Summary Of The Kind Of Light That Shines On Texas

Conflicts may result from petty or serious arguments. However, it is important to not let these cause harmful divisions in a group. Learning to tolerate others and overcome conflicts is crucial to one’s success. In the short story “The Kind of Light that Shines on Texas,” Reginald McKnight’s character Clint’s struggle to appeal to his white classmates influences his immature choice to divide himself from his black classmates. Although it would have been wiser for Clint to unite with Ah-So and Marvin, his two other African American classmates, and stand together in their singularity, their looks and odd behavior influence Clint to poorly misjudge them and isolate himself unnecessarily. Conversely, in “Menagerie: A Child’s Fable,” Charles Johnson

In “The Kind of Light that Shines on Texas,” McKnight uses Ah-So’s and Marvin’s characterizations to illustrate how effortless yet detrimental it is to misjudge someone based on their appearance. At first, Clint believes that his black classmates are repulsive and brutish and that they are the reason that his white classmates misjudged him. Some examples of Clint’s negative characterizations of Marvin and Ah-So include these surly descriptions; Marvin’s habit of spitting on himself reminded Clint of “black-jacket boys huff bags full of acrylics” (Mcknight 11), while Ah-So was simply described as the “big-shouldered girl” (Mcknight 11). Clint’s unfavorable and surface-level judgment of Ah-So and Marvin reflects his immaturity. On the other hand, he yearns to be judged positively by his white classmates and feels deeply ashamed of his black classmates, feeling that they misrepresent African Americans. Conversely, Clint’s white classmates and teacher prejudged him in the same way that he prejudged Marvin and Ah-So, only noticing his surface-level traits, such as his

Marvin and Ah-So’s friendly behavior at the end of the story made it apparent that Clint had been isolating himself for no reason. Accordingly, his black classmates weren’t the revolting creatures he made them out to be. They were undiscovered friends. With this in mind, Clint’s description of Ah-So and Marvin shifts from noticing their oddities and using negative adjectives to describe them to noticing their favorable qualities, such as Ah-So’s lovely smile. In contrast, the ill-fated animals of the Shoppe in “Menagerie: A Child’s Fable” destroy themselves instead of realizing their mistakes. The immature characters’ animalistic behavior, which intensifies throughout the story, allows conflict to divide them instead of uniting under turmoil. Readers can recognize themselves and others in characters such as Berkeley, the caring and “pious German shepherd” (Johnson 29), or Monkey, a manipulative troublemaker who uncovers and exploits the animals’ dormant