Between The World And Me Analysis

What does is mean to have power? How much does each person really have? What factors affect the amount of power each person gets? Power means both the ability to influence others and the ability to act any particular way or do something. Ta-Nehisi Coates author of the novel, Between the World and Me, attempts to answer man of these questions using the experiences he dealt with in his life. Because of the lessons he learns through experience and the struggles he sees all around him in America, Ta-Nehisi Coates claims the color of your skin and your gender affect the amount of power you have in this world. In Between the World and Me, Coates recounts many encounters in his youth that taught him important lessons that he wants to pass on to his son. A late night at a 7-Eleven teaches him that his body could be easily take from him. Staring down the barrel of a gun he is awaken to the fact that the abstract theory of a
One can easily lose their body at any moment in time, in the car, at school or even in your own house. The world is a dangerous place and the power in the world is unfairly distributed based in factors individuals cannot control. Though everyone is told they are equal and many do not wish to listen when told otherwise, discrimination still exists today and it is affecting lives in a very real and sometimes dangerous way. Many people have atrocious crimes committed against them and watch the perpetrator walk away scot free. Power is everything. It controls how we live our live. It controls what we can and cannot do.The amount of power, though sometime advertised as equal, is distributed unequally and society lets it happen. People with power must work to change that by stopping oppression and giving up their power. However, until that happens those who are oppressed, in Coates ideology, must learn how to live in a dangerous and unfair