The American Dream Analysis

After attending Howard University, Coates grasped a vision for his future and his family. “I wanted you to have your own life, apart from fear—even apart from me.” (Coates 1) discusses how he want his upbring to unparallel to his son’s life. He doesn’t want his son to live

While reading Between the World and Me, the part about his son, Samori, crying about the police not indicted for murdering another African-American man resonated with me the most. This connected to me because while Coates was recollecting on the situation, he stated why he did not go to his son to console him because he wanted him to go through this milestone in his own way. He wanted Samori to go through this pain so that when it happens again, he can be prepared and take the pain easier.

In reality, Coates demonstrates that little hope is offered or equality will ever be a reality for black people in America. Coates states “ We are captured, brother, surrounded by majoritarian bandits of America.”

Opening the book, Coates speaks to his son Samori about the time he was on a talk show and the host asked him a familiar question, wondering what it meant for Coates to lose his body, trying to find the root of Coates’s opinion on why he believes [white] America’s

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book formed as a letter to his son, Samori. A critically acclaimed book, it entails Coates’ hardships of being African-American and the racial injustices he experienced in America. Although Coates explains his experience of racism as an African American, he does not pose solutions or actions to the racial inequality he describes in the book, but rather asks questions and poses unanswered concerns. It is unknown why Coates, who is known to be a solutionist in his essays in The Atlantic, did not give any solutions in his most popular novel to date. The book’s skepticism does not settle well with his audience, nor does it resemble Coates’ previous articles or works. From these differences, how should we view Coates as an activist and an author? How do we reconcile this difference in his approaches to writing which amount to this difference

Prince Jones was killed by a policeman. This was the most shocking news for Coates, knowing how well brought up Jones was, how much money and time his family put on him, for him to succeed. This news made him to realize, how black bodies in America showed no sign of value and respect. Also proving that you can be one of the most successful and well brought up African American, but still have an equal chance of of being a victim of racial violence, just like any other African American in the country. This makes him question, if he did take the right decision of the upbringing of his son and if his life can also be at

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.

Their killers were set free as these boys became martyrs for a cause they did not ask to fight for. I realized these killings were a great injustice. I, like Samori waited for the indictment. However, unlike Samori, I was told by parents to expect a negative outcome. Like my parents, Coates could not ensure that everything would be ok. He “thought it would be wrong to comfort” (11) to his son. Ta-Nehisi Coates describes the fear he faces as being the father of a black boy when so many other black bodies are lost to drugs, violence, and racism. The death of these young men only further emulated the necessity of raising black children with this fear in

Throughout the novel, Coates weaves together multiple narratives through many different time periods in his life, as he goes about rationalizing and explaining his perspective on what it means to be black in America. In this letter to his son, he addresses

Coates writes about racial injustices in the United States, using history and his personal anecdotes to show how the wrongdoings of the past are still prevalent today. His essay “The Case for Reparations” sparked a national conversation regarding his opinion that African Americans should be remunerated economically for the wealth and social status they were denied the opportunity of for generations. Coates’ writing is significant to our society because it inspires discussion on a subject that is often ignored, and one that is very prevalent to a vast group of

There are families all over the United States today that have to deal with challenges because of the color of their skin; even if they are white, black, brown, tan. Challenges are present in everyone’s life and learning how to deal with them is a process in life. Do black men in the America today have to face the stereotype of thugs if they were a hoody at night? Absolutely. Do white men face stereotypes? Absolutely, but they are not the same. Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote this letter to his son, so he could have a better understanding of the meaning of being black and also he was trying to give insight to help him along though life. It does not matter if you agree with Coates or not, this book could open the eyes of all people of all different races,

Personally, I do not find Coates responsible to offer solutions to the public or to try harder to affect change. From what I’ve read Coates seems like a man who has begrudgingly accepted the world and society he was born into. This book was written more like a “love” letter to his son than a cry for change. As a young man, he was aware of the distinction in neighborhoods and how holding yourself one way would lead to you getting jumped, rape, or even murdered. He recounted stories of those days to his son and then displayed worry for the world his son would grow into. He was worried, but not exactly worried enough about changing the world for his son, himself. If Coates himself is proclaiming that he is not an activist, others should not be

On page seventeen, last paragraph, fourth sentence, he mentions “The law does not protect us. And now, in your time the law has become an excuse for stopping and frisking you, which is to say, for furthering the assault on your body.” He is saying that the law has never been on the side of African-Americans, especially males. As we see in society today, black males can be assaulted, arrested, and even killed for the smallest things. Coates uses this section of the novel to emphasize what his son will endure as a black teenager because law enforcement does not value his rights as an American citizen. This is important because reality for African American males nowadays is fearful and it’s important to understand that not everything will be

This leads him to the conclusion that there are two separate worlds: the white world and the black world. Coates writes "Somewhere out there . . . there were other world where children did not regularly fear for their bodies . . . There were little white boys with complete collections of football cards, and their only want was a popular girlfriend and their only worry was poison oak" (20). He did not understand how these two worlds could interconnect because they were like two different "galaxies"; he could however observe the different lifestyles and so he knew it was there and prominent in social, physical, cognitive, and emotional development. Coates considers the American Dream to be unachievable by him or his black counterparts because rather than attempting to climb the social ladder, they were concerned about their survival. It becomes clear at a young age that the black body is thought to be disposable by society. Anyone could do harm to people that are considered black, even shoot and kill them, and not face the consequences that one should in a just nation, their

The American dream is about social class mobility; the idea that one can move from a poor family to the middle or even wealthy class. It bears the notion that one’s origins does not determine status but rather with hard work and sacrifice anyone can attain the level of success that they dream off. Whereas many attribute the tenets of this paradigm to the Declaration of Independence which states that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”, the term, American dream was actually coined by writer and