Perception

Daniel brought up many excellent points in the previous blog, "What is an Artificial Nigger," and he asks about the significance of the statue.

My feeling is that it symbolizes the disconnect between Mr. Head and what's happening in the city. He speaks with "authority" because he's made a few trips to the city, but really he's lived a secluded life in the country. For him, it's easy to use a word like "nigger" because he doesn't have any real experience with black people, as far as we can tell. His line to Nelson on page 213, "A six-month-old child don't know a nigger from anybody else," seems meant to overcompensate for his own lack of knowledge/experience in the city. (In a backward way, it also makes a point in favor of tolerance, that discrimination is nurtured, not innate.)

Mr. Head's understanding of black people comes from an image in his mind, and the statue is itself an image. It doesn't talk back, like the servants on the train. It doesn't give directions. It doesn't get hurt when you run into it. Interacting with black people, especially in their neighborhood, not his, is shattering Mr. Head's image, and he's terrified of this. He's so terrified that he cowardly denies his own son.

As the story progresses, his one desire is to get back to the confines of his own familiar territory. And, we can presume, back to the comfort of his stereotypes that won't be challenged in his rural home.