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Post by Ms. English on May 31, 2022 7:09:17 GMT -5
Post your answers to the discussion question here. Make sure to read the responses of those posted before you and respond directly to them when appropriate before posting your own.
Though Lorde says that the story she tells here really happened to her, it is as carefully constructed as any short story. One aspect of the story construction she pays special attention to is setting things up in such a way that the dramatic moment will have its greatest impact. What is the dramatic moment in "The Fourth of July"? How does Lorde tell the story in a way that makes that moment especially effective?
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Post by Aliah.W on Jul 1, 2022 20:34:40 GMT -5
The Dramatic moment in “The Fourth of July” is Audare Lorde’s visit to Breyers ice cream and soda fountain in Washington D.C with her family. In the story, Lorde sets the stage for her trip and her feelings about it based on the time period she lives in. She does this by describing rules her parents gave her, and why they seemed confusing at the time. Lorde’s trip to Washington D.C. opened her eyes up to the real world, and gave her answers explaining why her family acted in certain ways to protect themselves. Her experience at the ice cream place motivated her to stand up for her rights and what she believed in; she might not have been as motivated to stand up for herself if she did not experience the things she did prior to her trip, which is why what she mentioned before the event is important background knowledge for readers to know. Lorde’s words in the beginning of the story lead readers down a path ending in her decision to write a letter to the president, while giving them insight to explain why what happened to her was wrong. The knowledge readers obtained throughout this narrative showed the effectiveness in Lorde’s storytelling, and gave readers an opportunity to feel the same way she did, instead of thinking the event was just unfortunate, or by chance. It also bring light to the reality of her situation. The event itself, along with the background knowledge given in the beginning of the story, helped readers understand that the rules Lorde’s parents gave her had meaning behind them, even if they felt unjust to her.
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Post by Lucy L on Jul 16, 2022 10:49:48 GMT -5
Audre Lorde's family trip to Washington DC was special, it was her first time on a train, and her first trip to DC that marked the end of childhood. The dramatic moment takes place towards the end of the trip when an ice cream shop waitress does not allow the family to sit inside and eat, this discrimination alters Lorde's perception of the trip and the nation as a whole. The trip leading up to the event was riddled with undertones of American racism and colorism, from the inclusion of the history of segregation on railway dining cars, to explaining that the trip was for Phyllis as she was denied entry on the high school trip. The way that Audre Lorde describes her day in Washington DC by using the adjective "white" also sets the stage for the dramatic event, it creates the impression that the whole city was not created for her and did not accept her. The final straw that was the big event shoved the racism that Audre Lorde had been referencing and commenting on all day directly into her personal experience, the discrimination that Lorde experiences in the ice cream shop also altered the way she saw her parents. Lorde described that "My mother and father believed that they could best protect their children from the realities of race in America and the fact of American racism" (Lorde 223). After the family is told to eat their ice cream outside, Audre Lorde's mother and father did not address the event or answer any of Lorde's furious questions, this confused and enraged Lorde as she believed her parents would be more vocal and stand up to the racism they warned her of. The fashion that Audre Lorde writes about American racism, Washington DC, and her mother and father leading up to the dramatic event make it that much more crushing.
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Post by joshkane on Jul 24, 2022 18:55:07 GMT -5
The dramatic moment/climax of "The Fourth of July" is when Lorde and her family are not allowed to dine in a Washington D.C. due to the color of her, her sisters, and her fathers skin. The story is is told from the point of view of Lorde who is in between childhood and the real-world, and we can see this in the story, as what would be an exciting adventure for a younger child is clouded by an adult view of how the world really is. In the story, Lorde's family decides to vacation in Washington D.C. because Lorde's older sister was excluded from her class trip to D.C. due to segregation, and when they arrive in Washington D.C. they are met with the reality of segregation again in the ice cream parlor. Due to the child-like aspect of the story, it adds to the impact of not being able to get ice cream, as people can relate to what it's like to be denied ice cream as a child, and it influences the reader to think about the tragic idea that a child was denied ice cream due to the color of their skin, an aspect of life which people have no control over.
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Post by Lucas Frankart on Jul 25, 2022 21:19:02 GMT -5
The Major moment in the plot of "The Fourth Of July" is when Lorde and her immediate family are refused entry to a restaurant after they are profiled because of the color of their skin and nothing else. This story is shown from the point of view of Lorde, a child visiting Washington, D.C. with her sisters and her father. While she feels that this will be an amazing trip to our nations capitol, but in the end it turned into a terrible scene which displayed one of the most embarrassing part of our nations history. It all starts with Lorde's older sister not being allowed onto the school trip due to her dark skin color. Her father who was outraged, decides to take his daughters to the nations capitol instead. Right away they are bared from entering an ice cream shop and restaurant simply because of the color of their skin.
