In class yesterday we talked about motives once again. This time, we examined a very dark motive! Mr. Hairston tells Henry that there is a way for him to keep his job. Henry definitely wants to keep it so he listens. First of all, Mr. Hairston says that he knew Henry would look at the crossed off sketch, so he did it to teach him a lesson. The lesson, basically is, "You don't know what you got 'til it's gone." We talked about Mr. Hairston's motives here. We definitely agreed that this is an important lesson to learn in life, but the way that it was taught was wrong. He really messed with and played with Henry's heart and emotions. It was really cruel to make Henry think that the monument wasn't going to be made.
But, that wasn't the dark part of this chapter. Mr. Hairston tells him that he can keep his job if he does a tiny little thing. All he has to do is destroy Mr. Levine's village! Henry is in horror and doesn't know if he can do it. Mr. Hairston threatens him, though:
He will lose his job.
His mom won't have money any more to support the family.
He will lose the monument.
He won't be able to work anywhere in town again because Mr. Hairston will spread rumors.
He won't be able to even go into a store anymore in town.
He will have trouble at school because Mr. Hairston will lie to Henry's principal.
What are Mr. Hairston's motives, though, for destroying the village? We all agreed that Mr. Hairston is racist and hates people. He seems to especially hate Jews and Mr. Levine is one of them. This might be Mr. Hairston's way of punishing Mr. Levine for being a Jew.
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