In the second part of the book, black abundance, readers can see Laymon’s character development. We see his development as a writer when he began to use writing as a way to make sense of his life and what is going on around him. As he is revising, he is forced to sit down and reflect on those events.
Laymon is constantly surrounded by social expectations. As a black person in a predominately white private school, teachers and students expected him to be dumb. Laymon and his black friends would play into this by making up contractions and purposely saying them out loud. Laymon also faces social expectations as a black man to date a black girl instead of a white girl. His relationship with Abby Claremont was disapproved on both sides of the family and most likely race. It was interesting to see that Laymon was called a “sellout” by his friend as if his race was defined by who he dates and how he acts. Similarly, Taulsan also struggles with her social expectations as a male. As mentioned in Kevin’s Post on gender expectations, Taulsan was expected to be masculine. Hence, she would work out in the gym to have that idealized muscular body shape. Both Laymon and Taulsan tried to follow their social expectations but they are miserable as a result.
Hi Yingrong!
It sounds like in this section, Laymon begins to use writing as a way to process what is going on in his life. I see that Laymon faces pressure from his mother and his friend as a result of dating a white girl. It is disturbing that his mother has to try to “minimize her beating,” instead of being able to eliminate her physical violence altogether. The fact that she reacts violently to Laymon dating Abby is especially concerning, as he doesn’t seem to be receiving support from his friends, either.
I love the quote you chose to include at the top, and I’m curious about the context. While in writing, you can erase and start over easily, the same is not necessarily true in life. What parts of Laymon’s life does he wish he could revise?
Hello, Yingrong
Kiese Laymon in this section of the book starts to use writing as an outlet to give himself a voice while simultaneously processing the events occuring. Laymon’s vulnerability is demonstrated several times for instance when revealing the details regarding the intimate relationship with his white girlfriend. Additionally we continue to see how the abusive relationship between Laymon and his mother remains unchanged. I liked the beginning of your last paragraph in which you emphasized on how “Laymon’s mother is also trying to be a better mother”. By including this I felt despite her being portrayed as a monster she still is a human being we feel sympathy for.