The book, “Fire from the Rock” by Sharon M. Draper is a historical fiction highlighting the life of an African American family during the year 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Sylvia Patterson, a fifteen-year-old, is invited to be in the first group of African-Americans to integrate into the all-white school. The story follows her life leading up to, and prior that invitation. She goes through many struggles through this rough period of her life. The theme of the horrors of racism is displayed throughout the book through the character Sylvia.
The Fires of Jubilee written by Stephen B. Oates is a book written about a young slave life from prepubescents to adulthood, or better yet a young smart boy to an older anarchy inducing man. The setting of the book takes place in Southampton County Virginia around the 1800’s. The main protagonist being a young slave called Nat Turner. The author very briefly gives details about Nat’s life as a newborn, mainly giving a brief summary of who his mother is. His mother was purchased to be a slave by a man named Benjamin Turner, a wealthy tide water planter.
“Who does now remember the Armenians (Adolf Hitler, 1939)?” Who does? When someone hears the word "Genocide", the words killing and death may come to mind. A genocide is defined as, Article II: “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such:Killing members of the group;Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
Rhetorical Analysis: Comparison The Santa Ana Winds are strong, dry northeast winds that happen in the autumn and the winter of southern California. In the two passages “Brush Fire” and “The Santa Ana”, both authors describe what it is like to live in the area where these fires occur. They use their own perspective of the winds and talk about how they affect the people of Southern California. Although they both describe the same winds, they have different attitudes towards them.
In preparation for this paper I chose to read Fire in the ashes: twenty five years among the poorest children in America by Jonathan Kozol. In this book Kozol has followed these children and their family’s lives for the past twenty five years. In his writing Kozol portrays a point of view most from his background and standing would not be capable of having. He portrays what life is like for those who have been let down by the system that was meant to protect them. Kozols writing style can be very blunt at times, not for shock value, but for the sake of portraying these children’s realities, and not sugarcoating the inequalities that they are faced with.
The book Burning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison, by Nell Bernstein is a compelling expose on the inherent evil of juvenile detention facilities. In her eye-opening account of the danger that lies within locking up this nation’s youth, Bernstein utilizes a plethora of rhetorical strategies to urge her audience to recognize and act on her claim. In writing this account on the heinousness of juvenile detention centers and why the system as a whole must be reformed, Bernstein uses personal cause and effect examples, studies and statistics, as well as concrete refutations to advocate the world for change. Bernstein starts her argument by providing readers with personal examples of the effects juvenile detention centers had on a handful of the kids she interviewed. Her first example briefly narrates how Jared, an adolescent many would
The novel, Fahrenheit 451, presents a future society where books are prohibited and the firemen burn any that are. The title is the temperature at which books burn. It was written by Ray Bradbury and first published in October 1953. In this novel, protagonist Montag changes his understanding in various aspects such as love or his human relationship throughout the book. However, among all of these, fire – the main theme of this novel – has the most significance as it also changes his understanding of knowledge from books.
The story “A Wall of Fire Rising” written by Edwidge Danticat has many similarities to the short story “Volar” written by Judith Ortiz Cofer. In “A Wall of Fire Rising” a poor Hattian family struggles to make ends meet on a daily basis. The father who is named Guy dreams of flying away in a hot air balloon to a better place where he can provide more for his family. Guy wants a better life, and his only escape of reality is through his son’s line recital for a play. Feeling hopeless, Guy makes an ultimate choice to escape reality by committing suicide by jumping off a hot air balloon in midair.
All things are capable of change in our world, and the symbolism of fire in Lord of the Flies is no different. In the book a group of boys land on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere. They try to build a society built on the ideas of the adult society they came from. At first the boys seemed to be structured and ordered, but soon their primal instincts of savagery came out changing their system into a horrifying nightmare. Throughout Lord of the Flies, the strength and purpose of the fire created by the boys seems to be a meter of the boys connection to civilization, where towards the beginning it is strong and valiant, and then slowly loses its importance and burns out and finally it encircles the whole island due to its savage purposes
The Fire Stick, utilised by Indigenous Australians has been an essential tool in the practice of traditional land management across Australia since their arrival 50,000+ thousand years ago. Fire Stick Farming (as it is now known) shaped the Australian landscape in ways that benefited both land and Aboriginal people. A practice that increases biodiversity of plant species, offered an abundance of food, both for Aboriginal people and wildlife such as the Kangaroo and Emu, and, in turn, increased populations of these species, which were also a desired food source. Additionally, the practice of burning both small and large areas of land ensured the prevention of larger uncontrollable fires which can devastate landscapes, as evidenced by the common
What begins and has no end, and ends all that which begins? The answer is death. The majority of the time, death is a topic people tend to avoid or deviate from since it triggers uncertainty and fear. During the Holocaust, however, death lingered through the air as thick, black smoke does, suffocating its victims and cruelly seizing their lives. The grim reaper was a daily visitor in the ghettos, transports, and concentration camps in which about six million Jews perished.
One of the Main problems America faces deals with Disease. The growing burden of chronic disease and unaffordable healthcare are the leading causes of disability and death in the United States. America is number 50 on life span expectancy and this is shocking because even though we have some of the best treatments and medicines we don’t prevent chronic diseases that are avoidable with simple lifestyle changes. After watching the Escape Fire Documentary, I realized how this affected everyone and that I needed to know more about my families’ health and ways I can prevent chronic diseases I may be susceptible too because of genetics or lifestyle choices. Before I didn’t think my family had any diseases that were genetically passed down or ran
Barn Burning is a modern story that shows a theme, plot, characters and uses narrative techniques. The title of the story, “Barn Burning,” is used to identify the main method carried out by the father in the story, Abner to get revenge on the people he grew angry with for their treatment of black people in the south. The story does not give a number of the barns Abner had burned, but Sarty said they had moved a lot of different times indicating the moves were due to Abner destroying the property of others. Abner seemed to have a sickness or craving for burning property; this seemed his way of regaining his dignity or self-respect after feeling he was wronged by the evil, hate, and racism of southern society. Abner kept burning fuel handy and had containers to refill when it was time to burn another barn and caused destruction, but when it was time to keep his family warm in the cold outdoors, he would only build small fires.
Escape Fire “Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare” is a documentary concerning the state of health care in the United States. It alleges that the American healthcare system is a broken system that mainly focuses on getting as many people treated the healthcare system, without actually treating their true medical issues. It challenges that the healthcare system is more about bringing in revenue than providing adequate medical care. It further contends that the healthcare system is more about increasing healthcare numbers than improving health.
Hot-Air Balloon “A Wall of Fire Rising” written by Edwidge Danticat tells about the man named Guy and his indefatigable desire for freedom and a better life. Guy is the head of poor Haitian family which includes his wife Lili and their seven-year-old son Little Guy. The story takes place in post-revolutionary Haiti, where poverty and hunger still flourished. As most families, Guy’s family goes through a lot of struggles because there is no food and decent job; “a few hours work” that Guy finds at the sugar mill is not enough to support his family (Danticat 240). This feeling of hopelessness that Guy constantly experiences, weighs on his neck like a heavy load; thus, he saves himself thinking of the hot-air balloon which belongs to the
