The Birth Workplace Judith Ortiz Cofer Summary
The speaker details many of the dangers of society, and the brevity of life in general, but remarks how she will hide them all from her children. Even though “[t]he world is at least / fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative / estimate,” she’ll “keep this from [her] children” (Smith, lines 5-7). The speaker of the poem aims to protect her children by hiding the true magnitude of heinous things in the world. It’s through this protection that she hopes her children will have a better, more positive view of the world. The speaker’s hopeful tone is most evident in the last lines of the poem, where she asserts, “This place could be beautiful, / right?
“What a man can be, he must be,” is a quote by Dr. Abraham Maslow in the book Motivation and Personality, which talked about a hierarchical pyramid of human needs. It means, such as, if a girl wants to be a midwife, she must be a midwife, like in the book The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman. The main character, Alyce, wants to find a place in the world by becoming a midwife, and it is the most important thing to her. However, her age and gender affect the conflict.
Catherine relates to her birds as she keeps her birds in cages and she feels as if she is being trapped in her position as a noble women who is to be married off and do the duties a women should do. The contrast in her perspective at the end of the novel, which is when
The short story “Lessons of Love” by author “Judith Ortiz Cofer” reveals many pitfalls of infatuation. First of all, having a crush can have its disadvantages, such as heartbreak if they do not have the same feelings of affection towards you. “But the few times I saw him in the hallway, he was always rushing away.” “ He had no interest in me other than as his adorer.” (Judith Ortiz Cofer, 4).
It is quite clear right from the start what will be found in the poem by its title of “Woman’s Work.” Julia Alvarez brings her readers into a house where she describes the work she had to do and how she felt about it, for she is the speaker. This poem is made up of five triplets and one quatrain at the end. The rhyming patter of the poem is ABA, CDA, EFA, GHA, AIA, AJAA. She uses a variety of poetic devices to convey her themes of the relationship between mother and daughter, the role of a woman and the work that they do.
Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening opens with a scene of two birds, emphasizing that the motif of birds later within the novel will play an important part with setting the constant metaphor they bring. Throughout the whole novel the motif of birds is a metaphor for the Victorian women during that period -- caged birds serve as reminders of Edna’s entrapment and the entrapment of Victorian women in general. Edna makes many attempts to escape her cage (husband, children, and society), but her efforts only take her into other cages, such as the pigeon house. Edna views this new home as a sign of her independence, but the pigeon house represents her inability to remove herself from her former life, due to the move being just “two steps away” (122).
Not only does Mary Grace tell Mrs. Turpin that she is not as important as she thinks, but also that she is no better than the people she despises. In the aftermath, Mrs. Turpin is angrily hosing down her precious hogs and envisioning a parade of people dancing into Heaven. She imagines all kinds of people entering the gates, and the people like her are “marching behind the others with great dignity, accountable . . . for good order and common sense and respectable behavior. . ..
At first glance, the opening scene to Margaret Laurence's A Bird in the House provides descriptive insight into the home Vanessa will view as her safe haven. However, through analysis of Laurence’s use of imagery, symbolism, and foreshadowing, the Brick House is not as impenetrable of a shelter as it had been known to represent. The Brick House is, in itself, full of underlying meaning. The family members are the only ones to call it that, to the rest of the town it is known as “the old Connor place”, “plain” and “sparsely windowed”. This starkly contrasts to the imagery Vanessa creates by likening the house to a “fortress” created by her Grandfather as a “massive monument”.
The Renaissance was an era of rebirth. People were learning new things and it is considered the most important period of time since the fall of Ancient Rome. People in the medical profession were still learning about the human body. This is where the practice of dissection and body snatching played a role in shaping future society. The practice of body snatching and dissection during the Renaissance era greatly impacted the study of human anatomy.
The poem makes some allusions, for example when referring to the bust of shovels, refers to the bust of atene or atena or "shovels athena" ie the crow perches on the Greek goddess of wisdom, civilization, war, art and strategy . "That bird or demon" rests on wisdom, according to the author of the poem, the time of year in which the poem is located is December, a month of much magic, but the most important allegory is the raven itself, "bird of the demon "" that comes from the plutonic riviera of the night "also refers to the crow as a messenger from beyond, in a few words it refers to the Roman god Pluto of the underworld, its equivalent for the Greeks was hades as a curious fact the Romans instituted exclusive priests to plutón called "victimarios" of all the Roman gods plutón was the most ruthless and feared, then the crow was a messenger of the beyond, perhaps invoked by that "old book, rare and of forgotten science", during the poem was speaks of seraphim that perfumed the room, with censers, according to the Christian angelology the seraphim have the highest ranks in the celestial hierarchy, since they are not made in image and Likeness of God, rather they are part or essence
“It invites one to be still, to hear divine voices speak” (hooks,125). This quote from A Place Where the Soul Can Rest by belle hooks describes the importance of the front porches to African American women who faced issues and judgment regarding their race, gender, and social standing. The porch signifies a place in which these women can relax, and escape not only from their household duties, but from all of the discrimination they face in their own neighborhoods. In the essay, the author herself reflects on her childhood as a young African American, and how her life was affected by racism, sexism, and gender stereotypes and roles. As a child, hooks’ place of safety and security lied on her front porch, where she was able to escape
God “hast an house on high erect”(43) that is waiting for her when she dies, so she
In her narrative essay “The Sanctuary of School,” Lynda Barry recounts a story from her childhood that illustrates her relationships at school vs her relationships at home. She tells us how public school was her sanctuary from her unstable home life. It was a stable environment that she depended on. She tells us this when she says ,"[F]or the next six hours I was going to enjoy a thoroughly secure, warm and stable world." Unlike at home, her school was a place she was noticed and cared about.
Have you ever thought about the phrase “American History” and wondered the real stories that occurred in an individual from the past? Several other citizens of America have, too. The simple answer to the meaning of the title “American History” written by Judith Ortiz Cofer purports that said story illustrates the history of an American citizen and revolves around a significant event from the past. However, the overall message become larger than the straightforward idea. While educating readers on the time placed during President Kennedy's death in 1963, the author illustrates the struggling truth behind the story of an average young individual American immigrant girl in a plethora of ways.
Birds were always involved with any moment of significance, and they helped readers see what characters struggle with. The night of Edna’s awakening, an owl was depicted sitting in a tree. At a piano performance, where Edna awakens more, a parrot is mentioned in the text. All of these bird motifs pushed and stressed a specific theme. To distance oneself from expectation and societal norms one will sacrifice.
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