Brother Man
Brother Man By: Roger Mais 4/1/13 Summary: The novel follows several characters including brother man and Minette, Girlie and Papacita, Jesmina, Cordelia and Tad. Brother man is the village’s healing man but some of the villagers do not believe in what he does. Girlie and Papacita are in an abusive relationship and they both suffer greatly from it. Papacita however is out till late hours of the night making deal with men for setting them up with girls.
Jesmina has been taking care of Cordelia because she has been sick but once brother man comes and places his hand on her and prays, she begins to recover back to full health. However her young son tad becomes ill with an unbreakable fever. Minette secretly loves Brother Man but cannot get him to notice her, so she also flirts with Papacita. One night when Brother Man was walking through the village he thought he was so focused that he did not fully notice a woman who had said peace and blessing to him. But when he went back to thank her, she could not be found.
Brother Man asked a girl and boy if they had seen the old woman but they had not. They told Brother Man about the legend of old Mag and how her spirit is said to go around giving curses and blessings on people. Brother Man reassured them that she has said blessing words. Brother Man then ran into a young boy carrying a crab. The boy showed brother man how he has handcuffed the crab to itself in order to safely carry it home. Brother Man then offered to buy the crab and the boy took him up on his offer. Then brother man released its handcuffs and set it free.
Brother Man then explains to the young boy that all creatures have feelings and that it was not right to torture the crab by handcuffing it. Visceral Response: When first introduced to Papacita and Girlie, I did not understand their relationship. I pitied Girlie for having to put up with the physical along with the mental abuse but then again she dishes out some abuse as well. It is truly a sad occurrence when little Tad becomes sick and they are unable to break the fever. I have hope that he will get better but I fear that he will die.
As for Brother Man I have mixed feelings about him. I understand that he is supposed to be the protagonist of the story and that we as readers are supposed to like him but I am not too sure if I do. I sometimes get the feeling from him that he is better than everyone else because he knows more, yet he preaches that all living beings should be equal. He is almost like a too perfect character. It actually makes me mad when he buys the crab off of the boy and lectures him about not handcuffing crabs. The boy was going to eat that to survive, it is the way of life; survival of the fittest.
