Memphis

While most of the characters in the text experience feelings of rage, Stringfellow emphasizes and juxtaposes the manifestations of female and male rage. While men tend to express their rage through violence and aggression, women find fruitful ways to channel their rage and heal themselves. August feels that most of the men she ever knew are angry. Derek’s father was an “evil” man who mistreated his son to make him a hard, tough man. Eventually, Derek became violent and aggressive, sexually assaulting Joan, hitting a girl at his school, and later participating in gang violence. Jax is also a crucial example of male rage. Jax mentions that for most of his life, he sees violence and war. His experience of destruction, violence, and death as an officer in the Gulf War traumatized him. The war filled him with “terror,” “grief” and “rage” (45). His inner rage manifested into domestic abuse. Returning from the war, Jax became “distant,” aggressive, and physically abusive towards Miriam.

Like the male characters, the women in the text also express feelings of rage, terror, and thoughts of violence. Miriam experiences feelings of terror at the hands of Jax and grief over the breakdown of her marriage. She maintains a “cold rage” towards him. Joan hates Derek. When she sees him for the first time after years, her rage is so profound that she thinks of murder: “Thinking about how when Derek was still living with us, I sometimes felt a rage so strong I believed I could kill. Maybe I wasn’t so different from Daddy” (158). Joan feels her “burning rage born from utter powerlessness” (95). Hazel’s character indicates that rage is rooted in a long history of racial violence and injustice. Racism is the cause of Hazel’s rage. The undermining of her womanhood always made her feel a silent rage. After Myron’s murder, continual racial violence exasperated Hazel. On the day of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Miriam saw “the same wrath in her mother’s face as she had seen when those four girls were bombed and when Medgar died or whenever her father’s name was brought up” (194).

While most male characters are unable to express their rage beyond violence and aggression, women find ways to turn their rage into power. Hazel became a grassroots activist fighting for racial justice and equality. August manages to create her own business and finds her independence, while Miriam defies stereotypes and returns to school at a later age. Joan pours her rage into her art, and through painting she finds self-direction and identity to leave her traumatic experiences behind.