Ta-Nehisi Coates Analysis

Between the World and Me Analysis
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Read the text and thoughtfully answer the questions in a different font color.
1. Ta-Nehisi Coates begins with a scene where the police stop him in his car.
How does he build suspense in this opening paragraph? Specifically, how does he blend
what is happening to him externally and what is going through his mind? What makes
this strategy effective?
When he correlates his situation with previous police encounters of other black people he
wonders if he is the next to go. Everyone has a somewhat similar view of death, the way he
describes his fear, a reader would empathize with his situation.
2. What is the rhetorical situation of this letter? Consider the broader context of a father
writing to his teenage son, but then also consider that this letter is not a traditional
letter: it is a book-length work that Coates wrote with the intention of publishing, and it
is therefore a public document. To what extent are these aspects of the context at odds
with each other?
It's the son’s iew into the future assuming nothing changes; the idea of “this is what I should
have taught you”
3. In paragraph 5, Coates comments on the concept of “‘police reform’” -- which he places

in quotes. What is his assessment of its value? To what extent might such an appraisal
alienate his readers? Why might he be willing to take that chance?
He believes it's essentially useless. What they’d say is just “you’re fired”, wait a minute or two,
“ok, you’re unfired” nothing really changes and the problem comes back later.
4. What effect does Coates’s use of figurative language have on the emotional appeal of
his argument ? Consider at least four examples. For instance, “The earthquake cannot
be subpoenaed. The typhoon will not bend under indictment” (para. 9).
It describes that the police’s idea is that tehy have a job to do, it’s not about the people. It tries
to get people oh coates’s side.
5. Note how Coates addresses the passage of time throughout this excerpt, indicating
multiple shifts with phrases such as “Shortly before you were born” (para. 1), “Days
late” (para. 4), “At this moment” (para. 5), “Weeks wore on” (para. 7), and “In those
days” (para. 21). What is the effect of continually shifting between present, immediate
past, and distant past? How do these structural shifts serve Coates’s purpose?
It emphasizes how nothing is changing throughout years of having the same problem.
6. Some critics have argued that although Between the World and Me is a direct address to
his son, Coates is actually crafting his message for a wider (mostly white) audience, as
his position would likely be familiar to his family and to other African Americans. Based
on this excerpt, who do you think is the audience for Between the World and Me?
Consider how Coates establishes his ethos, and support your response with specific
reference to the text.
It’s written for everyone as an individual. You could say specifically for white people because it
emphasizes the horrible living condition almost to say “this is your fault”. “ We lived in a
basement apartment in Brooklyn, which I doubt you remember,”
7. Although Coates is developing a strong and logical argument, he primarily structures it

as a narrative, or story. Why do you think this rhetorical strategy is or is not effective?
It’s very effective because it lures the reader in. it doesn’t blatantly state that life is terrible and
sadness. People want to read a story not a lecture
8. One reviewer described Coates’s style as “a departure from the rhetoric of the civil
rights movement, or at least the civil rights movement that has been sanitized and
commercialized for mass consumption. Because of these departures, Coates’s hope
feels stark and brutal.” Do you agree or disagree with this characterization of his
rhetoric? Explain with specific reference to the text.
I would agree, the whole story is very derogatory. “ I did not die in my aimless youth. I did
not perish in the agony of not knowing. I was not jailed. I had proven to myself
that there was another way beyond the schools and the streets. I felt myself to be
among the survivors of some great natural disaster, some plague, some
avalanche or earthquake”

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Between the World and Me Analysis

3. In paragraph 5, Coates comments on the concept of “‘police reform’” -- which he places

7. Although Coates is developing a strong and logical argument, he primarily structures it

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