Old Boys, Old Girls

This story from All Aunt Hagar's Children is one that stood out to me with the expression of humanity and the loss thereof. This story also deals with the burden of family and struggles entailed with that. It is a story about Caesar who has killed two people and ended up in prison after the second murder. Many parts of this story portray him as trying to find his humanity that he lost more and more every day while in prison. He deals with family issues which end up pushing him away from the discovery of humanity which he so desires.
"Caes you gon be here a few days, so you can't let nobody fuck with our humanity." This point in the story is when the author makes it obvious to the reader that Caesar is going to experience some sort of issue with his humanity and the need to defend it. Caesar goes through many things in prison that make him defend other aspects of his life but no matter what he still keeps losing his humanity.
When he gets out of prison he doesn't want to interact with his family because he doesn't want them to see this loss in him. He does whatever he can to not have to confront his family but with the pressure of his brother he agrees to a family dinner. At this dinner hope is seen in the area of regaining his lost humanity. However, after the dinner the hope is completely diminished. Caesar realizes with his sisters accusatory look, in reference to him being a child molester, that his humanity is completely gone with no hope of return. His own family cannot see who he is so how can anyone else?
There is one more instance in which he believes he can recover his identity and humanity and that is with the appearance of Yvonne. Yvonne, for Caesar, represents his past life when he had these things, when someone knew who he was. Yvonne however does not recognize him (another reference to lost humanity) and also dies. The hope of a relationship with Yvonne and the idea of someone asking nothing of him crashes down. When he is cleaning her apartment he shows humanity in that he is creating her to be what he used to know her as.
These are just some of the ideas in this story revolving around family and humanity and these themes seem to be apparent in other stories in this novel.