Opening her piece with an anecdote, supported by her reflective tone, Smith captivates the audience towards her own experiences of a mother. Her invigorating story of her three toddlers “squabbling” and “constant demands” obliges the reader to be more interested in what she is saying as it is a relatable situation for most mothers. Furthering upon this, Smith shifts to an informative tone as she addresses the epidemic of obese children due to “spending over 70% of their days being sedentary”, confronting the parents with shocking statistics, the parents of young children are aroused by fear and is urged to reconsider their responsibility as a parent. Moreover, Smith confidently provokes the readers by asking them rhetorical questions and then answering them, proving that the answer is obvious, just like the problem. Hence, Smith’s use of a visual representation of two children who are projected as disconnected and slightly inhumane, digs into the emotions of the audience, creating an impersonal and sinister mood.
In the second half of the Canadian novel Lullabies for Little Criminals, author Heather O’Neill continues to illustrate and conclude the development of the themes of loss of innocence and love. Baby’s negative life decisions, such as delinquency, prostitution, and drug addiction are elements of her need to feel a sense of belonging and affection. Unfortunately, the lack of her family’s presence causes her to seek appreciation in the wrong places. Although Baby may be innocent, she is also vulnerable as she is so oblivious to real life. As her exposure becomes greater, her character slowly begins to deteriorate in the last half of the novel.
Audrey Petty uses “Late Night Chitlins with Momma” to express her own close bond with her mother and how it shaped her identity; this is expressed through the narrative style, the diction and syntax, the use of food as a metaphor, and the short story’s structure. Narratively this piece does an incredible job of making the reader feel personally invested in the story. The way Audrey Petty does this is through a multitude of techniques. The point of view is a first person omnipotent, allowing for a closer read to the narrator themselves; the narrative flow is akin to being told the story verbally instead of the traditional 3rd person omnipotence.
As time presses on we can always look back at poetry to truly understand the emotions that were evoked at the time. In "The Pioneer Women" and "Grandma's Apron. " we are faced with similar although not exactly identical themes and imagery that conduct elements of interest in reference to daily life and objects that hide the truth of what we know. In “The Pioneer Women” we are shipped back to the west and the start of America; more specifically in the work of women.
Normally, a house with young children is usually a vibrant and loud setting with the expectation of a mother who is without a break in order to tend to their every need. However, this mother’s world appears to be at a standstill or even perhaps at a breaking point as described in this section: “Sometimes there were things to watch-- the pinched armor of a vanished cricket, a floating maple leaf,” (8-10). She is most likely searching for ways to see her way out of her current situation or to fantasize a world where she can be at peace. She tries to focus on the simplicities of life such as the “floating maple leaf” (8). This mostly due to her hopes that life would slow down for a moment and so she could find some peace as well.
In this poem it shows just how hard this life was for little kids “I have a little boy at home, A pretty little son; I think sometimes the world is mine. In him my only one… Before dawn my labor drives me forth. TIS the night when I am free; a stranger am I to my child; and he one to me” (Document 2). This document shows that both she and her son work in the factories. They work so much that they have become strangers because they never see each other.
Her gaze is not towards us, her empty and cold gaze towards something else, maybe towards the endless fields, maybe towards some hope, it did not meet the camera lance. Her portrait depicts a moment of her own uncertainty, it does not require her name, silently expresses the agitation for her children. Dirty, seedy clothes and blank posture signify the hard work and limitations of the laboring class. As well as the involuntary gesture of her right arm, which reaching up to touch her chin also communicates the tension of her. Physical strength and limitless worry, a capable hand of productive labor and motionless absent-mindedness illustrate the futility.
