ipl-logo

Analysis: 'Long Enough In Jo Burg'

848 Words4 Pages

“Shipmates” by Mere Collins and “Long enough in Jo’burg” by Zenga Longmore were written at the same time period and they focus on the issue of racial discrimination. Both of the texts have a common theme. Persona mentioned in the poem faces quandary while travels on public transport and experiences social alienation. Zenga Longmore travels with her brother and encounters a terrible case of racial discrimination. Although these texts were written at the same time period and have the same theme, they have different format: one is a poem and the other one is a magazine article, hence they have disparity in target audience. Even the extent of analysis of the racial discrimination is different because in the poem, author doesn 't talk about the issue as explicitly as the author of the magazine article who decries apartheid. …show more content…

Authors use their companions as a way to explore and present the issue. In the poem, persona sees how a black man feels uncomfortable and guilty travelling on a train just because of his race. Black man who entered the train is a complete stranger, yet persona scrupulously describes the “travveler.” She fully understands that traveller and feels empathy towards him. However, in the “ Long enough in Jo’burg” traveller’s companion is her own step-brother. By using “travel companions,” writers are trying not only to acquaint the the reader with racial issues but to show HOW these issues affect others in society. The extent and of the problem and the contexts of the encountered problems are different. In the poem, while narrator doesn 't explicitly discuss the issue of racial discrimination, she describes this problem as " life long practice.” On the other hand, author of the second text, explicitly detests what she has seen in the Johannesburg, but it 's her “first time

Show More
Related
170 Words | 1 Pages

In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis,” James Hurst uses the writing strategy of characterization in order to develop the central idea of brotherhood. For instance, brother helped Doodle move around with a go cart. According to the story, “It was about that time that daddy built him a go-cart and I had to pull him around.” This evidence clearly shows that “brother” cares for Doodle. Brother can be characterized as loving and caring towards Doodle.

Read More
193 Words | 1 Pages

The main idea of this entry is about the stereotypes that come along with racism. Also, Brent Staples wants his readers to realize how much colored people sacrifice from their normality in order to fit in with society, in hopes of not being attacked or offended. The author proves this in his entry by mentioning ‘innocent’ behaviors, such as singing Beethoven, that he did in public in order to relief those surrounding him from danger. Moreover, the author compared hikers to the country’s bears in order to provide readers with a valid connection between black and colored people. In addition to that, Brent Staples uses flashback as one of his techniques when sharing with us his encounters with white people, this gives readers an idea of how

Read More
631 Words | 3 Pages

In the novels, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, characters are depicted to face discrimination and inequality due to differences such as race and gender. Gender is a complex social construct that affects people in different ways. It plays a significant role in shaping one's identity, experiences, and opportunities in life. Both the protagonist Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God and Esch from Salvage the Bones face the majority of mistreatment due to their gender; this has a great impact on the lives of the protagonists and conjures conflict they encounter in the novel. In contrast, race, another social construct, is also a critical factor that influences one's experiences, opportunities,

Read More
1595 Words | 7 Pages

His experience with being born in Harlem and his role in the Civil Rights Movement influenced his writing to bring awareness to the events occurring in the black community and the reasoning behind them. With this, he draws attention to the idea of the lack of individualism black people faced in that time period which unfortunately continues today. Lastly, although they both were written in the same time period, they effectively demonstrate two different

Read More
1817 Words | 8 Pages

Instead, he implores them to be more political. His goal in writing is to make people aware of the social injustices occurring. The Negro writer who seeks to function within his race as a purposeful aren has a serious responsibility. In order to do justice to his subject matter, in order to depict Negro life in all of its manifold and intricate relationships, a deep, informed, and complex consciousness is necessary; a consciousness which draws for its strength upon the fluid lore of a great people, and more this lore with concepts that move and direct the forces of history today (Wright,

Read More
209 Words | 1 Pages

In Vonnegut’s story, everyone is completely equal. Nobody can be better than someone else, which is bad because that means that nobody can be unique. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s story, blacks and whites are not treated equal, but he wishes that they would be. He wants it to be a world where you look at a black and a white and see no difference. Both works show people trying to make an equal society.

