born a crime hl essay

Born a Crime

By trevor noah.

• Born a Crime Summary

Trevor Noah 's memoir interweaves vignettes from his childhood and adolescence with reflections on the history and culture of South Africa. The various episodes are not always presented in a strict chronological order, and they include information about his life and the life of his mother.

Trevor's mother, Patricia Noah, is born into a Black South African family that belongs to the Xhosa tribe. After her parents' divorce and her father goes to live with his second wife and new family, Patricia grows up feeling neglected as the middle child of a working-class single mother. Although she hopes to return to live with her father, she ends up being sent to live with her paternal aunt in an impoverished rural area. Patricia, however, is able to get a good education and is ambitious, determined to make a better life for herself. She begins working as a secretary, and when she becomes frustrated with her family members taking most of her money, she moves to an apartment in Johannesburg by herself. There, she meets Robert , a white man with whom she becomes friends. Wanting to have a baby so that she can establish a new family for herself, Patricia persuades Robert to father her child; she gives birth to Trevor, a light-skinned, mixed-race child. At this time, it is illegal in South Africa for people to have sex with individuals from different racial classifications, so Trevor is evidence of her criminal activity.

Although both Patricia and Robert have to make sure that they hide their relationship to Trevor for fear of being arrested, he recalls a happy early childhood growing up first in a small flat, and then, as the influence of apartheid gradually diminishes, in a primarily colored neighborhood called Eden Park. He visits with his father every week, and he also spends time with his mother's family in the Black neighborhood of Soweto. He is a rambunctious child and his mother often disciplines him strictly, but they also have a very loving relationship. Patricia encourages Trevor to be a curious and independent thinker who reflects critically, asks lots of questions, and thinks for himself. She plants the seeds of ambition in him, encouraging him to believe in himself and have aspirations. She also gives him a good educational foundation by getting him enrolled in a private Catholic school, although Trevor often gets in trouble there for challenging rules and questioning authority.

When Trevor is about six years old, Patricia meets a charismatic mechanic named Abel , and after the two of them have dated for a while, they decide to marry. Trevor doesn't trust the man who will become his stepfather, but there's little he can do. The marriage and then the birth of Trevor's half-brother Andrew introduce new dynamics into the family. For example, Abel does not like Trevor spending time with his father Robert, so Trevor visits less frequently. This diminishing relationship leads to Robert moving away to Cape Town when Trevor is thirteen years old. Around this time, Trevor also gets kicked out of Catholic school and transfers to a public school called H.A. Jack at the end of the sixth grade. Starting at the new school, where students of different races don't intermingle much, Trevor realizes that he feels most comfortable with the Black students and identifies as Black. However, by this time it is clear that he doesn't fit in well with any specific group. His mother's family and other residents of Soweto have always treated him differently because he was light-skinned and spoke perfect English. In the primarily colored neighborhood of Eden Park, he's considered either too black or too white to fit in. Trevor rarely has close friends, is often bullied or outcast, and becomes resourceful about moving fluidly between communities, focusing on honing his language skills so that he can try to fit in wherever he goes.

This pattern continues once Trevor starts high school at Sandringham, a large public school. By this time, his stepfather has experienced serious economic troubles after trying to start his own car repair shop. Patricia provided money to help him, but Abel's problems with alcohol make him irresponsible and the business fails. Abel has also begun to occasionally be physically abusive towards Patricia, Trevor, and their pets. To cut their losses, they sell the shop and move to a primarily white neighborhood called Highlands North. Patricia legally divorces Abel but continues to live with him, supporting the family with her income while he drinks more and more heavily. Trevor becomes interested in his own business ventures, first making money placing lunch orders for other students, and then eventually selling pirated and mix CDs. While awkward and unsuccessful at attracting girls, Trevor does have a few close friends and starts making a significant income for himself.

When Trevor finishes high school, he has no clear plan in place. He doesn't have the money to attend university, and the only work he can find is expanding his CD business and also beginning to DJ parties. This line of work leads him to spending more and more time in Alexandra, an impoverished neighborhood dominated by petty crime. By this time, tensions between Trevor and Abel have led Trevor to move into his own apartment. The relationship between Patricia and Abel has deteriorated, and he is hoping that his mother will leave Abel entirely. Trevor is devastated when he finds out that Patricia is pregnant again, and he spends less time with his mother and younger brothers after this. When he is in his early twenties, his career starts to take off, giving him other things to focus on. When Trevor is twenty-four, his mother encourages him to seek out his estranged father, Robert. Trevor tracks down Robert and begins to rebuild a relationship with him. Patricia also eventually leaves Abel and remarries.

