I am teaching about Segregation, and I want to focus on the theme of self-expression by looking at Jackie Robinson and his career as the first African American baseball player in modern Major League Baseball. In his first two years on the Brooklyn Dodgers, Robinson had to stay quiet in the face of racial injustice and harassment in order to protect himself. I would use the Audre Lorde conversation on self-expression by focusing on the counterclaim, that sometimes in such a complex world silence is necessary for self-protection.
In the Time of Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez, is a great novel with which to explore the theme of self-expression; in it four sisters navigate dictatorship in Latin America, fighting back to different degrees and in different ways. The Audre …
In Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, the main character loves her unique name until she goes to school, where she is embarrassed and bullied about her 13-letter moniker.Chrysanthemum never stands up for herself; only when a beloved teacher celebrates her beautiful …