Words can have a profound, meaningful impact that may alter, shift, and even end lives. In "Create Dangerously," the first essay of the book “Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work,” Edwidge Danticat reveals how words crafted her reality and identity as a woman who lived through a dictatorship. "Create Dangerously" is a nonfiction essay and memoir focusing on the impact of literature not only in dire times, but in everyday life. Through the use of detailed descriptions, biblical and philosophical allusions, and vivid recounting of the past in her writing, Danticat reveals the importance and valor of creating art in times where art acts as a death sentence, and how this belief shaped her identity. To introduce the …show more content…
Danticat explains how the execution molded her writing: "All artists, writers among them, have several stories—one might call them creation myths—that haunt and obsess them. This is one of mine," (5). Divulging this information gives viewers a peek into how Danticat's ideals and identity were formed. A creation myth is "a story told by a group of people to explain the origins of the natural world and, in some cases, of the universe itself,"(Zimmer). Danticat, however, refers to the creation of her own identity and how she was forged by the dictatorship she grew up under. The concept of creation myths goes back as far as recorded history, and Danticat acknowledges this, using it to further her story of rebellion. Danticat starts the paragraph by showing that Numa and Drouin were her creation myth, but she follows this by expanding the concept to Christianity, relating the broader scope of the idea: "If we think back to the biggest creation myth of all, the world's very first people, Adam and Eve, disobeyed the superior being that fashioned them out of chaos, defying God's order not to eat what must have been the world's most desirable apple" (Danticat 5). She further elaborates on the importance of Numa and Drouin's execution to her identity and how it shaped who she is to this day. "Like most creation myths, this one too exists beyond the scope of my own life, yet it still feels present, …show more content…
"Reading, like writing, under these conditions is disobedience to a directive in which the reader, our Eve, already knows the possible consequences of eating that apple but takes a bold bite anyway," Danticat boldly states. This disobedience incites change and rebellion, regardless of scale. The change created may be as simple as planting the seed of an idea in one's head so that it may grow and become something new and wonderful. Literature allows this seed of hope to be sewn into open hearts and minds, proliferating hope under scrutiny and terror. Within the memoir, Danticat and her family are in a situation where creation may be a death sentence. Most are more concerned with surviving than thriving through the guise of literature, contrary to Danticat's message. Writing and reading is not feasible in these dire times: "Strings of words that, uttered, written, or read, could cause a person's death" (Danticat). This shows that she understands the danger associated with creating and that she acknowledges the damage it has the capability to cause. "In many ways, Numa and Drouin shared the destiny of many Haitian artists, particularly that of the physician- novelist Jacques Stephen Alexis, who wrote such beautiful prose that the first time I read his description of freshly baked bread, I raised the book closer to my nose to
Safe is a feeling of protection from or not exposed to danger or risk. Safe, is how Tracy felt right before it happened. Tracy goes through considerable character development throughout the book.
In the story, “The Killing Game”, Joy Williams, uses several diffenent types of writing skills to presuade the reader to see her views.
Throughout the years, and throughout various forms of media, some of the greatest creative minds have been the victims of the most unfortunate circumstances. For many, their major problem is that of addiction, and one could say that it affects their work, for better or worse. For example, a writer’s prose usually is affected at least partly by the author’s inner dialogue, and thus, the author’s problems get mixed in with their writings. Therefore, the author’s addictions become a part of the work itself.
...s among what appears as un-related items are involved opening the minds of readers to think more about what they are reading. This broadens the horizon for newer methods of writing, and at the same time it provides not just a lesson in writing, but also a lesson in reading and thinking. It helps readers to open their minds about the things they read even it is a strange way of going about writing. Although the technique and structure of her work is very peculiar, it is a lesson on reading, writing, and thinking. Without writers like Susan Griffin, new methods of writing such as the one she used would never exist rather relying on the more mundane methods. New avenues would not be explored, because connections not normally analyzed would never be presented such as comparing the past and present, public life and private life, an individuality and collective living.
Words can have a profound, meaningful impact that may alter, shift, and even end lives. In “Create Dangerously”, Edwidge Danticat reveals how words crafted her reality and identity as a woman who lived through a dictatorship. “Create Dangerously” is a nonfiction essay and memoir that focuses on the impact of literature not only in dire times, but in everyday life. Through the use of detail, allusions, and vivid recounting of the past in her writing, Danticat reveals importance and valor of creating art in times where art is a death sentence, and how this belief shaped her identity.
Equality 7-2521 lives in a society of confinement in which everything he does has to be for the greater good of his society. He begins the novel by claiming, “It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. [...] And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone” (Rand 17). Equality 7-2521’s admittance of his sin immediately reveals the tightly-controlled world he lives in. No one has a name, can feel emotions, make their own decisions, or do the job they desire. As he comes to realize he is an outsider, Equality 7-2521 plans to endeavor a quest to gain personal freedom.
