What I found to be interesting about the book we have to read was when he had already move North and in the school he attended they had the meeting. When the man I think it was the principal of the school to have a meeting with his class. He asked all the white children to stand and as he stood with the "whites" the teacher told him to sit down and stand with the rest of them. I found it to be very interesting that for all this time he had no idea that he was "different" from everyone else. Even though he was part white to them he was not equal in a way.
All of a sudden he didn't fit in anywhere. He did not want to be close to the colored students and he felt he didn't belong with the white students. Everything about the way he thought about people even his relationships with his friends have changed. He says now "he is forced to take his outlook on all things, not from the view-point of a citizen, or a man, or even a human being, but from the view point of a coloured man."(p21). It was almost as if this discovery of him not being white anymore he was no longer a citizen or even a human being for that matter. It's amazing how your mind and your way of thinking can all of a sudden radically change when you realize something that has been kept from you your whole life.
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5 comments:
Great insight! Yes the classroom scene was especially compelling for myself as well. It's easily one of the most essential scenes in the book as it contains the very moment that the author begins his search for racial identity.
I think your post brings up a very important part of the book. This is the first time the narrator thinks of color or himself as being colored. I think this opens him up to a lot of new things and it's completely flips his world upside down.
I agree that this is a truly pivotal point in the novel. The scene in the classroom, along with the scene where he confronts his mother about it, really sets up the identity crisis that the entire rest of the novel is filtered through.
I agree. This is a avery important part of the book. I was actually very surprised that the narrator didn't find out about his racial background earlier though. He didn't go to school until he was 9 years old so I find it hard to believe he didn't notice any differences in his appearance and more importantly his mother's appearance that would have alerted him to the fact that he wasn't white.
I think this part of the book was extremely important! This scene for him was like an awakening I guess. However, he had no idea who he was after this part. He did start searching for who he was as he grew older and I feel this scene had alot to do with that.
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