/lit/ - Literature

>>18432834
Here we see Eastman’s analysis of American class and race relations. Notice the visual portrayal of the dogs. The pages I’ve included show interactions between dogs of different sizes and colors. In the illustration of the doghouse, we see a large, blue pitbull preventing small, red wiener dog from entering the doghouse. This clearly portrays inequality between the races. Eastman wants the reader to believe that the success of the blue dog, and the plight of the red dog, is due to physical differences. The blue dog is a stronger, more violent breed. While the red dog is of a weaker, comical stock. At first glance, the author is saying racial hierarchies exist because of biological differences, but further reading paints a different picture.

Observe the two white dogs. Same color, same breed, but a different size. The small dog struggling to pull the chair of a large dog. A pointless task; the large dog is clearly healthy and contributes nothing to this arrangement. It would seem that the task itself only exists to provide the large dog pleasure by depriving it from another. Clearly, this can only depict class conflict. The dogs are not separated by biology; they are the same coat and breed. The size difference is alludes to the difference in power. The larger having sway over the smaller.

The third picture, where a blue dog looks down upon a group of red dogs, is where Eastman tells the reader where these hierarchies of race come from. The dogs in this picture are the same breed and size, but different colors. The red dogs happily play in the water while the blue dog watches on. The red dogs don’t play in a pool, this is a natural body of water. The act of playing in natural bodies of water, by the 60’s, had been relegated as an activity to those who couldn’t access public and private pools; usually the rural and poor. The blue dog watches from atop a two story house. Despite being the same size, and therefore of relatively equal power, they are separated by activity. The blue dog in his fancy house and the red dogs in there swimming. Eastman is trying to tell the reader that race is a product of class division, and that class is the main root of division and isolation between people. It’s no accident that he watches from the roof through a telescope. It shows how class has distanced the races from each other despite being physically close together.

What’s really interesting is that in the first two images, the larger dogs refuse to even look at their subordinates. They refuse to even acknowledge their existence in their world even while directly interacting with them. But the blue dog is solely focused on the red dogs in the water. At first, I thought this was an allusion to white flight; the dog is hyper vigilant that inferior breeds will move in. But the blue dog is wearing a sailor hat. That means he wants to join the red dogs in their frivolity. He has received luxury from this division, but it has wounded him.