Description
George Dawson is one of the thousands of African Americans who have experienced the bad times of discrimination very closely. Not everyone can understand what it must be like to live in a world where people like them were not welcomed, where they suffered extreme poverty and did not even have the opportunity to get an education. But George’s story gives us a glimpse of that painful experience and we are grateful to him for sharing his experience with everyone. This summary will make you realize what people like him have endured, why it is so important to be nice to everyone and the importance of education and the schools we shy away from.
Book Summary
Introduction
George Dawson, 103, was the grandson of a slave. He learned to read at the age of 98 and because of this many people from all over the world came to know him. Many people completed their education inspired by him, but Richard Globman was so inspired by him that he decided to write about the life of George Dawson.
George’s mission was to tell his story and help others find ways to improve their lives, and it happened. Many people wanted to know more about him and his story.
There was a big change in Richard after knowing about George’s life. George worked with him for months and during that time Richard realized that there was nothing in his life. Soon, Richard became a man who was grateful for his life.
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In this summary, you will learn about George’s life and his struggles and why he learned to read at the age of 98.
‘Life Is So Good’ is a biography of George Dawson, written by Richard Glaubman. It’s a summary that will inspire you to understand that life can be full of struggles, but it can still be good, just like George lived his life.
Chapters 1 – 3
George Dawson grew up in Marshall, Texas. He was four years old when he started working on his farm to help the family. One day his father took him to the city. The sun had just risen and his brothers and sisters were sleeping. George was very excited because for the first time he and his father were going to the city together. Along with being proud, he also felt as if he had grown up.
While on his way to the city to deliver sugarcane syrup, George’s father was thanking God for his current situation. His father said that his life was going well because selling this syrup would clear all his debts and thank God no one in his family was sick. George was happy that his father was talking to him like a grown man and how much he cared for his family. George considered himself lucky to have such a father but George was unable to say this in front of him.
Today George was suddenly feeling as if he had grown up and in this happiness he was buying toffee from a shop when he heard a noise outside the shop. They saw that George’s friend, Pete, was being dragged away by some white men. He was begging them to release him and saying that the allegations leveled against him were completely false. When George found out that Pete had been accused of raping a white girl, he was very angry. George knew that Pete could never do such a despicable thing because he had always treated George with so much civility and kindness.
George wanted to stand by Pete and his innocence, but before he could say anything his father stopped him. He looked at his father and he understood that he should obey his father and that was to remain silent.
Pete was dragged to the oak tree. He kept pleading them to leave him, but the white people did not listen to him and hanged him on a tree in his street. Soon Pete stopped moving and his lifeless body remained hanging from the tree, as if it were a warning to those who were not white.
On his way back from town, George kept looking at Pete’s body. George became extremely angry at the thought of what the white people had done to Pete. He said that he would never talk to any white person. But, his father explained to him that he should not do this because some white people were certainly bad and mean, but there were also some who were themselves afraid and could not do anything. Therefore we should never judge other people.
It was from here that George started realizing his life. George realized that he was facing an unfair situation and it was important to remain calm to live a happy life. He hugged his father and his tears welled up. His father said that when this day started, he was an innocent child but now after seeing the bitter truth of life, he will learn to become a grown up.
Six months later, the white girl who accused Pete of rape gave birth to a white baby and no one said anything. None of the white men ever spoke of Pete again, but George never forgot the day they killed his friend.
George was given different tasks on his farm. But his favorite job was sorting cotton with his grandmother and great-grandmother. She loved spending time with him because during this time she used to tell him many stories.
Of these stories, George liked the ones related to slavery and then freedom the most.
One day, his great-grandmother Sylvie and her daughter Charity were on a farm in Mississippi when they received news that President Lincoln had abolished slavery. Hearing this, all the slaves jumped with joy and started making further plans as to where they should go, they were thinking that no matter what place it was, it would have to be better than Mississippi. But, Sylvie and Charity did not leave because they were still waiting for Reggie. He was the husband of Sylvie, who was said to have died in the Union Army after two years fighting for independence.
He came to know about this from Reggie’s friend Tom Dawson, who was fighting with him in the war and had gone out in search of him. Sylvie and Charity also wanted to leave that place but because of their debts they had to work there for eight years.
Later, Tom Dawson marries Charity and discovers that there are many things to do in Marshall, Texas. Sylvie, Charity, Tom Dawson, and George’s father settle in Texas with 40 acres of land and a mule, which they inherited after being freed from slavery.
And so George’s family settled in Marshall, Texas. He had heard this story from his grandmother many times, but he never got bored of it. George loved hearing about how his family were once slaves, fought for their freedom, and now live in freedom on their farm. His farm also had a kitchen, three small rooms and a room at the back to store cotton.
George knew that he was not rich because he had nothing, but no one in his family ever told him that he was poor. For George, his family meant everything to him and George knew that like his parents, he had to work hard to provide for his family. He was the eldest of five children, so he knew that he had to take responsibility. How important it is.
During the winter, when there was not enough food for the family, George’s parents would send him to work on the Coles farm. The Coles were a family of Gore people, but they treated George well and even gave him food and milk before he started work.
When the farm work was done, the Coles children, Jimmy, Johnny and Aiden, would play with George. These children were still small and innocent and were unaware of the discrimination between white and black prevalent in the society.
