Watsons Go To Birmingham Summary

1995 historical novel by Christopher Paul Curtis

The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963

Author	Christopher Paul Curtis
State	United States
Genre	Realistic fiction, Juvenile fiction
Publication date	1995/1997/2000
ISBN	978-0385382946
OCLC	32133739
LC Class	PZ7.C94137 Wat 1995

The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 is a historical-fiction novel by Christopher Paul Curtis. Outset published in 1995 by Delacorte Press, it was reprinted in 1997. It tells the story of the Watsons, a lower heart class African-American family living in Flint, Michigan in the early 1960s from the perspective of Kenny Watson, the middle kid of three. The commencement part of the novel focuses on Kenny's struggles to make friends as a smart and thoughtful 10-year-sometime, and then shifts in setting when his parents decide to deliver their oldest son, Byron, to live with his grandmother in Birmingham, Alabama. The family embarks on a route trip to the deep due south, and while visiting in Alabama, they get caught upwards in a tragic historical event of the Ceremonious Rights Motility.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 communicates the realities of racial injustice to both adult and youth audiences. Information technology has received many prestigious awards and honors for its themes of familial dear and historical racism. The book was also adjusted into a film for Hallmark Channel in 2013.

Groundwork [edit]

The Watsons Get to Birmingham – 1963 was Christopher Paul Curtis' offset novel.^[1] He originally planned for the Watson family unit to travel to Florida rather than Birmingham.^[1] In an interview, Curtis stated that his son read him Dudley Randall'southward "The Ballad of Birmingham" while he was working on the book, and the poem inspired him to change the setting of his novel to focus on a pivotal moment of civil rights history instead.^[2]

While the Watson family is fictional, characters and events in the novel are based on Curtis' childhood in Flint.^[3] Like the narrator of the story, Curtis was also x years old in 1963, and he remembers his parents' involvement in ceremonious rights demonstrations during that time.^[ii]

Plot [edit]

The novel is a commencement-person account narrated by Kenneth Watson, who lives in Flintstone, Michigan with his parents, Daniel and Wilona Watson; his older blood brother, Byron; and younger sister, Joetta. Kenny is a bright and shy quaternary grader at Clark Uncomplicated School who is bullied for his intelligence and his lazy middle. He struggles to make friends until Rufus Fry moves to boondocks from Arkansas. Rufus is also bullied by the other students for his "country" dress and accent, which initially makes Kenny reluctant to befriend him, only they are presently inseparable. The boys are both bullied and protected by Kenny'south thirteen-year-old brother Byron and Byron's friend Buphead. Byron has been retained twice because he oft skips school and is, therefore, all the same in sixth grade. He invents a serial of "fantastic adventures" that constantly become him into trouble, such as playing with matches in the house and setting things on fire, abusing his parents' credit at the grocery shop to purchase himself treats, and getting a conk hairstyle against his parents' orders.

Daniel and Wilona eventually become so frustrated with Byron's behavior problems that they determine to deliver him to Birmingham, Alabama to live with Wilona'southward mother, Grandma Gloria Sands, for at least the summer and maybe an entire yr. As soon as the school year concludes, the Watsons ready their automobile ("the Brown Bomber") and embark on a road trip from Flint to Birmingham to deliver Byron and visit grandma. Kenny, who had been looking forrard to the "battle purple" between his grandmother and Byron, is disappointed when only a few sharp words from Grandma Sands have Byron speaking respectfully and generally behaving himself, and he soon resolves to seek out his own "adventures."

Grandma Sands warns the children to avoid a local pond hole because of a dangerous whirlpool, which Kenny mishears as "Wool Pooh" due to her thick Alabama emphasis. Kenny wants to swim there anyway and is frustrated when Byron and Joetta refuse to go along. Ignoring the warnings of both Grandma Sands and Byron, Kenny wades too deeply into the seemingly tranquil water and is caught by the whirlpool, which almost pulls him downward before Byron jumps in to save him from drowning. Remembering his grandmother'south words, Kenny imagines that the Wool Pooh is a foreign monster ("Winnie the Pooh's evil twin") that grabbed his ankle and tried to pull him downwards. Byron insists that there was nothing else in the water, but Kenny remains convinced the Wool Pooh exists.

