Just Walk On By Brent Staples Analysis

Societies and cultures often contain one thing that can exponentially affect one’s life: stereotypes. Brent Staples, author of “Just Walk On By” creates the message that many are being held to certain stereotypes that often make life difficult. He conveys this message through the persona he creates along with his emotional appeal. Brent Staples is able to create a persona which serves to convey his message that society places stereotypes on certain races, including African Americans, which create hardships within the lives of those affected by these stereotypes. He is able to create a persona using diction and imagery. The author brings up an African American’s ability to “alter space in ugly ways” (Staples 542). The word “ugly” in this line serves primarily to indicate how afraid people are and how Staples’ surroundings can change drastically in negative ways to support his message. Additionally, Staples uses diction in a contradicting way to help support his message. In order to illustrate the difference in societies, the writer employs contrasting words such as “affluent” and “impoverished” to emphasize the difference between the little park the author introduced to us in the beginning of the narrative with the overall city of Chicago and why a woman might have been afraid of him. This supports his message that stereotypes, even those placed on cities and races, can influence how people act. This shows that the author built his persona as one who means well, yet society misunderstood him. Additionally, the author’s use of imagery serves to show his persona

From his years of stereotypes came the need to write a narrative where he is able to convey this message regarding stereotypes by creating a persona and emotional appeals. Assumptions created from stereotypes can often lead to one’s