Read More
556 Words | 3 Pages

They both faced discrimination and isolation because society viewed them as “different” for not conforming to the norms of society in their time

Read More
1468 Words | 6 Pages

In the above poem Ayim tries to fit in her hyphenated/two part identity into one inseparable whole. Although she states that: “[her] fatherland is Ghana, [her] mother tongue is German” (Ayim, Blues in Black and White 46), her Afro-German identity is adaptive to and inclusive in her surroundings: “I have been living and working in West Berlin and feel more at home in this city than anywhere else” (Blues in Black and White 47). However, racism causes her to feel estranged even after the unity of the two Germanys: “The new “We” in “this our country”—Chancellor Kohl’s favorite expression—did not and does not have a place for everyone” (Blues in Black and White 48). Not all immigrants are treated on equal footing. Some, including Black Germans of course, are categorized as foreigners “and cannot be real Germans” (Blues in Black and White 51).

Read More
1974 Words | 8 Pages

But they also both deal with choices and endurance of consequences from that choice. One of several particular elements in each of the stories that best emphasize the theme is the usage of figurative language in each text. Some of the different types of figurative language each author used is simile, personification, and metaphor’s. Another way that the author expressed the theme is in the story is the limitations of the American Dream for African Americans. Whereas in the poem, the author used sort of a cause and effect scenario.

Read More
650 Words | 3 Pages

The poem “Miscegenation” generally introduces a new concept of self-identification and identity, this is because in the past the matters of race were only evident in Americans-Africans, but it is a contentious issue. The poem explains the challenges she went through being a person of mixed race in her developmental years, therefore; lead her to experience a lot of discrimination. In the poem, Trethewey believes that the existing American laws were referencing the feelings of being different. It did cause her to doubt whether she is white, black or an individual of mixed race. During the 1960’s society did not approve of interracial marriages and considered it a sin.

Read More
967 Words | 4 Pages

The similarities and differences: Cultural Settings In novels, cultural and social setting can affect characters and the story in many ways. The social period of a story usually influences characters’ features, social and family roles, as well as sensibilities. In The Kite Runner, the story compiled of a mixture of Western culture and Afghan traditions while in Pride and Prejudice, the author displays the late eighteenth-century Britain and the Regency culture. Both of the novels, Kite Runner and Pride and Prejudice do correspond on certain things despite the differences they have in cultural context.

Read More
706 Words | 3 Pages

Poems can be analyzed in various ways ranging from their complexity to the emotions they convey to readers. The poems, “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes and “The Harlem Dancer” by Claude McKay will be analyzed based on their similarities and differences to name a few. The poems may describe different events; however the overall connection between the two can be identified by readers with deeper reading. Comparisons between the poems may easier to analyze and identify compared to the contrasts based on the reader’s perception. Overall, the concept and much more will reveal how the poems are connected and special in their own way.

Read More
1051 Words | 5 Pages

Although miscegenation is not a new topic, the effects that this phenomenon has on people’s lives has been the source of inspiration for many literary works. “Miscegenation” by Natasha Trethewey is an autobiographical poem that expresses the difficulty that mixed-race people face in accepting their identity in a society that discriminates people who are different. That is, this poem expresses how racial discrimination can affect the identity of those people who do not identify as white or black. Besides, in this poem, Trethewey narrates her origin, as well as how her parents were victims of a society that did not accept their relationship. Therefore, the speaker starts by saying “In 1965 my parents broke two laws of Mississippi” (Trethewey 1); those two laws that broke the Trethewey’s parents were that they were married and had a daughter.

Read More
514 Words | 3 Pages

First, they are written around the same time period and both about blacks being discriminated. Both the poems gave African Americans a little bit of hope that one day they will be allowed to be around whites and looked at as the same. These poems may be different, but they both have the same meaning. If anyone is going through a rough time in their life, they can overcome it. Blacks were treated terribly and went through some of the roughest times, but they never stopped fighting and never lost hope.

Read More
1701 Words | 7 Pages

Through calling the reader “a piece of rubbish … [unaware] that the people who inhabit this place … cannot stand you”, Kincaid emphasizes that the reader is part of this tourist stereotype that she describes throughout her message (Kincaid

Read More

More about Analysis: 'Long Enough In Jo Burg'

Related Topics

Open Document