Wednesday, January 15, 2014
King chooses to make Marshall an everyman - Chris
King, as any other talented story teller, brings the reader eye to eye with the narrative, in this case Thurgood Marshall's. Marshall, who history has painted as this pristine almost immaculate icon of civil rights, is trimmed down into a man with a wife, who lives in an apartment and goes to work every day. Sure, that work was groundbreaking and social norm shattering and that is what makes Marshall so admirable even generations later but it is this subtle humanization on King's part that gives him another dimension. His bare and everyday language also help to dramatize the reality that surrounded Marshall on his trips to the south. As he describes Thurgood's abduction and the threat of lynching, the story strikes an eerie chord of reality with the reader. Having already connected with Marshall on a human level the very real possibility of his death shakes the reader even more than it might. The key to King's language is his ability to make Marshall a two sided man, an average joe, and a maverick civil rights lawyer. The combination of the two is what makes King's portrayal of him so engaging.
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I agree that Gilbert King made a conscious decision to represent Marshall as an Everyman in “Devil in the Grove.” King goes about doing this early on in the book by making Marshall a relatable character. He primarily does this in the early chapters “Sugar Hill” and “Nigger in a Pit,” where he places a lot of emphasis on Marshall’s characterization. Gilbert King primarily relies on sympathy, admiration, and humor as emotional tactics to establish a relatable connection to Marshall. When Marshall contracts an incurable disease and has to stay at the Harlem Hospital, King makes Marshall appear more relatable through sympathy. When Marshall is abducted by cops and taken towards “Duck River”, he shows remarkable confidence, making Marshall relatable through admiration. When Marshall is working at the NAACP, he uses humor to lighten the mood, which makes him more relatable as well. All these factors converge to make Marshall a relatable character, setting the stage for him to become an everyman.
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