LESSING
Quotation, Passage, or Scenario Page Comment, Analysis, Observation, Reflection, Question
1. This child could not see a msasa tree, or the thorn, for what they were. Her books held tales of alien fairies… 1477 The author emphasizes the way the little girl was educated by rendering her unable to appreciate and integrate into the context
2. “They were an amorphous black mass, mingling and thinning and massing like tadpoles, faceless, who existed merely to serve, to say “Yes, Baas,” 1478 Self explanatory verses that portray the hate and disrespect towards the African native.
3. "This is my heritage, too; I was bred here; it is my country as well as the black man’s country; and there is plenty of room for all of us, without elbowing each other off the pavements and roads" 1482 The little Nkosikaas is walking in those lands “as a destroyer”—a destroyer of her own country.
She realizes the non sense of
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In those years, the race question, not explosive yet, begins to appear to the consciousness of the children and grandchildren of the first English settlers. The little girl is the daughter of English colonists who grow her in the fear and hate against African native considered like faceless multitude to be treated as slaves. But one day she meets the Old Chief Mshlanga who is “wearing dignity like an inherited garment,” and, especially after visiting his Mshlanga 's village, she realizes, little by little, of the groundlessness of white prejudice and discovers the unbearable loneliness to which the racial barrier condemned her. Also, the little Nkosikaas realizes that she is walking in those lands “as a destroyer”—a destroyer of her own country. The story highlights the plight of African natives, defrauded from the lands and forced to watch helplessly at the disintegration of their tribal
During the course of this work, many ideas and themes are portrayed and readers are able to view subjects that surround the main topic of racial injustice and intolerance. With the three main narrators, Minny Jackson, Aibileen Clark, and Skeeter Phelan, the audience quickly gains an insight on how racial inequalities affected everyone. These thoughts help to form a plot that can easily keep readers entertained throughout the novel. During the course of the novel, there are many points in the plot that decide the actions and events other cha...
"The two races have lived here together. The Negro has been here in America since 1619, a total of 344 years. He is not going anywhere else; this country is his home. He wants to do his part to help make his city, state, and nation a better place for everyone, regardless of color and race. Let me appeal to the consciences of many silent, responsible citizens of the white community who know that a victory for democracy in Jackson will be a victory for democracy everywhere” (Medgar Evers in Jackson Mississippi, 2013). This excerpt is taken from a 17 minute speech by Medgar Evers on May 20, 1963, in response to the vocal criticisms of Mayor Allen Thompson’s view of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as being ‘outside agitators’.
In his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Equiano describes his early life in Africa and the shattering effects of the slave trade. From growing up and learning to be a man under the watchful and loving eye of his mother, to being torn from his family and home and being forced to travel throughout Africa before ultimately finding himself aboard a slave ship headed for America, He gives readers a unique view of life as an African during the 1700s. Many themes are explored in Equiano’s tale, but one cannot ignore the most prominent theme of the evil of slavery and the destruction that ensues.
The most popular account, during the era, of the slave experience was captured by the son of a West African village Chief, who was captured and made his way through the passage of the New world. Olaudah Equiano’s life was underscored as “[…] the greatest contradiction in the history of the eighteenth century-the simultaneous expansion of freedom and slavery.” (“Voices of Freedom” 63) Before being captured, the boy talks about daily life in the West African village and how the children lived in constant fear. “Generally, when the grown people in the neighborhood were gone far in the fields to labor, the children assembled together in some of the neighbours’ premises to play; and commonly some of us used to get up a tree to look out for any assailant,
Eastman and Zitkala Ša reveal the truth regarding of their people’s culture and history. Their memoirs give readers an understanding of their government, religion, and customs. They show their people as respectable and hospitable beings. Furthermore, they reveal the deceptions and frauds which Native Americans have suffered. They dispel misconceptions and prejudices regarding Native Americans and demonstrate that their people are deserving of the white’s sympathy, justice, and respect.
