In the Kitchen Response

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In the Kitchen The narrative “In the Kitchen” by Henry Louis Gates details the lengths at which African Americans in the 1950’s and 60’s would go in order to straighten their hair, and the importance hair played in how you were perceived by the rest of the African American community. Throughout this essay, hair was used to represent the identity of the African American community during a period where major social changes were taking place. Throughout the textual form, figurative language, idiom, register and tone were used. Gates was able to explore the standards of that time, and how they affected the African American community and in turn how it affected him as an adult. Throughout the text, languages featured by Gates made it clear that the African Americans during that era felt the need to straighten their hair in order to receive acceptance from the Caucasian Americans. However, the language used within this text is very neutral, and shows that Gates is simply retelling his childhood as he remembers it. He does not think neither the African Americans nor the Caucasian Americans had done anything wrong or that African American were being told by anyone to conform. The “kitchen” (Gates 42), is an important illustration of this text, as hinted by the title. In this text, the word kitchen has two completely different meanings. The first is the room you cook food in, however, Gates states that the “most important thing about our . . . kitchen was that Mama used to do hair there” (40). Upon further reading, it is revealed that Gates’ mother used to straighten neighbours and friends’ hair in their kitchen using heated iron prongs. The second meaning for the word kitchen was “the very kinky bit of hair at the back of the head” (Gates 42). The kitchen was not able to be manipulated by grease, or hot tongs, and was described as “Unassimilaby African” (42), by Gates.

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