Wanda, Wanda, Wanda? Wanda Coleman’s poem Wanda Why Aren’t You Dead asks Wanda so many questions and says so many things about Wanda but who is Wanda? As Coleman’s poem digs into Wanda we are left questioning who this woman is, what does she look like, what is she all about? The narrator would have us to think of Wanda as garbage, a person less than the title or so it would seem on the surface. The one thing that is made clear in the poem is that whoever this Wanda is, she is angry. Is she angry because these things are said about her, or is she angry because she feels this way about herself? I would argue that Wanda is the narrator herself. Wanda is struggling with the anger and pain she is feeling. Though the poem is told in third person Wanda is saying the things to herself as others have said about her and I think she is also saying things she doubts and dislikes about herself. …show more content…
She describes herself as overweight, asking when Wanda will lose some weight. We can also gather she has let herself go, not maintaining care of herself when Wanda is asked when will she cut her hair. Which would be easy to do as a single mother. Wanda is the average low income, African American. We see evidence of this in lines three and ten (Wanda Why Aren’t You Dead). Coleman uses mostly negative connotations to describe Wanda. We first read “wanda. that’s a whore’s name” (Coleman), right off the bat we can infer that Wanda does not fit into society’s ideal for her. This inference is confirmed later when we learn she does not like black men. Put into the correct time frame this speaks volumes as the United States was struggling with racial equality, and interracial couples were scrutinized
It is very clear that the narrator is aggravated with the ignorance of some people as they assume she is supposed to sound different than she does because she is black. To emphasize her agitation throughout the poem, the narrator asks rhetorical questions such as; "Was I supposed to sound lazy, dropping syllables here, there, not finishing words but slurring the final letter so that each sentence joined the next, sliding past the listener? Were certain words off limits, too erudite, too scholarly for someone with a natural tan? And Does everyone in your family speak alike?"
The book I choose for the book talk is “Dead and gone” written by Norah McClintock, this book talks about a murder mystery of Tricey Howard. The main character of the story is Mike, an orphan whose parents got killed in a car crash. He lives with his foster father named John Riel, who was once a police officer. During a swim meet, Mike see Mr.Henderson is staring at a girl name Emily without stopping. Then he informs Emily about what happened in the community center. However, as return Emily blackmails Mike to investigate Mr. Henderson. During the investigation, Mike finds nothing suspicious, but realize Emily is the daughter of Tricey Howard. Tricey Howard was murdered years ago, but the police still haven’t find the real killer. At the meantime,
Throughout the poem, the speaker is trying to alleviate the “Bitch” from within by persuading herself that the man no longer poses a threat, but as the memories come rushing back to her, it becomes more challenging. She starts reminiscing about her past relationship in lines 19-27. The dog is no...
To begin, it is evident today that teenagers love being connected with their friends and family all at the tip of their thumbs. They love texting. According to a study by Amanda Lenhart, 88 percent of teens use a cell phone or smart phone of which 90 percent of them use text message. An average teen sends 30 texts per day. (Lenhart) As shown in this study, teens have easy access to text messaging. In her Ted talks called “Texting That Save Lives” and “The Heartbreaking Text That Inspired a Crisis Help Line,” Nancy Lublin talks about how she received disturbing text messages from young people that mentions how they’re being bullied, wanting to commit suicide, cutting themselves, and being raped by their father. She was exceedingly emotional when receiving these texts. She felt like she had to do something about it. So, with her knowledge about teens and the power of texting, Nancy Lublin created something that would help save these young kids’ lives, the Crisis Text Line. (“Texting”)(“Heartbreaking”)
Considering her dad was a black, Wanda was constantly experiencing life around blacks. Wanda would often find herself being yelled at by both white teachers and students because she was talking to the black students and teachers instead of the white ones. Wanda was thankful when she resided with her parents, because although Wanda’s mother was white, Wanda’s dad always had black relatives and friends asking him if they could stay at his house since there were not many whites at her dad’s house to bother the black folks.
Blanche DuBois represents the delicacy of the vulnerable mind that Tennessee Williams aimed to portray in his plays, but also his own fear of going insane. Blanche
Death and Grieving Imagine that the person you love most in the world dies. How would you cope with the loss? Death and grieving is an agonizing and inevitable part of life. No one is immune from death’s insidious and frigid grip. Individuals vary in their emotional reactions to loss.
Many black men have to deal with a systematic racism that affects their role in society. The frustrations that a black man has to deal with can affect the family a great deal. For example, if Walter gets upset at work or has a bad day, he can't get irate with his boss and risk losing his job; instead he takes it out on his wife Ruth. Also, the job that he holds can only provide so much to the family. He's not even capable of providing his son Travis with some pocket change without breaking himself.
Author Christine Mitchell’s “When Living is a Fate Worse Than Death” told the story of a girl Haitian named Charlotte. Charlotte was born with her brain partially positioned outside of her cranium which had to be removed or she would have not survived. Her skull had to be concealed by a wrap in order not to cause further damage. Charlotte was born with less brain cells which allowed her only to breath and not feel much of the pain. Charlotte’s parents thought that the doctor’s in Haiti did not know what was best for their daughter. The doctors in Haiti thought Charlotte should not be resuscitated, undergo anymore horrible treatments and die peacefully. Charlotte’s parents were not happy with the doctor’s guidelines and thought the United States medical care would have better technology and could save their daughter. Charlotte’s parents bought her a doll which
She is poor, frail, compassionate, and simple. Wanda is compassionate because she helps a man that has been shot and is lying outside of her door dying. She was frail because she was an older lady so therefore she was not very strong. Wanda is very poor because of the fact that she hardly has anything.
In the poem, “My First Weeks” by Sharon Olds, Olds makes an ordeal for her storyteller, gives her the recollections of this time we all might want to recall. The foundation of this piece has various pictures depicted so well they turn out to be outwardly captivating, and an all-inclusiveness of human experience. Regardless of whether the elocutionist’ owns particular experience was as delicate as the speakers or not, every one of us was conceived and (more than likely) can't remember our first weeks.
middle of paper ... ... On the other hand, her portrayal of marriage and the black family appears to be negative. Marriage is seen as a convenient thing—as something that is expected, but not worth having when times get rough.
At the end of the poem, Natasha Trethewey states the only evidence of physical abuse is her mother's dead body, “Only the landscape of her body—splintered/clavicle, pierced temporal—her thin bones/settling a bit each day, the way all things do” (12-14). This shows that her mother has died, beaten up and then shot in the head. Though Natasha ironically states this is the only evidence of abuse, she knows that all the others are evidence too. Natasha Trethewey also uses figurative language in this poem to express her thoughts and
This statement also emphasises much of Blanche’s own views on sorrow and explains how it has affected her life since she has made the comment from personal experience. To conclude, Tennessee Williams’ dramatic use of death and dying is an overarching theme in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’ from which everything about Blanche’s character has formed from. Without the death of Allan, Blanche would not have resorted to prostitution and the brief affairs with strangers, also the deaths of her family have driven Blanche to Stella’s where she is “not wanted” and “ashamed to be”. Therefore these dramatic deaths have lead to the past which comes back to haunt
The Dilemma of a Ghost is a short play written by the Ghanaian writer, Ama Ata Aidoo. The story is about a young Ghanaian man, Ato, currently studying in America. Here, he meets and falls in love with Eulalie; an African-American girl who lives in America. When he returns home with his new bride, Ato is torn between his family’s traditional custom against his wife’s western culture. His marriage and his wife’s behaviour become sources of great criticism from both family members and the Ghanaian community at large. The writer uses various scenarios to point out the difference between the African traditional culture and the modern western culture.