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african american culture and traditions
african american culture and traditions
african american culture and traditions
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The movie Soul Food is a tells a story about an African American family from Chicago that stays united in a multitude of ways, including a family tradition of Sunday dinner. The story examines a family from the low to middle class; the eldest mother “Big Mama” has three daughters; Teri, Maxine, and Bird. The movie introductory scene takes place at the Bird’s wedding with the narrator of the movie being Big Mama’s eldest grandchild Ahmad. Soul Food highlights a African American family that deals with the secrets, lies, love and betrayal. To the public the family unit is stronger than ever, but behind the scenes tells a different story. The story shows how love, betrayal, and tragic illness can take a long standing toll on a family. The three …show more content…
Some of the most important traditions portrayed in the film are; Soul Food dinners on sundays and any major holiday, marriage, and other forms of family unity. The movie opens up at the youngest sister’s wedding; the entire family was present celebrating her and her husband’s new life together. Weddings has been one of the one of a long traditions for African Americans, dating back to the slave era. Marriage symbolized a stronger unit creating a foundation for others to follow and build upon. A historic tradition within ceremonies is jumping the broom; symbolizing both individuals jumping into the next phase of their lives as one. Next, the title of the film Soul Food indicates another tradition. The food that African Americans have cooked fro centuries was called Soul Food. The film explains what Soul Food was all about. During slavery, blacks did not have a lot of things to celebrate, so cooking became the way we expressed our love for one another. The family took that long standing tradition and added substance to it. Those dinners the family shared together were a time to share the joy, pain, sorrows,and laughter. The film touches on how these type of emotions and experiences are missing from today’s …show more content…
Love conflicts, inter-generational conflicts, trust in the healthcare system, and family succession. The love conflicts were associated with the family. Stealing of boyfriends, and a husband having a one night stand with one of the cousins. Learning of this recent affair Teri, handled the conflict in a poor manner.. Resorting to violence to get revenge on whoever was in her path. During this time, the family had a hard time trusting the healthcare system with Big Mama’s life. Her stubborn mentality was one for concern. Historically, African Americans have had limited access to healthcare. African Americans of Big Mama’s age believed that anything could be resolved with a home remedy. No need for a doctor’s fancy medical assistance. With her health declining, the family unit started to erode; which leds to the inter-generational conflict. As the siblings became feeling the significance of their mother’s illness, their family values were altered. This negatively impacted the tradition of the weekly Sunday dinners. Affecting the generations that came after them because the tradition had been stopped. The succession of the family was at a standstill because of the rift between the
Taylor and Lou Ann demonstrate a symbiotic relationship between the roles and characteristics in a family. Edna Poppy and Virgie Mae replaces the missing physical and emotional traits in a stable household. The examples tie into the fact that not all families in this book match “the norms” and expectations, but are equally valued, blood or
In Lorraine Hansberry's inspirational play A Raisin in the Sun, a working class African American family's life is turned upside down when death comes for their father. In this play, the main characters: Walter, Benetha, Ruth, and Mama(Lena), all dream of having a better life. Despite the living conditions that rule their lives, they each try to pursue the "American Dream." Although the "American Dream," is different for each character, by the end of the play and through many trials and tribulations; the Younger's come to realize who's dream is the most important.
The theme indicated in these stories is the search for community. Mama Younger wanted her family to come closer. The more she tried, the farther apart they became. During her struggle, she encountered many obstacles including her own son's beliefs, but she did not let them curve her appetite to gain higher status in society. Similarly, in Soul Food, Mama Joe struggled with keeping her family together, due to their different ideas and beliefs. Her daughters' arguing continued even after her death, but with the help of her grandson Ahmad, the Joseph family remained as one piece. The family is the first and most important community in everyone's lives. Maintaining family unity is the primary theme featured in these stories.
Further, throughout the book, Sadie and Bessie continuously reminds the reader of the strong influence family life had on their entire lives. Their father and mother were college educated and their father was the first black Episcopal priest and vice principal at St. Augustine Co...
Soul Food tells the story of a big African-American family from Chicago with warm hearted good cheer; in the way it cuts between stories of romance and trouble, how black families stay in constant communication down three or four generations and out to third cousins how when a matriarch like the movie 's Big Mama (Irma P. Hall) hosts a holiday dinner, there are going to be a lot of people in the house, and a lot of stories to catch up with.
In this paper I am going to write about the movie “Grease.” Specifically, on the two main characters Sandy and Danny. I will be describing and analyzing their interpersonal communication, but mainly on the conflict of their communication.
Many African-Americans consume what is known as “soul food”, for which, it is very popular within the black community. Soul food is an African-American cuisine that can be traced back as far as African, however, the term itself was not coined until the mid-1960s. It also comprise an important element of the cuisine of the general American south. Soul food was adopted and modify during the African slave trade and it was during this time food African cuisine and southern European cuisine became one big melting pot.
