Blog 2

Blog 2: Character Analysis - Zach In chapter 7, we are introduced to Zachary Lincoln Taylor. Zach works at August's house, helping with the honey crop. He and Lily have to work together and become fast friends. Zach's character at the beginning is happy and free. He makes Lily laugh and gives her a new perspective of black people. For the first time she realizes that a black boy is not only her friend, but she is actually attracted to him. Lily describes him this way, "There was nothing white about Zachary Lincoln Taylor. Even the whites of his eyes weren't exactly white. He had broad shoulders and a narrow waist and short-cropped hair like most of the Negro boys wore, but it was his face I couldn't help staring at. If he was shocked over me being white, I was shocked over him being handsome" (116). Zach and Lily are good friends until he ends up getting thrown in jail for something he didn't do. Because Zack won't rat out his friends, he is put in jail and beaten. When he finally gets out, he is jaded in many different ways. First of all, May has killed herself because Zach was in prison. Secondly, he has changed his attitude about white people. At the beginning he did not seem to mind when white's looked down on blacks and he thought he could change their minds. But after being in jail he tells Lily he is always angry and wants to make things right. As Lily changed for the good, Zach seems to regress and realize how hated he is by many people.