The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963 Book Report

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.

Have you ever been treated unfairly? Well, in the book The Watsons go to Birmingham in 1963 they were in the middle of the civil rights movements, they were fighting to be treated equally. The main theme is stopping segregation here are three examples ,the Watson family couldn't go to the same school as whites, they couldn't use the same restrooms, they couldn't go to the same church in peace.

Mary Dudziak, author of Cold Rights Civil War, showed how the civil rights movement effected American foreign affairs on an international level. She argued that the international ridicule helped the United States and the Civil Rights movements achieve what it did. She helps explain just how important the Cold War was to the Civil Rights movement and how the Civil Rights movement helped, America refreshes its image in the eyes for the world. However, not just lead and paly a major part in the Civil Rights movement but also reform America. She also argues that the Cold War and anti-American propaganda push America to up-hold civil rights and equality because of all the backlash and animosity from other countries. There are many things I like about this book for example the way she showed the views of America from other countries and the way she talked about democracy. However, one thing I did not like about the book was that she really did not go into much detail about Brown vs. The Board of Education and The Civil Rights act.

Published in 1995 by Christopher Paul Curtis, The Watsons Go to Birmingham is a story of an African- American family living in a town of Flint, Michigan, having a journey to Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. The movie came out in 2013, similar to the original novel. This loving family consists of five members: Byron Watson, an official juvenile delinquent, Kenneth Bernard Watson, ten years old boy with a lazy eye, Joetta Watson, an obedient youngest Watson, Wilona Sands Watson, Momma who always look after her kids, and lastly, David Watson, a thoughtful reliable dad. In fact, the movie is quite different from the novel, because the plot events don’t match with the movie, there is fused resolution, there is some missing and different characters, and the focus of the theme are slightly different.

In The Watsons Go To Birmingham the movie and the book have many similarities and differences when talking about what scenes/phrases were in both the book and the movie, also scenes/phrases that weren't in both. One of the many similarities between the book and the movie is in the beginning Byron seems to get his lips stuck to the car by kissing his own reflection on the mirror on the Brown Bomber (the Watson’s car). In the book it says “I moved closer. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Byron’s mouth was frozen on the mirror! He was as stuck as a fly on flypaper!” (13, paragraph 2). Although there are many similarities between the book and the movie, there are also many differences one of them being stated in the book that Grandma Sands was a small

In the text, “The Watsons Go to Birmingham- 1963” the author makes it projects that the bombing was bad. The author include that horrific events such as men and woman covered in blood people covered in smoke. The family was shocked that someone bombed a church where people should be safe. This all happened because of racism.

To get right to the point, the movie adaptation of “The Watsons go to Birmingham-1963” included many more illustrative cases of racial discrimination against blacks, and these cases where blacks are subjected to discrimination are much more vivid than what the book mentioned. While these changes are scattered throughout the movie, the most distinct one that anyone that had previously read the book could pick up could be said to be the scene in the movie where Byron,

“Freedom Summer”, a book by Bruce Watson, talks about that historic time of 1964 in Mississippi. He explains in detail about the events that went on. Even the most painful details from that summer he has you relive as he tells about them. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee went to Mississippi to educate African Americans and help them vote. Watson talks about the murder of three innocent people while down there in Mississippi. Three people that were young and just helping African Americans be educated were murdered for helping. He uses many different quotes from those that were there or experienced what went on. All these to tell the story so important because it shaped American democracy. It made sure that African Americans had

In chapter 14 of the novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis the author uses symbolism when she writes about the flickering light during the aftermath of the Birmingham Church bombing. “One light from the ceiling was still hanging down by a wire, flickering and swinging back and forth.” (pg. 123) I believe that the light symbolizes the life of bombing victims as they hang by a thread, flickering on and off. The author had already equated light to life when Kenny almost drowned when he wrote “all the light and sounds from Alabama disappeared” (pg. 116).

The text, “The Watsons Go To Birmingham” tells that the setting in Birmingham is blazing hot. In the text, Kenny says that the noise emitted from the church would have caused him to investigate if they had been in Flint, but, “that horrible sun” sucked all the curiosity out of him. In the text, “16th Street Baptist Church Bombing,” the text provides specific details about the bombing, including that the event took place on September 15th, 1963 at 10:22 a.m. on a Sunday.

People often believe that once you see someone from how they look on the inside they will not change. This is seen in Christopher Paul Curtis’s historical fiction novel, The Watsons Go To Birmingham, 1963, when a family of five travel to Birmingham, Alabama. The dynamic characters in the novel, Kenny, and Byron, transform after their arriving.

In the book, The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963, written by Christopher Paul Curtis; the character Mrs. Watson, is the mother of three children, Kenny, Byron, and Joey. Some of her characteristics is that, she is very strong willed but she cares a lot about her children and other people. My mother and Wilona, are similar because they both worry about their children.

One of the characters from the book “The Watsons go to Birmingham-1963” by Christopher Paul Curtis, is Bumphead, who is Byron’s best friend and fellow juvenile delinquent. One of his traits is bully, he bully many kids including his own brother. He bullies them either for their appearance or just for the fun of it. Bumphead bully Rufus for the way he dresses because Rufus doesn’t have much clothes. An example of his bully is when Bumphead put butter on Byron’s head, this caused Byron’s dad to cut all his hair. This shows that Bumphead is a mean and bad young boy who likes to bully others. He doesn’t care about what can be the result of his bully to other kids. I do not agree with Bumphead’s behavior because he can get in a big trouble doing

     The Ballad of Birmingham resembles a traditional ballad in that it tells a story in a song-like manner. The didactic tone seeks to teach us something; in this case it’s the theme of needless destruction. There are many devices the author uses to create such a tone and to tell such a story.

The two articles to be analyzed for discrepancies is an article from the United Press and Birmingham World. Both cover the Church Bombing on September 15, 1963 and the events immediately after. The first major difference in the two articles is that the United Press article was written the day after the incident and the Birmingham World article was written three days after the event. This influences the focus of each article. Being closer to the actual event the United Press article tends to be more close to the facts of what actually occurred. Whereas the Birmingham World article was a commentary on a bit of