lack woman dependent on an abusive white male.
Ruth thinks to herself: "She could not help feeling that he treated her this way because of her color, because she was a colored girl" (Baldwin, "Come," 198). And there is no doubt that he holds her in contempt: "You know," he says to her when she praises his paintings, "you aren't very bright. . . . Thank heaven. I hate bright women" (Baldwin, "Come," 200). She is sure, based on his mistreatment of her, that he is at any moment going to leave her. She is as anxious as a slave who is dependent on the owner she fears and yet fears also that he will sell her at any moment to another owner.
Always, she is of two minds toward him, "shrinking from him" yet "flowing toward him too" (Baldwin, "Come," 202). She hates herself for being black in terms of blaming her color for his abuse of her, but because of her self-contempt she puts up with his contempt for her, believing that she deserves nothing better. Because of a sexual incident in her past when her father called her "black and dirty" (Baldwin, "Come," 208), she carries a guilt within her from which she believes love should release her. However, "Paul's touch would never release her. He had power over her not because she was free but because she was guilty.
The loneliest place under heaven was in Paul's arms" (Baldwin, "Come," 215).
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