In the passages “The Watsons Go to Birmingham” & “Don’t Give Up The Fight” there is one theme that is shown throughout both of the passages, being different. But that theme is shown in many different ways. In “Don’t Give Up the Fight” Ava was being bullied by all of the boys in her track team just because she was the only girl on the track team. In “ The Watsons Go to Birmingham” it was not only the Watsons that were being mistreated, but everyone that was black was being mistreated. They haven't mistreated the same way, though. The Watsons were suffering from racism because of their skin color, and Ava was suffering from sexism because she’s a girl.
The theme being different is shown throughout the story “Don’t Give Up the Fight” in a couple of ways. For instance, Ava in was being
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Similarly, the Watsons were being mistreated by “Whites” because they were black. They were not allowed to go into the same public places. That act is shown in the play when Bryon wanted to go eat hot dogs at a “white only restaurant” Byron asked the waitress “Two hot dogs, please.” The waitress stares at them in shock. “You go round back if you wants something to eat.” The waitress told him. “What?” he asked confused. Mr.Robert rushes in. “Sorry, they’re from Michigan. These boys don’t know how things are done in Birmingham.” Now that they went to visit Birmingham things aren’t the same as they were in Flint, Michigan. Now they are experiencing segregation. Later in the story when Joetta (Byron’s sister) was going to go sing in the church everyone heard a loud boom and Mr.Robert rushed into the house “Someone bombed the church!” That was a very big racist act towards African Americans, because not only did they blow up something precious for them, but they killed several children too. They did that just because they were different in color and their hate towards black
Firstly, the part of the book when Billy got into a fight with the kids in the town is a great example of the theme change is inevitable. This part of the book demonstrates the theme that change is inevitable because Billy didn’t have a choice whether or not to fight. The town kids started teasing him first; he was bedraggled, dirty, and messy. Since he stuck out so much, the town kids started to tease him by pulling Billy’s hound’s ears and stepping on his bare feet. As a result, Billy became furious. “Smack on the end of Freck’s nose [his fist] exploded” (Rawls 43). Billy soon got dragged down in a maelstrom of punching and fighting. This fray was inevitable because Billy stuck out so much. The malicio...
In the novels The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis and My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, two young boys are faced with the challenge of learning the moral and ethical codes that will shape their futures. Kenny Watson and Tim Meeker live in very different times, but they face events that complicate their lives. Though one boy learns his morals through playful encounters and the other is forced to educate himself during a war, the conclusion of each story shows that both characters have successfully found sets of rules to follow.
Christopher Paul Curtis wrote The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 throughout the course of 1995. The novel follows the Watsons, a black family living in Flint, Michigan during the Civil Rights Era. In a historical context, 1963 and the early 1990s have far more in common than one would expect. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 following the church bombing in Birmingham, and yet race-based discrimination remains a problem even in our modern society via passive racism. This paper will analyze the ways in which Curtis’ The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 draws parallels between the time in which his is writing during and the time in which he is writing about. This analysis will also shed light on what can be called the “white standard,” wherein all things white are “good” or “better” and anything not-white is “bad.”
In the reading it had mentioned about how Blacks were inferior, which I believe they are seen that way when whites are seen as superiors. On page 60, it also mentioned that the planters had a choice between expanding opportunities to whites or solidifying the line “based on class and race” and exploiting workers from Africa. Blacks were punished more harshly, and were not afforded the opportunities of future freedom, as many of the whites had. There was also a law that made it illegal for white women to be with black men, and the women would be punished. The mixed race children were called mulattos, and were eventually forced into slavery. In Rethinking the Color Line by Charles A. Gallagher it had mentioned how we cannot conveniently racially categorize someone who is racially “mixed” or of an ethnic racial group with which we are not familiar. According to Charles A. Gallagher, there was legislation put in place to decide whether these children were considered "black" or not. Initially, it was to be that a child was considered black or white based on the "condition" of their
The stories that the author told were very insightful to what life was like for an African American living in the south during this time period. First the author pointed out how differently blacks and whites lived. She stated “They owned the whole damn town. The majority of whites had it made in the shade. Living on easy street, they inhabited grand houses ranging from turn-of-the-century clapboards to historics”(pg 35). The blacks in the town didn’t live in these grand homes, they worked in them. Even in today’s time I can drive around, and look at the differences between the living conditions in the areas that are dominated by whites, and the areas that are dominated by blacks. Racial inequalities are still very prevalent In today’s society.
