Separation And Interconnectedness Of Identity In Men We Reaped By Jesmyn Ward

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The Separation and Interconnectedness of Identity:

Definitions affect everyday life, especially definitions of how we define ourselves. People grow up with a basic core of selfhood, but develop a different sense identity as they age, encounter different experiences, and listen to what others tell them they are. Other things like racism, class, and gender also contribute to shaping an individual’s identity. These ideas aforementioned are described as double consciousness and intersectionality. These concepts were chosen because of the prevalence of their ideas throughout the book “Men We Reaped” by Jesmyn Ward and this paper will not only delve more into these topics, but also point out the contradictions provided by the author and her family’s …show more content…

It is evident from the book that Ward and her family have been subjected to institutional and individual racism. “I listened to my grandmother when she was worried about her sons,” Ward writes, “about them being stopped by the police for no other reasons than they were black and male”(19). This sentence from the author presents the issue of racial profiling within law enforcement and introduces a new kind of fear to Jesmyn, one that her older family members know all too well. The intersectionality of race and gender and class are also abundantly seen in the parts of the book where Ward talks about her mother and how when she was younger she had been forced by her own mother to assume the role of an adult and caretaker of her younger siblings. Ward’s mother came from a poor, one parent household in which the mother was employed full time. This family setting was not uncommon within the rural south, especially for African American families. Because they were discriminated against for their skin tone, they were paid less and were overlooked when it came to new job opportunities. Ward’s ancestors were freed from slavery only to find that the generations to come would still be facing a certain type of oppression based on

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