The part of the novel’s first 80 pages that stood out the most to me was the piece at the end, when Hominy makes himself the narrator’s slave and forces him to beat him. Hominy’s desire to be beaten, to be a slave, and ultimately the gratitude and relief that he feels during and following being beaten caused (and still do, to a large extent) a great deal of confusion. It did, however, remind me of the part in the Prologue wherein the narrator discusses how a black person at times is freed by the prospect of breaking the law and going to prison. The narrator says that actually doing something wrong “relieves us of the cognitive dissonance of being black and innocent” (18). Do you all think that this is somehow actually a similar situation? That by actually becoming someone’s slave, Hominy is in a way relieving himself of hidden shackles that come with black freedom? If not, can someone/anyone shed some light on Hominy’s motives behind this bizarre act?
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I think you’re idea is very interesting and is most likely involved with Hominy’s desire to receive this punishment, but I also know that Alzheimer’s disease can cause someone to do very irrational things. To me, what’s more shocking about this scene is that the narrator gratifies Hominy’s twisted fantasy even though he is very conscious of Hominy’s condition. The narrator whips Hominy until he is intensely bleeding, perhaps signaling the narrator’s own internal conflict with regard to this master slave dynamic. So in addition to your question about Hominy, I want to raise another question: do people think that in this scene, the narrator expresses some desire to be the master dominating the slave?