Book Club #4: C, TBC

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
·         “Or does he weep for himself alone, to be let be, to be let alone, to be free of the merciless rain of questions, why, why, why, when he does not know why. They do not speak with him, they do not jest with him, they do not sit and let him be, but they ask, ask, ask, why, why, why, -his father, he white man, the prison officers, the police, the magistrates, -why, why, why.”	132	·         (R) I’m not exactly sure what Paton was attempting to do with this passage. Does he want the readers to feel sympathetic towards Kumalos son? Because I feel anything but sympathy for Absolom. He stole, abandoned a woman pregnant with his child then shot and killed somebody and wants people to sit around and “jest with him”? He must be out of his mind. It almost seems like the reader was meant not to like him before they were even introduced to him. If this passage was meant to appeal Absolom to the reader, to make it seem like “Oh, he’s caught up in so much stuff, he just needs a break”, then I think the author failed. Miserably.