Analysis Of The Book ' Who Shot Johnny '

In the essay “Just Walk on By”, by Brent Staples, Staples makes the generalized claim that both caucasians and african americans, including Staples himself, contribute to the stereotyping of black men, as all around shady characters, in their own way, however, not all black men fit the stereotype.

Over the years, our generations’ stereotypical views over the issue on young black males being viewed as dangerous has grown significantly. There are different reasons why these stereotypes occur in our society. People feel on edge when running into them in dark passageways, whenever it’s late at night. Also, while they’re sitting at red lights and notice someone walking towards their cars, they instantly initiate down the door locks. People think stereotyping black men this way keeps them safer because they assume the worst. However; other people disagree with instantly judging who they see around them, it hurts more people as well as themselves by viewing black men this way. Brent Staples, the author of “Black Men and Public Spaces,” claims that he’s considered a stereotypical black criminal. In his essay, Staples succeeds because he successfully appeals to people’s emotions, is an expert on human behavior, creates common ground and offers a logical solution.

In “Who Shot Johnny” by Debra Dickerson, Dickerson recounts the shooting of her 17 year old nephew, Johnny. She traces the outline of her life, while establishing a creditable perception upon herself. In first person point of view, Dickerson describes the events that took place after the shooting, and how those events connected to her way of living. In the essay, she uses the shooting of her nephew to omit the relationship between the African American society, and the stereotypic African American society.

Oliver also writes in “African American Men”, “Research and public opinion polls of people’s attitudes and beliefs about crime reveal… greater fear of crime when in the presence of African Americans.” Modern day social medias also support the concept of unlawful persecutions, spanning from videos of beating or even obituaries, of African American men that can be a result of the perception society has of the potential threats African Americans may have in comparison to citizens of another

There is no doubt that war is evil in every way. It is full of hatred and conflict and nothing comes out of it. It brings death, destruction, and the worst out of people. In a pacifistic yet desperate tone, Dalton Trumbo promotes anti-war ideals by explaining the life of a young soldier after he got affected by war in his novel Johnny Got His Gun. While some individuals’ point of view match with Trumbo’s, others may disagree with his reasoning. The controversial issue of the acceptance of war is talked about everybody, even popular artists. Some singers express their opinions on war via their songs, like George H. Cohan in his song “Over There (Johnny, Get Your Gun)”, and the band Metallica with their song “One”. Each sends different messages depending on the setting, their music’s genre, and diction used in the making of the lyrics.

As equality has become a prevalent issue and has furthered the significance of how all races are represented in all types of media. It only makes sense for there to be an increase in the effect of the stereotypes because it is what is being shown on television. On everyday television shows, African Americans are commonly: thieves, hookers, robbers, drug dealers or dumb. In the early 60s, African Americans were used as comedic relief in white television shows, creating stereotypes that black people are only used for talent or comedic relief. However, in this world, African Americans are pushed into the similar lives of the weird kids and/or losers that don’t accept their race. This

Another common negative stereotype, establishes the African American male as intellectually inferior. Studies directed by psychologist Claude Stale, indicate that African American teenagers are aware that they are stigmatized as being intellectually inferior and the go to school bearing what psychologist Claude has called a “burden of suspicion” Such burden can affect their attitudes and achievements. These shadows hang over stigmatized people no matter their status or accomplishments. These stigmas have the potential to roll them of their individually and debilitate their attempts to break out of the stereotypical roles. Blacks are the repository for the American fear of crime. Ask anyone, of any race, to picture a criminal and the image will have a black face. The linked between blackness and criminality it’s routinized by terms such a “black-on-black crimes” or “black crimes”.

