The following essay being summarized and analyzed, an excerpt from Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates was originally published on July 14, 2015. This essay is a message to Coates’s son as well a piece that chronicles an interview that Coates participated in involving the opression of African Americans throughought the history of the United States. Along with a description of the interview, Coates gives a critical analysis of the theme that the news portrayed of the interview. I will examine the themes portrayed by the author as well as the style, voice, and audience of this essay.
The essay begins as Coates documents an interview in which he gave on a Sunday to a popular news show host through satellite. Coates then states that while the satellite connected the host and him, that they could have not …show more content…
What a body represents in America is much more than a physical specimen. A body holds physical specimen such as skin in which deviates people. Through the process of segregation due to social constructs, comes oppression. Coates explains that the bodies of the individuals that he listed such as Michael Brown, Renisha McBride, Eric Garner, John Crawford, Tamir Rice, and Marlene Pinnock did not belong to them due to the idea of race, which is formed due to social construct. Their bodies belonged to individuals that were apart of the government such as police officers who decided to use their authority in ways that violate the oath that they took to protect. The most devastating part for both Coates and I, is that the officers who violated their oaths and took lives, are on paid-leave and not in jail for murder. Through that devastation, Coates relays another theme to his son, which is strength. Coates explains that his son is going to have to live in this world no matter what lies ahead and he must presumably portray