Content Objectives
Great writing is like a performance written on paper. Before the written word existed, stories were passed down from generation to generation orally. Orators performed the stories they told using inflections and gestures to make them come to life. Writing is similar to performing because authors use literary tools to bring stories to life. Unconfident writers have stage fright and find it hard to fully express themselves. Great performers practice extensively before mastering their craft. Like other expressive forms of art, writing personal essays takes practice to develop. Students need to learn various styles and tools in order to grow into confident writers, unafraid to take the stage.
Background on Information on “It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime”
Trevor Noah is no stranger to the stage and his performance style is reflected in his writing. Noah is a standup comedian and hosts the Emmy Award winning show The Daily Show on Comedy Central. The writing in his memoir expresses his style of storytelling and personality. On stage, he has a special talent for impersonating characters of various backgrounds and languages in his stories. He speaks multiple languages. He often tells a story within a story that helps to build up to the punchline of his jokes. This style is reflected in his memoir. Throughout the memoir, he often writes vignettes in the middle of the story that later make the climax of the story more poignant for the reader.
Structurally this book is a good mentor text to demonstrate personal essays. Each chapter reads as a separate personal essay. Chapters begin with captivating introductions, explain a turning point or surprise, and possess a clear conclusion. The memoir as a whole is not completely chronological because the chapters have their own beginnings, middles, and ends. His introductions use strategies such as vividly describing a person or beginning with a captivating sentence. Students can imitate these techniques in their own writings. Students will also utilize the narrative element of theme throughout their personal essay, which Noah models well. Challenging students to identify themes in their own writing pushes them to use more complex and mature writing strategies.
It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime is a young readers’ adapted version of Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. Parents wanted a version of the book that their kids could read on their own. The stories are virtually the same in both books; however, the young readers’ edition excludes adult language. Noah does not hold back complex subject matters in his young readers’ book. Readers will experience the same stories; however, the young reader’s edition is more appropriate in an upper elementary to middle school classroom setting.
Background Information on Noah, Mandela, and Gordimer
Each of the author’s life stories are unique and shape their writing. While all of them were South Africans who lived during apartheid, each of them has a distinct path. Apartheid was an advanced system of institutionalized racial segregation of South African people which lasted from the late 1940s to the early 1990s. Apartheid resembles other terrible atrocities like the Jim Crow Laws and forcible removable of Natives in the United States. South African tribes were forcibly removed from their homes and isolated. Systematically, black South Africans were regulated to restrict laws prohibiting from access to jobs and education. Naturally, apartheid profoundly impacted the paths of each of the author’s lives.
Nelson Mandela was born in Mvezo, South Africa. He was a leader of the African National Congress (ANC) which fought against apartheid. His writings and speeches were banned. He was arrested more than once. He was put on trial for acts against the government and sentenced to life in prison. During his time in prison Mandela wrote extensively. He wrote letters to his family and continued to denounce apartheid. Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years before being released in 1990.
While he was in prison at Robben Island, a book entitled Burger’s Daughter was smuggled into his prison, which was about revolutionaries’ and their children.3 The book was written by Nadine Gordimer. She was a white South African whose parents were immigrants. Her mother was from London and her father was from Russia. Gordimer grew up in the miner’s town, Transvaal in South Africa. She became an anti-apartheid activist and writer. Her writings documented the lives of Nelson Mandela and Bishop Tutu as well as the political activism and history of South Africa. She also wrote fictional novels which centered on the lives of black South Africans.
Trevor Noah’s mother was a black South African and his father was Swiss-German. During apartheid romantic relationships were prohibited between whites and nonwhites. His existence was proof of his parents’ crime. Growing up he was not allowed to play outside with other kids in fear that he would be taken away. He could have been taken from his parents and given to another family. His parents could have been imprisoned.
Nelson Mandela being a black South African who grew up in a village has a different view point than Nadine Gordimer who grew up in a coal mining town. Unlike Gordimer and Mandela, Trevor Noah was too young to completely understand the intricacies of apartheid. He lived during the era of apartheid, but naturally has a different viewpoint than Gordimer and Mandela who experienced apartheid as adults. Similarly, Gordimer recognized the separateness of different groups but didn’t internalize or interpret the impact of this until she became older.
In this unit we will study eight writings by Noah, Nelson, and Gordimer that complement each other in content. Reading multiple writings on the same topic deepens students’ comprehension of the material. Consequently, students will have a better understanding of the literary devices and writing techniques throughout the pieces of writing.
