One Sided Relationships in Banks’ Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat

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One Sided Relationships in Banks’ “Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat”

The story “Black Man and White Women in Dark Green Rowboat,” written by Russell Banks, is about a struggling interracial relationship. Throughout this story one will find that the white women tries to control every part of their relationship. While the black man would like to express his thoughts of what they should do in their situation, the girl will not even give him a chance. Once the black man sees just how selfish this girl is, he makes the decision to leave her and move on with his life.

The story starts out on an extremely hot day in August at a trailer park that is right next to a lake. The white woman lives in the trailer park and her boyfriend, the black man, has come over to spend some time with her. They decided to go out on the lake and while they were out on this dark green rowboat he was going to fish while she sun bathed. This is really where one will start to see just how shallow this girl is. When they met on the beach the girl helped the man push the boat to the water and instead of helping him push the boat out away from shore she hopped in it before her feet had even gotten wet.

Then while the man is rowing she is trying to entice him by rubbing “tanning lotion slowly over her arms and legs and across her shoulders and belly”(57). As the man “studied the wedge of her crotch,...

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