ipl-logo

Analysis Of Black Like Me By Howard Griffin

822 Words4 Pages

The book Black Like Me was written by a man who did the unthinkable in 1959. John
Howard Griffin purposely altered the pigment in his skin to darken. He had transformed himself into a black man! Within the text, he describes his disturbing encounters with the inevitable traveling deep into the South. From New Orleans, Louisiana to Mobile, Alabama he journeyed through masses of racism but also discovered a newfound respect and kindness given by his fellow Negroes. Throughout his dangerous expedition, he grew to know not just what it felt to look like a Negro, but to also be one. This included the hostility and animosity felt by the blacks by the segregated actions and treatments handed physically and verbally by the Whites. From beginning to …show more content…

According to the doctor, vitiligo “…causes white spots to appear on the face and body…” of the victim (Griffin 6). In addition, the poor sucker would be forced to wear makeup.
On average, the medication would take about six weeks to three months to darken the

George 2 pigmentation in the skin. As a result, John urged the dermatologist to prescribe him the possibly dangerous medication as soon as possible. While visiting the doctor’s office, John stayed nearby in a hotel. Each day he stopped by an old African American man who would shine his shoes.
After several days he learned that the old shoe shiner was named Sterling Williams.Six days later he was out on his wild quest. On the first day of being a Negro John had his shoes polished again. Eventually he was able to convince Sterling that he was really who he said he was. Over the next several weeks John dealt with some newly felt hostility. Such as on evening he was walking down the road and a young white boy started to call him names and follow him.
Terrified John ran to an older couple to discover that the young teenager was no longer …show more content…

Nevertheless, he escaped the white teenager.
John also experienced a more respected feeling or kindness with in each Negro. Even when John moved to Mississippi he was treated rightfully by his Negro peers. When John announced to
Sterling that he would move to Mississippi for another experience, Sterling thought him crazy.
This was because it was ten times worse over there. John was amazed to find out how a complete
Negro stranger would go so far out of his way to help him. For example, a young black man walked him two mile to a theater and offered to come back to see him back home safely. Also another black man picked him up and took him home with him to stay with his family for the night. After all of the new friends and eye opening experiences, John finally decided it was time to call the transformation over. Soon after returning home, he started to become popular in the sense that he was interviewed on many television shows, radio shows, and could have been found in many books, magazines and even newspapers. This new popularity also brought

George 3 negative attention on his town. For this his family received death threats and as a result his family and his wife’s parents moved to Mexico for several

Show More
Related
993 Words | 4 Pages

54.What happens when the narrator is called back to headquarters for an emergency meeting, and what news does Brother Jack deliver to the narrator? The narrator, waiting to be called by the Brotherhood for having relations with a married white women gets an unexpected call from Brother Jack in the middle of the night. The narrator is told that Brother Clifton is no where to be found as well as that Ras the Explorer wants to take over the city of Harlem. The narrator is incredibly caught off guard at what he is being told for he thought for sure he was going to be in trouble with the Brotherhood but instead he is handed his news which is cause for concern.

Read More
771 Words | 4 Pages

Questions 1. John Henrik Clarke was unique African American historian scholar because he was a (Paragraph 1)? a. Baseball player b. Church deacon c. Self-taught man d. Elementary school teacher 2. Find a synonym < Scholarly and Bookish > (Paragraph 2): intellectual __________________________________________________________ 3.

Read More
1517 Words | 7 Pages

In this paper, the epic journey and expedition of Cabeza de Vaca would be discussed that why is his tale significant to understand the Spanish invasion of the Americas, what communication difficulties did he faced and what were the main aspects of his journey and our learning’s about native societies. 1. Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (c.1490-c.1560) was born in Jeréz de la Frontera, Spain, to a respectable family; his initial profession was in the military. It was from San Lúcar de Barrameda that Cabeza de Vaca was to start his first venture in 1527 and, he was delegated second in charge of an expedition headed up by Panfilo de Narváez, who needed to assert the domain from Florida to Mexico for Spain. . Cabeza de Vaca's family had a long history of renowned support of Spanish eminence.

Read More
1323 Words | 6 Pages

One of the most important men in medicine is often forgotten due to the lack of recognition he received because of his skin color. It all started in 1930, when Vivien applied for a job in a surgical research lab in Vanderbilt University, because he had lost his life savings during the stock market crash of 1929. When applying, he was told that the only drawback was a tough to please employer named Alfred Blalock. He eventually was given a job, but was only paid like a janitor and only earned $12 a week, instead of his old $20 a week salary. However, he kept the job because he thought of it as temporary.

