Racialism in Country Lovers and What its like to be a Black Girl - Book Report/Review Example

? Racialism in “Country Lovers” and “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” ENG125: Introduction to Literature August 13, Racialism in Country Lovers” and “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” Introduction and Thesis Statement The continual existence of racialism and ethnicity in today’s contemporary world it strongly elaborated in the short story of “Country Lovers” and the poem “What it’s like to be a Black Girl”. Racialism could best be described as a canker that has plagued the world for several decades now and even though there seem to be a public outcry of why the phenomenon is not worth promoting, the two literary works through their themes and other forms of presentation make it very clear that the fight has over racialism has not been won in any way. The overall attempt or approach used by the writers in all two cases could best be described as an advocacy approach that seeks to highlight on the failures of not just one person but the world at large. It would be noted that racialism has been a concept that has existed with the world since time immemorial. If for nothing at all, dates can be drawn to the days of colonial powers when certain countries of the world sought to show supremacy over others by capturing them into slavery (Cuddon, 2002). In the estimate of most reviewers, the world has not been able to overcome the problem of racial discrimination after those days of human slavery. Using two Black Americans as protagonists, writers of both “Country Lovers” and “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” revisit the debate that indeed, the days of slavery has caused a very big scar, which has resulted in acts of racialism, yet to be defeated by the world. Form In terms of form, “Country Lovers” is a short story whiles “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” is a poem. Comparatively however, the two forms could accurately depict the core basis of the writer’s work, which focused on racialism. Writing the poem “What it’s like to be a Black Girl”, the writer is able to use the form of the literary work, which was a poem to give a very clear crisis call to people who are not Black Girls and for that matter black people to have a deeper understanding of what black girls or black people in general go through; especially if they find themselves in the midst of non-blacks. In a very creative manner, the writer uses the phrase “In the first place” to open the poem. This was used as a way of indicating to readers that indeed there was going to be the unfolding of a series of narrations or events that needed to be enumerated. Again, using the phrase “in the first place” attracts readers’ attention to the fact that there exists not just matter to be addressed but several. In essence, though “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” is a poem and not a short story as “Country Lovers”, the piece of work is presented in such a way that a well narrated and carefully synchronizing series of events are unfolded. On the part of “Country Lovers”, it is a short story that is used to give an account of what happened in the life of a Black Girl. One of the clearest contrasts that are displayed as a result of the form of “Country Lovers” being a short story and “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” being a poem is that in “Country Lovers”, the writer gets the advantage of engaging supporting characters to act side by side. For example it could be seen that Paulus was assigned to Thebedi and the two characters played their individual roles, depending on each other’s actions. This feature was however absent in “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” because as a poem, it was very difficult to introduce a supporting character whose actions and existence in the poem would be directly affected by the other character. In the absence of this contrast, there was a high level of comparison in the way Country Lovers being in the form of a short story could be used to give step by step account of what happened to a specific person at a specific time and in a specific manner just as it was done in “What it’s like to be a Black Girl”. Essentially therefore, the forms of the two works, though different did not affect the core aim of the writers in highlighting on the fact that indeed there is the continual existence of racialism and ethnicity in today’s contemporary world (Clugston, 2010b). Content One of the best ways to view the contents of the two works thus “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” and “Country Lovers” is to talk about the themes that the two works present. The content of “Country Lovers” could best be summarized in the theme of the short story. Hitherto, the selected theme of the writer, which centered on racial discrimination against the Black people could be linked directly to the personality of the author and what she has stood for through out her life as a private person and as a writer (Berman, 2008). This is because the writer, Nadine Gordimer who has lived in South Africa for most parts of her life has continued to have very bitter dislike for racialism, emanating from the apartheid regime in her country South Africa. So in the present short story, the writer revisits an existing condition of trying to create an imaginary gap between Whites and Blacks on the grounds of race. Aspects of the work that depict this situation could be cited as the time when Paulus and Thebedi really had an eagerness to be together but due to racial disparity, developed the nothing and conception that the two of them could not be seen in public together. What was supposed to be a beautiful love affair between the two people would therefore turn into bitterness because Paulus was a White and Thebedi was a Black Girl. The theme of “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” also expresses great similarity with “Country Lovers” because it also touched on the agony of a Black Girl who eventually grows into a Black Woman to face the worse acts of discrimination in her life. Just as in “Country Lovers”, the characters seemed to get along very well with society when they were younger but as they grew, the acts of discrimination and racial disparity started (Descartes, 2003). In “Country Lovers” for instance Paulus and Thebedi seemed to have a lot of freedom to play together when they were young but this will not happen as they grew. In “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” also, the young girl was not ashamed of her identity as a very young person but right from puberty, she begins to be indoctrinated with the idea that her new personality was not accepted by the world around her because that personality was inferior. Despite the similarities however, there are some strong points of differences in the way in which the two works presented their content. For instance in “Country Lovers”, most of the attention of the writer is focused on racial discrimination and apathy against the black race. However in “What it’s like to be a Black Girl”, the writer introduces a new form of discrimination apart from racial discrimination and that was gender discrimination. Indeed, the justification in this point is that, in “Country Lovers”, Thebedi who was a