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Post by Ms. English on May 30, 2023 7:44:21 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 Ellie Reeves on Jun 19, 2023 13:26:43 GMT -5
The dramatic moment in “The Fourth of July” is when Lorde and her family are unable to eat ice cream in a shop during their trip to Washington DC because of the color of their skin. Lorde makes this moment especially effective because of the way she sets up the story. She starts off the story by highlighting the age she was at the time and the idea that she needs to stop being a child and grow up. Later in the story when Lorde is on the train, she expresses how she wants to eat in the dining car but instead eats the food packed by her mother because the food they serve is too expensive. In reality, Lorde is not allowed in the dining car because she is not white. This shows how before the moment in the shop, she is shielded and protected from discrimination. Those events set up the climax of the story to be as impactful as possible because it reveals that Lorde grows up by realizing the reality of the discrimination her family has been facing and shows the inability of her parents to protect her from it.
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Post by Marley Mickel on Jun 29, 2023 22:26:47 GMT -5
The dramatic moment in “The Forth of July” by Audre Lorde in my opinion is when Lorde and her family stop and go into a restaurant to cool off and have ice cream, but once Lorde and her family sit down they are told that they cannot eat in the restaurant, but they can do take out. How Lorde tells the story in a way that makes the moment especially effective is when she explained how she and her family left the restaurant and how she used “white” multiple times in the last paragraph. Lorde described how she had felt and how her parents handled the situation. Lorde’s parents preferred to not talk about the situation because they felt that they should have expected it and easily avoided it. Based on Lorde’s writing I feel like her parents seemed to have blamed themselves at this time because they felt that they should have expected it which I thought was a very interesting way to describe the feeling and her perspective.
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Post by audrey on Jul 6, 2023 13:42:10 GMT -5
I agree with Ellie and Marley, I think the dramatic moment in “The Fourth of July” is when Lorde and her family were not allowed to dine in at the ice cream shop but were allowed to do take out due to the color of their skin. Lorde tells this moment in a way that is most effective by describing how she felt in the moment and how her parents handled the situation. But when I read this section of the story it reminded me of a movie I watched in history class called the “Freedom Song”. There was a scene where a little black boy wandered into a whites only diner while the father wasn’t looking. His father saw him talking to a white teenage boy who then asked him to spank his son as an act of discipline inside the diner in front of everyone. After that moment, the little boy saw his father differently because he was so young he didn’t understand why his father didn’t stand up for himself, why he had to be punished for just simply walking into a room not knowing he did anything wrong. Similarly to Lorde and her family, she says “But we hadn’t done anything!”. Both situations with the little boy and Lorde were unfair and not right, it demonstrated how much power whites had over black people and how much discrimination there was.
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Post by hannahboothby on Jul 7, 2023 17:24:24 GMT -5
Lorde constructs her essay the same way a fictional short story would be written. The trip to Washington DC and her experiences on it are all a buildup to the climax: the scene in the restaurant. This is the most dramatic moment in the essay because Lorde has spent the entire essay foreshadowing it. Previously, she has experienced racism, but hasn’t noticed it. She isn’t allowed to eat in a dining car, but her mother doesn’t tell her the real reason why. She is taught not to trust white people, but isn’t taught about racial discrimination. Her parents have sheltered her from American Racism, so even though it affects her day-to-day life and we as the audience see that, Lorde herself doesn’t realize it until the end of the essay. What makes Lorde’s family getting kicked out of the restaurant so dramatic is that it is the first time she sees racism and realizes what has been hurting her throughout the entire essay. This realization causes her loss of innocence, which is why she says she left her childhood that summer.
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Post by Emerson Agnello on Jul 13, 2023 11:40:37 GMT -5
The dramatic moment in "The Fourth of July" by Audre Lorde is when the family stops for ice cream and is denied the treat because of the color of their skin. Lorde made the way she told the story especially effective by how she spent the beginning of the story foreshadowing the event at the end. She explains the things of their trip, like her parents ignoring racism and trying to protect Lorde from it when she asks about it. For example, on the train, when she wants to eat in the dining car, and instead of her mother telling her she wasn't allowed to eat there because of her skin tone, she tells Lorde that it was too expensive for them to afford. She is unaware of the racism and discrimination that she is facing until the moment from the ice cream shop, which her parents could not shield her from.
