Erasure

by

Percival Everett

Hal Dullard Character Analysis

Hal Dullard is a character in one of Monk’s short stories. He’s a white man and all-around upstanding citizen from Indiana who is also (as his name suggests) remarkably stupid. In the story, Hal and a Black man named Tom are contestants on a trivia game show, which is patently rigged. While the host, Jack Spades, asks Hal ridiculously simple questions, he poses complex, specific questions to Tom. Despite this disparity, Hal fails miserably, while Tom answers each question correctly and in great detail, enraging Spades.
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Hal Dullard Character Timeline in Erasure

The timeline below shows where the character Hal Dullard appears in Erasure. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 10
Race and Identity  Theme Icon
...Tom takes his place onstage alongside his competitor, a white man from Indiana named Hal Dullard. The show begins. The host, Jack Spades, introduces Hal as a social worker, president of... (full context)
Race and Identity  Theme Icon
Artistic Integrity vs. Commercial Success  Theme Icon
The show continues in this manner, with Spades posing painfully easy questions to Dullard, who confidently and unwittingly responds with incorrect answers. Tom, meanwhile, continues to answer his own... (full context)