The Necessity to Speak
On September 11th 2001 America was attacked. Two planes taken over by terrorists crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and one plane crashed into the Pentagon. For many it was disbelief, something out of a movie, but as the fateful day progressed reality struck hard. Thousands of people were lost in the rubble and hundreds more died trying to save them. For America it was a day of mourning, an event no one will ever forget. America's immunity to attack was broken and paranoia ran high. Millions of Americans focused on one man to set it right, the President of the United States. On September 20th President George W. Bush addressed the nation. It was a speech written by many people, composed of words carefully selected to not offend the innocent and to demand punishment for the guilty. In Sam Hamill's essay, "The Necessity to Speak", Hamill believes we must acknowledge the violence both done to us and to other people, to bear witness to good and to evil, and to call things by their proper name. This idea mocks the blank neutrality of Bush's speech where the wrongs done to us are the only wrongs worth mentioning and we are blind to the events around us.
Hamill believes that "writing is a form of human communication expressing ideas regarding the human condition." (457) In the week following the attacks President Bush made it clear that he is also guilty of that human condition. In his speeches and writings that ensued he rallied the country a little too much. (Max para. 1) His language was undisciplined and seemed to be inappropriate for the civility that our country has always shown. "He called the terrorists 'folks' and referred to the coming battle as a 'crusade'. He called for 'reven...
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...The Necessity to Speak". Writing As Re-Vision: A Student's Anthology. Mass: Simon & Schuster, 1998.
Max, D.T. "The 2,988 Words That Changed a Presidency: An Etymology." The New York Times. 7 Oct. 2001.
O'Brien, Time. "How To Tell A True War Story". Writing As Re-Vision: A Student's Anthology. Mass: Simon & Schuster, 1998.
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Frederick Douglass was born in Talbot County, Maryland around the year 1817 or 1818. Soon after Douglass was born, he was separated from his mother and was sent to Baltimore to work as a servant. Since he was separated from his mother at such a young age, Douglass did not develop a bond with her. After her death, he stated, “Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt the death of a stranger” (Douglass). It’s truly sad that he felt no emotions after loosing his own mother, it’s also sad that he was separated from her at such a young age, that no bond between the two had been created. Douglass never met his father, though he was told he was a white man.
These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.” George Bush was president at the time when the 9/11 attack happened. George Bush wrote this quote for the thousands of lives that were hugely affected. To the kids worried about their parents while they are in school, to the worried husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters. The 9/11 attack did not only change the lives of people who lost a loved one, and the people who were there where the planes hit, but also people who just saw what was happening and people who heard about it, cried. The increase and patriotism and the rise in security will make people feel more secure and protected but it will never change the the amount of people affected by 9/11. Millions of people around the world know about what happened on September 11th, 2001. Millions of people will be changed
King, Rosemary. "O'Brien's 'How to Tell a True War Story.'" The Explicator. 57.3 (1999): 182. Expanded Academic ASAP.
When first introduced to Douglass and his story, we find him to be a young slave boy filled with information about those around him. Not only does he speak from the view point of an observer, but he speaks of many typical stereotypes in the slave life. At this point in his life, Frederick is inexperienced and knows nothing of the pleasures of things such as reading, writing, or even the rights everyone should be entitled to. Douglass knowing hardly anything of his family, their whereabouts, or his background, seems to be equivalent to the many other slaves at the time. As a child Frederick Douglass sees the injustices around him and observes them, yet as the story continues we begin to see a change.
Schmidt, Michael. “Fatal Bombs in Iraq Seemed Aimed at Militia.” The New York Times. 09 Feb. 2011. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.
O’Brien, Tim. “How to Tell a True War Story.” The Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Print.
Douglass gave many important details on how slaves were treated in the early United States. He gives in depth insight on the brutality of how a master treated slaves, “for a slave with knowledge.” Douglass explains in his autobiography how he was unaware of his position as a slave when he was a child but learned quickly from experience around the plantation he was reared. He wrote about how he didn’t know much about his mother, masters thought it was ideal to remove the mother from the child as soon as a year of the child being born in order to remove any attachment from each other in order for them to serve as better slaves. He also illustrates how he and other slaves living conditions with a monthly allowance of eight pounds of pork or its equivalent in fish as well as one bushel of corn meal. For the adults where given basically one outfit that would serve its purpose for one year, if not they would go without for the rest of the year. As for the children they were given only two coarse lien shirts and if not they would be naked for all that year as well. Douglas described that he and the other slaves all had something in common the hard dirt floor on which they al...
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, was the first of the three autobiographies that Frederick Douglass wrote himself. It’s a story about slavery and the meaning of freedom of the antebellum America. According to The Free Dictionary, Slavery is defined as the state or condition of being a slave; a civil relationship whereby one person has absolute power over another and controls his life, liberty, and fortune (freedictionary.com). Frederick Douglass’s book is about a bondage he obtained since birth; a slave for life. He was separated from his mother, Harriet Bailey, at birth and knew his father was white male. He lived on the “Great House Farm” plantation for his younger years; this is where he saw his first violent act towards a slave. Douglass went through many ups and downs. At the age of seven, he was moved to another house where he first learned reading and writing. However, He was beaten brutally so he can be “broken” into a good disciplined slave. Douglass describes many elements in his narrative; Douglass explains how slaveholders were able to sustain themselves with their actions. Frederick describes the ways the slaves stayed where they were and did not attempt to escape. He also addresses a number of myths created by slaves and slaveholders that he wishes to prove wrong. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Frederick Douglass describes the ways a slaveholder sustain their actions, ways a slave was kept from escaping and proves the myths of slaves and slaveholders wrong.
Briscoe, Daren, The Green Beret Murders Haven’t Given Up. Newsweek, August 30, 2004. Vol. 144, Issue 9, p6, 4/5p, 1c. Retrieved from EBSCO database on the World Wide Web: http://web3.epnet.com/
Frederick Douglass’s narrative unveils a large number of ways in which African Americans suffered under the oppression of slavery. For instance, many slaves including Douglass himself, did not know their own birthdays or much of their own family history. This was most likely the result of slave children being separated from their actual blood relatives either at birth or due to being sold to different slave owners.
In sum, all of these key arguments exist in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” because of the institution of slavery and its resulting lack of freedom that was used to defend it. This text’s arguments could all be gathered together under the common element of inequality and how it affected the practical, social, and even spiritual lives of the slaves.
Currently, I am working on 2 separate undergraduate research projects at my home institution. During the fall of 2013 an undergrad student and I began another p...
King, Rosemary. "O'Brien's 'How to Tell a True War Story.'" The Explicator. 57.3 (1999): 182. Expanded Academic ASAP.
Several stories into the novel, in the section, “How to tell a true war story”, O’Brien begins to warn readers of the lies and exaggerations that may occur when veterans tell war stories.
The Narrative of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass is written to have people place their feet in the shoes of Frederick Douglass and try to understand the experience he went through as a slave. Douglass writes this piece of literature with strong wording to get his point across. He is not trying to point out the unpleasant parts of history, but to make people face the truth. He wants readers to realize that slavery is brutalizing and dehumanizing, that a slave is able to become a man, and that some slaves, like himself, have intellectual ability. These points are commonly presented through the words of Douglass because of his diction.