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Post by jordanpritchett on Jul 15, 2023 14:38:58 GMT -5
The dramatic moment in "The Fourth of July" by Audre Lorde is when the family stops for ice cream and is denied the treat because of the color of their skin. Lorde made the way she told the story especially effective by how she spent the beginning of the story foreshadowing the event at the end. She explains the things of their trip, like her parents ignoring racism and trying to protect Lorde from it when she asks about it. For example, on the train, when she wants to eat in the dining car, and instead of her mother telling her she wasn't allowed to eat there because of her skin tone, she tells Lorde that it was too expensive for them to afford. She is unaware of the racism and discrimination that she is facing until the moment from the ice cream shop, which her parents could not shield her from. I feel like you really looked past what built up to the meltdown at the ice cream shop. They were not just denied the treat because they weren't white, but instead, they were told that they were not American enough to enjoy something as simple as ice cream in the shop. Again, they weren't just told no because of their skin color; they were told that their skin was not good enough for them to stay in that establishment, but it was good enough for them to buy the treat and leave. Lorde was not only astonished because the family had done nothing wrong and was still asked to leave, but she was also furious because, in a country that she had lived in for her entire life, she was not welcome. So I don’t think that it’s fair for you to just say they weren’t able to get something because of the color of their skin since they were not just denied upon entry. Would you have wanted to buy ice cream from a place that said you weren’t welcome to stay because of the pretenses that they have about you?
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Post by audratate on Jul 19, 2023 18:46:55 GMT -5
In the essay ¨The Fourth of July¨ written by Audre Lorde, the dramatic moment that takes place is at a ice cream shop. Her family when to a diner to stop for ice cream, but her family was denied any service because of the color of their skin. Lorde made the dramatic moment very effective because she spent the beginning of the story foreshadowing the event that took place at the end of the story. She went from telling and showing the racism and discrimintaion in America to her family being discriminated against in the Diner because of theeir skin color. Her parents shielded Lorde from the discrimination that her family was facing to protect her. She did not realize the discrimination that her family was facing until the end of the essay. When she realizes the racism and discrimination that her parents shielded her from she says she looses her innocence that summer.
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Post by morganhall on Jul 22, 2023 11:03:57 GMT -5
The forefront moment from Audre Lordes' childhood trip to Washington DC is when she and her family were refused service in an ice cream shop because of the color of their skin. In "The Fourth of July" by Lorde, she builds up her story with her own untaught racism and discrimination to reveal her dramatic memory. For example, Lorde wasn't made aware of the reason they were even going to DC. The school trip deposit was withdrawn and they were asked not to come on the trip because the hotel 'would not be happy' with a colored family staying there. We learn that this trip was very deceitful and her parents didn't want to introduce her to their inequity. So when Lorde and her family go to the diner after a long day for some cold ice cream and are told they cannot eat here she was outraged. She didn't understand, she knew it was wrong and unfair and the fact that her family just acted like it was normal made her even more upset. Lorde writes about her own ignorance to build up this eye opening moment for her and how she finally 'stopped being a child'.
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Post by georgia on Jul 27, 2023 15:14:47 GMT -5
The forefront moment from Audre Lordes' childhood trip to Washington DC is when she and her family were refused service in an ice cream shop because of the color of their skin. In "The Fourth of July" by Lorde, she builds up her story with her own untaught racism and discrimination to reveal her dramatic memory. For example, Lorde wasn't made aware of the reason they were even going to DC. The school trip deposit was withdrawn and they were asked not to come on the trip because the hotel 'would not be happy' with a colored family staying there. We learn that this trip was very deceitful and her parents didn't want to introduce her to their inequity. So when Lorde and her family go to the diner after a long day for some cold ice cream and are told they cannot eat here she was outraged. She didn't understand, she knew it was wrong and unfair and the fact that her family just acted like it was normal made her even more upset. Lorde writes about her own ignorance to build up this eye opening moment for her and how she finally 'stopped being a child'. I agree that Lorde builds up to the moment in the ice cream parlor and makes it especially effective by writing about her ignorance before the moment and how it made her realize the vastness of American racism. Throughout “The Fourth of July”, Lorde does this by discussing the discrimination of certain aspects of her family trip to DC that she wasn’t aware of at the time. She describes how she not only didn’t realize the circumstances for the trip were because her sister wasn’t allowed to go on her senior class trip solely because of her race, but also how she was unaware of laws preventing African Americans from entering dining carts on trains. Lorde’s discussion of her parents and her reflection on their lack of acknowledgement towards rasicm also contributes to an effective build up. By writing about how her parents never fully explained rasicm to her helps to make the scene in the ice cream parlor even more dramatic because it allows the reader to understand the confusion and anger that Lorde felt towards racism itself and her family for not fighting against the injustice. It also demonstrates how pivotal the moment was for Lorde as it completely changed her perception of her parents and the country.
