Function of Language in Baby of the Family and Black Girl Lost
African American literature is a genre that has, in recent years, grown almost exponentially. African American novels such as Tina McElroy Ansa's Baby of the Family and Donald Goines' Black Girl Lost are increasingly becoming more popular with the public. Baby of the Family is a wonderfully written "coming of age novel" ("Reviews 2") about a young girl named Lena McPherson as she grows up and must learn to deal with her extraordinary powers. Much unlike this, Black Girl Lost is a "shocking novel" (Goines 208) about a young girl named Sandra, who is forced to live on the streets. Though each of these novels is unique in their own aspect, a common bond can be established between the two through the use of language employed in the text. Because of the various functions that language can serve in literature, it is a rather "fascinating phenomenon" (Blackshire-Belay 1) to study in reference to these two novels. In both Baby of the Family and Black Girl Lost, language is used to reflect the speech patterns of the minority culture, as a portrayal of different worlds within the novels, and acts as a mirror to the life of the main character in order to navigate plot speed.
Language can be defined as "a regularized symbolic code that connects its users in a symbiosis of substance" (Blackshire-Belay 1). Not only are we produced by language, but we produce through language (Blackshire-Belay 1). In other words, language is a very integral part of our lives, especially in literature. It can even be said that literature, "in its most profound sense, is the most complex use of language to create meaning" (Blackshire-Belay 4). Therefore, its importance should not be looked upon lightly. In both Baby of the Family and Black Girl Lost, it seems that language is being used in order to convey the minority experience to readers, whether they be of the African American race or the dominant culture. To accomplish this, each novel displays Africanisms, or qualities that are very common in the African American language. These qualities include emphatic speech such as double negatives, call and response phrases and also metaphorical language.
In Baldwin 's article If Black English Isn 't A Language Then Tell Me What Is? starting off by telling the readers about French speaking people. He is explaining how different dialects doesn 't mean people aren 't speaking the same language. Going deeper about language saying that it ties into the culture. Give an example of Black Culture and how their expression of English is different. Talking about the phrases like jazz me, baby, sock it to me, and funky; being used that way they weren 't meant to. Finally introducing how the African American culture has been disrespected or ignored. Telling
In 1901 Vice President Theodore Roosevelt took over as President after William McKinley was assassinated. The country had many opportunities ahead but was in need of some changes that the American people were all too ready for. Roosevelt was brought up in a well to do family and had was Harvard educated. But he was known to be a down to earth man that understood the needs of the people. His first priority as president was to give the people a “square deal” which encompassed his plan for the era. He wanted to reduce control the big businesses had over the U.S. economy and the workers, create more protection for the consumer, and create a plan to conserve our natural resources.
After the assassination of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt inherited a growing empire when he took office in 1901. The U.S. had annexed Hawaii in 1898 and Spanish-American War granted the U.S. control of the Philippines. It also led the U.S. to establish a protectorate over Cuba and grant territorial status for Puerto Rico. By taking on the Philippine Islands as an American colony after the Spanish-American War he had ended the U.S.'s isolation from international politics. Theodore Roosevelt believed that nations should pursue a strenuous life and do their part to maintain peace and order. It was also a belief that civilized nations had the duty of modernizing the barbarous ones. He also pushed for a bigger army and navy and by the end of his presidency he had built the U.S. Navy into a major force at sea.
Historically, the job of women in society is to care for the husband, the home, and the children. As a homemaker, it has been up to the woman to support the husband and care for the house; as a mother, the role was to care for the children and pass along cultural traditions and values to the children. These roles are no different in the African-American community, except for the fact that they are magnified to even larger proportions. The image of the mother in African-American culture is one of guidance, love, and wisdom; quite often the mother is the shaping and driving force of African-American children. This is reflected in the literature of the African-American as a special bond of love and loyalty to the mother figure. Just as the role of motherhood in African-American culture is magnified and elevated, so is the role of the wife. The literature reflects this by showing the African-American man struggling to make a living for himself and his family with his wife either being emotionally or physically submissive. Understanding the role of women in the African-American community starts by examining the roles of women in African-American literature. Because literature is a reflection of the community from which it comes, the portrayal of women in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) and James Baldwin's Go Tell it on the Mountain (1952) is consistent with the roles mentioned above.
For example, when a person in the store talked using their type of language: “‘I ain’t worried ‘bout this fight. Joe’s gonna whip that cracker like it’s open season. He gone whip him till that white boy calls him Momma’” (105). This shows the reader how the society felt when the fight was taking place and the type of language the African AMericans used during their daily lives. Also, there is an appeal to ethos when Maya talks about God: “True that we were stupid and ugly and lazy and dirty and, unlucky and worst of all, that God Himself hated us and ordained us to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, forever and ever, world without end” (106). This shows credibility because this is how Maya Angelou felt as an African American. The style of diction that Maya Angelou conveys is to portray the way that African American people communicate threw one another and so the reader can have the sense of how the society was in the late
"The Things They Carried," is a fiction story-telling book about the Vietnam War by Tim O'Brien that describes the physical and emotional burdens the men carry not only during their time in Vietnam but also years after leaving the warfront. The book is a series of stories told with O'Brien as the main narrator. O'Brien tells of the journey he takes alongside his unit, revealing his fight for courage and decision to commit to the serving in the war. It is a groundbreaking meditation on war, memory, imagination and the redemptive power of storytelling.