Primarily, this paper is structured as a cause and effect essay as he narrates his personal experience, reinforcing his message and making the audience realize his viewpoints. In his article, Staples takes out all of his frustrations of being treated as a criminal throughout the passage. Firstly, Staples express the fear a white woman faced when she felt a young,broad six feet two inches black man with a beard and billowing hair was menacingly close. He continues by stating more incidents he experienced as a teenager, as a journalist and so on where people (mostly women) panicked imagining him as a mugger or a rapist. Furthermore, the author

As evidenced from the past tense verb in the title of the novel, Johnny Got His Gun takes as its focus the aftermath of war for a soldier, rather than the optimistic, patriotic prewar time frame upon which other novels—as well as the original song "Johnny Get Your Gun"—focus. Although the novel remains clear about the fact that Johnny received his injuries from an exploding shell, Johnny does not ever think back to combat warfare. The novel takes as its opponent not combat warfare but rather the mentality of warfare and organization of modern warfare by the moneyed classes. Joe's memories related to the war, such as the Lazarus story, or the story of the man with a flap over his stomach, do not directly deal with warfare. Instead, these various memories create a sense of the incomprehensible decay, injury, and pain that result from war. Joe remembers the stories with a wry tone that gives a sense of the absurdity of each of the situations—such as the rumor about the man who lost his face only to return home and die at his wife's hands. In this sense, the use of the war in the text remains true to its use in the title of the novel: the war exists as a precondition for senseless and grotesque injury and

Many people in the United States have either experienced or witnessed some form of discrimination in their lifetimes, and one person, in particular, was Brent Staples, an African-American man who lived in New York during the mid-1970’s, which was not too long after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. Racial tensions in the United States were still considerably high back then, and this led to racism and discrimination towards others based on their social statuses such as race, class, and gender, and Staples himself has dealt with this issue numerous times in the past, which inspired him to write and to share his own thoughts and experiences about this controversial topic. He believed that even though black men were statistically more likely to get convicted of crimes than any other racial or minority group, it didn’t mean that all black men were violent criminals. He chose to format his writing into a personal essay for his story to have a more personal tone to it that anyone who reads it can easily relate to. The purpose of this text was to raise public awareness of the unfair discrimination in a society that Staples, along with many others, had encountered time and time again. It was written for both the general public and anyone who has also experienced discrimination to use as motivation to try to better themselves and make people realize that not all of them fit the stereotypes that society has set towards certain minority groups. In his text, Just Walk on By, Brent

In his one of the most known articles, “Just Walk on By,” Brent Staples tries to touch readers’ hearts with his emotional words and an optimistic character. He points out an important yet normally disregarded issue of our society. He shows how a black man’s character is viewed in the society; they are mostly seen as thieves, robbers, rapists, muggers and as many other criminal personalities. However, Staples believes he is not one of those and supposes that all black men are not similar to how they are usually judged. Thus, Staples uses emotional appeal and his polite character as a way to gather audience’s sympathy towards black men.

The black male has often been depicted as a thug, hoodlum, a gangster, and as a man with an itchy trigger finger. This is obviously why many young people have grown to be subtly racist their toward fellow Americans, while others have grown such hatred that they form radical organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, Neo Nazis, and skinheads. Hate crimes are still evident and not as uncommon as many people

Within essay one, Black Men in Public Spaces by Brent Staples it describes the life and experiences of a young African American man living between Chicago and New York City over about a ten year span. Due to stereotypes on his race, society assumes he compliments them resulting in being viewed as dangerous

Remember that black guy that walked by you the other day on your way to work? The one you assumed was a “thug” and sold drugs? He could have been in medical school law school, or any other type of educational institution, trying to educate himself and make the best of his life. So why did you think of him as a “thug”? This is the image society portrays. Society portrays every young black male as a low-life, selling drugs, killing others, with no education. Trayvon Martin could have been a doctor or an astronaut for all we

War has been around since the beginning of mankind. Whether it is to protect, conquer, or for revenge war has always occured. Regardless of whether a war is won, the consquence of war is death. Death can be literally dead, mentaly dead, or physically dead. Shown in both, Wilson’s War Address, and Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, war is fought for words such as: honor, freedom, decency, independence, etc...