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Fire in a Canebrake represents and elaborates on the race and lynching in the South. This novel is actually a great read, which touches base on such subject. Also the book has the historical narrative from the twentieth century, which draws different views of today’s society. Laura Wexler describes different race relations, lynching, and also explaining the world from the past to today. I personally think this novel skillfully portrays both symbolic and literal form, which I will present. Do you think her narrative can motivate different types of audiences to sustain the bigger picture is this read? I think it is very interesting and shows that many things can take place, and also draws an historical picture to different audiences. As the …show more content…
As a reader I understand the form and the roles in this novel. The Symbolism of lynching is the practice of representing thins and attributing symbolic meanings or any significance to many different relations, situations, and events that can be taking place. A literal form in lynching is being in accordance with conforming, and stating the obvious in any giving situation. Literal can be expressed, which is what this novel represents. Between the FBI`s attempt at caring on all lynching, and having federal government cases which was represented by the civil rights. In the novel it reads “I did everything I could to try to find out who was in the lynching,” says Mattie Louise. Mattie Louise was a sweet hearted woman who wanted peace. Also in the novel she also says “You got to forgive”. (240) Despite the strategies you have to forgive and move on with your life even if something is solved or unsolved. Also it is pursing you to live life to every extent because you never know what might take place at any giving day. Why would you live your life unhappy? The lynching in the South was definitely remembered, although the civil rights legislators were held responsible for the ongoing lynching and torturing, there could possibly be a solution. Laura Wexler proved that she could at least make a difference in justice and creating a healing
‘Fire in a Canebrake’ is important since it sheds new light on the last mass lynching in America. It certainly shows the ambivalence and poor standards of the investigation into the case by the authorities as well as the terrible racism of the common townsfolk who could not care a jot about the fate of the murdered blacks. The book is a clear indictment of the terrible plague of lynching.
...eir lifehave felt and seen themselves as just that. That’s why as the author grew up in his southerncommunity, which use to in slave the Black’s “Separate Pasts” helps you see a different waywithout using the sense I violence but using words to promote change in one’s mind set. Hedescribed the tension between both communities very well. The way the book was writing in firstperson really helped readers see that these thoughts , and worries and compassion was really felttowards this situation that was going on at the time with different societies. The fact that theMcLaurin was a white person changed the views, that yeah he was considered a superior beingbut to him he saw it different he used words to try to change his peers views and traditionalways. McLaurin try to remove the concept of fear so that both communities could see them selfas people and as equal races.
Laura Wexler’s Fire In a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America, is an spectacular book that depicts what, many refer to as the last mass lynching. The last mass lynching took place on July 25, 1946, located in Walton County, Georgia. On that day four black sharecroppers (Roger Malcom, Dorothy Malcom, George Dorsey and Mae Murray Dorsey) are brutally murdered by a group of white people. This book presents an epidemic, which has plagued this nation since it was established. Being African American, I know all too well the accounts presented in this book. One of the things I liked most about Fire in A Canebrake was that Wexler had different interpretations of the same events. One from a black point of view and the other from a white point of view. Unfortunately both led to no justice being served. Laura Wexler was
Wexler, Laura. 2003. Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America. Scribner; 2004. Print
Southern Horror s: Lynch Law in All Its Phases by Ida B. Wells took me on a journey through our nations violent past. This book voices how strong the practice of lynching is sewn into the fabric of America and expresses the elevated severity of this issue; she also includes pages of graphic stories detailing lynching in the South. Wells examined the many cases of lynching based on “rape of white women” and concluded that rape was just an excuse to shadow white’s real reasons for this type of execution. It was black’s economic progress that threatened white’s ideas about black inferiority. In the South Reconstruction laws often conflicted with real Southern racism. Before I give it to you straight, let me take you on a journey through Ida’s
Even though racial discrimination may not be as prevalent in the present day society, many African American men and women believe that they do not experience the same opportunities as the white race. Media in general plays such an active role in bringing more information about racial discrimination and how it is still occurring today. But media can also bring negative effects to the struggle in living up to social standards to today’s society “norms”. Anna Mae was very brave in lying about her identity to become someone she really wanted to be. But, I feel she should have never had to have done that. He story just goes to show how the power of society can change you as a human being. It can make you believe that you must change your identity in order to “fit in” which I find to be very sad. I think that more people in this world need to stand up to theses stereotypes of being the “perfect American” and say that no one is perfect in this world and everyone is created by the most perfect human God. Overall, racial discrimination is a part of our everyday lives and "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark" can still speak to us today, even with the play set in a time 80 years
A predominantly black town in Florida by the name of Rosewood was abandoned in 1923 due to the city being left in devastating ruins after a horrendous bloodshed massacre. The massacre was initiated by accusations of a black man by the name of Jesse Hunter assaulting a white female by the name of Fanny Taylor. But their troubles didn’t begin there this was long awaiting battle due to prior false information that often ended with a black person being lynched.The incident regarding Jesse Hunter and Fanny Taylor set havoc to the little town of Rosewood.In spite of the rumors that the two were romantically involved or that at least the woman was using the incident to cover up her premarital affairs. Meanwhile, members of the Ku Klux Klan rallied in nearby towns and gathered people to go and rise terror on Rosewood. The one person who knew the truth was a man named Sam Cartier. Who was lynched by the Ku Klux Klan as a warning to whoever was helping Jesse. It was soon rumored that Jesse’s friend Aaron’s cousin Sylvester was hiding him at his house. The KKK demanded