One conflict that divides the family from seeing the dream is the clash between mama her other family members. Walter feels that mama is blocking his dream of owning a liquor store because of her religious background. Her value system is so strong and the fact that it is her apartment, amplifies this conflict. Due to her domineering personality, Walter is not able to partake in the liquor store business. Mama also shows conflict with Beneatha when their view on religion differs. As a result, mama uses her domineering ways to keep Beneatha down by telling her that she can't speak against God as long as she lives in her house. Lastly, mama finds out from Ruth that she might get an abortion. This is unacceptable and is also against her religious beliefs. Since mama is the matriarch of the family, she is very much in control of her children's lives. She is driven by a strong sense of pride and a strong faith in God.
The 2009 movie Food Inc. describes the major role that food production plays within many lives. This movie revealed that there is a very small variety of companies that consumers purchase their food from. These few companies actually control what is out on the shelves and what we put into our bodies. These companies have changed food production into a food production business. Many of these companies experiment with ways to create large quantities of food at low production costs to result in an enormous amount of profit for themselves. Some of the production cost cuts also result in less healthy food for the population. Instead of worrying about the health of the population, the companies are worried about what will make them the most money.
This research paper are for those who tend to eat food specifically geared toward their culture and have never veered from it. One would see this research essay as a form of reference/reasoning to their many questions regarding the upheld idea that soul food is the only predominant food choice in the typical African American home. It also signifies the reason it is held at the highest standards of those within the African American race/community. It also centers around those who wish to enjoy other foods but are culturally stuck to eating only things that are generalized to what is considered a norm within their community or race. My goal is to educate those who have been deterred form trying new foods, due to lack of support
All ethnic groups have their own language, food, and way of living. Some can even call their food, “soul food.” Soul food can be described as “food made with feeling and care,” but in America, soul food simply refers to African-American cuisine (A History of Soul Food). In Imamu Amiri Baraka’s essay, “Soul Food” he describes how shocked he was to read an article that stated how “African-Americans have no language and no characteristic food.” So he argued against that supposed fact. I too was shocked and am agreeing with Baraka’s argument. African-Americans have had soul food for hundreds of years, if anything that is all they have ever had. Since slaves had no control or choice in life, cooking became a way to express feelings, share love and nurture family and sorrow (Helton). Soul food is more that just food; it is history, tradition, and family.
The movie Doubt is set in a private Catholic School in 1960s. Sister Aloysius is the principal of the school, and Father Flynn is the clergyman in the church. While the movie deals with some moral dilemmas such as doubt versus certainty, rigidity versus openness and so on, the central theme of the story pivots on accusation on Father Flynn of child molestation. The story has a hanging ending where Father Flynn is proven neither guilty nor proven innocent. Based on the contents of the movie and my own analysis, I believe that certainty plays a bigger role in accusations and I believe that Father Flynn had been falsely blamed and I am also against the rigidity of the society.
From the beginning we can see the grandmother as a manipulative character. This manipulative nature in the end leads the family to its demise. It is obvious throughout the story that she has been this way all her life. She describes the Negro child as a “pickaninny” and relates the story of the watermelon that “a nigger boy ate […] when he saw the initials, E. A. T.!” The reader
The change in a social class is something that is shown in every day life and the media. It is the American Dream to move upward in society. The movie Sweet Home Alabama is a prime example of social mobility in the main character. The main character Melanie Carmichael left her small town Alabama home and achieved an impressive upward social mobility. She began her life as a daughter of a respectful working class family to become a world famous fashion designer in New York City. At the beginning of the movie, Andrew, the mayor’s son, proposes to Melanie. She says yes, but before she can marry him, she has to clear up a not so final divorce with Jake, her high school sweetheart she left behind. Melanie is now caught between two classes and two cultures, the working class that she grew up in and the upper class she has now placed herself in. As the film continues, her dilemma will require her to acknowledge and reconnect with her mother who lives in a trailer park while still trying to impress h...
Big Mama, Maggie and Mae all have very different roles within the family as well as in their respective relationships. Big Mama is, in both literal and metaphorical terms, the mother of the family but her most important role is being Big Daddy’s wife. Through all the years her and Big Daddy have been married, she’s been hopelessly devoted the entire time. Even after all the treatment she’s received from Big Daddy and even the cancer scare, it’s obvious she is very much in love with Big Daddy: “And I did, I did so much. I did love you. I even loved your hate an’ your hardness, Big Daddy!” (II.39). In everything she does, she only looks to please Big Daddy as housewives were supposed to please their husbands even through her outspoken ways. Big Mama’s personal identity is a mixture of society’s norms and her love for Big Daddy. Maggie doesn’t necessarily have a positive role in the Pollitt family. She’s supposed to be pleasing her husband and having children, but she’s doing neither of these things and it’s clear the rest of the family is concerned or looking down upon her for it. Maggie is not fulfilling a woman’s typical role in her relationship with Brick, which to the family means something is wrong with her. Even Big Mama says, “Some single men stop drinkin’ when they get married and others start! Brick never touched liquor…” (I.22), showing how even she