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Post by Nina H on Jul 26, 2022 11:28:07 GMT -5
The dramatic moment in "The Fourth of July" is when Lorde and her family go to the ice cream shop after a hot day looking at the memorials around the city. They are told that they can't eat in the restaurant because they are black. This is the worst part of an already bad day for Lorde, and she decides that the trip wasn't fun at all. One way Lorde leads up to this moment is when she is told she can't eat in the dining car on the train by her mother. The reasoning she gets at the time is that the food is expensive and probably not very hygienic, but she says that she later learned that it was because the dining car wouldn't serve them because of their skin color. This is a situation that the family avoids, but they weren't able to avoid it later on, at the ice cream shop. Another way Lorde builds up to the ice cream ship is when she's by the Lincoln Memorial and squinting to look at everything, because everything is so white. She points out that everything seems whiter here, even the pavement, and that she doesn't like the Fourth of July because it is so bright and white. This is around the middle of the story, and in the last paragraph, she comes back to it, saying that everything in Washington was white, including the waitress who told them to leave, the ice cream they didn't get, and counter at the shop. Lorde "left her childhood" and immediately everything was very white.
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Post by MVerne on Jul 29, 2022 12:55:28 GMT -5
The dramatic moment of Lorde’s story was when her family was asked to leave the diner simply because of the color of their skin. Lorde tells the story starting with lighthearted and fond memories of the trip, but she continuously sprinkles in the moments where her younger self would think about how her family including herself were discriminated against. An example of that would be how she fondly remembers the food that they ate on the train, but then she brings up how they were not allowed to eat in the railroad dining cars. This back and forth between a child being excited about visiting a new place, and the harsh realities her family faces brings forth the feeling that something is bound to go wrong. This back and forth is effective because you knew something was going to happen the second the ice cream parlor was introduced. This way of writing by Lorde is effective because both sides collide in one moment. The happiness of a child on a trip, and the crushing realization of the racism they face. This makes the dramatic moment especially effective.
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Post by Ella Stangl on Aug 11, 2022 14:24:53 GMT -5
The dramatic moment in “The Fourth of July” is when Lorde tells the story of her family's visit to the Breyers ice cream shop. She narrates it in a way that makes this moment especially effective by having most of the previous details somehow foreshadow that moment in the ice cream shop. For example, Lorde started by talking about how her family did not have much money growing up, so they often occupied the lower class option of whatever they were doing. She said they would opt to travel by milk train at night because it was less expensive, and her parents would pack food for themselves and the children instead of purchasing food along the way. These preface the ice cream shop event by setting up the idea that the family does not go out often and spend money, which is why the visit to the ice cream shop was so significant. Lorde continues to explain how her family shielded her from as much racism as they could growing up, so she didn't fully understand it. Therefore, the blatantly racist moment that she had to experience face-to-face in the shop highlights how dramatic this moment was, as she had never undergone racism in that way before.
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Question 2
Aug 12, 2022 13:08:50 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by iessink on Aug 12, 2022 13:08:50 GMT -5
The dramatic moment in the story is when the family goes to get ice cream and are told to leave because they are black. Before this moment Lorde sets up the story in an innocent, positive way, while still hinting at the racism they faced. In the beginning the author doesn’t fully understand what racism is and that she and her family experience it all the time in little ways. Then when we get to the dramatic moment at the ice cream shop it’s a moment of realization and understanding from the little girl. Past events make sense, and with it comes anger which is very understandable. You can feel her anger and you understand her resentment because of how we were given context of her life before the event and leading up. We get told snippets of information of events like why her family went to Washington, d.c. was because of the nuns at her sisters school not letting her go with the class on the trip. The author also makes it clear that the reason why they went was given later, after the trip or even later after that. She effectively builds up emotion and drama to make the dramatic moment even more dramatic.
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Post by :) on Aug 16, 2022 10:20:05 GMT -5
The dramatic moment in “Fourth of July'' was when the family went to the ice cream shop and were denied to eat there because of their race. Lorde makes that moment especially effective by the build up to the scene. The paragraphs before Lorde does not mention race or racism and paints this happy picture of a family together getting a cold treat in the beating heat which creates this more happy/innocent feeling. That feeling is soon demolished when they get to the dramatic moment in the ice cream shop when the waitress tells them that she can get them the ice cream but they would have to take it outside as they are not allowed to eat there. The family experiences lots of little acts of racism throughout the trip but this is the first big act.
