Would feeling uncomfortable in your own skin be upsetting? Well if you read the book “Between The World and Me” it will show that some people have it hard just because of the color of their skin. As the author of this book writes about his fifteen year old son who had to grow up and learn how to live an American life with different skin. The author, Ta-Nehisi Coates, learns the way of the neighborhood he grew up in, how to survive a hard life, and how do what has to be done. Coates is the author of the story who grew up in a rough suburb area in Baltimore. His parents where always tough on him so he knows what he's gonna face in the real world. He grew up to be a famous author writing the book “Between the World and Me”. Throughout this …show more content…
book, he writes about how hard his life was, and how his son grew up as a black male in a white society. Coates a good writer and very smart man who lived in the bad part of Baltimore, went to college at Howard University, and became a writer for many other books.
Most of his education took place at Howard, where he learned more about powerful black men and of his past. One powerful man he studied, was Malcolm X. Coates loved Malcolm X and he is very scared about his son growing up in an America that looks down on African Americans, and shows that there isn’t much in America standing up for them. Now for his son in the book he is a young man growing up in a White America at the age of fifteen. He is still trying to understand why people are hating on him for not being the same …show more content…
color. The setting in the book starts in Baltimore, Maryland, where Coates grew up during the 1980s. After finishing high school he went to Washington, D.C., to finish and graduate college, where his dad was a librarian. Coates describes Baltimore as a harsh a place for a kid to grow and try to make a good living. Baltimore during this time would be harsh, exciting, and full of racism. The theme of the book is the racial problems that happened throughout America which started from the early years in American history when blacks were used as slaves in which black bodies are under threat, and white society has consistently denied the humanity of blacks in order to maintain its spurious. In the book Coates writes about “The Dream”. The Dream is a comfortable regular home, green lawns, paved driveways, BBQs and pool parties. One of the most important things said of the text is that the black body is constantly under threat. Racism is a horrible experience, that shows how rough American history was. Slaves were beaten, tortured, hung, and sprayed with strong fire hoses. Living in America under the white thoughts about blacks was hard for those being judged to live through. The way they get through all of the threats and problems is love and support from others. This reminds Coates that being African American isn’t any worse than being a white American. “Between The World and Me” is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer questions, a letter to his son.
Coates shares with his son the story of the truth about American culture through experiences from Howard University, to Baltimore. From his childhood home to the rooms of where children’s lives were taken way too soon, and as America fell apart. But learning about the history gets rid of the past, and embraces the present, and looks forward to future. Being comfortable in your own skin takes a lot of courage and bravery if you are being treated the way Coates and his son were being treated. After reading this book I realized that it was hard growing up with a different style skin, and how different you go treated. This book was not for me, because of how non-advanced I am in reading. It was difficult to keep track of what was going on and I would only recommend this book to the higher level of education or
grade.
In the article, “A Letter My Son,” Ta-Nehisi Coates utilizes both ethical and pathetic appeal to address his audience in a personable manner. The purpose of this article is to enlighten the audience, and in particular his son, on what it looks like, feels like, and means to be encompassed in his black body through a series of personal anecdotes and self-reflection on what it means to be black. In comparison, Coates goes a step further and analyzes how a black body moves and is perceived in a world that is centered on whiteness. This is established in the first half of the text when the author states that,“white America’s progress, or rather the progress of those Americans who believe that they are white, was built on looting and violence,”
In his opinion, life in the white community is like a dream, since there were no discrimination, no oppression, no threats for violence etc. He expressed the idea that it was impossible for the white people to give up this dream and they would do whatever necessary to defend it. “The problem with the police is not that they are fascist pigs but that our country is ruled by majoritarian pigs.” Coates believed that the root to all the unfortunate events were because of the country’s leadership. America had benefitted from slavery and many other policies that were discriminating against African Americans, yet the leaders failed to recognise the contributions they had made for this
...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.
In Tim Seibles' poem, The Case, he reviews the problematic situations of how white people are naturally born with an unfair privilege. Throughout the poem, he goes into detail about how colored people become uncomfortable when they realize that their skin color is different. Not only does it affect them in an everyday aspect, but also in emotional ways as well. He starts off with stating how white people are beautiful and continues on with how people enjoy their presence. Then he transitions into how people of color actually feel when they encounter a white person.
In Hayslip’s book When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, she talks about her life as a peasant’s daughter and her and her family’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War has not only affected Vietnam itself, but also the United States, where in the beginning they did not want to get involved. However, with the spread of communism, which had already affected China, the president at the time Lyndon Johnson, thought it was time to stop the spread of the Vietnam War. With America’s involvement in the war, it caused great problems for both sides. In Vietnam, it causes the local people from the south and north side to split up and either becomes a supporter of communism or of the US’s capitalist views. In addition, it caused displacement for those local people, thus losing their family. In America, the Vietnam War has brought about PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, and deaths of many soldiers, more than World War II. With the thought of containment for communism, the US had gave back Vietnam their war and “gave up” on the war, leaving Southeast Asia in the sphere of communist views. With the thought of the domino theory that a country will fall in similar events like the neighboring countries, like China as Vietnam’s neighbor the United States tried to remove communism from Vietnam. US’s involvement in the war caused problems for both sides of the war.
