“Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves.” - Thomas Carlyle best stated when he saw that within society no one wants to judged or be seen different, so silence was the best cure for them; in bottling up their real thoughts and emotions provided them with safety. In Audre Lord "The Transformation of silence into Language and Action," Lord saw her life as a secluded darkness that she continued to endure just to escape the risks of being judged, misunderstood or even killed for speaking the truth. Audre’s stand on silence strongly reflects Alifat Rifaat writing "Another Evening at the Club" on how silence affects the relationship between a husband and wife and the servant girl that works in their home.
Audre Lord story tells of silence and the many wrongs that can come from it, creating a bridge that disconnects her from other and even from her inner self. She want people to understand that the it will only cause obstacles in the future when bottle up their emotions and nothing will be able to get done if there is only one voice. She stated “To question or to speak as I believed could have met pain or death, ” but it was something she wanted people to shy away from; she wanted the gap that silence created to close up, and in doing so take on the risks of being judged, misunderstood, bruised, killed or wounded. Audre Lord wanted the information, the knowledge of women to be recognized and be told, to make a differences in others lives. Being Black, a women and a lesbian, she faced many obstacles, but judgment in herself, and taking on the transformation and responsibilities that her culture instilled in her gave her courage.
Audre Lord’s words are reflected in the situation of Alifat Rifaat story “Anot...
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...e herself from the same treatment she would have received had she been in the servant girls shoe. Keeping her out of the eyes of the public that would have judged her wrongly. At some point the wife did feel guilty of what she and her husband accused the servant girl off, but after her husband made the final decision, she was force to swallow her thoughts and emotions, bottle them, and move on smiling and being happy as a wife should.
In conclusion it is seen that both Audre Lord and Alifa Rifaat want to express their views on silence and the miscommunication and pain it can cause when someone does nothing about it, such as the husband and wife. Their will always be consequences to what anyone has to say but whether great or little, speaking and expressing a set of feeling will level the ground more for understanding and create a better relationships with others.
The black women’s interaction with her oppressive environment during Revolutionary period or the antebellum America was the only way of her survival. Playing her role, and being part of her community that is not always pleasant takes a lot of courage, and optimism for better tomorrow. The autonomy of a slave women still existed even if most of her natural rights were taken. As opposed to her counterparts
Revisiting the quote, one important symbol between the main characters is what silence portrays. As the quote states, Zeena’s voice was ...
Repeated images of Angela Bari living an imprisoned life in Voices by Dacia Maraini play an important role in book. The internal and external forces surrounding Angela Bari lead her to a life of confinement and domination. If Angela Bari had broken away from her confinement she may have prevented her untimely death by exposing the ill ways of her stepfather, Glauco Elia. Angela's secretiveness, self-doubt, and compliance with others lead her to victimization.
...disrespect from Tea Cake. She threatens him, saying if he leaves her again without her permission she will “kill yuh” (124). Within Janie’s past marriages her husbands treat her comparable to a slave and isolate her from the community. Even though her voice is still developing, she will not allow her husband to show her contempt. During the trial, Janie both matures and shows control over her voice, as she faces the horror of retelling the story of Tea Cake’s death to the court room. While giving her testimony, Janie knows when to talk; however, when she is through “she hushed” (187). By expressing and controlling her voice in court, Janie ultimately reveals her new found vocal maturity, but it is only because of her final marriage to Tea Cake that Janie finally develops an understanding of when and how to use her voice.
Even though this meant that she would not be able to see or interact with her children for all that time. The pain that she feels is evident when she says, “ At last I heard the merry laugh of children, and presently two sweet little faces were looking up at me, as though they knew I were there, and were conscious of the joy that imparted. How I longed to tell them I was there”(97). She tolerated being locked away in an enclosed dark space for 7 long years in order to free her children from the current master that owned them as slaves, showing how having someone to put ahead of yourself makes you stronger and more resilient as a
By the standards of the 1740s, this case should have been a draw. Their sole witness was a young, female servant. All three of those characteristics should have made her a null witness. Her status as a servant should have made her a bad witness by the standards of the day. Also, females at the time were not considered reliable witnesses and at many points in history, were not even allowed to testify in court.
...men who kept them in bondage and to sleep with them?” (6). Almost every night she would have to lie on her back and make love to her husband where she “unleashed [her] fury and [their] moments of love-making resembled a battle” (23) willingly or not. She was stripped of her body and womanly factors, and in her husband's eyes was made to be his sexual slave.
