Racial integration is the goal of leveling barriers to association allowing and enabling equal opportunities for all races. In the 1950s, despite many efforts to keep a segregated world, nine African American teenagers took a step to help create an integrated society. The novel The Lies We Tell Ourselves examines the lives of nine African American teenagers; in particular the life of Sarah Dunbar. Sarah Dunbar was one of the first black students to attend a previously all-white Jefferson High School. Sarah faced daily torment, as well as mental and physical abuse. However, even under the brutal conditions placed upon her by the white people, Sarah Dunbar, similar to many others, overcame the prejudice and integrated into society.
The novel …show more content…
The novel The Lies We Tell Ourselves demonstrates how hopes and dreams can pave successful and rewarding roads for those who believe in themselves. Sarah Dunbar and her peers faced a lot of negativity on the road to integrating into society. Integration was not easy, infact the African Americans faced a lot of mental and physical abuse. However, their high hopes and dreams overtook the white people’s ideology of a society where blacks do not exist. The novel expressed how the white people would do anything in their power to stop the African Americans from enjoying the freedoms that they were once granted, “Posters for school activities hang on the wall. Basketball practise, science club meetings, ticket sales for prom. My eyes linger on a poster, than I remember, we aren’t welcome at clubs and teams and dances at this school” (23). When the black students integrated into the high school, all of their extracurricular rights were taken away from them. The African American students could not join any clubs or teams as a punishment for the result of the integration. The white people and their families did anything in their power to make the African Americans want to leave the school. However, later on in the novel, Sarah Dunbar’s rights as a black female were altered …show more content…
The novel demonstrated forms of heroism in the process of overcoming segregation in Alabama. Sarah Dunbar the main character in this novel demonstrated how human beings simply lie to themselves everyday through the relationship that Sarah shared with a white student, Linda Harriston. The African Americans and the white people could simply not like each other do to the beliefs of the white people in the 1950’s. Sarah Dunbar and Linda Harriston demonstrated in the novel on how it is important not to judge a book by its cover. Although it was politically incorrect for Linda to treat Sarah like an average human being, Linda felt that the colour of Sarah 's skin should not depict how you treat someone else. Linda expressed her heroism in the novel and how it is important not to judge a book by its cover when she stood up to Bo Nash a bully for picking on the black students, “ ‘ What do you get from picking on a coloured girl? Just trying to entertain your friends?’ ” (93). Linda showed how it is important not judge people by the colour of their skin and by doing so, Linda opened up more opportunities for the black people to integrate into the segregated society. Linda’s heroism and ability to be accepting to all people helped change the ideology of a “white society” and helped the African Americans overcome prejudice and integrate into
The novel …show more content…
The novel The Lies We Tell Ourselves demonstrates how hopes and dreams can pave successful and rewarding roads for those who believe in themselves. Sarah Dunbar and her peers faced a lot of negativity on the road to integrating into society. Integration was not easy, infact the African Americans faced a lot of mental and physical abuse. However, their high hopes and dreams overtook the white people’s ideology of a society where blacks do not exist. The novel expressed how the white people would do anything in their power to stop the African Americans from enjoying the freedoms that they were once granted, “Posters for school activities hang on the wall. Basketball practise, science club meetings, ticket sales for prom. My eyes linger on a poster, than I remember, we aren’t welcome at clubs and teams and dances at this school” (23). When the black students integrated into the high school, all of their extracurricular rights were taken away from them. The African American students could not join any clubs or teams as a punishment for the result of the integration. The white people and their families did anything in their power to make the African Americans want to leave the school. However, later on in the novel, Sarah Dunbar’s rights as a black female were altered …show more content…
The novel demonstrated forms of heroism in the process of overcoming segregation in Alabama. Sarah Dunbar the main character in this novel demonstrated how human beings simply lie to themselves everyday through the relationship that Sarah shared with a white student, Linda Harriston. The African Americans and the white people could simply not like each other do to the beliefs of the white people in the 1950’s. Sarah Dunbar and Linda Harriston demonstrated in the novel on how it is important not to judge a book by its cover. Although it was politically incorrect for Linda to treat Sarah like an average human being, Linda felt that the colour of Sarah 's skin should not depict how you treat someone else. Linda expressed her heroism in the novel and how it is important not to judge a book by its cover when she stood up to Bo Nash a bully for picking on the black students, “ ‘ What do you get from picking on a coloured girl? Just trying to entertain your friends?’ ” (93). Linda showed how it is important not judge people by the colour of their skin and by doing so, Linda opened up more opportunities for the black people to integrate into the segregated society. Linda’s heroism and ability to be accepting to all people helped change the ideology of a “white society” and helped the African Americans overcome prejudice and integrate into