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Post by zacharyhiscock on Aug 16, 2022 11:28:33 GMT -5
The dramatic moment in "Fourth of July" was when the family went to the ice cream shop and weren't allowed to eat there due to the color of their skin. She builds up to this scene by subtly including moments of racism, but not fully straight out saying its racism. During the train ride, she included that they couldn't eat in the diner because they weren't white, they also tell that her sibling couldn't go on the Washington trip with their friends because they weren't white either. She builds it up every so slowly, telling you that something is going to happen, but we just didn't know what. It told us how messed up the country was back then. She also stated that this trip was what brought her to "adulthood." Towards the end, it was like everything suddenly got happy, then they finally went into the ice cream shop. The sentence: "We settled ourselves along the white mottled marble counter . . . no one understood what [the waitress] was saying . . ." Just helps build it up even more. Including the "white marble counter" and saying that they couldn't understand the waitress makes the reader wonder what she said, until the dramatic moment happens.
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Post by BraedenDavis on Aug 16, 2022 20:00:29 GMT -5
"The Fourth of July" uses the dramatic moment idea in the part of the story where the family went to the ice cream shop. The waitress who was working there told them "I said I kin give you to take out, but you can't eat here. Sorry." They hadn't done anything wrong or done anything to upset anyone, the only reason they couldn't eat there was because they were black. Lorde reveals all this information by starting off the story by insinuating small counts of racism to almost foreshadow the event that was to come. Additionally, Lorde builds it up by recounting the events in an innocent, excited way but signifies a much harsher twist that her family would be facing by comparing what she thought at the time to the reality of it. She explains that Phyllis was not accepted onto the school field trip, but she didn't know it was because she was black, and also mentions how she can't eat on railway dining cars because they were too expensive, when really it was because she was black. All of this was effectively hinting at the "dramatic moment" that she was building up to in the story, which was elevated by the last paragraph where she uses the word "white" six times.
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Post by ameliagougam on Aug 17, 2022 22:08:56 GMT -5
The dramatic moment in Audre Lorde’s story is when she and her family are denied from eating ice cream inside an ice cream parlour simply because of their race. Lorde builds the drama of the moment by describing the preceding events with use of her younger selves excitement and naivety. She mentions her excitement to travel to Washington D.C., as well as her excitement to ride the train and use the dining car. Along with her excitement, Lorde's naivety is also portrayed on the train when the fact that the reason she and her family could not use the dining cart was because they were black, and not only because it was “too expensive” does not cross her mind. Lorde also mentions not understanding the reasons for racism early on in the piece. At the end of a tiring day, Lorde’s family decides to get ice cream, and she describes her enthusiasm for this moment. But as they are told to leave, her naivety fades away and previous events in which she was faced with similar racism begin to make sense. This incident even prompted Audre to write a letter to the President of the United States, making the moment significantly more effective.
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Post by Emily Porco on Aug 18, 2022 13:13:54 GMT -5
The dramatic moment in "The Fourth of July" is when Lorde and her family are refused seating in a Breyer Ice Cream shop. This injustice is foreshadowed earlier in the story with her sister not being allowed to go to Washington D.C. because she wasn't white like everyone else, therefore she couldn't go. Which led to her father taking Lorde's family to Washington D.C. on their own. There is another instance where the family packs their own food for the train, not because they necessarily wanted to, but because people of color were not allowed to go into the dining cars in 1947. With the foreshadowing that Lorde writes leading up to the climax in the story, it makes that moment where they are not given ice cream more dramatic and makes the reader have a better understanding about the family and how they would deal with racism at the time.
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Post by ASedore on Aug 19, 2022 12:46:58 GMT -5
The dramatic moment in "The Fourth of July" was when Lorde and her family were refused service and asked to leave the ice cream shop because of their race. Lorde begins telling the story in a way that draws attention to the childlike ignorance that she had previous to this incident. It describes how many of the, in her eyes, seemingly normal events were actually obstacles that her family had to face. It uses phases such as "I later learned" to show how she did not yet know the extent of the role that racism played in America. This made it so that when she finally became aware, it seemed as though she had been forced out of childhood by the realization. Her memories of the trip and previous experiences were tainted. She could finally see the world for how it was instead of the false reality that her parents tried to build for her. This makes the dramatic moment much more impactful.
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