Thulani Davis' "The 1959"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the novel "1959" by Thulani Davis narrates the custom of passage of Katherine "Willie" Tarrant. By using a first-person narrator, Davis presents a suggestive description of a young African-American teenager living in the 1950s, which was a period weighed down by injustice and increasing ethnic conflict. The author relates that "1959" is often praised for its fusion of the historic and the fictional. The use of the juvenile narrative voice places the novel within the tradition of the female Bildungsroman.

Table of Contents:
Summary
Themes and Meanings
Critical Context

From the Paper:

"Willie's remarkable teacher, Mae Taliaferro, rigorously prepares her students for the possible move. She refuses to teach the erroneous and biased material covered in the out-of-date textbooks that the all-white board of education has provided for the Wells students. One of the board members, Herman Shaw, is outraged by what he, a white supremacist, views as Mae's teaching of communist thought, and he calls for her dismissal. The African American community, however, stands behind Taliaferro, and Shaw's edict is dismissed."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Davis, Thulani (1993). 1959. Publisher: Harper Perennial ISBN-10: 0060975296.

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