The Importance Of Prejudice In Tom Franklin's 'Crooked Letter'

Register to read the introduction… At thirteen, Silas and his mother Alice are living with her boyfriend of almost seven years on the south side of Chicago, when circumstances force them to leave. This is the only long-term father figure in Silas' life, and he makes it clear to Silas that if it "were not for his mother ... Silas would be in the street" (Franklin 101). The men his mother dates treat him poorly when they acknowledged him at all. Because of the treatment he receives from his mother’s boyfriends, short term and long term, Silas realizes that when men look at his beautiful mother, "the last thing the want in the bargain is a kid" (Franklin 101). As Silas realizes that men view him as an obstacle to be navigated, he develops an inner anger. He exhibits spitefulness toward his mother. The attitude that Silas develops creates problems for his mother. Because the father figures in Silas' life make him feel that he was an inconvenience to his mother, he feels that she will be better off without him. He believes that there are times that he is standing in the way of his mother "doing whatever" she needs to do to survive (Franklin 106). This misdirected guilt builds until Silas jumps from the back of a pickup and tries to run away from his mother while they are traveling to Mississippi (Franklin 106). The interactions that he has with his father figure are pivotal in developing a flight …show more content…
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is an intense story of murder and mystery. Through the novel, Franklin gives many examples of prejudice in childhood by father figures. He shows in the lives of two men from Southern Mississippi that the prejudicial treatments affect the choices a person makes and what type of person they become.

Works Cited
Behe, Rege. “’Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter’ Transcends Place, Genre.” Rev. of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, by Tom Franklin. Pittsburgh Tribune 14 Nov. 2010: N. pag. Pittsburg Live.com. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.
Chin, Jean Lau, ed. The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination. Rev. ed. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2010. Print.
Franklin, Tom. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. 1st ed. New York: William Morrow-Harper Collins, 2010. Print.
“Unlikely Friends Color Novel’s Deep South.” Interview. Weekend Edition Sunday 3 Oct. 2010. Literature Resource Center. Web. 13 Mar. 2012.
Young-Bruehl, Elisabeth. The Anatomy of Prejudices. ed. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1998.