Zixiong Guan
Teddy Chocos
ESL100
02/28/2015
Preparation benefits our reading
I have read many books, I like to read all kinds of books whether they are chinese
literatures or foreign masterpieces, they reflect the transition of time and essence of
history. When you first time to read a book, you will find it is difficult to keep up with
author’s thought if you didn’t do some preparation, because you don’t know the
background of the book, the time when the author write this book and the emotion
when author write this book. That’s why do preparation is so important for us to start
a book. For example, when I began to read 《A Raisin in the Sun》， the first question
I thought about was the reason why writer pick this name for her book. First at all,
this book produced in 1959, in which time blacks lived forlorn lifes, the
discrimination and suppression from whites make blacks have to face cruel
exploitation and unfair fate. That’s why the name of the book we translated in Chinese
is “The evaporated dream”, blacks life is like grapes became raisins, water evaporated
by the sun means their dreams were corroded by the fact of life.
I have done some research about the blacks jobs in middle of 20th century, the
impression of America gives us was a thriving in 1950s, all industry like fast food,
cars, color film, television, computer, high wages; so that many people think that age
is the “happy time” of The United States, in fact, this time accopanied by panic,
poverty, unemployment, inequality and racial discrimination and other issues. With
that as background, we can understank this book better. Author tell a story about a
black family in Chicago, in 1950s, blacks are in a low stratum of society, they do the
unskilled and stressful jobs, through the daily grind of working long hours for too
little pay. This mother was a black who immigrated from the South to north 40 years
ago, her husband passed away whom was hard working in his life, she was proud of
having dignity and freedom to live their own lives, she knew family, education and
those guidelines on people were so important, she knew people who have faith can
not betray the principles will not be hostile to others, even though they suffered unfair
treatment like they can’t get good education, can’t find good job, discrminated by
whites, but she still retain the dignity as a mother.
1950s American racial conflict intensified. After the war the United States of an
acute social problems of racial discrimination and oppression of blacks. Racial
discrimination in employment, blacks are generally engaged in heavy labor and most
despised profession, the average wage is only 1/3 to 1/2 of the whites, for example,
1959s annual earnings of wage and salary of black is 2848.67 dollar, but for white is
5157.65, and the high unemployment rate. Obvious apartheid in education, housing,
transportation and other aspects. Blacks in elections is limited, 1952, at 6 million
blacks in the South, only 1.35 million people have the right to vote. Blacks were
excluded from the white community, as whites moved to the suburbs, many blacks
returned to the city again, many times they can only live in the slums. Isolated
settlements led to a series of inequalities, the most obvious is the educational
inequality, in the southern states, because of deep-rooted concept of apartheid, blacks
and whites could not enjoy the right to equal access to education. Before 1954, the
southern states of the provisions of blacks could not go to school whites, even though
in May 1954 govarment against school segregation by law, this law did not fully
implemented, after a long period of time schools are still isolated, 1955 In the 17
southern states of the 6001 school, only 741 school allow school black and white
together.
when a dream is deferred, shattered, unattainable, blacks like a grape that placed in
the hot sun baked into raisins, life pressure makes people overwhelmed. I saw a power
in this play, it is dignity in suffering, self-respect in discrimination and backbone in
oppresses.