Blog 5

The novels Incognegro and Monster compare to each other because they both demonstrate race priviledge. In Monster, Steve is a young Afican American boy who is on trial for accomplicing to a robbery homicide. In this novel, it just shows that even if Steve was just going to the drugstore for some mints, that he has been accused of committing a crime he did not participate in. This demonstrates priviledge because it would be easier to remember the perpetrator if he was colored than if he was white. In Incognegro, it was a lot simpler to notice priviledge because the entire novel is based off of white priviledge in the South. If a white person claimed they were hurt or killed by black person ( this claim can be false), then the black person they have accused would be avenged even if they are innocent. People in the South, took longer to abolish slavery, and were never ashamed to innocently accuse a black person for a crime. In Incognegro, Zane Pinchback's brother was accused of murdering his white girlfriend. The novel resulted in his girlfriend being alive, and the dead white girl was the sheriff's deputy. In the end, the sheriff new all along that Zane's brother was being held innocently, but he never spoke a word of his innocence becuase people in the South forced themselves to believe that colored people were not human and that white people were the best.

Monster

One of the main themes in Monster that Steve Harmon has to deal with is identity. Steve constantly struggles with how he sees himself: whether or not he is like the others involved in the robbery homicide, or if he is different from them. This struggle for identity contributes to the story because Steve and his attorney, O'Brien, try to convince the jury that he is not anything like Bobo Evans, Osvaldo Cruz, and James King. I think that this is very important to the story because Steve is trying to decide if he fits the stereotype of being a monster, when in his mind he has not done anything wrong and should not be on trial for this crime. But slowly the reader witnesses how Steve and his attorney  start to believe that he is just as much as a monster as the other guys are even though he did not take the money or pull the trigger of the gun that killed Mr. Nesbitt. I think that at least one point in everyone's life, we all struggle with finding our true identities, but it can be difficult to really be able to allow yourself to discover who you really are. It can be difficult because some people might think that they have to fit a certain image or stereotype. Which is why I think that Steve had such a hard time finding himself because he has to fit the mold for being a black teenage boy on trial living in Harlem, NY; which unfortunately, causes him to work harder to convince the jury that he does not fit that stereotype for the crime that occured.