Tom Wolfe
“A Man In Full”, by Tom Wolfe is an extremely racist book. Agree, disagree, why?
I mean, I’ve read it 3 times straight through, and I am stymied here. It’s one of three things: A) He’s extremely racist, or the main character is; B) He’s playing on the audience’s sense of stereotypes, showing them for what they are; or C) He knows the stereotypes and is giving his audience what he thinks they want. Other options? I can’t imagine that an author of his stature would be that blatant, but maybe he can “get away with it” because of that stature? Or am I just being stupid here? If you’ve read it at all, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Thanks all!
I disagree. His characters are racists, some of them. It’s a theme he explores often. Read any of his other work?
He also seems to share my opinion that stereotypes exist because there are people within each stereotyped group who exemplify the stereotype. There’s nothing wrong with creating a character who matches a stereotype when there are living human beings who match just as much.
The Word According to Tom Wolfe
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