Re: RARA-AVIS: sidekicks

From: Schooley ( gsp.schoo@skylinc.net)
Date: 13 Nov 2001


JIM DOHERTY wrote:

> The "bad-ass sidekick" is a deus ex mahina whose main
> function seems to be removing the necessity for making
> those hard decisions from the hero.

Not always. I don't believe we are ever meant to think that Mouse is anything but a part of Easy Rawlin's personality. A part that he would rather have left back home, a part that needs constant attention when it shows up, a part that cannot be controlled. In "Devil in a Blue Dress," the movie anyway, Mouse reminds Easy that he knew better than to leave Mouse alone with the bartender if he wasn't to be killed. At the end, Mouse happily tells Easy to call him again because he "knows how to put money in a nigger's pocket." The use of violence is rewarded in this world. Further, Mouse practices violence with a glee that readers are meant to share. The pace and thrills definitely pick up when he's around.

If Mouse weren't identified as a separate character it would be too easy for readers to write Easy off as another morally compromised character. But by giving this part of Easy's personality a name, Mosely makes it clear that in a morally compromised world, the only meaningful battle between good and evil is internal. And there's damned little chance of victory.

Kerry

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