Selected Readings
First, I recommend reading aloud the entire book, “It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime.” The book anchors the content of Nelson Mandela’s and Nadine Gordimer’s writings. Reading the book in its entirety with reinforce the overall themes of the memoir and the other selected readings. However, if time does not permit, reading the selected chapters aloud will be sufficient for students. The book is written for upper elementary to middle school students and tells stories in ways that students can easily relate. If a teacher decides to read the entire novel, the pieces of writings will be taught in the order of the book and each lesson should by a pausing point.
The first reading will be Chapter 1 “Run” from Noah’s memoir. The chapter begins with a captivating opening line, “I was nine years old when my mother threw me out of a moving car.” He writes a series of vignettes that build up to the main story. The first vignette details the great lengths him and his mother go through to attend multiple church services each Sunday. His mother, a devout Christian went to each service because “each church gave her something different.” He ends the vignette and ties back into the story by saying, “This particular Sunday, the Sunday I was hurled from a moving car, started out like any other Sunday.” He then explains that while getting ready to go to church that Sunday, their car broke down. Because of the previous vignette about going to church, the reader understands that Trevor’s mom will be determined to still go to church, even if it means taking longer trips by riding the minibuses. Trevor tries to convince his mother to stay home but she responds saying, “Sunquela” which means in Xhosa, “don’t underestimate me.”
This segues into another vignette about how growing up, he heard that word often because he was mischievous as a child. “We had a very Tom-and-Jerry relationship.” He explains how his mom would chase him to give him a hiding (spanking) when he got in trouble. All of the chasing made him and his mom excellent runners. He ends the vignette by saying, “The last thing I wanted to do that Sunday morning was climb into some minibus, but the second I heard my mom say, ‘sun’quela’ I knew my fate was sealed.”
Next, Noah writes about the violence that ensued during the fall of apartheid. During that period, political groups and tribes fought for power. He explains the war between Zulu and Xhosa tribes. This explanation makes his eventual telling of the main story more suspenseful. Trevor, his mom, and his little brother were on a minibus alone with a Zulu driver. His mom is Xhosa. The bus driver began making threats towards Trevor’s mom. In an effort to save their lives his mom pushes Trevor out of the car and jumps out behind him, then yells “run!” Trevor and his mom begin running and outrun the men chasing them. Again, the previous vignette of being chased by his mom down the streets helps the reader picture them outrunning the dangerous bus driver.
All of the vignettes lead up to that moment. The vignettes serve as momentum that causes more suspense for the actual story. Each vignette was tied together by a phrase like “On that Sunday….” It reminds the reader that there is a bigger story coming. The phrases keep the story on track and keep the reader from losing interest in between all of the vignettes.
Next, students will read three passages juxtaposing childhoods in South Africa. The first passage is Chapter 5 “The Second Girl” of Noah’s memoir. The beginning of the chapter explains Noah’s mother, Patricia who grew up feeling out of place in her family. She was the second girl in her family and was of little value in her family. As a child she was sent to live with her aunt in Transkei. She lived with other cousins who were unwanted. Very early in life she learned to fend for herself and make her own way in life. She went to school and learned English. When she got older, she enrolled in a secretarial course and became a secretary.
He later goes on to explain how his mother’s upbringing influenced how she brought him up. She gave him a name that does not have any meaning in Xhosa or South Africa. She taught him English and gave him access to books. She wanted him to have the freedom to be whoever he wanted to be. As apartheid crumbled, Patricia decided to move out of Soweto and to a mixed neighborhood Eden Park. He states, “The end of apartheid was a gradual thing. It wasn’t like the Berlin Wall where one day it just came down. Apartheid’s walls cracked and crumbled over many years.” Trevor’s mom felt it was a good time to move. She continued to take him on adventures to the park, the ice rink, or the movies. “My mom raised me like a white kid – not culturally but in the sense that the world was my oyster.” People criticized his mother for raising him this way but she wanted him to have an imagination.
