In Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes a letter to his fifteen-year-old son, Samori. He explains his personal and historical life in his letter trying to make his son understand what it means to live as a black man. Living as a black man in the world has brought many challenges throughout history, and even today conditions are far from perfect. This is why Coates writes to his son, to help him in today's life and prepare him for future problems. In this letter to his son, Coates has three main parts, what he experienced growing up, the events following Samori's birth, and his visit with Mable Jones. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In the first part of the letter, Coates describes what happened to him as a young boy. Growing up in Baltimore as a black child, the simplest things were extremely dangerous and could end up getting you killed. Coates learned to behave similarly to his peers, but was constantly scared of anything that might happen, all he could think about was going outside. After elementary school, Coates continued to study at Howard University and planned to become a writer. He was amazed by the amount of diversity within a university. While dating Howard, he meets a girl who later becomes his wife. The second part of the letter comes as twenty-four-year-old Coates has his son, Samori. He drops out of college and moves to Maryland. While living in Maryland, he learned of the death of one of his classmates, named Prince Jones. This event was just one of the first of many that stirred emotions in Coates in his letter to his son. This form of police brutality angered Coates. Coates begins investigating police brutality in his area, which leads him to move to New York where he slowly begins writing in his journal. Starting to earn a minimal sum when he moved to New York, he gradually became a stronger writer while his wife supported the rest of the family. During his time in New York, he faced a difficult racial situation when a white man pushed his son and then threatened to call the police when Coates tried to confront him. Coates begins to realize what the country's dream is. This dream was the idea that white people thought they were above everyone else, especially when it came to black people. Whites believed that blacks should be held to lower standards. The third part of the letter explains that Coates visits Prince Jones' mother, Dr. Mable Jones, who has experienced the same difficulties as him. Both rose out of poverty and became successful individuals capable of supporting their families. Coates begins to end his letter by saying that the dream will never end. He makes a wish hoping that it will end and that his son won't experience what he did in his lifetime. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay in all Throughout his life, Coate faced several difficult situations that made living as a black man in a white world even more difficult. Moving from Baltimore to New York, the racial problems did not improve. After moving to New York, he slowly became successful enough to support his family and did not face as many segregation issues. Coates writes the letter starting from two choices, hope and fear. He hopes that one day all dreamers will realize what has happened and change for the better for the good of himself, his son and the many to come...
tags