ipl-logo

A Litany For Survival By Audre Lorde

631 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

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

Show More
Related

I Had Lived A Thousand Years By Livia Bitton-Jackson

684 Words | 3 Pages

In the book “I Had Lived A Thousand Years” by Livia Bitton-Jackson talks about Jews being tortured by the Germans. The Germans hate the Jews because they blame the Jews for losing World War 1. Ellie and her family were sent to concentration camps where they face their nightmares and are separated by the Germans. They were suffering, but were afraid to run away.

Read More

A Long Walk To Water By Linda Sue Park

206 Words | 1 Pages

The book "A Long Walk to Water" by Linda Sue Park explores the life of Salva, an 11-year-old boy living in South Sudan, after he is displaced by the Sudanese Civil War. First, in 1985, Salva and his classmates are instructed to run into the bush to escape the gunfire that was heard not far from the school. Then, he joins a group of travelers who are walking away from the war in Sudan, but they abandon him in a barn one evening while he is still asleep. After spending a few days with the barn's owner, Salva is sent away with a different group of travelers, must of whom accept him grudgingly. The group walks for a month toward Ethiopia, and eventually they arrive to the Itang refugee camp in Ethiopia.

Read More

Strength In What Remains By Tracy Kidder

1591 Words | 7 Pages

Between Remembering and Forgetting The book Strength In What Remains by Tracy Kidder, tells the journey of Deo, from his escape from Hutu-Tutsi genocide in the mid-1990s to the United States and back to Burundi. In his journey, Deo struggle’s against his memories of the genocide, he was faced with two different ways of dealing with his memories, to forget or to remember. In the first half of the book, Deo follows the Burundian concept of forgetting about the past, this is due too the unwillingness of victims to recall and, thereby, relive the violence and pain of their recent history. But as he went through his journey, he realizes that although he wants to forget his past tragedies, he was unable to do so.

Read More

Chains By Laurie Halse Anderson

965 Words | 4 Pages

Chains, a novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson follows a young enslaved girl named Isabel at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. Isabel is sold to Elihu and Ann Lockton, along with her five year old sister Ruth, after her original owner dies. The girls are shipped to the house and Ann Lockton, who demands to be called Madam Lockton, is terrible to them. She beats the girls and constantly yells at them. After this, Madam Lockton sells Ruth, making Isabel mad.

Read More

A Long Walk To Water By Linda Sue Park

441 Words | 2 Pages

People in Southern Sudan have dirty water, wild animals, the many wars and a lot more hardships they need to face. In the book “A long walk to water” by: Linda Sue Park, is a book that takes place in Southern Sudan and features all the hardships Salva and Nya had to face while living there such as wild animals, wars, fights through tribes, lack of water and food. Hardships Salva faced in Southern Sudan are lack of water/ food, the wild animals, and the fighting/ war. One of the hardships Salva had to face in Southern Sudan is lack of water and food. In chapters 3-4 Salva had gotten water from a woman older than Salva’s mother that he had met after he was left alone, the woman gave Salva a gourd of water and a bag of raw peanuts.

Read More

A Long Walk To Water By Linda Sue Park

290 Words | 2 Pages

Imagine you’re Salva, attending school and suddenly hearing a gunshot. The story “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park, tells about the journey of a young boy named Salva, living in a village called Loun-Ariik, located in Southern Sudan. Southern Sudan was in the middle of a war, this is one of the hardships Salva faced, along with lack of water, and lack of food. One day while Salva was in school, he heard a gunshot. He runs to a near bush, and this is what begins his long walk.

Read More

The Long Walk To Water By Linda Sue Park

786 Words | 4 Pages

In south sudan a civil war broke out that shut down refugee camps killed thousands and one of them killed by being tied to a tree and shot. The main character in the long walk to water by Linda Sue Park is a young boy named salva. Salva is a young boy that gets separated from his family and is picked at random to go start a life in the U.S. in his journey for safety he crosses through lion country, fast rivers, and the Akobo desert all with only the support of his uncle. Salva manages to overcome many dangerous animals, dangerous territories, and the lose of many loved ones through his journey to safety.

