Time and Distance Overcome

701 Words3 Pages
Time and distance overcome Today we live in a world full of technology and where the technology keeps developing. While the technology is growing and growing the racism around the world is decreasing. When Graham Bell invented and presented the telephone for the first time people criticized it just for the idea itself. Around the time where the telephone is invented and presented the black people is being killed, burned and later hanged on the telephone pole. The above-mentioned is exactly what the honest and almost cynical non-fiction essay, “Time and Distance Overcome”, by American writer, Eula Biss, is about. The essay “Time and distance overcome” is divided in three different parts with three different atmospheres and with three different stories, but all about the same thing – the telephone and the telephone’s history. In all three parts of the essay there is a different change in mood, which is a characteristic example of Eula Biss’ controversial writing style. The first part of the essay is a historical up summing of the invention of the telephone and a “war” between those who believed the telephone had a future and those who did not believe in the future of the telephone – those who did not believe in the future of the telephone were afraid of the unknown and the change. After the readers have read the first two pages of the essay, they are convinced that the essay “Time and distance overcome” is just about the invention and history about, “todays’ best friend of humans”, the telephone – and not about the “war” between the black and white in America – in the whole in general. The themes of the essay are racism, cruelty, fear of the unknown and fear of changes. The second part of the essay has a whole other atmosphere than the first part – the second part is negative and filled with death and murderer. The suddenly change of focus is something that
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