It is a given fact that at some point in our life time every one of us will experience some type of blues. .
Your Blues Ain't Like Mine written by Bebe Moore Campbell is a compelling novel relating the human .
struggle in the after math of a racist murder of a fifteen year old African American. The author clearly .
illustrates how one hateful act can have can immediate and long term repercussions on every one .
involved. However it's how you confront your blues today which determines the color of your tomorrow. .
The story begins in a pool hall during 1950's in the Mississippi delta, when Armstrong Todd was .
murdered by Floyd Cox because he spoke a few innocent words to his wife Lily Cox. This cowardly act .
sets off an immediate impact on the families involved which would last for a generation. Floyd Cox, Lily .
Cox, Delotha Todd and Wydell Todd were the main characters haunted by Armstrong's tragic death.
Armstrong Todd the primary victim of a racist family with something to prove, was murdered. His .
harmless but unacceptable social behavior for blacks in a small town of Mississippi led to .
his death. Armstrong was one of many who experienced blues at a young age. A fifteen year old sent to .
the south away from his mother to live in a hell whole like Mississippi saw no other way to deal with his .
problems so "he began to cry" for he yearned for that day " that he could move back to Chicago"(28). .
Unlike most, Armstrong expressed his feelings. He took control over his blues, not the other way around. .
However this wouldn't stop the man who would end his life with a gun shot to the chest. There's a .
saying, everything happens for a reason. Maybe Armstrong was a sacrifice because his tragedy became a .
"battlecry" which motivated people whom he never knew. .
When someone close to you dies a grieving process begins and eventually ends. In Delotha's case this .
process didn't end. Armstrong's mother handled her blues badly which determined the rest of her .