РефератыИностранный языкBlBlack Like Me Essay Research Paper Black

Black Like Me Essay Research Paper Black

Black Like Me Essay, Research Paper


Black Like Me was first published in November of 1961. It was


originally written as an article describing the rise in suicide


tendency among Southern Negroes. John Howard Griffin


assumed that “it would be an obscure work, of interest


primarily to sociologists.” Historically, Griffin was the first


white person to experience certain issues known only to black


people. By simply darkening his pigment, he encountered a


complex reality formerly unknown to him or any other white


person. Black Like Me was written as a journal, a portrayal of


Griffin’s life as he experienced it as a black man. It was not


meant to have symbolism or themes, however, it is important


to evaluate the book as a fiction novel. This allows the reader


to determine its symbolism and recognize its themes. It was


assumed that if this book was intended to be read as a story,


isolation would be the symbolic theme. In the following quote,


Griffin has completed the process of darkening his skin and


sees himself in the mirror for the first time as a black man.


“The transformation was total and shocking. I had expected to


see myself disguised, but this was something else. I was


imprisoned in the flesh of an utter stranger, an unsympathetic


one with whom I felt no kinship. All traces of the John Griffin I


had been were wiped from existence. Even the senses


underwent a change so profound it filled me with distress. I


looked into the mirror and saw nothing of the white John


Griffin’s past.” (pgs.15-16) The theme of isolation is first


discovered in this quote. Griffin feels imprisoned in a body


other than his own. He does not like the person he sees


before him and feels that the figure he sees in the mirror has


no relationship with the mind and soul inside. The next quote


describes the separation Griffin feels from his o

wn body. He


feels that he is sharing his body with a stranger, someone he


feels no connection with. “The completeness of this


transformation appalled me. It was unlike anything I had


imagined. I became two men, the observing one and the one


who panicked, who felt Negroid even to the depths of my


entrails. I felt the beginnings of great loneliness, not because I


was a Negro but because the man I had been, the self I knew,


was hidden in the flesh of another.” (pg. 16) Not only does


Griffin feel isolated from his black body, but when he returns


to his original skin tone, he feels separated from that body


and life also. After he had experienced such prejudice and


bigotry, he found it hard to return to his original self. “I felt


strangely sad to leave the world of the Negro after having


shared it so long–almost as though I were fleeing my share of


his pain and heartache.” (pg. 143) In the next quote, Griffin


asks how people can be so cruel when there are so many


things to love and care about in the world. “I felt their arms


around my neck, their hugs and the marvelous jubilation of


reunion. And in the midst of it, the picture of the prejudice and


bigotry from which I had just come flashed into my mind, and I


heard myself mutter: ‘My God, how can men do it when there


are things like this in the world?’ ” (pg.144) Griffin was a white


man with a good job, a family, and a home. Nevertheless, he


still felt isolated after his experience as a black man and in


some ways he still felt connected to the black John Griffin. He


had experienced something never before experienced by any


white person. It was something he could only share with


himself. Only he knew what it was like “when a so-called


first-class citizen is cast on to the junk heap of second-class


citizenship.”


Bibliography


black like me

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