School Violence

Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat by Russell Banks enjoy some similarities with Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway, but there are some distinct differences between the two stories. Both stories involve a male and female main character with sexual topics, but I believe that the similarities end there. Russell Banks is able to separate himself from Hemingway through the more in-depth descriptions that he offers. For example, Hills Like White Elephants opens with “The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white.” The descriptions offered by Banks were not as simple and actually allowed me to actually get an image in my head. An example of Banks’ in-depth description was when he characterized the woman as “Her long, honey blond hair swung from side to side across her tanned shoulders as she walked down the lane to the beach…” I found that the better descriptions brought me in closer to the story as a reader.
The main action of the Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat ironically takes place in the green rowboat as the title suggests. One element that I noticed before the two went out to the rowboat was that the man was described as “a young black man with a fishing rod…” Banks never identifies anyone else by their skin color, but I think that this reference was done to single out the race of the man. During the conversation in the boat, the woman never actually says the specific words to what is going on in their relationship. From reading the clues specifically “I’m already putting on weight”, “I told Mother”, and “I’m going to do it. Mother’s coming with me. She called and set it up this morning.” These context clues pointed me to the opinion that the woman is pregnant with the man’s child and that she is going to have an abortion. The woman never asks the opinion of the man and does not seem to care when he says, “I hate this whole thing.” I don’t think the woman really cares about the man and does not value his