Jimmy Santiago Baca's poem "Oppression is a poem that shows equality and justice from Baca's point of view, including how he was against oppression and longed for emancipation. Through the first stanza, Baca's view of the matter was made evident to the readers. "is a question of strength, of unshed tears, of being trampled under." It demonstrates that Baca felt as his strength was being tested through the treatment he endured. He continues on saying "and always. Always, remembering you are human." Baca emphasizes the importance of understanding that the people being oppressed are still humans and deserve respect as well as that it is okay to let your tears out. The second stanza further continues Baca's views of oppression as he continues to
Many people have given up trying and others have adjusted to the way that they have to live and their sense of being human still is nearly gone. So many people who are African Americans that come from poverty are still stuck there because they don’t know what else to do any they are or have been in jail. If this story were to have happened 100 years ago that whole family would have been killed or put in an asylum and tortured. Although they are still tortured by this sentence and although time is surely taking its time in changing things, a lot has changed and without these stories or poems a lot of this change wouldn’t have
In a story of identity and empowerment, Juan Felipe Herrera’s poem “Borderbus” revolves around two Honduran women grappling with their fate regarding a detention center in the United States after crawling up the spine of Mexico from Honduras. While one grapples with their survival, fixated on the notion that their identities are the ultimate determinant for their future, the other remains fixated on maintaining their humanity by insisting instead of coming from nothingness they are everything. Herrera’s poem consists entirely of the dialogue between the two women, utilizing diction and imagery to emphasize one’s sense of isolation and empowerment in the face of adversity and what it takes to survive in America.
In the novel Breaking Through, by Francisco Jimenez, Francisco tells the story of how he illegally immigrated from Mexico to the United States. At the age of four, he, his parents, and his older brother, Roberto, crossed underneath the barbed-wire fence on the United States-Mexico border. However, after ten years they were reported by one of their own people and were forced to go back to Mexico. The three literary elements addressed in this captivating book are symbol, conflict, and characterization.
This is evident through the symbolism of the ears at the end of the poem. Once he rudely tells the speaker that he will not help her people at all, the speaker tells us that “some of the ears on the floor caught this scrap of his voice. Some of the ears on the floor were pressed to the ground.” The ears are divided into two different types: the ones that hear the colonel and the ones that do not. All of the ears are said to be on the floor because they represent the people in the worst living conditions who are living below everyone else. Each of these types also represents a portion of the struggling population when a problem arises. Some of the population hears what is going on and reacts to the issue, and the rest of the population turns away and ignores the problem. Furthermore, it is evident that the speaker wants us to speak out because she is doing it herself. The poem begins with “what you have heard is true” because the speaker wants her audience to know that the rumor that brewed from her story is true. The poem then goes into detail about what happened, and the speaker wants us to be disgusted by what has happened so that we act to help her. The speaker wants us to be the ears that hear her. The poem is a call to action for all of the people in El Salvador in that time
In their works, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin show that freedom was not universal in America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The three works, "The Yellow Wallpaper," "At the 'Cadian Ball," and "The Storm" expose the oppression of women by society. This works also illustrate that those women who were passive in the face of this oppression risk losing not only their identity, but their sanity as well.
Bong, bong, bong, the mellow church bells rang as the clock struck ten; today was finally the day everyone was so anxious about. Wearing a big wedding dress, the young lady made her way through the church doors, where she saw her lovely husband-to-be waiting down the aisle. All the families cried tears of joy, clapped when the couple said ‘I do’, congratulated them after the ceremony, and laughed and danced all night long at the wedding reception. This was the start of her new life, and she believed every day would be as fun and nice as this day was, except that was not the truth. After a few months, she began to notice him being distant, and his attitude towards her changed to one of disrespect and rudeness. During
Because of that, his writing seems to manifest a greater meaning. He is part of the African-American race that is expressed in his writing. He writes about how he is currently oppressed, but this does not diminish his hope and will to become the equal man. Because he speaks from the point of view of an oppressed African-American, the poem’s struggles and future changes seem to be of greater importance than they ordinarily would. The point of view of being the oppressed African American is clearly evident in Langston Hughes’s writing.
