Catharsis in If He Hollers Let Him Go

The catharsis of the novel would be the scene with Madge in the room of the ship. the dynamic that exists with Madge and Bob reminds us how helpless bob feels about his status in this society when he thinks about the look he and Madge share right before he is captured. "I felt buck-naked and powerless stripped of my manhood and black against the whole white world" (Himes181). As the reader we feel a sense of pity and fear towards Bob because we know that if the door is opened he will get beaten. Bob himself knows this and that is why he feels "naked" and "powerless" the used the words to describe how he isn't a man in this society he is just another black person and right now he is their target. he is also getting the feeling that he is an animal, and this would be correct in the eyes of the men waiting outside the door. Due to popular belief black men were considered savage animals that only wanted to cause harm to white women. Because of  this information I could clearly understand why Bob feels as though he were "buck-naked... against the whole white world". Bob is evidently under the white mans thumb, and he is understandably frightened.