A Character Study of Jesse (Book Review Sample)

A Character Study of Jesse
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Abstract
The Book “Going to Meet the Man” is an anti-racism book published in 1965. This book written by James Baldwin is in the setting of ancient America. The book relates well with African Americans and even Jewish-Americans to a certain extent. The speech incorporated in this 20th century book is naughty and offensive. This gives the reader a clear description of the ancient ways of the society of America. The book has a collection of eight short stories. Amongst the short stories are “Going to Meet the Man” This based on the life of a town sheriff Jesse.
Plot
Jesse is the town sheriff of a small Southern City. It is clear, in the olden times, a small gathering of people living harmoniously could form a city. This was in the case of this Southern City. The author describes that Jesse is a white man living in this area. The sheriff is lying in bed with his wife. He desires to make love to her, but he cannot get himself to get an erection. The author describes Jesse to be a person with a problem. This problem is common in the 21st Century, however, in the mid-twentieth century it was not. The sheriff tries to set up images and pictures of how he enjoys having sex with black women. This does not help in any way as Jesse cannot “rise to the occasion”. This is the terminology used to describe the inability to get an erection (Baldwin, 1965).
Jesse nudges his wife who is dozing off to sleep and tries to get her in the mood for sex. She is not awake but manages to moan softly that she can wake up. However, Jesse’s mind drifts to a part where he thinks of the black community. He thinks of degrading and offensive words when he wants to describe the nature or behavior of black people (Baldwin, 1965). Even in his description of the black woman, Jesse thinks of her as a sex toy. He thinks of the way he would want to have rough sex with his wife just the way he enjoys the black woman.
It is, however, useless as he cannot contain his sexual thoughts. Jesse is thinking of one thing after another. This makes his mind be at sixes and sevens. The author tells us so maybe as a reason as to why Jesse cannot make himself be fully erect. Probably he has a lot of problems he is going through that the author does not tell. His mind is probably too focused on the degrading names that he is calling black people that he does not maintain the mood for sex. Jesse continues to think as he tries to pass the night (Baldwin, 1965).
As he languishes in his thoughts, Jesse hears a car driven past his house on the gravel ground. This does not distract him as he continues with his thoughts. He thinks of what a good and fair sheriff he is. He believes that all the actions he does for the citizens are what they expect of him. The town and his racist thoughts cloud his mind. He is no longer thinking of sex or his imagined pornographic images. Going by what the author has described to us, Jesse is a racist but does not know it.
He calls out to his wife and begins to tell her a story. This time, he wants to tell a racist story of Big Jim C. the man tries to make group of black men singing to keep it quiet. The story is filled with racist events. Almost immediately, Jesse’s mind wanders off to his childhood memories. His parents took him to a place where black people are tortured to death. His very first view of this horrific event was when a black man accused of trying to flee, was hanged from a tree. The hands of this certain black man are chained above his head and a fire placed under his feet. Numerous people would watch the horror event (Baldwin, 1965).
Character Description
In this story, Jesse is the main character. He is or main focus as the story revolves around him. It starts off with his inability to get an erection. This shows the readers the problems that the character faces. He desires to have sex with his wife , but the images in his head cannot allow him to maintain an erection. Without a peek at his background and his childhood one would say that Jesse is queer (Campbell, 2005). The first description that comes to mind while reading this story is a sex maniac. The main character Jesse is a sex maniac as he thinks of all possible things to do to get an erection. He would like to have rough sex with his wife. He thinks of the way he enjoys having rough sex with black women.
This brings us to the second description. Jesse is unfaithful as he imagines of the rough sex with the black women of the city. Jesse does not have sex with only his wife as it should be in marriage. He wants to have sex with all other women. He tries to think of experiences with other women in order to get into the mood for sex. This shows that Jesse is no longer attracted to his wife and only the thought of other women can make him get an erection (Monroe, 2006).
The third description of Jesse’s character is racist. Jesse lies in bed and lets his thoughts roam. He thinks of the black wom...