loving Rena

Okay, so I was thinking about my comment the other day in class. When I had more time to sit with it, I think I realized that the way I said it seemed to be blaming Frank. That wasn’t my intention at all. I wanted to come at the problem from the angle of how the character of Rena was acted upon by everyone else. And I don’t mean to come off as cynical or untouched by Chesnutt’s portrayal of Frank. In fact, I thought that Frank was a kind character and some of his innermonologue was moving. However, I don’t think Rena had enough agency to be loved. Okay, that sounds weird. What I mean is that it seems like Rena is acting out an identiy that was given to her by the situations of her physical person and her town. For example, she looks white but everyone in the town thinks of her as black. And she is extraordinarily beautiful. Because of these traits, she is looked at by older white men as a lust object. (an object of lust because she is black and white men wouldn’t consider her to be of marriageable standards) As a result of these circumstances Rena must always be careful of her beauty. She walks timidly (John tells us this in the beginning of the book) and doesn’t leave the house behind the cedars frequently but it’s hard not to think that in any other circumstances Rena might be a precocious girl. But I guess the point of all of this was to say that Frank doesn’t really know Rena. He only knows an oppressed young woman who has learned to live in a post-Civil War, racist world.