This book has launched into some pretty graphic details, but to me the description in this passage has been the most real of all. The description was not the violence, but the mental deterioration that took place as a result of physical abuse. The fact that Billy’s son doesn’t recognize his own family and become de-individuated and dehumanized creates a visceral pain for the position of the black body in the south. The boy becomes the simile of the hog, robbing him of any sense of humanity he had left. This book has launched into some pretty graphic details, but to me the description in this passage has been the most real of all. The description was not the violence, but the mental deterioration that took place as a result of physical abuse. The fact that Billy’s son doesn’t recognize his own family and become de-individuated and dehumanized creates a visceral pain for the position of the black body in the south. The boy becomes the simile of the hog, robbing him of any sense of humanity he had left. The fact that Charlie will go after the tractor even when he could possible get away with the crime is a little bit absurd. Charlie decides that living his life in cowardice (like he had been doing before) was not worth living. He wanted to be proactive, and make Mathu proud (something he had already done). Charlie seems to have a new sense of conscience and a new purpose.