Sarah Hoang

Literary Analysis Essay

Word Count: 1203

Black and White in Existence

“Colour is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality”, James Baldwin

discloses in his incendiary novel, ​The Fire Next Time.​ Inspired by that particular piece of work,

Between the World and Me​, ​likewise illuminates the former and current era of racial injustices.

Biography and memoir by Ta-Nehisis Coates have similar motives of action and message

towards the audience, revealing undercover knowledge of the “Dream”. Specifically directed

towards his son about meticulous issues such as the American Dream, the constant brutality of

black folks and the complex dynamics of white privilege, this imaginative Dream, he speaks on,

is built on the backs of slaves that were made possible by segregation and prejudice. These

Dreamers come from a variety of careers, from law enforcers and government legislators and

even everyday citizens who use their privilege for evil; who assume all black people are

criminals, but nevertheless, get away with severe misconduct because the corrupt justice system

only signifies black bodies as convicts and prisoners.

Earlier in the novel, Coates evidentially illustrates and brings into light the idea of “the

American Dream” rather than just “The Dream” because it doesn’t engage all Amerian citizens.

Those who actually believe in this so-called “American Dream” are called Dreamers.

Metaphorically, these citizens are unconscious and are blinded to the actual reality of racism.

Some folks are completely unaware of the deliberate issues and some are just conniving in the
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oppression of black folks by actively participating in it. Coates stresses that it is difficult to

believe in the “American Dream” and how to only believe in its flaws. Although not all

Dreamers are white folks, the Dream is still considerably tied to whiteness. In various ways,

those who pursue the Dream strive to pursue a white way of life, even if they are not white

themselves. ​“It began to strike me that the point of my education was a kind of discomfort, was

the process that would not award me my own especial Dream but would break all the dreams, all

the comforting myths of Africa, of America, and everywhere, and would leave me only with

humanity in all its terribleness” (52). Through his transgressed words, he notes that the existence

of all the other dreams. The different dreams that were distorted in generalizations and

insensitivity with the ideas of the “good life” as America’s common Dream. While Coates was a

student at Howard University, he realized that he created his own Dream where all African

Americans symbolize excellence and integrity. In his own dream, to him, African Americans do

no wrong and they are only wronged by other folks. He creates a general trophy case of African

American culture, just like the whole of America does with their own. The dreams express

different reasonings that try to mask away from the very truth of humanity and how unfortunate

it is. Yet, Coates breaks his Dream to find the reality of mankind. The truth may appear corrupt

to the core, as Coates believes, however, the truth may be as pleasing as the letter to his son. The

only way to find the ultimate veracity is to obliterate all the layers of bewilderment and injustice

that comes with the formation of a dream. ​Coates concludes it is so inescapable and extensive
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that it is unlikely the Dreamers will wake up. “I had thought that I must mirror the outside world,

create a carbon copy of white claims to civilization. It was beginning to occur to me to question

the logic of the claim itself” (50). ​Coates goes through his intellectual evolution at Howard. This

Dream is impossible for black folks to fully obtain, and furthermore, it is an inaccurate and

flawed dream anyway. For example, the various residents of Prince George County, how black

people who have embraced the Dream have also become uneducated and oblivious. In

conclusion. To deduce, there has got to be a new dream because this one is inherently precarious.

This mirrors the discrepancies in ideology between the passive Civil Rights Movement advocates

and the Black Power supporters who came soon after; the latter argued that trying to be like

white folks was not something to strive for.

Rather than being detached from the Dream, however, this maltreatment is deeply

implicated within the desire for security and material success. White folks have benefitted and

made revenue from the brutal maltreatment of black folks since the slavery era and continue to

do so today, in the present. ​“The Dreamers will have to learn to struggle themselves, to

understand that the field for their Dream, the stage where they have painted themselves white, is

the deathbed of us all. The Dream is the same habit that endangers the planet, the same habit that

sees our bodies stowed away in prisons and ghettos” (151). Still ​over a century after the

Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, black folks are still exploited, relegated to “ghettos”,

and confined at disproportionate rates. ​This habit establishes that the security and wealth of one

group of people are obtained through the “plundering of black bodies.” The American Dream
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can be secured by deliberately stepping on others and stealing their wealth to achieve a specific

goal. ​This inhuman and brutal history weighs in on every single Black American. Coates learned

how to bear this hardship and now hopes to teach his son to do the same through this letter. ​It is

very attainable for white folks but is built on the marginalization and suffering of Black folks. It

requires disregard for the existence of the racial divide. It is symbolized by the plunder of Black

bodies and of the Earth itself. It is utmostly segregated in the complex dynamics of white

supremacy.

The Dream has various definitions for each individual citizen, no matter your skin color

or racial background. The Dream has matured in diverse circumstances depending on each

social, economic, and political position that the country as a whole finds itself in, which then

dwindles into a multi-faceted dream among the different folks which is constantly expanding.

Different folks should treat each other with the utmost respect, the way they would want to be

treated. As people and as human beings, we should work together as equals to improve one

another and become allies. We should be able to stand in solidarity and strive together to create a

better future for our inheritors and descendants. This so-called “American Dream” should be

annihilated and left only as our long, racist, and ancient past.
 Works Cited

“Between the World and Me.” ​Wikipedia​, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Apr. 2019,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Between_the_World_and_Me.

刘 哲甫. “Between the World and Me Ta Nehisi Coates.” ​Academia.edu,​

www.academia.edu/36313746/Between_the_World_and_Me_Ta_Nehisi_Coates.

Rambsy, H. “Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me.” ​Cultural Front,​ 1 Jan.

1970, www.culturalfront.org/2015/09/ta-nehisi-coatess-between-world-and-me.html.

Alexander, Michelle. “Ta-Nehisi Coates's 'Between the World and Me'.” ​The New York

Times​, The New York Times, 17 Aug. 2015,

www.nytimes.com/2015/08/17/books/review/ta-nehisi-coates-between-the-world-and-me.html.