Denny Jackson Quotes In Nothing New

Nothing New by Marita O. Bonner focuses on the character Denny Jackson. Denny Jackson shows the effects of toxic masculinity on a man trying to find his place in the world. This connects to Bonner’s ideas throughout the story if we look deeper within each other, we’ll find the same thing. In the short story, men in Denny's environment frequently pass judgment on him by their external misogyny. His father and peers compare him to “women like” things and they express their judgement on him by using toxic masculinity. Deeper into the story there are examples of sexism with Denny’s father, but the true meaning is that deep down we are all the same. For example, Denny’s dad says “Why don’t you run and wrestle and race with the other boys? You must

In the beginning of the story it says his father only knows “God, work, church, work, and god”, later in the story he ends up judging Denny once again when he was going to art school. “What reason Denny got to go to some art school? What is he going to learn there?...He ought to go somewhere and do some real man's work”. His dad is expressing his true feelings about Denny, almost saying that he could never be a real man for pursuing what he wants. This ties back to him constantly being judged by the male figures in his life. To tie it all together, Bonner places small quotes saying “If they looked deeper they might have seen God.” The point that she is trying to prove is that if we look into each other we will realize that we are all the same, no judgement at all. She also says “People seldom look that deep, though. They do not always understand how to do things”. This ties back to Denny’s dad being clouded by his external misogyny, and not being able to understand his son. The great significance of Nothing New by Marita O Bonner is that it not only has themes of gender equailty, race equailty, but us trying to understand each