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A Litany For Survival By Audre Lorde

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Recommended: Life and death in literature

Enjoy life while you still can(temporary title) Death is an inevitable thing that will come to everyone when their time on Earth is finished, and it is why you should embrace the fact that we are all mortal, because one day it will be all over for you. Audre Lorde’s poem, “A Litany for Survival”, emphasizes the theme of survival with powerful images that Lorde uses to connect to the importance of preserving and surviving in the dangerous world we live in. The first-person speaker discussed how they “were never meant to survive”, which could seemingly mean that this was due to the amount of fears that caused negative emotions for the speaker and others to have to live with until their death came. Firstly, Lorde would state the following metaphors and one simile which all connect to the embracing of life and death for the current and future generations. She states that, “like bread in our children’s mouths/so their dreams will not reflect/ the death of ours/”, is a way to say that the preciousness of life and the desire to have a future where one’s children can have enough to eat. Also, there is hope that future generations, specifically their children and grandchildren, will be able to live in a world free of oppression and violence. Overall, Lorde was able …show more content…

She states that, “For those of us/ who were imprinted with fear/like a faint line in the center of our foreheads/”, this refers to the psychological trauma experienced by those who have experienced systems of oppression. And that it is a lasting imprint that trauma can have on a person’s state of being. This could be another reason as to why the speaker and others were never meant to survive since it might even mean that they committed suicide and these beings say they were never mean’t for survival simply because they thought that they didn’t have a purpose of living and enjoying life while they still

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