When talking about segregation many people say, ¨laundry is the only thing that should be separated by color,¨that is very true in the novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 which is an allegory of differences by the author and poet Christopher Paul Curtis.. The novel is about a 13 year old troublemaker Byron Watson goes too far by processing his hair Byron and his family then decide to bring him to the only person who can change Byron into a kind and responsible boy, Grandma Sands in Alabama. Within three days of going to Birmingham, Alabama a few white men put a bomb on the doorstep of a sunday school which had young joetta Byron and Kenny’s little sister. Fearing something else might happen to Byron the Watson took him back home to his
In the novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis the author uses personification when he writes “The lights knocked some of the darkness out of the way and we felt safe again.” (pg. 97). With this metaphor the author is comparing the car to a fighter and the headlights are his fists knocking the dangers out of their way. With this personification the author is showing how fearful and threatened the Watsons feel at the rest stop in Appalachia. The Watson’s are afraid that if the people in the Appalachian “caught [them] out here like this they’d hang [them]” (pg. 96). During 1963 this is a realistic fear. The author’s use of descriptive language and personification helps to bring this fear to life in his novel.
The topic of Civil Rights is an interesting topic for so many people. This event changed history forever and allowed some people who couldn’t even get good jobs to become president of the United States or even have the same rights as others. In the book The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963, the author, Christopher Paul Curtis, wrote a story about a family that is living in this time. The author mostly focused on telling us a story of the Watson family and not really any historical events. I really would've liked it if the book gave more information on civil rights and not just have one historical event happen at the end of the book. Adding some more facts and history would have made the book more interesting. All in all, the book The Watsons Go
In the novel, The Watsons Go to Birmingham- 1963 Byron was not a good person in the beginning he did not do good stuff. For example, he was using matches 2 times. Although his parents said again not to use matches. Momma said what she always did if Byron uses matches again.
In the south, African Americans could not go to the same school as the white children. That made them mad because they were made equal. In the the book, The Watsons go to Birmingham, their cousins marched to have rights and to show that there should be no segregation between African Americans and whites. In the book ,The Watsons go to Birmingham it says “ White children often attended large, well equipped , modern schools while African American students went to one-room schoolhouses without enough books or teachers.”(207 -208) They treated them unfair because the African Americans got the hand me downs of the white kids.This is an example for how segregation fits in the book and when it really happened.
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
Birmingham, Alabama was one of the worst places for African Americans to be, especially during the 1960s. The Watson family, along with many others had chances of being attacked by attack dogs, sprayed with fire hoses, or be severely beaten. Emmet Till was a young African American who was shot and beaten in the middle of the night. there are chances that it may happen to anyone. The “Freedom Riders” were a group of protesters that were beaten wherever that stopped by, and there is a possibility that a family could happen to be exactly where they were at the time. People got hurt when this happened because they may mistake you as “one of them”. In The Watsons go to Birmingham, 1963, Kenny experienced the 16th street church bombing. After that, her had lost his innocence. kenny is only ten years old and that is an extremely young age to have to know the sorrow in the world. it doesn't seem fair for him to have to live with what he saw for the rest of his
“American cities didn’t simply sparkle in the summer of 1925. They simmered with hatred, deeply divided as always” (Boyle, 2005, p. 6). Life was extremely difficult for African Americans during the early 1920s; a period of time that was better known as the segregation era. In the book Arc of Justice, written by Kevin Boyle, the words “racism” and “segregation” play a significant role. Boyle focuses in the story of Ossian Sweet, a young African American doctor who buys a house in a white neighborhood in Detroit back in 1925. After Dr. Sweet’s arrival to their new home, he and his family suddenly become threatened by a white mob that is formed against their arrival. Dr. Sweet and his
In the fictional novel, The Watsons Go To Birmingham there were several historically accurate cultures and events from the 1960’s. Most of the story is based on the mother wanting to go to Alabama, because that’s where her family is. However her husband doesn’t think it is a good idea because he knows there is segregation down in the south, and he doesn’t want his kids to see all the hatred for people of a different skin color. Their children have not been exposed the separation of different skin colors because they live in Flint, Michigan, where there is not a lot of conflicts about segregation. Yet, at some point the family decides to make the long trip to Birmingham. Before they leave for their trip, their dad goes and buys a record player
In the beginning chapters of the book, we get a glimpse of the typical home and community of an African American during segregation. Many Africans Americans were too adjusted to the way of living, that they felt
If society did not justify segregation they would not be another one trying to pass as another race, Clare and Irene life would have been different. Clare might not have been abuse by her father, or force to live with her aunts. Nor would she have choose to pass in other to move out her economic difficult life, and lie to herself about being in love with a man who don’t really love her. Irene would have her ego knock down and would focus more on herself then the image of herself. She wouldn’t been the parties organizer for the NLA nor be marry to her husband Brain. Clare and Irene might of have been best friend if Society did not have control on the mass
Segregation had had many effects on the black nation, to the point that it started building up ones character, “See the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness towards white people”, King shows readers that segregation is even affecting little children, that it is starting to build up a young girls character and is contributing to the child developing hatred “bitterness” towards the white Americans. King makes readers imagine a black cloud settling in a young girls brain mentally, when instead she should have an image of a colorful blue sky with a rainbow, isn’t that suppose to be part of a 6 year-old’s imagination? King gives readers an image of destruction civil disobedience had created in the black community, especially in the young innocent little children.
DuBois's quote, "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line," tells a great deal of how Americans in general felt towards segregation -- each side had suspicions about the goings-ons of the other race. Blacks had a stronger sense of such hesitency because of their history with Whites, and Whites were generally afraid of anything different than themselves, thus the enslavement. Hughes, as a writer, dealt with this problem in a way that few had done, and fewer had done successfully --
Baldwin opens his argument acknowledging the distortion of segregation for the segregationists. According to Baldwin, people who, since birth, have been taught to think a certain way towards the African American race. “The white South African or Mississippi sharecropper or Alabama sheriff has at bottom a system of reality which compels them really to believe when they face the Negro that this
Like a sharp cutting knife, segregation separates races while bringing unfairness and inequality along with it. For example, in A Raisin in the Sun, the setting of the Younger’s house shows us how unfair and unequal the living conditions were for African-Americans. Three generations of the Younger family share a two bedroom, run down apartment. This shows that segregation leads to unfairness and inequality portrayed by Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun through conflict between the setting, the tone between Linder versus the Youngers’, and the symbolism of the family’s actions.
In the 1940‘s racial segregation gripped southern American life. The notion of separating blacks from whites created immense tension. Separate water fountains, bathrooms, restaurants, etc. were variables that helped keep races apart. “Jim Crow” laws in the south were intended to prevent blacks from voting. These laws, combined with the segregated educational system, instilled the sense that blacks were “separate” but not equal (174). Many people of color weren‘t able to survive through this time period because of the actions of whites. One individual who overcame the relentless struggles was Ralph Ellison. Ellison, a famous author, depicted racial segregation in the 1940’s through a fictional short story entitled “Battle Royal.” Battle