Prize Fiction Reading Log
Name:Trevor Date:9/23 Entry # 4
PART 1: PREPARING FOR DISCUSSION
SOURCE IDEAS:
“You wonder if denying yourself and others you had the black experience is part of the black experience.”
“If I don’t create a character like me. Who will?”
SYNTHESIZING COMMENT/ANALYSIS:
If I Survive you is about Trelawny the main character’s racial identity and figuring it out himself because both the answers and confidence he has given those answers seem to vary across the book, from identifying himself as American, Jamaican, and for a portion of the book he saw himself and embraced himself as a ‘Black Man’ while he was in the midwest since that was what he was seen as by the locals. Because he was one of the few ‘Black’ students on campus he was always asked about the ‘black experience’ and his ‘black perspective’. He would respond that he doesn’t see his own race as what his fellow students are expecting even though he does admit he’s ‘black’ and may be that type of person. Later while he is in Jamaica he gets to openly talk about what his race means with others, rediscovers a sense of identity with his people, ending up disagreeing with his own thoughts on his race and others back in the Midwest. Trelawny meets a theater writer named Justim, talking about how important art is for representation seems to get him excited enough to ask to review his work. I think it indicates he is thinking about himself, his own story in a way, possibly as means to publicly express himself in a racial sense. Seemingly excited to see someone get their viewpoint out in a way that Trelawny couldn’t while he was in college. However he ended up miscommunication and severed their potential relationship with someone he thought could be a kindred spirit.
QUESTION: What Trelawny wanted from Justin tells me some sense of development, he may have not been interested in his philosophy on the importance of Art before he left Jamaica. With further development in understanding his identity he might have seen this as an opportunity to express what he thinks his race is or what it means, maybe it was to give a response to his classmates, or help figure things out himself. I do wonder what he was expecting or wanted with a continued friendship with Justin.
Part 2: In-class Writing Response (NAME:__________________)4
