Separate Pasts is an award-winning novel that takes a look at America in the 1950s. The 1950s are a well-known period of racism in America. McLaurin explores the relationships he had with his white peers as well as his African American peers during his upbringing in the small, mile-long southern town of Wade, North Carolina. The theme of white-black relations appears throughout the book. The relationships discussed not only concern McLaurin and his peers, but also between his grandfather and the citizens of the city. These relationships discussed throughout the book prove that the town of Wade, and the South in general, was in a state of segregation based on race and socioeconomic status. One of the first relationships McLaurin describes is the relationship between him and his friend Bobo. . McLaurin struggled to let go of his childhood and come into manhood while dealing with the city's African Americans. When he was young, he paid no attention to the race of the neighborhood children. Children are often very ignorant of the social problems happening around them because they are innocent and when they start to grow up, they start to become aware of what is happening. McLaurin played basketball with the black and white kids in the neighborhood and needed to blow up the ball at his grandfather's store. McLaurin and some of his black peers, including his friend Bobo, went to the store and McLaurin became frustrated with Bobo after failing to aerate the balloon with enough air after already putting the needle in his mouth to 'introduce into the balloon. . McLaurin then placed the same needle in his mouth and was immediately overcome with emotion. This... middle of paper... rejected opinions of his elders made it difficult for him to grow up in the small town. Overall, the novel Past Separates tells the story of a young white man. growing up in a small, segregated southern town. McLaurin did not understand, in his youth, why white people were considered superior, and if there was any truth behind it. With the development of relationships throughout the novel, he begins to see that there is no real reason why there is segregation, but that there is segregation nonetheless. McLaurin paints a vibrant picture of the segregation that reigned in the South in the 1950s. There is no denying the segregation of the South and McLaurin's novel gives an inside view of the way of life. It seems that McLaurin had a more progressive way of thinking because he did not want to be seen as superior to black people. The novel gives a real insight into the racism and segregation of the past.