Please post your comments about the first half of this book below. Consider examining both the characters and plot lines and what they tell us about southern identity and history.
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About Me
- Dr. Justin Nystrom
- I am a member of the history department at Loyola University New Orleans
While looking into Tee Bobby Hulin's being wrongly accused of the rape and murder of a white girl, Detective Robicheaux finds out about the rape of Hulin's grandmother by a white plantation landowner back in the '50s. To what extent does the Hulin family's history of rape and wrongful victimization reflect the legacy of sexual and racial exploitation in the 20th-century South?
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ReplyDeleteIn James Lee Burke's novel, "Jolie Blon's Bounce,” we remain in this idea of southern identity, in which I consider to be two sided. This is shown at the opening of the novel with Burke's description of the setting for which this book is placed, New Iberia, Louisiana. Burke describes antebellum homes on East Main Street, with Live Oak trees, and Spanish moss. This encompasses a mystical identity of the South, along with an idea by many of a gentile South. On the other hand this novel digs up some of the underbelly of southern identity with characters like Tee Bobby Hulin, Dt. Robicheaux, and the father of the second victim. Here you see corruption, false assumptions based on color, as well as battles among consciences. These are not typically characteristics of what southern gentility represents. How accurate are the representations of these characters based on the time period? Which of these two sides would generally be considered as a true identity of the south during the 20th Century?
ReplyDeleteThroughout the book we see a them of religion in both the traveling bible salesman and in the Character Legions. Is this deception a true true depiction of how people embrace religion in the south and does Detective Robicheaux really think legion is really a demonic spirit inside a human being or is it just a figment of his imagination due to his drug use and his alcoholism
ReplyDeleteDuring the first half of James Lee Burke's novel, "Jolie Blon's" Burke presents a case of which a man was accused of raping and killing a white woman, what position is Burke trying to take? What was it he is trying to get his consumers to see about the South in the twentieth century? What happenings in the south does this case compare to?
ReplyDeleteHow are the characters in this novel connected to the southern landscape that surrounds them? Why is it different for Legion?
ReplyDeleteThroughout the semester, we have explored how White Southerners are grounded in the beliefs of supremacy and segregation, and underlying themes of race and religion obsession, slavery, lynching, and sexual exploitation. Why do all of these themes play such a large role in this novel’s plot? In the last chapter of Cobb we read, we were introduced to the concept of the New South. Are any of the key elements present in Jolie Blon’s Bouce?
ReplyDeleteAfter the first rape/murder Detective Robicheaux, despite certain evidence, believes in the innocence of Hulin. After more suspicion of another crime and questionable family history revealed Hulin is once again put in the front of the line of suspects. If Hulin were a different race, would the situation be different? How does reflect on society of New Iberia, Louisiana at the time? Does Robicheaux see past this or does outside pressure affect his actions when dealing with the investigation?
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