Summary Of Lillian Smith's Killers Of The Dream
Nathaniel Aponte
HIS 219-01
Book Report #1
Killers of the Dream, by Lillian Smith
Lillian Smith’s provocative social commentary, Killers of the Dream explains the outbreak of racism and segregation following the Civil War, and the succeeding abolishment of slavery. After identifying and treating the many symptoms, Smith proceeds to diagnose the root causes of the South’s illness. Initially taking a seat on the bench and psychoanalyzing herself, she then juxtaposes her case study upon the wider population of rich-white elites in the South that represented her personal knowledge and experiences. The maelstrom that ensued permitted a highly racist, segregated, and class stratified society; sustained Jim Crow acts as a viable painkiller for …show more content…
Segregation needed to be carefully nurtured, and Jim Crow spread through the implicit influxes of racism and racial superiority. The esoteric nature of the racial agenda in the South reprogrammed the minds of its children and ensured adherence to the code. It also laid the foundation for future generation’s indoctrination and allegiance in a highly racist society where fear of punishment and consequences reigned supreme and eternal. Using the language of psychoanalysis, Smith contends that segregation existed as a rigid set of rules that sought to restructure the racist hierarchy in the South after its defeat in the Civil War. Both blacks and whites had to learn how to behave in socially accepted manners, conducive to the regions of ego and the stifled and restrained id. However, the stifling of one’s Id and libido often manifested itself in a moment of weakness, sin, and lack of self-discipline; as a result, society and the superego either punished the taboo or accommodated …show more content…
We were told He loved us, and then we were told that He would burn us in everlasting flames of hell if we displeased Him” (85). She later describes this notion, “As the years passed, God became the mighty protagonist of ambivalence although we had not heard the word” (85). Accepting that church and religion meant everything in Smith’s realm, we better understand how the Calvinistic flavor of religion exploited by white Southerners developed into more of a social construction, as she explains, “Church was our town—come together not to kneel in worship but to see each other…To children, church was more interesting than school”
HIS 219-01
Book Report #1
Killers of the Dream, by Lillian Smith
Lillian Smith’s provocative social commentary, Killers of the Dream explains the outbreak of racism and segregation following the Civil War, and the succeeding abolishment of slavery. After identifying and treating the many symptoms, Smith proceeds to diagnose the root causes of the South’s illness. Initially taking a seat on the bench and psychoanalyzing herself, she then juxtaposes her case study upon the wider population of rich-white elites in the South that represented her personal knowledge and experiences. The maelstrom that ensued permitted a highly racist, segregated, and class stratified society; sustained Jim Crow acts as a viable painkiller for …show more content…
Segregation needed to be carefully nurtured, and Jim Crow spread through the implicit influxes of racism and racial superiority. The esoteric nature of the racial agenda in the South reprogrammed the minds of its children and ensured adherence to the code. It also laid the foundation for future generation’s indoctrination and allegiance in a highly racist society where fear of punishment and consequences reigned supreme and eternal. Using the language of psychoanalysis, Smith contends that segregation existed as a rigid set of rules that sought to restructure the racist hierarchy in the South after its defeat in the Civil War. Both blacks and whites had to learn how to behave in socially accepted manners, conducive to the regions of ego and the stifled and restrained id. However, the stifling of one’s Id and libido often manifested itself in a moment of weakness, sin, and lack of self-discipline; as a result, society and the superego either punished the taboo or accommodated …show more content…
We were told He loved us, and then we were told that He would burn us in everlasting flames of hell if we displeased Him” (85). She later describes this notion, “As the years passed, God became the mighty protagonist of ambivalence although we had not heard the word” (85). Accepting that church and religion meant everything in Smith’s realm, we better understand how the Calvinistic flavor of religion exploited by white Southerners developed into more of a social construction, as she explains, “Church was our town—come together not to kneel in worship but to see each other…To children, church was more interesting than school”