Don T Cry For Me Thesis

Education gap, Red Lining, the brown paper bag test- slavery has left numerous lasting effects. When we discuss the outcomes of slavery, we do not often look at the lens of African American family dynamics. The dynamic of black families changed as they were forced to conform to the traditional white community norms after being stripped of their identity during slavery. An epistolary novel, Don’t Cry for Me, by Daniel Black, follows the tale of a father, Jacob, who justifies and seeks forgiveness for the mistreatment of his son, Issac, due to his sexual orientation and his inability to perpetuate the generational meaning of “a man.” Don’t Cry for Me delve into the effects of slavery in African American household as it initiates the issue of

This is evident in the dynamic between Grandaddy Abraham and Jacob’s relationship, which includes minimum emotional exchange, and how Jacob tries to raise his son in that same environment. According to Jacob, “slavery did a number on black people” (Black 17), disrupting the notion of the Black family as enslaved families were separated. Enslaved men and women were taken away for their origin, dehumanized, and treated as property. The aftermath of these accounts led to a certain lack of control that led to a feeling of worthlessness and humiliation that emasculated African American men at the time of slavery, presenting toxic masculinity in African American households. This ideology is seen in the novel when Jacob’s grandfather, born and grew up in slavery, would defer any emotions and “approached life as a test of endurance” (Black 20), leading Jacob to believe this is how manhood is viewed. In his attempt to raise his son around this ideology, he focused on him engaging in “manly things” like baseball and homosexuality; however, Issac’s contempt of these norms leads to resentment in this father-son

When Issac could not perform the duties of “a man” (Black) by expressing too many emotions and self-exploration rather than being grounded, and being sexually fluid, Jacob’s resentment grew as he felt he had failed as a father. Jacob, being raised in an environment where any sign of sentimental emotion was viewed as frail, continued those modes of parenting because “[he] was a man the way [he] had been taught to be a man” (Black 23) and hoped to raise his child like that. Jacob eternalizes the same ideology of tough love in his son Issac, and it causes a drift in their relationship. Issac loved “hugs and kisses” and “wept at the beauty of things” (Black 17); all were unacceptable for a man at the time, and Jacob was determined to “correct whatever had gone wrong in [him]” (Black 18). Unable to do so, Jacob’s hatred for Issac grew, and he would resort to physical abuse just like his grandfather did to him. This act of abuse is known as transgenerational trauma, which is “a type of trauma that does not end with the individual; instead, it lingers and gnaws from one generation to the next” (Dixon). Jacob transfers the trauma from his grandparents onto his son, leading him to have much self-regret and need