Throughout Child by tiger, the author illustrates the racism in 1930’s society. They highlight the horrors that would happen on a daily basis, due to skin color alone. While this sort of action is seen as horrible today, there was a large majority of people in the 1930’s that saw racism as just a normal part of life. The author uses juxtaposition and symbolism to demonstrate oppression.
The author shows the struggles that were imminent for black people in the 1930’s using juxtaposition. While Dick is a very strong and smart man, he is not allowed to fully display all of his skills. In fact, since he was black, he was put lower on the social scale than worse white people, which included the town drunk, Lon. Lon went over to Dick and “swung viciously, clumsily at” him. Although Dick was much stronger than Lon, he was forced to do
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While Dick does eventually snap and go on a killing spree, he is able to keep calm for a very long time. It is shown that Dick’s religion is very important to him, and after Dick “would come out of his little basement room,” after reading the bible he seemed to have hope for something. While he did not necessarily have the biblical views that Mr. Sheppard wanted him to have, Dick remained obedient. That was of utmost importance to Mr. Sheppard. Without religion, Dick would not have put up with the unfair treatment. He would have fought back sooner, and tried to have his own life. Because of the promise that things would get better, he was able to look past the horrific treatment that he was receiving right now. While not directly stated, it can be assumed that the white men who were in control of him had taught Dick religion. While on the surface, religion may have seemed beneficial to Dick, but looking closer it is revealed that the true beneficiary was Mr. Sheppard. He was able to use religion not as a moral code, rather as an