female did not face all her challenges merely because she was a female but actually because she was a black. But in “What it’s like to be a Black Girl”, the protagonist faces strong acts of discrimination first because she was a female going through puberty and a black girl as well. Again, the content visits the issue of discrimination against the black from two different perspectives. Whereas in “Country Lovers” they discrimination emanated in relation to a love affair between two key characters, in “What it’s like to be a Black Girl”, the discrimination emanated from a natural phenomenon that the protagonist was going through and that was puberty. In essence therefore, those who were facing racial discrimination in “country Lovers” were in a better position to controlling the discrimination because the decision to love or not to love rested very much with their self control but in “What it’s like to be a Black Girl”, there was no way the girl could avoid going through puberty as a stage of life (Aristotle, 2007). Style In both “Country Lover” and “What it’s like to be a Black Girl”, there is an excellent use of symbolism as a writing style by the two writers; despite the fact that the forms of the two works are different. In both works for instance the writers used the characterization of ‘Black Girls’ to symbolize not just the population of black skinned girls around the world but to symbolize all black skinned people, especially those who find themselves in the midst of Whites (Baym, 2009). It would be said however that the writer of “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” used symbolism of Black Girl in a more elaborate manner than the writer of “Country World”. Some degree of understanding could be achieved as to why this was so because in “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” it could be seen that the protagonist was but one black girl alone but in “Country World”, there were a two major people who played the lead roles this Paulus and Thebedi. In contrast of using symbolism, in “Country Lovers”, the writer was able to depict the larger universe with the symbol of the South African farm. Clearly, some happenings on the farm and even the depiction of some key plants and how certain actions took place on the farm were all symbolic of the larger world where people exist in different forms and character just as the farm produce does. In “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” however, the world around the narrator was actually the real setting the writer was referring to and so there was no symbolism in that case. Another style used in the two works is characterization. Depending on the form of the writing be it poem or short story, the writers used different types of characters and gave the characters different roles to play to make up for the characterization of the works. In a typical example, in the poem “What it’s like to be a Black Girl”, the writer decided to focus on the protagonist alone. Even though there were other minor characters around the said character, much of the story was made to structure around the protagonist and the experiences that was going on around her life. Again, the actual story that the protagonist was delivering to the reader were actually not things that were really happening in her immediate environment but that they were thoughts based on her imaginations. In all, because the protagonist in “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” was made to play a stand-out role, she had more power and influence on the story. Her influence actually did not make it necessary for readers to look for other characters in the poem and the experiences they were also having. The above discussion on the character of the lead character in “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” could be said to be in shape contrast with what took place in the style of writing “Country Lovers” as far as characterization is concerned. First, there was not just one lead character as there was in “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” but two. These were Paulus and Thebedi (Clugston, 2010a). Secondly, the means that the writer used to introduce the lead characters were totally different from the means used to introduce the character in “What it’s like to be a Black Girl”. Even though both sets of characters had some background information about their childhood days being given, the characterization in “Country Lovers” was actually done in such a way that there was much detail of the accounts of the childhood days of the characters and that was actually the period they were introduced into the short story. Again, because there was not just one lead character but two, the importance that the reader was going to attach to the characters was not going to be as concentrated as in “What it’s like to be a Black Girl”. Moreover, the overall role played by the two characters were highly suppressed as compared to the character in “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” because in “Country Lovers”, there were actually the physical existence of other people who took charge of part of the roles being played in the story. Conclusion To conclude, it would be said that the theme and corresponding works in “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” and “Country Lovers” were well blended to justify the thesis, which was stated as “The continual existence of racialism and ethnicity in today’s contemporary world it strongly elaborated in the short story of “Country Lovers” and the poem “What it’s like to be a Black Girl”.” This is said against the backdrop that even though the two works were presented in two different forms, they both could convey the message of racial discrimination and the need to give it more attention in terms of its eradication. One of the most important features of the two works was the fact that the writers on their own and through their presentations took very bold stands on the issue of racialism and that stand was the fact that they did not support it. This was done by highlighting on the theme of racial discrimination and throwing more light on the devastating treatments given to the victimized characters involved. In conclusion, it would be said that even though there were a number of contrasts in the two works, the similarities were most outstanding and even with the contrast, they all went down to point to one thing and that is the confirmation of the thesis statement. REFERENCE LIST Aristotle, Poetics, trans., Richard Janko, Indianapolis, IN, Hackett, Ashford Online Library 2007. Baym, N. et al, eds., Norton Anthology of American Literature, third edition, Volume 2, New York, W.W. Norton, 2009. Berman, P., "Brief Encounters", Village Voice, Ashford Online Library, 28 February 2008, 46. Clugston, R. W. (2010a). Country Lovers, Nadine Gordimer. In Journey into literature (chapter 3) Retrieved fromhttps://content.ashford.edu/books/AUENG125.10.2/sections/h3.2 Clugston, R. W. (2010b). Poems for Reflection. In Journey into literature (chapter 12 section 2). Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUENG125.10.2/sections/sec12.2 Cuddon, J.A., A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, London, Penguin, 2002. Descartes, R. Meditations on First Philosophy, trans., Donald A. Cress, Indianapolis, IN, Hackett, 2003. Read More