A Thematic Analysis Of 'Between The World And Me'

“And one morning while in the woods I stumbled suddenly/ Stumbled upon it in a grassy clearing guarded by scaly oaks / and elms / And the sooty details of the scene rose, thrusting themselves / between the world and me…” This is the epigraph to Coates’s work. He explains he wants to find out what actually exists between the world and himself. He begins by asserting that America has always had a problem with race, but not quite in the way people assume. He says racism created race, not the other way around. American history is general with examples of people who were once not considered white – the Irish, the Jews, the Russians, Catholics – but now are. Race is not a positive reality of America; it has been constructed, altered, and reinforced. Whiteness is not just skin color or hair color; it is fashioned out of “the pillaging of life, liberty, labor, and land; through the flaying of backs, the chaining of limbs; the strangling of dissidents; the destruction of families; the rape of mothers; the sale of children; and various other acts meant, first and foremost, to deny you and me the right to secure and govern our own bodies” (8). America is not the only country to do this, of course, but what is so problematic is its hypocrisy; it claims to be a champion of

Ta-Nehisi Coates is an American educator, journalist, and writer. Ta-Nehisi writes about social, cultural, and political issues, regarding African-Americans for The Atlantic where he is a national correspondent. Not only did Coates write the book Between the World and Me but he also wrote The Beautiful Struggle.Before reading this book I had no clue who Ta-Nehisi Coates was. When I first read that we had to do a book report I immediately froze up because I hate reading books. I prejudged Between The World And Me before I even opened the book. I inferred that it would be a very boring just by looking at the cover over the book, looks can be deceiving. Ta-Nehisi had three goals when he decided to write this book. He explained that the first goal was personal, he wanted his son to understand that this is White America. He wanted the world to intellectually and emotionally process Between the World and Me, so that the readers could understand how the world is being portrayed from a black man’s point of view. Coates wanted white Christians to be interested and curious about his book, which became another goal for him to write this book. Those white Christians that believed racism had completely been deceased. Lastly, he wanted the world to explore theological connections with the book. Hopefully, allowing other African Americans to believe that we’re stuck also. I personally believe he did all three throughout the book. “The Dream” is a thought that us black people will one day

The most powerful messages I encountered in the Coates work “Between the World and Me” was the undervalue of black life and the false idea of the “American Dream” in the society of America. During Coates time at Howard University, he experienced the death of his classmate, Prince Jones. The death of his classmate leads him to the conclusion that the value of black life in America was not equal to that of the majority. He believed that the undervaluation of black life derived from the many years of laws established to construct the cultural barrier between blackness and whiteness, giving the false connotation that black life was beneath them.

Throughout the book, Coates briefly elaborates on how white people use harsh words and actions to try and tear down the black community. However, Coates asserts that “ Hate gives identity.” He continues this theory by writing “The nigger, the fag, the bitch illuminate the border, illuminate what we ostensibly are not.” Coates shows us that these hateful terms are actually beneficial. Ironically, these very words that are meant to tear us down, build us up by categorizing our people as things that we are not. Coates shows that these words that seemingly paint a true portrait of us are nothing but a false projection placed on our people. Coates goes on to show how society is set up on the standards and expectations of whiteness as these feelings are revealed through his writing “illuminate the Dream of being white, of being a Man.” The American Dream that we have been force fed is drawn directly from the perspective of the white man. Certain indicators of society, such as how to be a man, are defined from the perspective of the white man as well. Coates powerfully conveys that we should be creating our own standards of the American Dream. We should be fighting to bring

Coates has the art of writing mastered. Throughout Between the World and Me, Coates used words like "disembody" and "black body" to force his message that white supremacy does in fact exist and it is time for the world to stop looking the other way. He does not show this in a pleading way. Instead, he uses powerful diction, as well as the depth of his personal experiences making the reader truly try to imagine oneself in that exact position to cause the audience to want change. Perhaps two of the most apparent instances, and best parts of his work, were when another African American boy pointed a gun at a younger boy in his adolescent years, and, also, when he explained how prejudiced it was that the officer that tracked down and killed Prince Jones was not charged because the cop was white. This message Coates was attempting to get across was in accordance with an article out of Social Problems: Readings that argued violence is not in fact random, but actually targets African Americans (Silver). He wrote from his heart which shows how real and dangerous the issues of black vs white are.

“My mother always talks about how white people have the “perfect” life, but then we (black people) aren’t apart of that “perfect” life, we are suppose to help labor for them so they can get the life they want without us included.” In the novel, Between The World And Me, Ta-nehisi Coates grew up in the streets of Baltimore, where the streets transform every ordinary day into a series of trick questions, and every incorrect answer risks a beatdown, a shooting, or pregnancy. This is the everyday norm of having struggles in Baltimore. But, one day Coates saw on television and media all-around how whites have wonderful and stress free lives. That is the life everyone wants, but whites are the most ones privilege to be able to achieve this goal, or dream. Coates message about the “Dream” and the “Dreamers” is that the “Dream” is an middle class suburban neighborhood, where you don’t have to worry about crime and violence, and “The Dreamers” are white people who created and believe the American dream.

