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Running Head: CRITICAL RESPONSE ESSAY 1 Critical Response Essay Amity Baldwin ENG 121 Aimee Ford October 8, 2019
2 CRITICAL RESPONSE ESSAY Critical Response Essay Wildness equates with freedom. In the article, “Free Spirits: A Legacy of Wildness," Bell Hooks is describing the place where she grew up, the wilderness of the backwoods of Kentucky and the freedom that came with living in a remote location. Black and white people live among each other in this area, but not in complete harmony. Even though there is diversity, everyone pretty much lives in the same way, and that is off the land, using what they must to get by. The people of the backwoods of Kentucky do not conform to the standards of civilization. They have their own set of rules. The author describes the time she left the area and went to the West Coast to attend college. She minimally describes the differences in culture and what it was like returning to her home after being away. Through analysis of the situations that Bell Hooks describes in “Free Spirits: A Legacy of Wildness”, we learn that living in the hills of Kentucky, away from civilization, there is freedom for all people, black or white, to live the way they choose, and after experiencing life in other locations, they can still return to their roots. Place is the concept in Bell Hooks' essay. She describes the area in which she lived as a child and an adult as being a remote location in Kentucky, where people were free to make up their minds about how they wanted to live. She describes her childhood as "growing up in a world of wild things" (Hooks, 2008, pg. 37). I could relate very much to the author being allowed by her mother to roam free through the backwoods with her brother when they were kids. I grew up in a country setting, where there was much freedom to be had. Although it was not as remote as the backwoods of Kentucky, I could roam free on the land my family owns. My extended family lived together in separate houses built on this land. Living among family provided the luxury of having a close relationship with all my family members; however, there
3 CRITICAL RESPONSE ESSAY was not any diversity in the area that I grew up. People of different races lived in the city about thirty miles away from where I lived. Segregation played a part in the backwoods of Kentucky when Bell Hooks was growing up. Black and white people mostly did not mix; however, they were able to cohabitate, and most everyone lived a mediocre life. No matter what their race, these people fished, hunted, and grew their food to survive. They even made their alcoholic beverages (Hooks, 2008, pg. 38). My interpretation of Ms. Hooks' description of the segregation was that most folks got along even though they separated themselves according to their race. I did not get the impression that there was any hatred among the people of the backwoods. They chose to keep apart from each other. According to Hooks, these are people who just wanted to live free from the laws and rules of civilization (Hooks, 2008, pg.38). Neither race chose to identify themselves as "hillbillies." In my opinion, "hillbillies" is more of a stereotype conjured up by people who adhere to civilization. Diversity is not something I ever had much experience with when I was growing up. I lived in a predominately white area and never experienced any interaction with other races until I was about ten years old. My brother and I would go to the city to visit our mother on the weekends. We had many friends in our mother's neighborhood, and some of these friends were black. As children, we did not know about segregation or racism, so it was never an issue among our group of friends. It was not until I was a teenager and had moved to live with my mother in the city, that I learned what racism and segregation meant. An experience of diversity occurred for Hooks once she left the backwoods of Kentucky and went to the West Coast to attend college. I imagine, for most backwoods' people, college is something of a dream. Hooks does not go into much detail regarding her college experience, except to mention that she "came to associate the passion for freedom she experienced as a child
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