Allusion In On The Subway

In the story “ On the Subway” the reader can identify that the narrator, the lady, is racist by noticing that the story uses allusion. For example, the lady says, “ I must profit from his darkness, the way he absorbs the murderous beams of the nation’s heart.” This is a refers to slavery which shows the reader that the lady is antiblack. Imagery is widely used in the story to show the reader the differences between the black boy and the white lady; in addition, it also shows how observant the white lady is on the black guy because she thinks she is going to get robbed or possibly killed. The lady describes the boy’s “black sneakers laced with white in a complex pattern like a set of intentional scars.” The lady says scars to show discrimination against black people by the white society. The lady also mentions the word “intentional” because white people would intentionally hurt black people by wiping them. The lady also describes the the clothing of the black man. “He has the casual cold look of a mugger, alert under hooded lids. He was wearing red, like the inside of my body exposed.” This lady is fearful of her

For example, she says, “ he is black and i am white.” This is just another way of the lady saying that she sees herself as something different as the black man as if he was not a human being. She also says, “ I must profit from his darkness…” This is telling the reader that she supports slavery. The way the reader can tell is because white people would make money, “profit”, by making black people, “darkness” representing their skin, work for them. Another way we as the readers can tell the lady is racist is because she say, “ Or if he’s in my power, the way I am living off his life.” This is another way the readers can tell she supports slavery because white people use to make black people work for them and that is how they made money and lived their