Separation.docx

Francisco 1 Jose Francisco Professor Elizabeth Blankenship English 2090 21 March 2019

The Multigenerational Separation “Only those who can read, write, and love can move back or forward through time,” he marks it true(Laymon). Through the process of slavery, African- Americans were deprived of literacy and discouraged from loving one another. More often than not, African-American are asked to let go of the past and look forward to a brighter future but how one reconciles with centuries of forced labor, family separation, and dehumanization followed by decades of systemic discrimination, as LaVander Peeler stated: “African Americans are generally a lot more ignorant than white Americans…” However, Kiese does not play victim but emphasizes the necessity to reconnect the African-American past, present and the future through education, cultural enlightenment and love for one another. The 2013 City has an excellent appreciation for language, which allows him to convey his experiences through writing and reading. “One way to curb the back beating I was going to get was to write down my version of what happened,” said City. Through writing one can communicate, understand, adapt, agree or disagree with what has happened in the past.

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Distinct from the City in 2013, 1985 City is in love with Shalaya Crump which is his first motivation to change the future. But changing the future involves ultimately changing the past which in turn changes the present as the questionnaire question nine puts: the past, present and the future lives within you (Laymon 21). The core sense of past, present, and future is without doubt within a family. City’s grandfathers and grandmother represents the past generation, and his mother and Uncle Relle represent the present generation and City himself represents the future generation. Shalaya’s concern with the future and Evan’s fixation in the past are the primary drive to travel to 1964 which makes City question what if the past is changed so much that does not allow them to be born. This question poses the challenge of what in the past is usable or in other words what part of the past is worthy of change. It appears that both City are fixed in the present and aware that the future generation’s success relies on them. City is aware of the consequences of not having either one or both parents when he mentions “I never knew my father, but Mama tried her hardest to be there for me. When we lived in Jackson, being there for me meant leaving me to stay with my grandmother when she couldn’t handle being just a mother. I didn’t hate on Mama or feel bad for myself because at least I had a Mama who cared, unlike Shalaya Crump, who never knew either of her parents” (Laymon 287). The absence of parents creates a sense of insecurities, emptiness, and sadness. The 2013 City also displays the same reason when he shows sympathy for his

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grandmother by saying he did not know that his grandmother was someone’s sad child (Laymon 307). Perhaps, one’s story is incomplete if he or she cannot understand the past of his or her progenitors. Understanding the past of those who came before is precisely what Shalaya and Evan are trying to find out: understand the past and possibly change it to their advantage, but City is reasonably skeptical. However, later he admits that this gap between generations can be squeezed through writing. After realizing that he would no longer see Baize, he says “I was going to have to do it all with a book without an author called Long Division, Baize’s computer, a fat- head cat, and a hole in the ground” (Leymon 303). He admits that it would be difficult for her to show up, but there is a way she can continue living for generations: through literacy, she will live. If it was not through literacy how else would we know about the great thinkers that humanity has ever produced? Even though, they are dead physically they continue living through the works they left behind. I believe that is what African American should do to close the separation of generations that exists.

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Works Cited Laymon, Kiese. Long Division. Pgw, 2013.