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Between The World And Me Analysis

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Between the World and Me, a memoir written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, reminisces on his personal encounters of racial discrimination and injustice while growing up. Coates dedicates his message through a letter to his son, Samori, growing into a new time and age of racial prejudice. In this passage Coates revisits his conversation with Mable Jones, and connects it to his background and family roots, embracing what it means to be a Black man in America. Coates attempts to teach Samori that it is necessary to struggle to experience the full potential of life. Coates reiterates “The Dreamers”, White, privileged, Americans who are blinded by reality and robbing themselves of the American Dream. Coates utilizes anaphora to introduce the importance of …show more content…

Incorporating the metaphor, “...the stage where they have painted themselves white, is the deathbed of us all.” correlates to white Americans blindsided and emphasizes the image of putting on a performance, for they are only pretending to be the dreamers amongst themselves. Coates includes the repetitive diction of fearfulness, feeling alone, and being unaware and keeping a shield up to hide true identity. Following, Coates revisits his past, utilizing the description of the ghetto culture he grew up in Chicago, comparing them to the ghettos he is still surrounded by in Philadelphia. “...the same ghettos where my mother was raised, where my father was raised.” Implying how his childhood contrasts to Samoris' childhood. Finding where he once stood while growing up within a ghetto culture, Coates restates struggle and fighting diction to Samori retelling his message of the world is fulfilled by fear. “...the abundance of beauty shops, churches, liquor stores, and crumbling housing-and I felt the old fear.” Concluding the passage, Coates utilizes hyperbole, “Through the windshield I saw the rain coming down in the sheets.” exaggerating the rainfall, symbolizing renewal and rebirth, providing closure to the end of the struggle. The sheets of rain fall suggests the repetition of blindness, and not being able to see past the windshield, for the unknown is still to

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