“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.” The novel “If Beale Street Could Talk” written by James Baldwin was published in 1914. The novel is consists of a teenage girl of about 19 years of age and a young man of 22 years of age. Their love story is outlined in this novel from when they were children to when they are grown and in love. The novel starts off with Tish tells Fonny that she is pregnant with his baby, the only thing is that Fonny is in jail. You later find out that he’s in there because he was accused of rape. Both Tish and Fonny don’t know when he’ll get out or if he ever will. They were engaged to get married after asking for permission from her father, Joseph. They are trying to get him out of jail before their baby comes. They have struggled so much in their relationship and are trying to make it work. At the end of the novel you find out that Fonny never gets out and Tish has the baby. This novel clearly demonstrates that police brutality destroys people’s lives.
One of the ways that the theme is demonstrated in “If Beale Street Could Talk” is how Tish and Fonny only see each other through a piece of glass in jail and won’t…show more content… It terrified him and you can only imagine how damage a person can be after being in there. Daniel did his time and told Fonny and Tish what his experience was like in there. They saw how scared and torn vhe was inside, it truly screwed him over. “ forced it out, or tore it out of himself as though it were torn, twisted,chilling metal, bringing with it his flesh and his blood”( pg.106). Daniel would share his stories about his experience and all the emotion he brought out made it clear that he had been tormented. He had plenty of suffrage and pain he needed to let out. Police brutality dehumanized one’s inner self and change the way they think about
