Explication

Scene: Chapter 5, page 109, “He thought about New Orleans…” to page 110, “…he had done the right thing.” (or maybe longer if more content is needed)

• “He’d [Solon] taken his earnings from the robberies and bought hisself a bus ticket and slept so sound to the music of the wheels…he thought about himself asleep on that Greyhound, and the thought of it was so sweet it almost made him cry.”
  • Perhaps Solon finds comfort in having a place to go; the bus is taking him somewhere and so he is able to sleep soundly
  • Maybe he feels better when he has some amount of luxury or power. In this case he is able to ride on a bus, which gives him feelings of sweetness and love and almost makes him cry. Later in the book we see that when he has money, Dexter’s El Camino, and his Luger, Solon is in a better mood–he went from wanting to kill his entire family to thinking that nobody had to die after all.
  • Does “the music of the wheels” mean anything?
• “It was like he was outside of himself, watching Solon Gregg fall asleep in his seat…it didn’t seem possible that he was who he was, the robber and killer and wife beater.”
•  ”Confession makes the heart grow fonder, as his crazy wife used to say.”
  • Fond-feeling love, affection, or preference for somebody or something
  • What is the meaning of the sentence; why was it used?

 Obviously my analysis is weak and lacking details. I have hardly covered any of the passage but I do not have any more time right now. I’ll have to finish later today.

Chapter 6 of Nordan’s Wolf Whistle

Several things throughout chapter 6 caught my attention during my intital reading. First of all, I noticed that as Solon and Dexter were driving in the El Camino, they were listening to WOKJ, which was the colored station in Jackson. I found this to be a bit ironic, considering the two were on their way to get Bobo and kill him. I also noticed that Solon was suddenly in happy spirits–he was “looking good” and “feeling fine.” He even thought that there was no need to kill anybody after all, which is the extreme opposite of how he felt in the previous chapter. In chapter 5 he was at the Arrow Hotel contemplating suicide and wishing he could kill his entire family. He even dreamed about it and believed he would be doing them all a favor. However, as he was driving in the El Camino, dressed in Dexter’s nice clothing and carrying Dexter’s gun, he suddenly felt that nobody needed to die. Having some money and possessions (such as new clothes and the car) completely changed Solon’s attitude. He believed he was God; in fact, he was better than God. All of this demonstrated that if you give Solon a little bit of power, he will blow it all out of proportion. A third thing that caught my attention came when Solon arrived at Bobo’s house and took him. It seemed odd to me that Bobo’s aunt and uncle did not put up any fight to prevent Solon from leaving with Bobo. It seemed to me that the aunt and uncle had accepted the fact that there was nothing they could do about the situation. It was almost as if this was expected to happen. When I think about it though, I realize that there really wasn’t anything that could be done because they were black.

Several scenes in the chapter were rather innocent and loving, making them seem out of place compared to the violence that was occuring. These scenes include the conversation between Solon and Hydro about Hydro and his father (his father said, “I love you, my darling son, don’t ever leave me, without you my life has no meaning.”) and the love making between Auntee and Uncle.