Whistling Boy by Frank Duveneck will go out on loan to San Francisco for an exhibition celebrating the 100 anniversary of the Panama-Pacific Expo. The piece that will be replacing the Whistling Boy in the Icons gallery is an incense burner from China made during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Whistling Boy will be gone through January 2016 and when it returns the painting will most likely be place in the Duveneck Gallery.
'You are a nobody! An It!?(Pelzer 140). These were the raw, disheartened remarks that came from the disgusting coldhearted mother's mouth. These painful hurting remarks at her son was how the book got its title and that's what interested me in reading this book. A Child Called 'It', by Dave Pelzer, is a life-changing story about, a young boy who is starved, beat, and tortured by his mother and her cruel games, yet he manages to turn his life around when he grows up. This young boy uses his faith, self-discipline, and will power to overrule his mother's destruction and life damaging obstacles.
How far has the United States come towards establishing equality between whites and black? Well our founding fathers did not establish equality. Here is s a clue, they are also called the Reconstruction Amendments; which were added during the Reconstruction era following the Civil War. Recall that the Declaration of Independence was signed July 4th 1776, while the Reconstruction Amendments were the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments; they were added during the periods of 1865-1870. This is nearly a ten-decade period. Despite of these amendments we still have not achieved equality among blacks and whites. How much longer will it take? Well we are in the year 2015 and yet have a lot of ground to cover. Richard Wright was born after the Civil Rights, but before the Civil Rights Movement. If he were to write a novel titled Black Boy today, he would write about how racial profiling
A Lucky Child by Thomas Buergenthal is a memoir about his time as a Jewish child in multiple ghettos and death camps in and around Germany during World War II. The author shares about his reunions with family and acquaintances from the war in the years between then and now. Buergenthal wished to share his Holocaust story for a number of reasons: to prevent himself from just being another number, to contribute to history, to show the power and necessity of forgiveness, the will to not give up, and to question how people change in war allowing them to do unspeakable things. The memoir is not a cry for private attention, but a call to break the cycle of hatred and violence to end mass crimes.
Naeem Murr's novel, The Boy, is a story about a boy that is put into foster homes all of his life. This boy is exposed to all different kinds of influences that affects his life in a negative way. These are the things that cause the argument in the story; is the boy evil or not?
The story of Inside the World of Boys by William Pollack brings the attention to us that the boys often suffer from low-self esteem, in large part due to “the boy code”, the unspoken rules that compel them to feel they need to hide their emotions and keep them from exposure. In effect, “the boy code” causes the problem of gender gap between boys and girls in academic performances. I choose this essay because I am concerned with how “the boy code” raises the gender gap between boys and girls in their academic performances and how our societies often underestimate all emotional needs of boys. This story is not only a story but also is a research paper of Pollack which is supported by his research results and statistics. The background story of Adam and his personal conversation with his mother make this story so fascinating and touching. It brings a social message to parents, school, and societies.
The book I chose to read is called, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by: Richard Louv. I chose this book for a few different reasons. One reason I chose this book was because I’ m highly interested in the whole concept of the book and feel very passionate about its reasoning. I also thought it would be a great read to guide me towards a topic for my main project at the end of the Lemelson program. On the plus side, I “read” this book through audible, which enabled me to listed to the book on my drive to and from work everyday. I commonly do this because of my forty-five minute commute from Truckee to Spanish Springs.
A question that arises in almost any medium of art, be it music, film or literature, is whether or not the depiction of violence is merely gratuitous or whether it is a legitimate artistic expression. There can be no doubt that Michael Ondaatje's long poem The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is a violent work, but certain factors should be kept in mind before passing it off as an attempt to shock and titillate; certainly, the poem does both of these, but they are not the primary purpose of the work. For one thing, social context needs to be considered; Billy lived in the "Wild West", a time associated with range wars, shoot-outs and great train robberies. The entire legend of Billy the Kid has been built around his criminal activities and notorious reputation; indeed, the more popular this myth becomes, the more people he is accused of having murdered. If anything, it was a cultural fascination with violence that "created" the legend, perhaps even more so than anything the "real" Billy ever did. Michael Ondaatje comments on this phenomenon and actually offers an alternative vision of who Billy the Kid was; perhaps he was not just a blood-thirsty killer but a man who, due to circumstance and human nature, was continually being pushed over the edge. Ondaatje is more concerned with the motivations behind the acts of violence than the acts of violence themselves: "A motive? some reasoning we can give to explain all this violence. Was there a source for all this? yup -" (54). If they shock, it is to shock the readers out of complicity and encourage them to think about the nature of violence and their own capacity for it.