Next, students will read a portion of “A Country Childhood” a chapter from Nelson Mandela’s “A Long Walk to Freedom.” He grew up in Qunu, a village of about a couple hundred people. Mandela describes growing up as a Xhosa child and the games they played. Unlike Noah, Mandela’s parents raised him more traditionally. “Like all Xhosa children, I acquired knowledge mainly through observation. We were meant to learn through imitation and emulation, not through questions.” He grew up following the traditional customs of his people. Some members of his community were westernized and convinced Mandela’s family to send Mandela to school. At school he was given the name “Nelson” by his teacher. A scene in this chapter describes Mandela’s father making him pants but cutting off his own and tying a string around the waist. As a boy, up until then he had only worn a blanket wrapped around him. He states, “I must have been a comical sight, but I have never owned a suit I was prouder to wear than my father’s cut-off pants.” 4
Both Noah and Nelson’s parents recognized the potential of their children and aimed to give them opportunities to education the best way possible. Students can recognize that although both authors grew up in different decades and under different circumstances there is a common theme of parenthood, family, and upbringing. Another theme is the power and influence of names in South African cultural. Mandela writes, “Africans of my generation-and even today-generally have both English and an African name.” Nelson’s birth name is Rolihlahla Mandela, yet he was given the name “Nelson” due to the British education he received. He writes, “There was no such thing as African culture.” In contrast, Noah’s mother purposely gave him a name that was not South African.
In further contrast of Noah’s and Mandela’s upbringings, students will read, A South African Childhood, Allusions in a Landscape, an essay by Nadine Gordimer. The landscapes in Gordimer’s essay are the various geographical areas that she travels throughout her childhood. From the gold-mining town of Transvaal she grew up in, trips to the coastal town Durbin, riding a cable car up top Table Mountain in Cape Town, to chasing elephants for a picture in Krugar National Park, Gordimer describes each of the landscapes vividly. Each setting becomes a character of its own.
She grew up in the gold-mining town, Transvaal. Describing the coal dump in Transvaal she says, “The coal dump was alive. Like a beast of prey, it woke to life in the dark.” The abandoned mine workings underground caught fire at some point and began to burn nonstop. “Nobody seems to know; it shares with the idea of Hades its heat and vague eternity. But perhaps its fierce heart is being subdued gradually.” While Transvaal was literally on fire, South Africa was figuratively on fire. The reader travels with Gordimer to all of her childhood adventures and she ends by explaining how she feels about her contact with other groups of people.
“For me, one of the confusing things about growing up in South Africa was the strange shift-every year or two when I was small, and then weekly, daily almost, when I was adolescent-in my consciousness of, and attitude towards, the Africans around me. I became aware of them incredibly slowly, it now seems, as with some faculty that should naturally, the way the ability to focus and to recognize voices comes to a baby in a matter of weeks after birth, have been part of my human equipment from the beginning.”5
She begins to describe how she was taught to view native black South Africans and Indians as dirty. As a child she viewed them as she was taught. Later, when she was old enough to read and form her own beliefs she states, “the Indian became a person like ourselves.”
The next reading will be Chapter 7 “Fufi” from Noah’s memoir. Here students will study plot progression. The exposition is the setting up of characters and the setting. Trevor introduces the characters Trevor (himself), Fufi his dog, and Panther his mother’s dog. He describes the two dogs, “Panther was smart. Fufi was dumb.”6 Characterization is a narrative element that can be direct (giving explicit adjectives) or indirect (showing the emotions or reactions to reveal the character’s personality.) Here Noah explains that although him and his mom believed Fufi was “dumb” in actuality, she was deaf. Next he adds more details of what it was like to spend time training and raising Fufi. “I potty trained her. She slept in my bed. A dog is a great thing for a kid to have. It’s like a bicycle but with emotions.”
The rising action tells the events that lead up to the climax. Trevor notices that Fufi jumps over their five foot wall every day to roam around the neighborhood. One day he decides to follow Fufi on his bicycle to see where she goes. He follows her all the way to another neighborhood. Fufi ends up at another house and jumps over the wall. She does it as if she knows exactly where she is going. Noah rings the doorbell and another kid answers the door. Here the major conflict is introduced. Noah calls for Fufi, but because she is deaf, she does not come to him. The other boy claims her as his dog, “Spotty”. Noah uses dialogue build scene development. He writes, “This is our dog. Go away”. I started crying, “Why are you stealing my dog?!” I turned to Fufi and begged her. “Fufi, why are you doing this to me?! Why, Fufi!?” I called to her. 7
The climax is the exciting part or climax of the story. Trevor goes home and tells his mother what happens. They both go back to Fufi’s other home and confront Fufi and the boy’ mother. Eventually, Trevor’s mom offers to give the other family a hundred rand for the dog. Fufi returns home. The falling action is the events that happened after the climax and sets up the solution or resolution of the story. Walking home, Trevor and his mom were walking home and he was still upset and crying. His mom questions tells him, “It didn’t cost you anything. Fufi’s here. She still loves you. She’s still your dog. So get over it. ”8 The Resolution of the story is, Trevor realizes he has learned a valuable lesson, “You do not own the thing that you love.”
