" 'What's in a Name?' " by Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.

I read a narrative called " 'What's in a Name? ' ", which is written by Henry Louis Gates. This narrative shows us a childhood experience of the author that occurred during the mid-1950s. In the article, Gates refers to an incident when a white man, Mr. Wilson, who was friendly with his father, called his father “George”, a name which was a popular way of referring to African Americans in those times. However, Gates’ father had to accept this discrimination and couldn’t do anything about it at that time. By using pathos to evoke people’s emotional response, and using allusion, Gates efficiently expresses his claim that name does shape people's perceptions and prejudice in the mid-1950s although it shouldn’t do that. 

There are two points that really touch me. In paragraph 3, the little boy was “busy licking” his ice cream when he saw Mr. Wilson. But in paragraph 7, he “stopped licking” his ice cream and asked his father “in a loud voice” why Mr. Wilson called his father wrong. Gates doesn’t say like “I was shocked”, instead of using the details of licking ice cream, he perfect presents a naïve little boy that felt confused not hurt due to him not knowing anything and even asking it out loudly. He understands the audience well, so the lovelier the little boy is, the more the audience will be touched and convinced. In addition, Gates uses allusion in his title to enhance the representing of his main sentiment. The title “ ‘what’s in a name’ ” is put in quotation marks, which is an allusion to act 2, scene 2, of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet says, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.” When the audiences recognize the allusion, there is no doubt that this title would catch their eyes and give them a better understanding of the essay. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the lovers Romeo and Juliet fall in love with each other but cannot be together because she is a Capulet and he is a Montague and the two families have bad relationships. Thus, Juliet uses “What’s in a name” to question the logic of people doing this and shows her belief that names shouldn’t determine how people are regarded and treated by others, which is also the belief of the author. By using this kind of allusion or analogy, Gates implies the same resentful feeling as Juliet. Even if people couldn’t see the allusion, by using the title “what’s in a name”, which not like a name for a narrative essay, Gates point out his main idea that prejudice and discrimination lies behind names. The author uses a question sentence to be a title, it seems like that author didn’t say exactly what is in a name and didn’t give an answer to the question, but after reading the whole essay, everyone can give an answer to the question through their own understanding.