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The Only Man On Liberty Street

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Mortality of Selfishness Confronted with an issue people are forced to be either self-sacrificing or be self- indulgent. In the short story “The Only Man on Liberty Street (1956)”by William Melvin Kelley published in 1967 the stern father Maynard Herder grows a connection with his African American mistress, Josephine and daughter Jennie. Similarly to the story by Kelley is “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway published in 1927 where the dominating character referred to as the American tries to convince his partner “Jig” to eliminate the future of his unborn child. Although the differences of these stories the reader can’t help but to see the overwhelming selfishness of these two male characters. Despite what the affects could be …show more content…

Throughout the story Herder expresses that he feels at home with Josephine and his daughter, Jennie. Josephine lives on Liberty Street where most of the African American mistress’s live, in the story Kelley notes that” Only women and children lived on Liberty Street. All of them were negroes. ”. To show that men would go to Liberty Street for a short-term purpose. Including Herder he would see Josephine two to three times a week until Jennie noticed he never stayed the night. Which is when Herder states “I will not go back this time. [n]o matter what” and makes Liberty Street his permanent home. This causes an uproar because the color of Josephine’s skin but after Herder not coming home for a while. Herder’s wife started stalking Josephine and Jennie at their home “Jennie sees a mysterious white woman pass by in a carriage, peering at the house with a hard and angry expression on her face”. After 2 months of Herder living Josephine the wife wrote her a disturbing letter and left Josephine trembling. Even after Maynard reads the threating letter he still decides he wants to live with Josephine and Jennie. After several threats and listening to his father where he tells Herder about his woman he had on Liberty Street, Herder decided to go back to his wife and never see Josephine or Jennie again. After the reading the story the reader would assume he could have the best of

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