It revolves around the issues of gender oppression, sexual assault, and importance of social status. Alifa Rifaat manages to express her opinions towards these themes by writing about a typical Egyptian marriage. She puts in focus the strong influence that a patriarchal society has. She also manages to prove how important social status is in society. The uses of literally elements such as theme and irony help express this view. It shows that in a typical Egyptian society women are commonly oppressed by all males in society
But once the accusations started, she couldn’t back out for fear that her name would be ruined even more. She was just as scared as the other girls involved, but had to hide it behind the lies and cunning actions because she had no one to turn to in her time of need. She felt power, and like she had a place in life for once, when the other girls followed her and her decisions.
Poems have never been my favorite thing, however, the poems that I chose to analyze today were amazing. They had meaning that took me quite a while to understand, but in the end it all came together. Audre Lorde is a black, lesbian, published author, mother and self-proclaimed warrior.
One of the most influential writers Adrienne Rich once said, “She is afraid that her own truths are not good enough.” Adrienne Rich talks about women’s role and issues in her essay called “Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying”. She describes how women during the 1977 lied about everything. They lied about their appearance, their job, their happiness, and even about their relationship. Adrienne Rich is one of the most powerful writers, who identifies herself as lesbian feminists. Her work has been acknowledged and appreciated mainly in her poems. Throughout her decades of work as a writer-activist, Rich uses essays, speeches, and conference papers, magazine, articles book reviews, and personal reflection to articulate with stunning complexity issues of women’s freedom, individual identify and their roles in society. In her essay “Women and Honor: Some Notes of Lying” she articulate that women lie because of patriarchy and should be more truthful; however I partially agree and disagree with her statement. I believe that women today, in 2009 are more independent, self aware, and are careless about their surroundings and who they please.
She then moves on to be a gracious host to all of these men, again showing success in her womanly duties. Later that night one of the visitors, Sextus Tarquinis, comes into her room, and forces himself upon her, telling her that if she does not comply he will make it look like she had an affair with one of the servants (Livy, 101). She yields to him because she does not want it to seem as if she had an affair and is not able to explain what occurred.... ... middle of paper ...
Anne Bradstreet’s poem “The Author to Her Book” is her response to having her private poems published without her consent and having them be criticized by people that were not intended to see them. Bradstreet began to see the flaws in her work and wants to fix them but it is too late and they had already been released to the world. This experience by Bradstreet is something that is able to be related to at some extent by most individuals at some point in their life, including myself. In my life I have been forced to endure my fair share of betrayal, negative judgement for things that are out of my control, and developing a sense of dislike for something that I once loved because of influence of the loud opinions of others.
She seems to believe that manhood is the ability to perform acts of “direst cruelty” without remorse. Throughout the play we see that she worries her husband will not be man enough to do what she and him deem necessary to attain the throne. “Yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness . . .” She says. Constantly we see her telling her husband to “man up” - to stop feeling remorse or guilt or fear and to start behaving like she believes a man should; like a being with no guilt or remorse. However, it is this wish for her to lose all “passage to remorse” that eventuates in her death - her corruption - from the madness that comes upon her i...
By stating how other people behave or interact, the author offers a great chance for readers to interpret fairly for themselves what the reason for any conflict may be, or the nature of any essential contrast between the narrator and other adults in the story. In the story, there are many self-righteous opinions from people, which seem to be ironic to the readers; For example, her mother’s aggressive attitude of showing off her daughter, her piano teacher’s self-praise claiming him as “Beethoven.” All of the narrations including conversation clearly depict a different characteristic between the narrator and other people. For instance, a conversation occurs between the narrator and her mother when the mother criticizing a girl who seems similar to the author on TV which reveals dissimilar understanding for both of them to each other’s behavior. At first, the daughter speaks out for the girl by questioning her mother by saying “why picking on her […] She’s pretty good. Maybe she’s not the best, but she’s trying hard.” The daughter actually is defending for herself and reflecting that she feels uncomfortable with her mother’s disregard of her hard work. She wants to get her mother’s compliments instead of her criticisms. However, her mother response of, “just like you,” and, “not the best. Because you not trying.” Here, her mother doesn’t really answer her question, instead wants her put more effort on trying, neglecting how much she has tried before. However, in her mother’s perspective, she has never tried hard enough. By narratively stating the conversations she has encountered, readers perceive a strong implication of the reason for a future conflict between her and her mother.