I feel very touched by this particular quote in the novel 'Of Mice and Men', partly because it is so straight to the point and said so bluntly with no answer.
They let the nigger come in that night. Little skinner name of Smitty took after the nigger. Done pretty good, too. The guys wouldn't let him use his feet, so the nigger got him. If he coulda used his feet, Smitty says he woulda killed the nigger. The guys said on account of the nigger's got a crooked back, Smitty can't use his feet." He paused in relish of the memory.
This quote is actually quite sick to read, kind of letting the reader know that the characters in the novel knew what they were doing. They let the 'nigger' in on purpose knowing that some form of entertainment would come good out of it.
Because of the 'nigger' has a form of deformity with a crook in his back, the other character, known as 'Smitty' wasn't allowed to use his feet and when this Smitty character says; 'he woulda killed the nigga', the reader then clicks on that this fight wasn't done for fun. The fight was meant for someone to be physically 'killed'. I feel this is a distressing image and therefore the most lethal quote... so far.
I completely agree - this has always been an incident in the book that has disturbed me. Sadly, lots of people overlook it as it is only alluded to, and is not part of the main narrative. It is worth considering that if this event had actually taken place, it would have been the most callous and violent in the book.
ReplyDeleteIn literary terms this anecdote would be called an 'embedded narrative'.
Keep blogging.
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