Trevor is startled to receive a phone call one day when he is in his mid-twenties and learn that Abel has shot his mother. He rushes to her side and covers her medical costs. Miraculously, Patricia sustains only minor injuries, and the incident reaffirms the deep love between mother and son. Unfortunately, Abel is able to avoid jail time and goes on to live as a free man, having served only parole.

Born a Crime Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Born a Crime is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What 3 things does trevor say they always had

Chapter please?

Explain Trevor's rationale for identifying Soweto driveways as a metaphor for Soweto's hope. What symbol do you indentify with hope? Explain why you chose this symbol

Trevor's rationale for identifying Soweto driveways as a metaphor for Soweto's hope is that the driveways represent tiny steps towards progress. He sees the driveways as symbols of transformation and possibility: even small changes can lead to big...

What rhetorical choice is used when Trevor Noah says that South Africa is a mix of old and new?

South Africa is a mix of the old and the new, the ancient and the modern, and South African Christianity is a perfect example of this. We adopted the religion of our colonizers, but most people held on to the old ancestral ways, too, just...

Study Guide for Born a Crime

Born a Crime study guide contains a biography of Trevor Noah, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Born a Crime
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Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime Book Analysis Essay (Critical Writing)

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The book Born a Crime by the famous comedian and political commentator Trevor Noah recollects his life experiences and struggles. The main plot of this book is Noah’s autobiography combined with his thoughts on his life. Noah writes about his upbringing during the Apartheid in South Africa, being a mixed-race child. At that time, his existence was considered a ‘crime’ during these years of extreme racial segregation. By reflecting on these experiences, Noah also questions the moral foundations of the concepts of politics, crime, and law. However, he does not only provide a description of his struggles but teaches the audience a lesson in success and resilience. Despite these unfavorable circumstances, he managed to become a successful entertainer known around the globe. Therefore, this story of Noah becomes the tale of resilience and self-preservation in the face of competing demands and adverse factors.

Every story of resilience and success starts with a struggle. In the case of Noah, his major challenge was his own existence during the Apartheid. Noah (2016) writes, “Because a mixed person embodies that rebuke to the logic of the system, race mixing becomes a crime worse than treason” (p. 21). Thus, he explains how his perception of crime and law has been different since his early childhood. It is often assumed that morality is connected to the basics of law. However, in the life of Noah, he realizes that people can make laws that are immoral at their core, as no moral law can outlaw the existence of an innocent child. Therefore, the crime and punishment become morally unjust but, at the same time, lawfully permissible, making it a definition of competing demand. This conflict makes self-preservation a core necessity in Noah’s life. In some way, the realization of the immorality of the segregation law becomes part of his self-preservation strategy. Noah does not label himself a criminal and surrender to the racist regime but strives to survive or, in other words, self-preserve.

Moreover, self-preservation is also reflected in different aspects of Noah’s life. The realization of the immorality of segregation does not hinder Noah but drives his free-thinking, which leads to the development of his career as a comedian. It allows him to know how to express people’s discontent with the current politics and the overall state of the world. Noah (2016) writes, “I don’t regret anything I’ve ever done in life, any choice that I’ve made. But I’m consumed with regret for the things I didn’t do, the choices I didn’t make, the things I didn’t say” (p. 143). It would be easy for Noah to submit to the fears, considering his traumatic childhood experiences. However, he chooses the risk of failure to be part of his life instead of inactivity. It shows his levels of resilience, and, in a way, it is a part of his self-preservation strategy. In a world full of competing demands, like in the case of segregation, Noah chooses self-preservation by taking the risk of speaking up. He realizes that being outspoken is crucial to change the world so that his existence will not ever again become a ‘crime’.

Overall, Noah’s book Born a Crime provides a valuable resource for not only studying the perspective of a survivor of the Apartheid but also tells the story of resilience and self-preservation. His unique journey starts with the dilemma of conflicting demands between his own existence and segregation law. Noah chooses self-preservation, which leads him not to surrender to fear but to develop necessary critical thinking skills and outspokenness. In a way, his life mission and career have roots in self-preservation to convince the world to eliminate competing demands that stem from the immorality of racism.

Noah, T. (2016). Born a crime: Stories from a South African childhood . Doubleday Canada.

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IvyPanda. (2024, January 15). Trevor Noah's Born a Crime Book Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/trevor-noahs-born-a-crime-book-analysis/

"Trevor Noah's Born a Crime Book Analysis." IvyPanda , 15 Jan. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/trevor-noahs-born-a-crime-book-analysis/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'Trevor Noah's Born a Crime Book Analysis'. 15 January.

IvyPanda . 2024. "Trevor Noah's Born a Crime Book Analysis." January 15, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/trevor-noahs-born-a-crime-book-analysis/.

