The Night of Delicate Terrors by Harlan Ellison is a story that at first seems like the protagonist McKinley Hooker is just labouring through a family trip. However, the internal and external struggles presented by Ellison are shaping exactly what McKinley plans to do; whether he wants to go on and help start a revolution or go back to the Deep South and experience the prejudices of a Blackman. Ellison shapes his internal struggles so that it includes the concern for his family and whether he should sacrifice their individual safety for that of a whole culture. His external struggles include those against the snowy weather, which is a prelude to the white supremacists in the motel. Harlan Ellison uses McKinley Hooker as a medium to realistically present how blacks were treated before the Civil Rights Movement.…
