The Chickens

The chickens in this novel are a direct metaphor for the treatment of black people in the south at the time. They were treated more as animals and less than humans. When Lewis young he loved all his families chickens. He did not care what kind they were, Rhode Island Red, Dominiques, or Bantams. He understood they each had a different personality and appearance but did not judge them for it. John even names some the the chickens, therefore, humanizing them. 

John reveals later how racist beliefs are passes down from parent to child by explaining that it is "ok" to kill and eat chickens because they are not human. At first John would cry for the lives of the chickens, saying he would rather give up his dinner than have his friends killed. The naming of the chickens makes it that much harder to consume them. John humanized them, he formed a relationship. He stands up to his father just like how he would later stand for beliefs. However, his father does not care. 

This is similar to how whites treated colored people in that they were less than them and not like them. On page ninety-nine a white man even yells, "Whatsa matter? You Chicken?" White people felt  right in their actions because they were taught that "killing and eating" chickens was normal. 

Lewis did a great job tying together his feelings towards the beings that he cared for and loved. As a boy he cares for and preaches to chickens only for them to be slaughtered and eaten. As he grows up he preaches to his people and stands with them to end the mistreatment. Lewis' feelings for his chickens foreshadows his later activism. His desire to save the chickens grew into his desire for peace among people of all races.