1. IvyPanda . "Trevor Noah's Born a Crime Book Analysis." January 15, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/trevor-noahs-born-a-crime-book-analysis/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Trevor Noah's Born a Crime Book Analysis." January 15, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/trevor-noahs-born-a-crime-book-analysis/.

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Born a Crime — Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

• Categories: Born a Crime

About this sample

Words: 467 |

Published: Jan 29, 2024

Words: 467 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Cultural identity, racial dynamics, survival during a volatile time, analysis of literary techniques.

• Trevor Noah. (2016). Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. Spiegel & Grau.
• Constitutional Rights Foundation. (n.d.). Apartheid and Racial Segregation. https://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/apartheid-and-racial-segregation
• McKaiser, E. (2016). Trevor Noah’s ‘Born a Crime’ is a story of resilience. Times Live. https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/books/2016-11-13-trevor-noahs-born-a-crime-is-a-story-of-resilience/

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Born a Crime

Trevor noah.

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South African comedian Trevor Noah ’s memoir Born a Crime recounts his childhood as his nation transitioned from apartheid , a white supremacist system of government based on racial segregation, forced labor, and the disenfranchisement of nonwhites, to a tenuous democracy led by the black majority. Noah is mixed-race, with a white father ( Robert ) and a black Xhosa mother ( Patricia ), making his very existence a violation of the apartheid laws against interracial sex. With his single mother, Noah suffers a kind of poverty by design: the apartheid laws are designed to ensure that nonwhites remain too poor and resourceless to fight the government. But the end of apartheid does not end this poverty or inequality; rather, it leaves lasting wounds, especially in the native African communities that remain stuck in a world circumscribed by violence, poverty, and suspicion.

The apartheid government under which Noah is born does everything in its power to systematically repress and disempower nonwhites, forcing them to constantly live under siege. Noah explains that apartheid exploited the minor differences among groups to keep them focused on one another, and not on the government: it separated blacks, Indians, and coloreds into separate territory and ensured that groups like the Zulu and Xhosa remained at one another’s throats. Apartheid is a uniquely cruel system that combines the three stages of American racism—segregation, forced displacement, and slavery—into one. Most notably, it forces native Africans to move to rural “ homelands ” that are too depleted to farm or slums called “ townships ” that are intended to be unlivable. For instance, Noah notes that Soweto , the enormous township where his grandmother lives, was “designed to be bombed.” There are only two roads in and out, in case the government wants to respond to unrest by confining people inside and killing them en masse from the air. During apartheid, the police already routinely massacre Soweto’s residents; Noah sees apartheid’s worst, gratuitous violence. Strangely, because he is mixed-race in a black family, he also directly sees “how easy it is for white people to get comfortable with a system that awards them all the perks.” His grandmother gives him as much food as he wants and never disciplines him “because [she doesn’t] know how to hit a white child,” for instance, and he becomes famous in Soweto for his light skin.

Even after South Africa becomes a democracy, in many ways apartheid conditions continue; black natives, in particular, are now “free” but lack the opportunities or resources they would need to make anything out of this “freedom.” They lack white families’ intergenerational knowledge about how to advance in a capitalist society and continue to face severe discrimination. When Noah accidentally burns down a white family’s house, luckily the family loses nothing because they have insurance; in contrast, when Noah’s mother is shot at the end of the book, she does not have health insurance, and Noah has to foot the entire bill. Similarly, white businesses continue to dominate the economy, while Noah’s family becomes penniless because they never learned that buying a business (his stepfather Abel ’s auto shop) means buying its debt. Apartheid also ensures that older black people are uneducated—the government prevents them from learning anything beyond how to count and work on farms, and they are not allowed to learn languages besides their mother tongue. This means that they cannot find jobs or form coalitions with natives from other groups even under democracy. Therefore, Noah notes, the “cycle of poverty and violence” easily continues. Those who do succeed have to pay what he and his mother call the “black tax,” working harder still to help their families rise out of poverty. During his year after high school selling pirated CDs and secondhand goods in the crowded slum of Alexandria , he realizes that nobody can afford to leave the neighborhood, even though they are technically still no longer forced by the government to live there.

Furthermore, while the new democratic government led by Nelson Mandela is egalitarian in ideology, it cannot substantially change the ingrained corruption and inequality that continue to structure poor black South Africans’ everyday relationships to the law and government. In the poverty-stricken slum of Alexandra, the lines between crime and lawful living are blurred; the people Noah knows are in and out of prison all the time, and the police routinely harass him and his friends just because of where they are from and what they look like, at one point destroying the DJ equipment that is the core of their business operation. In the penultimate chapter, Noah himself gets briefly thrown in jail for driving one of his stepfather’s fixer-upper cars and realizes that most of the others awaiting bail have committed crimes to help support their families. But Abel’s abuse of Patricia in the last chapter shows that, while the police tend to punish poor blacks for doing little, they do not care about serious violence. Patricia calls the police on Abel at least three times after he hits her, but every time the police immediately take Abel’s side even though he admits to beating Patricia. Ultimately, after shooting her in the head with the intent to kill her (and the whole family), Abel turns himself in and gets off without spending a single day in jail.

