Between The World And Me Analysis

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.

Reading the content in this book made me get a picture of what it was like to be a colored person in this time. My eyes were opened to the meaning of the word “nigga”. Nigga is such a derogatory term, yet now-a-days it is used by people so much. Kids in this generation use it as a term of endearment when they see their friends, or they say it when they are shocked by something. Frankly, I don’t believe they know how serious it really is. The fact that white people could look at a person and see less than a human being when they did nothing wrong distresses me. They (white people) treated them as if they were property and below them. Even though we don’t have racism to this extent

Between the World and Me is an extended letter from Ta-Nehisi Coates to his son, Samori, about the countries systematic racism and discrimination against african americans. Coates writes this letter for his 15-year-old son the same year as the Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Michael Brown and the beginning of the “Black Lives Matter” movement. The letter is broken up into 3 sections where he shares his personal experiences as well as his thought and beliefs on the unjust treatment. The letter starts off with coates reminiscing about a time where he was on a talk show where the host asks Coates why he felt that “white America’s” Progress was built on destruction.

Ta-Nehisi Coates writes to his son in his narrative Between the World and Me. He explains what it is to be living as a black person in America on an intellectual level. Coates also talks about his journey through life including attending the illustrious Howard University and gaining cultural literacy. Coates goes throughout his story telling of personal experiences as a black man, as well as referring to historical events. This narrative is very relatable to not only myself, but many young African Americans in the same position as me.

While reading Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, it is impossible to not learn something. Coates’s writing is filled with his very distinct viewpoint on the world which he shares with the readers. His viewpoint of the world allows the readers to step into his shoes and see the world or a completely different perspective. Coates hits on many major points throughout his writing, but the main message that carries on throughout the entirety of the book is that it hard to live in America in a black body. Coates takes the message a step further by talking more specifically about the struggles of living in America in a black, male body.

Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me has been compared favorably with James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. The book begins with a letter to his nephew which Coats mimics in writing to his son. Themes of ‘Bodies’ related to racial identity, the experience of being black in America, and how to break down racial barriers are very prominent in both books however they vary slightly.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a book that demands attention in today 's society where racism and hostility towards the black community are still very common. The book is written in the form of a letter to Coates’s son where he examines the black body and how it is viewed in the world by white americans. Coates gives insight into relevant social justice issues such as Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Trayvon Martin and provides an intense reality depicting the life of those in the black community. Coates describes his life growing up and explains the ever changing realizations he comes to regarding the black body as he grows and develops. He takes the readers on a journey through his experiences and education, allowing us to directly see his opinions regarding the black body develop and reshape over time. Coates focuses in on his different forms of education and how they influenced his opinions on power and freedom of the black body. Ultimately through his life experiences and education Coates realizes that the black body can be viewed as simultaneously powerful and powerless within society.

After reading Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, I felt that the most powerful message in the book was Coates’ assertion that African Americans are striving for the “Dream” which is in fact unreachable. The “Dream” is supposed to be the desire of people to live in a big house with a white picket fence and a big yard, however because it was built on the backs of black people, literally, it is not something that is a realistic goal or a realistic dream. Coates wants his son to realize that America has been built on the marginalization of black people and other minorities and that because of this, it is not a place which will allow races that white people have deemed as “lesser” to prosper. The first major takeaway that I got from reading

Throughout this semester we have read many interesting pieces that all tie into one big topic. In the book “Between the World and Me” Coates writes a letter to his fifteen year old son Samori. He goes on to tell him all about his upbringing in the ghettos of Baltimore where he learned the codes of the streets in order to survive, but never truly embraced them. Coates goes on to tell how his father was so hard on him growing up, but soon realized growing up in an African American family that they usually were more strict with their children because they didn’t wanna lose them.

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).

A Kicked Apple Does Fall Far From the Tree Parents can have a huge impact on the lives of children and their perception of the world. These superheros are the first people a child sees when he or she enters the world, they are the people who shape a child’s mind to comprehend the world, and they are the people who assist the child in finding his or her way around in the world. Both Ta-Nehishi Coates and Sherman Alexie have father figures in their writings, but their parenting styles are very different. The result, however, was the same as both parenting styles resulted in a son who wanted more from life than what his father had.

The reading that I found most compelling to me was W.E.B DuBois excerpt titled “The Souls of Black Folk”. I find this reading compelling because DuBois was a huge advocate on togetherness and that people were being treated equal. During time that this reading was created, there were many obstacles African Americans were facing in that era that was not so promising for a bright future. The struggles they faced were, racial biasness, lack of representation and lack of educational attainment. DuBois presented the idea of double consciousness and the veil, which has specified a structure for how African Americans indulge in society. Nonetheless, he explains the delinquent issues of the twentieth century and that the problem is the color-line which divided race. The theories of life after the veil of cultural biasness and development of double-consciousness, the act of constantly looking at particular individuals through the scrutiny of others, while creating a broader viewpoint on how to roughly speak about cultural biasness in society. Moreover, the everlasting ideas proposes a specific duty of the progression of the race culture, the obstacles to overcome, and the potential necessities for forthcoming growth as society reached the twentieth century. Over time DuBois observe the years after trailing the Civil War and, The Freedmen 's Bureau’s role in Reconstruction. The catastrophes of the Department 's were not only directed toward the southern disapproval and general

“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.

As I get reminded of my life as a young child, I can see mostly positive memories that I can consider it positively bland. On the other hand, Richard Wright’s life as a child is very harsh but interesting. At times I can see, feel, and hear the reality and relatability that is brightened in his emotions as a four year old. Evocative descriptions of the thought processes Wright went through gives the book a style that brings me into his perspective at some ages. For instance, his thought processes as a four year old seem very likely to mine at that age. This gives me very strong relatability and moral support for Wright’s life and goals. The main difference in his life and mine is that the world was full of things that make it close to impossible for Wright to reach his dream of being an African American writer. There was a lot of hate and discrimination that swarmed him in the story of his life. Despite this, Wright shows the struggles of his life to bring out empathy, he shows his values and how they changed in his life, and he implies that his life could have been better if things were to change in society at that time.

Often as citizens who are comfortable in our environments and experience privilege we often forget that there are others around us who are not as fortunate or people that live very different lifestyles from us. In Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates writes a letter to his son expressing a sense of fear and a warning of the world that he will soon experience on his own. As he looks around and sees what is going on in the World he can’t help but think about how unfortunate it is and a wave of fear as he recalls back to his own memories growing up. How difficult times were and how he never truly felt as if he belonged on had a place wherever he was, except when he was around people similar to him. It is as if something was between him and the world, which I think we can relate to today’s society,