In “ The First Day”, Edward P. Jones uses abstract diction, metaphor and imagery to convey a respectful and caring tone. When the mother sees the teacher and talk Jones writes “... The higher up on the scale of respectability a person is - and teachers are rather high up in her eyes- the less liable to let them push her around.” The author writes “ the scale of respectability” which does not have a physical existence which displays that the daughter knows the mother is threatened by her lack of knowledge which shows that the daughter is respectful and caring towards the mother and her feelings. Later on when the mother and daughter left the building when they were told the daughter couldn't attend Seaton Elementary school Jones writes “...
In the book, there are significant racial tensions and racial divisions in society. Young Black women like Lauren, the primary character, must find their way in a society where they face prejudice and marginalization. In the story, racism is shown as a persistent menace in a society where one's character or aptitudes are more often evaluated than the color of one's skin. Unfortunately, this is a problem that persists in modern culture. The work emphasizes the consequences of institutionalized racism, which persists today.
In “If I Were A Poor Black Kid,” writer Gene Marks claims that poor inner city children have opportunities to be successful in life if they follow the advices/ideas he gives such as, to magnet/private school, have technology access and get good grades. Throughout the article Marks, emphasizes that poor inner city kids have the ability to be successful but they do not want to use the resource they have available. This article has been a controversial because Marks compare himself with the poor inner city kids without having knowledge about the challenges poor inner city kids face daily. The argument the author presents in the article may seem logical on the surface but investigating more deeply it can be unreasonable. Gene Marks is a man who comes from a middle class white background.
The story takes place at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in America, when desegregation is finally achieved. Flannery O’Connor’s use of setting augments the mood and deepens the context of the story. However, O’Connor’s method is subtle, often relying on connotation and implication to drive her point across. The story achieves its depressing mood mostly through the use of light and darkness in the setting.
Mamie specifically wrote this book to tell her son’s story, representing hope and forgiveness, which revealed the sinister and illegal punishments of the south. She wanted to prevent this horrendous tragedy from happening to others. The purpose of the book was to describe the torment African Americans faced in the era of Jim Crow. It gives imagery through the perspective of a mother who faced hurt, but brought unity to the public, to stand up for the rights of equal treatment. This book tells how one event was part of the elimination of racial segregation.
The speaker is uneducated, so the writing in the first person is readable for beginners as well as educated adults. Walker addresses the audience specifically to to create deeper imagery, where the audience can add their own experiences to the story, such as “You’ve no doubt seen those TV shows” (46). The speaker directly addresses the audience, and so anyone reading the story, whether a minority, or the majority, will be connected to the story. Purpose: Walker describes the impact of oppression on the relationship between mother and daughter, and how the oppressed view themselves.
This is our first look at the seperation of races. At this elementary school, there is a large presence of black children. The students refer to Dennis, a particular young child, as “the only white kid in our school,” (Packer 4). When the group of white girls, also known as Brownie troop #909, arrive to the school, the black girls see them as being so different. They even compare
This week, the readings point the spotlight at the some of the depressing hardships that the African-American population frequently experience. In “Naughty by Nature”, Ann Ferguson covers the different perceptions that society has of colored boys. David Knight’s work “Don’t tell young black males that they are endangered” seeks to explain the differents outcomes of African-American youth that arise when society constantly oppresses them. The last article by Carla O’Connor, “The Culture of Black Femininity and School Success”, focuses on the image of African-American woman that is created as a result of them attempting to preserve in a system that opposes them.
The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass and The School Days of an Indian Girl by Zitkala-sa and Frederick Douglass himself, explores the ways in which colonialism brought about their distress. To which in turn set out a passion in them to succeed – and so they did. Both narrative essay explores death through American culture with the theme of education being their escape. Though one would think it would be the demise to their identity, upon their realization, succeeded to defeat the common notion that, un-American ethnic groups (minorities) were below the “white pale faces.” Language and education seemed to disconnect both cultures.
By the time Emma Lou is a young woman graduating from High school she is mass of anxiety and internal colorism, seeing everything wrong in her life as a direct outcome of her skin being too dark. The novel opens to Emma Lou in the center of the front row, attending her own high school graduation as the only black student in a majority white school. Surrounded by her white peers she describes herself as resembling “a fly in a pan of milk amid a white expanse of bedclothes” (Thurman 2). Emma Lou’s Uncle Joe is the one who pushes her on her road to self-discovery and plays a large role in the path to Emma Lou corresponding with her name.
In Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things, Ruth Jefferson is an African American labor and delivery nurse who is charged with murder following the death of two white supremacists’ newborn. She did not kill the baby and realizes that she is being charged solely because she is black. Ruth wishes not only for the justice system to confirm her innocence, but for her community to realize the injustice present in the way they treat African Americans and to do something about it. Ruth’s search for justice highlights the fact that racism is highly prevalent in all members of society. Small Great Things alternates in point of view.
The Dow Jones is a stock market index. It measures the daily stock price movements of 30 large publicly-owned U.S. companies. The 30 companies that the Dow Jones are 3M, American Express, Apple, Boeing, Caterpillar, Chevron, Cisco, Coca-Cola, Dow DuPont, The Walt Disney Company, ExxonMobil, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, The Home Depot, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, McDonald’s, Merck, Microsoft, Nike, Pfizer, Procter and Gamble, Travelers Companies Inc, United Technologies, Unitedhealth, Verizon, Visa, and Wal-Mart. The man who started the Dow Jones stock was Charles Dow and he created this in 1896.
“The First Day” by Edward P. Jones is a short story written in 1992. The short story is about an African American mother taking her young daughter to school for the first time. The daughter becomes ashamed of her mother because she sees where her education level is at. The mother is also ashamed of herself because she didn’t get education throughout her life. In “The First Day” the opening scene sets the tone for challenging the status quo and creating a life of success.
In her short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker takes up what is a recurrent theme in her work: the representation of the harmony as well as the conflicts and struggles within African-American culture. “Everyday Use” focuses on an encounter between members of the rural Johnson family. This encounter––which takes place when Dee (the only member of the family to receive a formal education) and her male companion return to visit Dee’s mother and younger sister Maggie––is essentially an encounter between two different interpretations of, or approaches to, African-American culture. Walker employs characterization and symbolism to highlight the difference between these interpretations and ultimately to uphold one of them, showing that culture and heritage are parts of daily life.
Afro-American women writers present how racism permeates the innermost recesses of the mind and heart of the blacks and affects even the most intimate human relationships. While depicting the corrosive impact of racism from social as well as psychological perspectives, they highlight the human cost black people have to pay in terms of their personal relationships, particularly the one between mother and daughter. Women novelists’ treatment of motherhood brings out black mothers’ pressures and challenges for survival and also reveals their different strategies and mechanisms to deal with these challenges. Along with this, the challenges black mothers have to face in dealing with their adolescent daughters, who suffer due to racism and are heavily influenced by the dominant value system, are also underlined by these writers. They portray how a black mother teaches her daughter to negotiate the hostile, wider world, and prepares her to face the problems and challenges boldly and confidently.
