Emmett Till Rhetorical Analysis

Dear John Wideman, The picture of Emmett Till’s brutalized body haunts me every day of my life.I was ten in the 5th grade when my teacher decided to show the class a film that showcased all the events leading up to the civil rights movements.The film talked about the case by only using images from his funeral .When Emmett Till’s body popped up on the screen The thought of a body that was once youthful was brutalized and turned into a what now looks like a monster.Maybe to the oppressor, Emmett Till and people alike will always be monsters.What do you think Emmett Till’s body symbolized for the generations of black people whose lives were put on hold because of the fear of their life being taken at any minute?Just Five years after his

Is it for us as the reader to question what you meant.Was it meant for us to think about it and to make our own judgment? Or is it a point where as the audience should reflect on these huge statements you make.In the text, you stated that “Now there seems to be in our ritual of mourning for our dying children no sense of communal, general loss, no larger empowering vision.We don’t connect our immediate trails-drugs, gang violence, empty schools, empty minds, empty homes, empty values to the ongoing historical struggle to liberate ourselves from the oppressive legacies of slavery and apartheid.”This bold statement that talks about how we as the black community need to find new ways to emancipate ourselves by looking at our losses and gain control of our needs.Usually with statements like that the writer would offer a solutions or feelings but afterward you go right back to telling Emmett Till’s story.
Your writing style allowed for me to think about the story of Emmett Till in ways in which I didn’t think was imaginable.The way you merged fiction and nonfiction probably wouldn’t have work if this was another story.Because of the simple fact that we could make up a story about how a black person would get killed by a police officer tomorrow and tomorrow it would most likely happen.It may not be the story that is real but the reality of