Ta-Nehisi Letter To His Son Analysis

To show first hand to the whites the inequality’s and hardships that the blacks face, the entire first section is in a narrative and a descriptive format. The use of these types of essays lets the readers feel more involved in the story and feel things for themselves. Split into two sections within itself, this first paragraph juxtaposes two stories — one about a “young Negro boy” living in Harlem, and the other about a “young Negro girl” living in Birmingham. The parallelism in the sentence structures of introducing the children likens them even more — despite the differences between them — whether it be their far away location, or their differing, yet still awful, situations. Since this section is focused more towards his white audience, King goes into a description of what it was like living as an African American in those times— a situation the black audience knew all too well. His intense word choice of describing the boy’s house as “vermin-infested” provokes a very negative reaction due to the bad

Ta- Nehisi creates pathos by also using his personal life to allow the readers to feel his past experiences. Also, the tone of the letters and the fact that is is indeed written for his son informs the audience about his concern for his son and his future. Coates challenges our understanding of America, “white America.” Coates embraces the fact that white supremacy is indeed in full effect and that we, as a black society are not aware or the fact, nor are we coming together to find a solution. As he quotes, “if we don't move soon, we are all going to die,” he speaks too the black society, rich and poor. Those with power and without, with knowledge and ignorance, if the black community does not come together we will continue to fail to the system and continue to lose lives. One example he uses for this is the system of police brutality. For many years police brutality has been in effect, where a white police officer approaches an

“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.

“Last Sunday the host of a popular news show asked me what it meant to lose my body”(Coates 5). The phrase “lose my body” is reiterated numerous times in Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The topic/theme of this piece of literature may be discernable as innocence as Ta-Nehisi profusely speaks of how his upbringing changed and affected his perspective on life. Coates uses a multitude of examples to portray this from how he witnessed another boy almost being shot at a young age to him learning and understanding the laws and “culture of the streets”(Coates 24) as who and even more who not to mess with(Coates 23). Coates effectively uses these examples as perfect representations of living in an American ghetto as well as how since birth blacks do not “own” their body and are susceptible to lose it.

The novel starts with Coates addressing his son, Samori.He begins recounting a time when he was invited on a talk show and the host asked him what it meant to lose his body, looking for an explanation as to why Coates “felt that white America’s progress, or rather the progress of those Americans who believe that they are white, was built on looting and violence.” This turned out to be a very heavy, intense, and loaded question. Coates went on to explain to his son that America was built on the oppression, abuse, and exploitation of black people, of their bodies, which only intensifies the hypocrisy of the democratic foundation that America prides itself on. The recent murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Renisha McBride, and other black people and “the destroyers who were rarely held accountable” prove that the disregard and mutilation of black bodies is embedded in America’s DNA, and no one gives it a second thought. The American “dream” that is built on the purity and innocence of wanting happiness was only ever made plausible by the oppression of black people, who still struggle to achieve that dream because they were abused into a life of silence and fear. “The Dream rests on their backs, the bedding made from their bodies.” Coates went on to explain how this history of exploitation and the fear that’s been rooted into the lives of black people in America followed him throughout his schooling and on the streets of his neighborhood. The schools that he was sent to discouraged black children, rather than encouraging growth and facilitating a healthy learning environment. The streets were carefully orchestrated for self defense. You had to protect yourself, because you knew the law wouldn’t. At Howard University, “the Mecca”, the excitement of witnessing the diversity that flooded the

A lack of self-awareness tended the narrator’s life to seem frustrating and compelling to the reader. This lack often led him to offer generalizations about ““colored” people” without seeing them as human beings. He would often forget his own “colored” roots when doing so. He vacillated between intelligence and naivete, weak and strong will, identification with other African-Americans and a complete disavowal of them. He had a very difficult time making a decision for his life without hesitating and wondering if it would be the right one.

The life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination… the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land (qtd. in W.T.L. 235).

