Just Enough Medicine….

In Little Scarlet, by Walter Mosley the idea of temporary cure is spoken about in a conversation that Jackson is having with Easy Rawlings a black Los Angeles Police detective investigating the 1965 Watts riot. The discussions follows as a police investigation but as social problems such as poverty, crime, unemployment and drugs (alcohol). Jackson says to easy “Easy, when you only give enough medicine to keep the disease down, it gets stronger down there and comes back with a vengeance” (Mosley 171). When I read this line, I analyzed its meaning and saw the fascinating truth on reality. When the sentence is narrowed down to a few key words it speaks the voice of a million human beings. I will begin with “enough medicine.” When I analyzed this word it occurred to me that distractions are the number one temporary cure of racism, anger, sadness and reality. TV shows, drugs, clubs, sex all of which are used to manipulate the minds of humans to escape reality, escape sadness. A drug user chronically injects drugs into himself over and over just to escape reality because in just that high time, he actually feels good about himself and doesn’t worry but once it wears off, he does it again and again. He’s really just using “enough medicine” to keep himself down but it will reach a boiling point and the water will just evaporate just like his life will. The main idea is that whether the man knows it or not his problem is only getting worse and will get worse and worse until he gets burned out or fed up. What Jackson is telling Easy is that the problem was held down for so long and it got stronger and stronger and came back with a vengeance (the riot). He’s hinting that this will occur again if equality, happiness and employment aren’t established.