While Noah emphasizes the uniquely vicious nature of South Africa’s apartheid and post-apartheid inequality, he by no means limits his consideration to his home country’s past; rather, he continually points to apartheid’s enduring effects and global parallels (especially with the United States, on which the system was partially modeled). Beyond showing the lasting effects of apartheid, he shows how South Africa can serve as a case study for understanding the way that governments cultivate misery among segments of their populations deemed enemies to the interests of those in power, and how this often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, ensuring that poverty and violence become ways of life in those communities.

Racism, Apartheid, and the Cycle of Poverty ThemeTracker

Racism, Apartheid, and the Cycle of Poverty Quotes in Born a Crime

The genius of apartheid was convincing people who were the overwhelming majority to turn on each other. Apart hate, is what it was. You separate people into groups and make them hate one another so you can run them all.

The triumph of democracy over apartheid is sometimes called the Bloodless Revolution. It is called that because very little white blood was spilled. Black blood ran in the streets.

As the apartheid regime fell, we knew that the black man was now going to rule. The question was, which black man?

In any society built on institutionalized racism, race-mixing doesn't merely challenge the system as unjust, it reveals the system as unsustainable and incoherent. Race-mixing proves that races can mix—and in a lot of cases, want to mix. Because a mixed person embodies that rebuke to the logic of the system, race-mixing becomes a crime worse than treason.

There is something magical about Soweto. Yes, it was a prison designed by our oppressors, but it also gave us a sense of self-determination and control. Soweto was ours. It had an aspirational quality that you don't find elsewhere. In America the dream is to make it out of the ghetto. In Soweto, because there was no leaving the ghetto, the dream was to transform the ghetto.

For the million people who lived in Soweto, there were no stores, no bars, no restaurants. There were no paved roads, minimal electricity, inadequate sewerage. But when you put one million people together in one place, they find a way to make a life for themselves. A black-market economy rose up, with every type of business being run out of someone's house: auto mechanics, day cafe, guys selling refurbished tires.

As a kid I understood that people were different colors, but in my head white and black and brown were like types of chocolate. Dad was the white chocolate, mom was the dark chocolate, and I was the milk chocolate. But we were all just chocolate. I didn't know any of it had anything to do with “race.” I didn't know what race was. My mother never referred to my dad as white or to me as mixed. So when the other kids in Soweto called me “white,” even though I was light brown, I just thought they had their colors mixed up, like they hadn't learned them properly. “Ah, yes, my friend. You've confused aqua with turquoise. I can see how you made that mistake. You're not the first.”

So many black families spend all of their time trying to fix the problems of the past. That is the curse of being black and poor, and it is a curse that follows you from generation to generation. My mother calls it “the black tax.” Because the generations who came before you have been pillaged, rather than being free to use your skills and education to move forward, you lose everything just trying to bring everyone behind you back up to zero. Working for the family in Soweto, my mom had no more freedom than she'd had in Transkei, so she ran away. She ran all the way down to the train station and jumped on a train and disappeared into the city, determined to sleep in public restrooms and rely on the kindness of prostitutes until she could make her own way in the world.

Colored people had it rough. Imagine: You've been brainwashed into believing that your blood is tainted. You've spent all your time assimilating and aspiring to whiteness. Then, just as you think you're closing in on the finish line, some fucking guy named Nelson Mandela comes along and flips the country on its head. Now the finish line is back where the starting line was, and the benchmark is black. Black is in charge. Black is beautiful. Black is powerful. For centuries colored people were told: Blacks are monkeys. Don't swing from the trees like them. Learn to walk upright like the white man. Then all of a sudden it's Planet of the Apes, and the monkeys have taken over.

Life was good, and none of it would have happened without Daniel. Without him, I would never have mastered the world of music piracy and lived a life of endless McDonald's. What he did, on a small scale, showed me how important it is to empower the dispossessed and the disenfranchised in the wake of oppression. Daniel was white. His family had access to education, resources, computers. For generations, while his people were preparing to go to university, my people were crowded into thatched huts singing, “ Two times two is four. Three times two is six. La la la ta la.” My family had been denied the things his family had taken for granted. I had a natural talent for selling to people, but without knowledge and resources, where was that going to get me? People always lecture the poor: “Take responsibility for yourself! Make something of yourself!” But with what raw materials are the poor to make something of themselves?

