A Closer Look at “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”
The poem “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” by Adrienne Rich was written in 1950. At first glance, it appears to be a feminist piece whose sole purpose is to point out the ways in which a particular woman (Aunt Jennifer) is oppressed. However when a closer look is given, there is much more to this piece. When the poem is read line by line, much more meaning can be gleaned from it.
“Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers prance across a screen,” the screen would seem to be a tapestry of some kind on which Aunt Jennifer stitched tigers. “Bright topaz denizens,” the tiger Aunt Jennifer stitched are a bright green-blue, possibly symbolizing royalty, truth and growth all at the same time. Topaz is also a semiprecious stone which comes in an array of different colors, quite a few birth stones are varying shades of topaz. The most common colors are blue and amber. Amber topaz would be about the color of a physical tiger. Blue topaz is December’s birthstone, possibly symbolic of the winter of Aunt Jennifer’s life, either physically or psychologically.
“They do not fear the men beneath the tree” this line is used more to point out the fact that Aunt Jennifer is afraid of men, rather than to state the fact that a tiger would not be afraid of man. The word man here directly refers to ‘male’ rather than to ‘mankind.’ However, a tiger might be afraid of a man. Men can be just as fierce as any animal nature made. This might be a slight ...
Some critics have argued that Richard Wright’s women are “flat, one dimensional stereotypes, portrayed primarily in terms of their relationship to the male character”. (Quote, p540) However, in Uncle Tom’s Children, Wright resents three very distinct types of female characters who did not fit this description. Wright portrays women as an Avenger, a Sufferer and a Mother figure whose actions propel the stories to their final conclusion. In the story “Bright and Morning Star” Wright places the protagonist, Aunt Sue, in a domestic environment. “Her hands followed a lifelong ritual of toil” (pg222) as she cleans and cooks. Interestingly, Aunt Sue is the only heroine in the stories, who shows a different type of bravery than perhaps shown by the male figures in other stories. She is brave in the face of the loss of her two sons; she is brave as she does not show weakness to the white men who attempt to control her and make her do their bidding. She does not allow herself to be bound by the conventions of society. She speaks her mind to the white men who invade her home and states “Ah don’t care who Ahm talking t!” (pg238). Aunt Sue is portrayed as a cunning woman, who hides behind men’s perception of her as weak and uses it to her advantage. Her final act of bravery in the story is to giver herself up to death, before the white men can take her life from her. Wright also portrays women as sufferers in his work. Sarah, in “Long Black Song” suffers from isolation and is stuck in a loveless marriage. The gap between men and women is very much evident in this story. Sarah is very much dependent on Silas for company, security and items of comfort. Silas is allowed to exceed from the isolation imposed on his wife. Even when Sarah flees from ...
Sandra Cisneros short story “Woman Hollering Creek”, has many allegories about culture, morality, and gender roles.
The contrast between how She sees herself and how the rest of the world sees Her can create extreme emotional strain; add on the fact that She hails from the early 1900s and it becomes evident that, though her mental construct is not necessarily prepared to understand the full breach against Her, She is still capable of some iota of realization. The discrimination encountered by a female during this time period is great and unceasing.
In the chapter "White Tigers" from her book The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston first fantasizes of a Chinese woman warrior before switching back to the reality of her American life as a woman. Using her imagination, Kingston dreams of a strong female avenger who manages to satisfy often opposing roles, such as warrior and mother and who receives honor and respect from her family. Yet in her true life, Kingston faces a much different world in which she struggles to fight for her beliefs and encounters disapproval from her parents. Employing her fantasy which starkly contrasts her real life, Kingston provides an alternate, more liberated view of a woman's role and abilities which reflects her own aspirations and wishes for an ideal life.
In the perspective as an African American woman, Maya Angelou speaks of the issue of sexism in her poem. In this quote, “You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies…”, Angelou sheds light on the problems women faced during her time. Many had to also face the discrimination from men as men control them and put words in women’s mouths. This indicates the doubled amount of burden that African American women had to go through and it was important for Maya Angelou to speak of this issue through literature and give a voice to women who were struggling with the same conflicting situations. In contrast, Hughes’s, “I, Too,” poem states the African American inequality more generally than Angelou’s
The female, adolescent speaker helps the audience realize the prejudice that is present in a “melting-pot” neighborhood in Queens during the year 1983. With the setting placed in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, the poem allows the audience to examine the experience of a young immigrant girl, and the inequality that is present during this time. Julia Alvarez in “Queens, 1963” employs poetic tools such as diction, figurative language, and irony to teach the reader that even though America is a place founded upon people who were strangers to the land, it is now home to immigrants to claim intolerance for other foreigners, despite the roots of America’s founding.
