Artifacts

 

Essay Response:

In Paley’s essay, “Traveling,” there are two corresponding stories. In both of them, women: Paley and her mother, are riding from New York down to the South on a bus at different times in their lives, in different years. Both of them encounter and shut down the cultural norm that was segregation. Having been strangers to this idea enabled both Paley and her mother to stand against it because unlike many of the Southerners who actually believed in segregation, they had not been taught to be scared of people who are different, or to look down on them. The strangers had heard of the idea and “practice”, but had never been faced with it. Seeing what they thought was injustice and unfairness, they reacted.

 

 

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