Between The World And Me Analysis

America is seen as the country of liberty and equality; however, internal conflicts ruin such perceptions of America. Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about an American internal conflict of racial inequality in his open letter “Letter to My Son”, which was published by The Atlantic on July 4th in reference to Independence Day. He claims that the American Dream that many citizens strive for is creating a racial gap in socio-economic equality. Throughout Coates’s open letter to his son, Coates uses his ethos appeal as an educated individual and pathos appeal as a loving father in order to build up his convincing argument of African-American inequality and to appeal to his intended audience, who are parents of all ethnicities; however, his lack of logos and use of situational experiences weakens his argument due to the lack of compatibility with his intended audience.

Coates spent his childhood years in a poor Baltimore public school, a system that “mostly meant always packing an extra number 2 pencil and working quietly” (Coates 25). He grew up believing that “The world had no time for the childhoods of black boys and girls” (Coates 25). School was not to him a place of education but rather an institution whose purpose was to train the students to obey and conform. “Algebra, Biology, and english were not subjects so much as opportunities to better discipline the body” (Coates 25).

The book, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, is written as a letter to his son. Coates cuts into the experience of the father as advice too the son. He writes this letter to his son to educate and awaken his son to the logic of white supremacy and the obstacles he will face as a black man this world. However, Ta-Nehisi’s son isn’t the only audience. He exposes the readers too the effect of racism on Black America, from history until present day. The purpose of this essay is to conduct a rhetorical analysis on Ta-Nehisi Coates’, Between the World and Me regarding his usage of ethos, pathos and logos to unveil the ongoing effect of the system of racism that continues to cause major problems to our society.

Racial injustice and Black oppression is a topic seen in every newspaper and on every news station today. A topic considered taboo in most social situations, is taken on by Tu-Nehisi Coates in “A Letter to My Son”. Coates creates an environment of familiarity, acceptance and relatability for the reader by using powerful words choice and language that invokes emotions. Vulnerability and anger from his experience incorporate a personal view and stake in the heated topic which is enhanced by a letter which eases tension on a heated topic.

Between the World and Me, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, is written as a letter to his son about realities associated with being black in the United States of America. His tone is somewhat poetic and quite bleak, based on his personal experiences. The book is intense, it is an address to a nation that ignores its own blatant history of racism, a nation that does not prosecute police officers who kill innocent black citizens, a nation that supports a policy of mass incarceration. He writes about growing up in Baltimore, Maryland and details the ways in which institutions (school, police, and the streets) discipline, endanger, and threaten to harm black men and women. Between the World and Me is an intimate confession of the fears of a black American father.

“Between the World and Me”, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, is a letter written to his son about what it means to be black and how tough it is to be a part of this race in the United States of America. In this book, Coates talks about his life in the black community, starting from childhood memories all the way to present day. Coates also tries sends a message, which is that his son should not lower his guard and be completely confident about who he is, instead he should be afraid about what the world is capable of doing to a black man. In this work, Coates disagrees on what it means to be black or white in America.

In part one of “Between the World and Me,” Coates gives constant examples on how the black community deals with the loss of their bodies and violence on the daily. He makes his argument by being brutally honest. He does not hold back when talking on the subject, making the reader feel somewhat convicted after reading. He uses the element of right timing throughout part one to show how intense racism still is.

In a time where racism is a dirty word, and is thought by many to be a thing of the past, Between the World and Me goes above and beyond to obliterate misconceptions that racism is not a constant presence in today’s America. It’s easy to deny the presence of racism throughout America’s history when it hasn’t directly affected you, but Ta-Nehisi Coates brings it to the surface in a way that makes it impossible to ignore.

Coates compares the lives of black people and the lives of white people, and the white life seems somewhat better than the way blacks live. For example, Coates explains how when he went to a white neighborhood and he was experiencing what the Dream was all about. He noticed how “There was so much money everywhere”. This means that when Coates seen all the different stored and people they looked like they had a lot of money, his is exactly what the American Dream is. “I saw white parents pushing double-wide strollers down Harlem boulevards”, the Dream is

Between the World and Me has been called a book about race, but the author argues that race itself is a flawed, if anything, nothing more than a pretext for racism. Early in the book he writes, “Race, is the child of racism, not the father.” The idea of race has been so important in the history of America and in the self-identification of its people and racial designations have literally marked the difference between life and death in some instances. How does discrediting the idea of race as an immutable, unchangeable fact changes the way we look at our history? Ourselves? In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and the current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the

Coates describes his early forms of education in grades k-12 and the ways in which it shaped his views of the black body. This period of education was a time in which Coates viewed the black body as powerless based on the difficult situation he was living. This early educational experience in Coats’s life was extremely conflicting due to the fact that the

The choice of form for Ta-Nehisi Coates’ novel Between the World and Me is very interesting and powerful. Coates uses the form of a letter to his son to tell his story. This gives the author a chance to express the personal struggles he and other people of color were dealing with during his coming-of-age. While many Autobiographies are written in a first-person style with an almost essay-like format, Coates strays away from tradition and offers an exciting take on this genre and his life.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, a writer for The Atlantic, discusses in a memoir addressed to his son about remembering the past and the current challenges of being African-American in the excerpt from Between The World and Me. He expresses that the struggles of the past should not be forgotten because it has carried over to contemporary times with African-Americans continuing to not be able to own their bodies. Coates claims that a struggle has existed among black people since the days of slavery. He expresses the importance of remembering the African slaves is that they were people; individuals, and too often, they are thrown into one group together instead of being thought of who they were as a person. Their lives are a central part of African-American

The more I read into this book I get the sense that Coates is telling his son not to fit into the stereotype the world has created for him. Coates himself seems to struggle with this mental effort to avoid this trap that society has for him. There is a huge load imposed on black youth to navigate through dangerous and treacherous society that has required them to be drained mentally, physically, and emotionally. This idea can occur either by trying to avoid the stereotype of fitting into it. It also seems that either path you take you are not going to avoid this attempt in navigating through a harsh landscape of society.

Rosa Parks once said, “Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully we shall overcome.” Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Coates writes a letter to his son explaining what his life was like growing up in America as an African American man, and he also tries to give his son some moral advice on how to take charge of living as a man in a black body. Spike Lee directs a film on Malcolm X, who was a black activist and a leader of the struggle for black freedom. Both the book and film discuss slavery, civil rights, and police brutality. Coates and Malcolm X advocate that the malicious history of slavery has contributed to the shaping of modern day racism in America.