The book, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, is written as a letter to his son. Coates cuts into the experience of the father as advice to the son. He writes this letter to his son to educate and awaken his son to the logic of white supremacy and the obstacles he will face as a black man in this world. However, Ta-Nehisi’s son isn’t the only audience. He exposes the readers to the effect of racism on Black America from history until the present day. Coates (successfully) uses pathos and ethos to convince his audience.
From the definition, rhetoric is the art of speaking or writing effectively. The communication should be persuasive to the target audience. I believe that in Coates’s book, he achieves the use of rhetoric in the delivery of his message. For starters, the text is a nonfiction letter to his son. In the early development of people’s lives, they are taught by their parents, who then pass that knowledge to their children. In the process, children tend to learn at an early age from their caregivers and uses their caregivers’ experiences to form the basis of their lives. Coates begins his letters by recounting his experience as a young man. The recounting process makes it easy for Coates to relate to his son, who is fifteen (15) years of age. The recounting process enables the son to see the previous world through his father’s eyes. This recount is both logical and emotional. The son can easily understand where his father is coming from and why the text is essential to him. The logical aspect is that the use of the father’s past increases the confidence levels of the son while reading the book. Considering the magnitude of the letters, Coates cannot afford to leave anything to chance.
The use of feelings, symbolism, and realities in the text is rife. In his letters to his son, Coates highlights the social injustices that the black man has faced over the years. He highlights the realities of life, such as the racial injustices committed throughout American history as one of his arguments in the text. He highlights the vicious legacy of white supremacy, which is still present to date. The use of these realities makes it easier for his son and other young black men to understand and associate with him, considering they are actively experiencing the same tragedies that he is also facing. To capture one’s understanding, there is a need to obtain highlight the realities at the moment. Therefore, we can conclude that Coates’s use of realities in his text was successful.
The other reality that Coates implements is the drug use scenario in the black community in the United States. The use of drugs that have torn most of the African-American homes through drug use and peddling is one of the most commonly faced disasters. Most people, primarily black people, can associate or can name a few people whose use of drugs has changed their lives for the worse. The introduction and use of the drug epidemic in his text enable Coates to reach his son. At his age, Coates’ son is experiencing the world and the people around it. He can distinguish right and wrong. The use of such realities makes the delivery of Coates text successful.
Coates implements symbolism in the delivery of his message to his son. Symbolism helps to properly prop a character into a box or a situation that helps in the delivery of a message. In his letters to his son, Coates has regularly used the term black elites to symbolize black people who have similar characters to those of white supremacy. Although their support to white supremacy is subtle, they exhibit the same traits, such as the refusal to confront poverty, patriarchy or transphobia. With the success rate of the African American person in the United States being low, young black people have few role models. As such, people from a young age are taught the successful people in their communities and those who ended up as sell-outs to their communities. Thanks to this fact, the use of black elites becomes easily relatable and makes it convincing to the target audience. The term black elites mark them as sell-outs, something the black community is always against. Therefore, we conclude that the use of symbolism in the text by Coates is successful.
The emotional appeal to his son begins to show during his appeal to black atheism, to a disbelief in dreams and moral appeal. Although he had used emotional appeal by recounting his childhood, this is the time where he bridges the emotion and logic to convey his intended message. The essence of this text is to stir the ever-burning spirit in any black person to rise against injustice and oppression. Its nature is to stimulate the black man’s thinking to motivate them to be better than they are now. Coates successfully implements this thanks to his appeal to black atheism. His call to black atheism stirs up the inner conflict where he is seen to prioritize the physical security of African-American people over the tradition of African-American Christianity of optimism. The bridge between the emotional aspect and the logical aspect is that, although faith is essential, we cannot shy away from the reality that our physical appearance will play a role in the subjection of injustice in our lives.
Through his personal life, thanks to his recount, Coates can snap the black person’s mind out of the aura created by people who had faith in nationalism and social integration. Nationalism and social inclusion is a scenario where a person can feel comfortable and proud to be in a particular area of the country. However, this is not the case for Coates and the young black people in the United States. They have to state always on guard. They have to look out for the gangs in their neighbourhoods and the police patrolling their streets. Such illustrations make the Coates’ text convincing and appealing to his audience and especially his son, who is highly likely to be incarcerated due to his skin colour and not the crime he commits.
In conclusion, Coates does a brilliant job in highlighting the ideal condition that the black person should face and the real situation as it is on the ground. His delivery of the text to his target audience is masterful and full of rhetoric that makes it convincing. He has successfully deconstructed how nationalism and integration are an impossible route to achieve the black man’s liberty. I believe his use of rhetoric is successful.