Essay Questions

Bring out the challenges and problems that Dalton Conley experiences as he grows as presented in Honky.

Dalton begins experiencing problems at an early age. When a need to have a young sister overpowers and overwhelms him, he kidnaps a child that his parents return to its owner as soon as possible. Because his parents are artists with barely enough money, Conley has to live in the federal housing project in an area over washed with violence as well as drug-related crimes. When he moves to school, Conley becomes aware of the social segregation as well as the privileges that are accorded to the white kids.

When he later moves to another school, he notices the importance accorded to class. In order to blend in, he has to imitate how the other students talk. While he feels a form of superiority over the project kids, he is also ashamed and, as such, does not invite his affluent friends over. Soon he realizes that to keep up with his shred; he will need money. In a way, all of the experiences that Conley has, make it difficult for him to get accustomed to life and also present the problems and challenges that he encountered in his life growing up.

Dalton Conley explicitly brings out the theme of injustice in Honky. Using illustrations from the book, show how this is brought out.

Dalton, during his time in school, observes the treatment of the other students differently for similar offenses. At the Mini school, despite Conley being mischievous as are all the other black kids, he soon realizes that he is never punished as the other kids are. Conley becomes aware of the fact that the teacher did not want to cross racial lines despite being bothered by the treatment he was receiving.

Also, Mark gets arrested for being involved with drugs and gets the full sentence of 25 years having turned eighteen years recently. On the other hand, Conley’s sister’s involvement in drug usage does not gather enough impetus to ruin her life due to the fact that she was surrounded by enough protective influences. These are explicit cases of injustice, as brought out in Honky.

Explain the title of the book.

Honky is a derogatory term used to make reference to a white person. It is believed that the term was first used by Black Power Militants as a response to the white population using the n-word. The author uses this word to refer to himself and to the other people around him who are similar to him in regards to race and appearance. Through this term, the narrator describes the truly horrific effects of racism and shows how a black person may be punished or treated differently from a white person who exhibits the same type of behavior.