Audre Lord's Background and Analysis of "The Fourth of July"

what are the roles of Audre Lord?

poet, essayist, activist, librarian, and teacher

the author was committed to

uplifting marginalized women

author’s main interest

strong, emotional connections can be the foundation for transformative social movements

she believed in…

unity not despite our differences, but because of them

is the story about a childhood or adult experience?

it’s about a childhood experience told through an older, matured perspective

what kind of information does the author use to contextualize certain events, and what kind of narration is this called?

information she learned later in life, called retrospective narration

what helped shape the author’s beliefs later in life?

the events she didn’t quite understand as a child

examples of things she learned later in life

• - the origin of the trip was that her sister’s school didn’t allow her to go on a class trip because she was Black

• - her family can only get a back-street hotel

• - her family is denied service in an ice cream parlor

• - Black people were not allowed in railroad dining cars

what were the author’s parents trying to do by not talking about racial injustices?

protect her from them

even as a young teenager, the author saw what in American society?

racial injustices in society

why did the author’s parents choose to stay silent?

they were trying to survive as Black immigrants

what is the major irony presented in the text?

a journey to the country’s capital supposed to show America’s greatness was actually the author’s introduction to America’s racial injustices

what is a major theme of the story?

the true significance of transformative events is often only recognized when we look back on them

what did the author think of her parents’ silence and how was that reflected in her work?

she believed it was flawed, and breaking silence became a major theme of her work

what is the surface-level and deeper meaning of the journey?

it was a journey to a new place and a new state of awareness