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Killers of the Dream

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Submitted By Serine
Words 2011
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Killers of the Dream, written in 1949 by Lillian Smith, is a book that states the historical, personal, psychological, political and economic reasons which led to the segregation of the South.
The book starts off with the author remembering a childhood incident with her parents that made her wonder about the hypocrisy she has been raised by in the Southern way of life. The incident is that of her mother’s friends finding a white girl at the black part of town. They believed that the girl was kidnapped and ends up living at the Smith’s house for a few weeks. The author quickly becomes friends with this girl-Janie, until her mother tells Lillian that Janie is in fact a black girl and cannot live in their home anymore. Moreover, her mother informs Lillian that she is too young to understand why, and she should not ever ask about this subject again. Hence Lillian now had to explain to Janie that colored children should not live with white children. Both children are left wondering and confused.
After recollecting memories from her own Southern childhood, Lillian Smith looks closely into the region’s image of childhood. She talks about the parents’ mentality towards their children and how they are raised. Those parents enforce their children into believing that sexual desires, and all the parts of their bodies that cause these sexual desires, are shameful and should be feared; including their fear for black people. Moreover, to stimulate these fears, the parents introduce the existence of God to enforce the shame and apprehension between the good parts of their bodies and the bad parts; the good types of people and the bad types of people. A more disturbing division is of which children believing that God loves them all, however, he will burn them all if they displease him.
“Our first lesson about God made the deepest impression on us. We were told that He loved us,

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