The Book Not Only Talks About The Racism

At this point, Anne found herself searching for answers. Not only about racial tensions but about her developing body. She was entering a new phase in her life, where

In addition, Anne says she was, “Nervous and irritable.” and that her mother made it no better. Also, Anne states that her mother

"Battle Royal" gives the reader a frightening look at just how society looks at blacks. In the

Racism is a big part of this book. It shows the absurdity of what people thought back then, which is an important lesson. It is important for us to learn what people’s views used to be, and how important it is not to go back to that mindset.

Once again we can see Anne has developed her own sense of who she is. She explains that she is a woman, and a strong woman at that. She takes part of who she is, and uses it to form a stronger sense of self-identity. Anne used her gender to mark her identity. Not only that, but in this passage she also mentions that she has goals and opinions of her own, making her independent and further developing who she is by forming her own though.

Another force that shaped Moody’s thoughts on race was her interactions with the whites that she worked for within her hometown. This started her questioning of why there was such an emphasis on race. Anne’s job description consisted of cooking, cleaning, ironing, and maintaining houses for whites in her community. With each family Moody worked for, the anger within her grew and the prejudice toward her also grew. Moody expresses how much she desperately wanted to understand the racial inequality that was a part of her world. Some of the kind whites educated her, while others tried to engrain in her mind that she should not try to step out of her role as an African American. One of the rude white families that she worked for was the Burkes. Mrs. Burke, an active member in a local Citizens’ Council and a character that was prejudice towards blacks, had many encounters with Anne. Anne’s interactions with Mrs. Burke make her question the societal norms between whites and blacks. Mrs. Burke tells Anne how to behave and all Anne can do is act as if she understands and agrees with what Mrs. Burke says, but inside, all she can do is question why society is like this. For example, one interaction went like this: “When they had finished and gone to the living room as usual to watch TV, Mrs. Burke called me to eat…Mrs. Burke

A murder crime happened during her high school time. There is news about a black boy dead for whistling at a young white woman. It also makes Anne to question the difference between black and

her believe that white people ‘are all bad’. Due to these events Nan dear tries to protect the girls from all

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

There was always a discrimination between the blacks and the whites. The whites would publically insult black and announce that they were genetically inferior to white. This made Anne want to know what made them different to whites. One day she made her white friends undress

The affiliation between beauty and whiteness limits the concept of beauty only to the person’s exterior. The characters are constantly subjected to images and symbols of whiteness through movies, books, candy, magazines, baby dolls and advertisements. Another example of the images and symbols in the novel is when the black protagonist, Pecola, feasts on a ‘Mary Jane’ candy.

The first character introduced in the novel is Aunt Hager, an older Christian Baptist woman who was once a slave. She is the grandmother and advocate of one boy named, Sandy and mother of three girls named: Tempy, Annjee, and Harriet. Aunt Hager, even though she was once a slave, throughout the book she shows sympathetic tendencies toward white people. On many occasions she defends how white people treat African Americans, explaining that they just don't understand or comprehend their horrendous treatment toward people of color. Although she defends white people, she has no problem in forming prejudice against her son-in-law Jimboy. Jimboy is

An especially powerful quote from the book reads, “We must face that racism manifests itself not only in individual

Several years later Anne was fifteen and working for Mrs. Burke, a white lady that ran guild meetings out of her house. By this time the town had began to have misfortunate events happen to African Americans. It seemed as if they were being ran out of town or murdered one by one. A boy named Emmitt Till, Anne's age, had been murdered for supposedly disrespecting an older white woman. This took a large impact on Anne, and her mother put a fear in

Anne asserts her own small acts of resistance in the way she cleans around the house by ignoring Mrs. Burke’s specific instructions on how to do things and by getting closer with her son, but ultimately the upper hand is held by Mrs. Burke and she makes this very clear by making an attempt to frame Anne’s younger brother purely as a power move to show her what damage she is capable of if she wishes. Even when black women are given the chance to enter the workforce and make better lives for themselves, they still remain oppressed by the white people who are the ones hiring them, who find satisfaction in