Before long later, a bomb explodes at a nearby church where Joetta is attending Dominicus school. Kenny wanders into the smoldering church building building in the firsthand backwash of the explosion to await for his sister and is convinced that he sees the Wool Pooh lurking in the smoke clinging to Joetta'southward torn shoe. He takes the shoe and walks back to Grandma Sands' firm in shock before anyone notices him at the church. Kenny is dislocated to find Joetta already at the house and assumes that she must be an angel. Joetta is disturbed by her blood brother's behavior and claims that she'd followed him home from Lord's day school afterwards he'd chosen to her from outside. Kenny soon realizes that his sister is fine and has no thought that a bomb went off in the church minutes afterward she'd left.

The Watsons showtime driving back to Flintstone that afternoon, with the parents reluctant to explain what happened to Joetta. Kenny is unable to process the events in Birmingham and avoids his family and friends over the ensuing weeks, instead spending many hours hiding behind the sofa. Byron eventually coaxes him out and gets Kenny to talk about what happened, which finally brings a alluvion of tears from Kenny. Encouraging his younger brother to "keep on stepping," Byron explains that although the earth is not perfect, he has to keep moving on.

Genre [edit]

Professor Rachelle Kuehl posits that The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 expands beyond the typical historical fiction genre by contextualizing the events of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing and providing readers the opportunity to learn about social injustice.^[four]

Analysis [edit]

Setting [edit]

The events of the book occur from approximately Jan to Oct 1963, a turbulent time during the Ceremonious Rights Move.^[v] The climax of the story centers around the celebrated 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham in 1963, soon after the civil rights protests had resulted in successful negotiations with white city leaders for integration.^[5] Ku Klux Klan members bombed the church on September 15, 1963, killing four girls and injuring many more than.^[6] In the novel, the incident occurs a flake earlier than the historical engagement to let the Watson family unit to be on summer vacation in Birmingham when it takes place.

Racial Injustice [edit]

Professor Jonda C. McNair asserts that sense of humor serves as an important literary device in The Watsons Become to Birmingham—1963 to betrayal the racism experienced past African Americans in the 1960s.^[7] More specifically, she finds that the novel uses four categories of race-related humor to reveal racial oppression in a subtle manner: exaggeration, sarcasm, the anticipation of racism, and mocking white people.^[8] For example, Daniel jokes about how the Watson family unit cannot just stop at whatever establishment during its road trip to Birmingham; these comments, though communicated in a humorous style, signal to the discrimination faced by African Americans in the South.^[viii]

Professor Jani L. Barker argues that the narrative techniques in The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, specifically the showtime-person narration from Kenny, let the novel to truthfully communicate the harsh realities of race-based violence without traumatizing its young, vulnerable audition.^[9] Since Kenny offers the innocent perspective of a child, younger readers tin place with Kenny and learn near racism from a protective altitude that still offers them hope for the hereafter.^[9]

Professor Barker also points to the story arc of the novel every bit an essential element in indirectly combatting racist mindsets.^[x] The early chapters of the story depict the everyday life of the Watson family and, thus, let readers — both Black and non-Blackness — to recognize the Watson family'due south humanity and identify with the protagonists.^[10] Race slowly becomes more central as the story progresses until it reaches the climax of race-based violence with the church building bombing.^[10] This progression fosters a sense of resilience in Black readers besides as empathy for the struggles of Black Americans in not-Black readers.^[10]

Gender and Sexuality [edit]

Professor Amina Chaudhri states that The Watsons Get to Birmingham—1963 fails to question the sexism and heterosexual norms that pervade American order.^[xi] She argues that Daniel'due south and Byron'south performances of black masculinity throughout the novel resemble hegemonic masculinity.^[11] For instance, Byron's recurrent disobedience, such as straightening his hair confronting his parents' orders, represents an endeavour to assert his superiority and power over others.^[xi]

Reception [edit]

The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 was generally well received afterward its publication.^[12] ^[xiii] In The New York Times, Jabari Asim described the novel equally "lyrical, engrossing and of sufficient emotive power to sustain the attending of developed readers also."^[12] In The Guardian, Lindsey Fraser praised the volume for tackling "'big issues' only [relating] them to a value system, if not an environment, which is readily accessible."^[13]

The book has likewise been named to the American Library Association's list of Best Books for Young Adults.^[ii] It has received over 25 awards and honors, including the Newbery Honor and the Coretta Scott King Honor.^[2] ^[xiv] ^[15]

