The Sellout

Critics and reviewers frequently refer to the narrator and protagonist of The Sellout as unnamed, but he does supply a family name, Me, truncated by his father from the original Mee. Me is an antihero in that he fulfills the structural role of a hero—fighting against great odds on a quest of personal and social transformation—he lacks the traditionally heroic qualities of idealism, valor, and moral certainty. Me’s accomplishments in the novel are often ambivalent at best. He owns a slave, despite his best efforts not to, and he restores segregation to the town of Dickens. Though he sometimes appears nihilistic in his rejection of nearly all forms of idealism, he is in fact driven by deep—albeit negative—conviction: an intense rejection of the empty pieties that serve to hide racism without mitigating its harms. In the post-Obama era, racism has not gone away; it has merely become harder to see and therefore harder to resist. Me’s actions throughout the novel serve to make the invisible visible. In the process, without really meaning to, he achieves some tangibly beneficial effects. By becoming Hominy’s enslaver, he salvages Hominy’s identity and provides him with a buddy. Through segregation, he improves the standard of living in Dickens.