Friday, April 30, 2010

Last Blog

I think it is interesting what people have been writing concerning our discussion comparing Obama and Birdie. One instance that stuck out to me while reading was in the being of "Dreams of my father." It was the part where Barack was playing at recess and he began chasing and playing with Coretta, the only other black child. When the other kids started making fun of them and saying that "Coretta's got a boyfriend!" Barack became really upset and started being mean to Coretta as well, pushing her and telling her to stay away from him. I think that part of Barack did this because he wanted to fit in with all the other (white) kids at school. It reminded me of Birdie when she was going to school and was one of the only white kids there. She desperately wanted to fit in with all the other black kids. I think for both Barack and Birdie their childhood experiences helped to shape who they were.
I also think that it is really interesting what people keep talking about in regards to gender and race in these two books. As megan pointed out, there definitely was a parallel between Barack and Birdie where they both were curious and question the relationship between their white mothers and black fathers. Much of this could have come from growing up in a time where this was not entirely common, and many people may have judged their families because of it.

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