Between the World and Me
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Book Review
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me takes the form of a letter addressed to his son. This letter is filled with symbolism, sentiments, and realities that are representative of being Black in America. Through his letter, Coates educates his son on the racial violence that is embedded in the American culture which can undoubtedly cause harm to him and his future as African American. “Between the World and Me” is a novel solely based on the perspective of Coates as an African American man trying to make sense of the world around him. Besides being the best selling novel, HBO transforming this novel into a film has brought even greater attention to the understanding of what it is like being a Black individual in the United States. Coates introduces in his novel how the history and the heritage of the United States is formed or prone to the destruction of Black bodies. For instance, when the author speaks about Prince, who was a former classmate at Howard University, a victim of police brutality, Coates understood there and then that no matter your social and economic status, if you are black, you lack value in America. Coates' story as a letter allows the reader to be placed into the shoes of a black child being talked to by their parents. Consequently, the letter begins with the author describing his own childhood in the ghettos of Baltimore and how in order to survive in the streets, he needed to live by the code of the streets. He mentions that his father was very rough on him but, after writing this letter to his own son, he realizes that Black parents are rough on their children because they do not want to lose their children. In his neighborhood, Black families were constantly being marginalized and were trying desperately to assert their humanity. This encouraged Coates to write this letter to his son in order to warn him about the destruction of Black people in the heritage of the United States, that these roots of inequality and destruction go all the way back to the Civil War and the Jim Crow Laws. Although the novel is written for Coates's teenage son, it resonates with every single one of us in some form or another. “Between the World and Me” highlights the clear inequality that African American people live in daily and gives the readers the opportunity to understand their circumstances on a microscopic level.
Biography
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| Picture by Nina Subin |
Ta-Nehisi Coates was born on September 30, 1975 in Baltimore, Maryland to a mother who was a teacher, and a father who was a former member of the Black Panther Party. His father, notably, was a publisher who founded Black Classics Press where they reprinted forgotten works by African Americans. This led to Coates pursing a career in journalism, having been influenced by his exposure to literature at a young age.
In 1993, he attended Howard University, and studied there
for 5 years in journalism but left before he completed his degree. It wasn’t
until 2008, when he started writing for The Atlantic, that he garnered attention
in his article “This Is How We Lost to the White Man” where be criticized Bill
Cosby and Black Conservatism. In the same year, he published his first book The
Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood wherein
he recounts his childhood in Baltimore, the increase of crime in his neighborhood,
and his father’s involvement with the Black Panther Party and his influence
from them.
In 2015 he published his second book Between the World
and Me where he talked about his experience as a black man in America in letters to his son. His book won the National Book Award in
2015. In the same year, he won a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for his work
in journalism for “interpreting complex and challenging issues around race and
racism through the lens of personal experience and nuanced historical analysis”
(Macfound.org).
In 2020, his novel Between the World and Me was
adapted as an hour long HBO Special. He is currently the author of the Marvel
comics The Black Panther and Captain America.
Resources
This link leads to a pdf provided by the Teaching Tolerance program. It is a guide that gives educators the basic tools needed to teach students about civil discourse. This includes teaching students how to build proper arguments so that their opinions may lead to reasoned and productive discussions.
This article details the death of 15 year old Jordan Edwards at the hands of a police officer. The article uses the deaths of other black minors, many of which are mentioned in Between the World and Me, to
contextualize the event and show how these boys seem to be viewed as a threat due to the color of their
skin.
This article includes full audio as well as transcripts highlights of an interview of writer Richard Rothstein as he discusses how the US government segregated the country during the 20th century. This helps contextualize the world Coates discusses in his book.
In this video Ta-Nehisi Coates gives a brief rundown of the purpose of his book as well as his inspirations.
This is a guide to discussing difficult subjects with students. Educators are encouraged to reflect on what may be controversial topics for their students and see how these topics may connect to larger
learning goals.
This 8500 word article is an abridged version of the book, useful if instructors desire a more condensed version of the reading.
Instructional Activity
Lesson Objective:
- Students will be able to further analyze and connect ideas and themes within the novel which include the Facade of the American Dream and fear
- Helps students follow the main points of the reading and understand the organization of the text
- Students are able to monitor their comprehension of the reading
California Common Core Standards:
English Language Arts Standards > Reading: Literature
1. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
2. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3: Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
3. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place how it sets a formal or informal tone).
4. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.5: Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) creates such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
5. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.10: By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Resources:
Materials: Reading Guide Handout
Text: Between The World And Me Ta-Nehisi Coates
Activity:
Day 1: The teacher will hand out reading guides to students to keep and fill out throughout the week. Before reading the novel students will be given a chance to come up with an idea of what they think the novel is about. Students will be given 8-10 minutes to look at the pictures in the novel and read the short summary on the back on the book to come up with their own idea of what the books about. Afterwards they will then get into small groups of 3 or 4 and discuss for a few minutes about what each student thought and come up with an idea that each group member agrees on. Afterwards students will be a given a few minutes to complete a section of the reading guide that corresponds with their discussion. Students will get out of groups and the class will begin reading the first half of chapter one. The teacher will read some portions of the book as well as do popcorn reading, or go down the rows of the class so each student gets a chance to read a specific section.
Day 2-4: Everyday half a chapter will be read from chapters 1 and 2 respectively. Before each class session students will get into small groups and talk about the book and what they think about it so far. Reading will be done through popcorn reading or going down the rows of the class, to ensure each student gets to read a portion. The teacher will also read portions of each chapter to give students a break. At the end of each class session students will complete corresponding sections of their reading guides.
Day 5: On the last day of the lesson the class will read chapter 3 of the novel. The same style of reading will be done as on the previous days. After the chapter students will get into groups and discuss some reading guide questions that include how the book made them feel as well as the most important events/things that happened in the book. The reading guide will be turned in after class.
Bibliography
Bryan, Erika. “TA-NEHISI COATES (1975– ).” Ta-Nehisi
Coates (1975– ), BlackPast, 19 Mar. 2016,
www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/coates-ta-nehisi-1975/.
Sparks, Karen. “Ta-Nehisi
Coates.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 26
Sept. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Ta-Nehisi-Coates.
“Ta-Nehisi Coates.” MacArthur
Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 28 Sept. 2015, www.macfound.org/fellows/931/.
