In “On the Subway,” Sharon Olds describes an encounter between a white woman and a black man. The way she describes the experience made it seem strange, rare even. Through the use of imagery, Olds conveyed the unsteadiness of the lady. She goes from the way they dressed, to stereotypical differences, to perception of one another. This grasps the poet's deliberate choice of organization. The combination of these literary techniques allowed the writer to contrast the two distinct characters. First, the poet uses imagery. She describes the man wearing laced shoes and a hood. Again, she stereotypes him by saying he “has the look of a casual mugger.” Contrary, the poet describes the woman wearing a fur coat, which is expensive, carrying a briefcase.
Much of life results from choices we make. How we meet every circumstance, and also how we allow those circumstances to affect us dictates our life. In Marian Minus’s short story, “Girl, Colored," we are given a chance to take a look inside two characters not unlike ourselves. As we are given insight into these two people, their character and environment unfolds, presenting us with people we can relate to and sympathize with. Even if we fail to grasp the fullness of a feeling or circumstance, we are still touched on our own level, evidencing the brilliance of Minus’s writing.
...es her. The imageries of pink Mustang signifies her social class, while “Road” indicates her location as nowhere within a community. The commodification of her body means it can be touched in ways derogatory to her dignity whether she likes it or not because it is a saleable commodity that doesn’t belong to her. Her silver painted nipples identifies silver coins. Silver coins represent monetary value put on her body. Silver painted nipples also mean the attractive way in which a product is packaged. The poem also depicts the defiance of women against how she has been treated. She identifies man as the one that kisses away himself piece by piece till the last coin is spent. However, she cannot change the reality of her location, and temporal placement.
Through imagery, diction, and the personification of poetry, Ruth Forman reveals her personal connection and love for poetry and how poetry represents human need in “Poetry Should Ride the Bus”. The images of young girl cartwheeling and a woman dropping off a sweet potato pie bring you closer to the story, while the diction creates a connection between you and the people, this poem is a girl growing up realizing and seeking different things in her life and you realize that as Forman personifies the poem.
Some examples of metaphor within the piece are when it says “your laughter’s so melodic it’s a song” and “your creativity’s a compass that leads you to what you love”. An example of evocative language in the piece is “you don’t need any miracle cream to keep your passions smooth, hair free or diet pills to slim your kindness down.” These metaphors and instances of evocative language help emphasise the message that it doesn’t matter what you look like, the most important thing you can love about yourself is ____. Metaphors, evocative language, and repetition are also used to describe the expectations laid upon women by society. One particular phrase that uses both metaphor and evocative language “because the only place we'll ever truly feel safe is curled up inside skin we've been taught to hate by a society that shuns our awful confidence and feeds us our flaws”. Other examples of evocative language include “a reminder that the mirror is meant to be a curse so I confine her in my mind, but when he or she shouts ‘let me out!’ we're allowed to listen.” and “Don't you shatter the illusion you could ever be anything beyond paper fine flesh and flashy teeth and fingernails.” One instance of repetition includes “echoic accusations of not good enough, never good enough”. Another phrase that uses both evocative language and repetition
In the world of literature nothing is more compelling than reading a story and feeling as though you yourself are witnessing firsthand the events and character’s struggles unfold, due to the interactive language and intricate details the author incorporates into their writing. It is through Alice Walker’s conversational style of writing, and vivid use of symbolism that she is able to give an elaborate description of the family culture gap in the story allowing the readers to explore the concept of African- American heritage. These writing techniques also play a major role in keeping the readers engaged from start to finish. This is especially evident in Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”. Walker has skillfully honed her craft and by integrating
Through the use of imagery, diction, and several literary tools Zora Hurston shows love for her culture and color; therefore Hurston contributes to the essay’s theme, of celebrating her African American culture, by conveying her emotions. Hurston’s use of imagery allows readers to easily imagine the things which she so vividly describes, her diction conveys the emotions she felt throughout her experiences, and her use of literary tools captivate readers. The theme of “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is not sad or dreary, rather it is upbeat and optimistic because Hurston loved who she was.
