Between the World and Me can be read in three ways aside from its original premise as a letter to Samori, Coates’s son: as a history of African Americans, as a letter to white people, and as an autobiography. From an autobiographical standpoint, the book chronicles Coate’s own journey from ignorance to understanding, which is accomplished through experience. This is done through the use of three pivotal moments of violence and fear. The first of these experiences takes place when Coates is a young boy at school and a classmate brandishes a gun. In this moment, Coates realizes what it is like to be black in America, as if to be “naked” to the world. This theme of violence continues with the death of Prince Jones, the character foil of the narrator and the symbol that, no matter how well you play the game, black men are in danger of America. The third pivotal moment occurs when Coates is confronted by a white woman who claims “I could have you arrested!”. These experiences, along with the real life references to Michael Brown and Trayvvon Martin inform Coates’s understanding that it is dangerous to be in a black body in America. His understanding of his own vulnerability is founded in these dangerous experiences. 

In Othello, experience and understanding function in a much less linear way. The title character, Othello, is systematically manipulated by the antagonist Iago, who believes Othello has slept with his wife. Iago weaves a web of deception that clouds Othello from realizing the truth and instead pushes him to believe his beautiful wife Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. In this case, experiences actually work against his own understanding, and Iago is able to capitalize\ on Othello’s hamartia - his own insecurities as a black man in Venetian society. Throughout the play, Othello’s encounters with Iago are positive - Iago supports his marriage to Desdemona, can be depended upon to tell the truth, and stands by him as a loyal ensign. Shakespeare’s monologues are laden with dramatic irony, as Othello professes his admiration for “honest Iago” in Act 3, while Iago is manipulating him behind his back, stealing Desdemona’s handkerchief in order to convince Othello he has been cuckolded. Simultaneously, through asides and soliloquies the audience is privy to Iago’s twisted mind, almost relishing in his demonic Machiavellian behaviour. Thus the audience and the central character have different experiences; the audience understands in Act I what Iago is, while Othello’s own own understanding is delayed until Act V. 

While I have already explained Coates’s delivery of understanding of violence through three specific instances, it is also important to talk about the transformative, almost liminal spaces that provide a much more positive understanding throughout the work. The first of these places is Howard University, called a “Mecca”, a moniker that connotes religiosity and connection to a spiritual self. It is here that Coates is able to celebrate his own blackness. The second transformative space is Paris, where Coates is able to imagine a world outside of the confines of African American society. In Paris, Coates imagines a possible future for his son, which does not contain constant fear. The final transformative space and experience in Between the World and Me, is Dr. Mabel’s house. In this space, both Coates and Samori are given a taste of wisdom and grace. Mabel’s son was killed by the police, and that act of violence undid the strides towards consciousness his mother took. After leaving these spaces, Coates drives through the neighborhoods of his youth and feels the same fear creeping back to him - the fear of violence against his person. Therefore, while the liminal spaces have provided a different kind of experience - one of hope or freedom - the understanding gleaned at the end of the book is entirely negative. Fear exists and cannot be ignored, no matter what reprieve is given in liminal spaces. 

In Othello, as in most Greek tragedies, catastrophe, anagnorisis, and catharsis occur in the final act. Othello is driven near mad by Iago’s manipulation, and murders his innocent wife, Desdemona. When Iago’s manipulative plot is revealed to Othello by Emilia, he experiences anagnorisis and cannot confront the reality of what he has done. The experiences he believed he was having were entirely false, and Emilia presents him with the real experiences - the stolen handkerchief and his wife’s virtue. Othello kills himself after being confronted with these realities, because the understanding of what he has done was too much to bear. Similarly, those around him experience their own understanding of Iago’s villainy. Shakespeare makes the comment that the real monster is not Othello, often called a “beast” or a “ram” in the play, but rather Iago, now called a Spartan Dog. However, the understanding, that Othello was a victim of the society around him, is quickly replaced with an unsatisfying catharsis. Shakespeare leaves the reader wanting more justice for Othello and a broader moral understanding from society. Iago’s true motivations are never fully understood. Instead, Lodovico and the other Venetians appropriate Othello’s wealth, while his title is given to Cassio. His life, and tragedy, are hence erased from the collective understanding. 

In conclusion, both works explore the relationship between experiences and understanding. For Coates, the experiences of fear of violence cannot outweigh the brief and liminal experiences of freedom, which leads to an understanding of his own vulnerability and a message of warning for both his son and the audience of the book. For Shakespeare, manipulation and deception are used so that Othello’s experiences prevent him from realization, until the very end. His understanding of the truth is catastrophic. At the same time, however, his tragedy is quickly erased; there is no collective understanding of his story. This distinction relates to the different contexts of these works. For Shakespeare, writing in 1603, the reality of racism was not fully understood by society, and thus the audience is not forced to reckon with it and forge their own understanding. For Coates, writing in 2015, the reality of a black man’s struggle in America can no longer be ignored and the audience must now grapple with their own understanding of the inequalities and violence.