The book can be used as a metaphor for education as a whole. For example, Kate can represent modern institutions and companies. Due to education inflation and credentialism, all they look at is your educational experience and what knowledge you have. This can be applied to Kate as she originally believed your educational background will represent your success in life. In comparison to this, you have Kate’s family, who can relate to students in society. Kate’s family understands that there is more to life than education and knowledge. The same applies to students, who argue there is more to people than their education and years in
In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man’s ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. “Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition” (back cover) is a great way to show that the author’s stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will discuss the major themes of the book and why the author wrote it, it will describe Native American society, its values and its beliefs and how they changed and it will show how Native Americans views other non-Natives.
people of different ethnicities. Such harm is observed in the history of North America when the Europeans were establishing settlements on the North American continent. Because of European expansion on the North American continent, the first nations already established on the continent were forced to leave their homes by the Europeans, violating the rights and freedoms of the first nations and targeting them with discrimination; furthermore, in the history of the United States of America, dark skinned individuals were used as slaves for manual labour and were stripped of their rights and freedoms by the Americans because of the racist attitudes that were present in America. Although racist and prejudice attitudes have weakened over the decades, they persist in modern societies. To examine a modern perspective of prejudice and racism, Wayson Choy’s “I’m a Banana and Proud of it” and Drew Hayden Taylor’s “Pretty Like a White Boy: The Adventures of a Blue-Eye Ojibway” both address the issues of prejudice and racism; however, the authors extend each others thoughts about the issues because of their different definitions, perspectives, experiences and realities.
In “The Truth about Stories”, Thomas King, demonstrate connection between the Native storytelling and the authentic world. He examines various themes in the stories such as; oppression, racism, identity and discrimination. He uses the creational stories and implies in to the world today and points out the racism and identity issues the Native people went through and are going through. The surroundings shape individuals’ life and a story plays vital roles. How one tells a story has huge impact on the listeners and readers. King uses sarcastic tone as he tells the current stories of Native people and his experiences. He points out to the events and incidents such as the government apologizing for the colonialism, however, words remains as they are and are not exchanged for actions. King continuously alerts the reader about taking actions towards change as people tend to be ignorant of what is going around them. At the end people give a simple reason that they were not aware of it. Thus, the author constantly reminds the readers that now they are aware of the issue so they do not have any reason to be ignorant.
Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig is a novel that presents the harshness of racial prejudice during the 19th century combined with the traumas of abandonment. The story of Frado, a once free-spirited mulatto girl abandoned by her white mother, unfolds as she develops into a woman. She is faced with all the abuse and torment that Mrs. Belmont, the antagonist, could subject her to. Still she survives to obtain her freedom. Through the events and the accounts of Frado’s life the reader is left with a painful reality of the lives of indentured servants.
Sometimes growing up we experience situations that can change our perspective on life. Especially, when these situations happen unexpectedly; we are in disbelief. In Toni Cade Bambara short story “The Lesson” written in first person; it delves into the struggle of a girl, Sylvia, who realizes the economic and social injustice surrounding her. However, with the help of Miss Moore Sylvia comes to grip with this issue, and opts to overcome it. In “The Lesson” Miss Moore wanted to impart on Sylvia and the other children is the value of a dollar, the importance of education, and to fathom the social and economic injustice that bounded them.
The first part of the book gives an account of Immaculée’s family background. The love she experienced from her parents and her three brothers is illustrated. Her parents cared for everybody, particularly the poor. Because of the love with which she grew up, she never realised that she was living in a country where hatred against the Tutsi, her tribe, was rampant. It was not until she was asked to stand up in class by her teacher during an ethnic roll call that she realised that her neighbours were not what she thought them to be – good and friendly. After struggling to get into high school and university, not because she was not qualified but because of discrimination against her ethnic background, she worked hard to prove that if women are given opportunities to...
"I have never seen any part of the world where it seemed to me the masses of Negro People would be better off than right here in these Southern States"
...cean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition” (Dr. Martin Luther King)
...e roots of the old tree, the star’s light was intercepted by green shoots and small, crinkled leaves— last season’s seeds. Tiny children of the mother tree, they were doomed to live out their lives under her suffocating blanket of branches. Now as they gazed upward, innumerable points of light gazed back. A light wind rustled the miniature stalks of the saplings, blowing the new debris around in short-lived eddies that danced softly through the night.