Geraldine Brooks’s People of the Book is about unity and different cultures. The Summer Reading Selection Committee chose this book because of Hanna’s approach to thinking,
• Hannas approach to thinking
• The issues we have in society today such as race, different backgrounds and religions
• Using those together to change my way of thinking here
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The College chose People of the Book because it touches on some of the issue in today’s society such as race and religious background. The stories Hanna imagined behind the different pieces left behind in the haggadah, such as the first story about Lola and the Kamals, are about religion and culture; Lola is a Jew, Serif Kamal and his wife Stella are Muslims.
Good evening and welcome to tonight’s episode of Learning Literature. Tonight we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Gattaca by analysing the techniques text producers employ to construct representations of social issues relating to marginalised groups. We will focus on two classic pieces of literature, Ken Kessey’s, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, as well as Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca. Through a range of techniques, the text producers have included representations of freedom and independence, power, as well as discrimination in each of their respective texts.
the prejudice, hate and violence that seem to be so deeply entrenched in America's multiracial culture and history of imperialism, Takaki does offer us hope. Just as literature has the power to construct racial systems, so it also has the power to refute and transcend them… The pen is in our hands.
What defines an individual’s racial characteristics? Does an individual have the right to discriminate against those that are “different” in a specific way? In Octavia Butler’s works, which are mostly based on themes that correlate to one another, she influences the genre and fiction in ways that bring light to the problems of societies history. Through Kindred and the Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler examines themes of community, racial identification, and racial oppression through the perspective of a black feminist. In each novel, values and historical perspective show the hardships that individuals unique to an alien world have to face. Through the use of fictional works, Butler is able to delve into historical themes and human conditions, and with majority of works under the category of science fiction, Butler is able to explore these themes through a variety of settings. This essay will discuss two of Butler’s popular works, Kindred and the Parable of Sower, and will interpret the themes of women, race, independence, and power throughout the two novels.
Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood has characters Lilith, Akin, and Jodahs who are all different in some way. The intolerance they face paints humans as beings who are incapable of appropriately handling difference. Their responses to these different people are a clear allusion to the injustices others have faced in the past. Through these characters, Butler criticizes the human predisposition to mark and oppress those who are different and implores humans to become more accepting and understanding
The inherent desire to belong to a group is one that is fundamental to human nature. In his article “Evolution and Our Inner Conflict,” Edward O. Wilson writes, “A person’s membership in his group – his tribe – is a large part of his identity.” Wilson explores multilevel group selection and the proclivity for people to define themselves based on their belonging to the group. He goes on to say that people often form these groups with those who look like them and belong to the same culture or ethnic group. In the novels Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko and The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick, the identities of the protagonist are predominantly shaped by the ethnicities and heritages that they identify with. The identity of Tayo, the protagonist of the novel Ceremony is largely shaped by his ethnicity as both a Native American and part white. Tayo’s background leads directly to his own identity as an outsider and is central to the storyline. In the novel The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick, the title character Puttermesser’s identity and subsequently her story is also influenced by her Jewish heritage.
Despite the current scrutiny that her race faces she asserts to the reader that her race and color define her as a person and does not determine her identity. Despite the mindset that most of her peers keep about the inequality of race, she maintains an open mind and declares to the reader that she finds everyone equal. Thus proving herself as a person ahead of her own time.
...s appealing it is not without consequence. Clare, and those who choose to pass, are not free to embrace their whole identity and will always remain a threat to those they come in contact. Clare exemplified the archetypal character of the tragic mulatto, as she bought tragedy to her own life and all those she came in contact. Clare’s presence forced Irene to contend with feelings of internalized racism, and thus feelings of inferiority. Through diction, tone, and imagery Larsen makes it luminous to readers that "passing" may seem glamorous, however, the sacrifice one makes to do so is not without consequences for themselves and those they care about. Larsen does not allow her readers to perch on the belief that once a member of the dominate group ones life is not without pain and suffering. Every action, even those that seem to make life easier, have consequences.
...e, history, and blood. The specific commingling that emerges, however, has common roots in its very diversity. Throughout her tale Menchaca's allegiance is clearly to her race, and while the bias comes through, the history she traces is never the less compelling. The strongest achievement of this book is that it fundamentally shifts the gaze of its reader by reifying race and celebrating its complexity.
Joy/Hulga, as the story?s main character, is the singly most significant character to the themes of this story. She is characterized as brilliant and academically sophisticated, yet naïve to the feelings and motivations of others. Ironically, Hulga has a Ph.D. in philosophy, yet she has a very narrow view of her world and no insight into other people?s true character. This contrast in Hulga?s character is the topic of one of the story?s themes: academic knowledge is not to be confused with common sense.
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.
Malcolm Forbes once said “diversity: the art of thinking, independently together.” This conveys the idea of Zadie Smith’s personal narrative Speaking in Tongues about embracing ones equivocal character. Smith applies the use of symbolism, ethical appeal and conflict of man vs. self to persuade her audience that fitting in a society does not have to mean losing one’s language, or cultural background, rather fitting in can simply mean flexibility towards one’s belief. Embracing the spectrum of speaking in tongues can lead to a rewarding experience. Smith describes different viewpoints to relate to various readers by using the technique she tries to convince them to use.
At times, what lie beneath the words in books inevitably seem controversial. Most of the books that are taught in schools vary from themes of racial prejudice to abuse, but as students, we are taught to simply skim over the debatable topics. Prose highlights the importance of this problem by stating on page 92, “To read a novel is, for most, an exercise in wish-fulfilment and self-congratulation, a chance to consider thorny issues of race and prejudice from a safe distance.”
From the primal inauguration of human civilization to today`s modern world, racial and cultural ties have played a crucial role in determining human interactions. John`s Stahl`s Imitation of Life (1934) epitomizes this principle through its parallel accounts of two mothers: Beatrice Pullman, a white business magnate, and Delilah Johnson, a black homemaker. Although both women work together in creating a pancake empire, Delilah is always perceived as subservient to her mistress resulting in her becoming an Other.
The beginning of the novel introduces the reader to Esther O'Malley Robertson as the last of a family of extreme women. She is sitting in her home, remembering a story that her grandmother told her a long time ago. Esther is the first character that the reader is introduced to, but we do not really understand who she is until the end of the story. Esther's main struggle is dealing with her home on Loughbreeze Beach being torn down, and trying to figure out the mysteries of her family's past.
Northrup, Mary. "Multicultural Cinderella Stories." Offices of the American Library Association. American Library Association, n.d. Web. 11 Sep 2013.