Memory is a group of related mental processes that are involved in acquiring, storing, and retrieving information (Hockenberry and Hocenberry page 232). I will be addressing two specific types of memory: short-term memory and long-term memory. Short-term memory holds temporary information transferred from sensory memory or long-term memory. Sensory memory is the first stage of memory and obtains information for a brief amount of time. Short-term memory is also called active memory and is stored in the prefrontal cortex which is the most active part of the brain during an activity. Short-term memory can hold information for roughly twenty seconds, but sensory memory holds information for a shorter amount of time. We usually store things such
Maya Angelou celebrates the strength of a young Black woman using imagery, characterization, and symbolism to share her highly personal experiences. Marguerite faces hardships like refusal for service because of her race, a longing for parental affection, and even sexual abuse and rape. Maya ultimately overcomes the oppression given to her race and to her femininity. Once believing she was and ugly caged, she is now the beautiful and free bird clothed with strength.
“Afraid of what?” you may ask, they are not completely sure themselves. Men do not know how the world will change if women become equal. They fear that their role in society will diminish and they will be left out. Allan Johnson addresses this once in his piece saying, “Women’s potential wildness so threatens patriarchy that it’s been suppressed and twisted to the point of being unrecognizable and shows itself on rare and predictably controversial occasions” (549). Men are afraid of what would happen to them if women were able to take on powerful roles in the world. As Johnson says, men combat this by suppressing a woman 's rebellious nature to the point that their few outbreaks are predictable and can be easily dealt with. In order to maintain their position of power, men have to ensure they are always in complete control of the situation. Kilbourne discusses this point in her essay writing, “In his classic essay ‘The Cybernetic of Self’ Gregory Bateson describes the fundamental belief of Western culture that we can dominate, control, and have power over almost every aspect of our experience. We can get rid of pain, we can dominate people who threaten us, we can win any interaction, we can be invulnerable” (509). That perfectly describes the mindset required of men in order to keep gender hierarchy in effect. Men are comfortable
The poem also focuses on what life was like in the sixties. It tells of black freedom marches in the South how they effected one family. It told of how our peace officers reacted to marches with clubs, hoses, guns, and jail. They were fierce and wild and a black child would be no match for them. The mother refused to let her child march in the wild streets of Birmingham and sent her to the safest place that no harm would become of her daughter.
Oppression in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
This song won a Grammy for the Record of the Year. At this time Bruno was thrilled to find out that he would be performing at the half time entertainment at the next Super Bowl .he was super energetic as he performed with his astounding voice. Bruno is a big star now and says he gets inspired from his favourite singers Prince, The Police, and Elvis Presley, which he loved seeing girls go crazy for him,. This man from Honolulu will continue to break the music
...autiful creatures and deserve everything life has to offer. When gathered together, nothing can destroy the strength of a woman. Guidance from parents, at a very young age, can help mold the minds of the young children in today’s society. This world has become overpopulated with greed and hate. The only way to get past the hatred and violence is to love thy neighbor, and protect our young from the unnecessary violence that can be eliminated with love for one another.
He composed more than 3000 songs during his lifetime. When he was asked about his inspiration, he replied, "My men and my race are the inspiration of my work. I try to catch the character and mood and feeling of my people." (http://www.dukeellington.com/ellingtonbio.html)
The “Tigers Bride,” by Angela Carter is another widely known version that has to do with the fairytale “The Beauty and The Beast.” This version was written in 1979 and shows ways of femininity through the main character of the story who is narrating. She shows femininity in a way where she does not follow certain values in this time period. The main character exposes herself to the Beast by lifting her skirt and exposes her body in way society would not accept. This shows how women should break free of their beautiful appearance and figure and embrace parts that they never show before. This gives society an image about women in a different perspective. In this film the mother character is absent which shows how she only had a father figure, even though he did not play a good fatherly role.