Americans were incarcerated during this time for acts of violence. Police officers would brutally beat those in involvement with the movement if they refused to go along with the social norm of the society and so on. Others were perhaps jumped by white men when the blacks came off as being ‘disrespectful” to their way of living. The acts of Civil Rights continued until Jim Crow laws were uplifted.
Mark Drolsbaugh’s Deaf Again is a biography about his life between two dimensions of the Deaf world and the Hearing world as well as the implications he faced throughout his journeys’. Mark Drolsbaugh was born from two deaf parents and was basically forced to adapt to the hearing world even though his parents are deaf. When Drolsbaugh was born he was hearing, however, by first grade his parents and teachers discovered he was losing his hearing. As time went on Mark realized the issues he faced from trying to adapt to the hearing world. Mark Drolsbaugh quotes in his biography, “Deafness is bad. I am deaf. I need to be fixed. I must be like them, no matter what, because deaf is bad.” However, no matter what his family believed that he
“Boys” by Rick Moody summarizes the life journey of two stereotypical boys and how they gain power from the experiences they face. The boys face both positive experiences and tragedies that impacts their amount of power. In the short story, the author is conveying the idea that as the boys mature they obtain more power. He shows this through the literary devices conflict, tone, and repetition.
"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" explores the beauty of a child's innocence in a time of war:
Richard Wright tends to focus on the darker sides of society, and portrays his views through characters much like himself. In his book Native Son and his autobiography Black Boy, he allows the reader to characterize the subjects how they would from their own perspective. Wright 's’ novels focused both on characterization of the subjects, and of the setting, these both played a very important role in the making of these novels. Wright 's utilization of character development, developed using style and tone, revealed his characters persistence towards being accepted into society. These two novels follow a young black man in a predominately white society through his struggles and setbacks. The self-realization that these characters go through,
Over six million African Americans moved from the South to the North in aspiration of seeking a better life and a fresh start. Black Boy, by Richard Wright, is the story of a young black boy, Richard, that is piloting himself through the Jim Crow South. Richard grew up in a primarily black community with his mom, Ella, and his younger brother, Alan. When he is finally introduced to the white population he is surprised to see how the blacks and whites interact. Due to his skin color, Richard is treated unfairly which makes it harder for him to thrive. As Richard comes of age, he is left to support his family. With no help or advice from his father, Richard labors many jobs in hopes of obtaining enough money to move himself and his family to
The Characteristics of Ponyboy and How They Developed inThe Outsiders by S. E. Hinton The novel "The Outsiders", by S.E. Hinton was based on a character called Ponyboy. He has long light-brown, almost red hair and greenish-grey eyes. It was normal for him to have long hair because he was classified as a "greaser", a boy on the East Side. The only people he has for a family are his two older brothers and his neighbours, the other greasers. Throughout the book it shows you the development of him becoming more mature and how he handles life's challenges without his parents.
About a boy is a novel which follows the lives of two people: Marcus and Will. Marcus is a strange kid who struggles with growing up, he is in need for acceptance outside of his own family, he is searching for his own identity, he is a victim of constant bullying and is suffering with his lack of parental care. Will is the complete opposite to Marcus. He is a 36 year old who is in his own extended childhood, he is searching for his identity not wanting to lose his youth, he ‘prides himself on his cool’ and simply can’t find a way to grow up. It is when these two opposing characters meet that they soon act as catalysts for each other. From their dependence on others they find independence for themselves within one another.