Hard Nails is a three stanza short poem that incorporates nail imagery to illustrate both the physical and psychological pain of a Black man who felt entrapped in a predominately white dominated society and explores the prevalence of alcohol used as a mode to suppress the black community and numb the harsh realities that inhibit any social and economic mobility in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The speaker of the poem George was Clarke’s distant cousin; he was a husband and father and was unable to pay for his wife and newborn’s release from the hospital. The Black community was often subjugated to work jobs with little to no social standing, often these men worked long hours, were uneducated and encompassed little to no opportunities to climb the social ladder. …show more content…
Clarke utilizes strong diction such as “gouge” (II) and “pierce” (III) to accentuate the magnitude of pain George underwent. The forth line, “tack me down so I cant stand” (IV) demonstrates the immobility of the black community; George personifies the challenges of the Black community. Clarke embeds pain and sexual innuendo, “her fingernails ploughin my back” (VIII) to connect notions of nationalism in this case personified by ‘her’ our ‘motherland’ that exploits the subjugated class to live a life of modernized slavery after the abolition of slavery in 1833 (Winks). Clarke seems to be mocking the literary practice of sexualizing nationalism, through gendering and personification. For example, the reference to ‘her’ implies that the Canada is female, the ‘mother land’. Also, it may be a reference to the monarch, Queen Elizabeth II to manufacture a patriotic allure. The association between the feminization of nationalism and justify the inhumanity of colonization and exploitation. Clarke reveals the remnants of slavery that extends into the 20th century, before to the civil rights movement in the
...usion that race is deployed "in the construction of power relations."* Indeed a "metalanguage" of race, to use Higginbotham's term, was employed by colonial powers to define black women as separate from English women, and that process is deconstructed in Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, Anxious Patriarchs. However, Brown's analysis rests mainly on the shifting English concepts of gender and race imposed on colonial society by the white elite, becoming at times a metalanguage of colonial gender. Nonetheless, Brown's analysis of overlapping social constructions is instructive for understanding the ways gender and race can be manipulated to buttress dominant hierarchies.
In all, Tademy does a great job in transporting her readers back to the 1800s in rural Louisiana. This book is a profound alternative to just another slave narrative. Instead of history it offers ‘herstory’. This story offers insight to the issues of slavery through a women’s perspective, something that not so many books offer. Not only does it give readers just one account or perspective of slavery but it gives readers a take on slavery through generation after generation. From the early days of slavery through the Civil War, a narrative of familial strength, pride, and culture are captured in these lines.
Clifton says, “Study the masters like my aunt timmie. It was her iron, or one like hers that smoothed the sheets the master poet slept on.” In this poem, Clifton argues that not only black people, but black women were critical in the making of America. Clifton also articulates, “If you had heard her chanting as she ironed you would understand form and line and discipline and order and america.” Clifton again implies that women played a central role in the creation of America by saying this. She suggests that the working woman’s dream, defines
Washington, Mary Helen. Introduction. A Voice From the South. By Anna Julia Cooper. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. xxvii-liv.
Prior to the mistress’ change, Frederick Douglas, author of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas (1995) describes her as “a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings.” (19) This brings us to one of Douglas’ motifs of how slavery can carry a fatal poison that if one possess’ can change their outsight to life. This poison affects some people more then others. For example, if one compares all of Douglas’ slave owners, it is easy to see that those born into a slave holding family are less likely to become as cruel as those marrying into that way of life. Auld did not convert to an evil lifestyle overnight, in fact, she was the key to Frederick Douglas’ education.
In the article, “The Cause of Her Grief”, Anne Warren tells us a story of a slave woman ordered to be raped and forced to reproduce. Warren first begins telling the slave woman story by taking us back and recollecting the slave woman’s voyage from her home land to the ownership of Mr. Maverick. She used vivid language during this passage to help the reader imagine what type of dissolute conditions she traveled in to end up being a rape victim. For example in the section where Warren attempts to describe the condition of her travel. She wrote “When speaking of the origins of captured slaves, we are often reduced to generalities”. (Warren 1039) In that moment she addresses the fact that as readers we often over simplify the idea of slavery and what it was like, we could only imagine. The author uses the words “captured slave” to set the wretched and forced precedent for the remainder of the reading. At this moment she is requiring that you imagine being captured, held upon your rightful will of freedom. This is important to the slave experience; they did not have a choice just as this woman had no choice. She goes on to address the conditions of the vessel on which the salve woman traveled. She wrote “crammed into the holds of wooden ships, trapped in excrement, vomit and sweat” (Warren 1040). This was yet another demand from the author for the reader to place themselves in the feet of the slaves. It is also another key element in understanding not only slavery but also John Maverick’s slave woman. She travelled weeks, sometimes months to make arrive at the given destination. Once the slave woman arrived to land it was time for her to be sold. Yet again we are now asked by the author to paint a more vivid picture of the slavery exp...
