analysis of the use of genre in Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.
You may refer to Noah’s use of storytelling, autobiography, comedy, political commentary and satire. Indicate how his
use of different genres contributes to the impact of the novel.
Born a Crime is biographical in nature...an autobiography of sorts. The first point to note about the book’s perspective is that it is written in first person, past tense narrative, from the author’s individual perspective – that of having grown up as the child of mixed-race race parentage within a socio-political-economic system that was designed to oppress, on just about every level, anyone who was not purely Caucasian. The author’s perspective, therefore, is that of someone whose experience was that of the title – born a crime – and whose entire experience of life, at least to the point at which this memoir concludes, was defined by the legal, implied, and reluctantly accepted consequences of being a living act of transgression. He writes clearly and uncompromisingly of the difficulties of this situation, revealing awareness of the ways in which his personal situation and that of his home country had not only global causes and repercussions but also echoes of the situation in other countries where race is an issue. For example, he pays particular attention to issues of black/white relations in America.
