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Black Like Me - College Essays

Black Like Me

was first published in November of 1961. It was originally written as an article describing the rise in suicide tendency among Southern Negroes. John Howard Griffin assumed that "it would be an obscure work, of interest primarily to sociologists." Historically, Griffin was the first white person to experience certain issues known only to black people. By simply darkening his pigment, he encountered a complex reality formerly unknown to him or any other white person. was written as a journal, a portrayal of Griffin's life as he experienced it as a black man. It was not meant to have symbolism or themes, however, it is important to evaluate the book as a fiction novel. This allows the ...

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I felt no kinship. All traces of the John Griffin I had been were wiped from existence. Even the senses underwent a change so profound it filled me with distress. I looked into the mirror and saw nothing of the white John Griffin's past." (pgs.15-16) The theme of isolation is first discovered in this quote. Griffin feels imprisoned in a body other than his own. He does not like the person he sees before him and feels that the figure he sees in the mirror has no relationship with the mind and soul inside. The next quote describes the separation Griffin feels from his own body. He feels that he is sharing his body with a stranger, someone he feels no connection with. "The completeness of this transformation appalled me. It was unlike anything I had imagined. I became two men, the observing one and the one who panicked, who felt Negroid even to the depths of my entrails. I felt the beginnings of great loneliness, not because I was a Negro but because the man I had been, the self I ...

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Black Like Me. (2004, October 12). Retrieved January 11, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Black-Like-Me/15759

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 10/12/2004 08:36:27 AM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 645
Pages: 3

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