There is also this to consider: The name Hitler does not offend a black South African because Hitler is not the worst thing a black South African can imagine. Every country thinks their history is the most important, and that's especially true in the West. But if black South Africans could go back in time and kill one Person, Cecil Rhodes would come up before Hitler. If people in the Congo could go back in time and kill one person, Belgium's King Leopold would come way before Hitler. If Native Americans could go back in time and kill one person, it would probably be Christopher Columbus or Andrew Jackson.

It's easy to be judgmental about crime when you live in a world wealthy enough to be removed from it. But the hood taught me that everyone has different notions of right and wrong, different definitions of what constitutes crime, and what level of crime they're willing to participate in.

In society, we do horrible things to one another because we don't see the person it affects. We don't see their face. We don't see them as people. Which was the whole reason the hood was built in the first place, to keep the victims of apartheid out of sight and out of mind. Because if white people ever saw black people as human, they would see that slavery is unconscionable. We live in a world where we don’t see the ramifications of what we do to others, because we don't live with them. It would be a whole lot harder for an investment banker to rip off people with subprime mortgages if he actually had to live with the people he was ripping off. If we could see one another's pain and empathize with one another, it would never be worth it to us to commit the crimes in the first place.

“I know you see me as some crazy old bitch nagging at you,” she said, “but you forget the reason I ride you so hard and give you so much shit is because I love you. Everything I have ever done I've done from a place of love. If I don't punish you, the world will punish you even worse. The world doesn't love you. If the police get you, the police don't love you. When I beat you, I'm trying to save you. When they beat you, they're trying to kill you.”

I grew up in a world of violence, but I myself was never violent at all. Yes, I played pranks and set fires and broke windows, but I never attacked people. I never hit anyone. I was never angry. I just didn't see myself that way. My mother had exposed me to a different world than the one she grew up in. She bought me the books she never got to read. She took me to the schools that she never got to go to. I immersed myself in those worlds and I came back looking at the world a different way. I saw that not all families are violent. I saw the futility of violence, the cycle that just repeats itself, the damage that's inflicted on people that they in turn inflict on others.

I saw, more than anything, that relationships are not sustained by violence but by love. Love is a creative act. When you love someone you create a new world for them. My mother did that for me, and with the progress I made and the things I learned, I came back and created a new world and a new understanding for her. After that, she never raised her hand to her children again. Unfortunately, by the time she stopped, Abel had started.

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Racism: “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah

Born a Crime is an autobiography written by comedian Trevor Noah, where he reflects on his childhood under the racist laws of apartheid. It is thrilling to follow his experience because it showcases the horrors and unfairness of racism. He talks about being a chameleon among African people as a child of a black woman and a white man. He belonged to no group and tried to find his place in the world as a mix-raced person. The book explores his identity, the places he did not feel different, and reviews his life in detail, which can teach a person to be more understanding, socially responsible, and tolerant.

Firstly, in his book, Noah talks about ‘being a chameleon’, which is an exciting part of the book. He is a person of color, which was considered illegal during apartheid. Yet he thought of himself as a black person because of his upbringing and the knowledge of several different African languages (Noah 40). As written in the book, he stayed the same color, but the perception of his color changed instantly when he changed the language he spoke. It was the benefit of knowing several African languages – he could respond to a robber in his native language, which instantly made Trevor a part of the robber’s culture, and that is why he was never robbed (Noah 42-43). However, the cost of that knowledge and the power to fit in almost with any group was the difficulty of finding his native identity. He did not know who he was, because he always had to choose sides ‘black or white, he did not realize his national identity because he belonged to Xhosa just as much as he belonged to the Swiss community.

As mentioned in the title of a book, Trevor was ‘born a crime’; he was living evidence of the ‘crime’ his parents committed under a racist regime. He was ‘too white’ to be considered black, and at the same time, he was ‘too black’ to be considered white (Noah, 44). However, there was one place where he felt like race did not matter and he was accepted. It was the Maryvale school, where children did not get teased because of the color of their skin, they were instead teased for general things like being too smart, too dumb, too skinny, or too fat (Noah 44-45). In that place, he felt as if he was accepted, which changed as he entered the new school H.A. Jack Primary, where he again became different. Black kids and one Indian kid recognized him, but he was still an anomaly, an exception, a crime (Noah 44-45). Although he felt like an outsider most of his life because of his skin color, he learned to live with those feelings and accept his identity.

Trevor Noah was a multilingual child with English as his first and primary language. In his book, he explained how under apartheid different languages resulted in greater oppression and division. For example, white people were discouraged from learning African languages because from early childhood, they were taught that those languages were beneath them (Noah 44). If one wanted to be employed somewhere of high prestige, one had to know English; otherwise, there was no chance to work in prestigious establishments. African languages and their language-bearers were also divided by different schools and believed that other words are enemy ones (Noah 43). When Trevor spoke to others in their native language, they viewed him as a person from their tribe’, as their own, and that is how he and his mother escaped various challenging situations throughout their life.

