Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Born a Crime (English Edition) by Trevor Noah

If you like books that easily deliver social problems/issues with entertainment, this book is for you. The book “Born a Crime” written by Trevor Noah is an autobiography that proclaims Trevor Noah going through his life in Africa. Throughout the book, it shows that Trevor being colored or can be defined as having more than one race/mixed was rare back then when he was a kid. The small stories in the book give us an image of what it was like to be a colored kid and how it went for him along with having Apartheid affected him. Even though imagining how apartheid was is pretty hard, he made it easier by using exaggeration to make it more familiar for the readers to understand.

This book is an adventure of Noah his race being colored troubles him in different areas from going outside to play with friends, which group to join in black or white, going to the groceries or walking with her mother, and when he is almost caught in camera when he stole the chocolates from the shopping mall. The book is also followed along with his jokes that ease the seriousness of the environment at the time and the wording used to describe how he can speak 4-5 different languages when he gets spoken in a different language as a chameleon since they change color due to them camouflaging depending on times.

The author uses the title to spotlight the theme of identity. Just looking at the title of the book “BORN A CRIME” it uses simple words to give a deep meaning to it. Nowadays, being a colored/mixed person does occur. Although there is no apartheid which gives this title a sense of the uniqueness of the era. Also, it means that this title works because the author of this book is Trevor Noah. Noah recalls in chapter 2, “During apartheid, one of the worst crimes you could commit was having sexual relations with a person of another race.” Due to the fact that having sexual relations with another race is a crime, it gives a sense that Noah becomes a child of Patricia who is black, and Robert who is Swiss that he is a product of crime back then in apartheid which he refers as “Born a Crime.” Another element that the author uses is language. Throughout the book, language played a key aspect in Noah’s life. In chapter 4 he refers to himself as a chameleon, “ If you spoke to me in Zulu, I replied to you in Zulu. If you spoke to me in Tswana, I replied to you in Tswana.” Due to the point that by speaking different languages he breaks the barrier of being different races. It also shows that he was accepted because he proved that he can speak African languages. It's stated in chapter 4 “The black kids were fascinated… So the fact that I did speak African languages immediately endeared me to the black kids.” This shows that Noah was able to break the barrier of talking to different races and languages creating a path for him to get along with both the white and black people in the school.