Daughters of the Destruction of Visual Pleasure In 1991, Julie Dash directed an independent film classic, Daughters of the Dust, a narrative revolving around three generations of Geechee women preparing to migrate to the north, dealing with themes such as history preservation, tradition vs modernity, and black feminism perspective. Not only did Dash garner critical acclaim for being the first black female director to project a film for theatrical distribution, but also one of the few films to feature women of color as agents of change in the non-linear narrative, rather than excessive character additions. A recurring conflict in cinematic industry stems from how filmmakers construct men as protagonists and women as spectacle of objectification and source of erotic pleasure. Additionally, misrepresenting women to satisfy the male gaze establishes a problematic cinematic expectation on the roles normally fulfilled, constructing this unfair myth that psychologically and methodically reoccurs in the mindset of both male and female audience members, flawed by the illusion that the film represents truth.
Julia Alvarez, in her poem “’Poetry Makes Nothing Happen’?”, writes that poems do play a role in people’s lives. She supports her idea by using relateable examples of how poems might change someone’s life. Her first example is simple, poetry can entertain someone on long drives. This does not only aply to long dirves however, Alvarez uses this to show that poetry does not have to have a big influence on someone’s life, instead it can affect a person in the smallest of ways, such as entertainment. The second example describes poetry comforting someone after the loss of a loved one.
Lola takes advantage of her deteriorating mother whose illness represents the declining hold of the norms over Lola. Since her mom “will have trouble lifting her arms over her head for the rest of her life,” Lola is no longer afraid of the “hitting” and grabbing “by the throat” (415,419). As a child of a “Old World Dominican Mother” Lola must be surrounded by traditional values and beliefs that she does not want to claim, so “as soon as she became sick” Lola says, “I saw my chance and I’m not going to pretend or apologize; I saw my chance and I eventually took it” (416). When taking the opportunity to distinguish herself from the typical “Dominican daughter” or ‘Dominican slave,” she takes a cultural norm like long hair and decides to impulsively change it (416). Lola enjoyed the “feeling in [her] blood, the rattle” that she got when she told Karen to “cut my hair” (418).
As a photographer myself, the theory of punctum is not unknown to me; however, the application of the concept of punctum towards the perfomativity of a photograph is unchartered territory. The photograph I chose to analyze is Dorothea Lange’s renowned portrait Migrant Mother, which is a Great Depression-era photograph featuring a migrant farmer, and is among the most famous photographs from this turbulent chapter of American history. The raw emotion in the mother’s face, paired with her body language and grimy appearance, captivates viewers; however, it is not the mother that makes this image so powerful to me, but rather, the turned away children framing their mother. This detail adds a new dimension to the portrait for me.
Written post World War II, in a time when mourning soared above all else, Joanna H. Wos wrote the short story “The One Sitting There”. Written to aid her in mourning of her sister’s death due to starvation in war, Wos takes on a childlike bitterness in her writing. This bitterness stemming from her abundance of food juxtaposed with her sister’s lack of food explains her stubborn refusal to throw the food away. Wos presents a child-like tone through her syntax of telegraphic sentences. Furthermore, she discloses certain personal memories through flashback to compare the importance of food when it abounds to when it does not.
By removing her costume the narrator feels that she has returned to her role of being ignored by her father. As herself, she does not feel as though she has a presence. The closing line of the poem perhaps provides the most poignant moment where the narrator returns to the “real world of the kitchen” which she acknowledges her attempts at adventure are all for naught (29). There’s a sense of dissatisfaction with her situation and a sadness of becoming just another worker in the
This shows what she had to endure to try to keep her baby healthy. It appeals to the loving protective side of the reader. It makes them think about what the baby must be going through beacuase of their economic situation. Rhetorical questions are used to directly engage the
‘A Mother In A Refugee Camp’ is a tragic and emotive poem, written by Chinua Achebe. The poet describes the hardship of refugee camps and the difficulty of accepting the death of those you truly care about. The poem exemplifies this struggle by describing the mother’s love for the child through direct description of the “mother’s pride” and her “tenderness for” her son. The word “pride” makes her feelings clear and the use of the comparison to “Madonna and Child” amplifies her tenderness. The poet lists tactile imagery which emphasise the mother’s loving actions, “she had bathed him And rubbed him down with bare palms”.
