My True South: Why I Decided To Return Home Essay

Familiarity always brings bias to numerous individuals. However, due to this bias, people often fail to see everything. People may view the world more negatively or more positively. Nonetheless, no one sees the world in its entire reality. Authors such as Jesmyn Ward and Chimamanda Adichie tell their stories and their changed reality. Through a series of events, people learn to see the world with more open eyes.

People frequently try to run away from what is wrong rather than face it head-on. However, Jesmyn Ward, Author of My True South: Why I Decided To Return Home, is one of the few who would rather fight than run. The author tells her story and how she, a black woman, moved to Mississippi. For a white person, Mississippi may be a remarkable place. Regardless, due to Mississippi having a racist background, a black person may feel tortured in their own home. Jesmyn proves this by saying, “It is difficult for them to understand why a successful black woman would choose to return to the south and, worse yet, to Mississippi, which looms large in the public imagination for its racist depredations” (Ward 10). She, however, learns to see the good in this state full of evil towards her race. In her mind, Mississippi is so much more than its background. Soon Jesmyn finds that there is so much more, proving it by saying, “I remember that Mississippi is not only its ugliness, its treachery, its willful ignorance. It is also my nephew, hurling his body down a waterslide, rocketing to the bottom, joy running from shoulder to heel” (13). To Jesmyn, Mississippi is home. It is where her family is and where she grew up. Through her lesson of seeing the good in everything, Jesmyn learns that there is always more than meets the eye.

In this world, perspectives tend to change based on where a person grew up. This statement is especially true for black people who grew up in Africa and moved to America. Chimamanda Adichie tells her story, The Color of an Awkward Conversation, and explains how she moved to America from her home in Western Africa. Moving to America was a game-changer for her mind and what she thought of her skin color. After being called sister by a black man, she said, “To be called “sister” was to be black, and blackness was the very bottom of America’s pecking order. I did not want to be black” (Adichie 97). America brought a whole new point of view to the mind of Chimamanda that she never knew could exist. In her mind, injustice toward blacks was only something she saw in the books she read growing up. The color of her skin was not even something that came to mind until being in America. She states, “There are many stories like mine of Africans discovering blackness in America; of people who are consequently resentful or puzzled by Americans” (98). It was not until she moved to America that she learned that there is always more to a story.

No matter the situation, everyone at some point forgets to open their mind to other views. However, through Chimamanda and Jesmyn stories, they prove that there is always a bigger picture. They show that their experiences changed their perspectives of the world around them. Like Chimamanda and Jesmyn, everyone can learn to see the world with open eyes.