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“Come die with me!”: Whiteness in William Gardner Smith’s “The Stone Face”
Last post, I started looking at William Gardner Smith’s The Stone Face, a novel that, as Adam Shatz points out, presents whiteness not as a racial trait but as “a synonym for situational privilege.” Today, I want to continue that discussion by looking at Simeon’s dream sequence after he speaks with the Algerians at the cafe who call him “white.” This sequence takes place immediately after their conversation and at the very end of part one, which is entitled “Fugitive,” and it leads directly into part two, “The White Man.” The dream sequence, and specifically the old man’s words to Simeon during the sequence, mark a turning point in Simeon’s outlook. He goes from seeing France as a refuge and safe space to a nation that oppresses others, specifically Algerians. This shift causes Simeon to question his complicity in this oppression and whether or not he should return to the United States and become an active, on-the-ground participant in the ongoing Civil Rights Movement.
In many ways, Simeon’s dream sequence reminds me of the opening sequence in Invisible Man where the eponymous protagonist of Ralph Ellison’s novel recollects on the past, specifically his grandfather who told him to stick his head in the lion’s mouth. I say this because Simeon’s sequence looks back to his past as well as he thinks about what it would be…
