Journal Prompt #2

By: Catrina Earnshaw
 

A very big social issue explored in the novel Bud not Buddy is race and racism. We get to follow the experiences of an African-American ten year old orphan boy during the years of the 1930s. “Right before we got into the cardboard jungle we passed the white people with the coughing baby at their own little fire (…) All they're eating is dandelion greens soup, they're broke, their clothes are falling off of them, their baby's sick but when someone took them some food and blankets, the man said, ‘Thank you very much, but we're white people. We ain't in need of a handout.’” (186-187). This quote shows how in that time a white family was too proud to take things from a black family even if they were going through extremely tough times. Even though both families were going through the same hardships, the white family still felt above the black family. “They were all the colors you could think of, black, white and brown, but the fire made them look like they were different shades of orange. There were dark orange folks sitting next to medium orange folks sitting next to light orange folks.” (77). This is a very interesting quote because it’s told from a child, Bud’s, perspective. Bud knows that they are all different but in the light of the fire sees all of the different races as the same. They go from black, white, and brown to all shades of orange. This scene highlights their similarity and unity. The novel displays the social issue of racism and what it causes very well.