ipl-logo

Summary Of Song Of The Hummingbird By Graciela Limon

1316 Words6 Pages

Song of the Hummingbird by Graciela Limon is about the fall of the Aztecs at the hands of Cortes and Spanish conquerors from the point of view most people never learn about--the Aztecs. The story takes place in 1582, when an indigenous woman, Huitzitzilin, also known as “Hummingbird”, recounts her story about the coming of Cortes and the Spanish to a young Spanish monk, Father Benita Lara. Father Benita Lara realizes that Huitzitzilin’s views on the events don’t aline with what was taught in Spain and he becomes intrigued by her version of what happened. Song of the Hummingbird emphasises several important topics: clash of cultures, strength, betrayal and acceptance, and the truth behind history. I enjoyed reading this book because it allows …show more content…

Huinitzinitilin is the perfect example to prove that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger because she has been through so much in her life and still managed to be strong and tenacious when times were tough. When the Spanish took over the native Aztec people, they gave them Christian names. When Benita asks for Huinitzinitilin’s Christian name because it’s necessary for him to know she has a Christian name, she says, “You mean you have to make sure that I have been robbed of everything, even my name.” This shows how the Aztecs had absolutely everything taken away from them that made them in-touch with their culture, including their names. Huinitzinitilin’s name means “hummingbird” in her native language, but she cannot even be called that because of the Spanish who renamed her. After explaining a hardship she went through, Huinitzinitilin says, “I was alive, and never again would this happen to me. When I opened my eyes, I realized that I would be free because pain had liberated me” because although she had felt weak, she came back to being the strong woman she was. Remembering that what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger has made me into a better person because I know that no matter what life throws at me, anything is possible as long as I

Show More
Related
1181 Words | 5 Pages

Conquistador, written by Buddy Levy about the famous ventures of Hernan Cortes, places the reader in the 16th century, or the era c.1450-c. 1750 ce. During this time, the idea of exploration was spreading quickly, as kingdoms and empires in Europe sought to expand their territory. Portugal, with Spain following after, led the way for exploration as they headed south. Spain, however, ventured west, driven by a patriotic attitude of expanding past their borders. Levy tells the story of Hernan Cortes, originally setting sail from Spain, as he sailed from Cuba to the shores of Mexico in 1519, eager about the discovery of new lands.

Read More
683 Words | 3 Pages

Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez is the inspiring story about the four Mirabal sisters who grew up in the dictatorship of the Dominican Republic. The novel depicts the events that leads up to the deaths of three of the sisters: Patria, Maria Teresa, and Minerva and shows how the remaining sibling, Dedé, deals with both grief and regret. Alvarez explores the dangerous history of the Hispanic Caribbean through fiction in hopes that her readers will be able to truly grasp the impact the lives of the Mirabals had on the Dominican Republic. While many different topics are discussed in the book, the violation of human rights and political unrest is what drives the plot of the book.

Read More
1439 Words | 6 Pages

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez is a novel that explains about the brutal dictatorship that the Dominican Republic was under and how 4

Read More
1228 Words | 5 Pages

During World War II, the German Reich marched across the entire continent of Europe. During the Holocaust, many people became discouraged and lost hope in the future of society. However, the excerpts from “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl,” written by herself, and “Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, prove that being positive and persevering is the best thing that someone can do. Whether hiding from the Nazis or already taken by them, the best response to have during conflict and chaos is maintaining a positive outlook on life and to persist through difficult times.

Read More
756 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel, a girl named Hannah (Chaya) shows us to not take for granted what the survivors of the Holocaust lost. In the book, Hannah is transported back in to time to WW2. Her “aunt” Gitl, was a very strong woman who took after Hannah. During this time the war was at its highest, and Gitl was talking about the Jews situation in all of this, “We Jews like to joke about death because it’s what you laugh at and make familiar no longer frightens you.”(p82). When Gitl says this she laughs through it to release the pain of knowing that she might not come back alive.

