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Jesse’s Father
The lynching victim is a Black man who lived in Jesse’s town when Jesse was a child and was accused of attacking (and, mostly likely, raping) a white woman named Miss Standish. He tries to flee but is captured, castrated, and lynched in front of Jesse, Jesse’s father, Jesse’s mother, and hundreds of cheering white people. His lynching is particularly brutal in that he is lowered into and raised out of fire several times before being castrated, stoned, and burned once more. How Jesse feels in relationship to the lynching victim demonstrates his shift from caring about Black people to dehumanizing them.
Lynching Victim Quotes in Going to Meet the Man
The Going to Meet the Man quotes below are all either spoken by Lynching Victim or refer to Lynching Victim. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Going to Meet the Man
Quotes
The man with the knife took the nigger’s privates in his hand, one hand, still smiling, as though he were weighing them. In the cradle of the one white hand, the nigger’s privates seemed as remote as meat being weighed in the scales; but seemed heavier, too, much heavier, and Jesse felt his scrotum tighten; and huge, huge, much bigger than his father’s, flaccid, hairless, the largest thing he had ever seen till then, and the blackest.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Lynching Victim Quotes in Going to Meet the Man
The Going to Meet the Man quotes below are all either spoken by Lynching Victim or refer to Lynching Victim. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Going to Meet the Man
Quotes
The man with the knife took the nigger’s privates in his hand, one hand, still smiling, as though he were weighing them. In the cradle of the one white hand, the nigger’s privates seemed as remote as meat being weighed in the scales; but seemed heavier, too, much heavier, and Jesse felt his scrotum tighten; and huge, huge, much bigger than his father’s, flaccid, hairless, the largest thing he had ever seen till then, and the blackest.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
