QUOTES - QUOTATIONS AND ANALYSIS

(Continued)

A different kind of cultural disconnect happens on Thanksgiving, as Cedric has dinner with the family of Donald Korb and seeks refuge afterwards with African American friends who are putting him up for the night at Harvard:

After half an hour, he's becoming frantic. It's not just that he's supposed to sleep there tonight. It's more than that. He feels like he's been on a strange journey - confusing, exhilarating, bizarre - and home is wherever black people are.

Fifteen sweaty minutes later, he thinks he's bumped into the right dorm. He punches a room number on the intercom plate alongside the locked exterior door.

Nothing. Then a grainy sound. It's Mark's voice coming through. "NIGGER?!" Cedric screams, a word he never, ever uses. "That you!?" "Yeah, it's me," Mark says through the static. "Calm down."

"I'm stranded out here. Oh Gaaawd, come get me!" (257)

The most startling aspect of this scene is Cedric screaming the word "nigger" at his friend, and it's pointed out this is "a word he never, ever uses". The punctuation is worth noting, as it includes a question mark and an exclamation mark --further emphasizing the sense of confusion in the scene. This outburst brings home the strangeness of the evening for him - described with a chain of adjectives as " confusing, exhilarating, bizarre". Having spent Thanksgiving dinner with the rich, white family of his personal benefactor Donald Korb, he is grateful but...........

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