Language plays a rather important part in creating and sharing culture because the culture is often transferred through the tongue. A language has been created in a specific locality to preserve and pass down the culture of the people who are speaking it. One can observe the historical examples of how the national identity of some nations was ruined by destroying their native language first (as in the case of Romansh language, which people try to restore). A word can create unity because if one can understand the language another person speaks, primarily if this occurs in a foreign country, they feel like family or close friends. At the same time, if one language is demonized, using it in public can completely change the perception of another person.

As a bilingual person, I can share some advantages and disadvantages of knowing two languages. For example, when I speak to the other person, I can use the words from another language, as sometimes I can forget the most straightforward word in the needed language. It helps to understand a person from another country; it can be a great conversation starter that would interest many people. It would be easier for me to learn another language than for a person who can speak only one language. However, there are several disadvantages, for example, I can struggle to speak at an appropriate level in a professional setting. In addition, sometimes I can forget how to talk at all because, although I try to keep in mind and recycle both languages, I will always be better at one and worse at the other.

Speaking about the incidents I remembered the most in the book Born a Crime , it was an episode in the very beginning, where the mother was forced to throw her son out of the moving car to save his life. The man driving them was cursing the family for nothing and threatening to rape the mother and do worse to the children (Noah 16). That was when Patricia decided not to accept her fate calmly, but she made a choice, which saved her life and the lives of her children. After this situation, I started to look at that woman with admiration, because that episode not only showcased her inner strength, but she was wise enough not to make her children panic ahead of time. As the autobiography progressed, there were many similar stories, which showed her strength and will, but this one made the most significant impact on my mind.

There are many characters in Born a Crime; however, the one who exemplifies Francian Values the most is Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah Trevor’s mother. First of all, as Lourdes is a community of learning, Patricia teaches her son English, to read, to write, to understand the world around him. She showed him the truth and tried to make him know that the world is big and following one’s dreams is necessary (Noah 51). As Lourdes is a community of reverence, Patricia recognized and respected all human beings, their dignity, and their worth. As much as she was strong, she saw the better in prostitutes, gangsters, and robbers. Patricia’s heart accepted Jesus, and that is why she was incredibly respectful, even though she could talk back to anyone to protect her dignity. As Lourdes is a community of service, she challenged her son to help those in need. Even in her childhood, Patricia gave everything to the children who had less than her. She tried to help everybody, which is why I think she is the best example of Francian values’ human embodiment.

This book teaches that living in a diverse community is more comfortable than living in a society when one person is unique. For example, the reader can observe how Trevor was treated in an all-black neighborhood, where he was exceptional. Older people were afraid of giving him proper punishments; they believed his prayers were better-heard because he prayed in English; he was a miracle, an abnormality (Noah 40). However, when his environment became more diverse, people stopped thinking that he was not normal and accepted him. If more diversity were implemented globally, people would forget about racism as they would stop judging a person based on one’s race. After all, different races would not be considered an abnormality. It became a part of my way of thinking as it should because the distinction of races ultimately creates more racism and unfairness.

To conclude, Born a Crime teaches the reader about integrity, being kind, and being open to everyone despite his physical traits, such as race. It also teaches one to be ethical and not to divide people into white, black, and people of color. Lastly, it teaches one to be socially responsible, like the mother of the main character. Patricia gave everything she could to her son, including proper education and a sense of morality. She had a responsibility as a parent and gave everything she could to all three of her children, even if that meant that Patricia herself would suffer from abusive relationships. Her social responsibility paid off at the end of the story when her son helped her pay for her treatment. She was responsible for him, and he responded with his responsible behavior towards her.

Noah, Trevor. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood . Hachette UK, 2016.

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Born a Crime

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A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

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Under apartheid, Noah is governmentally categorized as “colored.” What does this mean for Noah, and how does he defy the conventions of this label?

Noah’s search for identity is a constant theme throughout the memoir . How does Noah’s identity change throughout the book, and how is this identity connected to race?

By the end of the memoir , it’s clear that Noah’s mom is the most influential person in his life. Describe the relationship between Noah and his mother. How does their relationship help shape his identity?

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South African Literature

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Introduction.

