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Mahatma Gandhi's Lamp Analysis

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The light of Gandhi’s lamp and letter from Birmingham jail both share similar social issues and cultural experiences, as felt by the individual authors. They both experience oppression by their government for its racist behaviors. In Gandhi’s lamp, the author, Hilary Kromberg Inglis, is waiting for her sister in police detention. She dreads the worst because of the apartheid government, who was oppressive and violent. “Throughout my childhood, there were other reminders of the injustice I first saw when I was six. Seeing so-called “terrorists” lying dead on the ground, trophy style, in SABC TV news bulletins, yet they seemed mere children to me. They couldn’t have been more than sixteen years of age. Or going to the school camp I went to when I was nine, where they taught us to “shoot” black cardboard cutouts in the middle of the night with our torches. How bizarre it seemed to me at that age—sleeping outside in the freezing cold, playing these war games, raising the flag and singing the national anthem military style every morning.” This quote first gives us real insight on what her childhood was like, and how she learned of the apartheid government and their cruel acts towards people of color and those who fight against them. It shows …show more content…

I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham Police

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Her tone of voice, choice of words, and rhetorical questions moves people into thinking that the child labor laws are ridiculous and urges them to take action. The examples and words she uses was to show what goes behind the factory doors and what the country has turned to depend on. A nation is suppose to treasure and support the children in their education because they will become possible future leaders and live here. If a country depends on the work of children to support the production of goods, the future generation won’t be as educated as they should’ve been. She’s almost speaking the minds of the listeners through her rhetorical questions and answers them with what they should do if they don’t want this to continue.

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