Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 3 page essay discusses Claude Brown's autobiography Manchild in the Promised Land, which was first published in 1965, in terms of the sociological perspectives of symbolic interaction, functionalism and conflict theory. No additional sources are cited.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: KL9_khmanchild.doc
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
offering readers insight into what conditions were like for African Americans during this era. The following discussion considers Manchild from the sociological perspectives of symbolic interaction, functionalism and conflict theory.
Using the perspective of symbolic interactionism, sociologists focus on the details of everyday life, the symbols encountered and how these symbols are interpreted within the course of interpersonal reactions.
Brown relates Brown portrays both his parents in a negative light, describing how his father beat him regularly and once seemed intent on killing his little brother, Pimp, until
he was stopped by a policeman that his mother fetched. One of the first incidents that Brown relates is his reaction to a riot, indicating that, to him, this chaos
represents excitement and a chance to procure material goods illegally. Brown makes it clear that he regards stealing as a normal activity, and relates that the beatings he received from
his father, for stealing, skipping school and other miscellaneous negative behaviors, had little effect on him. His parents would receive a yellow card from the school, which told them that
Brown, who was known as "Sonny" growing up, had skipped school again, and a beating would follow (Brown 10). From a functional perspective, Manchild provides insight into the life
of African Americans who fled the entrenched racism of the South and migrated North, in search of a "Promised Land" where they might be able to find a measure of
equality and opportunity, only to be confronted with a different, but nonetheless, racist environment that was designed by society to keep them subjugated, as manual laborers and servants to the
white elite. Browns desire to "know things" and "do thing" evolved from reading the books that Mrs. Cohen gave him, which included the biographies of African Americans, such as Mary
...