't believe it really happened and to say it would make it true. This story was really interesting and I'm glad that Faulkner wrote it the way he did it left a lot up to the reader.
It seemed as though Minnie Cooper was a damaged soul that was unhappy with her life and needed something to give her a sense of belonging. After Will Mayes was killed Minnie was treated much differently by the community but I still don’t believe she ended up being happy. The way that Minnie broke down laughing hysterically, I think that she felt very badly about what had happened. It seems as though she loved the moment she walked into the town and was given attention by many in the area, but then started to think of why she was receiving this attention and it bothered her. The laughing was the result of not being able to show her true emotions in fear of once again being judged by the community and possibly being hassled by the town folk.
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