The Man Who Changed His Skin Analysis

In the article “The Man Who Changed His Skin,” Ernest Sharpe Jr. discusses the story of John Howard Griffin and his chameleon life. Ernest Sharpe summarizes each event of Griffin’s life and then reaches the core of the article. Where he walks us through the events of John Howard Griffin becoming black and dealing with the changes in his life. The main topic and question are "If a white man became Negro in the Deep South, what adjustments would he have to make?" (p. 3) What reactions would he get? What social standing would he be put in? Where does he eat, sleep, and work at? And how will this all affect him mentally? The beginnings of John Griffin take up most of the article, and the main topic is set aside for the last few pages. While it is good to have a backstory, it just overshadowed the main topic. The thesis topic was John Griffin becoming a “black man” and how his world would change through the shade of his skin. The thesis was successfully in the paper but had he focused …show more content…
While written way after the civil rights moment, the two decades apart, are still close in retrospect of issues. In the conclusion, he ties it all together with a sinker of a quote that answers why Griffin had named his book "Black Like Me". What was interesting was he gave us information about what happened in the aftermath with Griffin 's life. The conclusion is more somber when telling us of Griffin 's death. While it was important information it didn 't seem to connect well with what Sharpe was trying to accomplish in his thesis. The conclusion drew more to being involved other part of Griffin’s life rather than a happy ending in his possible influence on making the world a better place. Maybe he wrote it this way, as a grim reminder that there are not always happy endings for