Read More

The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down By Anne Fadiman

1648 Words | 7 Pages

In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall down, Anne Fadiman reflected on ways in which cultural dissonance can have detrimental consequences for those who are caught in the midst of two cultures. In this influential story, the cultural and language barriers between Lia Lee’s family and her doctors caused Lia’s life to be negatively impacted due to improper diagnosis and treatment. The Lees preferred traditional and spiritual treatment that clearly differed from the doctors’ Westernized treatment. Through a constant battle between proper treatment and the Lee parent’s compliance, this caused Lia to live in a persistent vegetative state for the majority of her life. The language barrier that the Lee’s faced at Merced hospital was discouraging,

Read More

A Daily Joy To Be Alive By Jimmy Santiago Baca

750 Words | 3 Pages

In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, there is a constant struggle between individuals and their ability to shape their own identities. The play follows various characters that attempt to find the balance between dealing with hardships in life and their own personal desires. In contrast, “A Daily Joy to be Alive” by Jimmy Santiago Baca explores how individuals can strive to have control over their identities. External factors such as mental state, societal norms, and past behavior can limit an individual's ability to shape their own identity.

Read More

Year Of Wonders By Anna Frith

1098 Words | 5 Pages

Year of Wonders is set in Eyam, an actual village which was located in Derbyshire, England. Also known as the "plague village" for an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague in 1665 and 1666, the story of Year of Wonders is based off of this event. At the beginning of the book, Anna Frith is introduced to the readers as a house maid, mother of two young sons, and the narrator. Although she isn't a historical figure, through her eyes, the readers get to get an insight on what it was like living in the midst of a plague. As the story starts out, Anna is faced with the struggle of watching her friends (Anys and Mem) being accused by mobs of being witches because they are midwives who deliver newborns and use charms and herbs to heal the sick.

Read More

Chains By Laurie Halse Anderson

1633 Words | 7 Pages

It is a strange thing to think that a rich and greedy woman could have large similarities to a poor slave girl, taken away from her family at such a young age. Yet, this theory is not completely far-fetched. The story “Chains” by Laurie Halse Anderson opens up revealing Isabel’s character to the audience, and allows a first impression. She’s a curious and kind-hearted girl who has a younger sister, and her master had just previously died. She was promised freedom in her master’s will, but was sold at a tavern by her master’s nephew.

Read More

The Fear We Live With By Jeva Lange

1999 Words | 8 Pages

Mass shootings In the article, “The Fear We Live With” by Jeva Lange (2018) she explains how mass shootings have affected many lives in the United States. She points out that people are very afraid of how the shootings are happening too frequently and America does not care to do anything about it. Mass shootings happen too much in the world and there is not one way to fix them.

Read More

Hope In Night By Elie Wiesel

588 Words | 3 Pages

Camus said, 'Where there is no hope, one must invent hope. ' It is only pessimistic if you stop with the first half of the sentence and just say, There is no hope. Like Camus, even when it seems hopeless, I invent reasons to hope,” People often say that Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness, but what if there was no light? Elie Wiesel was almost 13 when he and his family and the rest of his town's Jewish population, were sent to the two confinement ghettos set up in sight. Elie Wiesel wrote this book to tell us his story and his experience in the Holocaust.

Read More

Elie Wiesel's Life Is Beautiful

953 Words | 4 Pages

"Live life to the fullest, and focus on the positive. " This quote by Matt Cameron (brainyquote) is telling us to live life freely and as best as we can. Life can be tough at times, but it's all on how you perceive your own life. Instead of going through the motions and letting life guide you, take life as a positive and live it to the fullest. In Elie Wiesel's (2006) book Night and the movie "Life is Beautiful" (2000), there are many different views and outlooks on life, but it's how you handle them that make it so much richer.

Read More

Examples Of Certainty

1096 Words | 5 Pages

Without one there is not the other. Doubt and certainty rely on each other, there is no such thing as certainty if there isn’t doubt. Our society relies on the fact that certainty can get us through life, that they can achieve whatever they put their mind to if they are certain they can. Everything that one holds true hasn't been proven wrong, but who says it couldn’t be? There is no such thing that says that if someone is so certain that they can do something, they will be able to conquer that.

Read More

More about A Litany For Survival By Audre Lorde

Related Topics

Open Document