Life on the Color Line Essay

A- Gregory Howard Williams wrote the book. Before you read the book you have no idea who he is. Once you read the book you find out that he is mulatto and was raised in a community that was extremely prejudice against blacks. The authors’ point of view is his own story. P-The book takes place in Virginia at the beginning of the book from 1943-1952, and then in Muncie, Indiana from 1952-1969. The source was produced in 1995. The meaning of the source doesn’t really change at all, but now that it is after the problems of racial segregation and discrimination, we are able to read it and look back on the problems of our society and make sure it doesn’t happen again. P- Other than what I learned from the book, I actually knew a lot. I knew that in the 1940’s-50’s there was a major problem with racial discrimination. I knew that the way whites treated blacks was terrible and unjust. I also knew that blacks looked toward whites as horrible people and that it was taboo to interracially date/marry. This helped me better understand why the whites were treating Greg the way that they were and why the blacks had a hard time accepting him into their community. A- The audience is for teenagers and adults. It’s pretty graphic so it is intended to be taken seriously and with an open mind. It is it is more so towards teenagers and people with hard lives to show that they aren’t the only ones going through something difficult, because he went through some really complicated times and is now leading a successful, happy life. R-This book was produced in order to show what life was like for the mulatto race and how difficult it was for them. It is an inspirational book to tell people that they can go through anything if they keep their eyes on a goal and work towards it, no matter how hard it gets. T-The theme of the book was trials and success. It tells of his early child hood having to be both white and black in a community that was extremely prejudiced. It shows how he finds his way by keeping with the black influence and embracing it as his own lifestyle. It shows the difficulties he had with bullies and ignorant people and how he used academics as a way to stay out of trouble. It shows how he has to live with an alcoholic father and how he takes care of him even though he would probably be better off not worrying about him. It shows how he went through an extremely difficult childhood and was able to graduate college with a doctorate in law. S-This book is significant because it gives us a deeper look into how messed up our society was during the late 1900’s. It gives us a better understanding into the life that we aren’t familiar with because we usually just look at the black or white side of the story. Life on the Color Line makes us realize that it was just as hard for mulattos in that time as it was for blacks.