Fever | Fever as a Metaphor for Racism
In the following essay, the author explores Wideman’s use of the fever as a metaphor for racism.
Wideman calls ‘‘Fever’’ a meditation on history. Using the powerful and disturbing metaphor of plague or fever for racism and hatred, Wideman moves through history and brings together voices from the 18th to the late 20th centuries. He meditates on history, or past events, but also on history as the means by which human beings record and pass on knowledge. His commentary is as much about the process of history as it is about the events.
In the story’s powerful opening paragraph, readers are introduced to the first of several unnamed characters. This paragraph is not...
[The entire page is 1423 words long]
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