If we changed our skin color to black or white, could that change our thoughts and beliefs? In 1959, a white journalist and novelist John Howard Griffin, who was born on June 16, 1920, in Dallas, Taxes, decided to change his skin color to black. The story took place in the south states mainly in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was disappointed by his inability as a white man to realize the black experience; therefore he decided to obtain medical treatment to change his skin color and briefly become a black man. In spite of all the warnings of his friends and doctor, he insisted on crossing the color line and became a Negro. Later on, he described his travels through the Southern States, which are Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia.
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Somewhat, he used of literary techniques, such as vivid imagery aspect, that made his novel come alive. For example, in his stalls office soon after he made the decision to become black, he wrote, “Outside my open window, frogs and crickets made the silence more profound. A chill breeze rustled dead leaves in the woods. It carried an odor of fresh-turned dirt…, I sensed the radiance of it in the stillness. I felt the beginning loneliness, the terrible dread of what I had decided to do.” [3, 4] In this paragraph, the imagery helped to create a distinctive mood, or atmosphere, of loneliness and isolation. Which represent to the mind of the reader that the writer’s reaction to his decision for that moments. For another example, the author used vivid imagery to describe the ghetto of New Orleans: “Here it was pennies and clutter and spittle on the curb. Here people walked fast to juggle the dimes, to make a deal, to find cheap liver or a tomato that was overripe…, wine and flesh into the sunlight.”[18] The imagery in this paragraph about the ghetto created a mood of mess and desperation. Furthermore, the author attempt to form a mental image in the mind of the reader by visual, strong and effective forms of imagery used to invoke a physical response about people who lived in New
Somewhat, he used of literary techniques, such as vivid imagery aspect, that made his novel come alive. For example, in his stalls office soon after he made the decision to become black, he wrote, “Outside my open window, frogs and crickets made the silence more profound. A chill breeze rustled dead leaves in the woods. It carried an odor of fresh-turned dirt…, I sensed the radiance of it in the stillness. I felt the beginning loneliness, the terrible dread of what I had decided to do.” [3, 4] In this paragraph, the imagery helped to create a distinctive mood, or atmosphere, of loneliness and isolation. Which represent to the mind of the reader that the writer’s reaction to his decision for that moments. For another example, the author used vivid imagery to describe the ghetto of New Orleans: “Here it was pennies and clutter and spittle on the curb. Here people walked fast to juggle the dimes, to make a deal, to find cheap liver or a tomato that was overripe…, wine and flesh into the sunlight.”[18] The imagery in this paragraph about the ghetto created a mood of mess and desperation. Furthermore, the author attempt to form a mental image in the mind of the reader by visual, strong and effective forms of imagery used to invoke a physical response about people who lived in New