A Hope in the UnseenEssay Preview: A Hope in the UnseenReport this essayA Hope in the Unseen follows Cedric Jennings through various obstacles on his path to success as a young African American male in the mid 1990s. Ron Suskind does a stellar job creating the intricate background for the events of the novel. Residing in the inner city of Washington D.C., Cedric must overcome a culture of malaise where an intelligent black male is often ridiculed with terms such as “cracker” and “white.” The teachers have no faith in the future of their students, and most parents are proud when their children graduate from high school. In this environment, Cedric hopes not only to succeed, but also help elevate himself to a higher level of learning, the Ivy League schools.
Suskind chooses to open his novel with the chapter, “Something to Push Against.” It is a fitting chapter to open a novel about the trials and tribulations Cedric will have to face in order to reach his dream. The scene opens at an award assembly to honor the few distinguished students of Ballou High School. Unfortunately, the assembly basically made sure “the whiteys now had faces. The honor students were hazed for months afterwards (Suskind 3).” In addition to showing the adversity Cedric faces from his peers, the opening chapter also portrays Cedric positively. “Cedric Jennings often retreats [to Mr. Taylors classroom to practice SAT problems (Suskind 4)].” Unfortunately, one person can only be so positive with a negative world surrounding them. Cedric must cope with drug dealers, fatal shootings, poverty, and a hostile school environment, something most college students rarely experience. His school is a war zone, where the speaker system announces, “Attention Students. We are in Code Blue (Suskind 15).” This use of militaristic language shows the fear and anxiety the students are faced with each and every day. The chapter closes with Cedric remembering the time a gun was pulled on him by a boy who had seen him win some money at the assembly. Cedric was scared to death, but resolved to himself “thats something he can live with (Suskind 23).”
To get through his trying four years at Ballou High School, Cedric relies on his relationship with his God, and his church, the Scripture Cathedral. Suskind does a good job of showing how Cedric and his mother Barbara need the church for reaffirmation, yet also showing how the church manages to convince the poorest that buy giving the last money they have in their accounts how they are pleasing God. Cedric may have a different view. He says, “How can I compete? Its like Im living in a refrigerator (Suskind 39)!” When we meet Cedric, he would not blame his familys hardships on the church, but over the course of the novel, it becomes apparent Barbara is putting a lot of money into Scripture Cathedral. It is money she could better have used in order to provide not only for Cedric, but herself.
Fortunately for Cedric, he grew up in an era where despite his familys financial hardships; there were still opportunities for him to succeed in school. One such program he was accepted to was the summer MIT program where he would attend with other inner-city black students. Suskind does a good job at differentiating the students for the reader. For example, many would assume that the black and minority students being accepted to these low-income programs are the neediest. When Cedric was feeling bad about the whole situation, he decided to call an old friend, a boy named Torrence. Torrence sensed Cedric was feeling down, and said, “Youre just being used by the white power structure to make them feel good, like theyre doing their part and giving a few select Africans a chanceI bet there are not a lot of real brothers up there (Suskind 87).” Torrence is right in his guess. Cedric is surrounded by man working class black students. These students have no idea where Cedric has been and what Cedric has had to fight against. To Cedric and Cedrics peers, a 910 SAT score was great, but to the black students at the MIT program, the score was low. Unfortunately, Cedric did not have a proper person to vent to. Instead, he had to listen to Torrence talk about how the white persons world is no place for Cedric. It shows the adversity Cedric had to face, not in just becoming educated, but in proving to others he was not just given an opportunity to make white people feel better about themselves. He earned the right to improve his condition, intellectually and hopefully, financially.
Unfortunately, Cedric finds out that perhaps he is not MIT material. His SAT scores are too low, and somewhere that affects Cedric. It takes away some of that resolve he had, some of the determination to fight his way out of Ballou High School. Shortly after Cedric is accepted to Brown, he is invited to meet Clarence Thomas, the first and only black Supreme Court Justice. They chat back and forth about their common experiences. Thomas is an amazing role model for any young black man to look up to. He is a man who became famous, not by resisting the “white” establishment, but by understanding the rules. He worked hard to get where he was, and received no free gifts along the way. He does his best to impart his knowledge with Cedric, as well as the other poor, yet intelligent black students
Although the school seems to have some dark side, and an important point in the story, he seems to have been good tempered. He didn’t look too much older, to my reading, and seemed only a bit older and somewhat wiser. This also seems to be a message to those he met out on a street corner…
When Cedric becomes known as Clarence Thomas, Cedric learns about the other students and how they are different for different reasons. It is a lesson not just a message (that is how the story is often told), but also to those in the room.
And so, there is a lot to do there, with these three. You know the “black” side of his story; it is clear that he is a member of a white family, and you know the rest.
He was brought in to work at the college. While in school, he was the only black student in the class, though as an attorney, he was able to have some success. But to get more of Erickson, he had to stay on for much longer due to the time difference. He worked for so long in a place where he actually learned about the black experience: outside academia, the only black faculty member within the legal establishment. And it only took him two years with the exception of a short time during the 1970s (when Erickson was named associate school district superintendent). Since then, we know a little more about Clarence, as well as more about Clarence’s father, Thomas:
“And he had four children.”
“One is a black man. The other two are black women. He has three boys.”
“I’m an adult. It’s tough. We all have our struggles.”
And finally, one of the other five blacks is Clarence, who is a young man in his early 40’s, working as a lawyer? How much would that cost? Who is Clarence Thomas?
And so, what do you do?
The story is set amid the struggles of this family. And with Clarence Thomas, the story is told
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