At many different points throughout the collection Born a Crime, Trevor Noah describes
the complications of his racial identity. Write an essay analyzing the role that race played
in challenging and facilitating the author's understanding of himself as he grew up.
Pre-Writing: Make a list of all the incidents from the book that show Trevor’s racial
identity making things easier for him or difficult. Then choose one example of challenging
and one example of facilitating.
Outline:
I: Introduction- Background of the book in 2-3 sentences. Thesis statement (This should be the
last sentence of your introduction.)
II. 1 st Main Body Paragraph: First example of Trevor’s race making things challenging for him
III. 2 nd Main Body Paragraph: Second example of Trevor’s race facilitating things for him.
IV: Conclusion: Wrap up the discussion- restate the thesis statement- End with so what? What
was the overall impact of race on Trevor’s life?