Living to Die,
Dying to Live
By
D. O. Grant
Reviewed by E.L.S.E.
29.11.2012
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The book is published
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I was thinking how to define into a
single word the general impression created to me by the book entitled “Living
to Die and Dying to Live” written by D. O. Grant., and the single possibility
it is to use the word: “Sadness”.
For somebody who wants to find out
what it is happening in an African-American family, how are they integrated
into the white man circles, this book it is very illustrative. But, we must
declare from the beginning, we don`t believe that it is a pattern for all the
families being in the same conditions.
Of course the African – American
youngsters are protesting against the domination of the white man, but who can
tell how much from this protest it is directed against their own fellow kinds,
who are their teachers, their parents, their bosses?
Many times people use something
which appears to be good for justify their bad behavior and their lack of
values. Using the fight for civil rights to justify that you don`t want to work
but to still, or using the liberty pretext (of course liberty it is not just a
pretext!) to kill, dealing drugs or prostitution, isn`t make better your deeds.
Look what the mother of the main character,
named Terry, said to him in this respect: “Terry, that is not the way you
should be thinking at a stage like this in your life. If you keep containing
those thoughts like the rest of our black people, you’re going to be making
excuses just like them to not work for white folks.” P. 7
These days, I think in all worlds
wide, there is a changing of values, a search for these values, a redefining of
them, for the human society pass in history. But, like priest professor doctor
Dumitru Staniloae says in the book entitled “Jesus Christ or the Restoration of
the Man”, history, the human society, are given to man for preparing him to
receive the Revelation. So the constant search for himself must be a constant
of the man.
The book uses a phonetic translation
of the slang used in conversation by the youngsters. First of all, the language
forms the consciences. The consciences express through language. Than language
study it is an important way to learn about a culture, to understand people.
This book it is a perfect example for that. The slang for somebody unaccustomed
for this type of talking it is a little tiresome.
The action of the story steadily
grows to disaster. From refusing to work and making contraband to kill people
it is not so far away.
There is a conflict between the old
fashion life, the family`s one, and the life of the young people, living in a
kind of jungle.
The aggressiveness in all the young characters are doing, their
violence, can`t be a solution. That isn`t a life, but just a visceral trying to
escape sufferance by getting pleasure as much as possible, no matter how and
who do you hurt.
The opposition to the white
man world it is used all the time to justify the own wrongdoings. At the end,
the destiny it is individual and our deeds define us. A wrong thing can`t be
repaired by doing another wrong thing. I will not suffer less if I will make
people suffer back. An injustice can`t be made right doing at you turn another
injustice.
Why to read this book? To
understand! Around us there are so many things about which we know nothing.
Understanding makes us to forgive, to try to be better.
All in all, reading makes
we better humans.
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