When he returned home, George would tell his parents how much he played and had fun with the Coles children. This is a common thing for any child, but George’s parents wanted him not to play with them because George could not earn money by playing like this.
When George turned 8, he stopped playing with the Coles children because they were now going to school. This was also the age when white children started living only with children of their own color. This was fine for George as he was now old enough to play with the eight-year-olds and so he started a full-time job on the other Gore family farm. Now his entire focus was on earning money for his family. George wanted to help his parents feed his younger siblings and being the eldest, he always wanted to be of help to them.
Chapters 7 – 8
In 1914, when George was sixteen years old and working on the Little family farm, one day his father suddenly appeared and talked to Mr. and Mrs. Little. His father was there to pick up George because his uncle and aunt had passed away and he needed to be at their farm.
His cousins had started living with George’s family and with so many people there was a need to earn more and grow more food. George also got another job at a lumber mill in the city. The money here was not good, but it was much better than earning nothing.
His father used to keep track of his earnings. He also used to save a part of his salary for George and the rest of the family. George never considered his cousins as distant relatives, for him they were his brothers and sisters. Therefore, he took care that like his brothers and sisters, his future should also be good. George wanted to learn to read and write, but when he turned sixteen, he thought it would be better to get a job so he could help his family.
In his free time, George played baseball with members of his community. Sometimes they also competed with baseball teams from other cities. Most of the time, they played against people of their own community, but there were times when they competed against white people.
The public supporting the white baseball team often threw eggs at them and called their team good and bad, but it did not matter to George and his team. Instead, it gave them more motivation to win. The crowd would get angry even when they beat the Whites, but George and his team didn’t care because they knew they deserved to win.
It was not easy to move from one city to another to compete with other baseball teams. It took George and his team several hours just to find a bathroom because most gas stations did not have bathrooms for black people. They had to remain hungry for several hours because many hotels did not provide food to black people, but some hotels were ready to sell them sandwiches and give them food through the back door. George and his team had no choice, one was that they were far away from home and were also suffering from hunger.
When George was not playing baseball, he worked at the mill. He worked there until he was 19 years old. In 1917, news of the beginning of the First World War came and many people began to be drafted into the army. George was also hoping that he would be selected because most of the workers of the mill had gone to serve the country, but George could not go because the owner of that mill said that he needed a good worker like George. He cleverly changed his age in the file and said that he was too young to join the army.
George continued working at the mill for two more years. When he turned 21, his father said that he had grown up now and should live on his own. His father always kept track of his salary, but when he turned 21, he handed over the responsibility to George. He said that George has done a lot of work for his family and now he should just focus on himself.
The first thing that came to George’s mind was to see other places. He came up with the idea because he met a co-worker from his mill who had served in the war and had now returned to Texas. He told that there were places outside Texas where people were not discriminated on the basis of color. This thing stuck in George’s mind and he started feeling the desire to go to other places and from here his journey started.
Chapters 16 – 18
George’s trip to Cleveland did not go according to plan. He discovered that the ticket he had was a return ticket to Marshall, so he decided to go to Canada because he wanted to see snow.
George spent some time in Sudbury and Calgary in Canada. Then he reached Banff. At a café he met some people who asked him where he was from. George replied that he was from Texas and was going to see snow in Canada. Hearing this, they immediately agreed to help him. After eating, George got into his truck and they stopped at the edge of the woods.
George had seen snow for the first time in his life. He started running and jumping on the snow. After a while, he started having pain in his arms and legs and he was feeling very cold. He thought Texas was so different from Canada and that it would be more interesting to find a snake than to freeze in the snow.
In 1928, George decided it was time for him to go home. He had a ticket back to Texas so he took a train south. He left California, where he stopped for fishing and passed through several cities including Dallas.
When George Marshall arrived, his aunt told him that her family had moved to Kaufman, Texas. He came to know that his family had to face many difficulties and his father had joined a new job. George reached Kaufman by the next day’s train. George’s parents did not expect him to return. George looked at his brothers and sisters, who were now grown up. She gave her mother a dress she had bought in California.
George took a house near his parents’ home and took a job in the railways. When he had free time, he used to train horses to ride. One day, a woman named Elzenia saw him and said that it was stupid to do such a job. It would not be wrong to say that George had liked her at first sight. After some time, Elzenia and George married and settled in Dallas. A year later, Amelia was born to them, the eldest of their seven children.
Although they had many children, George and Elzenia raised them well and taught them good values. All of them completed their education till college. George wanted to teach them everything he had learned from his father. Even at the time when his children grew up, there was discrimination between white and black people. George explained to them that there would always be a danger of breaking the rules, so he taught his children to live in harmony with everyone in the world.
In 1938, George got another job at Oaks Farm Dairy. He continued working there till his retirement in 1963. George was now 65 and people told him that according to government rules, he was too old to work. Before leaving Oaks Farm Dairy, he was given some options for his retirement plan, which were either a fixed amount every month or a lump sum.
He chose a one-time cash payment of $1,800, but later realized that he should have opted for lifetime monthly checks. This would have helped him a lot, but George received a Social Security check every month and that was enough for him.
Anyway, see you again with the powerful explanation of the new movie.
