Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The Beautiful Struggle, Chapter 8

 [The Beautiful Struggle]

Toward the end of chapter 8 of The Beautiful Struggle, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes, “I did not know then that this is what life is—just when you master the geometry of one world, it slips away, and suddenly again, you’re swarmed by strange shapes and impossible angles” (220). Please provide one memorable example from the chapter where you noticed Coates attempting to get a grasp one world as it began to slip away. Please provide page numbers.

6 comments:

gabriel said...


“I awake at dawn and saw my mother out back ….at eighteen the free ride would stop, and I’d be dumped into the mess of the world….She was still working in D.C., and weekly she would appear, unannounced, in the admission office and demand a status report…” (216-217).
In these two pages you see that Coates in now growing up thinking more about those around him than himself. He will no longer be at home and living with his parents but he will have to go to college and make something of himself. What was important about this passage was that he was moving on.

G Msengi

Evan T. said...

just before on page 219 he says, "And I was in the burgeoning class of kids whose families made too much for financial aid but not enough to make tuition payments anything less than a war." He was really trying to go to college but his parents really could not afford it. this created a struggle for him and it slipped away when his father told him he was not going to the 13th grade.

Nicholas M. said...

"I was only months from eighteen, and could have done what I wanted. I was split on leaving Baltimore, and the wishes of my parents were an easy out"(220).Ta-Nehisi had his eyes set on leaving Baltimore to go to Morgan. Although scholarship worthy, he points out that if he left Baltimore to go to school his parents would still be carrying the bill (219). He did not want to put the burden of school expenses on his parents. Therefore, he followed his parents wishes and chose to go to Mecca instead of college.

Jeremy H. said...

On page 210 "But soon I'd be loose from it all, and I felt the freedom of eighteen on the approach...I was assigned to a dorm room. Everything in front of me was green sky". This is certainly easy to relate with because us college students were once in this transitional stage when we really don't know what life has in store for us. He had the unfortunate occurrence of his father disapproving him continuing his education.
Jeremy H.

Robert F said...

"That whole week i felt sidelined and disarme. I didn't think about Ebony, pretty boy,or the prom. I didn't think about my dorm room awaiting me at Morgan or Ma lobbying the Mecca for my admission." (213) All Coate was thinking about was his music. His mind was stuck there, as the rest of the world seemed to go by him as he watched. He seemed mildly numb to the world, as if he just didn't care as much.

Unknown said...

"that whole week I felt sidelined and disarmed. I didn't think about Ebony, pretty boy, or the prom. I didn't think about my dorm room awaiting me at Morgan or Ma lobbying for my admission. In the back of class, I traced my fingers like maps." (213) You can clearly see that the thoughts that he would wonder about; worries, people, and events; we're becoming void as he sees himself being caught up in others things; he was changing.