Societal oppression persists in many facets of life and forces individuals into imposed roles that drastically determine their mindsets and identities. Those oppressed are not accepted into such societies and instead forced into subservient positions. These roles then become these individuals’ entire identities as they become unable to view themselves as anything but that what they are solely perceived. Charles W. Chesnutt’s “Dave’s Neckliss” depicts several examples of such oppression through both the use of female characters and the background of slavery to the framed story. By viewing the short story through both a feminist and a postcolonial lens, the subservient roles of certain individuals and the detrimental effects of society’s oppressive nature are revealed.
...Throughout American history, many men and women have faced difficulties such as inequality, and discrimination. However, with perseverance and determination, both early colonists, and women, have overcome these things. Women, now have every right that men do. As for the colonist; we have our own government, not a British one. “The Declaration of Independence,” by Thomas Jefferson uses pathos and diction to express why the colonies need to be free and independent from British rule. “The Declaration of Sentiments,” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott uses logos and analogies to reveal how unequally women are treated. Finally, “A Disappointed Woman,” by Lucy Stone uses ethos and imagery to describe how women were treated and to demand equality for them. “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal” (Stanton and Mott).
“There’s never been equality for me, nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.” Hughes quickly puts himself as the one being oppressed. His reader quickly discover that he is portraying himse...
The reality of the matter, only known to the mother and father, is that the status quo of racist policies prohibited the Lordes from dining in the car. Lorde appeals to the reader’s pathos by subconsciously creating empathy for Lorde as she struggles with her parents not being truthful about foundational aspect of mid 1900’s American society – racism. Moreover, the use of situational irony is shrewdly expressed in Lorde’s interpretation of her family’s D.C. trip: “…the waitress was white, and the counter was white, and the ice cream I never ate in Washington DC was white and the white heat and the white pavement and the white stone monuments of my first Washington summer made me sick to my stomach…” (para. 24). Employing vivid imagery of how Lorde perceives her recently awoken sense of actual reality, she is able to express her understanding of the displeasing disparity between superior Whites and inferior Blacks. Unlike her jaded parents, Lorde expected the United States’ capital to uphold the same virtues it was founded upon – freedom, equality, liberty. Ironically, she finds Washington D.C. to be filled with inherent discrimination. Consequently the reasoning for Lorde’s blatant irony in her essay’s title: “The Fourth of July”. July 4th is supposed to represent the day the American founders broke away from an oppressive British rule to mark the birth of a free land. Paradoxically, they created a regime that was was more oppressive than the British. The racist foundation of the new nation is not exposed until the understanding of Thomas Jefferson’s implication of the phrase “all men are created equal” in the Constitution. These “men” strictly refer to the elite men that have conquered this new land of America – property-owning white men. Thus, women and those of color were not recognized as entities that possessed inalienable rights. Founding a
The modern reader knows that a the life of a slave was of no doubt, a difficult one. However, what the modern reader does not know, is what made it so difficult and dehumanizing for them, other than hard work and whippings, the normal cliches thought of when the term “slave” is brought up. Throughout the narrative the reader may realize how the slaves were torn apart(dehumanized) so frequently, whether it be whippings, racial slurs, or the separation of families. A specific point in which this practice of dehumanization is prominent is in the birth of a slave. From the dawn of a slaves birth, the cruel practice commences with the newborn being separated from his mother, and being taken to a new plantation, miles or sometimes even states away.
...her and daughter goes deeper than the surface, where mother daughter banter seems normal in this day and age. In actuality, during this oppressive state between Britain and the Caribbean, the mother favored British lifestyle and all that was affiliated with it, yet in opposition, the girl was anti- imperialism, therefore causing conflict among each other. In what seems to be a sort of monologue, “Girl” goes onto contain a theme involving political overtones less apparent and contrary to that of “A&P.”
Through the use of emotional arguments and social appeal the author, Kincaid, gets the feeling across that she was a victim of England. To get you to feel like the victim she uses lots of metaphors. In the first paragraph she uses the one, “England was a special jewel all right and only special people got to wear it”(p.61). It is right here that the author sets the tone of the essay. She gives you the idea that she was not special enough to put on this gem of England. In doing this she makes a social appeal to anyone looking for a view of colonization. In using descriptive language she make you feel sorry for her in the how she had to “Draw a map of England”(p.63), at the end of every test.
In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author subjects the reader to a dystopian slave narrative based on a true story of a woman’s struggle for self-identity, self-preservation and freedom. This non-fictional personal account chronicles the journey of Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) life of servitude and degradation in the state of North Carolina to the shackle-free promise land of liberty in the North. The reoccurring theme throughout that I strive to exploit is how the women’s sphere, known as the Cult of True Womanhood (Domesticity), is a corrupt concept that is full of white bias and privilege that has been compromised by the harsh oppression of slavery’s racial barrier. Women and the female race are falling for man’s
Nails, when decorated with nail polish and nail arts are beautiful and makes any woman gush out with self-confidence. But do you know that your nail’s natural texture, shape, and color tells something about your current health status? Even the natural growth rate of your nails gives clues and signs of underlying health risks. Although nail symptoms are typically harmless, others can be suggestive of chronic ailments, including cancer.