Fourth of July

The Fourth of July is the birthday of the United States and the day we grew up and went different ways with our mother Great Britain. Audre Lorde delves into the abyss of independence of not the country but of the human race controlled for the past four hundred years. In the passage “The Fourth of July”, Lorde utilizes her tone and opinions on racism in a narrative by a graduating middle school student. Additionally, by incorporating colors that Audre Lorde so lavishly depicts adds a dimension to the two categories of white and black. All the injustices that the narrator’s family endures, her parents ignore them as if they never happened. While outraging Audre, we see the effects of silent complicity on blacks and on Audre Lorde. Audre Lorde uses the birthplace of the United States as her setting to illustrate the deeper meaning of freedom.
Audre Lorde disguises her theme of racism deep into a story of a girl who just graduated from middle school. Her family set out to Washington D.C., home to monuments of war, deceased presidents, and democracy. At first, the narrator is awed and excited that she is going to Washington D.C. However, the narrator journeys through a short rite of passage in which we see her grow up from a teenager to a young adult ready to understand the complicated world of racism in America.
In the first sentence of the passage, Lorde describes the time as the “…edge of summer when I was supposed to stop being a child” (567). What is stop being a child? Is it when the child transcends that journey to high school as it is in the story or a broader meaning to adults. When will adults mature to a point in which racism and ignorance become the past? These are the questions Audre Lorde poses deep into her passage. Additionally, Lorde uses Washington D.C. to represent the divided America. Washington D.C., which has so much history, commemorates the Civil War and President Lincoln’s fight for equality amongst all Americans. Furthermore, July Fourth is “Independence Day” for Americans. But who really was freed from the wrath of Great Britain? The answer is whites; it took one hundred more years until blacks were “freed” and approximately another one hundred fifty years later and blacks are still not equal. It is also important to note that the first impression of the narrator towards Washington D.C. is like she was mesmerized. Lorde describes the city as “…the fabled and famous capital of our country.” (567). We will see at the end, the narrator’s attitude toward D.C. has changed dramatically.
Instantly Audre tells us that the family is poor and must ride at night on the milk train. Here we see Audre’s first example of the disparity between black and white. The author moves us through the train ride with colorful descriptions of different foods. “She packed slices of brown bread and butte and green pepper and carrots. There were little violently yellowed ice cakes with scalloped edges called “marigolds,” that came from Cushman’s Bakery.” (567) Notice the words violently yellowed and the reappearance of “edges”. Lorde uses her diction carefully to denote violence and different colors. The importance of Philadelphia is understood more than Washington D.C. The city of brotherly loved and home of the Liberty Bowl is a more ideal place for equality than the capital of the country, Washington.
An interesting comparison is made on page 568 between ice tea and mayonnaise jar. Ice tea is the color brown while mayo is white. Lorde is utilizing color to further her theme of racism. The iced tea inside the mayo jar represents blacks locked in the grasp of whites. The actions of the blacks is confined within a space with no freedom unless this jar is to be broken. Lorde uses rosewater and glycerin (used by the family) as examples of universal truths. Rosewater portrays nature and its beauty and perfection; on the other hand, glycerin is man made with side effects if consumed. As a result, we come to conclude that the natural way of life will be perfect with no animosity while the influence of man to disrupt nature causes long-term problems .
The sister of Audre, Phyllis, is told by nuns that she will not be welcome to her high school senior trip because she is a “negro”. The underlying fact here is even religion is discriminating against blacks. The one place, time that everyone is equal is in the eyes of God, yet God’s servants are hypocritical to not allow a negro girl to accompany her classmates to Washington D.C. because Phyllis “would not be happy at the hotel.” The response of the parents infuriated Audre Lorde. Silent complicity is the act of as if nothing ever happened. How could Phyllis’s parents do that, living in silence. Audre Lorde is trying to persuade to us that silent complicity will not help, the only way to further the human rights of blacks is by peaceful action.
Lynching in the south was predominant in the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century. Why did Audre Lorde choose the name Phyllis? In Greek mythology, Phyllis is the daughter of the King of Thrace who she marries the son of Theseus, Demophoon. However, when Demophoon leaves to help his father in the Trojan War, Phyllis’s sorrow leads her to commit suicide by hanging herself from a tree. Thus the older sister Phyllis alludes to the lynching of blacks in America.
The tone of “The Fourth of July” is innocent at the beginning but slowly morphs into outrage and anger. “Mother never mentioned that black people were not allowed into railroad dining cars headed south in 1947.” (568) I can hear the boom of Audre Lorde’s hammer striking the tone and innocence of the story out with a tense anger driven narrator craving to find out why everyone ignores the constant discrimination they face. “My mother and father believed that they could best protect their children from the realities of race in America and the fact of American racism by never giving them name, mush less discussing their nature.” (568) The child does not understand why her parents have to so passive in their views of combating discrimination. As a result, when we see the child narrator start to mature and understand the realities of American society, she takes an active sign of combating racism by writing to the President, while the father silently dissuades her from that notion.
The incidence at Breyer’s ice cream and soda fountain is the turning point of the narrator. The tone relates anger of a higher magnitude. Everyone in her family, sisters and parents, are salient about what happened to them. With the inclusion of the narrators hatred of Washington D.C. because it is much brighter and hotter, we see Audre Lorde utilize the colors of white to tell us that white supremacy is everywhere; its omnipotent.
Lorde’s use of alliteration is apparent in describing the mother as “bright” and father as “brown”. Additionally, Lorde describes the family sitting down at the ice cream shop by alliteration of the consonant “c” (corded and crisp). The author’s imagery captures our imagination with different sequences of colors clashing against each other: the bright mother, dark father, bright memorials, white pavement, and vibrancy of food. The peaches of fuzz and violently yellow iced cakes puts our minds to relaxation and comfort, exactly what Lorde’s purpose is. Lorde makes us feel connected to the story by using an innocent child recapture her adventure. I personally felt a faulty sense of security with the images of food and traveling. The sentence structure and organization are simple to keep the story flowing. Lorde does not use complicated vocabulary words because she found it more persuading to use the diction of a middle school student to capture the essence of racism in America. Action not silent complicity is what Audre Lorde praises. By the end of the passage, we see the author’s emotions erupt into leading the protagonist to write to the president.
In a world with inequality and injustice, the words of Audre Lorde speak to her readers. Was it not until Martin Luther King Jr., and his companions took a stand that they were finally given the unalienable rights that are mention in the constitution? By incorporating vivid images of color and the disgust of silent complicity, Audre Lorde’s purpose is to relay to us nothing good will happen with silent complicity. People are treated unfairly everyday in the world. Audre Lorde asks them, literally begs them to hearken and be proactive in shaping this world into equality for all.