The light of Gandhi’s lamp and letter from Birmingham jail both share similar social issues and cultural experiences, as felt by the individual authors. They both experience oppression by their government for its racist behaviors. In Gandhi’s lamp, the author, Hilary Kromberg Inglis, is waiting for her sister in police detention. She dreads the worst because of the apartheid government, who was oppressive and violent. “Throughout my childhood, there were other reminders of the injustice I first saw when I was six. Seeing so-called “terrorists” lying dead on the ground, trophy style, in SABC TV news bulletins, yet they seemed mere children to me. They couldn’t have been more than sixteen years of age. Or going to the school camp I went to when I was nine, where they taught us to “shoot” black cardboard cutouts in the middle of the night with our torches. How bizarre it seemed to me at that age—sleeping outside in the freezing cold, playing these war games, raising the flag and singing the national anthem military style every morning.” This quote first gives us real insight on what her childhood was like, and how she learned of the apartheid government and their cruel acts towards people of color and those who fight against them. It shows …show more content…
I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham Police
‘Don’t you know you’re not supposed to touch them,’” (Hoose 3). Throughout her childhood, she learned the hardships that would come to shape her resolve. Sadly, this is only one example to show, expressing the deep south racism through a simple quote to define what her childhood was primarily surrounded by. Not only seeing the injustice in her community from a young age, she also experienced loss:
Thoreau and M.L.K Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”, published in 1849, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, published in 1963, have profound similarities while still having underlying differences. The one of the most distinct similarities in “Civil Disobedience” and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” is the choice of action both authors decide to use, nonviolent measures, and who they are protesting against, which is government and its actions. On the same note, both essays express the dissatisfaction in the average white citizen’s acceptance for the status quo on slavery and then segregation. For example, both essays have a strikingly similar sentence; King states, “I had hoped that the white moderate
Also, all she has been through from picking cotton, and witnessing racism and segregation, she was able to experience the United States having the a African American president for the first
I'm sorry that I can't join you in your praise for the police department.” This means, Even though they are the ones harming people, police are receiving praise from all over the world. The demonstration was held not only to demand the release of negroes but also to expose the world to the atrocious behavior of the police. Fortunately, when he wrote the letter when he was imprisoned, it was seen by
On April 16th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. writes one of the most powerful and influential pieces in the nation’s history. King writes his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” after being sentenced to jail for protesting the mistreatment of blacks in Birmingham, Alabama. King passionately writes to defend fighting against racism to his fellow clergymen and responds to their concerns about taking direct action. To make his argument, King utilizes a series of literary nonfiction forms to provide a realistic image to his audience. Through doing this, King makes his argument stronger and more appealing to his audience.
Chris Hedges, a former war correspondent, has a memory overflowing with the horrors of many battlefields and the helplessness of those trapped within them. He applies this memory to write War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, where he tutors us in the misery of war. To accomplish this goal, Hedges uses impactful imagery, appeals to other dissidents of war and classic writers, and powerful exemplification. Throughout his book, Hedges batters the readers with painful and grotesque, often first-hand, imagery from wars around the globe. He begins the book with his experience in Sarajevo, 1995.
Her tone of voice, choice of words, and rhetorical questions moves people into thinking that the child labor laws are ridiculous and urges them to take action. The examples and words she uses was to show what goes behind the factory doors and what the country has turned to depend on. A nation is suppose to treasure and support the children in their education because they will become possible future leaders and live here. If a country depends on the work of children to support the production of goods, the future generation won’t be as educated as they should’ve been. She’s almost speaking the minds of the listeners through her rhetorical questions and answers them with what they should do if they don’t want this to continue.
“Ten Kliks South” v. Tina M. Beller “Ten Kliks South” by Phil Klay and Tina M. Beller’s e-mail found in The New Yorker both contain universal themes that clearly represent the lives and emotions of soldiers who are stationed overseas. For one, “Ten Kliks South” is a personal account of a narrator’s first experiences of death under the circumstances of war. Likewise, Beller’s e-mail is also a first-person report on a traumatic rocket bombing in Baghdad. Both of these pieces illustrate a common portrait, of which there are American soldiers in a foreign and unknown land, a day of violence, and the progression of that such violence into intensive contemplation on the soldier’s respective situations.
ISTORICAL CONTENT Sojourner Truth was a very strong speaker who had a very strong opinion on women's rights and equality among races. She was born into slavery but fought her way out. She spread the truth about slavery around the nation. In the 1850, slavery was a very important subject in America.
This quote is important because in the beginning she was feeling like the only colored person and then it moved to how she felt out of place at times. But in the end she sees that she has always been one. This narrative agrees with how I understand race, because we are all one.
Pitts uses emotion and logic to persuade the Americans that the terrorists can do what they want to us, but America is tough enough to handle it. In life everyone comforts each other in times of grieving. Pitts explains that this one small obstacle can 't stop
(Norzom). These words show how hard she had to work even to be recognized as a normal human being while living with the racism she was already facing on an everyday basis. The fact that Bolin demonstrates such a good illustration for women and children around the world truly made her stand
The war forces people into situations where the pressure is too much and the environment forces a change on how one views himself. Curt Lemon and Norman Bowker held themselves to standards that they couldn’t reach. They let the war determine how they live and who they would become. The war causes the human spirit to change so vastly that it leads to a demise, so quick and drastic, that it is hard to
She also spoke about different ways in which this oppression was resisted. An example of resisting subjectivity is what she called ‘infra-politics.’ What she means by this is to look within yourself and realize consciously that you are not what your suppressors say you are. By doing this, one can see their true potential as a human being and not view themselves using the definitions given to them by their
Zoe Wicomb’s novel, Playing in the Light (2006), is set in the 1990s in Cape Town, South Africa, post apartheid. The novel revolves around Marion, the protagonist, and her intricate relationship with Brenda, the first person of color she has ever employed at her travel agency business. This post apartheid novel offers interesting and an insightful viewpoint of South Africa following the fall of apartheid. By analyzing the passages in this novel, one will be able to better understand race in the context of South Africa.