In the most difficult situations hope is the only thing is left. Do Not Go Gentle by Sherman Alexie relates the story of a desperate Indian American couple trying to find a way to make their son wake up from his coma. One day, the grieving father leaves the hospital to buy a gift for his son hoping that he will recover. The father innocently enters a little shop called Toys in Babeland. This place was not a regular baby’s toy shop; it was an adult toy store. While he is looking, he is impressed by a device called Chocolate Thunder. In his mind, this huge, battery-powered vibrator is a powerful symbol of sex. He assumes that if sex brings babies to life, then perhaps it could be used as a tool to heal his child. He buys it and runs back to the hospital. When he gets to the hospital, he turns it on leaving other parents and hospital staff in shock. After a few minutes, they understand his intentions and decide to enjoy the fun. Hope plays a huge role in this short story. It is what takes the desperate father to the point where he finds a symbol of sex as the key to wake up his baby from his coma. People’s hopes, in this case, parents’, change their perspective and the way they look at things. People should realize that things are not always what they seem to be. Instead of looking at the vibrator with eyes of perversion, the Indian couple and the parents in the hospital look at it as their spark of hope.
There are many things out there that symbolize what hope is. It is kind of odd to put someone’s hopes in something like a vibrator. But the Indian couple had their own reasons and beliefs:
Maybe it was blasphemous, and maybe it was stupid and useless, but we were all sick and tired of waiting for our babies to die. We wanted our b...
... middle of paper ...
...errifying fears.
Works Cited
Alexandra M. Levine, MD. The Importance of Hope. West J Med: May 1989. The National Center for Biotechnology. Web. US National Library of Medicine. 25 Apr. 2014.
Alexie, Sherman. Do Not Go Gentle. Baym, Nina, ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 2. Shorter 7th ed. New York: Norton, 2008. Print
Elysium. Dir. Neill Blomkamp. Prod. Bill Block and Simon Kinberg. By Neill Blomkamp. Perf. Matt Damon and Alice Braga. TriStar Pictures, 2013. Film.
Gerhartz, Daniel F. Dawn of Hope. 1965. West Bend Art Museum, Wisconsin.Art Renewal. Fred Ross, 15 Apr. 2007. Web. 25 Apr. 2014.
Jackson, Michael, and Lionel Richie. We Are the World. USA for Africa. Rec. 7 Mar. 1985. Michael Jackson, 1985. Www.azlyrics.com. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. MP3.
Kimmel, Elizabeth C. Balto and the Great Race. New York: Random House for Young Readers, 1999. Print.
In the second half of her book, Cooper addresses America’s race problem. She argues that, yes, there is a problem concerning race in America and the only way that it will eventually be solved is by the power and grace of God. U...
Despite the prejudice, hate and violence that seem to be so deeply entrenched in America's multiracial culture and history of imperialism, Takaki does offer us hope. Just as literature has the power to construct racial systems, so it also has the power to refute and transcend them. The pen is in our hands. Works Consulted -. Takaki, Ronald.
Christopher Paul Curtis wrote The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 throughout the course of 1995. The novel follows the Watsons, a black family living in Flint, Michigan during the Civil Rights Era. In a historical context, 1963 and the early 1990s have far more in common than one would expect. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 following the church bombing in Birmingham, and yet race-based discrimination remains a problem even in our modern society via passive racism. This paper will analyze the ways in which Curtis’ The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 draws parallels between the time in which his is writing during and the time in which he is writing about. This analysis will also shed light on what can be called the “white standard,” wherein all things white are “good” or “better” and anything not-white is “bad.”
Bibliography:.. Works Cited Meyer, M., Ed., (1999). Bedford Introduction to Literature, 5th Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
...by Charles W. Mills, the author attempts to provide an explanation for the way that race plays a role in our society, and how it has reached this particular point. Not only does Mills’ work provide some explanation in regards to this matter, but other notable texts and documents connect to his ideas as well, such as Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s, “Racial Formation in the United States,” and the remarks made by Abraham Lincoln in “The Lincoln-Douglas Debates.”
Glazer, Nathan. Beyond the Melting Pot. Boston, MA. The M.I.T. and Harvard University press. 1963
Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.
Magill, Frank. Survey of American Literature. Vol. 6 Ste-Z 1885-2224. Marshall Cavendish Co. New York. Copyright 1991. Edited by Frank Magill.
Perkins, Geroge, and Barbara Perkins. The American Tradition in Literature. 12th ed. Vol. 2. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. Print
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Perkins George, Barbara. The American Tradition in Literature, 12th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. Print
Baym, Franklin, Gottesman, Holland, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 4th ed. New York: Norton, 1994.
Baym, Nina et al. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 8th ed. New York:
Belasco, Susan, and Linck Johnson, eds. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 1, 2nd Ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 1190-1203. Print.