Community Stories

         Sojourner Truth believed in Civil Rights for African Americans, and that people who still hold on to the belief that African Americans were still slaves should change.  With so much of the population at the time already being African American, it seemed silly that they should be treated any differently.  A community that evolves for the better good of it's members is a strong community.  Just as a community that has contradicting beliefs is weak, America can't have discrimination against it's own people.  Primary documents like Truth's documentation of her experiences with discrimination usually express the feelings and try to present the seriousness of an issue, while a reporter or a short story would try to stray from a bias perspective.

       Sixty years ago, Granny Weatherall was jilted by her husband George when he never showed up at the altar to marry her. Granny Weatherall felt that her life was all planned out, and perhaps this was the moment that changed her life. When she was on her death bed, she waited until her final moments for signs of God or an afterlife, but without seeing anything ahead, she felt that she was "jilted" once again. Beforehand, Granny believed that the community had "dissolved".  In her eyes, everyone needed her help or advice, and wasn't self sufficient enough.  This added on to the fact that she felt so lonely as a result of a difficulty communicating gave her a foul opinion of the community.  A changing community can have new or different motives, personalities, members, or methods, that keep it afloat, but a dissolving community is one that one or many feel is losing it's strength or ability to be a community at all.

         White began defining New York by what it isn't at the beginning of the story, "Here is New York" to express that he knows the city's flaws.  I believe he has already accepted these flaws and wants to end the story on a better note than what he believes isn't as important.  White believes that when it comes to diversity, New York has it.  Every few blocks is another community, so knowing these neighborhood's would really help someone fit in. In addition, there are all types of stores and services available in a small area, making it easier to get where you need to go with less driving.