Stephanie's Close Reading

1. What does the work reveal about the operations (economically, politically, socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy?

In the work, Paul had to make certain choices because of how society treated him at this time economically and socially, having an effect on him psychologically. 

“Crawling, out of the woods, cross-eyed with hunger and loneliness, he knocked at the first back door he came to in the colored section of Wilmington. He told the woman who opened it that he’d appreciate doing her woodpile, if she could spare him something to eat(154)”.

“Later when he saw pale cotton sheets and two pillows in her bedroom, he had to wipe his eyes quickly, quickly so she would not see the thankful tears of a man’s first time. Soil, grass, mud, shucking, leaves, hay, cobs, seashells-all that he’d slept on. White cotton sheets had never crossed his mind. He fell in with a groan and the woman helped him pretend he was making love to her and not her bed linen”(154).
Because Paul was a slave that had just been freed, he was forced to leave Sweet Home in need of help. Since slaves were viewed as a minority by society, Paul had to face a lot of trouble on how he was going to get about with discrimination troubling him.  This affected him to be desperate and search for help in exchange of work he can do. Since he was poor from being han unpaid slave, he had to use labor as a way to pay back whatever help he can get. He also has to sneak around and constantly be in fear because society did not want black people interacting with them or their white communities. 
This could of also had an effect on Paul using his strength as a man to benefit a woman into helping him out. That is why in the passage on page 154 he gave labor and sex to the woman in exchange for a place to stay. This symbolizes how men interpret their influence in a woman’s life, that woman needs a man’s strength for help and gender parts for pleasure. This plays a part on society’s thoughts of the two different gender relationships, and how they both benefit from each other. A woman, according to the selection, gives a man a home; a feeling they haven’t felt before. This makes an illusion of safety and comfort to a man. That is why Paul did not want to leave this woman’s house, and cried at the feeling of having things he did not have in his past.