Literary Analysis: The Watsons Go To Birmingham

To begin, the two texts have different ways of describing the setting that led up to the event. In the text “The Watsons Go To Birmingham” the main character, Kenny, describes the day as hot and miserable. This is shown when he says “ I know it was Sunday because I heard Joetta getting ready for Sunday school. He also says to his mother, “ I wish I was back in our igloo in Flint.” These two quotes show that it was a miserably hot Sunday, especially when Kenny says that he would rather return to the freezing cold conditions of Flint rather than stay in his current location. It also shows that if it’s freezing cold in Flint at that time that would mean that it is fall or winter in Birmingham as well as Flint. In the text “16th Street Baptist …show more content…
In the text “The Watsons Go To Birmingham” the author first introduces the event by describing it as a loud noise. The main character, Kenny, specifically describes it as,”I felt it more than I heard it. The giant old magnolia tree shook one time like something had given it a hard snatch by the roots. Then there was a sound like a far-off thunderstorm coming. Except it only thundered one long time.” The text then goes on to introduce what the loud noise was by the main character asking his older brother what the noise was and being told that it was a bomb. His brother replied to him saying “A guy just came by and said somebody dropped a bomb on Joey’s church.” The text then goes on to describe the gruesome scene as Kenny arrives on the scene. In the text Kenny says, “ ...looked like he’d been painting with red, red paint….I looked into the church and saw smoke and dust flying around like a tornado was in there.” This quote shows that the church was a mess and people were injured. In the text “16th Street Baptist Church Bombing” the author doesn’t describe the scene in first person like “The Watsons Go To Birmingham” does. Instead the author states, “The explosion hit a back room in the church….Witnesses said the bomb caused the girls to fly through the air “like rag dolls”.The blast also tore a seven-foot wide hole in the wall.” These quotes show that the author describes the scene enough to let the …show more content…
In the text, “The Watsons Go To Birmingham” there is a main character, Kenny, and his family, the Watsons. The text is told through the eyes of Kenny who is devastated at the thought that his little sister Joey is dead. The text states, “I felt like I floated up the front stairs, then I made sure the screen door didn’t slam and took my shoes off and went and sat on my bed. … I sat back on the bed and looked down at my hands.They were acting like nervous little sparrows too so I squeezed them between my knees.” These quotes show how he was feeling. When it says he floated up the stairs that shows that he was in a sort of daze. And then when it talks about his “hands acting like little sparrows too” that is referring back to an earlier time in the text when Kenny walks out of the church and sees people crying over the dead little girls and them not knowing quite where to put their hands so he described them as looking like little sparrows. By him referring his hands to the hands of the clearly devastated feeling of the people outside the church, this gives the reader a clue as to how he is feeling towards the event. In the text “16th Street Baptist Church Bombing” the characters the author uses are the african-american community and their reactions. The author tells of their immediate reaction to the event, “Many people rushed to the church to help look for bodies in the church’s ruins.Hundreds