In the book, The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers, the author uses the setting to develop the theme and conflict that people will have to face challenges everyday, but the consequences you can receive can draw the line between life or death because sometimes people don’t want to see you succeed in life with joy and freedom. By showing how the entire Lewis family was thrown at slavery, a basketball star, wanting to play in college in the states, Tommy and Luvenia dealing will college problems and most importantly, many slaves want to be able to be free and not be controlled by someone else.
The author develops the theme by using the micro setting when Muhammad and Thomas showed how their family was treated throughout the generations and the era of the Lewis family. For example, Another example is when, Thomas chained himself to the police with cuffs during live television, “This is an illegal demonstration! ‘ Mr. Caro said. It’s the chain used to bring the first of my family to Johnson City over two hundred years ago! ‘ Tommy called out. ‘Where are the keys to this thing boy? ‘ Sheriff Moser’s was twisted with anger. ‘They didn’t give us the keys, ‘Tommy answered, ‘Just the chains. ” (Myers 284).
This micro setting shows the conflict because the Lewis family first started on the Glory Field, but as time passes and the family expands, they all faced a challenge known as slavery. This shows a demonstration of how the Lewis’s felt. Another example is, when a 12 year old, Muhammad Bilal struggles to live on a boat. Muhammad was thrown onto a boat from Africa to become a slave, but as people start to become ill and die because the owners of the slaves would choke them and kicked them around, Muhammad was surrounded with death and was fighting to live, “Muhammad’s mind was the effort to breathe.
He fought against death from breath to breath, trying always to fill his lungs for the next minutes of life, trying to ease the pain of the shackles around his legs, trying to think forward to an ending of his torment, trying to think of being free again” (Myers 8). This micro setting shows the conflict because Muhammad is beating treated badly and cannot escape the ship until they arrive in America since he became enslaved by white people. He is also the man who got the entire Lewis family involved in the first place, every generation after him in his family were also slaves.
The author develops the theme by using the meso setting when Luvenia desperately wants to go to college and on the other hand, Tommy was selected to have a scholarship, but faces the challenge of leaving his family to go to college or staying loyal to them and helping his family through segregation. For example, Luvenia, Tommy’s aunt wanted to pursue her dream of going to college in Chicago during 1930 and has enough credit to get her high school diploma, but she gets stopped by Ms. Etta, ” You finished the colored school and you are smart, but they don’t let that many colored people in their college. They don’t want us over there” (Myers 146). This micro setting shows the conflict because segregation was a monstrous deal in the 1920s and 1930s in Chicago because segregation started in schools during 1896 and did not end until 1954. As time passes Luvenia misses her chances of going into college.
In addition, Tommy is a very skilled basketball player who helped his high school team Curry win their first all-city tournament and was then approached by the coach, Mr. Chase and was informed he could be going to play for the state, “You’ve got outstanding skills and a good head on your shoulder. How does it sound to you? Mr. Chase said. ‘Sounds good. ” Its not going to be easy. I won’t feed you any lies. Tons of people aren’t going to like Negroes going to school with Whites, and that’s just a fact that you and I have to live with'”(Myers 220). This meso setting shows the conflict because segregation was starting to stop in 1964 but people will have their opinions about races in schools.
This develops the theme of challenges ecause slavery and segregation was a major deal in the American History. People were treated unkindly, tossed around, and most importantly facing challenges. The author develops the theme by using the macro setting of slavery from showing how the Lewis family went through slavery from 1753 to 1994. For instance, in the prologue, Muhammad talks about his experience on a boat, “Muhammad’s thoughts kept going back to the day he was captured… Muhammad remembered having his arms wrenched behind him and tied and then being put into a line with other boys his age.
A rope was put around his neck and tied to a long pole”(Myers 4). This shows the conflict because slavery was set in the 1650s throughout the 1860s, Muhammad is in 1753 getting a taste of what people went through for 210 years! In addition, as the generations deal with tough challenges and obstacles, like Abby and Elijah(cousins) getting treated unworthy. When Sheriff Glover sent the two on a mission to find a lost boy for $30, the amount decreases, “Elijah, I’m letting you have half the rescue money,” Sheriff Glover said as he slid over the side of the boat” (Myers 120).
This represents that Whites believe that they are better than the slaves who work harder to grow crops and keep the society going, meanwhile the Whites are chilling behind collecting their hard earned cash. This shows us the conflict because people will such as whites usually will not reward slaves and as you can see slaves were in a lower class than the whites were. White people believed that they can overrule them because they are wealthy.