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Black Like Me

            The novel is about a writer named John Howard Griffin who decides to study how a black man lives in the late 1950's. Mr. Griffin's main purpose for writing this book was to show inconsiderate and immature white people were in the past. It also revealed how horrible black people were treated. (5).
             This novel is probably directed to young adults. It is directed to this audience due to the mature subject but also conveys the message of how wrong racism is. I also recommend this to adults also because I think that they could learn things from it also. (1).
             One theme from the novel is racism. It is not universally accepted because it is so immature and stupid. The author's main reason for writing this story was to tell the story of racism. Another theme from the story is linked with racism but is not the same, is civil rights. This has been a huge topic during the last century and still exists now. He tries to tell the reader that this is important and should be important in ones life through the theme. The other theme is perseverance. The author expresses this by writing this book. It is showed by the perseverance Mr. Howard has by going after the topic and by how he lived when he was a black man. He had to persevere by putting up with the comments, bad treatment and violence. This is not accepted now but it still exists because of immature people. (9).
             The theme that affected me most was perseverance because I think Mr. Griffin showed a lot of it by putting up with what he did. I think that it showed a lot of guts and most of all heart for him to take up this assignment. I find that this inspired me to be a better person. (3).
             The novel is told form the point of view of the author who is also protagonist and is maintained through the whole novel. (2).
             John Howard Griffin who is not only the author but is also the protagonist of this story, Black Like Me. He wrote this story to convey the message of racism.


Essays Related to Black Like Me

1. Black Like Me

Black like me In John Howard Griffin's book "Black Like Me", Griffin takes a six week journey into the South as a black man by darkening his skin with medication. He travels for those six weeks attempting to discover what it was like to be black in the South during the late 1950's. ... It encourages me not to be fearful because then I will not be able to see the good points in life. ... In the epilogue a common saying was used that surprised me. ... In Black Like Me, the prejudices were of the American belief systems. ...

  • Word Count: 780
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Black Like Me

In the book Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin the reader can experience life on the other side of the color line through his words. ... He then traveled down to the south to live as an unemployed writer and experience first hand what the south was like for the black race. ... He can now no longer go into the black neighborhood but he can stay in the nicest white hotels and be treated like a person. ... He in no way resembled me. ... When really the black man can't stop being black like how Griffin just stopped being white. ...

  • Word Count: 1112
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Black like me

In John Howard Griffin's book "Black Like Me", Griffin takes a six week journey into the South as a black man and by darkening his skin with medication he traveled for those six weeks attempting to discover what it was like to black in the South in the late 1950's. ... It tells of all the people that were helping Activists like Martin Luther King in the movement. ... It encourages me not to be fearful because then I will not be able to see the good points in life. ... In the epilogue a common saying was used that surprised me. ... In Black Like Me, the prejudices were of ...

  • Word Count: 800
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Black Like Me

Black Like Me is the story of a white journalist who with the help of medication goes throughout the south as a black man, completely giving up his privileged life as a white man. ... (Black Like Me, pg.26) So is going through the south as a black man the only way to realize the hardships of a black man in the late 1950s, or is there another way for a people to get along and learn that we are all the same no matter what our race, nationality, and skin color happens to be. ... What is it like to experience discrimination based on skin color, something over which one has no control?" (Black Lik...

  • Word Count: 882
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Black Like Me

"Black Like Me"- the story of a white that chooses to alter his skin color in order to find out what it is like to be a black person. ... "Once again a "hate stare" drew my attention like a magnet. ... He sat a few yards away, fixing his eyes on me. ... I felt like saying: "What in God's name are you doing to yourself?"" "Black Like Me" illustrates many, many mentalities of the way whites think about blacks, but the central and most important ethical message that I found in the book was the power of ignorance. ...

  • Word Count: 708
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Black Like Me

John Howard Griffin, the author and main character of Black Like Me, was a middle-aged white man living in Mansfield, Texas in 1959. ... These experiences became the basis for Black Like Me, a memoir of his experiences as a black man. ... When he was a black man, the white race treat him with hostility and contempt, while the black race treat him with generosity and warmth. ... Griffin wrote about the difficulties of finding food and shelter as a black man; the embarrassment of not being able to find a restroom that blacks are allowed to use; the inconvenience of performing simple actions l...

  • Word Count: 815
  • Approx Pages: 3

7. Black Like Me

Because of this he felt that they had encouraged him to cross the color line and write Black Like Me. Plot: Black Like Me is the story of a man named John Howard Griffin, who underwent a series of medical treatments to change his skin color temporarily to black; a transformation that was complete when John Howard Griffin shaved off his hair, and looking in the mirror, saw a bald, middle-aged black man. ... But not every white person is like this. ... What he found was, as a black he would receive the "hate stare" from whites and be treated with every courtesy by the black community. ... Thi...

  • Word Count: 888
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Black Like Me

Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin, is a brilliant and blunt report on white racism. ... Each time they refused me, they implied clearly that I had probably come by these checks dishonestly and they wanted nothing to do with them or with me"(P.52). ... Throughout Black Like Me, Griffin catches several rides from white men in the night. ... Black Like Me is a brilliant work of literature. ... The controversy, truth, and experiences make Black Like Me one of the best books known to mankind. ...

  • Word Count: 976
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Black Like Me

In the novel, Black Like Me, a white journalist disguises himself as a black and travels through the south in an effort to experience first hand evidence of what it was like to be a minority in that area. ... He then set out on an odyssey traveling through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, as a white man traveling as a black man in order to find out by experience what it was like "to be a Negro in the Deep South (pg. 1)." ... The reason this situation exists in the south is because the white treat the blacks like they are from a different species just because of their skin color...

  • Word Count: 1182
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

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