Uploaded by

Alyssa

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

0% found this document useful (0 votes)

11 views

Dear Martin Assessment Example

Uploaded by

Alyssa

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

You are on page 1/ 7

Dear Martin

By Nic Stone
Introduction

Dear Martin by Nic Stone follows the life of a colored teenager called Justyce as he
navigates life at a private school and everything that comes with it including the
discriminating comments. The Key idea I will be focusing on is Racism which is
discrimination by an individual or community against a person or people based on them
being part of a particular racial or ethnic group. The author wanted this theme to be
clear in the novel to help raise awareness of the types of things people experience all
due to the color of their skin. The 2 aspects I will talk about are Setting more specifically
the school and Event which is the event of Manny’s death
Aspect 1
The first aspect I am going to discuss is the setting focusing on the school An example of
this is the conversations brought up mainly by Jared a quote to support this is “I’m
ranked number two in our class, I’m captain of the baseball team, I do community
service on weekends and I got higher test scores than Justyce… yet he got into Yale
early action, and I didn’t. I know for a fact it’s because I’m white and he’s black”. This
aspect shows my key idea because Justyce had to experience these kinds of comments
every day because of the color of his skin and nobody would believe his achievements
were because he was smart. The author used this aspect to show the theme of racism
because it shows how racism doesn’t only come from adults. Children learn from what
their parents do or how they act so if the child grows up around people who are racist in
turn they are more likely to become/be racist themselves.
Aspect 2
The second aspect I am going to discuss is the Event focusing on the death of Manny,
which could have been prevented if there weren’t racist police on the force. An example
of this is how the cop said “YOU WORTHLESS N***** SONS OF BITCHES”. This aspect
shows my key idea of racism because the police officer called Manny and Justyce some
very racist names right before he shot them. The author used this aspect to show the
theme of racism because it shows how far racism goes and how there are multiple ways
for a person to be racist like saying certain words/calling people a certain name because
of the color of their skin.
How the aspects work together

The aspects of the setting and event work together to show how deep racism can go
and how quickly it can spread from one person to the next like wildfire. For example, the
setting shows a child being racist while the event shows an adult more specifically a cop
being racist this indicates that even if you are supposed to accept everyone the roots of
racism run deep and it will be an uphill battle to make the much-needed change. This
combination will make the readers feel sadness and guilt because they might be causing
some of this and they are seeing what it might be like for people who are being targeted
by Racism.
Links to Society/NZ
This relates to society because the racism shown in the book Dear Martin is similar to
what happened during the mosque shootings in Christchurch City in 2019 where racist
offenders targeted the mosques in an attempt to kill as many people as possible. This
link is significant because it shows how quickly racism can turn into acts of violence. The
author wanted the reader to be aware of this because it is a big thing around the world
and its not something people tink about everyday