In the book ‘Trouble in Mind,’ author Leon F. Litwack illustrates the hard times of slaves during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. During this time there were major hardships that African Americans had to encounter; lynching, racism, and the fight for freedom. Litwack doing his research on slave hard times since 1961 studied how hard the Jim Crow laws were mentally, and physically hard for African Americans. The book, ‘Trouble in Mind’ starts at the end of Reconstruction when the idea of whites “Redemption” spread along the south. This caused new dreams of citizenship for African Americans and freedom to die of an ungrateful death, and most likely the hardest time for African American life since slavery. Litwack choses this
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Trouble in Mind is chronologically organized by three generations of men throughout the Jim Crow era; a slave man, a college boy, and the grandchildren who influence the idea of a Civil War. Using generations of an African American family to illustrate the Jim Crow era helped Litwack in his goal to show the daily struggles of blacks experienced. Chronological order helped Litwack with his goals because it forced the reader to reckon the awful legacies of life before and after freedom. Unquestionably, he imparted that the era of Jim Crow was heinous and by means of the generations composed helped show terror of the time in a more organized format. Learning at a young age what black children can do and not do was something Litwack conveyed through the book. The older generations had to teach children to not ask questions, and learn what would happen to them if they got in the way of the “great” white man. “I remember Grandma allowing us to look through the shutter and be careful not to open it too much, so they wouldn’t see,” he continues, “He [the victim] was tied and his head was bumping up and down on the clay, the hard, crusty road… and the men hollering behind; white men, like wolves, were behind this man. Well, you know that's a terrible thing for a child to see, and you grow up that way…” (pg. 15). These chronological …show more content…
For the most part, if you were of color and wanted to live a somewhat normal life and die a natural death then the African American would need to learn very quickly how to get along with whites; this can be seen in Trouble in Mind throughout the whole book. Being very skillful, the author showed great detail of the catastrophic Jim Crow era. As an illustration, Litwack showed a simile at the start of the book, “‘Son,’ his grandfather observed, ‘a catfish is like a nigger. As long as he is in the mud hole he is all right but when he gits out he is in a passel of trouble” (pg. 4). Generally speaking, the author uses the simile as “a catfish is like a nigger” to show a visual to the reader. That is to say that a black human-being could be considered a “catfish” also because of how they’re known as a “dirty fish.” As seen throughout the book, these great visuals and comparisons show that Litwack accomplished his goal of the book is about the daily struggle African Americans went
Trouble in Mind is chronologically organized by three generations of men throughout the Jim Crow era; a slave man, a college boy, and the grandchildren who influence the idea of a Civil War. Using generations of an African American family to illustrate the Jim Crow era helped Litwack in his goal to show the daily struggles of blacks experienced. Chronological order helped Litwack with his goals because it forced the reader to reckon the awful legacies of life before and after freedom. Unquestionably, he imparted that the era of Jim Crow was heinous and by means of the generations composed helped show terror of the time in a more organized format. Learning at a young age what black children can do and not do was something Litwack conveyed through the book. The older generations had to teach children to not ask questions, and learn what would happen to them if they got in the way of the “great” white man. “I remember Grandma allowing us to look through the shutter and be careful not to open it too much, so they wouldn’t see,” he continues, “He [the victim] was tied and his head was bumping up and down on the clay, the hard, crusty road… and the men hollering behind; white men, like wolves, were behind this man. Well, you know that's a terrible thing for a child to see, and you grow up that way…” (pg. 15). These chronological …show more content…
For the most part, if you were of color and wanted to live a somewhat normal life and die a natural death then the African American would need to learn very quickly how to get along with whites; this can be seen in Trouble in Mind throughout the whole book. Being very skillful, the author showed great detail of the catastrophic Jim Crow era. As an illustration, Litwack showed a simile at the start of the book, “‘Son,’ his grandfather observed, ‘a catfish is like a nigger. As long as he is in the mud hole he is all right but when he gits out he is in a passel of trouble” (pg. 4). Generally speaking, the author uses the simile as “a catfish is like a nigger” to show a visual to the reader. That is to say that a black human-being could be considered a “catfish” also because of how they’re known as a “dirty fish.” As seen throughout the book, these great visuals and comparisons show that Litwack accomplished his goal of the book is about the daily struggle African Americans went