The National Party, or the Nationalist Party, was in power from 1914 to 1977. In those years, they had formed a body known as Apartheid. Apartheid was one of the most harmful actions they had done, as Apartheid was an extremely racist policy, which “dictated that non-white South Africans (a majority of the population) were required to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities, and contact between the two groups would be limited”, as stated by the African Union. The book Born A Crime by Trevor Noah, a comedian and former radio show host, discusses his upbringing in an undeveloped South Africa. He talks about his experiences with the racism caused by Apartheid, yet he gives it a hilarious spin by telling stories from his childhood. As the story develops, we learn about his relationships as a mixed child and hear more about the action packed adventures he experiences, learning about the challenges he faces and the problematic events that take place in a rural South Africa.

As listed below are my notebook pages, which show some of the best central ideas I created.

The first page I created was a central idea page, in which I created one of the main central ideas that I feel successfully embodies and matches up with the overarching message of the story. The central idea I created was “Apartheid had long lasting damage on all citizens of South Africa”. It makes a lot of sense, as the entire book was dedicated to stories Trevor Noah told about living in South Africa both during and post Apartheid. In the page below it shows all of the evidence I found for the central idea:

The next pages I picked are my informational research pages, where I developed more central ideas and analysed the text further. In the pages below, I created two new central idea which was; People are often cemented in their beliefs and Due to Apartheid, many black citizens of South Africa developed a belief that they are different and segregated from white people. Both these central ideas can be linked back to or at least somewhat connected to my original core central idea, as many people can be cemented in their ways due to the impact of Apartheid, and black citizens believing themselves to be segregated from white people is a direct result of Apartheid existing and enforcing its policies. In these pages, it really drives home how people in Trevor’s life acts.

The next important page in my notebook was the preparations for my “town hall debate”, in which my second core central idea was developed. The central idea was; Even if society does not accept who you are, you should be proud of your identity. This was a very successful deep dive for evidence. In page 23, Trevor writes about how his mother chose to take a government job, which is essentially the pinnacle of evidence for the central ideas, as it connects to both. His mother disregarded the generally accepted norms of society, choosing to do what she wished, and he also stated that at the time, most black people only had two career paths, these paths being working in a factory or becoming a maid, which is a direct connection to my first core central idea. This quote is occurs quite frequently in the book, as in many of the previous pages you can find examples where the evidence supports both the central idea from its respective page and this claim right here. An example being from the Informative writing pages, where in page two, paragraph three, it discusses how Trevor’s mother was ridiculed for taking her son to experience joys such as ice skating or movies, which she only did because she did not abide by society’s rules and chose to do what she wished. The page basically expands on the central idea and really shows my thinking, especially capturing many pieces of strong evidence and also demonstrating how society impacted Trevor Noah throughout the book.

Finally, we have the synthesis page. This is the epitome of all my thinking and research, wrapped up nicely with a bow on top. Here, I put all of my thinking into how to connect my two central ideas into some sort of overarching moral or theme for the novel. In the page below, you can see how I cited some of my own notebook pages for evidence and reasoning, and I gave heavy explanations for all of the central ideas. I listed a paragraph that encapsulates evidence for both of the central ideas, then slowly branched it out into different pieces of evidence leading to the two central ideas, then connecting to the overarching theme, basically concluding all of the ideas and thinking I had about the book. The evidence stated in the text is all listed out in the image below:

That is the end of my notebook and thinking about the novel “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah. Though the notebook may not have demonstrated the entertainment or comedic value of the book, but rest assured that you would have a laugh and an overall great time reading this book. The book is really funny, and may interest you if you love comedy, whether you prefer fiction or nonfiction, the stories told will certainly satisfy you.