Born a Crime, a memoir by Trevor Noah, is a moving account of how South Africans were oppressed and racially segregated during the apartheid period. His life demonstrated the difficulties he had as a biracial kid, such as prejudice and brutality, as well as the manner in which he endured his mother’s “thrilling love,” to which she wanted Noah to bow, among other things. Noah, on the other hand, would not submit to her overprotective attitude since he was much too naughty. Noah was raised mostly by his mother in a unique and challenging context about his identity and place in society. Because he was classified as a person of color and had to contend with the isolation that came with his situation, Noah often felt like an outsider. When Noah was growing up, he was immersed in an atmosphere that tested his sense of self-worth and place in the community (Noah,2016). The horrors of post-apartheid South Africa are nothing new to Trevor, but he has grown used to them as if they were everyday occurrences. To sympathize with a child who has to live with the weighty awareness that the world is unjust and full of awful happenings would be to sympathize with them.

Summary of The Memoir

In a perilous period in a broken world, a little boy tries to navigate a difficult environment with just his sense of humor and his mother’s love. This collection of dramatic, humorous, and profoundly emotional tales is the product of the author’s years of study and writing. It’s amazing how quickly an unruly child develops into a restless young man trying to find his place in the world. “Born A Crime” tells the tale. This book furthermore tells the story of the young man’s mother, a lady who was desperate to preserve her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that threatened to take her own life. his teammate, a mother desperate to rescue her kid from the poverty, violence, and abuse that threatened to take her own life.

As illustrated from the viewpoint of the main character, who begins the story as a vibrant young child and grows into a nervous gentleman while struggling to find his place in a world that was not meant for him, the story follows him as he fights to find his identity in an environment where he was not meant to be. Also depicted in the narrative is Noah’s mother, who is a strong, tenacious, and spiritual person. The tale reveals information about the connection between Noah and his mother. The mother was determined to shield her child from poverty, injustice, and cruelty, all of which she feared would eventually endanger her own life if she didn’t do anything about it. While the novel focuses on Noah’s childhood and adolescence, all of Noah’s recollections are a result of the repressive dictatorship that he grew up under.

According to Noah, government-enforced prejudice and discrimination were part of a purposeful endeavor to transform South Africa into a white country via white supremacy. In part because the system was so deeply ingrained in the lives of South Africans, its ramifications persisted long after the rule was brought to an end. It was not until the middle of Noah’s youth that the dictatorship came to an end, and this meant that he could finally attend school with people of all races and ethnicities. The groups at each school, on the other hand, remained isolated. Because of his skin tone, he found it difficult to blend in with any group. When compared to the first half of the novel, which is centered on Noah’s childhood and connection with his mother, the second half of the story is centered on Noah’s quest for self-discovery via his friends, relationships, and business efforts. All of these persons and their involvements are somehow connected to a certain location, which reveals even more about the repercussions of the dictatorship.

For example, Noah’s mother’s family has been compelled to reside in Soweto, a ghetto established by the government specifically for black people. In fact, when he visits his mother’s relatives, he finds himself to be the only “colored” person in an otherwise all-black neighborhood. However, when he travels to his father’s home, he finds himself in a mostly white neighborhood. Following high school graduation, Noah moved to Alexandra, a poor, all-black area that is rife with criminal activity.

Noah spent a significant amount of time in Alexandra. However, although Noah’s mother disobeyed government-imposed racial restrictions by residing wherever she pleased, Noah has always been the only “colored” person in any of the places where they have resided. No matter how many times he moves to a “colored” neighborhood, Noah still feels out of place among his friends, who see him as either being too white or too black, depending on the situation. Observations like these illustrate why Noah always feels as if he doesn’t belong anywhere, and it is this search for identity that ultimately inspires each and every tale in the book.

Trevor Noah’s story from a sociological perspective

It all started with an unlawful action: Trevor Noah’s delivery, which began his extraordinary trip from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show. The year 1984 saw the birth of his father, who was Swiss German, and mother, who was black, in the South African city of Johannesburg. When he was born, marriage between whites and blacks was illegal, and anybody caught in the act was sentenced to five years in jail. Because the relationship between Africans and Europeans was considered illegal, Trevor was required to remain inside at all times in order to protect him from the authorities, who might detain him at any time if they discovered him. It was determined that his father’s name would not be mentioned on his birth certificate since doing so would place them and his mother in danger.

When South Africa was eventually emancipated from the tyranny of white dominance, Trevor and his mother were finally allowed to live honestly and generously, and they were finally able to take advantage of the possibilities made available by the centuries-long battle for freedom and equality. Noah was raised by his mother on her own, in a religious environment, from the age of three. The severe code of behavior he was brought up with was enforced by his mother, who physically chastised him when he disobeyed. They would attend prayer sessions, which were regularly held at his grandparents’ house, and they would visit church on weeknights and many times on Sundays, as well as other activities (Coleman, 2018).

