Blues Ain't Like Mine

The character of Lily in Bebe Moore Campbell's novel Your Blues Ain't Like Mine plays a central role in the process of intolerance that takes the life of a black teenager, Armstrong Todd. Lily is not an especially intolerant person herself, although she has been raised in a culture and an area where intolerance reigns. She is white and uneducated, as many intolerant racists are, but she is more the victim of her intolerant sexist husband than an intolerant racist herself. However, she is in a culture which sooner or later forces every person to take a stand for or against intolerance. Ironically, it is because she is deprived by her socioeconomic position in society and by her sexist husband that shed is put in the position that leads to the boy's tragic murder.

Of course, this is not to say that Lily is responsible in any way for Armstrong's death. At the same time, she herself feels her part in the slaying, however indirect, for it is suggested that it is a "shadow on her soul" (Campbell 9). It is far more the society as a whole that is at fault, although, of course, the individuals directly responsible for Armstrong's death are morally and legally responsible for making the decisions that led to his death. This is true whether they were found guilty by the justice system or not. Still, because the society of the South in the mid-20th Century is so full of intolerance, even a person like Lily, who is not especially intolerant, becomes a tool of intolerance because of her

Related Essays

Books on African Americans .... The atmosphere in Your Blues Ain't Like Mine is that of the young man from the urban region of the North, a region where people have moved from the travails of .... (4228 17 )

Joe Turner's Come and Gone .... I ....'t gonna let nobody bind me up!" (Wilson 91). .... the African self can members of the Black community, like Loomis, reconcile .... The Walking Blues." Black Scholar .... (1270 5 )

Racism & Sexism in Novels of Black Women Writers .... do when they tear the pages out of the book and they ....'t no record .... All those blues feelings .... convent, and the baby is taken away from her: "I didn't even see .... (11025 44 )

Flannery O'Connor .... Since the Misfit's savagery doesn't feel exactly realistic, he must stand for .... "Nome, I ....'ta good .... "Blues to Be There." PEN America: A Journal for Writers and .... (1123 4 )

In Flannery O'Connor .... Since the Misfit's savagery doesn't feel exactly realistic, he must stand for .... "Nome, I ....'ta good .... "Blues to Be There." PEN America: A Journal for Writers and .... (1123 4 )

Category: Literature - B