This sort of oppression creates in individuals, as it does in Gabriel, a strange combination of contradictory expectations, values, and behaviors; a situation in which a behavior does not actually demonstrate a value typically or ostensibly associated with it. As a young adult, for example, Gabriel's wild nights were undertaken in an apparent spirit of self-indulgence, as much as one can be self-indulgent and oppressed at the same time. Again, his refusal to take responsibility for his actions appears to be another of Gabriel's conspicuous characteristics; for example, he sees the short affair with Ester and her subsequent pregnancy as a consequence of her manipulating him. He rationalizes that she is an evil woman, a "harlot" who tempted him, "the Lord's anointed." Ester, of course, tells a different tale of the days leading up to their liaison. Gabriel, however, refuses to consider his own actions as being as culpable as Ester's, and he makes an adamant argument for his positions.
In order to understand Gabriel's apparently flawed rationale, one must be capable of understanding how an individual — or, for that matter, a whole race — develops and practices responsibility absent power and authority as this generation of African Americans was required to do. Gabriel's argument makes as much sense — is as reasonable and logical — as most of the arguments that control him and the world in which he exists.
