Introduction
Trevor Noah’s Born A Crime is an entertaining, inspiring, educational and funny coming of age memoir about his life in South Africa. Noah takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride through his childhood full of racism, poverty, violence, love, faith and his search for cultural identity. From the first page to the very last, Noah pulls one in with his storytelling style and humour. Noah’s use of humor is a creative way of relaxing the reader all while educating them on his struggles of growing up as a mixed child in South Africa. The use of humor connects the author and reader in a way that creates an intimacy and allows the reader to become invested in the author’s narrative. Noah communicates to the reader his perspective on the various challenges he faced while growing up in South Africa. While he faces situations that would typically be embarrassing, terrifying and heart-breaking he can find humor in those situations and convey to the reader his true identity as a comedian. This essay aims to examine the ways in which the author conveys his perspective on his life and identity using humor.
Trevor Noah uses humor to illustrate the gender stereotype that her mother Patricia is subjected to. Most African society being, a patriarchal society, with the expectation of the African woman to be submissive towards the male in society, but this wasn’t the case for Patricia. She would not stand any degradation of herself especially when her principalities when on the line. Trevor narrates of their near dying experience when her mother threw him out of a moving vehicle just to escape death itself. The bus driver and his assistants devalue Patricia, to the extent of resorting to name calling and issuing death threats, which she could not let lie low thus the three have a heated engagement. This scene presents the reader with the dilemma whether to laugh or not, with Trevor being thrown out of the moving vehicle by his mother, who in turn jumps out of the moving vehicles in attempts to salvage her life and that of Andrew. Trevor questions what’s wrong with her mother, or to what did he do to be through out of the moving car, he narrates that flying out a moving vehicle was hurtful than it seemingly in the Hollywood movies. Patricia being religious, acknowledges their experience as part of God plan, thus resulting into Trevor wondering if she could ask Jesus to meet them next Sunday in their house. Consequently, he illustrates the gender-based violence women are subjected to in the marriage. For instance, when Patricia is shot by her abusive husband, despite the rage and the seriousness of the matters. Trevor is so raged at his step-father, but Patricia, asks him not to be mad at the step-dad, for he is a prisoner of the masculinity that he ascribes, as they laugh the matter off, when Patricia says “see it in the positive way, officially you are now the good liking one in the family…’. Despite highlighting the gender stereotype and the gender-based violence the women are subjected in this social setting to the Noah uses humor keep the engaged and captivated.
Secondly Trevor Noah uses humor to highlight the impacts and importance of religion amongst the African community. Trevor Noah illustrates through her mother a relentless, religious woman who would attend the integrate church, white’s church service, and the African services on the same day. The author portrays the ability of the family creating their own community that they identify with regardless of the rules. Trevor’s narration on how they could move from church service to another in such of ‘something different’ is humorous, despite the limitation resulting from apartheid rule is a clear indicator of what people wanted, sharing common experiences regardless of the race or skin coloration. Trevor demonstrates the paradoxical nature of African turning to Christianity, the same religion used by the oppressors to justifying the oppression imposed on them and deemed the African religious tradition primitive. Trevor demonstrates to the reader how religious had influenced the nature of living within the African community. In the instance when, Trevor had defecated in the house when rain promised perilous going to the outhouse, and later her mother finding the feces in the house. Trevor jokingly explains the act of defecating as the purest for power and a profound act, where the rich and famous forget their social status. Patricia terms this as an act of evils and Trevor is requested to pray due to the light skin coloration so that God could destroy the devil that entered the house to emptied it bowl. The author demonstrates, the mythical belief of the God answering prayers in regards to the skin coloration and the superiority of one’s race. Trevor stumbles through a halfhearted prayer, and later apologizes to God for distracting him from more important business as ‘this was not cool’. Consequently, demonstrating the poor living conditions most African communities were subjected to as newspapers were a perfect substitute of expensive toilet paper.
Noah illustrates the family went through poverty. Although they never lacked food, Patricia made sure of that. Noah states that unlike other kids in school, he had never worn a brand clothe, mostly they would ware secondhand clothes from Goodwill or the give away from the white churches. He illustrates that one time he asked his mother to by him adidas sneakers, due to Patricia’s unquestionable love for his son, he brings him sneakers labeled abidas. When Noah raised the concerns that the sneakers were fakes, in a humorous reply, Patricia tells Noah to appreciate he is lucky he got an extra strip unlike the usual adidas three strips. Despite the struggles of poverty, Noah and Patricia, purportedly saw the positive side of things and laughed them off in humorous was.
Noah also uses humor to highlight the lack of proper education amongst the African community. Despite, having the been exposed to the outside ghetto and Patricia made sure he was, Trevor writes, “If my mother had one goal, it was to free my mind.” He failed to understand while working as a DJ in a Jewish school, why the teachers and other officials were upset when he and his group cheered Hitler, when he showed his dance moves. Noah understands the nature of racial discrimination, thinking the teachers were offended by the traditional dance moves. From this seen he demonstrates the insufficient education the Africans would be subjected to, for Hitler was a common name for south African black men. Due to the lack of proper education about the Holocaust, Trevor does not know that it is offensive towards the Jewish to cheer Hitler. Trevor presents the dramatic irony in a humorous way in this narration. Noah in his memoir demonstrate the impact of a failed system that allowed educational inequalities. Noah persist of being transferred to the class where the black kids were, the counselor reluctantly tells know that those black kids will hold him back, Noah being adamant is transfer to B classes because, he would “rather be held back with people I like, than move ahead with people I don’t know.”
In conclusion, Trevor Noah his memoir Born a crime, uses humor to address the issues that mostly, affected is whole life. Despite the challenges, being a crime, Noah, turn heart-breaking, serious situations into humorous narration thus captivating the readers. From the illustrations above it is evidently that humor as a element of literature can be used to outline the struggles one experience in their daily life in attempts to quench their desires.