3.03.2010
Valedictorian
As the subplot about Richard's valedictorian speech started to unfold, I instantly knew what was going to happen: he was going to deliver his own speech, which would spur some kind of conflict. The end result, however, was most certainly not expected. In retrospect, however, it makes sense; he had been conditioned to blatantly defy conflicts that he himself created. While some may not agree, I think that his flight is analogous to defending himself from Uncle Tom with the razor blades, or other similar situations. It is him allowing a situation to escalate to the point where the only way out is to take extreme measures. When he decides to say his own speech, he is, in a way, trying to fight for justice, but he is also trying to “fight the power”. Although one could say that he should have learned that this would never work when he was much younger, he was fighting a justifiable fight for freedom, even though it was inevitably a losing fight.
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3 comments:
Although I was originally going to disagree with your assertion that he would "defy conflicts that he himself created," I realized that you were right in a sense. Where I had conflict was, through my first reading, it almost came off as an indictment of Wright's actions, but I then realized you never actually made a moral judgement of his actions whether they were right or wrong. I believe that in cases like these Richard was justified in his "fighting the power," though in the South it was not necessarily a wise idea at the time.
Kwame,
I don't know if I agree with your statement that, "He was fighting a justifiable fight for freedom, even though it was inevitably a losing fight," but he did deliver his speech so did he really lose the fight? I think because he delivered his speech anyway made him a winner. He had the courage to stand up for what he believed. Also I don't think that Richard allows the situation to "escalate to the point where the only way out is to take extreme measures." Many of the situations he gets into is because of situations that our out of his control. To me, he seems to be the one to say something right away, unlike many of his peers.
Molly, I completely disagree with your views. The choice of which speech to deliver was the choice of whether or not to fight, and he lost that fight because he ran away, instead of staying to talk afterward. That was his loss; he defeated himself. And in several situations, he does allow situations to escalate; as Seth noted, this is not "an indictment of Wright's actions," because they are sometimes out of his control; he does have the choice, however, to escape the situation by leaving.
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