The difference of color is seen through the eyes, but the formulation of racial judgement and discrimination is developed in the subconscious mind. Toni Morrison’s short story “Recitatif (1983)” explores the racial difference and challenges that both Twyla and Roberta experience. Morrison’s novels such as “Beloved”, “The Bluest Eye”, and her short story “Recitatif” are all centered around the issues and hardships of racism. The first time that Twyla and Roberta met Twyla makes a racial remake or stereotype about the texture and smell of Roberta’s hair. Although they both were in the orphanage because of similar situations, Twyla instantly finds a racial difference. The racial differences between Twyla and Roberta affects their friendship, personal views of each other, and relationship with their husbands.
With all three of these aspects of racism in consideration, race was a prevalent theme in the book that couldn’t escape the reader’s consciousness. Whether it was through showing the division of the communities, or through the feelings that each race held about the other race, the book portrays the history of racism in America.
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.
Rita Dove’s Museum utilizes juxtapositions as a means to create a revision of history, to remove the ekphrasis fear mentioned in W. Mitchell’s essay “Ekphrasis and the Other” in Picture Theory. Dove, establishes a new history by blurring the lines of otherness, focusing more so on humanism, rather than female, and African American being something that is over come with otherness. In fact, as the article “Ekphrasis in the book: Rita Dove’s African American museum” mentions, “Dove’s long interest in ekphrasis both explicitly and implicitly in her use of it to dismantle otherness, to reach across the gaps between poet, image and audience.” Throughout Dove’s work she undoes the otherness reestablishing a connection between the histories then and presently, along with the self and other now, which can be seen in “Fiammetta Breaks Her Peace” and “Anti-Father.”
Toni Morrison allows her readers to explore race through their own perspectives by not explicitly identifying the race of the two main characters in her only short story, “Recitatif.” By withholding this information, Morrison enables the reader to apply their own prejudices to their understanding of the characters’ identities. Reading “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop and “Recitatif” by Morrison together creates a deeper understanding about societal standards and establishing one’s own identity than evaluating either piece alone.
The subway cart setting is an example of American symbolism. The eerie underground cart is an element of the play’s title; the flying Dutchman’s haunted ship, however, it can also be seen as the illustration of American society. The subway cart is a representation of an enclosed space where people are forced to interact. Regardless of race, gender and social class the urban subway cart is an area of social stimulation. Passengers often enter and ride anonymously, we see in the list of characters “Riders of Coach, white and black” are included in the dynamics of the subway cart set. It is a tight and confined space trapped with a random sampling of people at any given time. Baraka uses this setting as the perfect environment for two strangers to openly interact. A perfectly natural place to meet someone new, like Clay and Lula. A ...
In Zora Hurston’s essay “How It Feels To Be Colored Me” she separates her life into four sections, using vivid imagery in each, to show her audience different examples of how she overcame prejudice, not by conforming, but by remaining herself. In her first section she sketched out her childhood to show how she was “everybody’s Zora” (Hurston 4). The second section goes on to show how her skins color “fails to register depression” (Hurston 7) with her, she is proud of her history and embraces it actually. In the third section, she sets the scene in a jazz club, and describes the difference in how she feels the music and how a white man just hears it. And in the fourth section, she explains how she is not defined by her race then goes on to compare it to a brown bag. In this essay I will detail each section of Hurston’s essay and explain how each section has its own lesson to teach us and how it all ties in together.
Zora Neale Hurston’s writing embodies the modernism themes of alienation and the reaffirmation of racial and social identity. She has a subjective style of writing in which comes from the inside of the character’s mind and heart, rather than from an external point of view. Hurston addresses the themes of race relations, discrimination, and racial and social identity. At a time when it is not considered beneficial to be “colored,” Hurston steps out of the norm and embraces her racial identity.
In the photograph Trolley - New Orleans taken by Robert Frank, multiple perspectives are on display that go on to signify the different viewpoints on that period of time as well as serving as documentation of segregation in New Orleans. It is a photograph depicting a trolley with passengers. Frank uses the rule of thirds to place focus on the middle third with the passengers, while leaving the other two thirds as the plain trolley. Each window of the trolley gives a view into that passengers position in the context of the society and their expressions can be read as symbolism for the period of time. The first passenger an older white woman looks out of the car judgingly with an eyebrow raised at the world. The second window shows two white children one older one younger dressed up. The third passenger a black man has a hopeless expression and the last passenger, a black woman, is observing the street from her window. The image is striking for Frank’s use of framing through the windows, the eye is drawn into the personal world of