Dear Sir,
As you have already been informed, I have chosen to teach the short story “The War of the Wall” by Toni Cade Bambara for the English class with the 6th and 7th graders. This is a short story written in a simple yet emotional and bright language, so it will presumably captivate the students’ attention. I teach English in a public school, where many kids of various backgrounds study. There are kids from African-American families, mixed-race kids, Latin American kids, kids with alternative genders, kids from poor families, and kids from first-generation migrant families. Many of them see how their parents struggle to survive in the modern realities and provide them with a better future. Others know and cherish the stories of their ancestors, who were oppressed, and feel some sort of oppression by themselves. Therefore, understanding the meaning of the concepts of “pride,” “speaking out,” and “standing for one’s truth,” will be of great value to them.
Today, many people have a wrong or biased understanding of the word “pride.” Some individuals give this word a negative connotation, as, for example, when a person is proud of something unworthy. Others don’t understand how “pride” can belong to groups of people and not specific individuals. For example, gay pride or white pride, or black pride participants are often asked ‘what are you proud of?’ and ‘what did you personally do to be proud of it?’ Such questions reflect that many society members have the wrong idea of pride parades and pride communities. Children need to understand that being a representative of the minority group means being seen as less worthy than other people for no particular reason other than biases. Therefore, people from minority groups speak up and tell their truths, creating their own meanings and dialogues in social knowledge.
“The War of the Wall” is a story about the sudden ‘invasion’ of white women into a Black neighborhood. She decided to paint the wall, without asking if the people living in the neighborhood would not mind her doing this. The narrator, a local kid, justly wonders, “Who did that lady think she was, coming into our neighborhood and taking over our wall?” and “Why couldn’t she set up an easel downtown or draw on the sidewalk in her own neighborhood?” (Bambara, 1996, p. 3). The offhand manner of a young white lady who deliberately ignores people looks defiant, and probably really is. But at the end of the story, the narrator sees the result of the painter’s work, and this result is really not that bad, as it portrays the leaders of the movement for African American independence, rights, and identity – Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, Frank Sinatra, Billy Holiday, and other personalities well known to the narrator and treated with respect in his family.
The drawing is signed with the dedication “To the People of Taliaferro Street I Dedicate This Wall of Respect Painted in Memory of My Cousin Jimmy Lyons” (Bambara, 1996, p. 5). It turns out, that the painter’s cousin was Jimmy Lyons, a community member who never returned from the Vietnamese war to take the narrator and his cousin Lou fishing. The story is full of vivid details, such as when the painter demands vegan food at a local restaurant, insisting that the chef, the narrator’s mother, offer her a dish free of animal ingredients.
Another highlight is the news coverage of trains in New York City covered in graffiti. “Daddy called it “graffiti.” Grandmama called it a shame,” says the narrator (Bambara, 1996, p. 4). These details emphasize the ambiguity of the story, which adds to its value. The story perfectly represents how people can interact in conditions of distrust, but without enmity. It also raises issues of racial and national identity, and looks at the origins of self-esteem and dignity among people who do not belong to the ‘overwhelming majority.’ Therefore, I believe that this story will be useful and interesting for school students.
Sincerely yours,______________
Reference
Bambara, T. C. (1996). The war of the wall. The Language of Literature.