Popular Culture Review 32.1
repeated trauma . Early in Douglass ’ s narrative , for example , he describes a formative experience from his childhood :
I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine , whom [ Mr . Plummer ] used to tie up to a joist , and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood . No words , no tears , no prayers , from his gory victim , seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose . The louder she screamed , the harder he whipped ; and where the blood ran fastest , there he whipped longest . He would whip her to make her scream , and whip her to make her hush ; and not until overcome by fatigue , would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin . I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition . I was quite a child , but I well remember it . ( 14-15 )
Douglass ’ s readers are drawn first to the detailed description of his aunt ’ s beating ; this is no punishment but , instead , a sustained act of violence by a sadistic overseer who took pleasure in it . While Douglass is clear in his characterization of his aunt as a “ victim ,” readers see how victimized he , too , is by this act . He remembers this moment for the rest of his life , and the suggestion that it was only “ the first time ” signals to readers that these traumas will repeat for the remainder of his time as an enslaved person .
In Westworld , violence is visited on Black bodies repeatedly . During the many attempted robberies of the Mariposa Saloon , the town ’ s Black Deputy Foss ( played by Demetrius
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