The Ethics of Living Jim Crow by Richard Wright

In The Ethics of Living Jim Crow, author and poet Richard Wright recounts his personal encounters with racism during the time period when African Americans lived under the lingering reminders of slavery. The autobiographical sketch chronicles his account on the occurrences of social inequality that had notified him of the connotation behind the color of his skin. He projects his writing towards a mainly white audience in hopes they may gain insight of the hardships that minorities endured.

                Throughout the text, Wright utilizes several anecdotes to convey the injustice of racism and discrimination against African Americans. The first piece of narrative Wright recalls is when he was a child, initiating “wars” in his cinderblock yard against his friends. It was not long until a circle of white boys joined in and targeted Wright and his neighbors with jagged, glass bottles. Wright returns home with three stitches, eager to gain his mother’s empathy. What Wright got that night were not words of console but instead a slap along with endless beatings that followed. He became aware of the black oppression at a young age as he states, “From that time on, the charm of my cinder yard was gone. The green trees, the trimmed hedges, the cropped lawns grew very meaningful, became a symbol… they grew into an overreaching symbol of fear” (Wright, 160-161). Wright composes anecdotes such as this in order to put his argument into perspective. Similar to the much repeated phrase “show not tell,” Wright betters the understanding of the audience by elucidating his encounters with racial prejudice instead of simply talking about the issue. In addition, his firsthand experience of subjecting under the wrath of discrimination exemplifies his credibility as a civil-rights author.

Jim Crow Laws
http://mrnussbaum.com/civil-war/jim_crow_laws/

                Overall, I believe that Richard Wrights was successful in shedding light on the hardships of African Americans. He was able to bring awareness of the horrors of Jim Crow laws and its effect on the mindset of those who are considered inferior. His purpose to deliver the emotions of rage felt by blacks against white oppressors was completely understood due to his use of pathos to appeal to the readers. The rage that cannot be expressed was acknowledged by persons of different races and background worldwide. 

Coatesville by John Jay Chapman

In the year of 1911, a throng of well-dressed Americans indifferently watched the horrific beating, lynching, and burning of an accused black man in complete solitude. A year after the torture, the Harvard graduate and author, John Jay Chapman, held a memorial service at the exact location in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. There, he delivered a vehement speech that expressed his appall and rage towards the cruel event. Despite having only two other people attend the commemoration, Chapman’s idea of sharing repentance and his vision of restoring humanity spoke to many nationwide.

The speech Coatesville is applicable to each and every citizen in America as Chapman believes that the white spectators that were present during the public lynching are not the only people at fault; the entirety of humankind is held responsible for the Coatesville tragedy. He conveys his bewilderment as he states, “But here an audience chosen by chance in America has stood spellbound through an improvised auto-da-fé, irregular, illegal, having no religious significance, not sanctioned by custom, having no immediate provocation, the audience standing by merely in cold dislike” (Chapman, 72). As Chapman is delivering a piece of literature orally, he utilizes asyndeton to heighten the speech’s dramatic effect when spoken. The cluster of phrases that are not separated by a conjunction leaves an impression that the list of the possible excuses of why no one took the risk, is not complete. This absence of conjunctions emphasizes the feeling of parallelism that acts as a bridge to connect the mentioned phrases. Essentially, Chapman is articulating his incomprehension towards the reasoning as to why the mob mercilessly abused the incriminated man.

In Memory of Zachariah Walker
http://www.mikewallteacher.com/the-stories-that-ensnare-us-zachariah-walker-and-coatesville-post-171.html

Overall, Chapman’s purpose of addressing humanity’s tendency of inaction and the shared guilt of society as a whole was accomplished. He was successful in taking a single event (the 1911 lynching in Coatesville) and exposing the issue as a global dilemma. His ideology of shared repentance stretches not only to the spectators who failed to disrupt the continuation of the torture but to everyone worldwide that might not have been involved at all. Chapman’s indignation that is clearly visible in his text moves the audience to support his purpose.

The Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas

The American physician-scientist in medicine, Dr. Lewis Thomas addresses few of the numerous theories and misconceptions regarding the vast complexity of the earth and the human body at a cellular level. The focal points of The Lives of a Cell includes the foolishness of Modern Man and his falsely claimed superiority over nature, the cell’s authority over one’s entity, and the uniformity of the earth’s life. Backed by degrees from Princeton and Harvard, Thomas conveys his overall purpose of how everything on earth is interconnected in some way. Thomas directs his perspective towards an older audience whose interest gravitates towards biological discoveries. To relay his message to his readers, Thomas utilizes rhetorical devices to argue for the previously mentioned topics, including the belief that we are not isolated as a separate entity but are shared, rented and occupied by an ecosystem of cells.

                Thomas expands into the black hole of existential crisis as he suggests that man may not even be his own entity as cells within his body has even smaller organelles that have their own special genome, such as the mitochondria.  He dives deeper into this theory by stating, “I like to think that they work in my interest, that each breath they draw for me, but perhaps it is they who walk through the local park in the early morning, sensing my senses, listening to my music, thinking my thoughts” (Thomas, 359). Here, the personification of the symbiotic organelle is to emphasize the individualism the mitochondria exercise when functioning within his body. Additionally, Thomas questions his existence when carrying out daily activities in order to establish the sense of loss he feels when he realized that his identity might just be a large collection of cells. In the end, he uses this concept to compare how the mitochondria are to us as we are to the world.

Separate Entities
(Stuart McMillen)

                I believe that Thomas was successful in accomplishing his purpose as it aids the audience to understand that man is wholly embedded to nature. His essay encourages the feeding of the mind and raises eyebrows of those who have never seen the world through his eyes. Thomas’s use of rhetorical devices further guides the readers to understand the connection and the relationship between the entire earth and a single mitochondrion from a larger lens.