Theodore Roosevelt was the most active and energetic president the United States had ever seen. As well as being the most loved and popular president, Roosevelt loved being president. In 1901, Roosevelt became the nation’s youngest president. During Roosevelt’s presidency, he was able to accumulate many great accomplishments with few failures and gain the support and respect of many Americans.
After reading the novel The Book of Negroes, written by Lawrence Hill, it becomes clear that it should be analyzed through an archetypal lens because of the important archetypal symbols and themes that are present, such as symbolic archetypal characters and symbols.
Other than having such great communication skills and friendliness towards all his people, he had an amazing inner reserve and impenetrable iron will. His admirers emphasized the way in which he met the nation's problems and would praise the way he would often insist that the federal government needed to help with the underprivileged as well as the United States must share in the responsibility for preserving world peace. Franklin Roosevelt made many a great impact upon his times and his policies proved to exert great influence on the future. Being able to provide people with faith throughout the great depression and hard times that would follow during his presidency, and uplift the country was just one of the traits that proved him to be a great leader.
Throughout his tenure as a civil servant, Theodore Roosevelt perpetually involved himself in matters of reform. Well read and well traveled, Roosevelt expressed his wide array of political thought out of experience as well as an underlying desire to see the United States establish itself as a world power under the ideals of a democratic republica wolf amongst sheep on the world scene. The nation's twenty-sixth president laid the framework for foreign policy as we know it. He pressed reform amongst big business, and rallied for the rights of the laborer. Conservationism as well as environmental protection and preservation became issues at the forefront of Teddy's agenda. Another vital contribution to American political thought was Roosevelt's idea of the "New Nationalism," an analysis of American society and the roles which government and individuals ought to play. Theodore Roosevelt's progressive attitude, adherence to a strong moral basis, and genuine concern for his fellow countrymen all define him as a quintessential American political thinker.
In conclusion the progressive policies of Theodore Roosevelt had a great positive effect on America as a whole. His labor policies helped poor Americans gain the repect that they deserved and his “New Nationalism” united the classes like never before in our history. His foreign policies helped to keep World War I from breaking out earlier then it did and helped to keep peace in Asia. Truly his policies were one of the high points in presidential history.
Language. It is the way words flow into sentences, which flow into paragraphs, which flow into novels. It is the ability of the author to create an intricate web of plot, emotion, symbolism, and relationships through only words. In The Autobiography of My Mother , Jamaica Kincaid uses language in a way that is very simplistic, yet highly effective. Her writing is direct and to the point. There is neither flowery wording not complex sentence structure. Without the distractions of overflowing language, the depth of Kincaid's material comes through with particular effectiveness. It is the simplest of writing elements, that of repetition and opposition, that Kincaid uses to create a novel rich in language and eloquence.
Robert Kennedy’s memoir, Thirteen Days, details the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis through his own eyes. How he himself perceived the action around him and his brother, John F. Kennedy, reacted as well. The Cuban Missile crisis was, to put it mildly, a huge effect on life in the United States. It was during these thirteen days that many people feared the world would come to an end through nuclear warfare. The Soviets were building missiles in Cuba and the United States was trying very hard to diffuse the situation. The plans that President John F, Kennedy set in motion in order to prevent this nuclear war showed us what kind of president he was. It is through these plans that we can see just what ideas play an important part in decision
Acoording to the short story Sweetness by Toni Morrison, a African American woman who born a girl with blue-black skin. Her daughter has a darker skin than her and she doesn’t know why. This casue her husband leave her and the baby. In the story the author are using the liteary devices to describe her life and feeling towards her daugher. For example, the author use repitation, which repeats “It is not my fault” through the story. This suggests that she is emphasizes about she thinks she has no responsibility about why her daughter has a black color skin. However, if we think deeply we can know that she thinks that is her fault. She feels bad about let her daughter is a black. It is her fault to let this little girl born and suffer in the
The language is also used to emphasize the feelings and emotions of Callum and Sephy. The use of descriptive writing is employed by Blackman to give the reader insight into the effects and emotions of racism. “I was talking like my mouth was full of stones – and sharp jagged ones at that.” The book is full of descriptive writing and figurative language with use of similes and metaphors to explore the feelings of Callum and Sephy. The way in which Blackman uses these language techniques influences the reader to especially pity the white race and the way they are treated in the book. Blackman has created her own world to resemble our own op...