Was Joe Fortes Really A Great Person and So Worthy of Respect?

In “The Innocent Traveler”, there is real person existing in the book and the author Ethel Wilson uses her own views and words to portray that person which can be seen as documentary-style writing. Form “The Innocent Traveler” we know that Joe Fortes was a black man who lived near English Bay, taught many children to swim, and saved lots of people form drowning. When she describes, Ethel Wilson uses some old-fashioned, discriminating, and racist terms such as “negro” to present her feelings about the black people. Although she didn’t seem to use that word to be cruel and she did show her respect to Joe Fortes, it is considered an offensive word form our view point today. However, I wondered was Joe Fortes really a great person and so worthy of respect? By Googling Joe Fortes, I found that he was listed under the history of English Bay. He was a very famous person at the time that Ethel Wilson wrote her book and he was appointed Vancouver’s first official lifeguard and swimming instructor. He was not born to be a swimming teacher, however, and he did many jobs before he moved to English Bay. Because he taught swimming lessons and did life guarding voluntarily, he had to do a labour job to support himself. In the official report, it is recorded that Joe Fortes saved 29 lives, but people believe that the number must exceed 100. After he died, a drinking fountain was erected in 1927 by the citizens of Vancouver in Alexandra Park to remember him by his great contributions to the community. Ethel Wilson did present her personal impression of Joe Fortes in her own way, but we might feel that something is missing because it is difficult to find other people’s ideas about Joe Fortes and very difficult to find writing done by him in his own words.