All The World's A Stage

In this book, there seems to be a prevalent theme of acting. We see many different people behaving and reacting to things in many different ways. Who is genuinely being themselves? Does Macon really believe in what he does? In the beginning, he is willing to reveal his identity in the robberies, but later, after the Day of Apology goes horribly wrong, he tries to retreat back into his whiteness and leave.

During the Day of Apology Macon is left with a group of white people from the South as his audience. They are not acting as themselves because “they wanted to dress black” to, I guess, show their respect (page 227). However, Macon’s whole point was that they should be themselves and apologize as themselves. Conway Donner believes that race is defined more as a behavioral thing and therefore is more fluid. He claims that he is able to “alter an individual’s self-image and perception,” which, by his definition, means he is able to change their race (page 292).

In the end, which somehow got even crazier than the beginning, we see… well I'm not sure what we see actually. On the last couple of pages, Conway Donner and Nique reveal that Burleigh, Johnnie, Anton, (maybe Annabel too?), and Leo were all actors. However, another plot twist: Burleigh wasn’t actually acting and shoots Macon. Before Macon dies though, we get an interesting quote from him: “Acting. That’s all any of us does. The idea struck him suddenly and from a great distance, like the whistle of an approaching train” (page 334).