In the essay “The Things with Feathers That Perches in the Soul “, Anthony Doerr asks “What lasts? Is there anything you’ve made in your life that will still be here 150 years from now? Is there anything on your shelves that will be tagged and numbered and kept in a warehouse like this?” (Doerr 97). The idea the author is trying to imply there are things in this world that will fade.
“The Undercurrent” by Kellie Young is a story of a mother and daughter’s relationship that takes place in Hawaii throughout Young’s childhood. It describes to readers how her mother has influenced her life by becoming an admonitory voice inside her head. The impact Young’s mother has on her is widely due to the amount of admiration Young has for her. A crucial element to “The Undercurrent” is the short stories found throughout her narrative that exemplifies the greater concept of how her mother has shaped her life.
“She don’t know nothin. It was me that taught the girl letters” NightJohn by Gary Paulsen. A girl name Sarny got taken away from her mother when she was born into slavery. Mammy was the one who raised all the young ones, so mammy raised her for the years. Then a man named John came and was there for teaching her to read and write.
In the novel “When the Legends Die” the main character Thomas Black Bull has many conflicts. One of his biggest problems was people controlling his life. During his life people like: Blue Elk, school teachers, Red Dillon, and things like his past determined what he did in life. In Tom’s early life Blue Elk was a big dictator of what happened to Tom and his family.
The film, Tucker: The Man and His Dream delineates the history behind the man of building “the car for the future.” Preston Tucker, a Detroit engineer, made a successful attempt to produce and enter the car market with the 1948 Tucker Sedan. After being thrown several challenges, by society, production problems and allegations of stock fraud, Tucker was left to vindicate his dream and honesty in court. Discussing Tucker’s main intent for the purpose of his business, plotting out a SWOT for Tucker’s company and analyzing Tucker’s marketing plan, are all ways to see how Tucker accomplished his childhood dream. The main intent for the purpose of Preston Tucker’s business, mentioned heavily in the film, was safety.
“Salvation” is a short story by Langston Hughes describing a boy when he discovered a significant truth about faith and religion. The last paragraph of “Salvation” functions as an epiphany for the boy. An epiphany is an experience of sudden and striking realization. It can also mean the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi. This event helps shape the boy’s religious understanding far differently from what his Aunt Reed believes.
The theme of this novel is "Not everything is the way you predict it is". I believe this thematic statement suits the story because throughout the book there are lots of surprises, and most situations don't go the way people predict they will. For example, Aunt Alexandra was first seen as mean, according to her attitude towards Scout. At the end of the book Aunt Alexandra hands Scout her overalls, as mentioned in the story, "the garments she most despised." Because she always wanted Scout to be a lady and wear dresses.
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do” (Pele qtd. In Soccerlens). Countless people have done amazing things through perseverance. Sonny was an average boy in a mining town, but he started building rockets and learned a valuable life lesson.
In “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, he recalls a time from his childhood when he was at church. All the children of the church were being “saved” until he was eventually the last one who wasn’t. Feeling tired and pressured, Langston stood, declaring he had been saved. He felt horrible for lying, but the pressure placed upon him by the entire church outweighed the feeling of guilt. Similarly, people of all types experience a feeling similar to Langston’s; something called peer pressure.
In Langston Hughes short story Salvation, he reminiscences about his Auntie Reed’s churches attempt to “save” him at the age of twelve. The preacher holds a distinctive affair for the children which he calls “bringing the young lambs to the fold.” Each child sits on a mourner’s bench and slowly but surely each one stands, are received by the preacher, and subsequently saved by Jesus. Langston observes while all his peers stand up and are saved, while he sits and waits for Jesus to truly reveal himself; however, he is dumbfounded when another boy named Wesley blasphemes and is not subsequently struck dead. Langston had sat at the mourner’s bench for a considerable amount of time and was badgered by the grinning Wesley who sat proudly on the platform above.
The Effective Military Leader Warrant Officer Romero, Philip T. SPC: Captain Dearth, 1st Platoon The book “Black Hearts One Platoons Descent into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death” by Jim Frederick is a true story about multiple leadership failures and six United States Soldiers from 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division who were convicted for their involvement in horrible crimes while deployed to Iraq. The horrific acts including rape as well as murder committed by the soldiers of 1st platoon were a direct result of poor military leadership. Bad leadership will corrupt any military unit.
Jim Frederick’s book Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Descent Into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death is focused on a crime and all the events that had led up to it. By the fall of 2005, 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division was approaching deployment to Iraq. The book talks about the soldiers deployed to the Triangle of Death during a very dangerous time. 101st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division was taken over by insurgents at a checkpoint just southwest of Mahmudiyah.
We can define the word salvation as deliverance from sin and its consequences, believed by Christians to be brought about by faith in Christ. One can be saved by accepting Jesus Christ into your life, but this wasn’t the case for Langston Hughes when he wrote “Salvation”. Having portrayed himself as a young teenage boy when this piece was written and using the first person perspective, the pressure he felt wanting to actually see and feel Jesus is the main reason why he ruined it for himself, and he was not “saved”. The first two lines even say “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved.”
This poem is one of the most relatable poems I've ever read, even though it describes a passion that not all people share. It documents the thought process of the narrator as he begins an internship of some sort with an accomplished astronomer. He describes the work he does, how he is told to "add, divide, and measure" data that was collected about celestial objects. He becomes frustrated with this work, and during the astronomer's lecture, he goes outside to just look at the stars. A theme that I took away from this poem is that our passions can be discouraged if they are over-analyzed.
In his poem “Still Here,” Langston Hughes uses “black English,” or dialect, to make the poem more realistic and help the reader feel like the poet has been through these experiences. This poem is about growing up in tough times. Even though people weren’t nice to him or gave him a hard time, he doesn’t care because what people say about him doesn’t make him who he is. It sounds like Langston Hughes might have grown up in the ghetto because in a lot of his poems he talks about getting respect and pushing through. In the last stanza of the poem, Hughes leaves off the g’s in one line to create dialect.