In her work, “This is Our World,” Dorothy Allison shares her perspective of how she views the world as we know it. She has a very vivid past with searing memories of her childhood. She lives her life – her reality – because of the past, despite how much she wishes it never happened. She finds little restitution in her writings, but she continues with them to “provoke more questions” (Allison 158) and makes the readers “think about what [they] rarely want to think about at all” (158).
Coates is tells his son about achieving The American Dream, the difficulties he seen and experienced due to racism, and unfair/injustice ways. His book shows how racism makes The American Dream difficult to achieve, how the environment we live in affects us and how the roots of black people has an impact on our lives today.
Ta-Nehisi Coates’ award winning work Between the World and Me addressed the many issues that the black community faces. A memorable part of the book was the idea that the American Dream was unattainable for African-Americans. The former Howard student stated that the Dream was built on the backs of black bodies. To have African Americans achieve the Dream would mean that the system that it was built upon would be overturned. The Dream required institutions such as the prison-industrial complex, slavery, Jim Crow, etc. Had these institutions not been a part of the history of America, its history would be totally different, thus making the Dream just that, a dream. The most impactful message that Coates’ book left was that America, throughout
Ta-Nehisi Coates in Between the World and Me discusses the issues black people have to deal with in America on a daily basis by expressing his point of view to his son in a letter. He begins by explaining his years when he was just a kid and already seeing the fear in his black neighborhood, by the way they talked, walked, and by the way the parents beat their children. As he grows up he tries to look for an outlet, look for people that understand his situation, and that is when he starts to attend Howard University, where his mind began to open. But even after he left Howard University, he continued to have this fear for world until one day his good friend Prince Jones was robbed of his body by a white officer, and instead that fear turned
Ta-nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me is a powerful piece of literature that highlights both the beauty and trauma of the black life in America. Coates discusses the struggles he endured while growing up in poverty as well as his enlightening experience at Howard University. By showing both the positive and negative experiences of a black man in America, Coates provides an intriguing perspective on the racial disparities in the U.S. as well as the influence of an institution like Howard University.
Obama, a major symbol for the Black community, is not exclusive to Black people, like Michelle Obama would’ve been. He belongs to the White community, to the ‘nowhere man’ community, to the immigrant community. Coates himself sees himself as first and formost a Black man. Moreover, perhaps that this makeup challeneges Obama in understanding how to elevate Black America, because it is the part of him that is the farthest away. If anything, Iyer described it best. Obama, while being able to appeal to a wide vareity of people, is like a nonaligned nation. Thus for the average Black man, the appeal is not as bright to others, and the identification can only resignate so
In The Heathen School, John Demos follows the story of a school for indigenous youth in Cornwall, Connecticut that was at danger of being lost in time as just “a piece of local history” (265). The story is entwined in the history of early America, a time when prejudice against non-whites was prevalent. The school and the youth that were brought to America from all over the world faced many challenges, which some faced well, but others did not. The story follows the school from its creation to its eventual closure, as well as some of the students’ lives after leaving the school. The story is intermixed with historical background and stories of the author’s journey as he conducted his research for the book.
In Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder teaches philosophy and it explains basic philosophical ideas better than any other reading book or textbook that I have ever read. The many philosophical lessons of the diversified thinkers of their own time were dexterously understood. The author has a wonderful knack for finding the heart of a concept and placing it on display. For example, he metamorphoses Democritus' atoms into Lego bricks and in a stroke makes the classical conception of the atom dexterously attainable. He relates all the abstract concepts about the world and what is real with straightforward everyday things that everyone can relate to which makes this whole philosophy course manageable. ''The best way of approaching philosophy is to ask a few philosophical questions: How was the world created? Is there any will or meaning behind what happens? Is there a life after death? How can we answer these questions? And most important, how ought we to live?'' (Gaarder, Jostein 15).
What I liked most about this book was the reality it revealed. It showed how brutal and cruel the society was. This book made me realize that racism is deeply embedded in the life and history of the nation, and it still exists in today’s society.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s This Earth of Mankind is an allegorical novel describing the growth of protagonist Minke during the pre-awakening of colonized Java. Set in 1898 during the period of imperial Dutch domination over all aspects of Javan life, the novel provides a clear image of the political and social struggles of a subjugated people through the point of view of a maturing youth. Using several of his novel’s major characters as allegorical symbols for the various stages of awareness the citizens of Java have of Indonesia’s awakening as a modern nation, Toer weaves together an image of the rise of an idyllic post-colonial Indonesia with modern views of Enlightenment ideals.