Bell Hooks '' Teaching To Transgress'

The significance of the "Teaching to Transgress" passage hints at dark undertones using pathos, imagery, the first-person point-of-view. Bell Hooks describes her loss of love for school when realizing that "For black children, education was no longer about the practice of freedom" since they "...were mainly taught by white teachers whose lessons reinforced racist"(114). Hooks goes on to say that "that shift from beloved, all-black schools to white schools where black students were always seen as interlopers, as not really belonging, taught me the difference between education as the practice of freedom and education that merely strives to reinforce domination"(114). Hooks integrates the use of stylistic devices to appeal to the reader. In doing
Lewis describes a time when Coach Fitz went off on the kids, "one player had wasted his talent to pursue a life of ease; another blamed everyone but himself for his failure; a third agreed before the summer to lose 15 pounds and instead gained 10"(120). Providing these anecdotes of Coach Fitz allows the reader to form an opinion on Fitz and further lets the reader comprehend what type of people are going to be present in the narrative. In the beginning of the story, Lewis describes meeting Coach Fitz and recalls that he "...had no idea who he was, except that he played in the Oakland A's farm system and was spending his off-season, for reasons [he] couldn't fathom, coaching eighth-grade basketball."(121). He goes on to describe a time when he was in the field and Fitz, "...tore into the rule-book-carrying high-school coach -- who scurried, ratlike, back to the safety of his seat; out of the other, he shouted at [Lewis] to warm up"(121). Towards the end, he mentions an instance "when [he] came home one day during [his] senior year and found the letter saying that, somewhat improbably, [he] had been admitted to Princeton University, [he] ran right back to school to tell Coach Fitz"(127). Lewis use of a chronologically fixed narrative displays the advancement in his relationship with Coach Fitz and the progression of his life.