The poem, “Mother To Son”, will be discussed over these next 5 paragraphs on how it connects to perseverance. Mother to Son is a poem based on a mother discussing and describing to her son on how her life was growing up. She references to “ Crystal Stairs”, as a figure on life. The mother in the story has been through harsh times. One of her quotes was “ Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”. Her meaning this, means that life for her isn’t easy. Being that she is black and back then, in the 1980’s and 90’s, growing up black was tough because of discrimination, racism, and police brutality. We were forced to make a stand with leaders like Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. With the march and the legendary speech Dr. King delivered to the community that day made black people …show more content…
What this quote means is the “fight or flight” mindset. Fight or flight means to face your fears and obstacles head on without backing down. Through this mindset you have to have perseverance to guide yourself through tough times, and face things you might not feel comfortable doing. During a time like this, the world faces challenges like the shooting of Michael Brown. In which, the mom of Michael had to persevere past her own sons death. It's tough when something as critical as your son’s death is your obstacle to overcome. The last main idea is, when the mother in the poem said, “I’se been climbing on”. What this quote means is that, through the tough times she has been through, she still pushes on. This should be a mindset of all people. She proved that through the hard times, you still can do better, well, and beat the odds. Maybe you are going through a tough time and just don't think you can get past it, have faith and persevere through that hard time. Life is hard, but sometimes you gotta keep your head up, don't give up, and push through
In the article “The Amazing Powers Of Jen Bricker,” by Kristin Lewis, it talks about A girl named Jen, who had a disability, she was also adopted by the Bricker Family. Also a poem called “Can’t,” by Edgar Albert, talks about the word can’t and what it really means. The quote from Helen Keller, “Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow,” means that you should always stay optimistic and determined, this relates to both the article and the poem because the both talk about optimism. First off, Jen had a disability that she overcame by being optimistic and determined.
This poem is a representation of not only her immense grieving for her father, but how she used this low point in her life to evolve as an individual and make peace with her loss. Tracy K Smith’s poem
This form of oppression was known as Jim Crow laws, which allowed a sort of legal discrimination towards Blacks. The need for a march was first thought of in the early 1940’s when A. Philip Randolph who was the president of the Negro American Labor Council wanted to combat discriminatory hiring toward African Americans. Fast forward to 1963, the year that the March On Washington occurred, America hit the 100th year mark for the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation set forth by Abraham Lincoln. This was a reminder to the nation of the need to alleviate racial tension. With that being said, people from all different races set aside their differences in order to collaborate for the march.
That’s how the March on Washington came to light. Before the march, Martin Luther King was trying to make an agreement with President Kennedy about allowing blacks to vote. They never got back an offer they liked, so they decided to march on August 28, 1963. Many people showed up that day, curious about what was going to be said. There was a lot of praying, and a lot of singing.
A highly influential event of that year was Dr.King's "I Have a Dream'' Speech. While addressing a diverse crowd of white and black people at the
After being told to wait and wait and not getting anything that they asked for or even getting a response from the political leaders, they wanted their voices to be heard, but they tried to do it off the streets but no one would listen. Protesting was the only way for their voices to be heard. In the end Dr. King’s protest(s) changed the world to how it is today. We have come a long way since the time of segregation. Today black people have the same rights as everybody in America and even in the world.
The transcendentalists thought that individuality and self-reliance was true. For example Emerson says in his essay from self-reliance to “speak your latent conviction and it shall be the universal sense”. This means that you need to stop holding what you are holding back from saying and just say what you want to say. Theses song help represent that.
Speaking of Courage and Cowardice… In the novel The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien brings up the subjects of courage and cowardice in a number of situations. O’Brien elaborates on both, the concept of cowardice, and the concept of courage, generally, and even brings examples of cowardly actions, and courageous ones. Although, something that is notable in his description of courage and cowardice is that he does not draw a clear line between the two.
Nice response Adriana! The March on Washington was such a historical moment, especially with Martin Luther King Jr 's speech still being talked about in classrooms today. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom really revealed not only that goals in the Emancipation Proclamation had been unmet, but also that there were very high levels of African American unemployment with minimal wages at the time. It 's not hard to see why the March was so successful and why it pushed JFK to begin a strong federal civil rights bill in
On August 28th, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King held one of the most powerful and influential speeches in human history. The speech was held in front of more than 200 000 people and concerned the injustices of discrimination of African Americans which was taking place in the United States at the time. In his first statement he says: “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.” With this introduction Mr. King firmly states what the essence of his speech will be.
According to Tero Liukkonen, a critic, James Baldwin’s writing is known for his “sexual and personal identity and civil rights struggles in the United States” which is evident in his short story Sonny’s Blues. It presents suffering and survival within the black community and throughout the characters family as well. Sonny’s Blues takes place in Harlem, New York in 1950’s were the Narrator, an unnamed character, as well as his older brother Sonny, tells the story. Characters like the Narrator, Sonny and their mother are strongly impacted by the pain of their families suffering. Throughout the short story, each character understands his/her own suffering and plan to attain a better life.
There is such a bigger meaning to these poems on overcoming hardships in life that everyone has to go through. To not give up and to fight for what is
The poem really expresses how one mother values her son, and tells you how kids grow up to fast and she believes that her little boy cannot handle the challenges life throws at you. At the end of poem, the mom is surprised that her son learns to get out of the chains and get past the challenges he has been through. Families will always have a strong bond and it can never be broken, no matter what life throws at your family, you will always get though it and find new ways to make your relationship even stronger. Later in life as the kids get older, they learn that their mom will not always be there for you, so they start to get close with their mom and they realize all the wonderful things your mom did for you.
She is referring to the subjection to bullying that most of the children receive in their daily life, and the hard times they face while they are out in the real world. It can also reflect her experience as an African American and the different types of bullying she got subjected to in her childhood. The final stanza contains only four lines which is relatively short compared to the previous
As you may know, Martin Luther King was involved greatly in the Civil Rights Movement. He was the person to speak his mind and explain that what was happening was not right. African Americans marched to Washington DC, which was where he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28, 1963. This was called the Million Man March. He was a very brave man to do this because he knew that there would be consequences.