Looking for Mr. Green Essay Example
Looking for Mr. Green Essay Example

Looking for Mr. Green Essay Example

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  • Pages: 6 (1544 words)
  • Published: April 7, 2017
  • Type: Essay
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Justice and Human Rights I choose the topic Justice and Human Rights because I find so many deviations of rights experienced by African-American society in this story. As we know, Human rights are “basic rights and freedoms that all people are entitled to regardless of nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, race, religion, language, or other status. ” Human rights are conceived as universal and egalitarian, with all people having equal rights by virtue of being human. These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national and international law.

This has a relation to justice, a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, fairness, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics. Justice and human rights violations often happen to the minority, this phenomenon is almost happen in all place in the world. The minorities

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always get the mistreatment by the majorities. Government, which has a power to control this phenomenon, still deemed less effective. The human rights violations often occur.

The violation of justice and human rights often associated with racial problems. Yet, this problem is considered very sensitive, especially in big country like United States of America, French, etc. they treat minorities and also immigrants with inappropriate, although now there are laws that protect this problem, but the minorities and immigrants are still often feel unfairly by the state. The story ‘Looking for Mr. Green’ took place in Chicago in the depressed time 1930s, when the justice and human rights problems were rife in that era.

The protagonist of this story is George Grebe, a thirty five year old lecturer of classical languages, in his new job of delivering relief checks to disabled people in the black district. We know from the dialogue

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that commonly, white people can’t be accepted in the black area, but because his life has been affected by the crisis he accepts that job. Grebe is feeling thankful for his new job and wants to do his best, though his supervisor practically told him that he is neither required nor expected to work very hard. The greatest difficulty in Grebe’s job is finding the people whom the checks are addressed.

As a white stranger he is suspicious in the black district where the people would not tell anyone anything. It is a chilly late November day and Grebe cannot find Mr. Tulliver Green. He inquires of a nearby grocer, the janitor of the building where Mr. Green is supposed to live, and several neighbors. He has difficulties in convincing people that he is not a cop or bill collector and that he only wants to deliver a check to Mr. Green. Grebe is feeling sorry that he did not study the files of the people so that he would at least know something about them which would help him find them.

When he asked Mr. Raynor about it, the supervisor made it obvious that he does not think it necessary to know anything about the people. The district where Grebe finds himself is a maze of half-collapsed houses, no light, dark small yards, and dirty allies. The apartments are often crowded with as many as twenty people who sometimes even use the beds in shifts. As Grebe learns from an Italian grocer, it is a place where people do all kinds of crimes and abominations without even police being able to stop them from it.

Then the

story is flashback to the moment when the first time Grebe’s job interview, when he was interviewed by his supervisor, they are interrupted by an uproar in the office caused by the poor woman named Staika the ‘Blood Mother of Federal State. ’ She was born in the States to immigrants from the East; her husband was a gassed veteran from French with lungs weaker. She has no other means to support herself and her six children than to donor her blood at hospitals in exchange for money. She came to the relief office to protest.

The relief will not pay her electric bill, so she brought her ironing board to the office to use their current. She did not fail to call reporters. She does not lie about her impoverished circumstances, but she follows her own goal by so publishing her suffering. She even seems to enjoy her dramatic performance. And above all, she always gets what she wants. He continues his searching for Mr. Green, realizing that he has no more time to spend on Green; he slips Green’s check to the back of the block and finds the next name on the list is Winston Field. He starts looking for Mr.

Field. He succeeds and finds an old naval in a wheelchair. The man lives in a dark back-yard bungalow with a twelve-year-old boy. When Grebe draws out his check, Mr. Field procures a box with papers verifying his identity and his title for the relief money. He misses company, so he tells Grebe his plan how to improve the conditions of black people. He realizes that it is money only that matters, so

he suggests creating black millionaires by subscription and contributions. When Grebe leaves him, his shift ends but he cannot go home without delivering one more check, the one for Mr.

Green. He inquires once again in the house. He thinks how ironic it is that he cannot find a man whom he wants to give something, an important thing. He guesses that if he were to deliver him bad news, for instance, he would find him in no time. He wonders what it is good for to have a name by which a man cannot be found. Finally one neighbor gives him a tip and he finds an old house with the mailbox bearing the name Green. He rings the bell happily but is shocked when a stark naked drunk woman opens the door.

The woman does not identify herself positively but Grebe is convinced that Mr. Green is in the house, probably naked and drunk, too. He gives the woman the check and leaves with a feeling of satisfaction that Mr. Green after all could be found. The relationship between the themes that I choose with the story ‘Looking for Mr. Green’ is the justice and rights gained by black people in Chicago, United States. Along his journey to finding Mr. Green, Grebe discovered many facts about the life of black people in America.

Since the first time he entered the area of black people, he finds so many impropriety. In the chilly late November, the situation of black district is really gloomy, no lights, so does the heating. When he meets the Italian grocer and talk about Staika, a ‘golden-headed woman ho wore a cotton cap

laced with pink ribbon’ who always donor her blood in exchange for money. She has no other means than to support herself and her six children. We can see through this that black people relies their hope to the government within the relief check.

We also know that almost all the beneficiaries of the relief check are the black people. They will do anything to get the check, including give every drop of their blood, like Staika does. We also know about the situation of the black people through the black American veteran: Mr. Field. He explained that the only thing to make black people prosper is money, that’s the only sunbeams, money. Government must give money to them to start their own business, and then they can raise salary, hire all the Negroes, and after all, these things can help them, lift them from the poverty.

Along the way finding Mr. Green, Grebe finds the condition of the place where the Negroes live. It’s really desolate. The building was really old, broken, and abandoned by the owner; Grebe realizes the conditions of the buildings are really peculiar. He remembers about what Mr. Field said that only need one person, a millionaire to rebuild the city and change the face of Chicago. I make a conclusion about this situation: the African-American people need to get their rights and justice.

As we know, the holder of authorities in the United States of America is mostly white people and the Jewish nation. The black people do not have the same rights to be the power holders and decision makers in America. This need to be changed, the skepticism toward black people must be erased. Give the same rights, qualified education, and the same treatment. This can definitely reduce poverty and injustice against blacks in America. Fortunately, this situation has been changed now, as we

know, the American president, Barack Obama is an African-American.

This reality of course brings a new structure on the face of America, we all know the injustices against blacks has more decreased this decade, but the struggle is not finished. With the African-American leader, we hope that the inequalities and injustices in America especially with the black people and also immigrants can be solved. They can get the same rights and justice. Sources that help this paper: http://anglistika. webnode. cz/products/bellow-saul-looking-for-mr-green-/ http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Human_rights http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Justice

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