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Drenched In Light By Isis Watts

1200 Words5 Pages

Although Isis Watts may have been considered by Helen to be “Drenched in Light,” her cowardice evidenced by the way she resists her problems by running from them leads her to achieve a more tenuous grasp of what it truly means to be enlightened, whereas Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s determined and courageous approach to resisting oppression led him to achieve true greatness. Isis, although being only a child at the time her story took place, took on a very cowardly approach to the oppression she faced. Rather than resisting and fighting, she ran. The first time she ran happened when she and her family had tried to shave off her grandmother’s facial hair, and, when threatened by her grandmother’s anger, Isis was distracted by a parade going …show more content…

Dr.King grew up in the mid 1900s, a period of time where racial injustices and tension were starting to come to a head (Bio.com, par.1). Isis grew up in the 20s, at around the same time, and both King’s and Isis’ identities as African-Americans shaped not only their view of society as a whole, but their senses of duty for their own communities (Hurston, 167). The struggle of black Americans is highlighted in both the stories of Isis and Dr.King, and the implications that segregation, racism, and hatred had on these individuals plays a great role in shaping both of their reactions to the events of their lives. The effects of institutional racism play especially huge roles in their lives, as both Dr.King and Isis struggled to make the best out of their lives given their circumstances. Yet the key difference among them is the approaches they took to attempt to resist and oppose these negative circumstances. Unfortunately, Isis was very poorly equipped to handle this, as her status in society was even lower than that of Dr.King’s (whose position was still horrifyingly low). Because of this, Isis lacked the mental, emotional, and communal faculties needed to constructively and conducively approach her problems, and thus she achieved a lesser degree of a “good life”, or a sense of achievement, satisfaction, or enlightenment as a result of one’s actions, than did Dr.King (Hurston,

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