While reading Dry September I immediately thought of a comparison between Thomas Jefferson and Hawkshaw. While Thomas Jefferson was obviously a hypocrite for his statements of anti-slavery yet still owning slaves, I felt that Hawkshaw wasn’t much better. When reading the story I first felt that Hawkshaw was a good guy. He was standing up for this black man that others were making immediate assumptions about. He wanted to convince others that they should act rationally and first find the facts before overreacting and making conclusions based on the color of skin. When I reread some of the text, it seems as though he did very little to actually help the situation. While speaking of Will Mayes, Hawkshaw referred to him as “He’s a good nigger” (439). I felt as though this statement as hypocritical to the situation occurring. He may have been sticking up for this man but at the same time he was degrading him. It led me to believe that he was not at all sticking up for the black race, and was only connecting on a personal level. I began to think that Hawkshaw may not have thought this was generally wrong, but in this situation he knew the man so he was against it.
Later on in the writing while McClendon and others were beating up Will Mayes, Hawkshaw joins in with the beating. I found this disturbing since moments ago he was trying to make a stand for the truth to be told before overreactions occurred. It was as if he had to participate in some way since all of the others were.
I felt that Hawkshaw had good intentions as did Jefferson, yet when it all came down to it they both hurt their goal by saying and doing things that did not completely portray their intentions.
5 comments:
I do not think that Hawkshaw really "joined in" with the beating. I honestly think that he did have good intentions when going, and possibly just got caught up in the moment. Maybe Hawkshaw just overreacted to being hit by Mayes first. I am not trying to justify what he did as being right, but I really do not think that he had any intentions, or wanted to inflict any harm on Will. Here again, you are probably right that maybe he was a hypocrite. He was not getting all the facts before acting, just like the other men had done before. Chances are pretty good that Mayes was just really disoriented and was just swinging sort of aimlessly and happened to hit Hawk. I do not think that Mayes would have intentionally hit Hawk, but maybe Hawk did not take it that way. Maybe he should have done some reasoning himself like he had recommended the other men did before they too went after Mayes.
Hawk clearly feels horrible afterwards, leading to my belief that he was just overwhelmed, or just swung back out of reaction. He even jumps out of a car to get away from it.
Yes your right the same thing happened to me. I also thought that Hawkshaw was a good guy because he was stickig up for Will Mayes I also thought it was bold and brave of him to do such a thing. But you do have a point he didnt do much to change anything. He could have done more. What i found intersting was that the Barber and Will Mayes died at the end of the reading, I was not expecting this at all.
I also thought that Hawkshaw was a good person by standing up for Will. It was very brave of him to do in that time period. I also thought you made a good point when you said that Hawkshaw may have not been sticking up for the black race, that he could have been sticking up for Will based on friendship. I never thought about that when I was reading. But I don't feel that Hawkshaw joined in with the beating. I think he just hit Will once because Will hit him by accident while trying to fight back. I don't think Hawkshaw wanted to inflict any harm on Will.
So you have a really differnt view on the story than what i have been reading on everyone else's post though. I think the reason that Hawkshaw stood up for him his because he knew he was innocent or was maybe hiding something. But i agree with you when saying that he wasn't at all standing up for the black race. That wouldn't be acceptable back then at all. They may have killed him for that reason anyways. I think deep down he just knew that something wasn't right but couldn't really stand up for him like he wanted to in fear of getting himself in trouble.
I somewhat agree with you about Hawkshaw being a hypocrite, but for some reason, i look at him as a good guy. I can't bring myself to look at him in a negative way, like i do Thomas Jefferson. I think the reason why i look at him as a good guy is mainly b/c he did stand up for the black guy who everyone was assumptions about. And to me that takes courage especially since Hawkshaw is a White man in a community and time period where the White man didn't really help Black people, they just brought them down.
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