Big Boy - Racism Essay

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several times, as he jumps in he yells out “ LAS ONE INS A OL DEAD DOG!” “THAS YO MA!” “THAS YO PA” “THAS BOTH YO MA N YO PA” (P.26).” The irony here correlates because Lester and Buck end up dying. Lester and Buck end up getting shot by the White man which is what they had feared in the beginning, they knew that entering the swimming hole was not a good idea but they did anyways. While they are swimming the boys jokingly think about what could possibly happen to them if they were to get caught. They figured nothing would happen because they believed Mr.Harvery is to old to worry about them. Big Boy brushes off the topic and believes they are safe since they had gotten far. As time passes a white lady appears and starts screaming in fear her husband’s name, “Jim” louder and louder. The children get afraid and are unsure of what to do because they did not expect this to happen to them. As her husband Jim comes to the scene, he ends up shooting both Lester and Buck out of fear, as Buck and Bobo then began to fight for their lives, Big Boy ends up murdering Jim, which causes the problems they were trying to avoid. Murdering the white man was not the smartest thing for Big Boy to do but he had to do whatever it would take to save his life. Being that racism was prevalent at the time this was not going to have a great outcome, as Big Boy realizes he had committed a serious crime he attempts to figure out what he should do. Ironically the White mob burns down Big Boys house attempting to kill his family, mainly both his mother and father.

While Big Boy is hiding from the mob, he kills one of the hound dogs that have found him in the hole. He pushed all his weight on the dog’s throat. The dog heaved again, and then laid still. (p.59). Big Boy’s survival is important because he understood he didn’t make the best descision from killing Jim Harvey. The reference to the dog is important because

While hiding in the hole Big boy was afraid, this is because he knew that whites were dominant in the south. As the night swiftly passes and he reminisces on how earlier that day him and his friends sat around joking about going up North to be equal, he will be going up North too but first all he has to do is stay alive until the morning. There are many ironies throughout the story, and some appear more often than others. It is ironic how one incident caused a situation to escalate, but at this time black people didn’t have to commit some outrageous capital offense in order to be lynched or face some other type of violence, as a result of racism. This story shows how violence bred violence within blacks in the South.