Let's make connections between these two essays. Both are about being a black man in America. Both are about young men who grew up in rough neighborhoods and then became professors. What do you think their attitudes are about their lives now?
"How to Make a Slave" is told in second person ("You do this, you do that"). How does this affect your reading of the essay. In fact, both essays are told in an untraditional fashion. "Slickheads" is told in the slang of Lawrence Jackson's youth. What do these quirky approaches to style do for the subject matter? Why not just tell these stories in a straight ahead fashion? Why are they titled the way they are?
I think the reason why the stories was told in that way and not the straight fashion way is because the writer wants give the readers the actual situation that had happened and make the reader feels like he/she is present in the moment.
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