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Post by izzymorris0715 on Jul 27, 2023 21:19:13 GMT -5
In simple terms the dramatic moment in “The Fourth of July” was when Lorde and her family left the ice cream shop due to racial discrimination. This moment is especially more effective because Lorde alludes to the idea of freedom and equality throughout the essay. She does this through the title “Fourth of July”, being as it is an important American holiday that has a political background. She also emphasizes her point in her explanation of Marina Anderson singing at the Lincoln memorial in a time when she was judged not on her talent, but by the color of her skin. These messages on freedom make the ice cream scene so much more powerful because they emphasize Lorde’s point that her family being unable to dine at an ice cream shop tested their constitutional freedoms. Yes, they left the shop due to that discrimination, but the point of the scene was to show what is lost due to discrimination, something that Americans went to war for: freedom.
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Post by Eloise on Jul 28, 2023 10:39:44 GMT -5
The dramatic moment in “The Fourth of July” is when Lorde’s family is refused service in the ice cream parlor in Washington DC. Lorde tells her story in a way that foreshadowed this discrimination taking place. She begins with the scene on the train where her mother says she cannot eat in the dining car because the food is expensive when it is really because they were not allowed to due to the color of their skin. Later, she talks about how her sister was not able to go on her senior trip because her class was staying in an all-white hotel. Throughout her time in DC as well, she begins to notice the whiteness of everything around her and piece together the realization that discrimination is more real than she had thought. All of these things lead up to the scene in the ice cream parlor where they are told they are not able to eat inside. This frustrates Lordes as her parents seem to think that they should have anticipated it and avoided it, so they do not speak of it. The point of making this scene dramatic is to enhance the readers understanding of how this situation changed Lorde's view on the nature of her nation.
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Post by margaretscavarda on Aug 7, 2023 13:28:50 GMT -5
The dramatic moment in "The Fourth of July" by Audre Lorde was when the Lorde family was denied access to dine in an ice cream parlor in Washington DC. Lorde wrote her story in such a way that built the tension up until this moment. Lorde and her family experienced multiple accounts of racism. Firstly, Lorde's sister wasn't allowed to go on a school trip because she wasn't white. Secondly, Lorde's mother didn't let her eat in the dining car of the train. However, Lorde didn't know about her sister not going with her school until later, and she also never knew the reason for her mother not letting her go to the dining car. Lorde didn't even know that people were being racist. It was very obvious why her family was kicked out of the ice cream shop. At this moment Lorde suddenly understands everything. The harsh reality comes crashing down on her all at once. It's extremely overwhelming and it makes her very angry. All the events adding up to the dramatic moment made the final moment so much more powerful.
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Post by Aubrianna Caldwell on Aug 13, 2023 12:40:45 GMT -5
The dramatic moment in “The Fourth of July” is when Lorde stops to get ice cream with her family but gets refused because of the color of their skin and how they were “not American enough”, she tells how it affected her and how she felt by the way her parents handled the situation. She sets up the story in a dramatic way by talking about her age and how she needs to “grow up”, she had already experienced racism before but never realized because her parents always protected her and didn't let her see that side of people and how cruel they could be. When they get to the ice cream shop and Lorde realizes what racism really is for the first time she gets rightfully upset and doesn’t like how her parents handled it. She goes on to emphasize the word white and uses it 6 times in one sentence.
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sofia
New Member
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Post by sofia on Aug 13, 2023 13:26:10 GMT -5
In “The Fourth of July” by Audre Lorde, the dramatic moment in her short story is the rejection that her family faces from a diner because of their skin color in what is supposed to be the capital of freedom for all: Washington D.C. Lorde writes her story in a way that leads up to the event in the diner by highlighting all of the little (but still impactful) instances of racism they experience as they are traveling to Washington and as they are there. From not being able to eat on the train car to having to stay in a different hotel, she details the unfairness they experienced in Washington, even prior to the incident at the restaurant. However, the difference between the other racist incidents and the diner was that her parents were able to disguise the racism they faced so she wouldn’t notice. At the diner, her parents couldn’t hide that they weren’t being served based on their skin color, which makes it even more impactful for Lorde because she finally gets a glimpse into the reality that she will face racism in her life without her parents there to help her.
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