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The Dark Child Critical Analysis Essay examples

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It has been a long while since I read an autobiography and this one, contrary to most everything else professors have assigned to read, was pretty decent. Camara Laye’s The Dark Child is at first glance your run of the mill coming of age tale, with a few different odds and ends thrown in. After the first few pages though, you begin to realize that it isn’t quite as normal and bland as some of the other required readings you may have been assigned. Whether you are a fan of autobiographies or not, The Dark Child is without a doubt worth your time. This is something that I thought he did wonderfully; as the book continues and he grows older, his perception and understanding of the world change along with his writing. So while he is writing …show more content…

The school he attends when he is a little older is a school by any means, but there is great turmoil. Often the older boys pick on the younger ones and while this may be brought to the attention of the director (the principle, headmaster etc.) the older boys would be punished but it would be so overlooked that as soon as they were finished being punished, they would return from their beatings and give them back tenfold to the young boys who told on them. This section is actually one of my favorite parts. As he grows older, his style changes and he sees the real world as it really is as opposed to his fantasies he had when he was younger. A major development in the story is the actual act of becoming a man. Boys his age have a festival for many days that lead up to their circumcision, after which they become men. After this accomplishment, he still writes about his fears and his thoughts but he is much more wary to keep them to himself. And as he grows even older he moves away from home to attend Technical College for four years. These years change him very much and when he returns home he is much more of an adult and conducts himself in such a manner. The ending of the book was very disappointing to me. I really enjoyed reading about how his mother was in pure denial and wanted to keep her son near her forever and how his father knew how hard it would be but he also knew that

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