- I have never grieved for a fictional character’s death in a story more than I have the story of Luke in (see: )
- The Known World is a story set in the era of Antebellum Slavery, where cruelty is so normalized, most people don’t recognize it
- When Luke dies, his death barely warrants a paragraph, and few but his adoptive parents attend his funeral.
- Children are put to work, to do more than they can physically handle…
- Aggressions against a husband (Ramsey) are hardly opposed by their wife (Fern) (see: dinner scene with Henry, Caledonia, Ramsey, Fern, preacher.)
- It’s a rarity for anyone to care about a freed black member of the community to have his free papers chewed up and spit out, his carriage burnt, his life destroyed in an instant as he’s resold into slavery. The white people who do care, or try to care, have to take caution to not be branded as a “n*****-lover” by the other white people around him
- Even the freed black upper class hold the lives of their slaves at a distance that permits them to perpetrate acts of cruelty and destruction. Caledonia, for instance, conveniently forgets that the object of her affair, Moses, has a wife, and that her actions may have consequences. Fern wonders aloud in a dinner with the other freed black members whether she’d start a revolt were she a slave, but still continues on owning slaves.
- But it’s within this world where kindness and humanity also has a dramatic impact…
- Stamford spends his life objectifying women, looking for “young stuff”, until a near-death encounter changes him entirely, making him care for the children and infants in his society, making him almost a father-figure to some
- Elias reacts adversely to Celeste’s cruel reprisals to perceived insults, until he crafts her a comb — the first act of kindness she receives in her life that begins their marriage, and many acts of kindness towards Luke (sheltering him from the rain.)
- Henry’s act of kindness and humanity towards Moses, wrestling with him like a friend, is so transgressive he’s reprimanded by Robbins, who instructs him to treat Moses with cruelty and suspicion, as though he’s his property that could revolt at any moment
- This is a world where kindness is exiled away — a world where it’s perceived that only the strong, the dominant, the educated elite will survive.
- is yet another book on the exiling away of kindness…
- Zero and Stanley are one of the few in the camp who demonstrate kindness and humanity to others. Stanley is bullied for insisting on writing to his mother. Zero offers to dig a portion of Stanley’s hole for him. Stanley also takes the fault for stealing Mr. Sir’s sunflower seeds, out of no motivation but to protect his “D” tent peers.
- These acts of kindness are transgressive in a world based in cruelty. A world based around vulnerable boys and young men forced to dig holes in the middle of the desert with varying amounts of water each day. A world where boys and young men hassle, fight, and jockey with one another for social positions and privileges.
- This world is a reflection of the world that came before it - the world of “I can fix that”, where the mutual kindness and love of a free black man and a white school teacher are so transgressive, it warrants the murder of the black man, and the destruction of the teacher’s schoolhouse.
- Of course, both works of fiction are reflective of the everyday realities of anti-black racism and slavery practices. The world of Holes is reminiscent of the indentured slavery practices that black prisoners post-Reconstruction were pushed into, such as in…
- features the story of H, a young black man who does nothing wrong, and gets arrested for it anyways. H comes from a family that was captured into Slavery, briefly freed in the north, then recaptured illegally under the Fugitive Slave Act. Even after the Reconstruction, though, it seems that white society has a means of recapturing young men like H…
- H begins his story by acting stoically, sometimes cruelly to others — enacting out the same cruelty that was given to him
- However, it is his transgressive act of kindness, digging another weaker man’s portion of work, that earns him the nickname “two-shovel H”
- Just like Zero’s transgression of digging Stanley’s hole, and Elias’ transgression of trying to work on behalf of his pregnant wife, this act of kindness and humanity warrants punishment and conflict.
- Yet, H only insists upon kindness, humanity, and allyship. He becomes an instrumental force in the workers unionizing, and his presence is essential in fighting back against the mine owners and asserting the union’s presence
- Outside of this, Homegoing is full of this didactic push and pull of cruelty and kindness. The family’s origin is that fundamentally of cruelty… (See: )
- Cruelty which some family members participate in (Qwe, Willie’s husband, etc.) and others reject (the historian, Marjorie, Malcolm)
- While the story originates in several cruel acts that separate off the family, it ends with the family reuniting in the form of Marjorie and Malcolm, facing the fears of fire and water together
In all works, cruelty is so everyday you cease to recognize it. Cruelty feels normal, natural, easy. To the point where kindness is seen as a crime worth punishment.
In an environment where misogyny and anti-black racism is the norm, society relies upon these acts of cruelty to prevent wives, daughters, black people, enslaved and imprisoned black people especially, from being recognized as radically equal in rights and dignity. Cruelty is the vehicle that prevents shifts in power. Even reading these books at time requires you to “wake up” to the fact that, holy shit, no, slavery is wrong — even if the narrator and all the characters think otherwise.
Yet, we have the power to wake up and find place for transgressive kindness, love, and dignity. Doing so requires the resolve to face criticism, mockery, and punishment. Yet, the fruits of kindness are far-spread. Elias and Celeste’s kin are wide-ranging. H founded a union. Zero (Hector) and Stanley’s friendship undoes an abusive work camp for teen boys.