Next students will read Chapter 11 “Outsider”. This chapter takes place at the beginning of high school for Trevor, shortly after apartheid ended. Noah describes the uncomfortable position of being the only mixed kid at his school. “Sandringham drew kids from all over, making it a near-perfect microcosm of postapartheid South Africa as a whole-a perfect example of what South Africa has the potential to be.” The school was diverse attracting black kids who were rich, middle class, or from the township. Chinese students, Indian students, and colored students also attended the school. Students often broke into groups based on interest on the playground. During lunch, Trevor was always the first one to the Tuckshop (food truck) to get lunch every day. Because he ran quickly, other kids began to pay him to get their food. He created his own way of fitting in at school. He says, “Ever the outsider, I created my own strange little world. I did it out of necessity. I needed a way to fit in. I also needed money, a way to buy the same snacks and do the things that the other kids were doing. Which is how I became the tuckshop guy.” 9
Next, students will read, Chapter 100 from Freedom in Mandela’s memoir. He describes his first hours being released from prison. His first day was momentous, overwhelming, and hectic. “As so often happens in life, the momentous of an occasion is lost in the welter of a thousand details.” He had people he wanted to say goodbye to, decisions about who and where he would make his first speech, coordinating filming him walking toward freedom leaving the prison gates.
Thousands of people and hundreds of photographers and television cameras and news people as well as several thousand well-wishers met him at the prison gates. “Within twenty feet or so of the gate, the cameras started clicking, a noise that sounded like some great herd of metallic beasts.” Being imprisoned meant he missed out on technological advances. “When a television crew thrust a long, dark, furry object at me, I recoiled slightly, wondering if it were some newfangled weapon developed while I was in prison.”
Next, students will read an essay about Gordimer meeting Mandela shortly after his release from prison. Gordimer wrote “Mandela, My Countryman” shortly after Mandela’s death in 2013. Gordimer was one of the first people that he requested to see. Leading up to the scene of meeting Mandela, Gordimer gives a profile of him. She details how she was present during the Rivonia Trial, when he was being tried for acts against the government, and was present in court when he was sentenced to life.
In 1985, he was offered freedom if he renounced the work and resistance of the ANC. Mandela says, “Let him renounce violence. Let him say that he will dismantle apartheid. Let him urban the people’s organization, the African National Congress…I cannot and will not give any undertaking at a time when I and you, the people, are not free.” 10 He was resilient and steadfast in holding on to his ideals. In 1990, President F.W. de Klerk, lifted the ban on the ANC and its allies and affiliates, and released the remaining political prisoners. She writes, “Mandela: not a figure carved in stone but a tall man, of flesh and blood, whose suffering had made him not vengeful but still more human-even toward the people who had created the prison that was apartheid.”
Gordimer and her husband traveled with Mandela to Norway when he accepted the Nobel Prize in 1993. She visited him in his last days. She paints a portrait with her words describing his strength, humility, and grace.
Upon reading these essays and excerpts students will have a deep understanding of the themes in the writings and will be prepared to analyze the literary techniques of the authors. After analyzing the literary devices, students will prepare to write their own personal essays. Each of the authors in this unit have powerful life stories that have connected people across the globe. In this unit students will find personal story in their own lives to write about and construct a personal essay.
Defining Personal Essays
Creative nonfiction has elements of fiction such as characterization, plot, and scene development, theme, symbolism, and literary devices. Noah’s memoir sparks critical analysis of the world’s injustices, human connections, identity, and personal growth by effectively using fictional elements. The appeal of creative nonfiction is its ability to connect universal themes to individual readers. Noah’s memoir exemplifies this well.
Personal essays are nonfiction stories which are a type of creative nonfiction. Personal essays are personal because they reach the audience on a human level. The narrator of the story is not invisible.11 Instead the narrator feels like a personal friend expressing an intimate story from one’s life. In Writing and Selling Short Stories and Personal Essays, the author writes,
“Personal essays are characterized by their sense of intimacy and conversational tone. A personal essay is the author expressing his intimate thoughts and feelings…When you write from a place of vulnerability, readers see themselves in your situation and understand that their own experiences are universal.”12
Elements of Personal Essays
Elementary writing standards require students to write narrative essays, sometimes referred as personal narratives or personal experiences. Upper elementary students focus on writing personal narrative essays and personal experience essays. Understanding the slight difference between the two forms of writing ultimately helps writers revise and improve their stories. The qualities of the two types of essays overlap. An essay can have both qualities but may lean towards one more that the other.