In Maycomb and Alexandria, the whites in the community do not treat the blacks respectfully. When Coach Boone first arrives into town from North Carolina the white residents responds to the sight of a black man saying, "Why aren't outside with all your little friends hollering," as well as, "are those people the movers?" The whites create a stereotype about Boone stating that since he is black he is like all the other rowdy blacks. This stereotype is false since Coach Boone is urbane and reserved, not wanting to cause a riot on his first day in town. Additionally when the town assumes that all African-Americans are "the help" shows that the whites see themselves as superior than blacks. During the 1930s in Maycomb, Mrs. Dubose says to Scout, "Your father is no better than the niggers and trash he works for" (102). Mr. Dubose, being prejudiced saying whites or above blacks, also shows how the town in both stories is prejudiced towards the minority of blacks. So because the blacks are not seen as equal, the development of the story is played out to show how the African-Americans respond to the whites racial discrimination. When the football team is returnin...
Whites had more power than the Negroes because of the history they have behind them. Mayella Ewell was a woman in the 1930’s and yes, women back then were not treated as citizens. As Atticus delivers his closing argument on how the person who beat Mayella with his left, Tom cannot use his left due to a job accident. By contrasting the difference in race and gender, in the 1930’s these were a big thing, To examine the results of race, gender are way different.
Jacqueline and her family aren’t treated fairly, because of the color of their skin. If they sit near the front of the bus, the driver will make them move. If there is a white person walking on the sidewalk the have to step off the curb and let
The interesting part is pathos. Pathos is the most powerful of the three and many authors rely on it most. To appeal to pathos they use similar and different strategies. Mairs uses humour and anecdotal evidence. Baldwin also uses anecdotal evidence, but nothing else. This is something you don’t have too deep into to understand. It is very obvious from Baldwin’s tone throughout the essay that he has a more negative view on society and how racism is during that time period. Mairs keeps her essay more light and positive with humor while Baldwin doesn’t try to cover up how things were with
Emotionally, how could someone stand and watch, whether they believe in segregation or not, another human get beat. These innocent people are getting hurt for supporting a belief they believe is correct. Emotions is what allows the reader to create an image in their head and cringe during the harsh, descriptive words. Without emotions, the ability to see the blacks perspective would be boggled by laws and what is only told to be morally
The author distinguishes white people as privileged and respectful compared to mulattos and blacks. In the racial society, white people have the right to get any high-class position in a job or live in any place. In the story, all white characters are noble such as Judge Straight lawyer, Doctor Green, business-man George, and former slaveholder Mrs. Tryon. Moreover, the author also states the racial distinction of whites on mulattos. For example, when Dr. Green talks to Tryon, “‘The niggers,’., ‘are getting mighty trifling since they’ve been freed.
the racial hatred of the people. Black people were thought to be inferior to white people and in the 1960s when the novel was written, black communities were rioting and causing disturbances to get across the point that they were not inferior to white people. After Abolition Black people were terrorised by the Ku Klux Klan, who would burn them, rape the women, and torture the children and the reader is shown an example of. this in Chapter 15 where a group of white people, go to the county. jail to terrorise Tom Robinson.
...hool every day, whilst the white school bus goes past and sprays them with red dust. This also shows segregation, whites and blacks had to be as far apart as possible according to the whites. In the novel we see segregation many times: when Big Ma parks the wagon the other side of the field, the different schools and different buses. Taylor does use strong and powerful language through her characters and events to portray the racism. She also had a clear structure, some may find it confusing at times, but overall it does not affect how prejudice is portrayed as events follow each other. I think that the final message of the novel, perhaps, is that survival is possible, but that there are inevitable losses along the way, and that whatever race we are should not matter. Taylor uses memorable characters and big and small events to show prejudice in 1930?s Mississippi.
Dudley Randall's Ballad of Birmingham gives a poetic account of the bombing of a Birmingham church in 1963. The poem was written in ballad form to convey the mood of the mother to her daughter. The author also gives a graphic account of what the 1960's were like. Irony played a part also in the ballad showing the church as the warzone and the freedom march as the safer place to be.
In southern place of Rural Georgia there were racial issues. Walker discuss stereotypes that Celie went through as the daughter of a successful store owner, which ran by a white man Celie did not have no right to. The black characters and community were stereotyped through their lives to have human rights (Walker 88-89). Walker engages the struggle between blacks and whites social class, blacks were poor and the whites were rich. This captures the deep roots of the south discrimination against blacks. African-American women went through misery, and pain of racism to be discriminated by the color of their skin. Another major racist issue Hurston represent in “The Color Purple” is when Sofia tells the mayors wife saying “hell no” about her children working for her, Sofia was beaten for striking back to a white man (Walker 87). Racism and discrimination in the black culture did not have basic rights as the whites instead they suffered from being mistreated to losing moral