Trevor addresses the ramifications of dictatorship and opportunity. He acknowledges that society had created boundaries, but he asserts that he was at a disadvantage versus black people since he did not fit in, whether it was being noticed at school or finding the suitable group to join. The fact that he was colored also provided him with several chances. For example, he speaks about his childhood at his grandmother’s house in Soweto, where he was not subjected to any type of discipline despite the fact that he was the most infamous member of the community. This implied that a white youngster was not meant to be physically disciplined since the color of their skin would change or they would most likely die as a result of the punishment.

Because of this privilege, he was able to see why it was so difficult for white people to call for an end to the repressive government, as it was for most black people, given the system’s ability to provide them with so much comfort and freedom. One particularly memorable figure, “Hitler,” makes fun of the colonial educational system, which did little, if anything, to develop critical thinking skills. In 1939, Hitler grabbed Poland; in 1941, he overthrew the Soviet Union; and in 1943, he did something else. Remember that these are only facts, and that you should write them down on your test paper and then ignore them.” Noah (Noah, p.95) explains that. Every character in the novel exemplifies a subject from among the following: race, gender, family, relationships, perseverance, liberty, and religious conviction, all of which are stressed in different portions of the book.

Trevor’s mother, on the other hand, is a figure who takes center stage in the plot. She is characterized as an immensely spiritual, emancipated, and resilient lady who lives a free and independent life. For a long period, however, she has been subjected to domestic abuse, and Noah explains the irony that courageous females kept communities functioning despite the difficulties of apartheid. They were, however, obligated to “surrender to and revere” males in addition to this (Reivant, 2018). As he grows older, he finds himself more pulled between the realms of the black, the white, and the “hued,” as he ages. Noah’s narrative is an example of a young man who did not belong to any one ethnic group. On occasion, he tells how circumstances pushed him to make an educated choice regarding his identity: “at some time you ought to decide, black or hite.” You may make an effort to get away from it.

While you may claim that you do not take sides, life will eventually compel you to choose a decision.” His description of being presented with circumstances that compelled him to make an educated choice regarding his identification is included in the account. “At some time, you need to decide, black or hite,” he says. Perhaps you will make an attempt to escape away from the situation. You may say that you do not support a political party, but ultimately, life will force you to make a choice.” To him, teaching someone to fish is a waste of time, therefore he prefers teaching them how to go fishing and providing them with a fishing line. He goes on to explain, “If you spend too much time thinking about the problems your mother put you through or the challenges you have faced in life, you will cease exceeding the boundaries and breaching the norms.”

Born a Crime has the potential to be adapted into a graphic novel. It does, on the other hand, communicate to the reader the stories of poverty and racial injustice that have taken place in the past. Growing up in a mixed-race household, Trevor Noah describes how it was tough for him to fit in with any group, whether black or white, throughout his childhood. In the end, the novel instills a positive attitude on life that does not lay too much importance on the previous. No matter what kind of reader you are, Born a Crime is an engaging story that will leave you feeling happy, sad, and able to explore some of life’s most essential questions.

Coleman, B. Micro review: ‘Born a Crime’ touches upon several subjects with much sensitivity. E-Times, 2018.

Ninsiima, E. Book Review – Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. All Africa, 2017.

Noah, T. Born a crime: stories from a South African childhood. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2016

Reivant Olausson, T. (2018). Satire in Service of Postcolonialism: An Analysis of Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia and Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime: Stories of a South African Childhood.

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Who Are the Far-Right Groups Behind the U.K. Riots?

After a deadly stabbing at a children’s event in northwestern England, an array of online influencers, anti-Muslim extremists and fascist groups have stoked unrest, experts say.

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By Esther Bintliff and Eve Sampson

Esther Bintliff reported from London, and Eve Sampson from New York.

Violent unrest has erupted in several towns and cities in Britain in recent days, and further disorder broke out on Saturday as far-right agitators gathered in demonstrations around the country.

The violence has been driven by online disinformation and extremist right-wing groups intent on creating disorder after a deadly knife attack on a children’s event in northwestern England, experts said.

A range of far-right factions and individuals, including neo-Nazis, violent soccer fans and anti-Muslim campaigners, have promoted and taken part in the unrest, which has also been stoked by online influencers .

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to deploy additional police officers to crack down on the disorder. “This is not a protest that has got out of hand,” he said on Thursday. “It is a group of individuals who are absolutely bent on violence.”

Here is what we know about the unrest and some of those involved.

Where have riots taken place?

The first riot took place on Tuesday evening in Southport, a town in northwestern England, after a deadly stabbing attack the previous day at a children’s dance and yoga class. Three girls died of their injuries, and eight other children and two adults were wounded.

The suspect, Axel Rudakubana , was born in Britain, but in the hours after the attack, disinformation about his identity — including the false claim that he was an undocumented migrant — spread rapidly online . Far-right activists used messaging apps including Telegram and X to urge people to take to the streets.

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