Black Like Me Book Report

Words: 631
Pages: 3

Life as a Negro in Black Like Me
Introduction
Black Like Me is a biography, fiction, autobiography book written by John Howard Griffin. The book won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. It is an autobiography of a white journalist who goes for medical treatment to temporarily changes his skin color to become black; Griffins does this to experience being Negro in a land of racial segregation. For six weeks Griffins traverses four southern states of Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Georgia, in these states Negros are treated inhumanly. The main character is the author himself; it is an account of his personal experience as a Negro for six weeks. Other characters are minor but play a big role in the authors experience some are his friends, and others are his foes. The author sets out as a protagonist; he seeks to experience how it feels like to be a Negro with the existing racial discrimination, in his quest he crosses paths with many antagonists. These antagonists are his fellow whites who deliberately try to provoke racial tension and unrest to annihilate the black identity and their desire for freedom, liberty, and equality. The book ends when a group of white racists from Griffins town hangs his effigy on the main street of his hometown, they burn a cross at the neighboring Negro school and threaten them with castration. This traumatizes the author’s family, and he decides to seek refuge in Mexico. (Griffin, 1996).
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Also, the author wanted to show and explain to the readers how it is difficult to be a Negro and yet they do not have control over their skin color. It was also an obscure work for sociologists who he challenged to play their role to do more research on the plight of the Negros (Griffin,