Separate Pasts Analysis Essay Example

well as physically. This desire for her showed McLaurin that Betty Jo was just like the white girls that he had previously dated. This section of McLaurin’s book shows the complexities of interracial sexual relationships and fantasies. Another memory that McLaurin recalls upon is an event that involves Vinny Love, a black single mother in need of aid, and his grandfather.

Vinny Love had come to McLaurin’s grandfather asking for help in order to get on welfare to aid her ailing son. McLaurin’s grandfather calls upon Wilson at the welfare office to go to Vinny Love. Wilson visits Vinny Love but he does not immediately help her. When Vinny Love goes back to the store McLaurin’s grandfather is enraged that Wilson had not followed his orders. McLaurin’s grandfather then sees to it that Vinny Love and her mentally ill child are helped. In this section of “Separate Pasts” McLaurin is greatly excited and inspired by his grandfather’s willingness to help Vinny Love.

However, McLaurin soon realizes that his grandfather was so willing to help because his orders were questioned. Thus, McLaurin’s grandfather was merely saving his reputation rather than wholeheartedly helping Vinny Love’s cause. However in the end, no matter what McLaurin’s grandfather’s motives were, Vinny Love receives the help she is needed. The last people McLaurin writes about are Jerry and Miss Carrie. McLaurin describes them as Wade’s most interesting couple. Miss Carrie is a retired schoolteacher and Jerry picks up odd jobs in Wade.

McLaurin seems to highly respect the couple and consider them more than just another black family. McLaurin explains that he has never entered the house of a black family until one evening

at Jerry and Miss Carrie’s home. Miss Carrie invites McLaurin in for a slice of pie. Upon his entry into the house, he is fled with emotions of guilt. McLaurin realizes that he had no idea how black families lived and was appalled by how little Jerry and Miss Carrie had. In this last section of the book McLaurin finally realizes that even a respected black couple in Wade can be poor.

This realization helps him empathize with the black community. In the book “Separate Pasts” McLaurin writes about his youth in Wade. He writes of black people who have shaped his views of the black community. He writes of the first experience of racism with his black friend, his sexual fantasies he has of black women, and of the sudden empathy he feels when faced with the black plight of poverty. All of these experiences help shape McLaurin into the man he is and help him understand the segregated community of Wade, North Carolina.