Fear

Most of the events of the books take place because of fear. Sweet is raised in the Jim Crow South which is full of hatred and incidents of racial violence. Sweet and his brothers grow up in an atmosphere of violence and fear. It is so dangerous in Bartow, Florida, that his family sends him north to Wilberforce when he is thirteen. They worry about his safety and want him to have a better life.

He confronts discrimination in the North just as he did in the South. The absence of lynching blacks makes the North safer than the South. Sweet's actions leading up to the move to the Garland Avenue house are based on the fear he experienced as a child and this is the point that the defense kept emphasizing in court. He is fearful for the safety of his family. Because of this he buys...