In all four parts, the author considers what it means to be black in America – how male and female black bodies are viewed and treated, and different perceptions on how those with black bodies need to behave in order to realize any kind of achievement. In Part Four, “Adult Americans,” the author’s considerations are placed within the framework of maturity post college.

The focus of Part Three is on the author’s experiences as a young adult – specifically, while attending college. In Part One, “Boy Man,” the author considers these experiences within the context of his childhood, while in Part Two, “Black Abundance,” he considers them within the context of his youth. All these aspects of his life, the prologue suggests, had their effect within the larger context of being black in America, with its history of racism in general, and its damaging, difficult treatment of black bodies in particular.įollowing the prologue, each of the book’s four parts is defined by a particular time in the author’s life, and considers various aspects of the author’s experiences, including violence, sexuality, friendship, family, academics, politics, and the law. The book begins with what amounts to a prologue, the author’s exploration of his overall intent in writing this book – essentially, to tell his mother (and by extension the reader) new and unrevealed truths about his experiences growing up heavy, growing up a black male, and growing up the child of complicated, troubled, secretive parents. On another level, the book is an extended, metaphoric consideration of different sorts of being “heavy” – the heaviness of a large physical body, the psycho-spiritual “heaviness” of growing up black in an environment of racism, and the psycho-emotional “heaviness” of being the troubled child of a similarly troubled, secretive single mother. On a narrative level, the book is presented as a letter from the author to his mother, in which he reveals aspects of his life and their relationship for the first time. Scribner: An Imprint of Simon and Schuster, Inc. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Laymon, Kiese.

Heavy american memoir