Black Like Me Essay
Black Like Me is about a white man named John Griffin, who decides he want to experience what it is like to be a black man in the south. Through medication and light treatment, he changes his skin color and starts his journey to experience the south as a black man. Throughout this book there are many themes present. But the themes that I found most prevalent and significant were: identity, race, and community. I felt that identity was one of the most significant themes in this book because he has to adjust to his new identity. He has to learn how to deal with having his white man’s identity, which is still inside of him and his black man’s identity on the outside, and how they work to form his new identity. This …show more content…
Since there was discrimination towards the blacks, they had to stick together and help each other out. They could talk to each other and understand what they were going through and feeling, whereas whites would not understand the struggles and difficulties blacks had to go through. This theme is shown often throughout the book through communication and the acts of kindness by the blacks towards Griffin. It shows how just him looking like a black man, they treat him as if he was just like one of them. “An odd thing happened. Within a short time he lapsed into familiarity, forgetting I was once white. He began to use the "we" form and to discuss "our situation." The illusion of my "Negroness" took over so completely that I fell into the same pattern of talking and thinking. It was my first intimate glimpse. We were Negroes and our concern was the white man and how to get along with him; how to hold our own and raise ourselves in his esteem without for one moment letting him think he had any God-given rights that we did not also have” (Griffin, 24). This shows how Sterling Williams (the shoe shiner) right away excepted him into their community and how he was one of them. This also shows how Griffin feels himself being accepted by the community and how he was able to adapt and fit into the community very
Black Like Me is about a white man named John Griffin, who decides he want to experience what it is like to be a black man in the south. Through medication and light treatment, he changes his skin color and starts his journey to experience the south as a black man. Throughout this book there are many themes present. But the themes that I found most prevalent and significant were: identity, race, and community. I felt that identity was one of the most significant themes in this book because he has to adjust to his new identity. He has to learn how to deal with having his white man’s identity, which is still inside of him and his black man’s identity on the outside, and how they work to form his new identity. This …show more content…
Since there was discrimination towards the blacks, they had to stick together and help each other out. They could talk to each other and understand what they were going through and feeling, whereas whites would not understand the struggles and difficulties blacks had to go through. This theme is shown often throughout the book through communication and the acts of kindness by the blacks towards Griffin. It shows how just him looking like a black man, they treat him as if he was just like one of them. “An odd thing happened. Within a short time he lapsed into familiarity, forgetting I was once white. He began to use the "we" form and to discuss "our situation." The illusion of my "Negroness" took over so completely that I fell into the same pattern of talking and thinking. It was my first intimate glimpse. We were Negroes and our concern was the white man and how to get along with him; how to hold our own and raise ourselves in his esteem without for one moment letting him think he had any God-given rights that we did not also have” (Griffin, 24). This shows how Sterling Williams (the shoe shiner) right away excepted him into their community and how he was one of them. This also shows how Griffin feels himself being accepted by the community and how he was able to adapt and fit into the community very