White Rat (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Gayl Jones
- First Published: 1977
- Type of Plot: Psychological
- Time of Work: The 1970's
- Setting: Kentucky
- Principal Characters: White Rat, Maggie, Little Henry, J. T., Cousin Willie, Grandy
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: African Americans, Discrimination, 1970’s, Husbands, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Wives, Twentieth century, Guilt, Domestic violence, Adultery, Truthfulness and falsehood, Disabilities or physically challenged persons, Kentucky
- Locales: Kentucky
The Story
“White Rat,” a first-person account by White Rat, a light-skinned African American man, begins in the present, then switches to the narrator's experiences of “passing” as white, even when he does not want to, and then returns to the present.
When the story begins, Cousin Willie tells White Rat where he can find Maggie, who has run off with J. T.; and White Rat goes to get his wife. When they get home, Maggie kisses little Henry, her three-and-a-half-year-old clubfooted son, and fixes dinner. She says she is pregnant, and White Rat offers to give his...
[The entire page is 1397 words long]
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