The Essay of Troy L. Wiggins About Grandmother and People of Memphis

It is proposed to bring about the reality of Memphis like what is happening in this city. He has shown clearly that either just developments matter or justice does also matter. He has discussed a story of her great-grandmother who was also treated badly by her husband in the 1960s. In this study, he has used an appeal to authority like what other resources the author has used. Basically, his own experience at Memphis gave him many lessons which will be discussed in this essay.

His fundamental purpose is to depict some old Memphians’ behavior in Memphis by white supremacy which will be completely elaborated in the upcoming paragraphs.

The audience that the specific writer has used are the Memphians included both white and other people. As he used to go on bus rides with her grandmother, after 10 years when he went back to the crosstown building, he observed a scene going on there; a protest by some people whose spirits were still crying for justice and they were raising their voices against white supremacy.

Get quality help now

Dr. Karlyna PhD

Verified writer

Proficient in: Race Relations

4.7 (235)

“ Amazing writer! I am really satisfied with her work. An excellent price as well. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

They were demanding that their elected representatives were on the correct side of the history and their demand was to remove hateful edifices from their taxpayer funded parks.

The author organized this essay in various parts. But the main theme at the end goes straight that the white people of Memphis are continuously making injustice with the black ones. As the writer at the start of his discussion told about her great-grandmother, Granny who abandoned rural Mississippi in the 1960s just to escape her husband who was an abusive man who even in their early marriage chose to have a farmhand instead of a wife.

At the mid of an essay, he again focused on a protest by the people who were given incomplete rights by the Memphians. Likewise, at the end, he saw one woman, in resemblance to her great-grandmother, stuck him very deeply that it almost brought tears to his eyes.

He justified the opposition clearly that how he could be excited by Memphians development when its people cannot even have the rights to use grocery inside crosstown concourse in Memphis. How could he be excited about crosstown concourse when many of its citizens are unemployed in a two-mile radius of its doors? How could he be excited about it when, after many years the white supremacy still wanted to be on top? And finally, how could he be excited when even the police and politics were also not giving people rights equally; the police behavior is just partial such as it’s totally up to the wronged police to kill anyone any time without any reason. So how could the writer be happy or excited by having all these scenarios? Some more examples related to injustice in Memphis has been elaborated in the upcoming discussion.

He also gave examples to strengthen his argument that when he visited Memphis last week, he met a woman who looked like her Granny. She was fully depressed and tense. She looked to be hurt and disgusted as well. Though Memphis was making developments everywhere at that time, even her neighbors have also made prominent developments, but she was not impressed by all that. Where are opportunities for her children and grandchildren so that she may escape from poverty? There was no nearby jobs and adequately funded schools.

The most important is that there was not even a single grocery store within 3 miles of her house. However, these were the basic requests and even Memphis was on top at that time. During a conversation with her, she once looked up and sighed. Instantly I went back to 10 years and remembered my Granny and could feel her sigh.

The writer has clearly used an appeal to authority by discussing or comparing it with its other regions. As when he discussed its external beautiful scenes and developments, he wanted to make everyone aware of the dark side of Memphis. Everything he used in his essay is just by his own observing experiences in Memphis; the experiences that he either got from her great-grandmother or by another woman who he met or just by some common Memphians.

In the context of an appeal to ethos, the writer’s character has been fully shown by this essay. His character can be seen in the essay when he said that he could not lie, “the crosstown concourse was a nice building”. He had a future plan of “vertical urban village” and he had wished that the crosstown building looked like that. He further explains that the updated construction had managed to keep the massive look, and that’s how he could feel his childhood back. The public servant in the writer was impressed by the convergence of commercial and civic interest into a single public use space.
The appeal to logos is also very clear from the essay. Once the writer has clearly explained everything about Memphis i.e. after giving his narrative, he just raise a single question to all the audience that how he could be excited by the white Memphians? There is a complete line of reasons behind his this argumentative type question.

It is very much clear from the essay that Troy L. Wiggins has also used pathos as when visited South Memphis, he was having a discussion with the residents of that area. When he just saw a woman like Granny, there were almost tears in his eyes. So it depicts his best emotions.
Though he has used his aggressive tone in all the essay. There was a reason behind his aggressiveness and that was only an injustice and brutality that the white supremacy did with her grandmother, and other recessive people of Memphis. He was not happy with white supremacy, and he wanted to eradicate this inequality.

His choice of words may confuse some present Memphians; they may dislike the aggressiveness the writer has used against white Memphians. But one should not look only one side of any incident as he also showed his love for the same building with which he had a great hate after that because of an injustice and not providing an equal right to all the Memphians.