There are only two types of people in a time of war and crisis, those who survive and those who die. Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night, shows how Elie, himself, faces difficult problems and struggles to survive World War II. Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, tells a story about a young soldier thinking of himself before others during World War I. The poem “Mary Hamilton” shows how a mother killed her child
To read the Civil War diary of Alice Williamson, a 16 year old girl, is to meander through the personal, cultural and political experience of both the author and one's self. Her writing feels like a bullet ricocheted through war, time, death, literary form, femininity, youth, state, freedom and obligation. This investigation attempts to do the same; to touch on the many issues that arise in the mind of the reader when becoming part of the text through the act of reading. This paper will lay no definitive claims to the absolute meaning of the diary, for it has many possible interpretations, for the journey is the ultimate answer. I seek to acknowledge the fluidity of thought when reading, a fluidity which incorporates personal experience with the content of Williamson's journal. I read the journal personally- as a woman, a peer in age to Alice Williamson, a surrogate experiencialist, a writer, an academic and most of all, a modern reader unaccustomed to the personal experience of war. I read the text within a context- as a researcher versed on the period, genre, aesthetics, and to some degree the writer herself. The molding of the personal and contextual create a rich personalized textual meaning .
It is fascinating to me to read the articles “Why I Write,” by George Orwell and Joan Didion. These authors touch on so many different topics for their reasons to writing. Their ideals are very much different, but their end results are the same, words on paper for people to read. Both authors made very descriptive points to how their minds wander on and off their writings while trying to write. They both often were writing about what they didn’t want to write about before they actually wrote what they wanted too. In George Orwell’s case, he wrote many things when he was young the he himself would laugh at today, or felt was unprofessional the but if he hadn’t done so he would not of been the writer he became. In Joan Didion’s case she would often be daydreaming about subjects that had nothing to do with what she intended on writing. Her style of writing in this article is actually more interesting because of this. Her mind wandering all over on many different subjects to how her writing came to her is very interesting for a person like me to read. My mind is also very restless on many different unneeded topics before I actually figure some sort of combined way to put words on to paper for people to read. Each author put down in their articles many ways of how there minds work while figuring out what they are going to write about. Both of the authors ended ...
In “Tradition and the Female Talent: The Awakening as a Solitary Book,” Elaine Showalter makes a compelling argument that “Edna Pontellier’s ‘unfocused yearning’ for an autonomous life is akin to Kate Chopin’s yearning to write works that go beyond female plots and feminine endings” (204). Urging her reader to read The Awakening “in the context of literary tradition,” Showalter demonstrates the ways in which Chopin’s novel both builds upon and departs from the tradition of American women’s writing up to that point. Showalter begins with the antebellum novelists’ themes of women’s roles as mothers—especially the importance of the mother-daughter relationship—and women’s attachments with one another and then moves to the local colorists of the post-Civil War who claimed male and female models but who wrote that motherhood was not a suitable partner for the true artist. According to these women writers, a woman had to choose to be either an artist or a wife and mother; one negatively affected the other. The literary history then delves...
In the book Deadly by Julie Chibbaro there were many themes that were analyzed and illustrated throughout the book. There were only three that catches the eye love can be blind, death can hurt and oppression of women. These themes stood out the most because this book take place in somewhere in the 1900’s because in that era there were many disease taking place in New York. Such as the typhoid, Yellow fever, small pox and other contagious diseases that cause many deaths and also when the Germ theory was just a theory not a law. This book mainly talks about Prudence, Mr. Sopher, and Marm especially but there are others such as Dr. bakers, Jonathan this book talks about how typhoid was carried by an Irish Woman named Mary Mallon and the disease
In the library she would alternate what types of books they would read. Whenever she would read to him she would read in a way that made you cling to every word the author wrote. In times like these, Rodriguez would become engaged in these books. “I sat there and sensed for the very first time some possibility of fellowship between reader and writer, a communication, never intimate like that I heard spoken words at home convey, but nonetheless personal.” (Rodriguez 228). During this part of Rodriguez’s life, his view towards books changed.
Through vivid yet subtle symbols, the author weaves a complex web with which to showcase the narrator's oppressive upbringing. Two literary
Throughout history society has been controlled by men, and because of this women were exposed to some very demanding expectations. A woman was expected to be a wife, a mother, a cook, a maid, and sexually obedient to men. As a form of patriarchal silencing any woman who deviated from these expectations was often a victim of physical, emotional, and social beatings. Creativity and individuality were dirty, sinful and very inappropriate for a respectful woman. By taking away women’s voices, men were able to remove any power that they might have had. In both Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, we see that there are two types of women who arise from the demands of these expectations. The first is the obedient women, the one who has buckled and succumbed to become an empty emotionless shell. In men’s eyes this type of woman was a sort of “angel” perfect in that she did and acted exactly as what was expected of her. The second type of woman is the “rebel”, the woman who is willing to fight in order to keep her creativity and passion. Patriarchal silencing inspires a bond between those women who are forced into submission and/or those who are too submissive to maintain their individuality, and those women who are able and willing to fight for the ability to be unique.
This creates a despair, of hopelessness and of downheartedness. The woman, on multiple occasions, wrote down, “And what can one do?” This lets the reader know that women as a whole were very oppressed in ...