The book Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a poignant reminder that the battle for equality is still ongoing for African Americans, and that the average black reality is rife with perils, which could easily lead to the destruction of life or liberty. In the wake of the recent string of deaths involving unarmed African American citizens by the hands of local law enforcement, Coates presents his narrative in the style of a letter to his son. Writing in the form of a letter offers a deeper sense of intimacy both with its perceived intended subject (Coates’s son) and the reader. The intimacy expressed through this narrative style denotes Coates’s own intense emotions to the reader regarding race in America. In this way, Coates offers a view that is authentic, humanistic, and emotionally charged contrary to just being an omniscient narrator.

Ta-Nehisi Coates’, Between the World and Me, articulates an important and meaningful message that is both provocative and insightful. The book starts off in a way that might seem unorthodox, by addressing the book as if it were a letter to his son. This has a more figurative meaning as it is not literally meant for him to read, rather more of the idea that a father must communicate the injustice of race in the United States of America. Coates’ book is not only influential because it expresses views that are not often accepted or said, but compares events and real life scenarios that had impacted him enough to write a book about it. This theme of concern for not only the country, but to all the young black Americans living in today's society

Between the world and me is a letter to Ta-Nehisi Coates's fifteen-year-old child, Samori. He weaves his own, authentic, and scholarly advancement into his ruminations on the most proficient method to live in a dark body in America.

The Negro of today is a failure, not because he meets insuperable difficulties in life, but because he is a Negro. His brain is not fitted for the higher forms of mental effort; his ideals, no matter how laboriously he is train and sheltered, remain hose of a clown. He is, in brief, a low-caste man, to the manner [sic] born, and he will remain inert and inefficient until fifty generations of him have lived in civilization. And even then, the superior white race will be fifty generations a head of him.

The purpose of this essay is to conduct a rhetorical analysis on Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me in regard to his usage of ethos, pathos, and logos. To unveil the ongoing affects that oppression continues to play on the African American community. Coates gives the readers ethos, by given a great introduction in chapter 1 of Between the World and Me. Coates’s letter to his teenage son, Samori, is about what it means to be a black person in America.

In Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, he writes to his son Samori about the dangers faced by black bodies regarding police intervention in the streets. Though many people, no matter what skin color, fail to recognize his concerns and respect his opinion, he has made it clear that where he stands is solid due to his personal face to face physical encounters with the law. Coates’ establishes ethos of his writing, due to his role of being a father. With this letter, he has built a firm foundation of why he must alert his son of the dangers he must be aware of because of the color of his body, but at the same time never be afraid to remember his value and right to be himself (Coates 113). With the appreciation and understanding of Coates’s

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ letter to his son and has been praised as masterful and prophetic. His words formed by past events in his life resonate with both African American readers who share similar experiences and white readers who see “the Dream” and its faults. Coates authoritative voice shares similarities with other African American including James Baldwin, Malcolm X and Barack Obama. However, where he strays from the rest of the pack is in his outlook of the situation in the future. When addressing his son, Coates explains, “The struggle is really all I have for you, because it is the only portion of this world under your control” (107). This quote accurately summarizes Ta-Nehisi Coates’ dour and pessimistic attitude towards life and, more importantly, shows that Coates believes that life is hopeless for everyone else as well.

Richard Wright’s novel, Native Son, depicts the life of the general black community in Chicago during the 1930’s. Though African Americans had been freed from slavery, they were still burdened with financial and social oppression. Forced to live in small, unclean quarters, eat foods on the verge of going bad, and pay entirely too much for both, these people struggled not to be pressured into a dangerous state of mind (Bryant). All the while, they are expected to act subserviently before their oppressors. These conditions rub many the wrong way, especially Bigger Thomas, the protagonist of the story. Though everyone he is surrounded by is going through all the same things that he is, growing up poor and uneducated has made Bigger angry at the whole world. You can see this anger in everything he does, from his initial thoughts to his final actions. Because of this, Bigger Thomas almost seems destined to find trouble and meet a horrible fate. Wright uses these conventions of naturalism to develop Bigger’s view of the white community(). With all of these complications, Bigger begins to view all white people as an overwhelming force that drags him to his end. Wright pushes the readers into Bigger’s mind, thoroughly explaining Bigger’s personal decay. Even Wright himself says that Bigger is in fact a native son, just a “product of American culture and the violence and racism that suffuse it” (Wright).