Analysis Of Jesmyn Ward's Where The Line Bleeds

In Jesmyn Ward's "Where the Line Bleeds," Joshua and Christophe's opportunities were limited. They lived in a society where it was normal for children to not have parents in their lives. Their mother abandoned them, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Their father was a drug addict with nothing to his name. His mere presence was a threat to their well-being. Their furthest education level was high school which automatically eliminated quality career opportunities, leaving them with being a drug dealer or having a job that paid poorly. As poor black people living in the rural south, they were systematically oppressed. Joshua and Christophe were set up to fail by living in the rural south because of its social and economic construct. …show more content…
Through being loving and active in my childhood development, they prepared me for the real world to be successful in any of my endeavors. I understood the fear that Joshua and Christophe had to fail like their father or not amount to the things that they would want to do in their lives. The difference was that I had a support system that would always be with me. Ma-mee was not going to be around forever and they were more taking care of her than the other way around. They had many more obstacles than me because of their poverty and they did not have their parents for support. Additionally, they were black in America and I definitely understood those issues. Jesmyn Ward said in Melissa Block's article Writing Mississippi that she disliked that fact that she had to "bear up under the weight of the history of this place, of the history of slavery and Jim Crow and sharecropping, the history of [Mississippi]." The world was a brutal place for a black man and having people who had wisdom and experience to pass down were essential. Joshua and Christophe were stripped of that. This reminded me of Strange Fruit sung by Billie Holliday. This song which was originally a poem was written as a protest against the lynches in the south with very detailed imagery. "Southern trees bear strange fruit" of tortured bodies hanging in the "pastoral scene of the gallant south." This was a part of the history that is deeply sown into the south which was still effecting its inhabitants and the rest of the