The book Between the World and Me was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates in 2015. The book takes the format of a letter addressed to the writer’s teenage son, where he continually addresses the subject of African Americans in the society (4). Looking at the work from a more critical perspective, Coates work seems to have been inspired by the work of Baldwin of 1963 The Fire Next Time, where he spoke of white supremacy, and how possible it was to overcome. For Coates, white supremacy is a vice that his son, rather the reader, should accustom to, as it is an indestructible force. Walking through the periods of slavery, the author informs his son of

In Between The World And Me the author writes a letter to his fifteen year old son (Samori) about how to live in a black body in America. Coates tells his son about how he was growing up in the ghettos of Baltimore and learning the codes of the streets in order to survive. His father was hard on him, but now he sees that black parents often are so they don’t lose their children to violence’s in the streets. In the city of Baltimore the way to grow up black was usually to grow up poor and reckless to assert one humanity. The swagger and loudness of the men outside on the streets corners of Baltimore were the way they protect themselves and to announce the fact of them being present as human beings.

After reading Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, I felt that the most powerful message in the book was Coates’ assertion that African Americans are striving for the “Dream” which is in fact unreachable. The “Dream” is supposed to be the desire of people to live in a big house with a white picket fence and a big yard, however because it was built on the backs of black people, literally, it is not something that is a realistic goal or a realistic dream. Coates wants his son to realize that America has been built on the marginalization of black people and other minorities and that because of this, it is not a place which will allow races that white people have deemed as “lesser” to prosper. The first major takeaway that I got from reading

The truth about American society is not pretty, and the facts prove it. According to the United States census Bureau, blacks are twice as likely to be poor compared to other races, and eight times as likely to be imprisoned. Blacks are also three times more likely to be convicted of drug violations than whites. Only 75 percent of blacks have received post-high school education, compared to 85 percent of whites. Not surprisingly, blacks on average also make less money than whites. As of yet, black people have not been proven to possess any kind of genetic deficiency therefore, racially speaking, there must be something wrong with our society which makes it complicated and mostly unrealistic today for people with different ethnicities, race, or color to achieve the American Dream.

In the book Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Coates writes a letter to his son and tells him the events that took place in his life. Coates tells his son about the racial stigmas that have haunted him from his childhood and some of the stigmas that are still around in a society like today. Coates does this by using recent events that have been argued over again and again by people in America. Some of the events that are in the book are shootings of African Americans by the police in areas where Coates had lived and other areas. Some of the men that were talked about throughout the book are Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and Tamir Rice. One in particular was the death of Coates’ classmate, Prince Jones, who was a polite and well

The book Between the World and Me by award winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates is a recent best-seller that introduces a perplexing encounter of African Americans and their struggles to live under a white American supremacy. Mr. Coates did not only write the book for his son, whom he acknowledges throughout the book, but he also writes to those who want to be enlightened about issues that no one wants to address. Who is Ta- Nehisi Coates? How is a African American viewed in America’s society today? Most importantly, how does an African- American view themselves? Coates answers all these questions and many cultural issues that concern present America.

“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.

In today’s America, there are still people in America who wholeheartedly believe that Black people are inferior to White. This isn’t news to anyone. America’s history has always been characterized by racial divisions and painted with colored blood. Since America’s founding, “The People” never truly meant all people. But it’s 2017. Slavery has been abolished for more than 150 years. Segregation and Jim Crow were outlawed in the 60’s. However, growing up Black in America today is defined by fear of being attacked for simply existing. There is still an invisible line carved by prejudice and bigotry that divides the races, that limits the ability for Black people to become successful or achieve what Coates refers to as “The Dream”. Together,

Between the World and Me written by Ta-Nehish Coates is a compelling book about the white supremacy in America and how hard it is being black in America. Coates using this book as a measure to discuss the issues of race within this critical time of multiple hostile incidents. Just as James Baldwin did in his book The Fire Next Time, with his letter address to his nephew at the height of the civil rights movement, Coates models after his method. Coats and Baldwin write these books as guides during these critical moments in history not to aspire to any larger themes of overcoming or transcending “race” as a way to defeat racism but about the ways of survival and remembering. Coates is a realist who yet still find the beauty within the unequal disparities in America. How it is so apparent to see the devalue of black American live. Through out this novel Coasts examines the deeper meaning and values of black bodies he brings it together by describing his own personal experiences as a child in Baltimore, as a student as Howard, as a writer, and importantly as a parent. All these experience allow Coates to see the large overview of America’s history of brutality to black bodies, and the invention of race as form of social hierarchy. Coats uses of the quote “they made us a race, we made ourselves the people” he wants us to understand that while whites created the race for black as a social hierarchy with them as the dominant race, although he feels they are truly