So What Are You Anyway Lawrence Hill Summary

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Recommended: Racism in literature

Racism has been occurring for as many years I can think of and it's always been either overt, subtle discrimination or obvious bigotry. I have noticed this type of discrimination in the short story we read in class called “So What Are You Anyway by Lawrence Hill”. The old white couple known as the Norton’s have showed racism throughout the story. For example when they were criticizing the black doll, judging Carole for being a mixed race child, and referring Carole, her father, and they doll with discriminating names. Firstly, Mr. Norton had been judging Carole’s doll because of the uncommon skin color it had. When he saw the doll for the first time, he said “a black doll! I never saw such a thing” (pg.1) and that dialogue were presented as …show more content…

Secondly, they were judging and feeling sorry for Carole because she was a mixed race child in the 1970s. Mrs. Norton had said “it’s not fair to children. I don’t mind them mixed, but the world is not ready for it. They are neither one thing nor the other...” (pg. 1) which showed that she thinks the world would be the ones who are uncomfortable with this child and that she felt bad for Carole that she has to go through all of this. First off, when she said “the world is not ready for it” (pg. 1), I think she meant herself then the world and just wanted others to think that she was okay with this idea so people won’t discriminate her. Also, the rest of the Caucasian population was being pursued as if they were the ones not ready for this type of change, which may be true in some cases but also it was inaccurate. It’s inaccurate as well because this was around the 70s in Canada and coloured people did not have as a hard time living in Canada as they did in America, so Caucasian who lived in Canada were more comfortable with change that involves colour people than how Mrs. Norton pursued it to

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