Read More
709 Words | 3 Pages

He showed how black people were not seen as equals and how people reacted to a black person being in a white person’s territory. Both sources showed the challenge of being different. The challenge of what it’s like to live as a minority. How people can be cruel and condescending just by a person’s race and change is not easy to accept and achieve. Change is not something that can easily be accepted by everyone.

Read More
1329 Words | 6 Pages

Little after did he know he was carried to the “white people’s country” to work for them. He hasn’t seen such cruelty towards blacks, but also some whites. When he was there he couldn’t hide the fact that he was scared. He thought the white people had a special spell to put in the water to stop the vessel. He was amazed and thought they were spirits.

Read More
487 Words | 2 Pages

Black Like Me is an incredible journey into what life was like in the Deep South during the late 1950s. John Griffin performed a social experiment to see what was life really like for blacks in the Southern States. John Griffin transformed himself into a black man and recorded his experiences into a book, Black Like Me. I was fascinated that 1950s science and medicine had advanced enough to allow someone to change the pigment of their skin. The procedure that Griffin underwent was simply taking pills and exposing himself to ultra violet rays (6).

Read More
2388 Words | 10 Pages

1. The book Go Tell it on The Mountain by James Baldwin takes place in the 1930’s when racism struck America. A time when people used to be considered a slave for life if they were born with colored skin. Baldwin got first hand experiences with inequality, as did his main character: John Grimes.

Read More
1817 Words | 8 Pages

What does it mean to be a writer? Who or what defines a writer? Is it up to the critics, the readers, or the author’s original intentions? For Richard Wright and James Baldwin, their own authorial intentions define their work. Baldwin identified with Wright through his literature as he was growing up.

Read More
1953 Words | 8 Pages

JACKIE ROBINSON 2 Jackie Robinson: Breaking the Baseball Racial Barrier Baseball has been called “America's Pastime” for years because people have played baseball for years and it is one of the first things fathers teach their sons. Family’s go to ballparks all over the nation to watch baseball at all levels of play from T-ball through the Major League of Baseball (MLB). Throughout the years there have been many great, loved, and cherished baseball players including Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Lou Gehrig, and Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson is on the top of the list of all time greats, not only because he was a great player, but because of all he accomplished and overcame through racism and how he helped transform

Read More
214 Words | 1 Pages

In the memoir “The Black Boy” by Richard Wright, it tells a story in first person view of a young six-year-old boy who lives his life during the Jim Crow time period. The memoir tells a story of young Richard growing up in the south, living with his family he experienced many struggles growing up, beaten and yelled at by his family; his mom, grandmother, employer/employees and the kids at school. He would try his best to learn what he considered acceptable to the society and what is not. Due to his race, skin color, and the time period, he struggles to fit in with the people around him, and all he wish he could do is for everyone around to accept who he is. Wright tries to convey this theme that Richard tries to join the society on his

Read More
1381 Words | 6 Pages

By writing Black Like Me, John Griffin was trying to write down everything he felt was important on his journey as a black man. One of the major things wrote down was the idea of white racism. Which is the belief that white people are superior to other races and because of that should run society. So, the main topic of the novel was social divide of whites and African Americans. As a black man John saw the contempt white people had towards African Americans, and just the overall condescending attitude emanated from these people.

Read More
912 Words | 4 Pages

The John Griffin Experience In the 1950’s, racism was at its peak in the US. In the book Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin, he puts himself into a black man’s shoes to experience an everyday life of what it is like being of darker color. He takes it upon himself to seek medical treatment to change the pigmentation of his skin from white to black. After undergoing this treatment, he sets out to New Orleans to begin his life in darker skin.

Read More
894 Words | 4 Pages

In the book Black Like Me, the three main themes that John Howard Griffin stress are identity, race, and white supremacy. The story begins with a naïve Griffin deciding to pose as a black man in the Deep South to study the living conditions, civil rights, and overall life of black people in the late 1950s. He does this as a black man instead of a white one to get the truth out of black people and not the censored version they usually give and to witness it firsthand. Griffin originally underestimates the oppression of black people, but he will soon find out the harsh realities of black racism and inequality.

Read More
671 Words | 3 Pages

The novel Black Boy by Richard Wright exhibits the theme of race and violence. Wright goes beyond his life and digs deep in the existence of his very human being. Over the course of the vast drama of hatred, fear, and oppression, he experiences great fear of hunger and poverty. He reveals how he felt and acted in his eyes of a Negro in a white society. Throughout the work, Richard observes the deleterious effects of racism not only as it affects relations between whites and blacks, but also relations among blacks themselves.

Read More

More about Analysis Of Black Like Me By Howard Griffin

Related Topics

Open Document