Robyn’s answer to “Does it depict much violence?” > Likes and Comments
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I think the depiction is completely accurate
I think the part about the guests watching Big Anthony’s torture and death, and the reporter taking notes, was irony. We now watch and report on some horrific things
I highly recommend the book "At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America" by Philip Dray. It deals not with slavery but with the many decades after the Civil War when thousands of black people were murdered and often publicly tortured, as crowds gathered to watch. It's not much of a leap, then, to accept that horrific torture such as that inflicted on Big Anthony in this novel may well have happened to enslaved people.
The scene about Big Anthony was so upsetting it made me want to put down the book and not read it. And that was on top of everything else.
It's been documented that public lynchings were a common occurrence, and people from the town came to watch. I don't find it much of a stretch that people would witness what happened with Big Anthony. They saw African Americans as less than human, so I guess that's how they rationalized it? This book is very graphic and violent but we (white people who were taught whitewashed/inaccurate American history) need to read this.
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Anita
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Mar 12, 2018 02:57PM
I think the depiction is completely accurate
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I think the part about the guests watching Big Anthony’s torture and death, and the reporter taking notes, was irony. We now watch and report on some horrific things
I highly recommend the book "At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America" by Philip Dray. It deals not with slavery but with the many decades after the Civil War when thousands of black people were murdered and often publicly tortured, as crowds gathered to watch. It's not much of a leap, then, to accept that horrific torture such as that inflicted on Big Anthony in this novel may well have happened to enslaved people.
The scene about Big Anthony was so upsetting it made me want to put down the book and not read it. And that was on top of everything else.
It's been documented that public lynchings were a common occurrence, and people from the town came to watch. I don't find it much of a stretch that people would witness what happened with Big Anthony. They saw African Americans as less than human, so I guess that's how they rationalized it? This book is very graphic and violent but we (white people who were taught whitewashed/inaccurate American history) need to read this.
