The Human Stain

Coleman sits on a bench at Athena College, listening to two young, male faculty members debate the details of the ongoing impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. Coleman leaves and walks across campus. He spots Faunia sitting around, joking with her fellow janitors. It is at this moment that Coleman realizes why people are so upset about their affair. Coleman remembers watching one of his daughter’s teaching sessions with a child who couldn’t read well. Then he imagines his daughter trying to teach Faunia how to read. Lisa, his daughter, asked him once, “What do you do with the kid who can’t read?” (161). Coleman realizes that, in his case, he made that kid his lover, so he goes to a payphone to call his son, Jeff, and tell him the relationship is over. Coleman plans to end the affair.

The narration then switches to Faunia’s point of view, and rather than thinking about the suffering in her life (which is what Coleman assumes she is thinking about), Faunia actually thinks about crows and how much she feels an affinity with them: “I am a crow. I know it. I know it!” (169)

In the meantime, Coleman calls Jeff.