Paper

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Christina DeFilippo

Wendy Sumner- Winter

Textual Analysis Paper

09-22-07

I chose to analyze Audre Lorde’s essay called The Fourth of July. I liked this essay very much. I believe that her theme throughout this was the silence at which a young girl sees, through her family and people, in general, about racism. The author is very descriptive in how she explains things and describes things. She uses many describing words so that you can almost see yourself in that place and time. Her choice of words is very important in this article. I will try and show you how the writer wants you to understand that even now when you are silent you are going along with things even when you may not agree with them. You should be able to see how smart young children are. How they can pick up on things even when they are not necessarily told them. I hope that when you are done reading this you will see just how much your voice matters. I hope that you see the strength of a young girl who fights for what she knows is wrong. You should come away with a feeling of obligation to speak up when you see something that is wrong.

From the beginning of this essay, you can see that the writer wants you to see this through a child’s eyes. She tells you that she is on a graduation trip. She has just graduated from the eight grade and she is now to stop being a child. When the trip begins in the railroad cars she cannot eat in the dining car because she is black. Her mom says that main reason is it is too much money but also

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she is black. She also says “ whatever mother did not like and could not change, she ignored”. (Lorde, pg.568) This tells you right here her mother has a problem with the racism. She believes this is wrong, but believes she cannot do anything so she is silent.

The real reason they are in Washington is because her older sister Phyllis had just graduated from high school and could not go on her senior trip. They told her Dad that she would not be comfortable in the hotel they would be staying in. So their father decided he would take his family on their own graduation trip. Now why did he not say anything to the faculty? He was silent also. Her parents believed if they did not address the racism problem they could better protect their children. If they only knew that that would hurt them more. The funny thing is children notice things. The young girl knew about the racism that was going on. She knew that the color of her skin mattered. That is one reason why I believe the author is so descriptive. She is very detailed about the color of things. From the brown bread, the green pepper, violently yellow iced cakes, to the bright mother and brown father. She wants you to see that color does matter and that the young girl picked up on that. On another occasion she shows us a lady she knew was not able to sing because she was black. They were at church and still was refused too.

I love how this girl sees all the colors so vibrantly. All the white is hurting her eyes but yet her parents will not let her wear sunglasses. Maybe that is because they want her to get used to the color issues and this is one way to do it.

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At the end of the story we see that they stopped in a store to cool off a bit and have some refreshing ice cream. They all went inside and sat down like a normal family would. But then they were told that they could get their food to go

but were not allowed to stay and eat. Can you guess why? They were black. This enraged the young girl, rightly so. But her parents and sisters did not say a word. They all got up and left. The silence of her family confused her. The writer is trying to show through all these examples of silence you are getting nothing accomplished and in the long run, the child is being hurt more. She does not understand why they chose to be silent, when she does not. She takes action and writes the President. Did that help anything? No. But she was not silent she stood up for what she knew was right and what was wrong. If an 8^th grader can do this, why can’t we?

As I conclude this paper, I hope you see that your own silence says something about yourself. You should see that you should always speak your voice and tell what is being done is wrong.

Like this young girl, you should see what is happening and not stand for it and try to make a difference. I hope you saw how through the words she used she was trying to show you something. Color is very important. Everybody sees colors in different ways. The color of your skin some people see as making you different and not in a good way. This is not true; the color of your skin is just pigment. It does not show the person you are or will become. I hope you see that through silence nothing can be fixed or even acknowledged. If you do not

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speak up; everyone will think you think what they do. Your opinion and your voice matter, I believe that is what she wants you to see out of this story. She wants you to realize no matter your color, religion, anything you have a voice. If you do not choose to use it, you are doing an injustice to the people that are being wronged because of this racism.

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Citations

Paul Eschholz, Alfred Rosa and Virginia Clark. Language Awareness: Readings for College Writers, 9th Edition. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005.