Between the World and Me Analysis

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Read the text and thoughtfully answer the questions in a different font color.

1. Ta-Nehisi Coates begins with a scene where the police stop him in his car.
How does he build suspense in this opening paragraph? Specifically, how does he blend
what is happening to him externally and what is going through his mind? What makes
this strategy effective?

Be builds suspense by explaining the multiple killings and abuses the police had caused
in the past and how the police had gotten away with them. He blends his thoughts with
his situation by constantly referring back to how the police had him under their thumb
while constantly going back to thoughts about the murders of previous people that had
been under the thumb of the PG police. This is an effective strategy because it makes
the reader wonder what will happen to him and want to keep reading.

2. What is the rhetorical situation of this letter? Consider the broader context of a father
writing to his teenage son, but then also consider that this letter is not a traditional
letter: it is a book-length work that Coates wrote with the intention of publishing, and it
is therefore a public document. To what extent are these aspects of the context at odds
with each other?

The rhetorical situation of this letter is that, while it is a letter by some means in that it
is technically written to one person, it is actually intended for an audience or for a
society to read. These aspects are at odds with each other to a great extent because the
real intended audience is entirely different from the on paper recipient, the author
makes remarks that are passively meant to talk to the reader while actually meant to
talk to his son.

3. In paragraph 5, Coates comments on the concept of “‘police reform’” -- which he places

in quotes. What is his assessment of its value? To what extent might such an appraisal
alienate his readers? Why might he be willing to take that chance?

He thinks that this value is applicable, but that there is more that needs to be done than
just holding the police accountable, he says it is society’s fault. This appraisal isolates
the reader to a moderate extent because the author wants the reader to feel morally
accountable for sending such police out onto the streets who commit such crimes.
4. What effect does Coates’s use of figurative language have on the emotional appeal of
his argument ? Consider at least four examples. For instance, “The earthquake cannot
be subpoenaed. The typhoon will not bend under indictment” (para. 9).

Coates’s use of figurative language is meant to give the reader some sense of scale for
the situation of racial injustices in the society of America. They serve to make the
audience feel the sheer enormity of this aspect of America. Examples include
earthquakes, typhoons, physical logic, force of nature, forced to drink our travisties.
These examples serve as a reminder that racial injustices are unavoidable and inherent
in America.

5. Note how Coates addresses the passage of time throughout this excerpt, indicating
multiple shifts with phrases such as “Shortly before you were born” (para. 1), “Days
late” (para. 4), “At this moment” (para. 5), “Weeks wore on” (para. 7), and “In those
days” (para. 21). What is the effect of continually shifting between present, immediate
past, and distant past? How do these structural shifts serve Coates’s purpose?

The purpose of these time oriented transitions serve as a reminder that racial injustice
has, is, and will be present in America. These serve to make the reader feel the scale of
the situation, they support one of Caotes’s goals in the letter, to make the audience feel
how ever present the injustice is.

6. Some critics have argued that although Between the World and Me is a direct address to
his son, Coates is actually crafting his message for a wider (mostly white) audience, as
his position would likely be familiar to his family and to other African Americans. Based
on this excerpt, who do you think is the audience for Between the World and Me?
Consider how Coates establishes his ethos, and support your response with specific
reference to the text.

I think that the letter was written to the reader and the audience. To some extent,
Caotes’s may have wanted to share personal messages to his son that may be personal
and not understandable to the audience, who only have a limited amount of
understanding of Caotes’s situation. However, it is also clear that Caotes is writing the
letter to a wider audience because he includes many pleas, ideas, and ideologies that
his son would most likely already know from knowing his father. Some examples would
include his thoughts on police reform and personal stories that the son would have
known such as the family history of Caotes’s parents and grandparents.
 7. Although Coates is developing a strong and logical argument, he primarily structures it
as a narrative, or story. Why do you think this rhetorical strategy is or is not effective?

I think this strategy is effective because it serves as a personal view of the situations,
you can only go so far to convince a reader based on sheer logic and analysis. The story
that Caote writes takes another step from the realm of statistical arguments to that of a
logical and personable argument.

8. One reviewer described Coates’s style as “a departure from the rhetoric of the civil
rights movement, or at least the civil rights movement that has been sanitized and
commercialized for mass consumption. Because of these departures, Coates’s hope
feels stark and brutal.” Do you agree or disagree with this characterization of his
rhetoric? Explain with specific reference to the text.

I do agree, I feel like Caotes’s story is written to catch the reader by surprise, to drown,
for lack of a better word, the reader in the vastness of the situation. On top of this, I feel
like Caotes does such a good job at making his evidence personal that his hopes are
outshone by the hopelessness that Caotes introduces. With this in mind, I feel that if
Cats had made his message more hopeful then his message would be even more
powerful.

From The Language of Composition 3rd Edition (pages 995-997)