Why does Hominy want to be the narrator's slave? Even though he calls Bonbon "massa," is Hominy ultimately his own master now that he has been emancipated by the entertainment industry?

Why does Hominy want to be the narrator's slave? Even though he calls Bonbon "massa," is Hominy ultimately his own master now that he has been emancipated by the entertainment industry?

He is a living satire piece. The show is a symbol of how things used to be for blacks. It's all he's ever known. It's when he was most famous and received the most recognition. So it's like he's mentally trapped in the show and by becoming the narrator's slave, he returns to that "comfort" zone in physical form.

Hominy's identity in The Little Rascals is bound up in a slave-like character. In his relationship to Bonbon, though, by demanding to become a slave and then behaving as he chooses he in effect becomes his own boss. He has defined his own role, rahter than having it defined for him by a demeaning script.

Yes, I think Hominy turned the tables on his past and tried to desensitize the injustices and prejudices of his youth by owning the massa/slave relationship. He plays with the concept and controls it as a result.

Bonbon saved Hominy's life but he still felt irrelevant. The beatings made him fell that he mattered. I think he only felt alive when he was a slave to the movie business. He withstood racial cruelty but he was someone.

I agree with laurap. Although he played the part of slave...he was the one telling Bonbon how to treat him as a slave so he was defining his role as Bonbon's slave.

I think Hominy was the most comfortable with someone else "in charge" so he gave the job to Bonbon. Since Bonbon doesn't know how to be a master, Hominy does the work of master and slave so he is his own boss. Hominy decides on the master/slave relationship because he feels that blacks are still not equal to whites.

I think he wants to be the celebrity but also the home boy, more master to the times than his own master

I felt that Hominy was trying to slip into a familiar narrative, which while uncomfortable, was probably a better known entity than the strange new land he was entering.