Monday, April 9, 2007

The Watsons Go to Birminham

by Christopher Paul Curtis

The ‘weird’ Watsons, as they call themselves, are close-knit family of African American descent who live in Michigan. This is a family who enjoy each other. Dad is a fast-talking, fun loving clown who giggles and ‘performs’ for his wife and children. The mother is more serious but lets a giggle and a smile escape once in a while. Three children bless the Watson’s home: Byron, Kenny, and Joey. The story is told from Kenny’s point of view.

Byron, the older boy, gets into too much trouble at home and at school, although the trouble consists of fairly insignificant acts of juvenile delinquency. Mother and Father Watson decided that Byron needed to spend the summer with his fierce, no nonsense grandmother in Alabama. Up to this point, Byron’s behavior has gone uncontrolled, as Byron knows his parents love him and will protect him no matter how awful he acts. His grandmother is surrounded by stories of fierceness, and she lives in Alabama, a state under siege with racial discord.

After a riotous preparation involving a record player and a fifteen-hour nonstop trip in a rickety car nicknamed the Brown Bomber, the family arrives in Birmingham, Alabama. Byron changes almost overnight stating that he ‘would not be responsible for that old woman’s death’.

The story loses it jovial nature and becomes serious when the youngest child, Joey goes to church. The church is bombed, and Kenny runs to the church, enters, and sees dead little girls on the ground. He sees a black shoe and pulls it towards him thinking his little sister is dead. Kenny and the entire family struggles with racism and death in ways they were never exposed to in Michigan. Kenny struggles with an emotional crisis that almost destroys him, but Byron pulls him through. This family’s struggle is a metaphor for the struggles all African American families faced from after Reconstruction until well after the Civil Rights Movement.

Lesson plans at:
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/curtis.html

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