Men always asked for whisky and a woman, but this case was different. Olaf was most likely thinking about the stereotypes that black men were more sexually potent and had greater prowess. Who could handle Jim, "but this one is big," Olaf found himself saying" (100). Lena could not understand why he asked that question, since "You never asked me that before..." Her response was "He's just a man," which was not what Olaf saw. He did not see a man. He saw a "black mountain of energy, of muscle, of bone..." (101)

Olaf was especially afraid of this energy and muscle, because he was anticipating that it would be inflicted against him. Not all blacks were violent, he thought, but given this nonhuman's "booming voice" and physical strength, he's "probably too violent to boot...There was something about the man's intense blackness and ungamely bigness that frightened and insulted..." (96)....
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