Research Paper on:
Lorene Cary's Autobiographical Black Ice

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Lorene Carys "Black Ice" is her memoirs of her childhood during the tumultuous Civil Rights Movement. Using the metaphor of the crystallization of black ice, Cary recounts  the highlights of the time and of her subsequent life as an adult. Cary receives a scholarship at the young age of fifteen to attend St. Pauls Preparatory School  in New Hampshire. Two problems immediately arise, however: Cary lives in metropolitan West Philadelphia and she is black. St. Pauls, of course, is a predominantly white school  and only just before she arrived it was not only all white but it was all male. Cary was, in fact, the first African American girl ever to study  there. Cary must not only leave her home, her family and her friends, she must travel into an arena which is not overly  receptive to blacks (and especially black girls) during that time period. She adjusts by excelling at everything to which she sets her mind. That to which she sets  her mind, however, does not always ensure straight academic success. Cary jumps into her new life head first with a passion that is  seldom witnessed among students even in the best of circumstances. She even immediately enrolls in calculus, her weakest subject. Although she is limited by her asthma, Cary also  chooses to play soccer at her new school. She attempts to overhaul the ideologies of the "Third World Club" and, in her senior year, is even elected vice president  of her class. As though the election werent honor enough, Cary would serve as the first female vice president ever. Carys honors were just beginning, however. She