Jimmy Baca’s story “Coming into Language” describes his emotional childhood and what he went through while in prison. At seventeen Baca still didn’t know how to read or write. Throughout the story, he shares his struggle with language and how prison eventually brought himself to learn how to read and write. Jimmy Baca then uses examples in his story explaining how he admired language and used it to free himself from the cruel world he grew up in.
Though dealing with the situation is difficult, the poem goes on to express that going through this ordeal has only strengthened the resolve of the African American community. Lines 4-9 of this poem speak to toughness and resolve of the African American community in the fight to gain equality. McKay even goes as far ...
... They focus more on the cultural aspects of identity that Hughes is very proud of, while poems “Democracy” and “Theme for English B” touch on some of the social concerns that created a struggle for dignity as a black person in the early/mid twentieth century. The “Democracy” is a slightly stern and direct request to take action and fight for civil rights. The “Theme for English B” is a compassionate and low-key personal anecdote that reiterates the unpracticed concept that “all men are created equal”. Despite the difference in tone and subject, all four poems relate to the central theme that dignity is something that white men may take for granted, but Langston Hughes, as a black man and a writer, sees and feels dignity as a fight and a struggle that he faces and that the black community as a whole faces every day.
Maya Angelou describes the situation, feelings and descriptions of a person (probably herself) who does not need people to try and lift her up. Maya shows us within the poem that all those oppressed in general are strong. Within the poem we are shown some of the feelings and thoughts people have displayed against her, but in reality she won’t let them get her down. Maya’s moral opulence allows her to rise above where her ancestors fell to slavery; carrying herself as a strong woman. Her ancestors dream was to have a life in society without the fear of what might happen to them (slavery). The author herself is portrayed in the...
The civil rights movement may have technically ended in the nineteen sixties, but America is still feeling the adverse effects of this dark time in history today. African Americans were the group of people most affected by the Civil Rights Act and continue to be today. Great pain and suffering, though, usually amounts to great literature. This period in American history was no exception. Langston Hughes was a prolific writer before, during, and after the Civil Rights Act and produced many classic poems for African American literature. Hughes uses theme, point of view, and historical context in his poems “I, Too” and “Theme for English B” to expand the views on African American culture to his audience members.
Everywhere you go there are always people who treat you differently because of the way you are dressed, the way you act or behave, or because of the color of your skin. The Jews were almost exterminated because of their race, and in America Blacks were discriminated because of the color of their skin. In life, people give others a hard time, simply because of their race. This results in those people who are being discriminated living very hard lives that are difficult. In the story Black Ball by Ralph Ellison the black ball symbolizes the difficulty of being a black person, the struggle, and humiliation, and discrimination of being a Negro.
“There is no perfect relationship. The idea that there is gets us into so much trouble.”-Maggie Reyes. Kate Chopin reacts to this certain idea that relationships in a marriage during the late 1800’s were a prison for women. Through the main protagonist of her story, Mrs. Mallard, the audience clearly exemplifies with what feelings she had during the process of her husbands assumed death. Chopin demonstrates in “The Story of an Hour” the oppression that women faced in marriage through the understandings of: forbidden joy of independence, the inherent burdens of marriage between men and women and how these two points help the audience to further understand the norms of this time.
The poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” symbolically connects the fate of the speaker of the poem and his African American community to the indestructible and powerful force on Earth- the river. The river embodies both power and dominance but also a sense of comfort. The poem is a prime example of the message of hope and perseverance to anyone who has suffered or is currently suffering oppression and inequality in their lives and in society. The speaker in the poem pledges to the reader that with hard-work, determination, and willpower to succeed, he will get where he is going regardless of the obstacles and challenges he may face on his path of reaching his goals in life.