“His sexuality was anything but lewd; his patronage of little girls smacked of innocence and was associated in his mind with cleanliness. He was what one might call a very clean old man.”(166)
This particular passage is taken from the last section of spring in which we as the readers are introduced to a character named Elihue Micah Whitcomb, also known as Soaphead Church. It begins by describing his family history as well as his upbringing which is extremely important in understanding why he has become the horrible person that he is. Having been fortunate enough to come from a “noble” background Soaphead received an excellent education along with a love for the Caucasian race. This follows along with the constant theme throughout the novel that being white is better or more beautiful. It also gives this section a very condescending tone in which a copious amount of difficult language is thrown at the readers. We continue on to learn that most everything that is associated with bodily functions repulses him and ultimately leads him to become a pedophile.
I feel that this quote is important for many different reasons. First of all it shows us exactly what type of person Soaphead is and how he justifies his horrible assaults against these children. The wording indicates that he thinks it's ok to have sex with little girls because it would be unclean to perform these acts with consenting adults. Judging by the tone of the first sentence and the word "smacked" I am led to assume that these encounters were most likely very violent. I also think the word "innocence" is well used because the only thing that is innocent about these situations are the children. Also by committing these acts he is in fact stealing their innocence away from them. It is ironic that he believes himself to be a "very clean old man" because in fact he is what society would consider an extremely dirty old man.
This particular passage is taken from the last section of spring in which we as the readers are introduced to a character named Elihue Micah Whitcomb, also known as Soaphead Church. It begins by describing his family history as well as his upbringing which is extremely important in understanding why he has become the horrible person that he is. Having been fortunate enough to come from a “noble” background Soaphead received an excellent education along with a love for the Caucasian race. This follows along with the constant theme throughout the novel that being white is better or more beautiful. It also gives this section a very condescending tone in which a copious amount of difficult language is thrown at the readers. We continue on to learn that most everything that is associated with bodily functions repulses him and ultimately leads him to become a pedophile.
I feel that this quote is important for many different reasons. First of all it shows us exactly what type of person Soaphead is and how he justifies his horrible assaults against these children. The wording indicates that he thinks it's ok to have sex with little girls because it would be unclean to perform these acts with consenting adults. Judging by the tone of the first sentence and the word "smacked" I am led to assume that these encounters were most likely very violent. I also think the word "innocence" is well used because the only thing that is innocent about these situations are the children. Also by committing these acts he is in fact stealing their innocence away from them. It is ironic that he believes himself to be a "very clean old man" because in fact he is what society would consider an extremely dirty old man.
-Jonathan Virdell
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