the story of tom brennan

Racism is explored through Charlie’s perception of the town’s bigoted treatment towards the Lu family. Charlie, through the first person narrating as the main character acts as the proxy, where his analysis of the situation guides our moral response. Sue Findlay “slapped the cup [of hot tea] right into [Mrs Lu’s] chest jabbing her finger,” represents the strong sense of discrimination and the act of superiority that certain town members felt towards the Lu family. “He’s probably killed that young girl, go back to Hanoi, rats” is another discriminatory quote directed towards the Lu family, as “Jeffrey of coarse is resilient and impressive, but occasionally hit in the chest or shoulder, followed by a thrilled roar and an exchange of money or something valuable” representing that Jeffrey is regarded as a “puppy crossing a busy road.” Charlie begins to realise what cruelness people are capable of as he quotes “I look at the bastard coach. How he stands, how he intermittently pinches at his dick and shifts his weight. How his dark rodent eyes lazily survey this pack of boorish bullies. How his nubby fingers scissor his cigarette. And I think: if he can watch this with a thin grin, what else could he watch? What other cruel things could be viewed without intervening,” he wonders how people can be so complicit with unspeakable acts of cruelty and violence. This allows the reader to feel sympathy and compassion towards certain characters, bringing light to the towns racism where it is strongly visible through ruminations that these incidents of bigotry discrimination affect Charlie greatly.