The Boy Who Painted Christ Black By John Henrik Clarke
The Boy Who Painted Christ Black is a short story about a black boy called Aaron but the narrator is another student from his class. The book was published in 1940 when
Aaron learns in a segregated school in Georgia.
There are five main characters, The first one is Aaron, a talented boy, with big drawing skills, that one day decided to draw a painting for his teacher for her birthday, and drew Christ, but black. The second character is Aaron’s teacher, she received his present. the third character is the supervisor, he was white and thought that black people shouldn’t have rights and maybe even considered them as animals, in the story he saw Aaron’s drawing and attacked him with words. Then came the principal. Which is also the fourth character he defended Aaron and followed his beliefs. The principal said exactly what he felt about the situation. Even though it got him fired he found another job and helped Aaron with his future. The last character id the narrator, he is a boy in Aaron’s class that is not doing much in the story except for telling it.
This story has a important life lesson, that if each one of us can follow it even a little bit we can make the world a better place. The story presents struggle between man and society it shows us how people can be judged and publicly humiliated only because of the color of their skin. For example, when the supervisor noticed Aaron’s painting and reacts to it.However, on the other hand the story also shows us how people are standing up for their beliefs and saying what they think to protect others no matter what can happen to them if they will do that.
