Big Black Good Man

Jim gives Olaf a stack of tailored shirts a year after staying in the hotel. These shirts are a gift from Jim to acknowledge the assistance Olaf gave Jim during his stay. The gift is an unexpected one for service that met the bare minimum, so the shirts are a symbol of Jim’s generosity. For Olaf, however, the shirts are key to his understanding that no matter how big or how black, Jim is capable of generosity. The shirts symbolize for Olaf a recognition of Jim’s humanity.

Lena is a woman who sexually services men at the hotel where Olaf works. She is no damsel in distress: She is not intimidated by the fact that Jim is black or big, and she even scoffs at Olaf’s warning. She represents the colorblind perspective on race. For Olaf, however, Lena is first and foremost a white woman, a symbol of the superior position of whites in the world. Although Lena seems fully capable of handling herself, Olaf’s feeling that there is something unseemly or even dangerous about her connection with Jim is just one more way that Wright signals Olaf’s racism.