Coates first talks about the “Dream” in the context of an interview he gave and argues that it “persists by warring with the known world” (11). Find another passage in this section that also refers to the dream. Draw a text-to-text connection that helps you explain the concept or helps you raise a question about it. Everyone will be bringing different passages together, so this is how we’ll deepen and complicate our understanding.
Coates dreams of an innocent america/white culture and wishes he could be a part of the dream but he cannot because this dream “rests on their backs” and that is why he is upset. A passage I connect with this is in the next paragraph when he says “I heard you crying… because I thought it would be wrong to comfort you” (11). I connect the dream to this quote because he talks about crying and discomfort and he feels as though he can’t comfort the person crying, just how he wants to be a part of the dream but can’t.
- Coates ends our section by referring to his grandmother’s lessons about writing and his parents’ insistence that he read. What does he gain from these practices of reading and writing? Find two passages to relate and explain the connection you see.
Coates mentioned questions he has to find a certain meaning or purpose and claims that reading will help him because “now the questions were burning me… the materials and research were all around me, in the form of books assembled by your grandfather (30). These books are the answer to his questions and he talks about how “our” grandfather loved to read and even owned a library. Another passage I found was when he talks about Malcom X, “My reclamation would be accomplished like Malcom X’s through books, through my own study and exploration” (37). He wants to use reading and writing in a powerful way to be like Malcom X. Coates mentioned that he has been reading and writing his whole life and that someday he might be able to write something of consequence.