Adaptations [edit]

A television flick based on the book, produced past Walden Media, premiered on the Hallmark Channel in 2013.^[16] It was directed by Kenny Leon and starred Anika Noni Rose, Wood Harris, Latanya Richardson, Skai Jackson, and David Alan Grier.^[17] The movie condensed events and characters in Flintstone from the first one-half of the novel and added new scenes of Kenny and Byron helping local youths organize civil rights events in Birmingham.^{[ commendation needed ]} Walden Media also collaborated with the Southern Poverty Law Center to develop educational materials that would help teachers in Alabama teach their students about the Civil Rights Movement through the film.^[16]

References [edit]

^ ^a ^b Kelati, Haben (Nov 30, 2020). "How a uncomplicated story most a route trip became a kids' classic". The Washington Mail service . Retrieved May seven, 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Curtis, Christopher Paul; Morgan, Peter Due east. (2002). "History for Our Children: An Interview with Christopher Paul Curtis, a Contemporary Voice in African American Young Developed Fiction". MELUS. 27 (2): 197–215. doi:10.2307/3250608.
^ "Curtis, Christopher Paul 5/ten/1953-." Encyclopedia of African-American Writing. Ed. Shari Dorantes Hatch. Amenia, NY, United states of america: Grey House Publishing, 3rd edition. 2018.
^ Kuehl, Rachelle (2021-07-29). "Through Lines: Exploring Past/Present Connections in Centre Grade Novels". The Reading Teacher. 75 (4): 441–451. doi:10.1002/trtr.2041. ISSN 0034-0561.
^ ^a ^b "Chronology of blackness civil rights in the United States, 1954–xc." The Longman Companion to Slavery, Emancipation and Ceremonious Rights, Harry Harmer, Routledge, 1st edition, 2001.
^ Hohenstein, Kurt (2005). "Civil Rights Move." Encyclopedia of African American Society, edited by Gerald D. Jaynes, Sage Publications, 1st edition.
^ McNair, Jonda C. (2010). "Archetype African American Children's Literature". The Reading Teacher. 64 (2): 96–105. doi:x.1598/rt.64.2.2. ISSN 0034-0561.
^ ^a ^b McNair, Jonda C. (2008). ""I May Exist Crackin', But Um Fackin'": Racial Humor in The Watsons Go To Birmingham—1963". Children's Literature in Teaching. 39 (three): 201–212. doi:ten.1007/s10583-007-9049-ane. ISSN 0045-6713.
^ ^a ^b Barker, Jani L. (2013). "Naive Narrators and Double Narratives of Racially Motivated Violence in the Historical Fiction of Christopher Paul Curtis". Children's Literature. 41 (1): 172–203. doi:x.1353/chl.2013.0002. ISSN 1543-3374.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Barker, Jani L. (2010). "Racial Identification and Audience in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and the Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963". Children's Literature in Instruction. 41 (ii): 118–145. doi:10.1007/s10583-010-9101-4. ISSN 0045-6713.
^ ^a ^b ^c Chaudhri, Amina (2011). ""Straighten Upwardly and Wing Correct": HeteroMasculinity in The Watsons Become to Birmingham—1963". Children's Literature Clan Quarterly. 36 (ii): 147–163. doi:ten.1353/chq.2011.0019. ISSN 1553-1201.
^ ^a ^b Asim, Jabari (Dec 2, 2001). "The Washington Post Book Club: The Watsons Go To Birmingham–1963. Christopher Paul Curtis. A Reader'due south Guide, Presented past Jabari Asim". The Washington Post . Retrieved May 7, 2022.
^ ^a ^b Fraser, Lindsey (Dec sixteen, 1997). "Education: Children's Volume of the Week". The Guardian. p. 4.
^ "The Watsons Become to Birmingham--1963 | Awards & Grants". American Library Clan . Retrieved May 7, 2022.
^ "The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 | Awards & Grants". American Library Association . Retrieved May 7, 2022.
^ ^a ^b "'The Watsons Go to Birmingham' Wraps Filming in Atlanta". Atlanta Daily Globe. May 11, 2013. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
^ Stuever, Hank (September xix, 2013). "'The Watsons Go to Birmingham': Authentication's warm but bumpy road trip to history". The Washington Mail . Retrieved May 7, 2022.