Read More
1516 Words | 7 Pages

Madison Link Lord Fleenor AP Literature 14 December 2015 Hummingbirds Cannot be Ignored Indecision: the inability to make a resolution effectively (Houghton 690). Beauty: physical attributes that pleases aesthetic senses (Houghton 120-121). Time: the infinite progress of circumstances in the past, present, and future regarded as one entity (Houghton 1418). In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, the humming bird embodies each of these intangible concepts even though its image is only illustrated twice.

Read More
452 Words | 2 Pages

Adversity occurs in everyone’s life. The book, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho that transpires before technology, about a shepherd named Santiago, who has a dream about a treasure in Egypt. The movie, Good Will Hunting transpires in 1997, about a man named Will who had a horrible childhood but would read to escape the problems of his childhood. As he grew older he turned out a genius but did not want the knowledge he had. When personal legends and goals come into question, adversity will always come right around the corner.

Read More
1064 Words | 5 Pages

“What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” - Friedrich Nietzsche. Is that true? Does adversity really change people for the better? Going through tough situations can give individuals a new kind of strength, emotional strength, which lends them a chance to grow and mature.

Read More
799 Words | 4 Pages

“To persevere, I think, is important for everybody. Don’t give up, don’t give in. There’s always an answer to everything”-Louie Zamperini. This man, Louie Zamperini was a bombardier for the US in World War II. He and his crew were shot down and forced to survive at sea for forty six days.

Read More
1300 Words | 6 Pages

In the span of a lifetime one often faces many adversities that stand within their path.  While some challenges will be overcome easily, others will take a lot more tenacity. When in the face of adversity it is key not to give up. One should always strive to persevere through their hardships, no matter how severe they seem to be. The author of the memoir “Night” Elie Wiesel, vividly describes his experiences in the concentration camp of Auschwitz.

Read More
648 Words | 3 Pages

The Broken Spears by Miguel Leon Portilla portrays many themes about the spanish conquest in the account of the Aztecs. However, The Seven Myth of the Spanish Conquest by Matthew Restall conveys themes harmonize with The Broken Spears concepts. In The Broken Spear the spaniards were perceived as barbaric by the Aztecs and vise versa. When the spaniards attacked during the fiesta of Toxcatl they performed a lot of bloodshed and barbaric actions.

Read More
526 Words | 3 Pages

Karen Solie was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan on July 6, 1966, and studied at the University of Lethbridge as well as the University of Victoria. She has worked at universities from British Columbia to Scotland, and published five collections of poetry, Short Haul Engine (2001), Modern and Normal (2005), Pigeon (2009), The Living Option (2013) and The Road in is Not the Same Road Out (2015). Her most acclaimed book is Pigeon, which won the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2010. The judge’s citation states that the poems are “as humorous, often, as they are sobering” and the summary on the back of the book describes the poems as “X-rays of our delusions and mistaken perceptions, explorations of violence, bad luck, fate, creeping catastrophe, love

Read More
767 Words | 4 Pages

Liesel had no intention of going inside her new foster home on Himmel Street, until Hans spoke with her. Liesel immediately gravitated to the calm air surrounding Hans. Even though she had lost her brother and her mother, Liesel felt comfortable around Hans after a few short minutes. Yet again, this illustrates how Hans exhibited a positive, comforting quality despite living under the horrors of Nazi

Read More
443 Words | 2 Pages

In the two poems Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar and Caged Bird by Maya Angelou, gave a comparison between the life of a caged bird and the life of a slave. There are similarities and differences in the two poems. The difference between the two poem is that Sympathy is more aggressive than the poem Caged Bird, and the similarities of the two poems is the theme and imagery. The poem Sympathy the poem

Read More
4805 Words | 20 Pages

Anita Desai 's first novel, Cry, The Peacock, softened new ground up Indian English fiction and is said to be a pioneer. It has been termed as 'a wonderful novel ' by the pundits. Cry, The Peacock speaks the truth conjugal disharmony, absence of personality, idealism, and a feeling of aimlessness of life. Much has been composed on the subjects and style of Anita Desai 's novels. Diverse states of mind to destiny and submission to the inevitable exhibited in her novels are additionally considered in this work.

Read More

More about Summary Of Song Of The Hummingbird By Graciela Limon

Related Topics

Open Document