Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Guess Who's Coming for Dinner
This short story entails a family man named Larry, who finds himself in a controversial situation. Larry comes from an Irish background and thinks his family is perfect until a certain situation comes upon him. His daughter Stephanie wants to date/bring home a black man and he doesn't necessarily approve. Larry's family frowns upon the idea that he isn't accepting of Stephanie's new crush and call him a "bigot". Larry doesn't approve of the interracial relationship but claims he isn't a racist. He goes on too prove why is this and makes a couple of interesting points. This isn't the complete story but it sparks a question. Is it racist if Larry doesn't approve of the interracial relationship his daughter is having? This is not something that only happens in the book but in real life as well. For an example ever since I was young my dad always said I would marry a beautiful arabic woman. Obviously now that I am older he mind who I married as long as I was in love. My dad might not see eye to eye at first, but my happiness would make up for all his doubts. What also must be accounted for is the old, conservative mentality. Maybe where Larry was brought up it interracial relationships werent common. The saying goes "People fear the unknown". Maybe now Larry's daughters will educate him more and his perspective black people will change. I guess this still doesnt answer the question, but maybe you guys can. Is Larry a racist? yes/no?
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I don't think Larry is a racist. I think he just knows what his daughters show him. He isn't used to seeing people that are a different race than him. Also, he thinks he knows his daughters like the back of his hand, so when his daughter starts talking about a black guy, he automatically gets surprised. This is isn't what he is used to so he reacts a certain way. In the end, he ends up wanting the guy to be his son in law. His perspective changes a great deal when he hears about the guys sister and how they took her. Getting an insight at his life, changes his perspective.
ReplyDeleteI don't see Larry as a racist, he is just scared of what he doesn't know. Like Samer said about people fearing the unknown, Larrry gets all worked up for basically nothing. After he hear's that a black man is coming, he starts to bug out and make ridiculous accusations. Such include calling him a criminal from scarface and saying that he has AIDS because all people from Africa have AIDS. Larry just lets his mind fill up with every bad stereotype he knows about black people. He would probably do the same thing for a chinese guy or an india guy.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Larry is a racist. He has never met a black man before so he is not sure what to expect. Single stories about black people have already formed in his mind and as we all know, single stories are hard to break. Eventually, Larry approves of Ben and decides that Ben is in fact a decent guy. We know Larry isn't a racist when he gets disappointed after finding out Ben is nothing more than his daughter's friend. Meeting Ben has definitely changed Larry's single story about black people.
ReplyDeleteI also don't think Larry is racist. He only has rumors surrounding him and feeding false information to his brain. He does try to prevent himself from thinking of blacks in a pessimistic view by giving examples of black people he admires. He later on finds out that Ben is actually great guy; nothing like what Larry imagined. I think Larry was just scared for his daughter, and the only thing running through his mind was the countless stories that people had made up. After actually getting to know Ben, Larry discovers that Ben is a genuine guy, and that Larry would like to have him in their family.
ReplyDeleteI think like many others that one should not jump to conclusions before analyzing details. In "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," Larry is depicted as racist when in fact he is not. I believe he's just scared of an "outsider" coming into his life and stealing his daughter away, but like many people Larry was quick to conclude that his daughter and this man, Ben had something more than a friendship. What should have come to Larry as a relief was more of a disappointment when he found out he was not going to be Ben's father-in-law. The somewhat contradiction depicted in this is funny because Larry was nagging that he did not want this man near his daughter, but by the end he wants to become friends with him and in fact does truly want to be his father in law. However, I can say karma made its visit when Larry failed to accept people for who they truly are.
ReplyDeleteLike everyone else said, I do not believe that Larry is racist, I just think he has a "fear of the unknown", which was stated in the orginal post. I do not think he has ever had to face this issue directly before, so when it suddenly pops up he does not seem to know what to do. As the story progresses we begin to see that Larry has actually has a deep respect for the guest, and he actually ends up liking him. I believe this ultimately proves that Larry was not a racist, just a confused, concerned father.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe Larry is a racist. He does not dislike black people; he is only affected by the stereotypes put on them by other people. I think Larry is just doing his part like any other father would, although he acts a little more apprehensive towards the fact that a black man is dating his daughter. On page 9, it depicts that Larry is scared of what he doesn't know, when he thinks about Nigeria as a place surrounded by AIDS and war and that Ben could possibly be bringing this into his house. In the end, we see that Larry was not a racist because he ends up liking Ben, but to his dismay, he finds out Ben was not dating his daughter.
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ReplyDeleteAs already stated, I also do not believe that Larry is a racist. Larry had never been around a different race, and so he did not know what to expect. In the short story it says that Larry did not even know what to think of someone from a different race because he had never been exposed to it before. Since he did not know anything about this man, Larry was worried about who he thought his daughter wanted to marry, which did not even end up being the case. At the end of the story, we see that Larry actually does like Ben and respects him.
I don't think that Larry is a racist. I just think that he wanted his daughter to be with someone from their race. Larry had a perception about people from Nigeria and these perceptions were single stories. Its kind of ironic how in the beginning he is upset that his daughter has brought Ben home because he has all these ideas about Ben and Nigeria and AIDS and in the end he winds up having a different view on Ben and actually having respect for him.
ReplyDeleteI agree that people can sometimes fear the unknown, and that definitely plays into his hesitation. I don't think Larry is a racist. He is just closed-minded, which ties back to his fear of the unknown. Since Larry states that his daughters bring the world to the house, it is easy to see how he has never experienced anything of this sort before. Most of the people who make racially incorrect, oblivious, or offensive comments seem to be the ones who know the least about them.
ReplyDeleteWorried and unsure in the beginning but pretty much inlove with the guy by the end of the story. Shows that you shouldn't judge someone before meeting them and getting to know them.
ReplyDeleteLarry lives a life of isolation he lives life vicariously through TV Shows. He lives a very stereotypical life, he had never seen a black man as they are not usually seen on Irish television. He learns to let the outside world in as he gets to know his guest better. He eventually realizes that his daughters have great judgement and that if he learns to accept their decisions he can benefit. Ultimately he sheds his preconceived notions and grows as a man by learning to see people for their moral fiber and not pigmentation.
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