No Longer What People Expect
Even in a short story, it is seen that a character can take
on a new role or identity. They undergo a change that develops them, if only in
a short amount of time, that will greatly define them as a character. One of
the stories I read out of my book Places I Never Meant to Be, a
collection of banned short stories was Spear
by Julius Lester. In the beginning of this story, you are presented with your
typical American public school. There is a strong influence of African
Americans dominating the white portion of the class with close family and
friendship bonds making them all a very close-knit community. Within the
progression of the story, Spear is challenged with the unexpected falling in
love with the plain white girl Norma, in his Afro-American History class. There
would not be a problem with this if his father had not been a leader in
anti-white speeches who was killed for being so. After telling his mother she
reminds him of where he comes from and that this would not be acceptable to his
father. Everything his father had worked toward would be ignored by his love
for Norma. He is challenged with not only going against everything his father
was for, but what the community makes of him because of what his father did.
You see that during the story he already looses respect from his peers from
simply talking to her and being nice to her. The major change that occurs is
that even though he does not get the girl he is in love with (She moves schools
and they never see each other again. They only get brief phone calls to one
another late at night.) He goes by his real name, Adrian, rather then Spear-
the nickname given to him by the community after his fathers name Black Spear.
He learns to stand up for what he wants and not for what people expect of him. 