Personal essays use compelling story telling to convey a nonfiction event. All narratives whether fictional or nonfictional have elements such as foreshadowing, characterization, theme, plot, conflict, and setting. Authors utilize literary devices like alliteration, personification, simile, metaphor, allusion, and irony. Reading a personal essay feels like reading a fictional story because of the usage of strong characterization and scene development, and descriptive language.13 Fictional stories often begin by describing the setting. Creative nonfiction writers can introduce stories similarly. For example, in the beginning paragraphs of Gordimer’s essay she writes, “After miles and miles of sienna-red ploughed earth, after miles and miles of silk-fringed mealies standing as high as your eyes on either side of the road and ugly farmhouses where women in bunchy cotton dresses and sun-bonnets started after the car as we passed…”14
Personal essays also possess a strong narrative arc. The narrative arc is the progression of the plot in a story. The beginning of the arc explains the characters and setting of the narrative. The conflict is the main problem in the story. Plot development includes exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Exposition is the introduction of characters and settings. The rising action are the events that build up the tension and introduces the conflict or problem of the story. The climax is the major event that changes the character. The falling action are the events that wrap up the story. The resolution explains a lesson or how the story ends. Fictional stories typically follow this arc in this form. Creative nonfiction, especially personal narratives have great plot development.
Personal essays sometimes express how an event changed the author’s life or teaches a lesson. In Noah’s “ Fufi” he explains losing his dog to another owner as a child. He hilariously retells the story of how he and his mom return Fufi home. When Fufi showed love toward the other owner, Trevor felt betrayed. In the end he writes, “I believed that Fufi was my dog, but of course that wasn’t true. Fufi was a dog. I was a boy. We got along well. She happened to live in my house. That experience shaped what I’ve felt about relationships ever since: you do not own the thing that you love.” 15 The essay reveals a lesson learned that has shaped Noah throughout life. The story can effectively reach a wide range of readers because the lesson is universal. Everyone has experienced heartbreak in some form or other.
Defining Memoirs
Memoirs are typically longer piece and are usually books. They are collections of personal essays and stories centered on major themes. Memoirs are easily confused with autobiographies. Memoirs are biographical in nature because they tell the accounts of one’s life. 16 Whereas an autobiography tells the chronological account of a person’s lifetime, a memoir narrows on fewer events that center on specific themes.17 The credibility of the author is key to the success of a memoir. Readers must believe the characters and events in the story are real. The author’s ability to use literary tools to connect readers to the story is the heart of memoir writing.
Autobiographies sometimes read like encyclopedia entries. Memoirs read like novels. In his essay, The Shower and the Fish, Peter Gibbs says, “Memoir is about the luscious weave of the outer and inner life. Creative? You bet.” He describes the revelation he has that inspires him to write a memoir after recognizing that he confused the genre with autobiographies. Before he was uninterested in writing memoirs because he thought they lacked creativity. He later says, “…the deepest memories are stored in the heart, not the brain” in describing the experience of beginning to write his memoir. Continuing to explain he says, “Living life is one thing; turning it into a story is another. Shaping a story from life is high, creative adventure.”18
Using Subgenres to Narrow Focus and Public Point
Subgenres are useful but are not the most important during the beginning stages of writing. The two subgenres often overlap. Personal experience essays can have strong narrative arcs. Personal narratives can express a lesson. Personal essays typically lean more towards one subgenre than another. Understanding the distinction between the genres simply helps authors focus on a clear direction to drive a story. The direction may not become clear until after the first or second draft. Students should learn that revising essays requires improving the overall structure of the piece. Understanding genres and subgenres helps writers develop their essays into more cohesive writings.
If student writers are leaning more towards writing a personal narrative, they may ask themselves what are the clear problem and solutions in their stories. If they are writing personal experience essays, they may want to ask themselves what lessons they learned and how the experience changed them. Great personal essays have a public point that anchors their stories. In other words, students must learn to write for specific audiences. If not, their essays risk sounding like diary entries instead of well-developed stories to be shared.
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