MDMD Dixon's act of nonviolence

[Doug Millison]

You're right, it sounds like somebody who is angry.  Angry at the slave
driver, for starters, and at the injustice of slavery.  And, I suspect that
Dixon is angry at himself for yielding as far as he does yield to his
violent urge, for betraying, as much as he does, his Quaker pacifism.  But,
even as Pynchon shades Dixon's punch with ambiguity, he gives us a clear
look at Dixon's thought process:  he wants to kill the slave driver, then
asks "What's a man of Conscience to do?" , then takes enough time to scold
and threaten the slave driver... but not to kill him.  Dixon has obviously
overpowered the man, has the slave driver cringing at his feet.  What stops
Dixon from killing him in the time it takes to threaten him?  His
conscience.  I also think Dixon -- a man who doesn't deny himself many, if
any, pleasures --  is frustrated to discover a nub of moral fiber that
prevents him from indulging this desire.   It's a dramatic revelation, and
it foreshadows the rather respectable old age into which he will settle as
Pynchon winds the novel to a close.


At 7:57 PM -0500 3/11/02, Scott Badger
> His shrill,
>'"If I see *you* again, *you* are a dead man."' doesn't sound to me like
>someone who just chose not to engage in violence for moral reasons.