Sons for the Return Home Analysis


The opening paragraph of this novel is engrossing, vague and makes me go, “what is going on here?” Characters are not described, time is not established and the description of the physical world is strange. This can all be attributed to the narrator’s tone of voice. To sum it up in one word, it is cold. Things happen, such as the boy being bored and leaving the lecture. Or the girl reaching out to touch the boy on his arm before he gives a passing glance and she pulls back. These actions of the characters occur intermixed with the descriptions of the physical world. Before she reaches out, the narrator describes rain sliding down a window as if they were, “peeling strips of skin (1).” This dark change of tone, given in such a dry tone, comes off as strange and uncomfortable. This tone of darkness continues on the next sentence, with the “dark treetops.” After this, he tells the girl that he wants to be along, in so many words, and she leaves.
This is the tone much of the book has, and, touches upon a theme that prevails throughout, the lack of communication between black and white, Samoan and native to New Zealand. Integration seems to be the primary theme. Its difficulties and the failures and shortcomings that arise when the process of integration is undergoing. The two sides do not speak to one another and cultural pride is degraded into racial prejudice. And all of this is underpinned by the distant voice the narrator uses. Just the same as in the first page, vivid descriptions of the physical world are given, yet always surrounded by this dark topic.
Relating this to my own experiences, the events that rocked Saint Louis and much of the country four years ago, regarding the shooting of Michael Brown, serve as a comparison. Saint Louis has a poor history for race relations. White flight caused much money and business to be removed from the city so that it could benefit all people. Redlining made it so non-whites had to remain in and near the city proper, where job opportunities and growth had slowed down. And while these things do not occur quite as obviously, their effects are still seen and reoccur in more subtle ways. Poverty is ever-present, along with all its trappings, and the relationship between the police and communities are strained. Four years ago. a white cop shot an unarmed black eighteen-year-old named Michael Brown.
Those who were on the side of the community stated that black people are unlawfully shot and killed every day, that the officer who shot Brown should be imprisoned, and that Michael Brown is innocent. The side of people who supported Ferguson's police department stated the opposite: that Michael Brown was guilty of attempting to kill the officer and the shooting was out of self-defense. The investigation into the shooting underwent multiple recounts and made it up to a federal level, bringing into question its legitimacy. And when the officer was not charged in court, riots and protests occured in Ferguson that were responded to in force: military APC's, the national guard were called with loaded weapons, news reporters were arrested when too close to the action, vigilante types sat on rooftops with loaded weapons as calls that the Black Panthers were moving in to start a war, Black Lives Matter grew and brought the attention of the world, and hundreds were tear-gassed (both those peaceful and aggressive).
In the end, buildings were burned down, many were hospitalized, and the status quo eventually returned, this time, however, bubbling more than before. Ferguson looks much the same as before as well, as far as structure goes. The police department there did make a few new changes by replacing the chief with someone more community-oriented. Yet the same structural problems and the races are separated just enough to illuminate differences. This is not meant to be a defeatest standing, however, integration has been slowed and is evermore so done. To fix the issues of proper integration, structural changes must be made, influenced by grassroots movements, such as what Michael Brown's mother does now. These experiences do build up, and small changes are made, yet even after so long, Saint Louis can be divided into very clear and distinct socio-economic and racial zones. It is through these movements, however, that do allow progress to be made. But this progress is slow and for those who feel its harshest realities, cannot view it with that same optimistic standing, valuing patience over action.

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