The book itself was hard to follow. It is not the type of book I would normally choose to read. There was not much character development and way too many slimy characters too keep track of. The crimes were plentiful and the relationships between the characters were often unclear. The book seemed to jump around to numerous detailed incidents and crimes that occurred making it difficult to tie them together. The author of the book was a magazine journalist, so this type of writing was out of his comfort zone. Nevertheless, Brown must be given a great deal of credit for putting in years of dedication to investigate this story that police overlooked and possibly participated in. This book needed to be written because, without it, more women could have been murdered. Brown first published an article on the case before witting the book, the day the article came out the body of the last victim was
I believe that if the reader were to take a deeper look into all of the symbolism in the story, one would find that the summation of all the symbolism is equal to not only the struggle of this black boy, but the struggle of blacks at the time in which the story takes place. I think that if one were to analyze the grandfathers dying words, one would find the view of most conformist black Americans. The only way for a black person to excel at
This story is great in a way that it gives us an alternative view of the past but still able to tell us the correct past. The entire time Whitehead tries to expand the idea of freedom and give us multiple views of that idea. Juan G. Vasquez from The New York Times was totally correct when he said “ The Underground Railroad achieves the task by small shifts in perspective”. Colson is able to tell one story using many point of views. We got to see the white supremacy in the story. White supremacist is such a crazy thing that it makes those whites look delusional as something so cruel can feel so right to them. Whitehead describes a scene as “ all ages rushed” to lynch one girl. That is some savage humans just ready take a life away because of their mentality. Whitehead gives the reality of how it was to be a black in those times. For example the road called “ Freedom Trails” which sounds like the road every African American wanted but it wasn’t. It was a street to publicly send a message to all the people against slavery which include slaves and abolitionist by lynching them. The freedom trail technically was for “the night riders” as they saw they were liberating their freedom as they saw blacks as threat. We get an raw visual of what how inhuman some whites were towards
I think the first major aspect you get is idea of the riot. He goes into great length talking about various riots that happened all throughout the nation. However, from reading it they all seemed to go down the same line. The riots are not like we typically think of but they are for the same reason. In the books, perspective the killing of a black mostly started these riots. Black people would then retaliate by rioting. This theme was recurrent. Usually the papers or word of mouth instigated the riot. Reason for this being an interesting aspect is the perception of the riots. When whites rioted, it was to protect dignity and to do the right thing. They had a so-called legit moral purpose for their actions. As Tuttle states blacks rioting were often seen as ruthless and they are depicted as animals and should be dealt with. This difference in depiction was interesting to me. I guess it would lie in the mindset of the people of those prevailing times.
The mob had to make a point to follow Meredith Lewis and kidnap him and hanged by his neck for a murder which her was not convicted. I feel that the white people felt that the blacks were getting to close to be like an equal. With that on mind, the whites felt that they need to show the blacks that they still run things. For instance, on page 107, it clearly states, "There are friends of humanity who feel their souls shrink from any compromise with murder, but whose deep and abiding reverence for womanhood causes them to hesitate in giving their support to this crusade against Lynch Law, out of fear that they may encourage the miscreants whose deeds are worse than murder."
In Fire in a Canebrake, Laura Wexler describes a truly infamous event in mid-twentieth century American history. Wexler does not simply stop at describing the Moore’s Ford lynching of 1946 though, she goes so far as to incorporate it into our understanding of the world at the time by carefully unraveling the various complexities that surrounded the event itself. Furthermore, she is able to make sense of an otherwise very disorganized collection of accounts and shape it all together to reveal larger historical context. As the novel progresses, it is easy to see that Wexler is more interested in painting a broad historical picture for the reader than she is in merely outlining the horrible quadruple killing of George W. Dorsey, Mae Murray Dorsey,
Despite all the criticism, of racism and other questionable material for young readers, Mark Twain’s The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is a superbly written novel, which in the opinion of this reviewer should not be remove the literary cannon. Twain’s novel is a coming of age story that teaches young people many valuable lessons and to some extend makes students reexamine their own lives and morals. The most common argument for its removal from the literary canon is that the novel is too racist; it offends black readers, perpetuates cheap slave-era stereotypes, and deserves no place on today’s bookshelves. However one must ask if Twain is encouraging traditional southern racism or is Twain disputing these idea.
Nineteenth century people defined lynching as violence sanctioned, endorsed, or carried out by a neighborhood or community acting outside the law. Today lynching is defined as the act of taking someone’s life without legal authority. It was frequently done by mobs and it occasionally took place by hanging the victim. Lynching begin to materialize in the south of the United States after the Reconstruction Era in the late eighteenth century all the way out to the 1960s. Lynching was mostly done against innocent African-American men who were accused of untruthful crimes. Lynching began when colored people were freed, and whites started to feel their place as supreme rulers as threatened. . It was meant for blacks to feel incarcerated and not take place in political affairs such as voting and taking office. Lynching reached a peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries where it is said that up to 10,000 blacks were killed. Other ways whites ruled the country were by using Jim Crow laws. Lynching remains one of the most disturbing and least understood problems America has faced. It has even been compared to the holocaust that occurred in World War II. Lynching, like slavery and segregation, was not unique in the south, but it assumed proportions and significance there that were parallel elsewhere. Lynching came to define southern distinctiveness every bit as much as the mason Dixon line marked the boundary of the region. Authors later took three different ways in revealing these acts done in the south. These three ways of exposing the truth were writing short stories, songs/poems, and exposes. Out of these three ways of bringing to life the truth, expose was the most effective. Expose was the most effective way because it deeply inv...