The Last Thing He Saw Is Not The Windshield Shattering

A “survivor car” is what the newspapers called it, did not stop such notice; gathering from the darkness a moment of miracle, and then disappear for the next bend. Michaelist wasn’t even sure of the facts – he told the press about the incident. The yellow car the one going toward new york, approximating beyond, hurried back to myrtle’s location, and abruptly change target to the nearest obstacle in the road, colliding in a big speed and intensity, surrounding the road with metallic parts of a wrecked car.

Many tragic events happen in this short story that allows the reader to create an assumption for an underlying theme of racism. John Baldwin has a way of telling the story of Sonny’s drug problem as a tragic reality of the African American experience. The reader has to depict textual evidence to prove how the lifestyle and Harlem has affected almost everything. The narrator describes Harlem as “... some place I didn’t want to go. I certainly didn’t want to know how it felt. It filled everything, the people, the houses, the music, the dark, quicksilver barmaid, with menace; and this menace was their reality” (Baldwin 60). Another key part in this story is when the narrator and Sonny’s mother is telling the story of a deceased uncle. The mother explains how dad’s brother was drunk crossing the road and got hit by a car full of drunk white men. Baldwin specifically puts emphasis on the word “white” to describe the men for a comparison to the culture of dad and his brother.

The Autobiography of An Ex-Colored Man depicts the narrator as a liminal character. Beginning with an oblivious knowledge of race as a child, and which racial group he belonged, to his well knowing of “white” and “black” and the ability to pass as both. On the account of liminality, the narrator is presenting himself as an outsider. Because he is both a “white” and “black” male, he does not fit in with either racial group. In the autobiography of an Ex-colored man, James Weldon Johnson uses double consciousness to show the narrators stance as a person that gives up his birthright for the “privilege of whiteness”.

However, the narrator’s story takes a turn for the worse when the world ever so slowly and subtly becomes more harsh towards him and slowly makes him feel even more exiled, till finally, he feels completely cut off and invisible to society. As he began life as the “model” black citizen but was then thrusted into invisibility by the preconceived ideas of those around him and himself. Not to mention the narrator begins to feel

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.

James believed that his true self was the reflection he saw in the mirror. He believed the boy there was locked inside. James would play with boy and tell him his problems. Despite this, James hated him. He hated that the boy didn’t feel the ache that James felt. He was free, never hungry, had his own bed and had a mother who wasn’t white.

The short story The New Mirror impressively uses elements of figurative language to express an account of the identity crisis faced by black Americans subjected to prejudice. While analyzing The New Mirror it is evident, the new mirror serves in a deeper context

Rankine’s extensive use of second person point-of-view establishes both directness and vagueness. Throughout the book, the reader experiences racism directly and indirectly, and acts as the author’s medium for expressing ideas and emotions. In one instance, we’re presumably placed in the shoes of a 12-year old Rankine, who allows a fellow student to cheat off of her exam, “You assume she thinks she is thanking you for letting her cheat and feels better cheating from an almost white person” (19). The occurrence is described passingly, as if it was one of many microaggressions young Rankine has experienced in the past. These seemingly normal happenings contrast with the book’s thought-provoking images; a street sign that reads “Jim Crow Road” is pictured after the aforementioned incident (21). Rankine utilizes these contrasts to force the reader to think deeply about

With each impingement, he angrily moaned at his assailants. And, there was even one point in the short film… one moment where you could see him clearly… for just a second or two, an image that burrowed its way into my mind. His harrowed face, the jaundice of his skin, and sunken eyes. He reminded me of my grandfather in the last few days of his life before pancreatic cancer had taken him. How he had become a shell of what he had once been, a blackening peel decomposing before our very eyes.

“It was people and commercials trying to make him feel like he didn’t even matter, trying to make him feel like there was something wrong with being black”. Chapter 1 page 8

After continuously re-reading the news article, the narrator says, “I stared at it in the swinging lights of the subway car... and in my own face, trapped in the darkness

I sat in the monochrome gloom of dusk,”(Griffin.61). He begins comparing himself and the other black passengers to cattle, something that is owned and told what to do. His faith in humanity continues to drop. This is the second time he is treated less than human in just this one day, and remember this was a man who just recently began being discriminated against. Here He begins to realize the effect of widespread racial

The world today can be described as a revolving planet, constantly changing for better or for worse. To this day, many people who make mistakes are able to gain a second chance, redeeming themselves, but a few are unfortunately born with a despicable nature that tends to cause more harm than good. The world has many problems, starting with the two different sides it is structured with. One side, full of happiness and humor, feeds off of the other, dark and mysterious side. In many people’s minds the people living on the bright side, typically white, inevitably push the dark side, full of blacks, into the pit of darkness that lies directly beneath their own feet. In the essay Just Walk on By, this kind of darkness is experienced by Brent Staples, a black man, who has experienced emotions varying from sadness to utter

In this journey our main character also see’s the many faces of the black man, and how all of these faces where created in response to the actions of the white man never in response to one’s own actions. Towards the end of the novel the main character finds himself in a difficult predicament as he is being hounded by men who want him dead. Despite this, he manages to find a pair of glasses and a huge hat which he believes would disguise him just enough so that he can escape his potential murderers. As he walks around Harlem in his new guise, many begin to confuse him for someone called Rinehart who seems to be bookie, a pimp, and a preacher all at once. The ability to be so many things is at first attractive to the main character as he slowly begins to sink into the role of Rinehart, however he soon realizes that Rinehart’s multiple identities are merely a reflection of his inauthenthicity. Rinehart has no true self-consciousness and has allowed for others to create his image for him; Rinehart is only identified in the novel by others, never by himself. Rinehart’s character is representative of the notion of Double Consciousness as it shows the black men without the ability or better yet the privilege of self identity.